Picture Brides

IMDb lists this movie at 66 minutes, though the film I saw was only 58. I am not sure if IMDb is wrong or if perhaps the public domain copy on archive.org has been trimmed. I would not be surprised if it's the latter, as the film has some steamy moments and is clearly Pre-Code in style--so perhaps some of the juicy bits have been removed. This would have had to have been done if the film was re-released in the late 30s or 40s, as the film was too adult to comply with the new code.

The setting for "Picture Brides" is some hellish place in the tropics where a group of white scum treat the locals like garbage in their quest for diamonds. A group of white women are headed to the camp as picture brides for these men. One of them (Dorothy Libaire) has no idea what's in store for her, as the folks who organized these marriages lied to her to get her there. Once there, she finds the man she is supposed to marry, Von Luden (played with gusto by Alan Hale) is a brutal monster. Another woman in the group feels sorry for her and switches things so that the innocent woman will marry nice-guy Dave (Regis Toomey). However, Von Luden decides he wants this woman anyway and tries to rape her--and is rescued by Dave. As a result, Von Luden decides to destroy Dave, as he has a secret--he's a wanted man back in the States. It gets even crazier--and I'll let you see what happens next.

As you can tell with my description above, this is NOT a film you would have seen from Hollywood in 1935 or later. That's because the toughened Production Code went into effect in mid-1934 and topics like rape and violence towards women were pretty much forbidden. In some ways this code was good--some films were incredibly sleazy and had nudity and violence that might shock viewers even today. However, "Picture Brides" is somewhat tame compared to these films and worked better with all its salacious elements. In other words, it ain't pretty but it is entertaining! Despite a relatively low budget, this is a pretty good flick.

What happens to Dorothy Mackaill in this cheaply made THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WANTED wanna-be, PICTURE BRIDES could serve as a metaphor for Miss Mackaill's film career by 1933. I loved her in SAFE IN HELL, a film of similar genre/atmosphere (tho the similarities end there), and delighted as I was to find her humor, beauty, and charm intact, she plays a role of surprisingly little consequence. It is simpering Dorothy Libaire as the misunderstood innocent (or is she?), and a cranky Regis Toomey standing up to diamond-mine skullduggery who snap up the main focus. Our gal Mackaill (appropriately named "Mame" here) immediately establishes herself as the best person to have around in a tough situation, what with her high self-esteem and her big heart of mush, and thank God she's along for the ride, because she's one early talkie actress who could usually be relied upon to keep things moving. There are other brides: tougher-than-thou Esther Muir, colorfully-named Viva Tattersall, and the always welcome, ever popular Mae Busch -- and the choppy picture could have used more of them! What we get is a lot of drinking in a tale of dangerous male frustration, and when man can't get what he thinks he deserves, he goes after the first local girl to don the latest fashions and a pair of swell pumps. Of course, local girl isn't dressed to the nines for ten minutes before she can't resist tossing her head in that provocative manner in the direction of the first dangerous, frustrated male to pay her a second look. While the local girl (a sincere if unlikely turn for QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE serial star/former Our Gang member Mary Kornman) and frustrated man (ever versatile Alan Hale, Sr., in a sort of "anti-Sargent Schultz" turn) provide a hasty, tawdry plot-twist, it is an effectively grave performance by character man Harvey Clark as the girl's father that makes the sub-plot credible. If you like your B pictures on the seamy side, PICTURE BRIDES has something for you.

Picture Brides (1934)

*** (out of 4)

Delightfully wicked Pre-code has a group of women headed from New Orleans to the jungle of Brazil. Mary Lee (Dorothy Libaire) thinks she's going down there to be a hostess but the other women have to set her straight. Where they're going is a diamond mind where criminals have gone to work and stay away from the law. The women, known as picture brides, are heading down there to become wives.

PICTURE BRIDES isn't a very well-known movie but it was clearly inspired by SAFE IN HELL and it should be noted that both films rank quite high on the Pre-code charts of naughty things. It's pretty funny watching a movie like this nowadays because you watch it and really don't see anything objectable. However, if you're a film buff familiar with this decade then you know that Hollywood started playing it quite safe by the time 1935 came around so a film like PICTURE BRIDES was one of the last naughty pictures to get through without edits.

There's a lot of sexuality on display here as it's quite simple why these women are needed as wives. The film takes place in a seedy bar and when the picture opens we've got a group of guys talking somewhat naughty about white women being needed in the location. From here we get all sorts of back and forth between the sexes but we've also got a murder subplot as well as some blackmail for good measure. The story itself certainly isn't anything original but that doesn't matter because the extra goodies just add to the entertainment factor.

The cast is also pretty good with Libaire doing a nice job in her part but there's also good performances from Dorothy Mackaill, Will Ahern, Regi Toomey and Mary Kornman. Mae Busch is also on hand as is Alan Hale who gets to sink his teeth into a real creep of a bad guy. The cast is certainly a lot of fun and helps keep the picture moving at a nice pace. At just under a hour there's really no time to waste and film is certainly entertaining.

The coming of the Production Code meant that this movie is little more than a salacious states-right B movie, with most of its smut in the line readings about the women sent down to the Brazilian jungle to marry White men at the mine. "It's all tattooed ladies and snake charmers," says one of the lovelies about the locals. "We're the snake charmers, baby, if you get what I mean," says Mae Busch.

Even though she's only 9th-billed, Miss Busch seems to be about half the movie, in full cynical comedy form. I think this movie plays better when I think of it as a comedy starring her, with an occasional melodramatic subplot. That would explain Alan Hale's almost Double-Dutch accent as the jovial villain of the piece. Dorothy McKail is top-billed as the mail order bride who doesn't know what's what, and Regis Toomey is the guy who marries her. Phil Rosen uses a lot of inert group compositions so he won't have to change camera set-ups that often and relies on his highly competent performers to get through the shoot as quick as possible.

In the steamy jungle some men at a diamond mine await the arrival of their "picture brides". When the women get there they find that things are not what they expected and tawdry adventure and romance occur.

A nice little programmer with some good dialog, good performances and nice sense that its suppose to be entertaining and not high art. Alan Hale (The Skipper from Gilligan's Island dad) plays the German head of the mine and he's a real sleaze ball screwing over everyone and everything in order to make a buck. For me it was a nice change of pace since I'm so used to him being the hero's best friend in most movies. Not something you need search out but if you run across it it maybe worth an hour of your time.