Pre-Code Dip: Midnight Mary (1933)

While waiting for the jury to decide on her innocence in a murder trial, Mary Martin (Loretta Young) recalls the past that led her up to this moment.
Poor Mary never could catch a break, orphaned as a teenager and falsely accused of theft, she is sent to a house of corrections for three years. After her release, Mary and her friend Bunny ( Una Merkel) fall meet Leo Darcy (Ricardo Cortez) a thief who runs a gang. When Mary realizes that Leo used her as an accomplice in a robbery she leaves him but is unable to find legitimate work. Insert standard pre-code Depression message here. Mary eventually returns to Leo and becomes his mistress and partner in crime.

One night while setting up a robbery at a gambling house, Mary is spotted by Tom Mannering, Jr. (Franchot Tone), a rich lawyer. Saving Mary from the shootout with the police when Leo is dicovered, Tom takes her to his nearby house and hides her. Mary asks him to help her find honest work as she is not cut out to be a thief. With Tom's help, Mary finishes secretarial school and is hired as a stenographer in his law firm. At first Mary avoids Tom at work but she eventually breaks down and confesses her love.

While she and Tom plan their future at a Chinese restaurant, Mary is recognized by a policeman who was present at the robbery. To save Tom's reputation, Mary tells him that she has been lying to him all along, that she was playing him to get money and she didn't know he would get so involved. She turns herself over to the policeman but refuses to implicate Leo and is sent to prison for one year. Meanwhile Tom marries a socialite.

When Mary gets out of prison she again has trouble finding work, she is eventually approached by Leo, who has been spying on her since she got out. Grateful that she didn't rat him out he offers her a place in the gang again. Mary returns to Leo and that evening runs into Tom in a nightclub. Leo threatens the unhappily married lawyer and, after a fight in the club, sends his henchmen to kill him. While Mary rushes to warn Tom about Leo, the henchmen mistakenly murder Tom's best friend, Sam(Andy Devine).

Although Mary says Tom means nothing to her, Leo persists that he be killed and prepares to do the deed himself. Mary shoots and kills Leo and is arrested for murder. Back at the courthouse, Mary, who has said nothing about Tom during the trial, is found guilty. Just as the verdict is read, however, Tom bursts into the court. He confesses that he is in love with Mary and what she did, she did to save him. Due to his clout as a lawyer and his father's before him, he is granted a retrial. Tom gets a divorce and everyone lives happily ever after.

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Rub-a-dub-dub, Blondell in a tub!

Joan Blondell for Blonde Crazy

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Pre-Code Dip: Frisco Jenny (1932)

In 1906 San Francisco, Frisco Jenny Sandoval (Ruth Chatterton), a denizen of the notorious Tenderloin district, wants to marry piano player Dan McAllister (James Murray), but her saloonkeeper father Jim (Robert Emmett O'Connor) is adamantly opposed to it. An earthquake kills both men and devastates the city. In the aftermath, Jenny gives birth to a son, whom she names Dan.

With financial help from crooked lawyer Steve Dutton (Louis Calhern), who himself came from the Tenderloin, she sets herself up in the vice trade, providing women on demand. Jenny has one loyal friend, the Chinese woman Amah (Helen Jerome Eddy), who helps take care of the baby.

At a party in Steve's honor, he catches gambler Ed Harris (an uncredited J. Carroll Naish) cheating him in a back room. In the ensuing struggle, Steve kills him, with Jenny the only eyewitness. The pair are unable to dispose of the body before it is found and are questioned by the police. However, neither is charged. The scandal forces Jenny to temporarily give up her baby to a very respectable couple who owe Steve a favor to keep the child from being taken away from her.

After three years, she tries to take her son back, but the boy clings to the only mother he can remember, so she leaves him where he is. He grows up and goes to Stanford University, where he becomes a football star, graduates with honors, and becomes first a lawyer, then an assistant district attorney. Jenny lovingly follows his progress. Meanwhile, she takes over the vice and bootlegging in the city.

When Dan runs for district attorney, his opponent is Tom Ford (an uncredited Edwin Maxwell), who does Jenny's bidding. In spite her best interests, she frames Ford so that Dan can win.
When Steve tries to bribe Dan to free some of his men, he is arrested. Out on bail, Steve asks Jenny to blackmail Dan into dropping the charges, but she refuses to jeopardize her son's future. In fact, she intends to retire to France with Amah. When Steve threatens to reveal that Jenny is Dan's real mother, she shoots and kills him at Dan's office.
She is quickly arrested and prosecuted by Dan. Refusing to defend herself, she is condemned to death by hanging. Amah pleads with her to tell Dan the truth in the hope that he can help her, but when he comes to see her, she remains silent. - Thanks to Wikipedia for film description.

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The Newman-Woodwards: The Gold Standard

Proving it can be done: Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married and worked together for fifty years! A lasting union containing 'correct amounts of lust and respect' their marriage was also solidified by their desire to remain out of the Hollywood spotlight and reside quietly together in Connecticut.

They appeared together in ten featured films:

The Long, Hot Summer (1958)
Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958)
From the Terrace (1960)
Paris Blues (1961)
A New Kind of Love (1963)
Winning (1969)
WUSA (1970)
The Drowning Pool (1975)
Harry & Son (1984) - (directed by Newman)
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990)


Woodward starred in five films that Newman directed or produced but in which he did not star:

Rachel, Rachel (1968)
They Might Be Giants (1971)
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds - which featured their daughter, Nell Potts (1972)
The Shadow Box (1980) - (television movie)
The Glass Menagerie (1987)

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The Gable-Lombards

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard met first in 1932, while making a picture called No Man of Her Own. They were both married and showed no interest in one another. They met again in 1936 at the White Mayfair Ball, after dancing all night together they went for a ride and promptly got into a fight. Lombard sent doves to his hotel the next day as a peace offering. It was the beginning of a relationship that would be full of pranks and humor for two people well-suited for one another. They married in 1939 and remained so until her tragic death by airplane crash in 1942.


Not sure if most of these stories about them are true but take a look here.

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The Ferrer-Hepburns

Hepburn met Mel Ferrer at a party hosted by Gregory Peck. She had seen him in the film Lili and was captivated by his performance. Later they worked together in the play Ondine and Hepburn agreed to play the role. Married in 1954, the marriage lasted fourteen years marriage as Ferrer was rumoured to have had a girlfriend on the side, while Hepburn had an affair with her Two for the Road co-star Albert Finney.
Despite the gossip columns saying their marriage would never last, Hepburn claimed that they were inseparable and were very happy together. However, Ferrer had a bad temper and was rumoured to be too controlling.

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