Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man Hardcover – Bargain Price, November 11, 2002
The five years between 1929 and mid-1934 was a period of loosened censorship that finally ended with the imposition of a harsh Production Code that would, for the next thirty-four years, censor much of the life and honesty out of American movies. Dangerous Men takes a close look at the images of manhood during this pre-Code era, which coincided with an interesting time for men-the culmination of a generation-long transformation in the masculine ideal. By the late twenties, the tumult of a new century had made the nineteenth century's notion of the ideal man seem like a repressed stuffed shirt, a deluded optimist. The smiling, confident hero of just a few years before fell out of favor, and the new heroes who emerged were gangsters, opportunists, sleazy businessmen, shifty lawyers, shell-shocked soldiers-men whose existence threatened the status quo.
In this book, LaSalle highlights such household names as James Cagney, Clark Gable, Edward G. Robinson, Maurice Chevalier, Spencer Tracy, and Gary Cooper, along with lesser-known ones such as Richard Barthelmess, Lee Tracy, Robert Montgomery, and the magnificent Warren William. Together they represent a vision of manhood more exuberant and contentious-and more humane-than anything that has followed on the American screen.
- Print length272 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThomas Dunne Books
- Publication dateNovember 11, 2002
- Dimensions9.58 x 6.38 x 0.99 inches
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Roy Liebman, California State Univ. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"LaSalle is an engaging writer who takes his films seriously but not pedanticallly." -- ,Charleston Post & Courier,
"LaSalle is an engaging writer who takes his films seriously but not pedantically." -- Charleston Post & Courier
"Lively . . . [LaSalle's] enthusiasm is contagious. . . . Dangerous Men serves aas both an entertaining history and a cautionary tale." -- ,San Francisco Chronicle,
"Lively . . . [LaSalle's] enthusiasm is contagious. . . . Dangerous Men serves as both an entertaining history and a cautionary tale." -- San Francisco Chronicle
"LaSalle is an engaging writer who takes his films seriously but not pedantically."
- Charleston Post & Courier
"Lively . . . [LaSalle's] enthusiasm is contagious. . . . Dangerous Men serves as both an entertaining history and a cautionary tale."
- San Francisco Chronicle
"Lively . . . [LaSalle''s] enthusiasm is contagious. . . . Dangerous Men serves as both an entertaining history and a cautionary tale." (San Francisco Chronicle )
"LaSalle is an engaging writer who takes his films seriously but not pedantically." (Charleston Post & Courier )
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B001G8W8C8
- Publisher : Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition (November 11, 2002)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 272 pages
- Item Weight : 1.3 pounds
- Dimensions : 9.58 x 6.38 x 0.99 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #9,679,132 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,835 in Movie Theory
- #29,127 in Deals in Books
- #106,138 in Performing Arts (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Aside from the Pre-Code usuals--Gable, Cagney, Fairbanks, Powell and Montgomery, LaSalle "introduces" others I now really want to dig up, Warren William and Richard Barthelmess.
in films of the thirties this is a MUST! And if you are just interested in films in general this will surely be "of interest". And if you are a Norma Shearer fan it is a MUST!






