Cute link. Amazing how much to-do there was in those days about those “scandalous” tank suits. Ah well, the Mk1 Mod 0 female human leg was just as impressive back in the day as it is now.

The Hays Code certainly toned down the blood and gore in gangster pictures, though, by modern standards, there wasn’t all that much even pre-Code. ‘The Public Enemy’ – the film that elevated Cagney to first-rank stardom – was, supposedly, shocking to the sensibilities of the time (1931, early Depression era) but I’ve seen it and am unimpressed in terms of screen violence. It’s sure no ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ or ‘The Wild bunch.’ Cagney, of course, was superb and magnetic.

Greg,

Aieeee – weirdly flexible alien female acrobats from outer space! Run for your lives! What might they do to you with those legs if they catch you? Run!

Dick & Phil–
Any thoughts on the impact of the Hays Production Code as it concerned gangster movies?

Pre-Code Hollywood
“The Swimsuit Edition”
https://youtu.be/iBcmTHsH98s
4:22

Interesting medico-genetic info on the Ross Sisters. Checking Wikipedia, I find that Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) is actually a number of distinct genetic conditions flying in loose formation under a common name. Some of these have fairly grim associated conditions such as spontaneous aortic dissection. The sisters apparently shared the hypermobility variant that doesn’t seem to have any such associated dire baggage. It’s precise genetic components are also said to be undetermined as of the present.

Unless there is some significant unstated downside to the hypermobility variant of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, I think it should be regarded as just a recessive trait and not an “affliction.” As I get older and creakier and my range of motion decreases I’m inclined to think that future revisions to the human genome probably ought to incorporate this genetic recessive – once its exact nature has been determined – as part of the standard homo sap package.

Phil Berardelli,

I would never have gotten that answer about the tune as I have never seen any of the Godfather movies and have no desire to do so. Other than a handful of James Cagney films and the works of Quentin Tarantino, I have always found gangster pictures tedious and perverse.

Cagney is watchable in such roles only because I regard him as the greatest film actor in American history. Tarantino, of course, is a sui generis genius.

I don’t even like Cagney’s otherwise very capable contemporaries, Edward G. Robinson and Paul Muni, in gangster roles. That distaste translates to all of the current-era gangster portrayals too – if movies like ‘The Godfather’ made over a half-century ago can still be regarded as “current-era.”

Phil Berardelli,
Where have I heard that melody before? I’m going with a different movie, a non-Oscar winning movie: My Man Godfrey, over the titles. I enjoy that movie.

Wayne and Dick–
That second tune in the Ross Sisters clip is called “Manhattan Serenade.” It was used in “The Godfather” (in a slower tempo — performed by Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra) when Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) visits Hollywood to pave the way for Johnny Fontaine (Al Martino) to get his part in the picture. Subtle irony, because it was Dorsey who, legend has it, was threatened by the mob to release Frank Sinatra from his contract.

Yeah, “physicality” in all of its aspects. Three generous slabs of absolutely first-cabin 1940s-era cheesecake. Yowzah!

And me, at least, you’re going to have to tell the name of that Best Picture winner as I haven’t a clue. I’ve watched a lot of movies from that era of many genres, but my knowledge is far from encyclopedic. Quentin Tarantino I am not.

Here’s a challenge for the musically inclined among you. Where have you heard that melody before? Hint: It’s in a scene in a Best Picture winner I’m assuming you all know.

The Ross Sisters were, indeed, borderline superhuman.

They were also uniformly gorgeous. In many sister acts there is one stand-out beauty with the others being less so. Not the Ross Sisters.

For all their obvious beauty and talent, this “specialty” number was their only screen appearance, though it was also excerpted a half-century later in ‘That’s Entertainment III.’