A socialite risks total ruin after a sordid love affair with a murderous gangster, played by Clark Gable.
“It ain’t polite, baby, but it’s what you want.” The brilliant Norma Shearer stars as an independent-minded young society woman who has been trained by her defense attorney father (Lionel Barrymore) to live without restraint, and who becomes trapped in a love affair with a good-for-nothing rogue (Gable). Her father, loving but befuddled by alcoholism, successfully defends the gangster against a murder rap, not realising his beloved daughter is about to embark on an affair with him.
Written by gossip journalist Adela Rogers St. John and loosely recalling her own upbringing, A Free Soul is psychologically complex and earnest despite its sensationalism; a genuinely open-minded exploration of what happens to nice girls when they fall for the bad boy.
Pre-Code Hollywood: Rules Were Made to be Broken is a season of five restored films from before the Hays Production Code censored what could be seen on the big screen. These wild, dangerous and risqué films take audiences back to the heady cinematic world of the 1930s; when crime did pay, the bad guy got the girl in the end, and you really could get away with murder.
Tickets are discounted for titles in this season due to shorter run-times. Please be aware: these films contain adult themes and reflect the attitudes and behaviours of their time.
- DIRECTOR: Clarence Brown
- CAST: Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable
- LANGUAGE: English
