"Hello, Sister!" is a film that clearly could not have been made the same way had it been made only a year or so later. This is because the new Production Code which took effect in July, 1934 forbade several things you'll see in this film...and unlike the prior code, this one had teeth and greatly changed Hollywood.
Two young women spend most of their free time at home in their apartment. Their neighbor convinces them to go out and have a good time with some men...and Peggy (Boots Mallory) meets Jimmy (James Dunn). They hit it off very well and she invites him to her apartment to talk. All they do is talk...but such things would NOT have been allowed with the Production Code...especially since she's wearing a house coat! After he leaves, however, another man pushes his way into her apartment and rapes her. While they don't show the rape and you only know it's a rape later when she ends up pregnant, the physical assault on her and her neighbor by this monster is VERY vivid. Again, there is no way any of this would have been allowed in the Code era. Now Peggy has a problem...she's in love with Jimmy but is afraid to tell him.
The rape was handled oddly. While they fortunately didn't show it, when she finds she is pregnant, the doctor is nice but talks about the baby as if she made some sort of mistake....and she never tells him about the rape. But this also brings up an interesting issue...when Jimmy finds out, he assumes it's his...which means it might be his AND they were having relations...again, NOT a Code sort of plot!! What's next? See the film.
I appreciate that the film discusses rape...an important social problem. But it does it in a rather muddled way. Additionally, there's an ultra-bizarro subplot involving a drunk who is stockpiling explosives....which just seems to come from out of the middle of no where! As a result, the film isn't particularly good...though it IS interesting and worth seeing if you want to see how far Pre-Code films could go compared to the Code films of the following year.
Two young women spend most of their free time at home in their apartment. Their neighbor convinces them to go out and have a good time with some men...and Peggy (Boots Mallory) meets Jimmy (James Dunn). They hit it off very well and she invites him to her apartment to talk. All they do is talk...but such things would NOT have been allowed with the Production Code...especially since she's wearing a house coat! After he leaves, however, another man pushes his way into her apartment and rapes her. While they don't show the rape and you only know it's a rape later when she ends up pregnant, the physical assault on her and her neighbor by this monster is VERY vivid. Again, there is no way any of this would have been allowed in the Code era. Now Peggy has a problem...she's in love with Jimmy but is afraid to tell him.
The rape was handled oddly. While they fortunately didn't show it, when she finds she is pregnant, the doctor is nice but talks about the baby as if she made some sort of mistake....and she never tells him about the rape. But this also brings up an interesting issue...when Jimmy finds out, he assumes it's his...which means it might be his AND they were having relations...again, NOT a Code sort of plot!! What's next? See the film.
I appreciate that the film discusses rape...an important social problem. But it does it in a rather muddled way. Additionally, there's an ultra-bizarro subplot involving a drunk who is stockpiling explosives....which just seems to come from out of the middle of no where! As a result, the film isn't particularly good...though it IS interesting and worth seeing if you want to see how far Pre-Code films could go compared to the Code films of the following year.