{"product_id":"9781466876040","title":"Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man","description":"\u003cp\u003eUsing the same mix of accessibility and insider knowledge he used so successfully in \u003ci\u003eComplicated Women\u003c\/i\u003e, author and film critic Mick LaSalle now turns his attention to the men of the pre-Code Hollywood era.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 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. \u003ci\u003eDangerous Men\u003c\/i\u003e 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"St. Martin's Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47167230705904,"sku":"9781466876040","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781466876040_p0.jpg?v=1763687501","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781466876040","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}