Surprising Scenes in Old Movies (Case in point: Drugs in a Harold Lloyd movie)

[Sparkly]

Sometimes I see a scene in an old movie that just makes me go, "Whoaaa!! Was that supposed to be what I think it was?!"

Harold Lloyd's "Get Out and Get Under" (1920) has one I just saw today. He can't get his car to start. A few different characters wander by -- a woman whose ears he covers before he swears at the car, a little boy who causes mischief, and then a man who looks, at first glance, like an old movie-stereotypical criminal.

The man is clearly uncomfortable, jittery, and rubbing his wrist. He takes out a syringe, turns around, and apparently shoots up. When he turns around again, he's happy and energetic, and starts walking briskly. Lloyd steals the syringe from him, shoots it into his car, and the car speeds off down the road. Lloyd runs after it and when he finally catches up, discovers the brakes won't slow the car down.

I had to wonder -- were audiences familiar enough with drugs to think the man was shooting speed? If they knew enough to get it, would they have thought it funny? How about today's audiences?

Just thought it was interesting!! It's easy sometimes to think people nearly 100 years ago were more innocent or ignorant of some things -- drugs, sex work, certain slang expressions -- so finding something in movies that proves otherwise is always a little jaw-dropper.

Do any such scenes come to mind that you recall?

[Longhorn]

1. When I've had these moments, it was generally about sex.

I'll hear or see something that appears to be full of sexual innuendo and wonder if it was supposed to mean that or it just means that now. An obvious example is the phrase, "make love," which has come to mean sex but used to mean flirting or wooing someone. The issue of whether a couple had sex after that dance or that kiss is usually never resolved unless a pregnancy ensues. When I was younger, I never "filled in the blank." Now, I wonder if I read too much into it. :shrug:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. There's a scene in Bringing Up Baby, and I don't remember the details, but

Cary Grant ruins his clothes, and he has to borrow a frilly satin housecoat from Katherine Hepburn. While he's wearing the housecoat, there's a knock at the door, and Cary Grant goes to answer it. There's a man at the door (I forget whether it's someone Cary Grant's character knows). The man stares at the housecoat, and Cary Grant shrugs and says, "I just turned gay all of a sudden."

Now this is a 1930s movie, and I KNOW that most people didn't thing of "gay" as meaning "homosexual." (Heavens, it wasn't that widely known in the 1960s.) But was it already in use among people of that orientation at the time? I don't know.

As far as the Harold Lloyd seen is concerned, that was before the Hays Office began censoring Hollywood films, so all kinds of things were allowed on screen up till 1934 that were not allowed for the next 30 years or so.

[Sparkly]

3. Which is one reason I love pre-code movies!!

I wonder what would have happened, in films and in life, if that Hayes code never happened?

[Matilda]

4. I did some checking,

and apparently the word "gay" was used by the community as early as the
1930s, but didn't spread to the wider population until much later. I
always thought it came into use much later - around the 1970s.

I recall being very surprised while watching the Dick Powell film
"Gold Diggers of 1933", to hear someone say "tell me what you're smoking,
and I'll have some too". This was in response to Powell's idea of
getting finance for a show that was in danger of collapsing due to
withdrawl of financial backing - nobody knew he was heir to a fortune.
Just about a year later this would have been completely taboo, I'm sure.