Opening at the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympics (an actual newsreel from the event), 1934’s Search for Beauty, directed by Erle C. Kenton (Island of Lost Souls; The Ghost of Frankenstein), is a sharply written and unbelievably edgy drama that would not have passed code just a few short months later (once the Motion Picture Production Code, also known as the Hays Code, came into effect).
A clash between immorality and a sort of athletic purity, two ex-cons, Larry Williams (Robert Armstrong) and Jean Strange (Gertrude Michael), newly released from prison, quickly come up with a new cash friendly scheme. Teaming with their money-man, Dan Healy (James Gleason), they plan on purchasing a ‘Health and Exercise’ magazine (and a ramshackle hotel that comes with it), turning it into a pre-Playboy rag magazine full of sultry stories and lurid photographs.
Needing an air of respectability, the pair woo two newly crowned gold medalists at the Olympics, Don Jackson (Buster Crabbe – an actual two time Olympic medalist in swimming – Bronze in 1928 and Gold in 1932) and Barbara Hilton (Ida Lupino – in her first American role), offering them each a three year contract at their seemingly respectable magazine aimed at aiding its readership with their own personal health – they both snap up the opportunity.
Of course, the former perps and athletes clash. . . so much so, that Larry comes up with a plan to send Don on the road to orchestrate a contest that will find the world’s most beautiful people (a similar contest was run by Paramount Studios in conjunction with the film. . . fifteen men and the same amount of women were chosen and flown to Hollywood to appear in Search for Beauty). While he’s gone, the unholy triumvirate gang up on Barbara, quickly transforming the magazine into something wholly different from the Olympic pairs’ vision.
Barbara, in a constant state of frustration, calls Don back to deal with this impasse. Working a deal for the majority ownership of the hotel plus ten thousand dollars in cash (Larry and Jean are all too happy to extricate themselves from the honest couple), their goal is to leave the magazine behind and transform the hotel into a world renowned health resort. . . secretly using the aforementioned contest winners as athletic trainers (an idea that infuriates the former criminals – who planned on using them for their own smutty gains). Leading to a cash-driven clash on the hotel grounds, plots are hatched, trickery is paramount, and only one side can truly win out.
Centred on its well crafted story (by David Boehm and Maurine Dallas Watkins. . . the screenplay was completed by Frank Butler), it is a bit like a lighter version of hard boiled noir dialogue. Feeding off of its jarring juxtaposition, it is also unbelievably quotable. . . Dan Healy is especially full of one liners – for instance, “you couldn’t sell fresh fish to a starving seal”; or, “that guy could fall down a sewer and come up with a bottle of perfume in both hands!”; and my personal favourite, “nothing’s worth ten thousand in cash, not even a million”. And while we’re on the subject, this quote seems to sum up the picture’s themes quite nicely – “I got nothin’ against sex. Either you got it, or you go lookin’ for it.”
Living on the edge, Search for Beauty was released on February 2nd, 1934. . . the Hays Code would come into effect July 15th of the same year, and they certainly got in their fair share of licentious or suggestive nudity. Equal in opportunity (by that I mean both men and women), Larry and Jean’s friends, who they invite to the health hotel, are all eager to proposition these near perfect specimens. . . room numbers given, girls invited for late night ‘dancing’. . . director Kenton’s outrageously entertaining zooms and other camera movements comically adding more insinuation to the already spelled out sex. Furthermore, male rear ends are seen in an Olympic dressing room scene, while an extravagant Busby Berkeley-esque musical athletic sequence finds all of the women in tight fitting, see through outfits – leaving almost nothing to the imagination. Lastly, some of the most entertaining scenes find Larry and Jean circulating photos of the beauty contest men and women – trying to sell out the hotel to some of their friends. . . the double entendres used by those seeing the images are priceless – who knew Olympic terms like “tumble”, “double somersault”, and “hand springs” could be so dirty.
Another fantastic example of the wildly entertaining and surprisingly edgy Pre-Code era (a short lived treasure trove for cinephiles), Search for Beauty is a seventy-eight minute foray into a battle of the wills. Not without its faults, perhaps its rather abrupt ending will be the most frustrating for some. Two more worthy notes: the always entertaining Toby Wing plays Barbara’s gullible cousin – who comes to fill a secretarial void for the magazine (let’s just say she is looking for more fun then her rather straight-laced family member), while a very young Ann Sheridan (in her debut) can be spotted as the Dallas Beauty Winner. So, book a reservation to stay at this hotel, it will whip your Pre-Code film knowledge into shape.