Confessions of a Co-Ed/Ladies of the Big House

One of the most durable and talented actresses of not only Hollywood's Golden Age, but any age, Sylvia Sidney worked steadily from the late-1920s to the mid-1990s. If, like me, you grew up in the 1970s and '80s, you surely recall her portrayals of feisty old ladies in such high-profile pictures as Damien: Omen II, Beetlejuice, and Mars Attacks!, but back when she first burst upon the Hollywood scene at the dawn of sound, Sidney was far more delicate, almost waifish, yet she harbored an inner strength that enabled her to weather a barrage of tragic circumstances in several hard-hitting dramas.

Some of her most memorable movies of the 1930s include Dorothy Arzner's Merrily We Go to Hell (an affecting portrait of a marriage ripped apart by alcoholism), two Fritz Lang films - Fury (a searing indictment of mob violence) and You Only Live Once (a devastating Depression Era tale of doomed love), Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage, and William Wyler's Dead End (an acclaimed adaptation of the hit Broadway play about poverty in New York City's slums). Yet before Sidney could make those fine films, she had to pay some dues, and Kino Lorber Studio Classics has packaged together two of her earliest efforts, produced when she was just 21 years old. Both are pre-Code potboilers that coast along on the strength of their titillating titles, and though neither is worthy of Sidney's talent, they showcase her unique appeal and give her juicy roles that allow her to flex some dramatic muscle.

Confessions of a Co-Ed (1931)
Good girls led astray by sweet-talking lotharios with only one thing on their mind is an age-old premise that has fueled countless films over the past century. Confessions of a Co-Ed doesn't bring anything new to the party, except how it utterly betrays its heroine in the final reel. Though it could be interpreted as a tale of redemption, Confessions of a Co-Ed is really a portrait of a strong, intelligent, independent woman who falls in love with a heel and remains in love with him after he ruins her life, proving in the end that she's not nearly as strong, intelligent, or independent as she initially leads us to believe.

Patricia Harper (Sidney) arrives at Stafford College with big dreams and lofty aspirations. She joins a sorority, but unlike her fickle, boy-crazy sisters, she studies chemistry instead of shamelessly pursuing an MRS degree. Dan Carter (Phillips Holmes) is the big man on campus, a smooth operator who uses the same come-on lines with every woman who strikes his fancy. Despite going steady with the possessive Peggy Wilson (Claudia Dell), Dan fervently pursues Pat. Whether he's genuinely smitten or just wants a roll in the hay isn't clear, but whatever Dan is selling, Pat isn't buying. She repeatedly rejects his advances...until she doesn't. And what happens after her moment of weakness and monumental lapse in judgment? She gets pregnant, of course.

Pat's indiscretion changes the trajectory of her life and the rest of Confessions of a Co-Ed chronicles how she reacts to her plight. The story is largely predictable, but the ending will leave any self-respecting female aghast. Sidney tries her best to make the silliness believable while staying true to her character, and like she did so often throughout her career, she rises above her material and files a dignified, sincere performance. She and Holmes, who would famously co-star later the same year in the first screen adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (Sidney would play the part that would earn Shelley Winters a Best Actress Oscar nomination in the more famous remake A Place in the Sun), make an attractive couple, but their chemistry only takes the film so far.

You know a movie's a dud when it lacks a screenplay credit. Either the writer didn't want his/her name on it or so many cooks spoiled this broth no one volunteered to take the blame. Whatever the case, the movie's most memorable moment doesn't involve its script. Early on, a young Bing Crosby pops up in a party scene with his back-up duo The Rhythm Boys to perform two songs. With much more hair than we're used to seeing, the 28-year-old crooner somewhat awkwardly performs "Ya Got Love" and "Out of Nowhere," which was a huge hit at the time. Classics nerds will also enjoy spotting Norman Foster - whose biggest claims to fame just might be his two failed marriages, first to Loretta Young's sister Sally Blane and then to Claudette Colbert - as the good guy who catches Pat on the rebound.

Confessions of a Co-Ed is pretty tame by today's standards, but it's always fun to discover pre-Code rarities and Sidney makes this one worth watching. Rating: 3 stars

Ladies of the Big House (1931)
One of the earliest smash hits of the talkie era was MGM's hard-hitting prison drama The Big House, starring Wallace Beery, Chester Morris, and Robert Montgomery. Most likely, Paramount sought to capitalize on its success by mounting its own incarceration chronicle that focused on females. Ladies of the Big House pales when compared to its macho cousin, but it just might be the first women-in-prison movie ever made. The script and direction are far superior to Confessons of a Co-Ed (which isn't saying much), and the film provides Sidney with a meatier part that offers myriad opportunities to show off her considerable range.

Mild-mannered flower shop employee Kathleen Storm (Sidney) briefly dated Kid Athens (Earle Fox), unaware of his reputation as a notorious mobster. When she finds out, she wants nothing more to do with him, but the insanely jealous Kid is obsessed with Kathleen and orders his henchmen to monitor her every move when he's forced to lay low for a while. During that period, Kathleen meets and falls in love with Stan McNeil (Gene Raymond). The two marry after a whirlwind two-week courtship and plan to embark for Russia, where Stan has accepted a job.

The night before their departure, Kid frames the couple for murder, and thanks to the corrupt assistant district attorney, Kathleen and Stan are convicted and sent to prison. Stan gets the death penalty, and Kathleen spends the rest of the film frantically trying to clear their names within the jail's harsh confines before her husband is executed.

Not as tough or brutal as such subsequent women-in-prison movies like Ladies They Talk About and Caged, Ladies of the Big House is nevertheless a snappy, action-packed tale that's greatly enhanced by its performances. Sidney gets an emotional workout, but retains her authenticity, and she and Raymond craft a romance that remains believable even when the story strains credulity. In supporting roles, Wynne Gibson enjoys a sassy turn as a fellow inmate who also dallied with Kid; the always excellent Louise Beavers shines as Kathleen's closest jailhouse ally (Beavers would have made a fantastic Mama Morton in Chicago); and a decade before she would win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her unforgettable portrayal of Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, Jane Darwell proffers a sympathetic portrait of a prison matron. (Interestingly, she would play the flip side of that character - the stern gatekeeper of the solitary unit - in Caged 20 years later.)

Ladies of the Big House spends a fair amount of time in the men's section of the prison, so the title is a bit of a misnomer, and like Confessions of a Co-Ed, it doesn't push the envelope as brazenly as other pre-Code dramas. Still, it's a solid film overall, directed with a fair amount of flair by Marion Gering, who would work with Sidney three more times in the following two years in Madame Butterfly (a straight dramatic version of the immortal Puccini opera), Pick-up, and Jennie Gerhardt, another Dreiser adaptation. Rating: 3-1/2 stars

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Confessions of a Co-Ed and Ladies of the Big House arrive on Blu-ray on a single disc packaged in a standard case inside a sleeve. Video codec is 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 and audio is DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono. Once the disc is inserted into the player, the static menu with music immediately pops up; no previews or promos precede it.

Brand new HD masters struck from 4K scans revitalize both of these pre-Code antiques and make them look far more contemporary than their advanced age might suggest. Both films have their issues, but on the whole, the 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 transfers look mighty fine. Film grain has been nicely resolved, but enough remains to maintain the feel of celluloid, while excellent clarity and contrast produce vibrant pictures that feature quite a bit of detail and depth. Blacks are dense, whites are bright and stable, and a healthy grayscale fills in the gaps. Shadow delineation is good, especially in the escape sequence in Ladies of the Big House, and the close-ups of Sidney are often breathtaking.

A couple of torn frames and missing frames plague Confessions of a Co-Ed and some print damage, a bit of jutter, and a couple of missing frames jar the senses in Ladies of the Big House, but that's to be expected when dealing with movies that are almost a century old. All in all, both of these films look fantastic on Blu-ray, and pre-Code fans will surely appreciate the care that went into restoring them.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono tracks for both movies output surprisingly clean, clear, and crisp sound. Audio tracks from 90-year-old-plus films usually sound tinny, hollow, and shrill due to the primitive recording equipment employed, but these remastered tracks enjoy a lovely fullness of tone and lush resonance that's very pleasing to the ears. Solid fidelity enhances Bing Crosby's mellifluous vocals in Confessions of a Co-Ed and allows them to fill the room with ease, while a wide dynamic scale embraces all the brassy highs of the raucous jailhouse combo band during the prison break sequence of Ladies of the Big House. All the dialogue in both films is easy to comprehend and all the hiss, pops, and crackle that surely littered the original tracks have been meticulously erased.

Each film features its own audio commentary.

• Audio Commentary for Confessions of a Co-Ed by film historian David Del Valle and film historian/archivist Stan Shaffer
• Audio Commentary for Ladies of the Big House by film historian David Del Valle and film historian/archivist Stan Shaffer

If you're a pre-Code fan, you'll get a big kick out of both Confessions of a Co-Ed and Ladies of the Big House. Neither film is anything to write home about, but Sidney's intensity and conviction make the material seem better than it is. Brand new HD masters struck from 4K scans and remastered audio heighten the appeal of this double-feature KLSC release that's a welcome addition to any pre-Code collection. Recommended.