Before the Production Code Administration in 1934 clamped down with strict censorship codes, Hollywood produced a number of frank and sordid melodramas featuring tough, sinful, bawdy, naughty and fallen women, pleasure-loving golddiggers, prostitutes and ruthless divorcees - some of whom were repaid for their sinfulness and indiscretions by rejection, drug-addiction, death, or anonymity. The silent Madame X (1920) was one of the first of such films - in which a woman (Pauline Frederick) was separated from her legitimate child, and then defended by her unknowing, grown-up son when wrongly accused of murder.

The Divorcee - 1930Norma Shearer won the Best Actress Oscar for MGM's The Divorcee (1930) as a recent divorcee who finds revenge on her faithless husband by becoming a philanderer herself. Cecil B. DeMille directed the outrageous Madam Satan (1930) about a wealthy socialite (Kay Johnson) who pretends to be a sultry French vamp in order to seduce her own husband away from his mistress. (The film featured an infamous debauchery scene - a masquerade costume ball aboard a zeppelin dirigible above New York harbor.)

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The first American serial was the groundbreaking 12-reel What Happened to Mary? (1912), a production of Thomas A. Edison's Company, that starred Mary Fuller (the first true serial queen), and was released concurrently with the serial story "What Happened to Mary?" in McClure's Ladies' World Magazine. Each film chapter was released simultaneously with the corresponding story in the magazine, one story per month, beginning July 26th, 1912. The series was followed with the six-episode Who Will Marry Mary? (1913), and with another twelve episode series, The Active Life of Dolly of the Dailies (1914).

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By the time Republic Studios had created all of its Dick Tracy serials--60 episodes altogether, after its initial 15-episode entry Dick Tracy (1937) with lead actor Ralph Byrd as the square-jawed shamus, it had become the longest-running series in serials history (the other films in the series were the 15-chapter Dick Tracy Returns (1938), 15 cliff-hanging episodes in Dick Tracy's G-Men (1939), and 15 crime-fighting episodes in Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc. (1941)).

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Raise the Red Lantern is one of the more sublimely beautiful and openly disturbing films of the 1990s. It is also the best work to date turned in by the actress/director combination of Gong Li and Zhang Yimou -- and this includes other impressive films like Ju Dou andTo Live. Raise the Red Lantern is one of those all-too-rare motion pictures capable of enthralling audience members while they're watching it, then haunting them for hours (or days) thereafter. With its simple story and complex themes and emotions, Raise the Red Lantern hints at the kind of film a great director like Ingmar Bergman might have made had he attempted a story set in mainland China.

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Post-Harry Potter plans continued for the cast and crew of the Warner Bros. franchise phenomenon.

The latest development plans involved the female component of the Heroic Trio, Hermione, or actress Emma Watson.

First Showing reported that producer Denise Di Novi confirmed plans for a new take on the Beauty and the Beast myth with Guillermo del Toro in talks to direct and Watson to play the Beauty.

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Soon after Naomie Harris confirmed her role as the new Miss Moneypenny, the sassy assistant to Bond's Boss M, played by Judi Dench, First Showing reported on Amazing Spider-Man villain Rhys Ifans joining the upcoming Bond 23.

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After a series of directors from Ron Howard to Steven Spielberg and most recently Gore Verbinski came and went from the remake of the 1947 comedy The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, star Ben Stiller began talks with Fox to take on directing duties.

Variety reported that Stiller was the likely replacement to direct The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in addition to playing the lead.

Steve Conrad, writer of Wrestling Ernest Hemingway and The Pursuit of Happyness, continued to work on the script.

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Transformers producers Don Murphy and Susan Montford made a lot of fans happy today with their news of acquiring popular 1990’s cartoon Captain Planet, featuring a hero who promotes environmental themes in addition to battling super villains, for a live-action movie.

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In Treatment and True Blood cast member Dane Dehaan joined director Derek Cianfrance’s follow-up to his critical hit Blue Valentine.

Variety reported that DeHaan landed one of the major roles in The Place Beyond the Pines, set to begin filming in late July around Schenectady, New York.

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