With the release of TCM’s Forbidden Hollywood Collection Vol. 2, five films capture the racy days of the early 1930s. Highlighted by an informative and entertaining documentary entitled Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin, and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood, the collection presents films that have not lost their ability to stun, shock, and titillate.

Presented on three discs, the collection begins with 1930’s The Divorcee. Starring Norma Shearer, this Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer All Talking Picture is a stunning film. Playing the wife of a husband caught in an affair, Shearer’s character decides that the only way to make her husband learn a lesson about infidelity is to embark on her own affair. She matches him, tryst for tryst, in a highly controversial story that asserts the notion that if men can do it, women can do it better.

Next, Norma Shearer is at it again in 1931’s A Free Soul. Also starring Lionel Barrymore and Clark Gable, A Free Soul features Gable in a role that would cement him as a solid leading man. Slapping Shearer around, Gable still gets the girl in the end and the bad guy gets away. With no apologies, A Free Soul shows the bad side of humanity and allows for no repercussions.

Disc 2 features the classic Three on a Match. From 1932, Three on a Match features Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak in an unforgettable turn, and the always compelling Bette Davis. Noted mostly for Dvorak’s controversial role as a character who is leaving her husband and four-year-old son for a gangster, Three on a Match is the story of three women reuniting ten years after high school. It is a poignant and self-aware movie.

Also on disc 2 is Michael Curtiz’s Female, starring Ruth Chatterton. Female is the quintessential tale of the predatory female. Chatterton stars as the president of a car company who exercises her right to engage with her male staffers in any way she pleases. When she meets a strong-willed new employee, the battle of sexual wits that follows is sharp comedy for the ages.

Disc 3 features an unsentimental and dark comedy called Night Nurse. Starring the gorgeous and wonderful Barbara Stanwyck, Night Nurse is a William Wellman film that plunges the depths and almost seems like a pulp fiction story. After discovering a plot to starve two children, Stanwyck’s character must concoct a plan to stop the culprit (Clark Gable) from pulling off his devious scheme.

The Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 2 is a strong set of films from the 1930s. It speaks to the power and the influence of the pre-Code era that the films on this set are still racy, raunchy, and a hell of a lot of fun. The set is beautifully put together, too, and the features are fun. With some trailers and the aforementioned documentary leading the way, the Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 2 is a great primer for those interested in looking at Hollywood’s roaring '30s before censorship became rule of law.