Search For Beauty

Last night I watched one of the selections on a Sundance festival of Pre- Hayes Code Films. 1934's  Search For Beauty is one of the most demented pieces of cinema that I have viewed in quite some time. To make the experience even more zany, I was very "altered" while watching it.


Search For Beauty is the story of 3 sleazy racketeering publishers promoting their "health & beauty" magazine... which is all beefcake & muscles & sex. After hiring young Olympic stars to lure young athletes both strapping males & winsome females to Los Angeles to compete in a contest, the participants are routed instead to a health farm to entertain debauched connoisseurs of young flesh.

Real Olympian- Buster Crabb

There is plenty of snappy dialogue by the stars with exceptional quips between James Gleason & Robert Armstrong. Gertrude Michael competes with Ida Lupino for the affections of a hunky Buster Crabbe. This film was released just a few months before the "code" took effect in 1934. Bare butts & most of the dialogue would have been censored after that.  In 1933, sponsored a Search for Beauty contest in which they attracted contestants from around the USA.


The finalists all appear in the film & a few were offered contracts which gave them minor careers. One contestant, Ann Sheridan, did find stardom, although it took her 4 years & a switch to Warner Brothers where she was promoted as the "Oomph Girl".


Favorite Lines:
Dan Healy (James Gleason): "I got nothin' against sex. Either you got it, or you go lookin' for it".


Larry Williams (Robert Armstrong): "Boy, this is something! It's colossal!"
Dan Healy: "It's better than that. It's positively mediocre!"


Dan Healy: " Nothing's worth ten thousand in cash, not even a million."


Beauty Shop Manager: (Looking at the photographs of scantily clad men Jean has given her) "Well, look who's fallen among us! Mmmm-mmm!"
Jean Strange (Gertrude Michael): "We're using these boys in an idea we're working on, otdoor sports with indoor trimmings."
Beauty Shop Manager: "As far as I'm concerned... outdoors, indoors, or behind doors!"