Complicated Women (2009)

Rescuing the likes of Ann Dvorak and Joan Blondell from film-guide footnotes, Mick LaSalle writes wittily in Complicated Women about the risqué world Hollywood created in the pre-Hays-code 1920s and 1930s. Though he focuses on the careers of the biggest female stars of the era, Greta Garbo and Jean Harlow, LaSalle is at his best describing little-known actresses like Mae Clarke and Ann Harding tearing up the screen in obscure yet tantalizing films. The book veers into the ridiculous with comparisons between the emancipated pre-Code women and some of today's unlikely heirs (Garbo and... Mimi Rogers?), but the examination of women's roles in pre-Code and present-day films is sophisticated and provocative. B+