[[File:Bird of Paradise (1932) 2.jpg|thumb|left|<center>[[Dolores del Río]] dances almost [[Toplessness|topless]] in ''[[Bird of Paradise (1932 film)|Bird of Paradise]]'' (1932).</center>]]
Pre-Code films contained a continual, recurring theme of white racism.<ref name="DH254">Doherty, pg. 254.</ref> In the early 1930s, the studios filmed a series of pictures that aimed to provide viewers a sense of the exotic, an exploration of the unknown and the forbidden. These pictures often imbued themselves with the allure of interracial sex according to pre-Code historian Thomas Doherty. "At the psychic core of the genre is the shiver of sexual attraction, the threat and promise of miscegenation."<ref name="DH254"/> Films such as ''[[Africa Speaks]]'' were directly marketed by referencing interracial sex; moviegoers received small packets labeled "Secrets" which contained pictures of naked black women.<ref name="DH255">Doherty, pg. 255.</ref> As portrayals of historic conditions, these movies are of little educational value, but as artifacts that show Hollywood's attitude towards race and foreign cultures they are enlightening.<ref name="DH254"/> The central point of interest in ''[[The Blonde Captive]]'' (1931), a film which depicted a blonde woman abducted by a savage tribe of Aboriginal Australians, was not that she was kidnapped, but that she enjoys living among the tribe.<ref name="DH255"/> The lack of black characters in films highlights their status in [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow America]].<ref>Doherty, pp. 255–256.</ref>
In ''[[Bird of Paradise (1932 film)|Bird of Paradise]]'', a white American man ([[Joel McCrea]]) enjoys a torrid affair with a Polynesian princess ([[Dolores del Río]]). The film created a scandal when released due to a scene featuring del Río [[Nude swimming|swimming naked]].<ref>[http://www.filmsite.org/sexinfilms5.html Sex in Cinema], AMC filmsite</ref> [[Orson Welles]] said del Río represented the highest erotic ideal with her performance in the film.<ref>[http://dawnsdeloresdelrio.blogspot.com/2010/05/bird-of-paradise1932-pre-code.html ''Bird of Paradise'' (1932 film) review], dawnsdeloresdelrio.blogspot.com; accessed June 23, 2014.</ref>
