A look at actresses who starred in films with thought-provoking subjects made between 1930 and July 1934, before the Hollywood Production Code —the infamous Hays Code— was enforced.

Deputy Sheriff John Steele recruits bandit Sonora Joe to help him find out who’s been bumping off all the local lawmen and rustling the cattle.

Scion of the once-rich Mitchell family, Herbert Wynn is found shot to death. Nurse Adams, bored by hospital routine, is recruited by the police to ferret out clues as she…