Film Threat “celebrates” Breast Cancer Awareness Month by counting down the Fifty Best Breasts in Movie History — and yes, that’s 25 actresses, two apiece. At MediaBistroLA, Kate Coe bristles that “pre-code films are largely ignored, with the exception of Mae West,” and that’s a fair point; choosing West over, say, Clara Bow is like passing over a sorority sister for her salty, disreputable great aunt.

Unfortunately (and somewhat surprisingly), there’s not yet a web portal dedicated the preservation of early cinema necklines. In fact, my Google search for “pre-code cleavage” turned up just one result, a message board comment declaring that Zita Johann’s “pre-code cleavage, however lacking in volume, was absolutely the hottest thing of the Castle Films silent 8mm era.” I also came across a discussion on a Turner Classic Movies message board thread on “plunging cleavage,” recommending Joan Blondell and Jean Harlow in just about everything. As commenter MovieJoe79 puts it about the latter, “she never wore a bra, so you can catch a real eyeful on occasion!”

Below the jump, you’ll find my picks for a few classic pre-code cleavage uses. Because in the end, we are all twelve year-old boys. Some of us were just born in 1918.

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