I posted this several years ago. Thought it was worth another go-around, especially for readers new to my blog.
Watching
a movie made in the forties or fifties, one gets the idea that certain themes
were taboo. That’s because they were.
But this was not always the case. Many of the movies made in the twenties and
even the early thirties were actually somewhat risqué. These movies dealt with such controversial
subject matter as adultery, homosexuality, drug addiction, abortion, incest,
and miscegenation (or what was at that time referred to as “the mixing of the
races”).
What then
caused the sudden shift to more “morally correct” films? Numerous Hollywood
headlines in the twenties, the “Fatty Arbuckle” scandal amongst others, along
with the strong influence of the Catholic Church, resulted in a general feeling
that the film industry needed some sort of accountability. This was to come in
the form of Will Hays, a man who had served as Postmaster General under
President William Harding (ironically, Harding’s presidency epitomized scandal,
but that’s another story). At any rate, this is how the Motion Picture
Production Code came to be.
Until
1933, the moral values of film were overseen by a Catholic Foundation known as
the National League of Decency (NLD) Hays, rightfully, didn’t feel that
producers were adhering to the guidelines set forth. He was determined to put
“more teeth” in the MPPC.
So what
sort of “moral guidelines” did the MPPC put forth? Aside from the avoidance of the above
mentioned subjects, there were now “rules” to be abided that didn’t exist prior
to the code: criminals had to be punished for their crimes, authority figures
had to be respected (particularly clergymen), brutal killings could not be
shown in detail, there was to be no nudity and no sex outside of marriage, (if
there was, the participants couldn’t enjoy it, in fact, they had to suffer as a
result of it) and so on.
Directors
and producers paid little attention to the code and looked for ways to get
around it but that soon changed. In 1934
an amendment to the code was adopted which created the Production Code
Administration, requiring all films to get a “certificate of approval” before
they could be released (any theater that didn’t adhere to this would be fined
$25,000). Joseph Breen, a journalist and an influential layperson in the
Roman Catholic community, was appointed by Hays to spearhead the office. Breen,
who was apparently one tough cookie, presided over
the PCA with a rigid hand. Under his leadership, scripts that were deemed to be
“questionable” (in its view) were changed. For instance, if a woman, lying in
bed, were to be kissed, the man kissing her would need to have kept one foot on
the floor.
Needless
to say, the Breen office was not a favorite with directors, writers, and movie
moguls and the final cut of films like Animal
Crackers only made it to the screen in their much censored versions.
(Groucho was notorious for having slipped many a double entendre under the
noses of the PCA but in the fifties, when he had his own TV show, he was once
again rebuked by censors. On one of his shows, he’d asked a contestant why she
had so many children and when she smiled shyly and said she loved her husband a
lot, Groucho quickly replied, “I love a good cigar but I occasionally remove it
from my mouth”).
Back to
the code. As mentioned, the code was
strictly enforced, whether it pertained to the adaptation of a classic book
such as King’s Row (a good deal of
sex, incest, and sadism in that one) or even to a cartoon (Betty Boop changed
her attire from that of a flapper, to one that was deemed to have been more
“sedate”). Years of symbolic sexual
implications passed by (trains entering tunnels, fireworks exploding, the tide
rushing in, etc.) before adherence to the code began to weaken.
By the late forties, some subject matter began to become acceptable in films, prostitution for example. By the fifties, the film industry was feeling the competition from television. In addition to this, unregulated foreign films, with their more sophisticated themes, began making their way into the country and moviegoers’ demands changed. It was director Otto Preminger who is credited with first thumbing his nose at the PCA by using the word “virgin” in his film, The Moon is Blue. Directors such as Billy Wilder (Some Like it Hot) soon followed suit.
Though the code ended in 1968 (the movie industry replaced it with “age-based” ratings), it had a far reaching influence even in television. For example, take the twin beds poor Laura and Rob Petrie were forced to sleep in. And those Doris Day sex comedies of the sixties! It always amazed me while watching A Touch of Mink, to see Doris Day, a virgin in her late twenties or early thirties, turning down, for the sake of her virtue, an opportunity of traveling the world with her love interest, wealthy business tycoon, Cary Grant.
Pre-code films are truly quite remarkable and make one wonder how much greater might some of the movies have been that were made when the censorship code was strictly enforced. On the other hand, an argument could be made that having these restrictions may have resulted in more creativity and ingenuity on the part of filmmakers.
Below,
I’ve listed a dozen of, what I consider to be, the best “pre-code” movies. They
often turn up on TCM or they can be ordered as part of TCM’s “Forbidden
Hollywood” trilogy.
1. EMPLOYEES’
ENTRANCE (1933) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023986/ Starring William Warren (a pre-code favorite)
and Loretta Young. Loretta plays the wife of a department store employee who is
harassed by the lascivious store manager, Warren.
2. BABY FACE (1933)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023775/ Stars Barbara Stanwyk as a girl from “the
wrong side of the tracks” who uses her body and sexual know-how to climb the
corporate ladder. (And climb she does). Incidentally, strong female characters
were a cornerstone of pre-code films.
3. THE STORY OF
TEMPLE DRAKE (1933) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024617/ This is a movie I’ve never had the
opportunity to see, much as I’ve wanted to. Based on the novel SANCTUARY By William Faulkner, the film
is apparently steeped in “Southern Gothic”. Starring Miriam Hopkins, it is
recognized as much for its extraordinary cinematography as for its depiction of
a flirtatious Southern belle who “gets what’s coming to her” when she falls in
with a bad, bad gang.
4. FREAKS (1932) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022913/ I was first introduced to this bizarre
depiction of a group of circus sideshow “freaks” by my brother when I was young
and I found it terribly disturbing. (Particularly the man who was little more
than “a head”, lighting his own cigarette.) With the advances in medical
science, Americans are rarely exposed any more to the deformities depicted
here. A good, if somewhat predictable, story with amazing characters.
5. THREE ON A MATCH
(1932) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023590/ The story tells the tale of three school
chums who reunite to find that their lives have taken very different paths. The
seemingly most successful of the three (her name is Vivian, by the way) ends up
throwing it all away in exchange for a life of debauchery and alcoholism.
What surprised me most when watching this movie was what a
relatively minor role Bette Davis played. Like her co-star William Warren, Joan
Blondell was another pre-code favorite.
6. WILD BOYS OF THE
ROAD (1933) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024772/ This film is a dismal depiction of the
Depression. In order not to be a burden to their struggling, out of work
parents, two teenagers, Ed and Tom, head for the road in search of work. They
hop freights and camp out in God awful places with their newly acquired friend,
Sally. When Sally suggests they visit her “well to do big city aunt”, they’re
delighted (until they meet “auntie” and discover she makes her money by turning
tricks).
7. NIGHT NURSE
(1931) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022208/ I enjoyed this one immensely. My kind of
movie: psychological suspense. When a nurse trainee (Barbara Stanwyk) is hired
to care for two small sick children, she suspects that something (or rather
someone) sinister is behind their illnesses. She employs the aid of a petty
criminal (Clark Gable) to get to the bottom of things.
8. LILLY TURNER
(1933) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024258/ Like many pre-code movies, this one was
directed by William Wellman. It tells the story of a carnival magician who
deserts his wife when he finds out she's pregnant. She marries the carnival's
barker, but soon finds herself attracted to a young engineer. When Warner Bros. tried re-releasing this in
1936, they couldn’t get a PCA “seal of approval”.
9. RED HEADED WOMAN
(1932)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023385/plotsummary Another “woman sleeping her way to the top”
story, this one starring a sultry Jean Harlow whose ultimate goal is to sleep
her way into high society.
10. TROUBLE IN
PARADISE (1932) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023622/ This comedy starred Kay Francis, Miriam
Hopkins, and Herbert Marshall. Since it takes a lighthearted look at
pickpockets, and thievery in general, it would never have received PCA
approval.
11. POSSESSED (1931)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022276/ Factory worker, Joan Crawford, enamored of
the lifestyle and the man, acquiesces to becoming the mistress of influential
lawyer, Clark Gable. Great chemistry between the two, who were paired in many,
many movies.
12. DR. JEKYLL AND
MR. HYDE (1931) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022835/ Having seen both this version and the later
one starring Spencer Tracy, I’d have to say that this was the better of the
two. Fredric’s incredible transformation from kindly Dr. Jekyll to maniacal Mr.
Hyde was nothing less than brilliant. In fact, he earned his first Academy
Award for his performance.
FREAKS:
THE MARX BROTHERS: CHICO, HARPO & GROUCHO:
Hope you have a great week and thanks for reading,
RHODES LESS TRAVELED,
Vivian Rhodes
@VivianWrites
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