Notorious Movie Censorship Code Adopted
The 1934 Motion Picture Production Code, adopted on this day, had much tighter enforcement than previous censorship attempts by Hollywood, and marked the beginnings of the most heavy-handed censorship in the history of American movies.
Early Hollywood films often had many edgy moments and themes with regard to sex. In response, moralistic activists began demanding that Hollywood “clean up” the movies. There were a number of efforts at voluntary film censorship by industry leaders beginning in the 1920s. There were actually many different versions of “The Code,” taking into account all the revisions. See, for example, the “Don’ts and Be Carefuls,” issued on October 15, 1927, and an early version of the code, adopted on March 31, 1930. All of these early efforts were voluntary, however, with little enforcement mechanisms.
Enforcement of the new code involved an agreement between the major movie theater chains (which at that time were largely owned by Hollywood studios) and the major Hollywood studios that theaters would not show a film that did not have the production code seal of approval. In practice, many films were produced and released only after negotiations between the studies and production code officials which typically resulted in revisions to a script or to a finished film.
The Catholic Church played a major role in both the development and the administration of the 1934 Code (see July 14, 1934). Church leaders organized a boycott of “indecent” films in 1933-1934, and Hollywood producers capitulated to their demands out of fear of lost revenue. Once it was adopted, the Code was enforced by administrators who brought the Church’s views to questions of what was acceptable on screen. (See Walsh, Sin and Censorship, below.)
Interestingly, the years of the Code (1934 -mid-1960s) coincided with what most film critics regard as the “Golden Years” of Hollywood films. Go figure.
The Code finally collapsed in the 1960s under the pressure of changing sexual mores and First Amendment challenges to censorship. To get some idea of what the movies were like (well, some of them), find the Turner Classic Films collection of Pre-Code Hollywood films.
The last desperate attempt of Hollywood to control “indecency” and violence was the ratings system, which rated films as G, PG, R, and for a while, X, which went into effect on November 1, 1968. But even it soon had to be modified.
Learn more: Frank Walsh, Sin and Censorship: The Catholic Church and the Motion Picture Industry (1996)
Sex under the 1934 Code:
“II. Sex: The sanctity of the institution of marriage and the home shall be upheld. Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing. Adultery, sometimes necessary plot material, must not be explicitly treated, or justified, or presented attractively.Scenes of Passion: They should not be introduced when not essential to the plot. Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, are not to be shown. In general passion should so be treated that these scenes do not stimulate the lower and baser element.”
Read about the Codes: http://productioncode.dhwritings.com/intro.php
And also: http://censorshipinfilm.wordpress.com/resources/production-code-1934/Learn about “pre-Code” Hollywood films: Thomas Doherty, Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930-1934 (1999)
Watch clips of “pre-1934 Code” films: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3-XCvlTkK4
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has a collection of pre-code films for sale. Buy Forbidden Hollywood, watch the films, and notice the differences (as for example, how often women are in the lingerie):
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/191905%7C0/Forbidden-Hollywood.html