Pre-Code Hollywood
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
(Difference between revisions)
| Revision as of 19:11, 26 May 2023 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Current revision Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| + | {| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5" | ||
| + | | style="text-align: left;" | | ||
| + | "In this 1931 publicity photo, [[Dorothy Mackaill]] plays a secretary-turned-prostitute in ''[[Safe in Hell]]'', a pre-Code [[Warner Bros.]] film."--Sholem Stein | ||
| + | |} | ||
| {{Template}} | {{Template}} | ||
| - | '''Pre-Code films''' were created before the [[Motion Picture Production Code]] or [[Hays Code]] took effect on [[July 1]] [[1934]] in the [[United States of America]]. Although an existing code of conduct for the [[film industry]] came into being in 1930, many ignored it and it was not enforced very enthusiastically. | + | '''Pre-Code Hollywood''' was an era in the [[Cinema of the United States|American film industry]] that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines (popularly known as the [[Hays Code]]) in 1934. Although the Hays Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor, and it did not become rigorously enforced until July 1, 1934, with the establishment of the [[Production Code Administration]]. Before that date, film content was restricted more by local laws, negotiations between the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) and the major studios, and popular opinion than by strict adherence to the Hays Code, which was often ignored by Hollywood filmmakers. |
| - | The original code was written by a [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] priest, Father [[Daniel A. Lord]] and officially adopted in 1930. The code was effectively ignored because many found such censorship prudish, due to the liberal social attitudes of the 1920s and early 1930s. This was an era in which the Victorian era was looked upon as being naive and backward and was constantly ridiculed as such. | + | As a result, some films in the late 1920s and early 1930s depicted or implied [[Innuendo|sexual innuendo]], romantic and sexual relationships between white and black people, mild [[profanity]], [[Recreational drug use|illegal drug use]], [[promiscuity]], [[prostitution]], [[infidelity]], [[abortion]], intense [[violence]], and [[homosexuality]]. Nefarious characters were seen to profit from their deeds, in some cases without significant repercussions. For example, gangsters in films such as ''[[The Public Enemy]]'', ''[[Little Caesar (film)|Little Caesar]]'', and ''[[Scarface (1932 film)|Scarface]]'' were seen by many as heroic rather than evil. Strong female characters were ubiquitous in such pre-Code films as ''[[Female (1933 film)|Female]]'', ''[[Baby Face (film)|Baby Face]]'', and ''[[Red-Headed Woman]]''. Along with featuring stronger female characters, movies examined female subject matters that would not be revisited until decades later in US films. |
| - | Films in the late 1920s and early 30s reflected the liberal attitudes of the day and could include [[sexual innuendo]]s, references to [[homosexuality]], [[miscegenation]], [[illegal drug]] use, and profane language (such as the word "damn") as well as women in their [[undergarments]]. Such behavior was common in the liberal climate of cities at that time, although it often shocked audiences in rural areas. | + | Many of Hollywood's biggest stars, such as [[Clark Gable]], [[Bette Davis]], [[Barbara Stanwyck]], [[Joan Blondell]], and [[Edward G. Robinson]], got their start in the era. Other stars who excelled during this period, however, like [[Ruth Chatterton]] (who decamped to England) and [[Warren William]] (the so-called "king of Pre-Code", who died in 1948), would wind up essentially forgotten by the general public within a generation. |
| - | Popular character roles include tough-talking, assertive women, [[gangsters]], and [[prostitute]]s. | + | Beginning in late 1933 and escalating throughout the first half of 1934, [[Catholic Church in the United States|American Catholics]] launched a campaign against what they deemed the immorality of American cinema. This, plus a potential government takeover of film censorship and social research seeming to indicate that movies which were seen to be immoral could promote bad behavior, was enough pressure to force the studios to capitulate to greater oversight. |
| - | Of particular note were both the references to sexual promiscuity, drug use, bloody gangster life, and morally ambiguous endings, which drew the ire from various religious groups – some [[Protestantism|Protestant]], but overwhelmingly [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]]. | ||
| - | In particular, Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, apostolic delegate to the [[Roman Catholicism in the United States|American Catholic Church]] called upon American Catholics to unite against the surging immorality of the cinema. As a result, many religious groups (overwhelmingly Roman Catholic) created their own leagues, such as the ''Catholic Legion of Decency'' (eventually renamed to the "[[National Legion of Decency]]") in 1933, premised around controlling and enforcing decency standards in theatres, and boycotting movies which they deemed offensive. Conservative Protestants tended to support much of the crackdown on "immorality", particularly in the [[Southern United States|South]], which had its own form of censorship. By 1939 "Even black bellboys were routinely cut out of films shown in the South; from the evidence of Hollywood pictures of the 1930s, one might not suspect that black people existed in America" ([https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2006/cinema-and-the-pictorial/young_mr_lincoln/]). Anything relating to the state of race relations in the South or [[miscegenation]] could never be exhibited below the [[Mason-Dixon line]]. | ||
| - | |||
| - | By 1934, theatre revenues were slumping (likely, in part, to the [[Great Depression|Depression]]) and those in the film industry were unhappy with the prospect of losing even more of their audience, particularly in heavily Catholic cities (New York, Boston, Chicago, etc). | ||
| - | |||
| - | Thus, the pre-Code era effectively came to a close with the establishment of a special bureau (eventually christened '''The Breen Office''', after Joseph Ignatius Breen, a former public relations executive), whose purpose was to review scripts and finished prints in order to ensure that they adhered to the new Code. | ||
| - | |||
| - | This effectively spelled the end of the pre-Code era, and shaped the trends in American film-making during the ensuing years. It should be mentioned that enforcement of the code popularized several new trends, such as plots about headstrong, able, employed women (like [[Jean Arthur]]). | ||
| - | |||
| - | ==Censorship== | ||
| - | Excerpt from '''The Free Expression Policy Project at the University of Virginia''': | ||
| - | |||
| - | As censors like Martin Quigley and Joe Breen understood "a private industry code, strictly enforced, is more effective than government censorship as a means of imposing religious dogma. It is secret, for one thing, operating at the pre-production stage. The audience never knows what has been trimmed, cut, revised, or never written. For another, it is uniform — not subject to hundreds of different licensing standards. Finally and most important, private censorship can be more sweeping in its demands, because it is not bound by constitutional due process or free-expression rules — in general, these apply to only the government — or by the command of church-state separation ... there is no question that American cinema today is far freer than in the heyday of the Code, when Joe Breen's blue pencil and the Legion of Decency's ever-present boycott threat combined to assure that films adhered to [[Roman Catholic]] Church doctrine" (see | ||
| - | [http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:1wufM1hmlzsJ:www.fepproject.org/commentaries/themiracle.html+Martin+Quigley+censor&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=7] from '''The Free Expression Policy Project at the University of Virginia'''). | ||
| - | |||
| - | Many fans of [[Classical Hollywood cinema]] today prefer these pre-Code films for their audacious attitude toward conventional [[morality]], and their presentation of more "mature" or risque themes generally not seen again in film until the collapse of the code system. | ||
| - | |||
| - | Many pre-Code movies suffered irreparable damage from the censorship that followed from Breen Office after 1934. When studios attempted to re-issue films from the 1920s and early 1930s, they were forced to make extensive cuts. Many of these films (e.g. ''[[Love Me Tonight]]'' 1932, ''[[Animal Crackers (film)|Animal Crackers]]'' 1930, ''Blotto'' 1930) | ||
| - | currently exist in only these censored versions. In at least one case, a film (''[[Convention City]]'' 1933) was entirely lost because the Breen office refused to budge. In other cases, the studios remade films (such as ''[[The Maltese Falcon]]'' of [[1931]] which was remade in 1941) because the Breen office refused to allow them to be shown. Pre-code films are a refreshing surprise to modern audiences who may feel that the films of the 1940s and 1950s are just too unrealistic. | ||
| - | |||
| - | The Code did not begin to weaken until the late 1940s, when the formerly taboo subjects of [[miscegenation]] and rape were allowed in ''[[Pinky (1949 film)|Pinky]]'' (1949) and ''[[Johnny Belinda]]'' (1948), respectively. By the late 1950s, increasingly explicit films began to appear, such as ''[[Anatomy of a Murder]]'' (1959), ''[[Some Like It Hot]]'' (1959), ''[[Psycho (1960 film)|Psycho]]'' (1960), and ''[[The Dark at the Top of the Stairs]]'' (1961). In the early 1960s, films began to deal with adult subjects and sexual matters that had not been seen in Hollywood films since the early 1930s. The MPAA reluctantly granted the seal of approval for these films, but not until certain cuts were made. The code was finally abandoned in 1966. | ||
| - | |||
| - | In that year, [[Warner Brothers]] wanted to release the new film ''[[Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (film)|Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?]]''. When [[Jack Valenti]] became President of the MPAA in 1966, he was faced with censoring the film's explicit language. Valenti negotiated a compromise: The word "screw" was removed, but other language remained, including the phrase "hump the hostess." The film received Production Code approval despite this prohibited language. | ||
| - | |||
| - | A few months later, [[MGM]] planned to release the [[Michaelangelo Antonioni]] movie ''[[Blowup]]'' (UK, 1966), which contained nudity and drug use. After it was denied Production Code approval, MGM released it anyway, the first instance of an MPAA member company distributing a film without an approval certificate. There was little the MPAA could do about it. Enforcement was impossible, and the Production Code was effectively dead. On [[1 November]] [[1968]], the [[MPAA film rating system]] went into effect, allowing audiences to choose the type of films they wanted to watch. | ||
| - | |||
| - | ==Popular pre-Code stars== | ||
| - | * [[Tallulah Bankhead]] | ||
| - | * [[Joan Blondell]] | ||
| - | * [[Clara Bow]] | ||
| - | * [[Evelyn Brent]] | ||
| - | * [[Virginia Bruce]] | ||
| - | * [[James Cagney]] | ||
| - | * [[Eddie Cantor]] | ||
| - | * [[Nancy Carroll]] | ||
| - | * [[Ruth Chatterton]] | ||
| - | * [[Maurice Chevalier]] | ||
| - | * [[Mae Clarke]] | ||
| - | * [[Claudette Colbert]] | ||
| - | * [[Gary Cooper]] | ||
| - | * [[Joan Crawford]] | ||
| - | * [[Bebe Daniels]] | ||
| - | * [[Bette Davis]] | ||
| - | * [[Frances Dee]] | ||
| - | * [[Dolores del Rio]] | ||
| - | * [[Marlene Dietrich]] | ||
| - | * [[Irene Dunne]] | ||
| - | * [[Ann Dvorak]] | ||
| - | * [[Douglas Fairbanks Jr.]] | ||
| - | * [[Glenda Farrell]] | ||
| - | * [[Kay Francis]] | ||
| - | * [[Clark Gable]] | ||
| - | * [[Greta Garbo]] | ||
| - | * [[Cary Grant]] | ||
| - | * [[Ann Harding]] | ||
| - | * [[Jean Harlow]] | ||
| - | * [[Miriam Hopkins]] | ||
| - | * [[Allen Jenkins]] | ||
| - | * [[Ruby Keeler]] | ||
| - | * [[Carole Lombard]] | ||
| - | * [[Myrna Loy]] | ||
| - | * [[Jeanette MacDonald]] | ||
| - | * [[Dorothy Mackaill]] | ||
| - | * [[Fredric March]] | ||
| - | * [[Una Merkel]] | ||
| - | * [[Robert Montgomery (actor)|Robert Montgomery]] | ||
| - | * [[Karen Morley]] | ||
| - | * [[Anita Page]] | ||
| - | * [[William Powell]] | ||
| - | * [[Norma Shearer]] | ||
| - | * [[Sylvia Sidney]] | ||
| - | * [[Barbara Stanwyck]] | ||
| - | * [[Lee Tracy]] | ||
| - | * [[Lupe Velez]] | ||
| - | * [[Mae West]] | ||
| - | * [[Bert Wheeler]] & [[Robert Woolsey]] | ||
| - | * [[Alice White]] | ||
| - | * [[Warren William]] | ||
| - | * [[Fay Wray]] | ||
| - | * [[Loretta Young]] | ||
| - | |||
| - | == Notable pre-Code films == | ||
| - | In chronological order. | ||
| - | *''[[The Desert Song]]'' (1929) | ||
| - | *''[[Gold Diggers of Broadway (film)|Gold Diggers of Broadway]]'' (1929) | ||
| - | *''[[Glorifying the American Girl]]'' (1929) | ||
| - | *''[[Redskin (film)|Redskin]]'' (1929) | ||
| - | *''[[Anna Christie]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[The Blue Angel (1930 movie)|The Blue Angel]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[The Bride of the Regiment (film)|The Bride of the Regiment]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[The Divorcée]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[Good News (films)|Good News]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[Hell's Angels (movie)|Hell's Angels]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[Hold Everything]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[Kismet (1930 film)|Kismet]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[The Life of the Party (1930 film)|The Life of the Party]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[Madame Satan]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[The Matrimonial Bed]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[Morocco (1930 film)|Morocco]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[The Office Wife]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[Song of the Flame]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[Song of the West]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[Son of the Gods]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[Sweet Kitty Bellairs]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[Under A Texas Moon]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[Whoopee!]]'' (1930) | ||
| - | *''[[Blonde Crazy]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[Dracula (1931 film)|Dracula]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[The Easiest Way]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[The Guardsman]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[Frankenstein]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[A Free Soul]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[Girls About Town (movie)|Girls About Town]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[Kick In]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[Ladies of the Big House]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[Little Caesar]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[The Maltese Falcon (1931 film)|The Maltese Falcon]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[Mata Hari (film)|Mata Hari]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[Night Nurse (1931 film)|Night Nurse]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[Private Lives]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[The Public Enemy]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[The Smiling Lieutenant]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[Waterloo Bridge (1931 film)|Waterloo Bridge]]'' (1931) | ||
| - | *''[[Blonde Venus]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Call Her Savage]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[The Devil is Driving]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Freaks (1932 film)|Freaks]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Grand Hotel (film)|Grand Hotel]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Hot Saturday]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Love Me Tonight]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Madame Racketeer]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[One Hour with You]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Rain (1932 movie)|Rain]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Red Dust]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Red-Headed Woman]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Scarface (1932 movie)|Scarface]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Shanghai Express (Film)|Shanghai Express]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[The Sign of the Cross (movie)|The Sign of the Cross]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Smilin' Through]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Tarzan the Ape Man]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Three on a Match]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Trouble in Paradise]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[Two Kinds of Women]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[The Mask of Fu Manchu]]'' (1932) | ||
| - | *''[[42nd Street (film)|42nd Street]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Baby Face (film)|Baby Face]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Bombshell (film)|Bombshell]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Christopher Strong]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Convention City]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Dancing Lady]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Design for Living]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Dinner at Eight (1933 movie)|Dinner at Eight]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Employee's Entrance]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Female (1933 movie)|Female]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Flying Down to Rio]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Footlight Parade]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Gold Diggers of 1933]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[I'm No Angel]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Island of Lost Souls (1933 film)|Island of Lost Souls]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[King Kong]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Ladies They Talk About]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[The Bowery (1933 film)|The Bowery]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[The Mayor of Hell]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Murders in the Zoo]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Pick-Up (movie)|Pick-Up]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Queen Christina (film)|Queen Christina]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Roman Scandals]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[She Done Him Wrong]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Sitting Pretty]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Mystery of the Wax Museum]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[The Story of Temple Drake]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Torch Singer]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Wild Boys of the Road]]'' (1933) | ||
| - | *''[[Cleopatra (1934 film)|Cleopatra]]'' (1934) | ||
| - | *''[[It Happened One Night]]'' (1934) | ||
| - | *''[[Manhattan Melodrama]]'' (1934) | ||
| - | *''[[Men in White (1934 film)|Men in White]]'' (1934) | ||
| - | *''[[Murder at the Vanities]]'' (1934) | ||
| - | *''[[Of Human Bondage (film)|Of Human Bondage]]'' (1934) | ||
| - | *''[[Riptide (film)|Riptide]]'' (1934) | ||
| - | *''[[The Scarlet Empress]]'' (1934) | ||
| - | *''[[Tarzan and His Mate]]'' (1934) | ||
| - | *''[[Viva Villa!]]'' (1934) | ||
| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
| * [[List of Pre-Code films]] | * [[List of Pre-Code films]] | ||
Current revision
|
"In this 1931 publicity photo, Dorothy Mackaill plays a secretary-turned-prostitute in Safe in Hell, a pre-Code Warner Bros. film."--Sholem Stein |
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines (popularly known as the Hays Code) in 1934. Although the Hays Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor, and it did not become rigorously enforced until July 1, 1934, with the establishment of the Production Code Administration. Before that date, film content was restricted more by local laws, negotiations between the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) and the major studios, and popular opinion than by strict adherence to the Hays Code, which was often ignored by Hollywood filmmakers.
As a result, some films in the late 1920s and early 1930s depicted or implied sexual innuendo, romantic and sexual relationships between white and black people, mild profanity, illegal drug use, promiscuity, prostitution, infidelity, abortion, intense violence, and homosexuality. Nefarious characters were seen to profit from their deeds, in some cases without significant repercussions. For example, gangsters in films such as The Public Enemy, Little Caesar, and Scarface were seen by many as heroic rather than evil. Strong female characters were ubiquitous in such pre-Code films as Female, Baby Face, and Red-Headed Woman. Along with featuring stronger female characters, movies examined female subject matters that would not be revisited until decades later in US films.
Many of Hollywood's biggest stars, such as Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Blondell, and Edward G. Robinson, got their start in the era. Other stars who excelled during this period, however, like Ruth Chatterton (who decamped to England) and Warren William (the so-called "king of Pre-Code", who died in 1948), would wind up essentially forgotten by the general public within a generation.
Beginning in late 1933 and escalating throughout the first half of 1934, American Catholics launched a campaign against what they deemed the immorality of American cinema. This, plus a potential government takeover of film censorship and social research seeming to indicate that movies which were seen to be immoral could promote bad behavior, was enough pressure to force the studios to capitulate to greater oversight.
[edit]
See also
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Pre-Code Hollywood" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
