Pre-Code

Pre-Code films were created before the Motion Picture Production Code or Hays Code - censorship guidelines - took effect on 1 July 1934 in the United States. A previous code of conduct for the film industry, introduced in 1930, was widely ignored and not enforced very enthusiastically.

History

The original code was written by a 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 libertine social attitudes of the 1920s and early 1930s. This was a period in which the Victorian era was looked upon as being naïve and backward and was constantly ridiculed as such.

Films in the late 1920s and early 30s reflected the liberal attitudes of the day and could include sexual innuendos, references to homosexuality, miscegenation, illegal drug use, infidelity, abortion, 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.

Popular character roles include tough-talking, assertive women, gangsters, and prostitutes.

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 Protestant, but overwhelmingly Roman Catholic.

In particular, Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, apostolic delegate to the Catholic Church in the U.S. called upon American Catholics to unite against the surging immorality of the cinema. As a result, many religious groups 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 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". [ [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/06/39/young_mr_lincoln.html Senses of cinema: John Ford’s "Young Mr. Lincoln", by Tag Gallagher] ] 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, due to the 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. Enforcement of the code popularized several new trends, such as plots about headstrong, able, employed women (like Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Arthur, and Joan Crawford).

Censorship

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". [ [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 The Miracle: Film Censorship and the Entanglement of Church and State] ]

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 systemWho|date=July 2007.

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" 1930, "Mata Hari" 1931) currently exist in only these censored versions. In at least one case, a film ("Convention City" 1933) was destroyed 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) and "Johnny Belinda" (1948), respectively. By the late 1950s, increasingly explicit films began to appear, such as "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951), "From Here to Eternity" (1953), "The Night of the Hunter" (1955), "The Seven Year Itch" (1955), "Baby Doll" (1956), "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958), "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959), "Suddenly Last Summer" (1959), "Some Like It Hot" (1959), "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 1967.

In that year, Warner Brothers wanted to release the new 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

columns
col1 =
* Jean Arthur
* Fred Astaire
* Lew Ayres
* Tallulah Bankhead
* John Barrymore
* Warner Baxter
* Constance Bennett
* Joan Bennett
* Joan Blondell
* Clara Bow
* Evelyn Brent
* George Brent
* Virginia Bruce
* James Cagney
* Eddie Cantor
* Nancy Carroll
* Ruth Chatterton
* Maurice Chevalier
* Mae Clarke
* Claudette Colbert
* Gary Cooper
* Joan Crawford
col2 =
* Bing Crosby
* Bebe Daniels
* Marion Davies
* Bette Davis
* Frances Dee
* Dolores del Rio
* Marlene Dietrich
* Melvyn Douglas
* Irene Dunne
* Ann Dvorak
* Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
* Glenda Farrell
* Kay Francis
* Clark Gable
* Greta Garbo
* John Gilbert
* Cary Grant
* Ann Harding
* Jean Harlow
* Miriam Hopkins
col3 =
* Leslie Howard
* Walter Huston
* Allen Jenkins
* Al Jolson
* Ruby Keeler
* Charles Laughton
* Carole Lombard
* Myrna Loy
* Jeanette MacDonald
* Dorothy Mackaill
* David Manners
* Fredric March
* The Marx Brothers
* Una Merkel
* Robert Montgomery
* Helen Morgan
* Karen Morley
* Paul Muni
* Maureen O'Sullivan
* Anita Page
col4 =
* Mary Pickford
* Dick Powell
* William Powell
* George Raft
* Paul Robeson
* Edward G. Robinson
* Norma Shearer
* Sylvia Sidney
* Barbara Stanwyck
* Gloria Stuart
* Lee Tracy
* Spencer Tracy
* Lupe Velez
* Mae West
* Wheeler & Woolsey
* Alice White
* Johnny Weissmuller
* Warren William
* Fay Wray
* Loretta Young

Notable pre-Code films

1929

columns
col1 =
*"Alibi"
*"Applause"
*"The Broadway Melody"
*"The Cocoanuts"
*"Coquette"

col2 =
*"The Desert Song"
*"The Godless Girl"
*"Gold Diggers of Broadway"
*"Glorifying the American Girl"
*"Hallelujah!"
*"The Last of Mrs. Cheyney"

col3 =
*"The Love Parade"
*"Our Modern Maidens"
*"Redskin"
*"Rio Rita"
*"The Trial of Mary Dugan"
*"Sunny Side Up"

col4 =
*"Voice of the City"
*"The Wolf Song"

1930

columns
col1 =
*"All Quiet on the Western Front"
*"Animal Crackers"
*"Anna Christie"
*"The Blue Angel"
*"The Bride of the Regiment"
*"Children of Pleasure"
*"The Divorcee"
col2 =
*"Good News"
*"Hell's Angels"
*"Hold Everything"
*"Kismet"
*"The Life of the Party"
*"Madame Satan"
col3 =
*"The Matrimonial Bed"
*"Morocco"
*"The Office Wife"
*"Our Blushing Brides"
*"Paid"
*"Romance"
*"She Couldn't Say No"
col4 =
*"Song of the Flame"
*"Song of the West"
*"Son of the Gods"
*"Sweet Kitty Bellairs"
*"Under A Texas Moon"
*"Whoopee!"

1931

columns
col1 =
*"Bad Company"
*"Blonde Crazy"
*"Dance, Fools, Dance"
*"Dishonored"
*"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
*"Dracula"
*"The Easiest Way"
*"Private Lives"
col2 =
*"The Guardsman"
*"Five Star Final"
*"Frankenstein"
*"A Free Soul"
*"Girls About Town"
*"Goldie"
*"Kiki"
col3 =
*"Ladies of the Big House"
*"Little Caesar"
*"The Maltese Falcon"
*"Mata Hari"
*"Night Nurse"
*"Platinum Blonde"
*"Possessed"
*"Private Lives"
col4 =
*"Iron Man"
*"The Public Enemy"
*"The Secret Six"
*"The Smiling Lieutenant"
*"Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise)"
*"Waterloo Bridge"

1932

columns
col1 =
*"American Madness"
*"A Farewell to Arms"
*"As You Desire Me"
*"The Beast of the City"
*"Blonde Venus"
*"Call Her Savage"
*"The Devil is Driving"
*"Doctor X"
col2 =
*"Freaks"
*"Grand Hotel"
*"The Greeks Had a Word for Them"
*"Horse Feathers"
*"Hot Saturday"
*"I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang"
*"Love Me Tonight"
*"Madame Racketeer"
*"Night After Night"
col3 =
*"One Hour with You"
*"One Way Passage"
*"Rain"
*"Red Dust"
*"Red-Headed Woman"
*"Scarface"
*"Shanghai Express"
*"The Sign of the Cross"
*"Smilin' Through"
col4 =
*"Strange Interlude"
*"Tarzan the Ape Man"
*"Three on a Match"
*"Trouble in Paradise"
*"Two Kinds of Women"
*"The Mask of Fu Manchu"
*"The Wet Parade"

1933

columns
col1 =
*"42nd Street"
*"Ann Vickers"
*"Baby Face"
*"Bed of Roses"
*"The Bitter Tea of General Yen"
*"Bombshell"
*"The Bowery"
*"Cavalcade"
*"Christopher Strong"
*"Convention City"
*"Counsellor at Law"
*"Dancing Lady"
col2 =
*"Design for Living"
*"Dinner at Eight"
*"Duck Soup"
*"Ecstasy"
*"The Emperor Jones"
*"Employees' Entrance"
*"Ex-Lady"
*"Female"
*"Flying Down to Rio"
*"Footlight Parade"
*"Gabriel Over the White House"
*"Going Hollywood"
*"Gold Diggers of 1933"
col3 =
*"Hold Your Man"
*"Hoop-La"
*"I'm No Angel"
*"Island of Lost Souls"
*"King Kong"
*"Ladies They Talk About"
*"The Mayor of Hell"
*"Murders in the Zoo"
*"Mystery of the Wax Museum"
*"Pick-Up"
*"This Day and Age"
*"Torch Singer"
col4 =
*"Queen Christina"
*"Roman Scandals"
*"She Done Him Wrong"
*"Sitting Pretty"
*"The Song of Songs"
*"The Story of Temple Drake"
*"Wild Boys of the Road"

1934

columns
col1 =
*"Belle of the Nineties"
*"The Cat and the Fiddle"
*"Cleopatra"
*"Dames"
*"Fashions of 1934"
col2 =
*"The Gay Divorcee"
*"Hollywood Party"
*"It Happened One Night"
*"Manhattan Melodrama"
*"Men in White"
col3 =
*"The Merry Widow"
*"Murder at the Vanities"
*"Of Human Bondage"
*"Riptide"
*"The Scarlet Empress"
col4 =
*"Tarzan and His Mate"
*"Viva Villa!"
*"Wonder Bar"

References

Further reading

*cite book | author=LaSalle, Mick | title=Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood | publisher=St. Martin's Press | year=2000 | id=ISBN 0-312-25207-2
*cite book | author=LaSalle, Mick | title=Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man | publisher=Thomas Dunne Books | year=2002 | id=ISBN 0-312-28311-3
*cite book | author=Vieira, Mark A. | title=Sin in Soft Focus | location=New York | publisher=Harry N. Abrams, Inc. | year=2003 | id=ISBN 0-8109-8228-5

External links

* [http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/hays-code.html The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930]
* [http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/17/04b_warner.html Pre-Code Film from Bright Lights Film Journal]
* [http://www.filmsite.org/sexualfilms.html Sexual Classic Films, from Filmsite.org]
* [http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/collections/Profiles/pre.html Pre-Code Film at the UCLA Film & Television Archive]
* [http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=194094 "Forbidden Hollywood" Introduction] at Turner Classic Movies Online