|
|
|
|
Production Code
|
| |
|
| |
The Production Code (popularly known as the Hays Code or the Breen Office) was the set of industry censorship guidelines, and the office enforcing them, which governed the production of United States motion pictures from 1930 to 1968. The Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA), which later became the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), adopted the code in 1930, began effectively enforcing it in 1934, and abandoned it in 1968 in favor of the subsequent MPAA film rating system.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Production Code' Start a new discussion about 'Production Code' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
The Production Code (popularly known as the Hays Code or the Breen Office) was the set of industry censorship guidelines, and the office enforcing them, which governed the production of United States motion pictures from 1930 to 1968. The Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA), which later became the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), adopted the code in 1930, began effectively enforcing it in 1934, and abandoned it in 1968 in favor of the subsequent MPAA film rating system. The Production Code spelled out what was morally acceptable and morally unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States.
Provisions of the Code
The Production Code enumerated three "General Principles" as follows:
- No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.
- Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.
- Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.
Specific restrictions were spelled out as "Particular Applications" of these principles:
- nakedness and suggestive dances were prohibited.
- The ridicule of religion was forbidden, and ministers of religion were not to be represented as comic characters or villains.
- The depiction of illegal drug use was forbidden, as well as the use of liquor, "when not required by the plot or for proper characterization."
- Methods of crime (e.g. safe-cracking, arson, smuggling) were not to be explicitly presented.
- References to alleged sex perversion (such as homosexuality) and venereal disease were forbidden, as were depictions of childbirth.
- The language section banned various words and phrases that were considered to be offensive.
- Murder scenes had to be filmed in a way that would discourage imitations in real life, and brutal killings could not be shown in detail. "Revenge in modern times" was not to be justified.
- The sanctity of marriage and the home had to be upheld. "Pictures shall not imply that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing." Adultery and illicit sex, although recognized as sometimes necessary to the plot, could not be explicit or justified and were not supposed to be presented as an attractive option.
- Portrayals of miscegenation were forbidden.
- "Scenes of Passion" were not to be introduced when not essential to the plot. "Excessive and lustful kissing" was to be avoided, along with any other treatment that might "stimulate the lower and baser element."
- The flag of the United States was to be treated respectfully, and the people and history of other nations were to be presented "fairly."
- The treatment of "Vulgarity," defined as "low, disgusting, unpleasant, though not necessarily evil, subjects" must be "subject to the dictates of good taste." Capital punishment, "third-degree methods," cruelty to children and animals, prostitution and surgical operations were to be handled with similar sensitivity.
History
Before the Production Code
City and state censorship ordinances are as old as the movies themselves. However, after the United States Supreme Court ruled in 1915 (Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio) that motion pictures were merely a business and not an art form, and thus not covered by the First Amendment, such ordinances banning the public exhibition of "immoral" films proliferated. The movie studios feared that federal regulations were not far off.
In the early 1920s, three major scandals rocked Hollywood: the manslaughter trials of comedy star Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, who was charged with being responsible for the death of actress Virginia Rappe at a wild party in San Francisco during Labor Day weekend of 1921; the murder of director William Desmond Taylor in February 1922 and the revelations regarding his bisexuality; and the drug-related death of popular actor Wallace Reid in January 1923.
Other allegedly drug-related deaths of stars Olive Thomas, Barbara La Marr, Jeanne Eagels, and Alma Rubens resulted in persistent calls for censorship and "cleaning up" of Hollywood all through the '20s. These stories were sensationalized in the press and grabbed headlines across the country. They appeared to confirm a widespread perception that many Americans had of Hollywood — that it was "Sin City".
Public outcry over perceived immorality in Hollywood and the movies, as well as the growing number of city and state censorship boards, led to the creation in 1922 of the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (which became the Motion Picture Association of America in 1945), an industry trade and lobby organization. The association was headed by Will H. Hays, a well-connected Republican lawyer who had previously been United States Postmaster General and the 1920 campaign manager for President Warren G. Harding. Hays immediately banned Fatty Arbuckle from the movies and instituted a morality clause to apply to anyone working in films. He also derailed attempts to institute federal censorship over the movies.
In 1927 Hays compiled a list of subjects, culled from his experience with the various U.S. censorship boards, which he felt Hollywood studios would be wise to avoid. He called this list "the formula" but it was popularly known as the "don'ts and be carefuls" list around town. In 1930 Hays created the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) to implement his censorship code, but the SRC lacked any real enforcement capability.
1930 to 1934: The start of the Hays Code
The advent of talking pictures in 1927 led to a perceived need for further enforcement. Martin J. Quigley, the publisher of a Chicago-based motion picture trade newspaper, began lobbying for a more extensive code that not only listed material that was inappropriate for the movies, but also contained a moral system that the movies could help to promote - specifically a system based on Catholic theology. He recruited Father Daniel Lord, a Jesuit priest and instructor at the Catholic St. Louis University, to write such a code and on March 31, 1930 the board of directors of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association adopted it formally. It has become known to posterity as the Hays Code.
However, Depression economics and changing social mores resulted in the studios producing racier fare that the Code, lacking an aggressive enforcement body, was unable to redress. This era of Hollywood filmmaking is therefore known as the "pre-Code era".
Enforcement
In response to such movies as Warner Brothers' Baby Face (starring Barbara Stanwyck) and Paramount Pictures' I'm No Angel (starring and written by Mae West), Quigley and Joseph I. Breen, Will Hays's Los Angeles–based assistant, enlisted the Catholic Church to exert pressure on the Hollywood studios. They helped spearhead the creation of the Catholic Legion of Decency as well as boycotts and blacklists of the movies throughout the country.
An amendment to the Code, adopted on June 13 1934, established the Production Code Administration (PCA), and required all films released on or after July 1 to obtain a certificate of approval before being released. The first film to receive an MPPDA seal of approval was The World Moves On. For more than thirty years following, virtually all motion pictures produced in the United States adhered to the code. The Production Code was not created or enforced by federal, state, or city government. In fact, the Hollywood studios adopted the code in large part in the hopes of avoiding government censorship, preferring self-regulation to government regulation.
The enforcement of the Production Code led to the dissolution of many local censorship boards. Meanwhile, the U.S. Customs Department prohibited the importation of the Czech film Ecstasy (1933), starring an actress soon to be known as Hedy Lamarr, an action which was upheld on appeal.
In 1934, Joseph I. Breen (1888-1965) was appointed head of the new Production Code Administration (PCA). Under Breen's leadership of the PCA, which lasted until his retirement in 1954, enforcement of the Production Code became rigid and notorious. Breen's power to change scripts and scenes angered many writers, directors, and Hollywood moguls.
The first major instance of censorship under the Production Code involved the 1934 film Tarzan and His Mate, in which brief nude scenes involving a body double for actress Maureen O'Sullivan were edited out of the master negative of the film. Another famous case of enforcement involved the 1943 western The Outlaw, produced by Howard Hughes. The Outlaw was denied a certificate of approval and kept out of theaters for years because the film's advertising focused particular attention on Jane Russell's breasts. Hughes eventually persuaded Breen that the breasts did not violate the code and the film could be shown.
Some films produced outside the mainstream studio system during this time did flout the conventions of the code, such as Child Bride (1938), which featured a nude scene involving 12-year-old actress Shirley Mills. Even cartoon sex symbol Betty Boop had to change from being a flapper, and began to wear an old-fashioned housewife skirt.
The 1950s and early 1960s
Hollywood worked within the confines of the Production Code until the late 1950s, by which time the "Golden Age of Hollywood" had ended, and the movies were faced with very serious competitive threats. The first threat came from a new technology, television, which did not require Americans to leave their house to watch moving pictures. Hollywood needed to offer the public something it could not get on television, which itself was under an even more restrictive censorship code.
In addition to the threat of television, there was also increasing competition from foreign films, like Vittorio de Sica's Bicycle Thieves (1948), the Swedish film Hon dansade en sommar (English title: One Summer of Happiness) (1951), and Ingmar Bergman's Sommar med Monika (Summer with Monika) (1953). For De Sica's film, there was a censorship controversy when the MPAA demanded a scene where the lead characters talk to the prostitutes of a brothel be removed, regardless of the fact that there is no sexual or provocative activity. The Swedish films were the first to include nude love scenes, and made an international sensation.
Vertical integration in the movie industry had been found to violate anti-trust laws, and studios had been forced to give up ownership of theatres by the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. (1948). The studios had no way to keep foreign films out, and foreign films weren't bound by the Production Code. The anti-trust rulings also helped pave the way for independent art houses that would show films created by people such as Andy Warhol and others working outside the studio system.
Finally, a boycott from the Legion of Decency no longer guaranteed a commercial failure, and thus the Code prohibitions began to vanish when Hollywood producers ignored the Code and were still able to earn profits.
The MPAA revised the code in 1951, not to make it more flexible, but to make it more rigid. The 1951 revisions spelled out more words and subjects that were prohibited, and no doubt increased the opposition of movie-makers to the code.
In 1952, in the case of Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overruled its 1915 decision and held that motion pictures were entitled to First Amendment protection, so that the New York State Board of Regents could not ban "The Miracle", a short film that was part of L'Amore (1948), an anthology film directed by Roberto Rossellini. Film distributor Joseph Burstyn released the film in the U.S. in 1950, and the case became known as the "Miracle Decision" due to its connection to Rossellini's film. That in turn reduced the threat of government regulation that justified the Production Code, and the PCA's powers over the Hollywood industry were greatly reduced.
At the forefront of challenges to the code was director Otto Preminger, whose films violated the code repeatedly in the 1950s. His 1953 film The Moon is Blue, about a young woman who tries to play two suitors off against each other by claiming that she plans to keep her virginity until marriage, was the first film to use the words "virgin", "seduce" and "mistress", and it was released without a certificate of approval. He later made The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), which portrayed the prohibited subject of drug abuse, and Anatomy of a Murder (1959) which dealt with rape. Preminger's films were direct assaults on the authority of the Production Code and, since they were successful, hastened its abandonment.
In 1954, Joseph Breen retired and Geoffrey Shurlock was appointed as his successor. Variety noted "a decided tendency towards a broader, more casual approach" in the enforcement of the code.
Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959) and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) were also released without a certificate of approval due to their themes and became box office hits, and as a result further weakened the authority of the code.
The end of the Code
In the early 1960s, British films such as Victim (1961), A Taste of Honey (1961), and The Leather Boys (1963) offered a daring social commentary about gender roles and homophobia that violated the Hollywood Production Code, yet the films were still released in America. The American gay rights, civil rights, and youth movements prompted a reevaluation of the depiction of themes of race, class, gender, and sexuality that had been restricted by the Code.
When Jack Valenti became President of the MPAA in 1966, he was immediately faced with a problem regarding language in the film version of Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Valenti negotiated a compromise: The word "screw" was removed, but other language, including the phrase "hump the hostess," remained. The film received Production Code approval despite having language that was clearly prohibited.
The British-produced, but American financed film Blowup (1966) presented a different problem. After the film was denied Production Code approval, MGM released it anyway, the first instance of an MPAA member company distributing a film that didn't have an approval certificate. There was little the MPAA could do about it.
Enforcement had become impossible, and the Production Code was abandoned entirely. The MPAA began working on a rating system, under which there would be virtually no restriction on what could be in a film. The MPAA film rating system went into effect on November 1, 1968 with four ratings: G, M, R, and X. In 1969, the Swedish film I Am Curious (Yellow) directed by Vilgot Sjöman, was initially banned in the U.S. for its frank depiction of sexuality; however this was overturned by the Supreme Court.
The M rating was changed to GP in 1970 and to the current PG in 1972. In 1984, in response to public complaints regarding the severity of horror elements in PG-rated titles such as Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the PG-13 rating was created as a middle tier between PG and R. In 1990, the X rating was replaced by NC-17, in part because the X rating was not trademarked by the MPAA whereas porno bookstores and theatres were using their own trademark X and XXX symbols to market their products.
Coded Films
The Children's Hour - 1961
In the Film The Children's Hour there is quite obviously a lesbian character. The two main character's played by Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine, are accused by a vindictive child of being lovers and having had "sinful sexual knowledge of one another." Though falsely accused in the beginning of the film, by the end Shirley MacLaine's character Martha Dobie confesses to loving Audrey Hepburn. She cries out, "I'm guilty!" and tells Hepburn, "I feel so damn sick and dirty." This is how the film makers were able to get around the production codes for the films. Yes, there was a lesbian in the film, but it was ok because she was so disgusted with herself and she recognized her own guilt. The film also portrays Hepburn character, Karen, as a straight woman in a heterosexual relationship. There is no real indication that Karen is a lesbian, which only furthers the depressing tale of Martha Dobie. Martha loved a woman who was about to get married to a man and leave her. She felt so much self loathing and guilt that she took her own life. When Martha tells Karen that she loves her, she says, "You're afraid to hear it, but I'm more afraid than you." This goes to show that, though it was bad to associate with condemned people, it was even worse to be one. Martha was terrified to face the world knowing what she was. She thought she'd ruined Karen's life and that was worse than ruining her own. So, it was acceptable for a film to have a lesbian, as long as her story ended terribly and did not promote the lifestyle.
Advise and Consent - 1962
This film can be interpreted many different ways. There is no clear protagonist or antagonist. But if you look at it from the perspective of Don Murray's character Brig Anderson, it is a sad tale. Brig Anderson is a senator from Utah, a Mormon in the original book Advise and Consent, with a dark dark secret. Brig opposes the president's nomination of Robert Leffingwell for the state secretary when it's discovered Leffingwell "flirted with communism" in his youth. Brig sees it as his personal duty to see that Leffingwell does not make it into office. But Leffingwell's main advocator, Fred Van Ackerman will not stand for Brig's defiance. Van Ackerman begins making threatening phone calls to the Anderson residence claiming he knows something about Brig's past and that they know about Ray. Brig's wife, Ellen, confronts him about this, asking if there is another woman in his life. She tells him, "I know I'm not what a wife should be. I know we haven't had an exciting marriage." Brig cannot comfort her though, and we see the first subtle indication that Brig Anderson may in fact be a homosexual. His marriage isn't working and his wife is unhappy. She suspects that Brig is getting blackmailed through another woman. He never says there isn't someone else, but the viewer can see how uncomfortable Brig is with the situation. After the scene with his wife, he bolts from the house and goes straight to New York to find the mysterious Ray.
The most fascinating scene of the movie takes place in New York. After Brig meets with Manuel, a man living in a strange shady apartment filled with cats and feminine decorations, he goes to Club 602. This is the first gay club to appear in film. The club is playing Frank Sinatra's Heart of Hearts. It is a tiny dimly lit basement with no women in sight. Here we meet Ray. Brig, who runs out of the club looking disgusted, is dry heaving outside when Ray approaches him and starts yelling about how Brig wouldn't take his calls and he just needed money. Brig can't even bring himself to say anything. He hails a taxi, gets in and shoves Ray into a dirty puddle. This would have been the only acceptable ending for a character like Ray. Otherwise perfectly happy, Ray was obviously homosexual and enjoying the homosexual life. So clearly the film makers had to ruin his image somehow, and what better what to do it then to shove the poor guy into a puddle of filth on the side of the road. Brig, however, flees back to his office in Washington, gets a real purposeful look in his eyes and aptly commits suicide. Brig was so utterly disgusted with the memory of being with a man, he had to take his own life to stop the rumors from hurting him or his family. But, this could potentially be seen as heroic. With Brig dead, the blackmailers would stop and end the threatening calls. So the filmmakers made sure that Van Ackerman, still hard at work blackmailing, sends a copy of a photograph with Ray and Brig and the last letter between them to Brig's wife. In the letter Brig tells Ray not to write him again. He blames "what happened between us (Brig and Ray)" on the war and Brig's exhaustion and loneliness. Brig claimed to have a normal life with his wife and that he hoped to forget Ray. Ellen Anderson had completely devoted herself to Brig, but now she had to find out that Brig was a liar and a deviant. The memory of her husband was forever ruined with that letter.
Up until this point in the movie, the homosexual has not had one win. But, in the last scene we find out that the president died and ultimately, his nomination of Leffingwell died with him. That meant that Brig's ultimate goal of stopping the communist Leffingwell from getting into office was achieved. There is one small win for the homosexual.
Rebecca - 1940
Rebecca (1940 film) is an especially fascinating movie. A case can be made for two lesbian characters. The first and more obvious would be Ms. Danverse, the head maid of Manderley played by Judith Anderson. In the movie, Ms. Danverse is made to be rather obviously obsessed with Rebecca, the first wife of Maxim De Winter. In a conversation with the second Mrs. De Winter, Maxim's sister tells us that Ms. Danverse "simply adored Rebecca." And the second Mrs. De Winter herself says she's "never met anyone quite like her (Mrs. Danverse) before." Hitchcock, the director, seemed to make a conscious decision to have Ms. Danverse as unsettling and creepy as possible, the only acceptable form lesbians could take on screen. Ms. Danverse gives the second Mrs. De Winter a tour of Rebecca's room in one scene and we see just how obsessed Danverse is. She keeps everything in Rebecca's room just the way it was when she died, as if she expects her to return any minute. In fact, everything in the house that used to be Rebecca's is left exactly the same thanks to Mrs. Danverse. But the scene in Rebecca's room is especially unsettling. She says, "Everything is kept just as Mrs. De Winter liked it. Nothing has been altered since that last night." Danverse shows the second Mrs. De Winter Rebecca's furs, rubbing the sleeve against both of their faces. Danverse leans against her dresser telling the audience, "I always used to wait up for her no matter how late...everyone loved her." Danverse continues to show the second Mrs. De Winter the nightgown Rebecca would wear. She sticks her hand in it and says, "Look. You can see my hand through it." An obviously disturbed Mrs. De Winter exits the room quickly.
The object of Ms. Danverse's obsession Rebecca could very well have been a lesbian as well. Rebecca never makes an appearance on screen, not even in a flashback, so it's easier to depict her as a deviant. Maxim, Rebecca's husband tells Mrs. De Winter that Rebecca was incapable of love, tenderness or decency. He goes on to say she "told me about herself. Everything. Things I'll never tell a living soul." He calls Rebecca the devil. And, of all those terrible things he claims Rebecca has done, he tells the second Mrs. De Winter that Rebecca and her cousin Jack were having an affair, but there are still more terrible things. What could be more terrible than incest? Ms. Danverse gives light to this question when she has a sort of break down and tells Jack that "She had a right to amuse herself...Love was a game to her, only a game." This is brought up when Jack claims Rebecca loved him. The line could be taken to say that she thought loving men was a game. Rebecca was a unique character. She was independent. She lived exactly how she wanted to, no matter what everyone thought of her. And, as it turns out, she died exactly how she wanted. She is described in the movie as a terrible woman who did despicable things, so it only makes sense that she was a lesbian. But, to anyone who chooses to think of Rebecca as a feminist character, her story is nearly inspiring.
Both Rebecca and Ms. Danverse commit suicide in this movie. This only solidifies their stereotypical screen dipiction. Rebecca was controlling and terrible. Ms. Danverse was creepy and disturbing. Rebecca's suicide is ultimately thwarted. She set out to make Maxim kill her but he only hits her and she stumbles, falls and hits her head on something. Ms. Danverse though sets Manderley on fire and locks herself in Rebecca's room. Reminiscent of the burning of a witch, Ms. Danverse dies in the last scene of the movie surrounded by the last of Rebecca's earthly possessions.
Suddenly Last Summer - 1959
Yet another character that we never meet, Sebastian Venable's face is never shown throughout the whole film and he is only seen in flashbacks. Sebastian is dead when the film begins, but we meet his mother Violet, played by Katherine Hepburn who has surrounded herself with the memory of her son. She seems quite shaken by the event, but she has completely dedicated herself to preserving his good memory. So, when her niece Katherine started trashing Sebastian's name, Violet had Katherine committed to a mental institution. Violet hires a doctor who specializes in giving lobotomies to "hopeless" cases. Violet describes Katherine's condition as simple madness. Violet wants to stop her babblings of "hideous attacks on the moral character of my son, Sebastian." Violet will do anything to protect her son, even lobotomize her own niece to stop her from accusing him of anything.
In a fascinating monologue by Katherine, played by Elizabeth Taylor, she talks about how "blondes were next on the menu. All last summer Sebastian was famished for blondes. Fed up with the dark ones...It's the way he talked about people, as if they were items on a menu. That one's delicious looking. That one's appetizing...I think really cause he was half starved from living on pills and salads..." This could be interpreted several ways. Perhaps Sebastian was just kind of strange. Violet does tell us he was a poet. Or perhaps there was something more sinister. At the end of the movie we find out that Sebastian met his end at the hands of a bunch of cannibals. Perhaps Sebastian was a cannibal himself, thinking of everyone as items on a menu. Maybe it was more of a devious thing.
According to Violet, Sebastian was "chased" or celibate, because no one else's veiws were as pure as his own. Katherine tries to shed some light into the situation. Violet clearly blames Sebastian's death on Katherine, but we see Katherine is struggling with some hidden truth. She says, "Something had broken (in Sebastian)...the string of pearls old mothers hold their sons by." Violet cuts in and says, "Hold them from death," but Katherine corrects her, "No, from life." She continues declaring, "You fed on life. Both of you...people were objects for your pleasure." Then, Katherine makes the most important claim. "Sebastian only needed you while you were still...useful." The doctor questions her and she clarifies. "I mean young. Able to attract. He left her home because she had lost her...attraction." Katherine tries to explain, telling the doctor her and Violet were "decoys for Sebastian. He used us as bait."
This story is continued when Katherine tells a story about the day Sebastian died. They were at a public beach. Sebastian had bought Katherine a scandalous white bathing suit. We see in her flashback all the men from the fenced off beach staring at her. Sebastian drags his cousin into the water which causes her suit to turn transparent. All the men are staring at her. The doctor asks Katherine why Sebastian did that and she responds, "To attract attention...I was procuring for him. Sebastian was lonely, Doctor." Sebastian uses his attraction cousin to lure other men over from the free beach. His mother was too old and had lost her ability to attract young men, so he replaced her with his young cousin, but he met his end at the hands of crazy native cannibals, nearly driving his cousin mad. Sebastian follows a similar story line as the character of Rebecca from the film Rebecca. He is never seen on film. At first, the audience only hears how everyone who knew him loved him. Then slowly, his character is revealed as, less than appealing until we find out he was nothing but a deviant who used everyone around him. Though Sebastian does not commit suicide, he is indeed murdered, and it is a gruesome end.
Rope - 1948
It is thought that the two murderers in this film, Philip and Brandon, were supposed to be gay. The people that they are based off in real life, Leopold and Loeb, were homosexual.
The article on Rope (film) has a thourough discussion of the homosexual themes.
See also
Further reading
- Miller, Frank, Censored Hollywood; Atlanta: Turner Publishing, 1994; ISBN 1-57036-116-9
- Lewis, Jon, Hollywood v. Hard Core: How the Struggle Over Censorship Saved the Modern Film Industry; New York University Press, 2000; ISBN 0-8147-5142-3
- LaSalle, Mick, Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood; New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000; ISBN 0-312-25207-2
External links
- : Article by Nigel Watson about film censorship issues accompanied by classroom activities for students
- : Numbered list of Production Code certificates of approval
|
| |
|
|
