Pre-Code Hollywood

Pre-Code Hollywood

Did you ever wonder why you never saw anyone's navels in black and white movies? Or why the bad guy always gets it in the end and Lucy and Desi had twin beds?

It's because they had to.

It was the law. Literally.

The Hays Code aka the Production Code became enforceable in 1934. A movie had to be certified before it could be released and there was a thorough list of prohibitions. These movies predate the enforcement of the production code and are racier and more adult. The good guy doesn't always win, virtue is not innocence, and sex and navels exist. All three of these movies are pulpy fun and show some of the pre-code inhibition. I've included an excerpt of the official prohibitions on the last two pages.

The Production Codee

(published in 1930, amended June of 1934, and enforced July 1934)

General Principles

1. No picture shall be produced which 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.

2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.

3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.

Particular Applications

I--Crimes Against the Law

These shall never be presented in such a way as to throw sympathy with the crime as against law and justice or to inspire others with a desire for imitation.

1. Murder

a. The technique of murder must be presented in a way that will not inspire imitation.

b. Brutal killings are not to be presented in detail.

c. Revenge in modern times shall not be justified.

2. Methods of Crime should not be explicitly presented.

a. Theft, robbery, safe-cracking, and dynamiting of trains, mines, buildings, etc., should not be

detailed in method.

b. Arson must be subject to the same safeguards.

c. The use of firearms should be restricted to essentials.

d. Methods of smuggling should not be presented.

3. Illegal drug traffic must never be presented.

4. The use of liquor in American life, when not required by the plot or for proper characterization will not be

shown.

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.

1. Adultery, sometimes necessary plot material, must not be explicitly treated, or justified, or presented attractively.

2. Scenes of Passion

a. They should not be introduced when not essential to the plot.

b. Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, are not to be shown.

c. In general passion should so be treated that these scenes do not stimulate the lower and baser element.

3. Seduction or Rape

a. They should never be more than suggested and only when essential for the plot, and even then never