I find this stuff fascinating; I remember learning about the Code as a teenager, in the context of Dinner At Eight where I first found out about the "one foot on the floor rule". As time has gone by, I've learned more - the challenge to actresses like Harlow, whose sexy, vampy performances were the main campaign of the censors (the story I love is of Harlow posing the famous Hurrell photo where her gown dips precariously into her cleavage; she'd showed the dress to the censor, hiking it up above her decollete; when she lay down, she took a deep breath... and down it went).
Of course, the Code era, for me, was summed up best in The Celluloid Closet; Vito Russo's thorough examination of qwhat the Code meant (and didn't mean for gay characters and gay themes really captures so much of what the restrictions did and didn't do, and what, really, they could never do, which was completely thwart communication between creative artists and a public starved for interesting ideas.
I don't know about "auteur" theory; I tend to think censorship, like anything stifling, pushes creative people to be more creative. One foot on the floor? Well, okay, we'll play up double entendres. Bad endings for bad people? Okay, we can subvert that logic by making bad endings... not so bad. Or good ones... not so good.
But I agree that what draws me back to the "classics" is the effects of money, vertical integration and studio control; censorship was an ugly stain, a conspicuous failure, and a stifling element on Hollywood... not an improvement. And I'm not sure the Breen era fascinates me quite so much as Will Hays... and the period before censorship. Though I know I need to know the rest... it's what came before, the stuff that led to the Code, and to the Breen office, that to me, is most compelling. Thanks for the review... and the think.
Self Styled Siren
· 1 year ago
Thanks so much for this thoughtful response. The Celluloid Closet was a thunderclap for me when I read it more than a decade ago, and made me look in particular at character actors in a far different way. In the Doherty book he quotes from Breen's stern warnings about "pansy" characters or connotations, so it is always interesting when I come scenes that have decidedly forbidden overtones, such as the bar in "Crossfire."
It's only in the past decade or so that so-called pre-code films have become widely available and I agree, the more I see of the era the more fascinated I become.
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· 1 month ago
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· 1 month ago
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All Comments
Of course, the Code era, for me, was summed up best in The Celluloid Closet; Vito Russo's thorough examination of qwhat the Code meant (and didn't mean for gay characters and gay themes really captures so much of what the restrictions did and didn't do, and what, really, they could never do, which was completely thwart communication between creative artists and a public starved for interesting ideas.
I don't know about "auteur" theory; I tend to think censorship, like anything stifling, pushes creative people to be more creative. One foot on the floor? Well, okay, we'll play up double entendres. Bad endings for bad people? Okay, we can subvert that logic by making bad endings... not so bad. Or good ones... not so good.
But I agree that what draws me back to the "classics" is the effects of money, vertical integration and studio control; censorship was an ugly stain, a conspicuous failure, and a stifling element on Hollywood... not an improvement. And I'm not sure the Breen era fascinates me quite so much as Will Hays... and the period before censorship. Though I know I need to know the rest... it's what came before, the stuff that led to the Code, and to the Breen office, that to me, is most compelling. Thanks for the review... and the think.
It's only in the past decade or so that so-called pre-code films have become widely available and I agree, the more I see of the era the more fascinated I become.