The Cinema: past, present & future....

[bartermania]

The Production Code of the Motion Picture Industry (1930-1968)
Movies from 1930 to 1968 were governed by a Production Code. This web site reproduces the Production Code (use the link available shortly) and gives examples of where the Code prevented proposed stories and scenes from reaching American cinemas. Scenes that violated, challenged or stretched the limits of the Code are described. (The dates above, 1930 to 1968, may be misleading because from 1930 to mid-1934, numerous movies were released without penalty or remedial action even though the movies did not conform to the requirements of the Production Code. Those wanting examples will find many within the linked new window.)


The Production Code came into being because the owners of the major Hollywood movie studios sought to stave off the threat of a national government-run censorship operation. They also wanted to assure concerned civic leaders throughout the United States that Hollywood would deliver only wholesome movies and thus that there was no further editing to be done by the state and local censorship boards that had sprung up during the decade preceding the Code.
The Studio Relations Committee was organized, in 1930, by the already-extant organization the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) and given the responsible for the administration of industry self-censorship. The Studio Relations Committee was reconstituted as the Production Code Administration in 1934, after which it was more effective.

(Prior to 1930, the MPPDA had circulated a list of 36 subjects called the “Don’ts and Be Carefuls” (1927). The MPPDA had formed in 1922 to reassure America that Hollywood did not condone immorality in the wake of lifestyle scandals then in newspaper headlines.)

The Production Code was adopted March 31, 1930, although it would be modified over the years. (Examples are cited elsewhere within this web site.)

Link: http://prodcode.dhwritings.com/

ps. I believe I will be studying this topic and commenting on it, in the coming days and weeks. 1933 to 1934 is, for the most part, my favorite movie period (US anyway)...this often includes a year or two on either side of '33-'34. And I don't think it's just a coincidence that the code went into effect at the same time the US was in a deep depression and had just been bankrupted by the Fed. Bank.