1. COM/ENG 315 History of the Motion Picture Week 6.1 9/27

2. Outline Hollywood: Triumph of the Studio System Regulation of content and the Production Code HWK: watch Bicycle Thief

3. I. Hollywood: Triumph of Studio System 1930 - 8 studios account for – 75% of films released in US and – 90% of Box Office revenues The Big Five (vertically integrated) Paramount, MGM, 20th Century-Fox, Warner Bros, RKO The Little Three (did not own theater chains) Universal, Columbia, United Artists Which studios got hit hardest by the Great Depression (1929-1939) and why?

4. Features of the Studio System A-Movie B-movie distinctions Monopoly practices – Blind booking – Block booking – run zone clearance Organized labor (division and specialization) Central producers>unit producer system Regulation of Content

5. Regulation of content and the Production Code Antecedents to film censorship Moralists and reformers fought against the corrupting influence of film on youth Mutual v. Ohio, 1915 (Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio) MPPDA/The Hays Office (the voluntary period) Hollywood Scandals in the 1920s Hollywood film and the “New Morality”

6. 1922-1934 MPPDA/The Hays Office (the voluntary period) Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA) March 1922  A self-regulatory trade organization  Will Hays as head (dubbed the Hays Office)  A public relations and lobbying firm  rarely censored films  authored 1927 Motion Picture Production Code  Not enforced!

7. Hollywood Scandals Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle (1887-1933) Sept. 1921, “Fatty” Arbuckle charged with the rape and murder of actress Virginia Rappe; he's permanently barred from the industry.

8. Hollywood scandals -February 1922, director William Desmond Taylor found murdered; -actresses Mary Miles Minter and Mabel Dormand accused, their careers destroyed.

9. Hollywood scandals January 1923, actor Wallace Reid dies of heroin overdose

10. Hollywood films and the new morality Features of late era silent films: – Extramarital sex – Hedonism – Lurid spectacle

11. Films of Cecil B. Demille

12. The Production Code of 1934 1933 Catholic “Legion of Decency” and a nationwide boycott 1934 Production Code Administration (PCA)  Headed by prominent Catholic, Joseph Breen

13. The Production Code of 1934 A wide range of prohibited subjects on film: – Scenes of passion, profanity, nudity, excessive drinking, depiction of crime and the law defeated, excessive violence, narcotics, gambling…  Production Code in effect for 20 years!

14. Process of PCA Certification 1. A preliminary conference with Breen, with basic story and plot discussed 2. Careful scrutiny of the script 3. Conference with writers to make changes where necessary 4. Approval of script by Breen to go into production 5. Continued conferences during production 6. Previews of sequences during production 7. Preview of the completed picture 8. Certificate of approval granted to picture, after requested changes are made

15. The Enforcement of the Production Code

16. Enforcement of PCA In 1942 The Outlaw was initially denied a certification...

17. Social implications... Baby Face (Green, 1933)

18. The Enforcement of the Production Code Implications... – Conceals social problems that involve sexual crimes (i ncest, pedophilia, sexual harassment, sexual violence, rape) – Prevents critiques of authority and corruption – Conceals seduction and sin – Infantilism of public – Masks reality – sophisticated comedy > screwball comedy

19. Film Censorship Post WWII Film Noir – Morally ambiguous – Structurally complex – Sexually bold Pushed conventions – allusive system of representation “From which conclusions might be drawn from the sophisticated mind...but would mean nothing to the inexperienced” (Balio, p. 40).

20. Film Censorship Post WWII 1952 Supreme Court Case Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U.S. 495 (1952) (also referred to as the " Miracle Decision"), was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court – Films covered by First Amendment Guarantee of Free Speech – MPAA has problems enforcing the code – Hays Office power to dictate content begins to erode... why? – 1966 MPAA stops issuing certificates all together