COM/ENG 315 History of the Motion Picture

Week 6.1

9/27

Outline

Hollywood: Triumph of the Studio System Regulation of content and the Production

Code HWK: watch Bicycle Thief

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?

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

Regulation of content and the Production CodeAntecedents 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”

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!

Hollywood Scandals

Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle (1887-1933)

Sept. 1921, “Fatty” Arbuckle charged with the rape and murder ofactress Virginia Rappe; he's permanently barred from the industry.

Hollywood scandals -February 1922, directorWilliam Desmond Taylorfound murdered;-actresses Mary Miles Minterand Mabel Dormandaccused, their careersdestroyed.

Hollywood scandals

January 1923, actor Wallace Reid dies of heroin overdose

Hollywood films and the new morality

Features of late era silent films:

– Extramarital sex

– Hedonism

– Lurid spectacle

Films of Cecil B. Demille

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

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!

Process of PCA Certification

1. A preliminary conference with Breen, with basic story and plot discussed

2. Careful scrutiny of the script3. Conference with writers to make changes where

necessary4. Approval of script by Breen to go into production5. Continued conferences during production6. Previews of sequences during production7. Preview of the completed picture8. Certificate of approval granted to picture, after

requested changes are made

The Enforcement of the Production Code

Enforcement of PCA

In 1942 The Outlaw was initially denied a certification . . .

Social implications . . .

Baby Face (Green, 1933)

The Enforcement of the Production CodeImplications . . .

– Conceals social problems that involve sexual crimes (incest, 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

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).

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