Hays Code

Pre Hays• By the late 1920s most states and cities had established censorship boards

as there were concerns that not all films being produced by Hollywood were suitable for the whole family.• This caused problems for film makers as there were no fixed rules and

regulations so a film might be acceptable in one city and not in another.• Hollywood developed a list of “do’s and don’ts” in 1927. T• This list was meant to avoid uneducated people seeing things happen on

screen that they might then go out and do. Books and plays were not censored because the educated people who saw and read them were considered to know better.• This list was basically ignored by producers and distributors.

The Hay’s Code• In 1930 the Motion Picture Producers Association asked a Jesuit priest

to write a set of regulations.• Between 1930 and 1934 the studios again ignored it. When films

were rejected by the Hays board the MPPA routinely overturned this on appeal.• The Catholic League of Decency (1933) persuaded Catholic audiences

to boycott theatres because of the sinful content. This had a major economic effect and the studios agreed to abide by the code.

‘Double Indemnity’ and the Hays code• When the book by James M Cain was published all the major studios

were competing for the rights to make it into a film. A letter went out from the Hays Office:• “The general tone and sordid flavour of this story makes it, in our

judgement, thoroughly unacceptable for screen presentation before mixed audiences in the theatre. I am sure you will agree that it is most important...to avoid what the code calls ‘the hardening of audiences’, especially those who are young and impressionable, to the thought and act of crime.”• All the studios withdrew straight away!

• Eight years later Paramount bought the rights as they thought it would be perfect for one of their major directors, Billy Wilder. They resubmitted it to the Hay’s Office and go the same response.• The studio move forward with the film any way and submitted a ‘film

treatment’ (the step between scene cards and a first draft of a screen play) and it was accepted with only minor changes: the portrayal of the body, a proposed gas chamber scene and the skimpiness of the towel worn in the first scene.• The fact that the two main characters kill each other helped get it

past the Hay’s code as criminals had to pay for their crimes. The novel had them commit a joint suicide but this was explicitly not allowed in the code as suicide was both a crime and a sin, so was never considered.