Pre-1960s

Pre-Code films were created before the Motion Picture Production Code or Hays Code was put into effect in mid-1934. Although an existing code of conduct for the film industry came into being in 1930, many ignored it and was not enforced very enthusiastically. more...

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The original code was written by a Jesuit priest, Father Daniel A. Lord, and officially adopted in 1930, but was effectively ignored because few in Hollywood saw any reason to adhere to it.

Consequently as the presence of sound in motion pictures rose, so grew the insertion to somewhat risque subjects; films in the early 1930s are very risque for the decade and could include sexual innuendos, references to homosexuality and illegal drug use, as well as women in their undergarments – which all were quite taboo at the time.

Popular character roles include tough-talking, assertive women, gangsters, and prostitutes.

Of particular note were both the references to sexual promiscuity, drug use, bloody gangster life, and morally ambiguous endings, which drew the ire from various religious groups – some Protestant, but overwhelmingly Roman Catholic.

In particular, Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, apostolic delegate to the American Catholic Church called upon American Catholics to unite against the surging immorality the cinema. As a result, many religious groups (overwhelmingly Roman Catholic) created their own leagues, such as the Catholic Legion of Decency (eventually renamed to the "National Legion of Decency") in 1933, premised around controlling and enforcing decency standards in theatres, and boycotting movies which they deemed offensive. Conservative Protestants tended to support much of the crackdown on "immorality", particularly in the South, which had its own form of censorship. By 1939 "Even black bellboys were routinely cut out of films shown in the South; from the evidence of Hollywood pictures of the 1930s, one might not suspect that black people existed in America" (). Needless to say anything relating to the true state of race relations in the South or miscegenation could never hope to see the light of day below the Mason-Dixon line.

By 1934, theatre revenues were slumping (likely, in part, to the Depression) and those in the film industry were unhappy with the prospect of losing even more of their audience, particularly in heavily Catholic cities (New York, Boston, Chicago, etc).

Thus, the pre-Code era effectively came to a close with the establishment of a special bureau (eventually christened The Breen Office, after Joseph Ignatius Breen, a former public relations executive), whose purpose was to review scripts and finished prints in order to ensure that they adhered to the new Code.

This effectively spelled the end of the pre-Code era, and dramatically shaped the trends in American film-making during the ensuing years. It should be mentioned that enforcement of the code popularized several new trends, such as Biblical epics (frequently directed by Cecil B. DeMille) and plots directed around headstrong, able, employed women (like Jean Arthur).

Read more at Wikipedia.org