The Catholic Crusade Against the Movies, 1940-1975 [Paperback]

Gregory D. Black (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 13, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0521629055 | ISBN-13: 978-0521629058 | Edition: 1ST

For more than three decades the Catholic Church through its Legion of Decency controlled the content of Hollywood films. Studios submitted their films to the Legion for a rating, which varied from general approval to condemnation. Documenting the inner workings of the Legion, The Catholic Crusade Against the Movies examines how the Church acquired such control and how the changes in the movie industry and American society at large in the post-World War II era eventually conspired against that institution's power and led to its demise.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In this worthy sequel to his Hollywood Censored (1994)...Black chronicles how the Legion of Decency imposed its taste and its fear of serious issues on films worldwide." Choice

Book Description

For more than three decades the Catholic church through its Legion of Decency controlled the content of Hollywood films. Studios submitted their films to the Legion for a rating, which varied from general approval to condemnation. Documenting the inner workings of the Legion, The Catholic Crusade Against the Movies examines how the Church acquired such control and how the changes in the movie industry and American society at large in the post-World War II era eventually conspired against that institution's power and lead to its demise.

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1ST edition (January 13, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521629055
• ISBN-13: 978-0521629058
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,535,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars informative, authoritative, and easy to read, March 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Catholic Crusade Against the Movies, 1940-1975 (Paperback)

THE book to start with if you are looking for something that will cover the important facts, and key personalities in the history of American film censorship. Black writes authoritatively, as he has accomplished extensive research, has had access to actual historical documents, and is a Professor on the subject. But don't let THAT scare you away...this is by far NOT a textbook. It is an easy read. I especially liked the plot summaries of key controversial films.

13 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely., November 30, 1999

By 

M KIRK-DUGGAN "Reverse Mike" (El Cerrito Fellowship, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Catholic Crusade Against the Movies, 1940-1975 (Paperback)

A Catholic anti-semite, Joseph Breen, and a Catholic extorionist, Martin Quigley, combined forces with a racist St. Louis Jesuit, Rev. Daniel Lord,SJ, to control the entire United States Movie Industry from 1934 until 1954, via boycotts, ignorant prelate pronouncements, and studio cowardice. Gregory Black details the whole sordid story with archival evidence. Curiously, Black does not highlight the startling evidence that Lord had used the racial theories of the 1920s as a weapon against the Jewish producers of motion pictures. He also downplays the antitrust suits which abolished the vertical integration -- ownership of exhibitors by the studios-- and block booking --requiring the captive exhibitors to take all of the films that a studio produced -- that enabled the movie producers to become victims of a Catholic pressure group, the Legion of Decency. Fr. Lord created a code of conduct for the studios which would protect the "moral ideals of the race." The word "race" which was code for white supremacy in 1930, was used over and over in the Lord-Quigley Proposal for a Motion Picture Code. The code as adopted, reflected American Catholic marriage practices which prohibited miscegnation. The Legion of Decency labeled the mixing of races as part of the Communist conspiracy, in accord with the personal views of Cardinals McIntyre and Spellman; Spellman, like Sen. McCarthy, a closet homosexual. Quite simply the Catholic orgranization agreed to boycott any picture that did not have a Motion Picture Seal and any theatre that dared to show a picture that was "Condemned". The Production Administration agreed to not issue a seal if the Legion objected. Both entities condemned and prohibited foreign and independent productions which threatened the economic dominance of the six major Hollywood studios. Most grotesque was the banning by the Legion of a biography of Martin Luther because Luther's theology was morally unacceptable. Black does not emphasize the American Chruch's misleading pastoral parish level teaching during this period that civil divorce was forbidden. The correct teaching is that remarriage after a civil divorce was and is forbidden. Any picture which "condoned" divorce or miscegnation was malum prohibitum. One enjoys accurate non-polemic social history, and this volume is definitely a must for movie buffs, American Catholic History buffs, and for those political scientists interested in unchecked power. One also notes that during this period, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Soviet Russia, all employed massive censorship to protect the masses from degenerate entertainment. The Legion of Decency was not a unique phenomenon in forbidding any depiction of homosexuality and other "depravities." "[T]he history of filmmaking in Hollywood during the era of censorship []is not a matter of how a few filmmakers got away with something, but that thousands upon thousands of films were refashioned to fit into the [lay Catholic] worldview of the censors. . .What the [censors] did not want, and successfully squelched, was the overt visualization and discussion of controversial issues. . .For more than three decades the Hollywood film industry allowed religious clerics to determine what was moral and immoral, what was socially acceptable political comment and what was not." This was achieved through the "Production Code Administration [Breen]and its alter ego, the Catholic Legion of Decency [Quigley]. This reviewer horrified his fiance in 1955, when he sat when the "voluntary" pledge was offered in her parish church. "Was this man going to be the father of [her] children?" (The reviewer was responsible for 12 pregnancies and seven chilren and 23 years of Catholic sacramental marriage, despite being corrupted by viewing "The Moon is Blue.")

8 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Please ignore the Berkeley reviewer, November 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Catholic Crusade Against the Movies, 1940-1975 (Paperback)

Please ignore the anti-Catholic reviewer who thrashed all the facts to death. After all, he is from Berkeley, a breeding ground of socialism. Cardinal Spellman and Joe McCarthy never were homosexuals (this book never mentions it), nor was Breen quite the anti-Semite he is always made out to be. When will we ever see a positive book about Joe Breen, Martin Quigley, Fr. Daniel Lord? I am a devout Catholic just like they were. The reason I gave the book 3 stars because it is a good insight to those who want to read how the Legion of Decency censored Duel in the Sun, Forever Amber and A Streetcar Named Desire, and were able to get films like The Moon is Blue, The French Line and Baby Doll out of theaters. The other 2 was due to its slightly anti-Legion angle, but its not as extreme as some books (like LaSalle's Complicated Women), and Gregory Black failed to mention all the films that the Legion had condemned and then changed. Please ignore the man from Berkeley who trashed the Catholic Church to death.