Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies (Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communication) [Paperback]

Gregory D. Black (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0521565928 | ISBN-13: 978-0521565929

In response to a series of sex scandals that rocked the movie industry in the early 1920s, the Production Code Administration and the Catholic Legion of Decency implemented a code stipulating that movies stress proper behavior, respect for government, and "Christian values." Based on an extensive survey of original studio records, censorship files, and the Catholic Legion of Decency archives (whose contents are published here for the first time), Hollywood Censored examines how hundreds of films were expurgated to promote a conservative political agenda during the 1930s. By taking an innovative view of how movies were made, and the conditions that made them, Hollywood Censored brings together such chapters as "Movies and Modern Literature," "Beer, Blood and Politics," and "Film Politics and Industry Policy" to form a rare look at America's most famous industry.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Several books about that phase of movie censorship dealing with the Motion Picture Production Code and the Catholic Legion of Decency have been published recently. Hollywood Censored can be counted among the better ones because it is extensively researched and maintains a nice balance between the serious, the ironic and the amusing aspects. Also, it publishes a lot of previous buried material from the Legion archives." George Turner, American Cinematographer

"His mastery of the voluminious primary sources ensures a thorough description with no significant gaps." James M. Skinner, American Historical Review

Book Description

Based on an extensive survey of original studio records, censorship files, and the Catholic Legion of Decency archives, this analysis examines how hundreds of films were expurgated to promote a conservative political agenda during the 1930s.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 26, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521565928
• ISBN-13: 978-0521565929
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #840,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An eye-opening look at America's first culture war, March 4, 2005

By 

M. Bromberg "BellemeadeBooks" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies (Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communication) (Paperback)

The early motion picture industry didn't just entertain audiences, it enticed them into movie palaces with spectacle, sex, and (increasingly) lurid tales of sin and seduction. This combination proved so successful that, by the early 1930s, a conservative religious movement emerged with an aim to "clean up" Hollywood's excesses, led by the Catholic Church but supported by preachers, ministers, and spiritual spokesmen nationwide. The Catholic Church's League of Decency became the first cultural crusade against what was perceived as a threat to the national character. Wielding an authority of equal parts religion and politics, the League saw to it that movies were banned outright, content was snipped and clipped, and production scripts were combed over for hints of immorality. Classic novels were re-written for the screen to pass the scrutiny of the hastily-created, reactionary Hays Office. Is this a good thing? There was a backlash among Hollywood writers; Black's recounting of William Faulkner creating the story of "Sanctuary" in three weeks ("the most horrific tale" Faukner could imagine, Black writes, "a morbid tale of rape, murder, sexual impotence and perversion") certainly seems like an outright challenge to the Paramount studio writers and censors, and the rewritten, completed film ("The Story of Temple Drake") turns the story inside out for a relatively less-scandalous ending.

Over the course of years, the Legion of Decency and the Hays Office's Production Code (which functioned as a presumptive industry watchdog) ensured that onscreen crime would not pay and immorality would be punished. Realism in Hollywood films got bleached out, but as the book makes clear the industry preferered to deal with religious moralists, and to police themselves with a nebulous code, rather than face government interference. In that regard America hasn't come very far, as the religious right's contemporary battles over entertainment and the morality of content in movies, TV, and the internet make clear. Recommended.

10 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Romanism and culture: A "B" Movie, December 29, 1999

By 

M KIRK-DUGGAN "Reverse Mike" (El Cerrito Fellowship, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies (Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communication) (Paperback)

What enabled one viciously anti-semetic Catholic, Joe Breen, to control an entire industry? This delightful scholarly tome gives a partial answer: the industry wanted to have its product go to the largest possible audience, despite local and national boards of censors. By censoring themselves, they obtained a pugnacious Irish Catholic who could browbeat bishops, state legislators, and others. The only price was to meet this one person's private moral code: to make movies that would not offend 12 year old girls in convent schools. This history of the Production Code Authority, and how it was exercised is par excellence. What gave Breen his power was a confluence of Catholic bankers, vertical integration from studio through distributor to exhibitor, coupled with mandatory booking at the exhibition level. The weakness for the studios was Catholic threats of boycotts at the midwestern exhibitor level where the studios were weakest. This book should be coupled with the author's "Catholic Crusade Against the Movies" and the pictoral "Sin in Soft Focus." An interesting footnote is the KKK response to the Roman Catholic Legion of Decency. Does the revival of Catholic horror of blasphemy, in the so-called Catholic League of the 1990s pose a similar threat? Probably not, since the Fr. Lord's Legion of Decency was focused on Jewish studio heads, and the Catholic League objects to Catholic movie makers and Catholic television writers. The PCA did more than condemn the use of angora sweaters in the finished movies, it forbade any movie that was social in comment or controversial in its politics. Somehow it even managed to offend William Randolph Hearst, a honor usually reserved to Orson Wells and "Rosebud."

0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars received promptly and in a very good condition, June 25, 2009

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B. Yadav (Washingon DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies (Cambridge Studies in the History of Mass Communication) (Paperback)

the item I received was in a very good condition, just like a new one.