Welcome to Sex in Cinema Week, Consequence‘s deep dive into movies, the Hays Code, and what society labels taboo. Check back throughout the week for essays, interviews, and lists examining censorship of movie sex scenes and the creativity it inspired in filmmakers. Today, we look at an era that got away with more than you’d expect.
When Hollywood introduced the Hays Code in 1934, the film industry was still relatively young. The first feature-length film to appear in a movie theater screened in 1906; sound came to the cinematic experience in 1927 with The Jazz Singer. As with most budding enterprises, the business of making movies started as wild free-for-all — or a gold rush, with people making their way out to California hoping to hit it big before someone else beat them to it.
After a string of scandals rocked young Hollywood, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (later the MPAA and now the MPA) released the Motion Picture Production Code, often referred to as the Hays Code after the organization’s President Will H. Hays. Prior to this set of standards, filmmakers worked with a list of strong suggestions as to what content to avoid; with the introduction of the code, a set of stipulations would be formally submitted to studios.
The MPPPDA divided the list into “general principles” and “particular applications,” all of which focused on morality. Sex outside of marriage could not be depicted as “attractive or beautiful;” sex acts on screen, in general, could fall under perversion, which was forbidden as a whole. Criminal action had to be punished by the narrative. Authority figures needed to be portrayed positively, and clergy could never be made into punchlines or villains. The members of the enforcement body for the code particularly concerned themselves with young people and their susceptible minds as it became more and more clear that movies were not leaving the mainstream any time soon.
Despite the implementation and enforcement of the Hays Code, this era is still known as the Golden Age of Hollywood for a reason. Many great stories came from this time, and filmmakers developed techniques that still feel breathtaking today. When it came to themes the bigwigs and decision-makers deemed unsavory, those working in the industry had to get creative. Some story points and character beats were too important to censor.
The strength of the code began to falter in the 1950s. The first interracial kiss in film was shown in 1957, and changing social attitudes around feminism and racial equity continued to weaken its hold. In the code’s heyday, though, quite a few filmmakers stepped up to the challenge of telling their stories as thoroughly as possible. Here’s a tour through some notable examples.
