"No film should lower the moral standards of those who see it." - The Hays Code (1930)
"Saltburn could've been hornier." - Allie L. (2023)
Lovers, friends, and enemies! Thank you for reading my first ever newsletter last week and a big ol’ Bugs Bunny kiss on the lips to everyone who said something nice about it to me.
As a token of my appreciation, here is a photograph of my dog, Frankenstein, and me.
Coming Up: The Public Library And You, Gay Vamps
This Week: The Hays Code!
Pre-Code Hollywood (1920’s - 1934)
The early silent films of the late 19th century and early 20th explored the same dark themes you’ll find in the 21st century; people, their lives, and what may lie beyond — devils, monsters, witches.
Naturally, that means many early films include people doing Bad Things and Horny Things; the Two Types of Things that the Catholic Church does not like — unless the sinners are punished for it.
The Catholic Church and state and federal government boards began to try to ban certain early films for sex and violence (mostly sex).
In 1915, The Mutual Film Corporation fought the Ohio board in a case against film censorship that went all the way to The Supreme Court, where it was ruled that Films Were Not Art, They Were A Business; therefore, they were not protected by the 1st Amendment Right to free speech and absolutely subject to censorship. The decision wouldn’t be reversed until 1952.
After the stock market crash of 1929, box office tickets declined (hey, that sounds familiar) and what drove people back to theaters was more sex!!! and more violence!!! Things that were shocking! And over the top!
I watched 1933’s Baby Face this week, but there are great compilations of pre-code cinema on youtube that feature the saucy, quick-witted protagonists of the time, many of which were sex workers and murderers who got happy endings.
With their newly formed Catholic Legion of Decency, Catholic churches began to station pastors outside of theaters, discouraging churchgoers to attend, as well as strengthening their communities across the country to ban films.
So, Hollywood decided that instead of bending to state and federal regulations or accepting lower ticket sales across the nation, they’d create the ethics code themselves.
The Hays Code
Named after Will H. Hays, the U.S. Postmaster General under President Harding, the code was created in 1930, but not enforced until 1934.
The code can be viewed here, but here’s an abridged version:
General Principles
No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. The sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.
These shall never be presented with sympathy towards the action or to inspire imitation (so no detail) or must be portrayed in good taste:
Murder, including brutal killings, revenge, hangings
Crime, including theft, robbery, safe-cracking, bombing, arson, illegal drug traffic, excessive drinking, third degree methods, cruelty to children or animals
Sex, including adultery, excessive passion or anything that would “stimulate the lower and baser element,” seduction or rape, bedroom scenes, sale of women
Religious ridicule, including ministers of religion as comic characters or villains
National ridicule, including disrespect of the flag, disrespect of other nations
Absolutely no:
Complete nudity, indecent exposure, indecent costumes, scenes or silhouettes of childbirth
Sex perversion (homosexuality), miscegenation, venereal disease
Obscenity, profanity, horny dancing
Betty Boop lost her garter, queer-coded characters wound up in heterosexual relationships or dead, and there was more suggestion of events than events.
Of course, there were exceptions all the time (Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn), and queerness (Hitchcock) and sex (more Hitchcock) bursting at the seams.
Filmmakers got creative. Kissing scenes could only go on for 3 seconds at a time, but that didn’t stop Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman from getting hot and heavy in Notorious.
The Weakening of the Code
After World War II, audience members including veterans were ready and willing to see more violence at the theater. Filmmakers needed to go big to compete with television and began tossing aside the rules of the code for box office successes.
Allegedly it was Billy Wilder’s 1959 sexy comedy Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe that raked in so much money, the code became obsolete. (Except for gay stuff. Not until Glee.)
In 1968, the code was officially declared dead and Hollywood moved to rating films by age appropriateness (G, PG, R).
Post-1968
Rosemary’s Baby, the novel by Ira Levin, dropped in 1967, selling 4 million copies and taking the spot as bestselling horror novel of the decade. (I’ve listened to the audiobook, read by Mia Farrow who plays Rosemary in the movie and it’s delightful! Levin was a playwright so every line of dialogue is dripping with subtext, and near identical to the film.)
It was adapted just one year later, tackling themes of sex, assault, marital rape, pregnancy, childbirth, misogyny, medical abuse, religion, and Satan, all which would’ve been heavily watered down prior to 1968. Visually, it’s no Terrifier 2, but thematically, it was a revolution.
Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976)— all religious horror! — formed a trio of post-code novels and films that terrified audiences and were used as the gold standard for at least a decade. “The Scariest Novel Since Rosemary’s Baby!” graced nearly every horror paperback in the ‘70’s.
Personally, the ‘60’s and ‘70’s are my favorite horror decades, likely thanks to the explosion of sexual, violent, and religious themes that could finally be explored for the first time in nearly 40 years in America.
Today
In last year’s Evil Dead Rise, [spoilers] there were only two surviving characters; the youngest girl and a newly pregnant woman, who decides to keep the baby, and therefore, gets to live. The struggling single mother, the neighbors, and the queer-coded teens get to die. A guy does choke to death on another guy’s eyeball though. [end] Mainstream horror may be violent as all hell, but it still sticks with a Hays Code-era sense of morality on occasion.
After I saw Saltburn in theaters, I was told TikTok was going nuts over a certain scene. To the tune of the movie’s final bop, “Murder on the Dancefloor,” teens filmed themselves slack-jawed in disbelief, in response to ‘the trauma’ of the movie.
“No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it.”
[spoilers] Perhaps it wasn’t Barry Keoghan slurping cum engaging in an unorthodox form of intimacy in the estate bathtub that “traumatized” them — I’m sure you’d find something similar in porn — as much as watching a mainstream film where the sympathy isn’t against the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil, and sin. Audiences were left with an extended scene of the villain doing a victory lap, having completely escaped punishment for his wickedness.
Some rich assholes meet bitter ends, but no one is punished because of their morals; they’re simply killed as a means to an end for our ruthless narrator. It’s not even a revenge plot, he just does that for fun and is rewarded, most handsomely. [end]
Sometimes the immoral thing in the eyes of Hollywood is slaughtering an entire family with no repercussions and sometimes it’s just being gay. I don’t know if anyone besides the Catholic Church ever really thought you could lower your morals by consuming immoral content, but it sure was a useful tool to declaw movies. And something to keep an eye on in the current age of book bans.
Nothing will convince you that your content consumption doesn’t reflect on you as a person more than taking a peak into the Saw fandom. No one’s making reverse bear traps over there, but they sure are writing a lot of cozy gay fanfiction in that grimy bathroom. Jigsaw bless.
That’s it for this week! Next week, I’m giving out an early holiday present: my guide on how to watch good shit for free and cheap.
Also, [redacted] chided me for the length of my favorites list, so I pared it down to a Top 20.
Maybe next time I’ll learn if chainsaw is one word or two.
xo,
the shadowy thing in your closet called allie lembo
Resources (not in academic format because I’m being lazy):
Hollywood Censored: Movies, Morality & the Production Code (2015) Youtube.
The Dame in the Kimono : Hollywood, censorship, and the production code from the 1920s to the 1960s
Baby Face (1933) Tubi.
“Remembering Hollywood’s Hays Code 40 Years On,” All Things Considered