6 ms·

Say what you will about the Hays Code, but I would hardly consider Gone With the Wind, The Great Dictator, Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life, Sunset Boulevard,

by sb057 5y ago

Say what you will about the Hays Code, but I would hardly consider Gone With the Wind, The Great Dictator, Casablanca, It's a Wonderful Life, Sunset Boulevard, The Ten Commandments, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Ben-Hur, Spartacus, Psycho, West Side Story, Lawrence of Arabia, To Kill a Mockingbird, Paths of Glory, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, or, you know, Citizen Kane to be especially "crappy" movies.

myrion 5y ago
Gone with the Wind is probably the big exception - well done, for sure, but blatant pro-South propaganda...
WalterBright 5y ago
Most of the movies you mentioned were made after 1953. (The Hays code started in 1934.) You substantiated my point! Just for fun, watch several movies 1930-32. Then watch some in 34-35. It's like the life got sucked out of them. Yes, I know there were exceptions. One is "Top Hat", 1935, which skirted the Code with double-talk and innuendo. > When the Hays Office learned that several actors, who were known within the industry to be gay, had been cast in this film, they sent a terse warning to RKO Studios. Particularly, in regards to Erik Rhodes and Edward Everett Horton, they warned that they should "avoid any idea of actors being pansy in character." https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027125/trivia?item=tr2614567 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027125/trivia?item=tr2614567 Nevertheless, Rhodes still got in his lines.
- js2 5y ago
  I’ll play: The Thin Man (1934), It Happened One Night (1934), Dodworth (1936), Fury (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Grand Illusion (1937), You Only Live Once (1937), Wizard of Oz (1939), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), The Great Dictator (1940), His Girl Friday (1940), Philadelphia Story (1940), Rebecca (1940), The Maltese Falcon (1940), Citizen Kane (1941), A Woman’s Face (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), Casablanca (1943), Double Indemnity (1944), Mildred Pierce (1945), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Great Expectations (1946), The Big Sleep (1946), The Red Shoes (1948), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), Sunset Boulevard (1950), All About Eve (1950), A Place In The Sun (1951), High Noon (1952), Roman Holiday (1953), The Wages of Fear (1953). (I slipped two French films in.) Almost anything by Hawks during those years. Or Hitchcock. Almost anything with Bogart. Or Grant. Or by Wilder. Tons of noir films skirted the rules. Look, I’m not a fan of the Hays code but some of those movies were to me better because of what they had to imply. This is after the Hays code but as an example I recently watched the original 3:10 to Yuma and the remake. I hated the remake. What appeals to me about Elmore Leonard stories is that despite being about bad guys, they have a degree of charm to them (Out of Sight, Justified, Jackie Brown, Get Shorty,etc). The remake took all of the charm out of the original and replaced it with graphic violence and cruelty.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    I'll raise you "Gold Diggers of 1933". If you haven't seen it, enjoy! It'll change your mind about old movies. It was a long time before sexy movies returned.
    - js2 5y ago
      I haven't seen it (I'll watch it soon enough...), but does anything top Claudette Colbert in The Sign of the Cross for "sexiness"? I mean, I get it. The Hays code obviously altered movies. But I disagree it was only for the worse. In some ways, I think it improved the films of that era. Anyway, a nice article on the topic: https://web.archive.org/web/20180118002259/http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/deep-focus/pre-code-hollywood https://web.archive.org/web/20180118002259/http://www.bfi.or... via https://letterboxd.com/flamerik/list/pre-code/ https://letterboxd.com/flamerik/list/pre-code/ And a fun site I just found: https://pre-code.com/ https://pre-code.com/
      - WalterBright 5y ago
        The Sign of the Cross was 1932, pre-code! Also, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023470/trivia?item=tr0684068 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023470/trivia?item=tr0684068 Thanks for the links!
        js2 5y ago
        Yes, of course it was. My comment was confusing. Having seen the Sign of the Cross but not Golddiggers of 1933, I was asking whether anything tops the former as a pre-code movie.
        WalterBright 5y ago
        I've seen Cross, but it was decades ago, and don't recall much from it. Golddiggers is just saucy fun. One of the songs is even titled "Petting in the Park" :-) The 60s generation that thinks they discovered sex should see that movie.

by sb057 5y ago

myrion 5y ago

Gone with the Wind is probably the big exception - well done, for sure, but blatant pro-South propaganda...

WalterBright 5y ago

Most of the movies you mentioned were made after 1953. (The Hays code started in 1934.) You substantiated my point! Just for fun, watch several movies 1930-32. Then watch some in 34-35. It's like the life got sucked out of them. Yes, I know there were exceptions. One is "Top Hat", 1935, which skirted the Code with double-talk and innuendo. > When the Hays Office learned that several actors, who were known within the industry to be gay, had been cast in this film, they sent a terse warning to RKO Studios. Particularly, in regards to Erik Rhodes and Edward Everett Horton, they warned that they should "avoid any idea of actors being pansy in character." https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027125/trivia?item=tr2614567 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027125/trivia?item=tr2614567 Nevertheless, Rhodes still got in his lines.

js2 5y ago
I’ll play: The Thin Man (1934), It Happened One Night (1934), Dodworth (1936), Fury (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Grand Illusion (1937), You Only Live Once (1937), Wizard of Oz (1939), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), The Great Dictator (1940), His Girl Friday (1940), Philadelphia Story (1940), Rebecca (1940), The Maltese Falcon (1940), Citizen Kane (1941), A Woman’s Face (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), Casablanca (1943), Double Indemnity (1944), Mildred Pierce (1945), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Great Expectations (1946), The Big Sleep (1946), The Red Shoes (1948), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), Sunset Boulevard (1950), All About Eve (1950), A Place In The Sun (1951), High Noon (1952), Roman Holiday (1953), The Wages of Fear (1953). (I slipped two French films in.) Almost anything by Hawks during those years. Or Hitchcock. Almost anything with Bogart. Or Grant. Or by Wilder. Tons of noir films skirted the rules. Look, I’m not a fan of the Hays code but some of those movies were to me better because of what they had to imply. This is after the Hays code but as an example I recently watched the original 3:10 to Yuma and the remake. I hated the remake. What appeals to me about Elmore Leonard stories is that despite being about bad guys, they have a degree of charm to them (Out of Sight, Justified, Jackie Brown, Get Shorty,etc). The remake took all of the charm out of the original and replaced it with graphic violence and cruelty.
- WalterBright 5y ago
  I'll raise you "Gold Diggers of 1933". If you haven't seen it, enjoy! It'll change your mind about old movies. It was a long time before sexy movies returned.
  - js2 5y ago
    I haven't seen it (I'll watch it soon enough...), but does anything top Claudette Colbert in The Sign of the Cross for "sexiness"? I mean, I get it. The Hays code obviously altered movies. But I disagree it was only for the worse. In some ways, I think it improved the films of that era. Anyway, a nice article on the topic: https://web.archive.org/web/20180118002259/http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/deep-focus/pre-code-hollywood https://web.archive.org/web/20180118002259/http://www.bfi.or... via https://letterboxd.com/flamerik/list/pre-code/ https://letterboxd.com/flamerik/list/pre-code/ And a fun site I just found: https://pre-code.com/ https://pre-code.com/
    - WalterBright 5y ago
      The Sign of the Cross was 1932, pre-code! Also, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023470/trivia?item=tr0684068 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023470/trivia?item=tr0684068 Thanks for the links!
      - js2 5y ago
        Yes, of course it was. My comment was confusing. Having seen the Sign of the Cross but not Golddiggers of 1933, I was asking whether anything tops the former as a pre-code movie.
        WalterBright 5y ago
        I've seen Cross, but it was decades ago, and don't recall much from it. Golddiggers is just saucy fun. One of the songs is even titled "Petting in the Park" :-) The 60s generation that thinks they discovered sex should see that movie.