The Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and the Production Code

Appendix: The Motion Picture Production Code

Appendix The Motion Picture Production Code The Motion Picture Production Code was adopted by the Association of Motion Picture Producers, Inc. (the West Coast producers) in February 1930, and by the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America the following March. The initial document included a summary of the code version drafted by Daniel Lord and Martin Quigley as well as a "Resolution for Uniform Interpretation" (Hays Papers, 17 February 1930). Before Hays published the Code, the Association changed "the lower and baser element" to "the lower and baser emotions ." In 1931, the "Resolution for Uniform Interpretation" was altered to require the submission ofscripts, and in 1934, the Production Committee (the "Hollywood Jury") was eliminated so that appeals from decisions of the Code Administration went directly to the Association board. After the Motion Picture Herald published the full text of the original Lord-Quigley document in 1934, the Hays Office sought to fuse the two versions by adding the philosophic sections authored by Lord and Quigley to the end of the 1930 summary released by Hays. In the process, the Lord-Quigley original became the "Reasons Supporting Preamble of Code," the "Reasons Underlying the General Principles," and the "Reasons Underlying Particular Applications." Over the years, the Association amended the Code several times and added major sections on crime (1938), costumes (1939), profanity (1939), and cruelty to animals (1940). The undersigned members of the Association ofMotion Picture 286 Appendix Producers, Inc. hereby subscribe to and agree faithfuily to conform to the provisions of the following CODE TO GOVERN THE MAKING OF TALKING, SYNCHRONIZED AND SILENT MOnON PICTURES Formulated by Association of Motion Picture Producers, Inc. and The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors ofAmerica, Inc. Motion picture producers recognize the high trust and confidence which have been placed in them by the people ofthe world and which have made motion pictures a universal form of entertainment. They recognize their responsibility to the public because of this trust and because entertainment and art are important influences in the life of a nation. Hence, though regarding motion pictures primarily as entertainment without any explicit purpose of teaching or propaganda, they know that the motion picture within its own field of entertainment may be directly responsible for spiritual or moral progress, for higher types of social life, and for much correct thinking. During the rapid transition from silent to talking pictures they have realized the necessity and the opportunity of subscribing to a Code to govern the production of talking pictures and of reacknowledging this responsibility. On their part, they ask from the public and from public leaders a sympathetic understanding oftheir purposes and problems and a spirit ofcooperation that will allow them the freedom and opportunity necessary to bring the motion picture to a still higher level of wholesome entertainment for all the people. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 1. No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin. 2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented. The Motion Picture Production Code 287 3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation. PARTICULAR APPLICATIONS I-Crimes Against the Law These shall never be presented in such a way as to throw sympathy with the crime as against law and justice or to inspire others with a desire for imitation. 1. Murder a. The technique of murder must be presented in a way that will not inspire imitation. b. Brutal killings are not to be presented in detail. c. Revenge in modem times shall not be justified. 2. Methods ofCrime should not be explicitly presented. a. Theft, robbery, safe-cracking, and dynamiting of trains, mines, bUildings, etc., should not be detailed in method. b. Arson must be subject to the same safeguards. c. The use of firearms should be restricted to essentials. d. Methods of smuggling should not be presented. 3. Illegal drug traffic must never be presented. 4. The use ofliquor in American life, when not required by the plot or for proper characterization, will not be shown. II-Sex The sanctity ofthe institution ofmarriage and the home shall be upheld. Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing. 1. Adultery, sometimes necessary plot...