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5. Scarface
- The University Press of Kentucky
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49 5 Scarface By 1931 the Hollywood film industry was getting over the growing pains brought on by sound films and had entered one of its most notorious periods, now known as the pre-Code era. As the country shifted from strict Victorian moral codes to the looser attitudes of the Jazz Age, the movies reflected these social changes and became increasingly more daring with the subject matter presented on the screen. The majority of film fans who flocked to the theaters reveled in these tales of crime, sex, drugs, and the like, but more vocal religious groups took exception to the lurid themes and emerging real-life Hollywood scandals, and began putting pressure on the studios to clean up their act. The industry had initially responded to these moral rumblings in 1922 by forming the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) and appointing former postmaster general William (Will) H. Hays as head of the organization , whose goal was to instill a system of self-regulation, allowing the studios to proceed without government intervention. Hays was able to stave off federal meddling, but the state censorship boards that sprang up frequently reedited films to suit their own moral standards. As outside pressures for cleaner films mounted, the MPPDA adopted a set of guidelines in 1927 for the studios to follow to help them steer clear of objectionable material. By 1930 this list of “Don’t’s” and “Be careful’s” morphed into the more comprehensive “Hays Code” or “Production Code.” The Code clearly spelled out what the movies could and could not portray, but these restrictions on taboo topics were generally ignored by the studios until 1934, when the industry was essentially strong-armed into adopting the Code by religious groups. The brief but glorious period between the drafting and adoption of the Production Code would see the studios producing films that were shocking, even by today’s standards, but also gave audiences some of the most interesting Ann Dvorak 50 female characters in film history. Actresses like Jean Harlow, Barbara Stanwyck, Ruth Chatterton, and Miriam Hopkins blazed across the screen in Red-headed Woman, Baby Face, Female, and The Story of Temple Drake, with characterizations that still stand up decades later as fresh and daring. This period of strong, self-possessed, sexually liberated screen dames is when Ann Dvorak finally broke out of the chorus ranks and made her small but indelible mark on the movies. Ann had been at MGM for almost two and a half years by mid-1931. She had proved reliable and was willing to undertake whatever the studio threw at her, but she now felt as if she was spinning her wheels. Splashy chorus-filled musicals were officially out of vogue, and Sammy Lee was no longer employed at the Culver City lot. There seemed to be little for Ann to do besides show up as a background extra in films like Just a Gigolo and A Tailor Made Man. During this period, Ann was becoming so discouraged that she began to rethink her career plans and was on the verge of leaving the film industry. One of her extra jobs at the time was as a member of a political rally in the Marie Dressler/Polly Moran proto-feminist feature Politics. The film costarred an up-and-coming actress named Karen Morley. Morley had moved to Los Angeles from Iowa at a young age and started her acting career at the Pasadena Playhouse. While on the MGM lot for a screen test in 1930, she caught the eye of director Clarence Brown, who gave her the ingénue role in the Greta Garbo vehicle Inspiration. She was soon signed to a contract with the studio and named a “baby star” by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers (WAMPAS). Much like Dvorak, Morley was considered unconventional in both her looks and acting style, and she also had a hard time accepting the restraints of the studio system. Both women ended up fighting their studios to gain early release from their contracts, and both would spend the bulk of their careers freelancing. The two women also came to be extremely influenced by their husbands. For Ann, this sway extended primarily to hobbies and career decisions, while Karen’s two unions would shape her in becoming a vocal political activist. Dvorak and Morley both saw their film careers end in 1951, with Ann opting for retirement and Karen winding up on the blacklist...