[HN Gopher] Pre-Code Hollywood
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Pre-Code Hollywood
Author : js2
Score : 46 points
Date : 2022-05-01 20:06 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (pre-code.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (pre-code.com)
| ArtWomb wrote:
| Ah, thanks for posting! It's relevant for hackers because all
| early stage media tech has the same "wild west" early days
| property. You can catch a few like Design for Living and Rain on
| youtube, and indeed the subject matter is quite shocking at
| times. But always with the "moral" ending. The quality is not
| great. Backlog at LoC digital preservation unit is like 100k+
| works. Not to mention lack of funding for storage, serving, etc
| ;)
| js2 wrote:
| The wikipedia page on the code has a photo illustrating the code.
| It would make a fantastic movie poster, but no such movie could
| be made then:
|
| https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thou_Shalt_Not_-_Whi...
| CSSer wrote:
| For those who are interested in watching some of these films, I
| highly recommend checking out the Criterion Channel's "Pre-code
| Paramount" collection[0] that was released as part of the March
| lineup[1]. The intro film essay by Imogen Sara Smith is
| fantastic. The collection includes Mae West's brazenly frank
| dialogue about sex, a movie with a menage a trois, a movie with a
| musical number about marijuana, and Marlena Dietrich's iconic
| crossdressing in Morocco. There's more too, but really too much
| to cover here!
|
| [0] https://www.criterionchannel.com/pre-code-paramount
|
| [1] https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7707-the-
| criterion-c...
| tclancy wrote:
| Seconded. The Code also ruins a bunch of noir type collections
| from the 40s and 50s because the bad guys have to die and the
| cops are infallible.
|
| I love the Preston Sturges films.
| syntheweave wrote:
| Reading this, and then reviewing the Code's specifics, I realized
| that the Code and Hollywood film noir's heyday come in tandem:
| "No sympathy for crimes and criminals; all crimes must be
| punished" is a specification that naturally produces the majority
| of noir plots, which in aiming to depict crime and violence must
| push the characters into tragic no-win situations.
| Supermancho wrote:
| I'll save you some time:
|
| > What is pre-Code Hollywood? The quickest definition is this:
| "pre-Code" refers to an era in motion pictures from the arrival
| of sound (aka 'talkies') in 1927 to the mandatory enforcement of
| the Motion Picture Production Code in July 1934. This era is
| notable for while being censored, it is not as severely censored
| as the films that follow that July 1934 date.
| js2 wrote:
| I actually meant to link to this page:
|
| https://pre-code.com/what-is-pre-code-hollywood/
|
| Which besides answering the literal question, explains what
| motivated the code and why pre-code movies are worth watching.
|
| The site in general contains a lot of valuable content about
| these movies.
| dang wrote:
| Ok, we changed to that above from https://pre-code.com/.
| Thanks!
| syspec wrote:
| It's not really saving time, this was an enjoyable article
| worth reading. That's a bit like telling us the ending of a
| movie as a way of saving us time.
| Supermancho wrote:
| > That's a bit like telling us the ending of a movie as a way
| of saving us time
|
| The answer is not on the page linked and the topic is
| obscure. The "ending" to an "enjoyable article" is not the
| answer to the title question. It's obvious why "Pre-Code" is
| contextually confusing.
| syspec wrote:
| You're right, I did have to find the "what is pre-code
| Hollywood" myself. The original link was not a good
| submission
| MikeTheGreat wrote:
| Plus, it's a post to Hacker News.
|
| Based on that context my first thought was "Pre-Code?
| Like, before CGI really took off, right? So like late
| 90's and earlier" :)
| CrazedGeek wrote:
| It's also commonly referred to as the Hays code. More:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code
| qgin wrote:
| I often think about the earlier days of the internet as a
| parallel to the pre-code Hollywood era
| ipnon wrote:
| This gives me some hope in the face of the seemingly endless
| proposed bills to censor the Web. Information seeks the light.
| A free Internet will prove more useful to society than marginal
| gains to business and security guaranteed by mandatory
| moderation.
| ipnon wrote:
| Slavoj Zizek frequently claims that Hays Code censorship was more
| restrictive than political censorship in the Soviet Union. Soviet
| filmmakers could do practically anything as long as it didn't
| implicate the Communist Party. If Hays Code films were the only
| evidence of humanity aliens would think that babies were made by
| sharp glances in the presence of bedroom doors.
| at_a_remove wrote:
| Some of the Pre-Code films are very interesting, like _Red-Headed
| Woman_. While I am not a fan of the Hays Code, the restrictions
| did give rise to some interesting artistic circumlocutions, such
| as "gunsel."
| lultimouomo wrote:
| It is interesting that Catholicism is deemed to have had such a
| big role in the drafting of the Hays code; I didn't know that. To
| me, as a European, the Hays code seems like the prototypical WASP
| thing - in the 30s US had prohibition, after all, and to this day
| it is stereotypically considered a "prude" country compared to
| the EU, where Catholicism is more widespread.
| recursivedoubts wrote:
| The catholics stepped in when the protestants lost their nerve.
| The catholic church at that time had institutional power,
| projected from the concentrated ethnic neighborhoods in cities
| like Philadelphia. Cardinal Krol could tell his diocese not to
| go watch movies, and they'd do it, and it would really hurt the
| studios, who were deeply in debt. Additionally, Bank of America
| was, at that time, in Catholic hands.
|
| This institutional power was lost when the catholics moved to
| suburbia post WW2.
| silicon2401 wrote:
| Is there a good book on the history of Catholics in the US?
| It's always been so odd to me that despite Catholics being
| such a large group globally and historically, they've never
| seemed to me to be very significant in US history. In fact,
| one of the most memorable mentions of them I remember from
| growing up was in some movie or textbook, in which the KKK
| was described as being opposed to Jewish and Catholic people
| in addition to black people.
| heavyset_go wrote:
| They have influence in the areas where Catholic diaspora
| settled. A lot of Catholic people that came to the US were
| lower class in terms of social, economic and racial
| classes. Irish and Italian people, for example, didn't
| exactly have the same economic or social power, or racial
| caste, as Anglo-Protestants. These days you'll see
| Catholics in power in some areas, like multiple New York
| governors and so on.
| [deleted]
| recursivedoubts wrote:
| There are many books, but one thing to consider is that
| when catholics were gaining political power... they all got
| shot.
| heavyset_go wrote:
| I'm of the opinion that with the modern usage of WASP in the
| US, the P could be replaced with most sects of Christianity,
| including Anglo-Catholicism, or just straight Catholicism.
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(page generated 2022-05-02 23:01 UTC)