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The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Will H. Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945. Under Hays's leadership, the MPPDA, later the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Motion Picture Association (MPA), adopted the Production Code in 1930 and began rigidly enforcing it in 1934. The Production Code spelled out acceptable and unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States.
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The National Legion of Decency, also known as the Catholic Legion of Decency, was a Catholic group founded in 1934 by Archbishop of Cincinnati, John T. McNicholas, as an organization dedicated to identifying objectionable content in motion pictures on behalf of Catholic audiences. Members were asked to pledge to patronize only those motion pictures which did not "offend decency and Christian morality". The concept soon gained support from other churches.
Film censorship is the censorship of motion pictures, either through the excising of certain frames or scenes, or outright banning of films in their entirety. Film censorship typically occurs as a result of political or moral objections to a film's content; controversial content subject to censorship include the depiction of graphic violence, sexual situations, or racial themes. Censorship standards vary widely by country, and can vary within an individual country over time.
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See also Eleanor Bull
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A Child Is Born is a 1939 American drama film directed by Lloyd Bacon and written by Robert Rossen. The film stars Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jeffrey Lynn, Gladys George, Gale Page, Spring Byington, and Johnnie Davis. The film was released by Warner Bros. on December 17, 1939. It was a remake of the 1932 film Life Begins starring Loretta Young. A further remake Love Story was made in Italy in 1942.
We Americans is a 1928 American silent drama film directed by Edward Sloman and starring George Sidney, Patsy Ruth Miller, and George J. Lewis. An extremely slender young Andy Devine plays an early small role as Pat O'Dougal.
References
- ↑ "The Birth of a Baby (1938)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
- ↑ Sartain, Geraldine (November 1938). "The Cinema Explodes the Stork Myth". The Journal of Educational Sociology. 12 (3): 142–146. doi:10.2307/2261881. JSTOR 2261881.
- ↑ "Regent Theatre To Show "The Birth of a Baby"". The Ottawa Journal. Ottawa, Canada. June 9, 1942. p. 15. Retrieved December 15, 2015– via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ Ooten, Melissa (2014). Race, Gender, and Film Censorship in Virginia, 1922–1965. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. pp. 153–155. ISBN 9780739190296. OCLC 892878763 . Retrieved December 15, 2015.
- ↑ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:..The Birth of a Baby Retrieved November 20, 2016
- ↑ "'Life' banned for "Birth of a Baby" pictures". Motion Picture Herald. 131 (3): 18. April 16, 1938. Archived from the original on April 27, 2016. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
- ↑ Strassfeld, Benjamin (2013-08-18). "A Difficult Delivery: Debating the Function of the Screen and Educational Cinema through The Birth of a Baby (1938)". The Velvet Light Trap. 72 (1): 44–57. doi:10.7560/VLT7205. ISSN 1542-4251. S2CID 191794984.
- 1 2 Kirby, David A. (September 2017). "Regulating cinematic stories about reproduction: pregnancy, childbirth, abortion and movie censorship in the US, 1930–1958". The British Journal for the History of Science. 50 (3): 451–472. doi: 10.1017/S0007087417000814 . ISSN 0007-0874. PMID 28923130.
