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Pre-Code Hollywood

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File:Sinsoftfocus.jpg
Clara Bow on the cover of Sin in Soft Focus, a book by Mark A. Vieira about pre-Code Hollywood.

Pre-Code films were created 1930-1934, before the Motion Picture Production Code or Breen Code was put into effect, through the extortionate threats by the Roman Catholic church of boycott. Although there was an existing code of conduct for the film industry, many ignored it. Films from this period are very risque for the 1930s and could include sexual innuendos, references to homosexuality and illegal drug use, as well as women in their undergarments and men and women in bed at the same time — which all ceased in mid-1934 following the Draconian Breen Code. Popular character roles include tough-talking, assertive women, gangsters, and prostitutes.

Female sexuality rather than violence was the offending characteristic for the Church and its censors (especially Catholic laymen Joseph I. Breen and Martin Quigley).

Many fans of Classical Hollywood cinema today prefer these pre-Code films for their audacious attitude toward conventional morality.

Notable pre-Code films


Further reading

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