They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To: Trouble in Paradise at the Pacific Film Archive
1. No picture shall be produced that 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.
3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.
The "General Principles" of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc.
In 1930, the MPPDA authored the Production Code (better known as the Hays Code, for MPPDA President Will Hays), which famously put married couples in separate beds and feet on the floor during (not-) sex scenes, and required David O. Selznick to request special dispensation and pay a fine for the AFI's #1 movie line, ever. In 1934, following a nasty "won't-somebody-please-think-of-the-children" letter and boycott threat from the Catholic League of Decency, Hollywood studios actually started adhering to the Hays Code. That continued until 1968, when the MPAA Ratings we have now replaced the Hays Code.
What does all that have to do with your weekend? We're glad you asked. Starting Saturday and running through August 7, the Pacific Film Archive (at the Berkeley Art Musem) is running Trouble In Paradise: Pre-Code Hollywood, a collection of 25 Hollywood films released between 1930 and 1934. These 25 films are generally recognized to have pushed the nation's moral hysteria over the moving pictures to its breaking point. They are sexy, subversive and weird; they are great cinema; they are not to be missed.
Highlights are too many to list (the full BAM/PFA calendar is here), but a restored print of Alfred E. Green's Baby Face, starring Barbara Stanwyck (at left, proving that they don't make movie stars like they used to, either) as power- and sex-hungry Lily Powers, is especially promising; it includes previously censored scenes. It sees the screen on July 23rd. SFist will bring you more on Trouble in Paradise as it continues.