Brief rant on film history

[jetpack_monkey]

niqaeli will appreciate that I've hit my limit on this.

You know that saucy black and white film you just saw that was way, way sexier or violent or effed up than old classic films seems like they should be? You will hear it called pre-Code everywhere, even by film historians who should know better. This annoys me to no end.

The "Code" in question was the Motion Picture Production Code, which was put in place in 1930 to make sure that films met certain decency standards (and to eventually wear down and eliminate the then-prevalent state censorship boards). A lot of it was moralistic censorship -- criminals must always be punished, authority must always be respected, the clergy could never be portrayed in a bad light. Unsurprisingly, a lot of it had to do with sex, specifically in such a way that it must be made to seem unglamorous or just bad outside of marriage. There was some serious racist crap in there as well.

Anyway. If a film was made after 1930, it was not, by definition pre-Code. It was, however, pre-Code enforcement. It wasn't until 1934 when the  Production Code Administration office was established (and Joseph Breen installed at its head) that any actions were taken. The PCA required that all films be certified as meeting the standards of the code before they were allowed release.

So by definition, the saucy film r you are talking about is pre-PCA or pre-Breen if it was made between 1930 and 1934. It's not pre-Code and calling it that really dissipates an interesting era in film history where the studios were given a set of rules they were expected to follow for the sake of decency... and then threw them out.

How the hell James Whale got half of the crap he pulled in 1935's Bride of Frankenstein past Breen is a story for another day.