This short 8-minute documentary is a real eye-opener about Hollywood in the early 1930s. After watching this bonus film that came with my DVD of "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," I thought about the number of reviews I've read in which people disparagingly refer to the "production code" as if it led to the ruin of many great films. I would hope that movie viewers who may feel that way would watch this short video. And, then maybe look into it more deeply.
The people who appear in this video include Andrew Dickos, author of three books about cinema, including "Intrepid Laugher: Preston Sturges and the movies;" Ed Sikov, film historian, scholar and author of several books on the movies including, "Screwball: Hollywood's Madcap Romantic Comedies;" James Ursini, writer UCLA doctorate in Film and high school English teacher; Eddie Bracken, co-star of "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek;" and Sandy Sturges, fourth wife and widow of Preston Sturges. The interviews with Eddie Bracken were a few years before this 2005 video. He died in 2002 at age 87.
This short film has a very apparent difference in interests of the people shown. Eddie Bracken and Sandy Sturges are all focused on the Hays Office with its production code as a villainous entity that Preston Sturges and others had to get around. Bracken even seems incensed by it. He says that Preston Sturges made changes "in a way that made the Hays Office look like idiots." Bracken says, "We were laughing so much at the Hays office. Those jerks, who might have gotten up to be senators or whatever, having no idea what was happening to them." So, that gives a perspective, many years later, from one actor of that time and place.
Now, all the people in this short video say Preston Sturges was a genius of a screenwriter and director. So, the three academic researchers and historic authors about filmdom give us another perspective. First, they point out that Hollywood itself established the Hays Commission. The movie producers themselves saw a need to police their industry in lieu of government incursion into movies. Sikov says, "In the early 30s, Hollywood was producing a whole bunch of racy, racy pictures. There was drug addiction, there was sex outside of marriage, adultery. There was sex suggestiveness all over the place."
Dickos says, "There were scandals in Hollywood that reflected badly on the movie industry. The Fatty Arbuckle murder, for example, and movies were becoming more and more risqué showing crime not losing but winning and showing sex being available, not within the confines of marriage and family finding."
So, public concerns grew, and the government cast a wary eye toward Hollywood. Thus, the producers decided to act and they set up the Hays Commission. It was named after Will Hays, the former Postmaster General of the U.S., who was hired to head the office. A former newspaperman, Joseph Breen, wrote a "Production Code" for the office which began to enforce it 1934. From then on, the censoring operation was referred to by a number of different names. It was called the Hays Office, the Breen Office, the Hays Commission, the Production Code.
Now, the movie producers have installed their own censoring office, and their directors must go about making movies. In the case of crime, drama and other films, that meant that movies would have to be toned down or kept from becoming too graphic. But, with comedies the situation was a little different. That's because directors who were very clever, could use the very restrictions as a basis to enhance the comedy. That is precisely what Preston Sturges, Billy Wilder and others did. And, Morgan's Creek was among the very first and probably the best example of the extremes in story swings – and benefits – because of the Hays office.
Here's what Sikov says in this short video: "What the code did was to force directors like Preston Sturges or Billy Wilder, or any of the great writers and directors, to mold their scripts around the code. In other words, it was kind of like a poet writing a sonnet. There's a form to follow, and if you follow the form then you make a great poem. Well, the form here was 'You can't do this and you can't do that;' but what you could do became richer because of the imposition of the code." He gives an example. "The marriage here is ridiculous, and everyone sees through (it) So, it was kind of an inside joke, like you have a marriage that's completely idiotic because you have the code telling us that you have to have this marriage."
So, the movie makers, players and all saw it as a joke. And, did they not also see how hilarious it was and what it added to the film? One must think that Sturges did. He wrote it, and I have no doubt that it did so to milk every chance to make changes that would build upon the comedy of his film. For those who may still not see that, consider this. Take the marriage out, and all the talk and scenes that precede it. That's a good chunk of the movie, and source of laughter. What do you replace it with? Or do you leave this as a "comedy" about a girl who got drunk, either slept with a solider or was raped by one, and then tried to hide her pregnancy. That's hardly the plot of a comedy then, or today. When one considers the alternatives to the way the film was made, it's hard to imagine it as much of a comedy. The opening and closing scenes alone couldn't pull that off.
Incidentally, the Motion Picture Association of America phased out the Hays Office in the 1960s. The MPAA replaced it with the rating system in 1968.
The people who appear in this video include Andrew Dickos, author of three books about cinema, including "Intrepid Laugher: Preston Sturges and the movies;" Ed Sikov, film historian, scholar and author of several books on the movies including, "Screwball: Hollywood's Madcap Romantic Comedies;" James Ursini, writer UCLA doctorate in Film and high school English teacher; Eddie Bracken, co-star of "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek;" and Sandy Sturges, fourth wife and widow of Preston Sturges. The interviews with Eddie Bracken were a few years before this 2005 video. He died in 2002 at age 87.
This short film has a very apparent difference in interests of the people shown. Eddie Bracken and Sandy Sturges are all focused on the Hays Office with its production code as a villainous entity that Preston Sturges and others had to get around. Bracken even seems incensed by it. He says that Preston Sturges made changes "in a way that made the Hays Office look like idiots." Bracken says, "We were laughing so much at the Hays office. Those jerks, who might have gotten up to be senators or whatever, having no idea what was happening to them." So, that gives a perspective, many years later, from one actor of that time and place.
Now, all the people in this short video say Preston Sturges was a genius of a screenwriter and director. So, the three academic researchers and historic authors about filmdom give us another perspective. First, they point out that Hollywood itself established the Hays Commission. The movie producers themselves saw a need to police their industry in lieu of government incursion into movies. Sikov says, "In the early 30s, Hollywood was producing a whole bunch of racy, racy pictures. There was drug addiction, there was sex outside of marriage, adultery. There was sex suggestiveness all over the place."
Dickos says, "There were scandals in Hollywood that reflected badly on the movie industry. The Fatty Arbuckle murder, for example, and movies were becoming more and more risqué showing crime not losing but winning and showing sex being available, not within the confines of marriage and family finding."
So, public concerns grew, and the government cast a wary eye toward Hollywood. Thus, the producers decided to act and they set up the Hays Commission. It was named after Will Hays, the former Postmaster General of the U.S., who was hired to head the office. A former newspaperman, Joseph Breen, wrote a "Production Code" for the office which began to enforce it 1934. From then on, the censoring operation was referred to by a number of different names. It was called the Hays Office, the Breen Office, the Hays Commission, the Production Code.
Now, the movie producers have installed their own censoring office, and their directors must go about making movies. In the case of crime, drama and other films, that meant that movies would have to be toned down or kept from becoming too graphic. But, with comedies the situation was a little different. That's because directors who were very clever, could use the very restrictions as a basis to enhance the comedy. That is precisely what Preston Sturges, Billy Wilder and others did. And, Morgan's Creek was among the very first and probably the best example of the extremes in story swings – and benefits – because of the Hays office.
Here's what Sikov says in this short video: "What the code did was to force directors like Preston Sturges or Billy Wilder, or any of the great writers and directors, to mold their scripts around the code. In other words, it was kind of like a poet writing a sonnet. There's a form to follow, and if you follow the form then you make a great poem. Well, the form here was 'You can't do this and you can't do that;' but what you could do became richer because of the imposition of the code." He gives an example. "The marriage here is ridiculous, and everyone sees through (it) So, it was kind of an inside joke, like you have a marriage that's completely idiotic because you have the code telling us that you have to have this marriage."
So, the movie makers, players and all saw it as a joke. And, did they not also see how hilarious it was and what it added to the film? One must think that Sturges did. He wrote it, and I have no doubt that it did so to milk every chance to make changes that would build upon the comedy of his film. For those who may still not see that, consider this. Take the marriage out, and all the talk and scenes that precede it. That's a good chunk of the movie, and source of laughter. What do you replace it with? Or do you leave this as a "comedy" about a girl who got drunk, either slept with a solider or was raped by one, and then tried to hide her pregnancy. That's hardly the plot of a comedy then, or today. When one considers the alternatives to the way the film was made, it's hard to imagine it as much of a comedy. The opening and closing scenes alone couldn't pull that off.
Incidentally, the Motion Picture Association of America phased out the Hays Office in the 1960s. The MPAA replaced it with the rating system in 1968.
