Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.
Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.
The Hays Code was the informal name for The Motion Picture Production Code, a set of production directives for American films instituted in 1930, but not actively enforced until 1934. Considered by many to be censorship, the Code remained in effect through The Golden Age of Hollywood, gradually losing its omnipresence thanks to increasing open-mindedness and successful circumventions. In 1966, it was abolished; in 1968, it was replaced with the MPAA rating system, still in use today.
The Pre-Code Era of Hollywood cinema stretched from around 1928 to 1934, between the end of The Silent Age of Hollywood and the Rise of the Talkies. Films were unafraid to take brazen viewpoints; Howard Hawks' Scarface (1932), is a feature-length example of Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!; women are regarded with surprising sympathy and affection; William A. Wellman's Heroes for Sale (1933) shows a Shell-Shocked Veteran of World War I falling into morphine addiction; and 1930's Morocco features the first lesbian kiss in sound cinema. Alas, this creativity wasn't to last. Complaints about perceived lewd content, combined with scandals suffered by stars (most infamously Fatty Arbuckle), made sections of the public chomp at the bit for Hollywood to be reined in by the government—something made possible by a U.S. Supreme Court decision that as they were commercial endeavors, films could not be protected under the First Amendment. Fearing that their films would be nationally censored, or even banned, Hollywood concluded that self-regulation was in order. In 1930, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), the trade organization known today as the Motion Picture Association (MPA),note instituted the Hays Code, a set of production directives named for president Will H. Hays, and intended to present "correct standards of life". From 1934, these were actively enforced by the Hays Office; as the majority of films were produced by MPPDA members, it was difficult to find one not subject to the Code.
The full text of the Code can be found here
. Notable directives are as follows:
- The law was to be respected and upheld (the few exceptions permitted were in cartoons). Crime, such as marijuana use and lock-picking, could not be depicted unless called for by the plot, and even then, those responsible needed to be punished. This resulted in numerous cases of Adaptational Karma.
- The Bad Seed: In the novel and stage play, Christine gives an overdose of sleeping pills to her dangerous sociopathic daughter Rhoda, and Christine shoots herself, but Rhoda survives, with the implication she will kill again (especially now that her mother, the only person aware of her true nature, is gone). The film version has Christine survive her suicide attempt, whereas Rhoda dies in a contrived and implausible Karmic Death (she goes to the lake to find the penmanship medal for which she killed a boy, and a tree is struck by lightning and falls on her).
- In the 1946 adaptation of The Big Sleep, antagonist Eddie Mars is shot, presumably fatally, and snitched on to the police. In the book, he gets away with his misdeeds.
- The Reveal in Rebecca suffered as a result of this rule. Originally, the cruel and faithless Rebecca is murdered by her husband Maxim, but in Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 film version, her death is accidental and Maxim covers it up because he feels nobody will believe his innocence.
- This ruling came into conflict with It's a Wonderful Life wherein the original ending would have had Mr. Potter die of a heart attack upon being confronted by Clarence and told he will go to Hell when he dies. Another would have had him suffer a heart attack as he counted his ill-gotten money. Both scenes were deemed too macabre and as a result Potter gets away with his deeds and stealing the money Uncle Billy was supposed to deliver to the state bank examiner.
- This rule also disallowed morally derelict characters being Driven to Suicide, which changed the originally planned ending of Angel Face and the circumstances of Billy's death in Carousel.
- In the 1935 adaptation of David Copperfield, when the thief who robs David of his money takes off in his cart, the authorities chase him, something not present in the original novel.
- The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad portrayed Toad as being framed for theft, whereas in the book (and all future adaptations), he actually does steal the motorcar.
- In This Our Life radically changed the ending of the novel in which the racist politics of the time allow Parry to go to jail because it's Stanley's word against his. The film now has Parry being found innocent and Stanley perishing in a fiery car crash. This severely diluted the story's statements on racial bias.
- The "Rise and Fall" Gangster Arc becoming a mainstay of gangster films is widely considered a byproduct of this restriction.
- Marriage was sacrosanct. The play Tea and Sympathy sees the protagonist have an affair with the wife of his coach; in the adaptation, she writes him a letter in which she expresses her regret. Rather than have Lizzie butt heads with Lady Catherine over her opposition to Lizzie's marriage to Mr. Darcy, in the 1940 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, she passes a Secret Test of Character given by Lady Catherine.
- Nudity and sex, even between consenting adults, was forbidden. Childbirth was dicey—in Gone with the Wind, Melanie's labour is seen indirectly, with the camera focusing on shadows of her, Scarlett, and Prissy projected onto a wall—and saying "virgin" was out of the question. Couples were often shown Sleeping Single, Foot Popping was popular (the consequence of an order that women must always have one foot on the floor), and innuendo became the name of the game, making a star of Mae West. Steamy content was only got away with in scenarios where the Hays Office's teeth were blunted, most notably overseas during World War II. In other words, if you wanted to see the sexually-charged wild takes in Red Hot Riding Hood, you'd have to risk your life fighting the Axis.
- The Hays Office had many issues with Casablanca, most of them related to sexual content. In the unproduced play which the film was based on, the ending featured Lois (renamed Ilsa in the film) sleeping with Rick for the letters of transit. The Hays Code put an end to that. Rick and Ilsa's affair in Paris was only allowed because she believed her husband was dead at the time, and even with that the censors tried to quash any hint that they might have slept together while in Paris. In keeping with this, they rejected the writer's preferred ending, which would have had Ilsa choosing to stay with Rick, and insisted that the film end with Ilse staying with her husband. The Hays Office also objected to Captain Renault's use of the Scarpia Ultimatum, only allowing it after it was toned down so that it's only implied.
- Religion, especially Christianity, could never be blasphemed. This included negative depictions of the faith and clergy, and uses of "God" as an expletive or exclamation; hence, in the 1931 adaptation of Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein's proclamation that he knows what it's like to be God is drowned out by thunder. The reluctance to explore religion was in large part because the initial version of the Code was co-authored by a priest and a layman, and because Joseph Breen, a prominent censor from 1933 to 1953, was a strict Catholic moralist.
- This rule almost got the Censored Eleven short Clean Pastures banned in the time it was released, as it showed a burlesque of religion with black people depicted as angels going to Heaven (not to mention glorifying gambling and jazz in the same mention as Heaven, both of which were considered taboo back then).
- This rule also led to characters who had previously been depicted as less than exemplary members of the clergy getting new careers in secular fields. Four notable examples:
- In the 1939 adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, there are two Frollos: Claude, a good-hearted archdeacon, and Jean, a nasty judge. This characterization predates the Disney version by several decades.
- In the 1940 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Collins is made a librarian.
- In the 1948 adaptation of The Three Musketeers, Cardinal Richelieu is made Prime Minister—which, to be fair, he was in real life.
- Robert Mitchum's now-iconic Sinister Minister in The Night of the Hunter got a lot of flack from the censors and the producers only managed to get away with it by suggesting that he was not ordained, technically making him a mere religious fanatic.
- Films could not use revenge as a theme or premise in stories set during modern times, since it could be seen as glorifying violence (specifically murder). The Code made exceptions for historical settings—particularly where there was no law to punish the offender—so Westerns became the only movies allowed to have revenge as a theme or premise.
- Topics considered "perverse" could not be discussed or depicted in any way. Such topics included—but were not limited to—homosexuality, miscegenation (interracial relationships), bestiality, and venereal diseases.
- Studios used the explicitly racist ban on depicting miscegenation to justify the exclusion of non-white actors from employment: they reasoned that the Code would be breached if either actor or character was of a differing race. Anna May Wong, the leading Chinese-American actress of the time, was rejected as the female lead in The Good Earth because the male lead was white actor Paul Muni. In fact, Anna May Wong only made one film in which she got to kiss her white co-star (Java Head, which was made in the UK). Ironically, this was done despite the fact that the Code actually advocated for the "inherent dignity of foreign peoples" and insisted that their cultures not be undeservedly slurred – of course, this didn't really help American non-whites (especially not the Japanese during World War II).
- The bestiality ban was part of the reason for changes to Red Hot Riding Hood's original ending, which showed the Wolf forced into marriage by the Grandma, then years later taking his half-human, half-lupine children to the nightclub to see Red perform (the original ending, much like the "erection takes", existed on a Director's Cut that was sent to overseas soldiers).
- The decision to kill off half-Native American Pearl in Duel in the Sun was based on this rule. In the book, Pearl lives and marries the good brother, Jesse.
- Imitation of Life (1934) struggled to get approved because it featured a biracial character who tried to pass for white, and was played by an actual mixed-race actress. It was ultimately approved after two weeks of shooting - although a scene in which a black man nearly gets lynched for flirting with a white woman was ordered cut from the script.
- From Here to Eternity cut all references to homosexuality (the soldiers fraternise with male prostitutes in the book) and Karen's infertility from gonorrhea (which is now caused by a bad miscarriage). Hilariously, the brothel is turned into a gentleman's club with the whores being called "hostesses" - but the characters still act like they are.
- Tea and Sympathy deals with a character being Mistaken for Gay, but the film eliminates a gay teacher who is fired for being seen sunbathing with Tom on the beach (which starts the whole thing off). Tom instead just gets mocked for being found sewing.
- These Three, the 1936 adaptation of lesbian-themed play The Children's Hour, changes the central conflict to an accusation of heterosexual infidelity, rather than a lesbian relationship.
- Profanity was prohibited unless it was historically accurate—or, in the case of adaptations, present in the original work—and wasn't objectionable or in poor taste. This is why, in the adaptation of Gone with the Wind, Rhett tells Scarlett, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," and in the 1968 adaptation of Planet of the Apes, Taylor cries, "God damn you all to hell!"—he's calling out humanity for allowing themselves to be replaced by apes. For the most part, though, characters in Hays-era films will use Unusual Euphemisms, and cry, "Gosh Dang It to Heck!"
- Political content was discouraged, with it being required that the countries around the world were treated respectfully. Likely because it wasn't as long as a film, The Three Stooges short "You Nazty Spy!" was an early and notable exception.
Films which didn't comply with these restrictions could still premiere in theaters, but the studio would face a then-hefty fine of $25,000. Films which did weren't protected from backlash; for its racial slurs and racy content, 1956's Baby Doll was the first MPPDA-approved film in years to be condemned by the National League of Decency, and it was withdrawn from many a theatre. It was more likely for subversive filmmakers to produce genre films, adaptations—despite its theme of revenge, over a dozen versions of Hamlet were released under the Code—or stage plays. Those feeling less courageous would incorporate lots of subtext, such as Happy Endings which fall apart when glanced at. Think of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek: the titular miracle is the birth of sextuplets by a woman whom, it's implied, was raped by a soldier.
That films had to be so rigorously censored was a critical hint that the Hays Code wouldn't last. From the late 40s on, its standing took hit after hit: two Supreme Court decisions stripped studios of theater ownership—and, therefore, control over what could be shown—and gave movies protection under the First Amendment; Breen was replaced by the more lenient Geoffrey Shurlock; Eric Johnston, who replaced Hays, led a revamp of the Code; church censorship was not only diminished by cultural shifts, but, in some cases, backfired; and those with influence in the film industry began putting their foot down, even against powerful foes like FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, offended by Cold War-era Film Noir Pickup on South Street. In time, from about the mid-50s, non-Code films from Europe, able to cover serious subjects, were endemic in American theatres, and local films were stretching the Code to its limits. The Pawnbroker features a topless scene, and an adaptation of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? features harsh language—both were permitted for being artistically necessary.
By 1965, when the Supreme Court declared that ratings boards lacked the power to ban films, the Hays Office was a shell of its former self. The MPAA had lacked a president since 1963, when Johnston died of a heart attack, public opinion was strongly against the Code, and studios rarely, if ever, cooperated. The Court's ruling, as well as the withdrawal of funding from non-Catholic denominations, led to the conversion of the Hays Office, spearheaded by new president Jack Valenti and Universal Studios executive Lew Wasserman, into a ratings board which would merely advise on films' content, not withhold them from theatres. Thus, from 1968, posters and trailers have been graced with transparent boxes containing bold, black or white codes: G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17.note The only restrictions since have kept children from viewing R- and NC-17-rated movies, and even then, the former can be seen with an adult. Allowed to make films without worrying about stepping on eggshells, filmmakers have told whatever stories they want to...for the most part. The MPAA has been criticized for being opaque in how films are rated, for giving higher ratings to movies with queer characters, and which involve controversial topics, for favoring big studios over indie outfits, and for the NC-17 rating being a death sentence for non-arthouse films as most theaters refuse to screen them, though that last one isn't entirely their fault.
From the moment it became enforced, the Hays Code has been a subject of derision. It was often joked that Catholics were censoring movies made by Jews for Protestant audiences. "A Tale of Two Kitties", a Looney Tunes short from 1942, sees Tweety pursued by two cats based on Abbott and Costello. Catstello climbs a ladder after Tweety, and is asked by Babbitt to give him the bird; in an Aside Comment, Catstello replies, "If the Hays Office would only let me, I'd give him the bird, all right!" A song in the 1979 musical A Day in Hollywood/A Night In The Ukraine sees its cast tap dance to a reading of the Code. The 2007 book I Am America (And So Can You!), written by the crew of The Colbert Report, reproduces an "excerpt" of the Code. Among other things, "Characters may not walk and chew gum at the same time," "If a train is shown entering a tunnel, the tunnel shall not be portrayed as enjoying it," "Characters may not discuss the high suicide rate among dentists in a manner that implies they have it coming," and "For Christ's sake, somebody put a bra on Jean Harlow". As well, there's no rule #666 and #669.
Compare this with The Comics Code, which was established because of a moral panic about Comic Books, enacted similar restrictions on the medium, and was also circumvented by those it censored, eventually becoming a remnant of a different era. Also compare the Nintendo of America Video Game Content Guidelines, which outlined what can or cannot be included in a game published for their consoles at the time in much the same manner as the Hays Code.