Challenging the Production Code: The Man with the Golden Arm

Abstract

The censorship battle over The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) involved more than a defiant director challenging Hollywood's conservative Production Code Administration. Instead, PCA director Geoffrey Shurlock worked with Otto Preminger and United Artists in an attempt to use the film to convince the Motion Picture Association's board of directors to remove the drug restriction from the Production Code. Shurlock's efforts failed largely because Preminger and United Artists rushed the picture toward release and in the process angered members of the board of directors, causing them to reject the film. The picture's success caused the board to order a major reassessment of the Code in 1956.

Keywords:

• censorship
• The Man with the Golden Arm;
• Preminger, Otto
• Production Code
• Shurlock, Geoffrey