Unacceptable Matters: The Hays Code, Family, Film Noir and RKO Radio Pictures

Abstract

The emergence of film noir was a real challenge for Joseph Breen the Hays Office. Since the final implementation of the Production Code in 1934, the censors had succeeded in softening the moral edges that had caused so much scandal among the most conservative sectors of American society. But after the end of World War II, certain post-war Hollywood productions, many of them inspired by crime novels, began to question the rules that established thematic limits in American cinema. Suddenly controversial matters such adultery, premarital relations, illegitimate children, prostitution and the whole spectrum of sexual attitudes deemed non sanctas began to reappear in the scripts submitted to the PCA for approval. For the censors, such movies constituted a direct challenge that contravened the strict precepts established in the Hays Code. This work tries to analyse, based on the prolific documentation generated by the Production Code Office and today preserved in the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood, the extent to which the strict regulations regarding the representation of family, love and sex outlined in the Hays Code affected the scripts and the shooting of the films noirs produced by RKO Radio Pictures during the 1940s and 50 s.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 L. Jeff and J. L. Simmons, The Dame in The Kimono. Hollywood Censorship and the Production Code from 1920s to 1960s (New York: Double Day, 1990); R. Maltby, ‘The Production Code and the Hays Office’, in Grand Design. Hollywood as a Modern Business Enterprise, 1930-1939, ed. Tino Balio (New York: Charles Scribner’s Son, 1993), 37–72; G. D. Black, Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics and the Movies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). Equally noteworthy are the various works by Ruth Vasey and Thomas Doherty. Vasey's 1997 book The World According to Hollywood, 1918-1939 (Madison: University of Madison Press) is essential reading, and Doherty's Pre-Code Hollywood. Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930-1934 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999) and Hollywood's Censor. Joseph I. Breen & The Production Code Administration (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999).

2 J. Naremore, More Than Night. Film Noir in Its Contexts (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998).

3 ‘Transcript of Conference between Executives, Producers, and Joseph I. Breen, RKO Studios’, 11 April 1946. Cited by R. B. Jewell, Slow Face to Black. The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures (Oakland: University of California Press, 2016), 44.

4 R. B. Jewell, RKO Radio Pictures. A Titan is Born. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 2.

5 Breen to Melniker, 2 September 1949, Where Danger Lives. PCA Files.

6 Breen to Melniker, 13 January 1948, A Woman’s Secret. PCA Files.

7 Breen to Melniker, 10 October 1949, The Secret Fury. PCA Files.

8 Breen to Gordon, 26 April 1946, They Won’t Believe Me. PCA Files.

9 ‘Memo on They Won’t Believe Me’, 25 April 1946, They Won’t Believe Me. PCA Files.

10 Ibid, 1.

11 Breen to Gordon, 26 April 1946, in They Won’t Believe Me. PCA Files.

12 Hodenfield, ‘Memo for the Files’, 9 July 1946, They Won’t Believe Me. PCA Files.

13 Breen to Gordon, 25 April 1946, They Won’t Believe Me. PCA Files.

14 Breen to Melniker, 8 October 1946, They Won’t Believe Me. PCA Files.

15 Breen to Melniker, 16 October 1951, Clash by Night. PCA Files.

16 Breen to Gordon, 20 December 1945, The Woman on the Beach. PCA Files.

17 Breen to Melniker, 16 December 1949, His Kind of Woman. PCA Files.

18 Breen to Melniker, 1 December 1949, Armored Car Robbery. PCA Files.

19 Breen to Gordon, 14 April 1944, Murder, My Sweet. PCA Files.

20 Breen to Melniker, 8 April 1950, His Kind of Woman. PCA Files.

21 Breen to Harold Melniker, 27 November 1946, The Woman on the Beach. PCA Files.

22 Breen to Melniker, 29 October 1951, Clash by Night. PCA Files.

23 Breen to Melniker, 29 October 1951 Clash by Night. PCA Files.

24 Breen to Melniker, 18 June 1947, in Race Street. PCA Files.

25 Breen to Melniker, 27 February 1947, in Crossfire. PCA Files.

26 Breen to Gordon, 12 June 1946, Out of the Past. PCA Files.

27 Breen to Melniker, 17 September 1947, The Velvet Touch. PCA Files; and Breen to Gordon, 13 April 1944, Murder, My Sweet. PCA Files.

28 Breen to Gordon, 24 January 1946, The Woman on the Beach. PCA Files.

29 Breen to Melniker, 11 July 1950, Macao. PCA Files.

30 Breen to Melniker, 17 April 1950, Macao. PCA Files.

31 Breen, ‘Copy of a confidential report received from the New York Local Board of Censorship’, December 29, 1944, Murder, My Sweet. PCA Files.

32 Breen to Melniker, 1 December 1949, Armored Car Robbery. PCA Files.

33 Breen, ‘Postscript to censorship certificate no. 11958’, 14 February 1947, The Long Night. PCA Files.

34 Breen to Gordon, 26 April 1946, They Won’t Believe Me. PCA Files.

35 Breen, to Nolan, 25 May 1940, Stranger on the Third Floor. PCA Files.

36 Breen to Gordon, 6 August 1946, They Long Night. PCA Files.

37 Breen to Melniker, 25 March 1948, Follow Me Quietly. PCA Files.

38 Breen to Gordon, 21 September 1945, Notorious. PCA Files

39 Schumach, The Face on the Cutting Room Floor. The Story of Movie and Television Censorship, 291.

40 Breen to Gordon, 19 April 1946, Nocturne. PCA Files.

41 Breen to Melniker, 17 November 1946, Out of the Past. PCA Files.

42 Breen to Melniker, 15 May 1947, They Live by Night. PCA Files.

43 Breen to Gordon, 30 November 1945, The Devil Thumbs a Ride. PCA Files.

44 Breen to Melniker, 7 April 1950, Hunt The Man Down. PCA Files.

45 Breen to Melniker, 23 June 1948, The Big Steal. PCA Files.

46 Houghton, ‘Memo on Johnny Angel’, 1 November 1944, Johnny Angel. PCA Files.

47 Breen to Gordon, 28 May 1946, They Won’t Believe Me. PCA Files.

48 Jackson to Melniker, 23 March 1948, Walk Softly, Stranger. PCA Files.

49 Breen to Gordon, 28 May 1946, They Won’t Believe Me. PCA Files

50 Breen to Melniker, 9 July 1951, Clash by Night. PCA Files; Breen to Gordon, 9 May 1944, Experiment Perilous. PCA Files; Breen to Gordon, 11 November 1945, Crack-Up. PCA Files, and Breen to Gordon, 25 September 1945, The Woman on the Beach. PCA Files.

51 Breen to Melniker, 1 October 1951, Clash by Night. PCA Files.

52 Breen to Gordon, 11 October 1945, Crack-Up. PCA Files.

53 Breen to Jungmeyer, 30 November 1945, The Devil Thumbs A Ride. PCA Files.

54 Breen to Gordon, 19 April 1946, Nocturne. PCA Files.

55 Breen to Melniker, 26 April 1948, They Won’t Believe Me. PCA Files.

56 Breen to Nolan, 7 May 1941, They Live by Night. PCA Files.

57 Breen to Nolan, 6 February 1941, Suspicion. PCA Files.

58 Breen to Gordon, 6 February 1946, Nocturne. PCA Files.

59 Latimer, ‘Nocturne. Final Script’, 16 April 1946, Nocturne. Scripts, RKO Collection, Box: RKO-S-1190, Arts Library, UCLA, 33.

60 R. Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely (New York: Vintage Books, 1976), 37.

61 Breen to Gordon, 13 April 1944, in Murder, My Sweet. PCA Files.

62 Paxton, ‘Farewell, My Lovely. Final Script’, 21 April 1944, Murder, My Sweet. Scripts, RKO Collection, Box: RKO-S-876, Arts Library, UCLA, 20-22.

63 R. Dyer, ‘Homosexuality and Film Noir’, in Jump Cut Vol. 16 (November 1977), 20.

64 Gordon to Breen, 10 July 1945, in Crossfire. PCA Files.

65 Breen, to Gordon, 17 July 1945, Crossfire. PCA Files.

66 B. R. Kantor, I. R. Blacker, and A. Kramer, Directors at Work. Interviews with American Film-Makers (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1970), 19–20.

67 G. M. Pavés, ‘Edward Dmytryk: 80 años alrededor de una mirada’, L’Atalante. Revista de estudios cinematográficos 7 (2019), 147–8.

68 Breen to Gordon, 6 February 1946, Nocturne. PCA Files.

69 Breen to Melniker, 17 September 1947, The Velvet Touch. PCA Files.

70 Breen to Gordon, 15 September 1944, Deadline at Dawn. PCA Files.

71 Shurlock, “Memo on Notorious”, 5 June 1945, Notorious. PCA Files.

72 Breen to Gordon, 25 July 1945, Notorious. PCA Files.

73 Breen to Gordon,21 September 1945, Notorious. PCA Files.

74 Breen to Melniker, 27 February 1947, Crossfire. PCA Files and Breen to Gordon, 15 September 1944, Deadline at Dawn. PCA Files.

75 Breen to Melniker, 27 February 1947, Crossfire. PCA Files and Breen to Gordon, 27 October 1944, Johnny Angel. PCA Files.

76 Breen to Nolan, 3 February 1941, Suspicion. PCA Files.

77 Breen to Melniker, 11 September 1947, The Window. PCA Files.

78 Breen to Melniker, 2 May 1950, On Dangerous Ground, PCA Files.

79 Breen to Feider, 21 May 1952, The Hitch-Hiker, PCA Files.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gonzalo M. Pavés

Gonzalo M. Pavés is Professor of Film History at the University of La Laguna (Spain). In addition to having published several articles on film and comics, he is author of El cine negro de la RKO. En el corazón de las tinieblas (Madrid: T&B Editores, 2003), Perdición (Valencia: Nau Llibres: 2020) and Bigas Luna. El gran fabulador (Barcelona: Laertes, 2021). He has been editor of two books: Ciudades de cine (Madrid: Cátedra, 2014) and Frankenstein. Un mito literario en diálogo con la filosofía, las ciencias y las artes (Córdoba: Editorial Berenice, 2018).