Censorship in Cinema
With a new attitude toward censorship in cinema in 1934, film production codes have
deeply affected the careers of actors and actresses in the film industry, establishing do’s
and don’ts men and women taking part in movie productions, and creating a dissonance
among the limit of creativity producers had access to due to the restrictions brought forth
by production codes. On July 22nd 1934, Douglas W. Churchill wrote about the
acceptance of cleaner pictures and censorship in Hollywood, seemingly mocking the
system of power within the corporation. As a writer for the New York Times, Churchill
consolidates the details regarding this new arbitrary power Hay’s Office retrieved.
Churchill mentions, “The minute a writer finishes a scenario for a new or remade film, the
material is dispatched to the office of Will H. Hay’s for official ruling which is taken as
final.” (Churchill Pg.1). Even though producers and screenwriters were the brains behind
innovating ideas for scripts, visual productions and plots, it lacks their authentic touch on
the film as a whole when it has to be rendered through Hay’s Office and the Production
Codes before it can be released to the public for viewing.
Film content was under heavy restrictions after the consolidation of Hay’s office and the
branch of the MPPDA (Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America) in 1927,
when a list was established as “Don’ts and Be Carefuls” to regulate restrictions. This
particular list consisted of two parts. Part one consisted of “general principles” that
rendered the correct standards of living, and part two enforced specified items that could
