Milestone Anti-Censorship Cases
Now, critics hardly seem to give a whole lot of thought in their notices to the potential influence they could have in the defense of films and arguing in support of movies that take chances. It's hard to feel encouraged to go to the movies by the constant lukewarmth and lack of true film literacy in the digital age's general output of movie critics on the radio or in web magazines. It used to be critics would be the driving force behind the success of movies whether Hays and Breen or the Catholic Legion of Decency liked it or not.
List activity
1.9K views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
34 titles
- DirectorRouben MamoulianStarsGreta GarboJohn GilbertIan KeithQueen Christina of Sweden is a popular monarch who is loyal to her country. However, when she falls in love with a Spanish envoy, she must choose between the throne and the man she loves.Breen took great offense at the film's bedroom scene and wanted many deletions. He felt that "sex immorality" is presented in the story as "attractive and beautiful and made to appear 'right and permissible,'" a definite violation of the Code. In addition, Breen and several state censors objected to the line, "This is how the Lord must have felt when he first beheld the finished world," which is spoken by Garbo in the bedroom scene. However, luckily, Carl Laemmle, Jr. of Universal, Jesse Lasky of Paramount and B. B. Kahane of RKO screened the picture, and got its approval.
- DirectorJosef von SternbergStarsMarlene DietrichJohn LodgeSam JaffeA German noblewoman enters into a loveless marriage with the dim-witted, unstable heir to the Russian throne, then plots to oust him from power.The Catholic Legion of Decency condemned it, but it made little difference. The film was released just prior to the enforcement of the Hays Code and thus slipped under the line by a hair and escaped censorship, despite an expressionistic whirlwind of erotic images and motifs.
- DirectorHoward HughesHoward HawksStarsJack BuetelThomas MitchellJane RussellWestern legends Pat Garrett, Doc Holliday and Billy the Kid are played against each other over the law and the attentions of vivacious country vixen Rio McDonald.Watch Martin Scorsese's 2004 Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator and pay close attention for the scene in which Hughes fights the censorship board for approval by comparing Jane Russell's cup size with those of several other top leading ladies of the time.
- DirectorMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsDeborah KerrDavid FarrarFlora RobsonA group of nuns struggle to establish a convent in the Himalayas, while isolation, extreme weather, altitude, and culture clashes all conspire to drive the well-intentioned missionaries mad.For nearly 4 decades, this movie was 13 minutes shorter in the U.S. than it was where it came from because the Legion of Decency didn't like the idea of a nun having a life before her vows, not to mention human sexual desires. But in the 1980s, those 13 minutes that had been excised in America were finally exposed when a new print of the film was released.
- DirectorGeorge SeatonStarsEdmund GwennMaureen O'HaraJohn PayneAfter a divorced New York mother hires a nice old man to play Santa Claus at Macy's, she is startled by his claim to be the genuine article. When his sanity is questioned, a lawyer defends him in court by arguing that he's not mistaken.The Legion of Decency found this holiday family favorite objectionable for its sympathetic treatment of a divorced mother. I kid you not. But no cuts were made because they gave it a B, not a C, which would've condemned the film.
- DirectorOtto PremingerStarsWilliam HoldenDavid NivenMaggie McNamaraTwo aging playboys are both after the same attractive young woman, but she fends them off by claiming that she plans to remain a virgin until her wedding night. Both men determine to find a way around her objections.Breen found the screenplay in breach of the Code because of its "light and gay treatment of the subject of illicit sex and seduction." Otto Preminger submitted a revised draft which was rejected because of "an unacceptably light attitude towards seduction, illicit sex, chastity, and virginity." Preminger made history as simply as this: He told the Breen office he disagreed with its decision and would film the script without further changes. All you have to do stand up.
- DirectorHenry CorneliusStarsJulie HarrisLaurence HarveyShelley WintersIn Weimar-era Berlin, an aspiring writer strikes up a friendship with a vivacious, penniless singer.Upon its American release, it was denied Production Code approval, citng "gross sexual promiscuity on the part of the leading lady without the proper compensating moral values required by the Code." This included the film's treatment of the subject of abortion. Many theaters would not run the film without the seal.
The film did not accumulate the critical leverage to defy the Code like The Moon Is Blue, but the Code section on abortion was revised soon after. The Legion of Decency condemned it, but barely any theaters prohibited the film on that basis. They were losing their influence. - DirectorOtto PremingerStarsFrank SinatraKim NovakEleanor ParkerA junkie must face his true self to kick his drug addiction.This gritty black-and-white landmark film boldly portrayed heroin as a serious issue as opposed to the generic "dope fiend" angle of the era. Indeed, because it dealt with the taboo subject of "narcotics," Hollywood's Production Code refused to approve it. Finally, this forced a change in production codes, allowing movies more artistic and narrative liberty to more honestly explore as yet taboo subjects like drug abuse, kidnapping, abortion and prostitution. Preminger 2, Code 0.
- DirectorElia KazanStarsKarl MaldenCarroll BakerEli WallachAn immature, naive teenage bride holds her anxious husband at bay while flirting with an amorous Sicilian farmer.The film received a seal from the Motion Picture Code, but the Catholic Legion of Decency condemned it as "grievously offensive to Christian and traditional standards of morality and decency." They successfully had it withdrawn from release in most U.S. theaters because of their objections over its sexual themes. Variety noted that it was the first time in years that the Legion had condemned a major American film which had received the approval of the Code. In fact, it was its critical acclaim, and thus its susequent accolades and awards, that saved it from the obscurity of condemnation.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsMarilyn MonroeTony CurtisJack LemmonAfter two male musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.I'll bet you can guess.
- DirectorJules DassinStarsMelina MercouriJules DassinGiorgos FoundasAn American scholar in Greece sets about improving the prostitute with whom he is infatuated.Once a winner at Cannes, the Oscars and innumerable Greek awards, this Greek film shrewdly avoided the thought control interdictions of censorship boards and introduced a branch between America and less exposed European cultures. Double whammy: Director Jules Dassin began making European films in the first place because his being blacklisted drove him out of the States, where his exile would here blow up in the faces of not 1 but 2 groups of "American" demagogues. Win, win.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAnthony PerkinsJanet LeighVera MilesA secretary on the run for embezzlement takes refuge at a secluded California motel owned by a repressed man and his overbearing mother.Psycho is a textbook case of the kind of movie during the '60s after the Code's deterioration. It was unheard of, right from the opening scene in which Janet Leigh and John Gavin are immediately established as lovers sharing the same bed, Leigh in a bra. Some censors even claimed they could see a breast! Hitchcock held onto the print for several days, left it untouched, and resubmitted it. Each of the censors reversed their positions! Hitchcock said that if they let him keep the shower scene he would re-shoot the opening with them on the set. But they didn't show up! So the opening stayed.
Also, Marion was shown flushing a toilet. Up until that time in mainstream American media, a toilet flushing was never heard, or even seen. Oh, and naturally some censors objected to the use of the word "transvestite," an objection withdrawn after screenwriter Joseph Stefano literally cited the dictionary to prove that the word carried no inherent sexual context. The board was really beginning to embarrass itself. - DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsSilvia PinalFrancisco RabalFernando ReyViridiana, a young nun about to take her final vows, pays a visit to her widowed uncle at the request of her Mother Superior.The Spanish censors torpedoed the original ending, which had Silvia Pinal entering her cousin's room and slowly closing the door behind her. But then, the new ending they accepted actually turned out to be more suggestive than the first, implying a ménage à trois, and it still involved incest!
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsDean MartinKim NovakRay WalstonJealous piano teacher Orville Spooner sends his beautiful wife, Zelda, away for the night while he tries to sell a song to famous nightclub singer Dino, who is stranded in town.Just a fluffy rom-com, right? Legion of Decency staunchly denounced the entire film. Wilder was prepared to blunt the implication of adultery with Dino, but he refused to comply with their less reasonable demands, so this Dean Martin comedy, of all things, was condemned. But the weight they carried was far less upon the studios at this point. United Artists released it, just under the banner of their subsidiary normally for their distribution of overseas films.
- DirectorSidney LumetStarsRod SteigerGeraldine FitzgeraldBrock PetersA Jewish pawnbroker, victim of Nazi persecution, loses all faith in his fellow man until he realizes too late the tragedy of his actions.The film actually showed the fully exposed breasts of Linda Geiser and Thelma Oliver. The scene with Oliver, who played a prostitute, was intercut with a flashback, in which Steiger is pressed to watch his wife Geiser forced into prostitution. The Legion condemned it, "in order to put a very definite halt to the effort by producers to introduce nudity into American films." But this time, their stance wasn't just opposed by the filmmakers, but indeed some Catholic groups! The National Council of Churches awarded it best picture of the year!
The MPAA initially rejected the scenes showing bare breasts and a sex scene. Despite the rejection, Allied Artists went and released the film without the Code seal, and without the cuts demanded. On a vote, the MPAA granted the film an "exception" conditional on "reduction in the length of the scenes which the Production Code Administration found unapprovable." Those reductions were trivial, and the effect was viewed as a triumph for the film's producers and the future of the film industry in the U.S. - DirectorMike NicholsStarsElizabeth TaylorRichard BurtonGeorge SegalA bitter, aging couple, with the help of alcohol, use their young houseguests to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other over the course of a distressing night.The play's immediate reaction was that it'd be a great Broadway success, but could never be filmed. Nobody realized how much the Hollywood overview was metamorphosing already, and that it could no longer live with any meaningful Production Code. Screenwriter Ernest Lehman decided he wouldn't change the dialogue, despite serious opposition.
The Legion issued a pre-emptive threat to slap the movie with their once-feared condemnation, although they had the honorability to wait. The MPAA did not, warning that they could forget about a Seal of Approval.
The ensuing "$7 million dirty movie" was considered groundbreaking for a level of profanity and sexual implication then unthinkable. Jack Valenti, who had just become MPAA president, had abolished the old Code. In order for the film to be released, Warner Bros. agreed to minor deletions of certain profanities and to have a special warning placed on advertisements. Even the Catholic Office refused to "condemn" the film. - DirectorVilgot SjömanStarsLena NymanVilgot SjömanBörje AhlstedtTold in a quasi-documentary style, this companion piece to I Am Curious (Blue) (1968) deals with topics such as class society, non-violent resistance, sex, relationships, and tourism to Francoist Spain.The film features abundant and frank scenes of nudity and sex. A character kisses her lover's penis. The film was accused of being pornographic and banned in Massachusetts, but the District Court, Court of Appeals and ultimately the Supreme Court ruled that the film was not an obscenity.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanDocumentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman takes us inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater where people stay trapped in their madness.Just before its release, the Massachusetts state government tried to get an injunction banning it, claiming that it violated its subjects' privacy. Although Wiseman secured permission from all his subjects, Massachusetts was given editorial control over his film. However, a New York state court let the film be shown. But then, a judge called for the destruction of all copies, citing the state's concerns about the patients' privacy.
This was the first known case in American film history that a film was banned for reasons other than obscenity or immorality. It was also the first time that Massachusetts affirmed a state-level right to privacy. Perhaps the greater invasion of civil liberties was the restriction of the court, not the film they were censoring.
20 years later, 7 families of inmates who died at the hospital sued the hospital and state. One lawyer claimed a straight association between the banning of Titicut Follies and the deaths of several patients. In the years since its making, most of America’s major mental institutions had been shut down or reduced by court orders, including the institution featured in the film.
In 1991, a Superior Court Judge allowed the film to be released to the general public. - DirectorJohn SchlesingerStarsDustin HoffmanJon VoightSylvia MilesA naive hustler travels from Texas to New York City to seek personal fortune, finding a new friend in the process.The film was initially rated X, but its embrace by pornographers caused the rating to rapidly become associated with hardcore sex exploitation. Owing to that stigma, many theaters declined to show it and many newspapers would not advertise it. The film was given a new R rating in '71, without having any cuts or alterations. It remains the only X-rated film ever to win the Oscar for Best Picture, be shown on network TV or be screened by a sitting U.S. President, a Republican even.
- DirectorSam PeckinpahStarsWilliam HoldenErnest BorgnineRobert RyanAn aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them.It was seriously edited by the studio behind Peckinpah's back, excising about 20 minutes, none of which was violent. Because of its violence, the film was then---on top of being recut---threatened with an X. The film was restored to its original length and threatened with an NC-17 even when submitted to the MPAA ratings board 20 years later! This stalled the film's re-release for many months.
- DirectorMike NicholsStarsJack NicholsonCandice BergenArt GarfunkelChronicling the lifelong sexual development of two men who meet and become friends in college.The scene in which Sandy takes out a condom while in bed with Susan is the first time a condom was ever shown onscreen.
- DirectorSam PeckinpahStarsDustin HoffmanSusan GeorgePeter VaughanA young American and his English wife come to rural England and face increasingly vicious local harassment.Because of its vivid portrayal of two brutal rapes, the British Censors banned it from home video release for 20 years. Not even a decade ago, they would've passed it with cuts but Anchor Bay refused them so the film was ultimately rejected, although it passed uncut on a later submission.
- DirectorBernardo BertolucciStarsMarlon BrandoMaria SchneiderMaria MichiA young Parisian woman meets a middle-aged American businessman who demands their clandestine relationship be based only on sex.Bertolucci, producer Alberto Grimaldi, even Brando and Schneider were all indicted by an Italian court for making a pornographic film, resulting in the 5-year suspension of Bertolucci's civil rights. Almost a decade after its original release, United Artists re-released it with an R rating, only a couple of minutes shorter than the preferred Director's cut.
- DirectorJohn WatersStarsDivineDavid LocharyMary Vivian PearceNotorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as "The Filthiest Person Alive".The film was initially banned in Australia, as well as in some provinces in Canada and in Norway. It was eventually released on VHS in Australia in the late 1980s with a X rating, but distribution of the video has since been discontinued. The 1997 version was cut by the distributor to achieve an R18+ after it was also refused classification. No submissions of the film have been made since, but it has been said that one of the reasons for which it was banned (as a film showing unsimulated sex cannot be rated X in Australia if it also features violence, so the highest a film such as Pink Flamingos could be rated is R18+) would now not apply, given that the depiction of unsimulated sex was passed within the R18+ rating for Romance in 1999, two years following Pink Flamingos' re-release.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsPaolo BonacelliGiorgio CataldiUberto Paolo QuintavalleIn World War II Italy, four fascist libertines round up nine adolescent boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of physical, mental, and sexual torture.Killing the filmmaker won't kill the film.