Citation: Vaughn, Stephen, The Devil's Advocate Will H. Hays and the Campaign to Make Movies Respectable. Indiana Magazine of History 101.2 (2005): 66 pars. 2 Dec. 2008 .  

This article explains how William Hays attempted to find a common ground between tradition and modernity in the movie industry. After various sex scandals in Hollywood, the image of Hollywood was becoming tarnished as people began to think these behaviors would corrupt the "weak minded" in America. As a result, the MPPDA hired Hays to clean up the film industry. His code integrated ideas from the 10 commandments and applied them to all aspects of film.

 

While Hays tried to make the film industry more moral and upstanding, his code hindered the creativity of many people in the movie industry, including Howard Hughes. The Oulaw had many scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor due to the code. Hughes fought tirelessly against the MPPDA and Hays to keep certain scenes because he pleaded that without them, the film would not portray the same meaning. Because of the severe restrictions, Hughes had to come up with a special bra for Jane Russell to wear to prevent too much cleavage being shown in addition to the rape scene being re-shot.

Citation: Butters, Gerald. "An Age of Maturity." Banned in Kansas : Motion Picture Censorship, 1915-1966. By Gerald R. Butters and Gerald R. Butters. New York: University of Missouri P, 2007. 236-36

This book talks about how The Outlaw received a C for condemned rating from the Catholic Legion of Decency and its affect on the receipt of the film. Because the film was labeled as condemned, many theaters in the Midwest, including Kansas, did not want to risk showing it in theaters. In Kansas, the film was only allowed to show with significant cuts to Rio’s character. However, the controversy over why the film was banned created huge public interest and those theaters that chose to show the film generate huge revenue from it.

 

Again, the negative feedback from The Outlaw in the press added to public curiosity. It is interesting that the more censors tried to stop people from seeing the film for fear of corruption, the more audiences were drawn to it. In Kansas, many films that were considered too risqué were butchered to the point of unrecognizable. Many states in the Midwest held this same sentiment; however the ones that decided to show The Outlaw uncut reaped the rewards of their decision.

 

Citation: Schatz, Thomas. Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s. Published by University of California Press, 1999 pg. 36

This book discusses the impact on the movie industry that Howard Hughes fight with Breen and Hays had on Hollywood. It talks about how Hughes stood up to the censors relentlessly and his example was followed by others. His uprising began the resistance of other independent production companies to the restraints of the production code. It also showed that those who would resist would come from independent studios geared towards urban audiences.

 

While Hughes fought for the rights of The Outlaw to receive a seal of approval uncensored, he also led by example to undermine the moral restrictions of the production code. After the litigation with The Outlaw was over, other production companies began to fight against the code and release movies without a seal of approval. This is yet another way that Howard Hughes found a way to fight against the higher powers to make sure his movie was made.

 

Citation: LaSalle, Mick. Complicated Women : Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood. Boston: Saint Martin's Griffin, 2001. 1-1.

 

This book talks about the negative impact that the production code had on the portrayal of women in cinema. The author describes a time before the code when women could enjoy being women without having to apologize for it. She describes that women were allowed to “have fun”, “take on lovers and have children out of wedlock”. The introduction explains that part of the reason the code was implemented was to stop women from enjoying these freedoms onscreen and put them back in their place, the kitchen.

 

This section relates heavily to the character of Rio, played by Jane Russell in The Outlaw. Before the code, there would have been little to no qualms about her showing as much skin and cleavage. However, due to the Hays code, which aimed at making movies more moral, her character was stifled. Some of the controversy over the questionable integrity of the film was partly due to the fact that Jane Russell was a female actress attempting to express her female sexuality in a time where it was not appreciated.      

 

Citation: Dart, Peter. "Breaking the Code: A Historical Footnote." Cinema journal 8 (1968): 39-41.

This article talks about how Howard Hughes used the controversy over his advertising of The Outlaw to create public interest for the movie. Hughes redid the posters and other advertising for the film after it released to mediocre reviews in San Francisco. However, he did not resubmit his new advertising to Hays and Breen, and they were not pleased with the explicit nature of some of his posters. Due to the bickering back and forth, it generated positive publicity for the film and it made more money at the box office.

 

In this case, the production code helped The Outlaw achieve the fame that it has today. When Hughes first released the movie, audiences and critics alike thought the movie was average bordering on bad. However, when Hughes began to argue with the P.C.A about his overly sexualized advertising, audiences took another look at the film. Without the moral harshness of the code, The Outlaw may have remained a second-rate film forever.        

 

Citation: Klinger, Barbara. Melodrama and Meaning : History, Culture and the Films of Douglas Sirk. New York: Indiana University, Folklore Institute, 1994. 39-39.

This book describes how the Howard Hughes/MPAA case over The Outlaw began to open the floodgates for more films to challenge the censorship laws. After Hughes’ case in 1946, more studios and directors began to release films with little to no regard for the coveted MPAA seal of approval. This reaction began to loosen the hold that Hays and Breen had over film production in Hollywood, and later on would lead to the abolishment of the Hays code.

 

In the fight between the MPAA and Hughes, much more than Jane Russell’s breasts were at stake. A win for Hughes by allowing the film to go largely uncut showed that the production code could be manipulated or even broken. In addition, the large movie turnout generated by this controversy was attractive to many other studios, and they too began releasing movies with our without the seal of approval. This uprising showed that the creativity of people in Hollywood would not be snuffed out.

 

Citation: Black, Gregory D. The Catholic Crusade against the Movies, 1940-1975. New York: Cambridge UP, 1998. 41-42.

 

This book talks about the efforts the Catholic Church made to ensure that The Outlaw was banned in as many places as possible. All over the country for years after the film was released, Catholic groups protested its release and threatened boycotts. Many theaters, including ones in Philadelphia, saw the boycotts as harmful to their establishments, and refused to show the film. Many bishops released statements testifying to the immoral nature of the film and its potential impact on American society. Also, film critics joined in the witch hunt stating that Russell’s acting ability was “hopelessly inept” and that the film itself was “tedious”.

 

Try as the Catholics might, the more they protested the film, the more audiences wanted to see it. While they tried to explain that the film lacked morals and that Americans, particularly young men would be impacted in a harmful way, this did not stop people from seeing the film. In fact, when the film was later released in San Francisco, it opened to record crowds. This is a case where the code helped the film to succeed, not hinder it.    

 

Citation: Brown, Peter Harry, and Pat H. Broeske. Howard Hughes : The Untold Story. New York: Da Capo P, Incorporated, 2004. 185-86.

 

His technique to get around having to make significant cuts in The Outlaw is an excellent example of Hughes’ creativity to avoid the production code. Instead of submitting to the will of the censors, Hughes fought back for the integrity of his film. He compared the same amount of cleavage to other motion pictures with similar amounts that received a seal of approval. His brilliant maneuvering around the code had negative effects on later films that attempted similar tactics, but for this film, they worked and saved it.

 

Citation: Stephen, Vaughn. "Morality and Entertainment: The Origins of the Motion Picture Production Code." The Journal of American History 77 (1990): 39-65.

This article explains why the MPPC was adopted. It illustrates the illicit behaviors of those in Hollywood and why the heads in Tinsil Town felt the need to put their feet down on free expresssion in film. Actors such as Fatty Arbuckle were involved in controversies that were thought to have a significant impact on movie audiences. This morally reprehensible behavior potrayed both on and off screen supposedly caused the corruption of Americans. Therefore, William Hayes decided that there needed to be regulation of Hollywood to prevent any further contamination of yourh in America.

 

The introduction of the Hays Code directly affected the production of The Outlaw. Howard Hughes fought throughout the production of this film to keep certain scenes that were deemed inappropriate by the production code. In particular scene in question was where Jane Russell wears a dress that reveals too much of her bustline. Per the code, this scene needed to be cut out if the movie was to receive the seal of approval from the MPAA. However, Hughes fought to keep the scene in the movie and eventually came to an agreement about how much of Jane Russell's breast would be shown.

Citation: Vaughn, Stephen JSTOR: Film Quarterly Vol. 49, No. 2 (Winter, 1995-1996), pp. 58-59

This article talks about the financial and social consequences of the production code, as written in a book by Gregory D. Black. In his book he writes how a movie Idiot's Delight and many other movies needed to be severely changed to fit into PCA standards. He later describes how Hays and other social morality groups used the power of boycott to bend Hollywood to adhering to the social and moral restrictions of the code. Since the Great Depression was an eminent threat on movie production in Hollywood, the threat of boycott was enough to make many studios follow the production code.

This resource explains how other movies were hurt by the implementation of the Hays Code and how the studios were not in a position to change it. While Hughes was able to argue for certain scenes in The Outlaw, other producers were less fortunate. Many films were shut down, or cut so badly that they were unrecognizable. Hollywood wanted to make films that would offend the least amount of people, especially people overseas. This hurt many American films, like The Outlaw that did not pass the censorship of the PCA right away, if at all.

 

This project contains resources that relate to the implementation and aftermath of the Hays Code. The Outlaw by Howard Hughes was a movie that was severely affected and almost not made because of it. As a result of the "Do's, Don'ts and Be Careful's" Hughes had to find more creative ways of expressing sexuality that did not violate the code. Created by Ridgeway Jaia Wilson Summary: In this project, I learned about the extent to which the production code affected thousands of films. Going into this project, I thought that while the code was annoying, it didn't have that large of an impact on the films that came after it. However, on closer review of the sources in this project, as well as watching movies that were made before and after the code, I notice a big difference. The films released before the Hays code were more raw and real, because they were able to express the full range of emotions, no matter how explicit. After the code, films became more watered down and in some ways, less appealing. While the code made it harder to include morally questionable material, Howard Hughes was one of the few people in Hollywood that found a way around the code to make his movie.

project for the bibliography