Leff, Leonard J.. Dame in the kimono : hollywood, censorship, and the production code / Leonard J. Leff and Jerold L. Simmons. [0813190118 (pbk.)] Lexington : University Press of Kentucky, c2001.
Call#: Van Pelt Library PN1995.62 .L4 2001

This book deals with Joseph Breen, head of the Production Code Administration, his interpretation and strict adherence to the Production Code, and the effect it had on the film industry at the time.  The Production Code was a set of guidleines governing the production and content of motion pictures, spelling out what was and was not considered morally acceptable in film.  Adopted in 1930, it began to be enforced in 1934 by Breen, and this changed the way film looked.  Risque material, including toilet humor, sexual explicitness and gratuitous violence, was often cut from films.  Breen’s approach to film directly conficted with that of screenwriters and directors.  He “tended toward the literal…and he had a dollars-and-cents approach to the movies: they were more entertainment than art.” 

Jeff and Simmons point out that it is for this reason that Wyler worried Breen, for Breen perceived him to be “a new kind of Hollywood filmmaker, independent, uncompromising and fiercly committed to cinema as an art form.”  Wyler resented the Code and saw it as an impediment to making mature, realistic films that deal with examine adult themes.  Wyler’s original ending to The Best Years of Our Lives as an ambiguous one, with Fred (Dana Andrews) frustrated and disillusioned, wandering alone among the old planes in the airfield.  Due to Samuel Goldwyn’s, the producer, insistence, it was changed to a more positive ending, with Fred finding love and hope, and this change was heavily supported by Breen.  Though the ending still has an ambiguous sense of openness (it leaves one feeling that though the protagonists have found momentary relief and happiness, but real life will continue), the information in this book demonstrates the limitations of the time period on creative expression.  Even though the movie deals with adult themes such as alcoholism and adultery, it does so in a somewhat subtle manner, and even the message of the film conveyed by the film was altered due to standards of the the time.  Depsite all this, however, the The Best Years of Our Lives is still a powerful and moving film, a testament to its expressiveness and timelessness.