Raquel Welch
Narrator
Search results
Recommendations. A six hour series exploring the 100 year evolution of sexuality and censorship in motion pictures.
Sex, censorship, and the silver screen : late 1960s to '90s. In 1965, the Catholic Legion of Decency closed its doors; the following year, the Hays Code was scrapped. This program looks at the cinematic milestones which prompted these events and the age of f...
Online. Summary. In what many see as Hollywood's Golden Age, the offices of William Hays and Joseph Breen worked overtime to combat sexuality and subversion in American movies. This program examines the products of...
- Prelude: Overview of Sexuality in Films
- Movies: Sex Is The Missing Ingredient
- Films Offend Decent Men
- First Femme Fatale of Film
- Movie Industry: Reform and Censorship
- Director D.W. Griffith
- Hollywood: Rise of Tinsel Town and Trial of Fatty Arbuckle
- Movie Industry: Censorship and Self-Regulation
- Movie Industry: Law of Compensating Values
- Hollywood Superstar: Rudolf Valentino
The advent of moving pictures ignites the human imagination about human sexuality. While audiences gape, censors condemn the "evils" of sex on the screen. Hollywood becomes synonymous with sin, scandal, sex, and the silver screen.
In April 1894 Thomas Edison presents the "moving picture." Movie makers note early on that sex was a missing ingredient in movies. "Peep shows" offered sexy movies for individuals who wanted a sense of privacy.
Church and civic leaders are concerned over the rise in popularity of moving pictures. Too many films offend the sensibilities of the "guardians of public decency." Archival film footage shows some of the "risque" topics of early films.
Sex symbol Theda Bara first appears in 1915 in "A Fool There Was," a film about a chaste older gentlemen who falls victim to an irresistible vamp. She is the public's first real taste of blatant, feminine sexuality. In 4 years, she makes 40 films.
By 1915, the movies have moved West to California. Over the next 10 years, Hollywood becomes synonymous motion picture production--and decadence. The Supreme Court rules that motion pictures are not protected by the Constitution.
Pioneer film director D.W. Griffith was among the first to publicly protest the rising tide of censorship. He elaborates his feelings in his film "Intolerance," a film about love that included nudity and sex, but was a commercial failure.
Hollywood becomes a fantasy kingdom, one that celebrated a new breed of royalty, movie stars. Luxury industries catered to the burgeoning film industry and its stars. The dark side includes drug addicts, suicide, and orgies, until a tragedy brings the party to an end.
The Fatty Arbuckle scandal gives rise to a nationwide call for reform of Hollywood and movie stars. Congress denounces the film industry as a "hot bed of drunkenness, ribaldry, and free love." The film industry wants to police itself.
In 1930, Will Hays authors the Production Code, a detailed description of what was morally acceptable on the screen. The Law of Compensating Values dictates that if and when skin is shown in films, the character is ultimately punished.
With his appearance in "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," Valentino becomes a living legend, the male version of the vamp. Archival film footage shows the actor as a lover, abuser, and dancer--the only actor in film whose persona is exclusively sexual.
Sex, Censorship, and the Silver Screen. The Series Includes : Sex, Censorship, and the Silver Screen: The Early Decades | Sex, Censorship, and the Silver Screen: From the Depression to WWII | Sex, Censorship, and the Silver Screen: The 1950s and '60s | Sex, Censorship, and the Silver Screen: The Late 1960s to the '90s. DVD (Chaptered)
Sex, Censorship, and the Silver Screen: The Late 1960s to the '90s. Part of the Series : Sex, Censorship, and the Silver Screen. Share. Description. In 1965, the Catholic Legion of Decency closed its doors; the following year, the Hays Code was scrapped.
Part of the Series : Sex, Censorship, and the Silver Screen. Share. Description. After World War II, the wholesomeness of American movies faced a tidal wave of change—from outside, as a growing number of provocative foreign films made their way to the U.S., and from within, as car culture flowered and drive-in theaters sprang up across the country.
