English 101 MTA Notes
Black, Chapter 8 Film Politics and Industry Policy
Ian Harris
Chapter 8 is basically a description of the changes made to a series of controversial films as a
result of the policies of the Hays office and Breen’s “industry policy”, which included rules and
regulations concerning movies deemed “dangerous”, along with the policies set forth by the
Lord-Quigley code.
Hollywood had a reputation of preffering “mindless” entertainment over “serious” movies that
delivered moral messages or lessons, etc. However, the events of the 20th century began to drive
Hollywood towards making more serious movies that delivered messages to the public. These
movies were very sensitive material when it came to censorship and having to put them through
the Hays Office.
The problem lay in finding a balance between a reasonable amount of censorship applied to a
movie that delivered a strong moral message without destroying the actual message being
delivered in the movie.
Sometimes the problem was attempting to soften up a movie whose message, otherwise, would
be very strong and could cause turmoil, protest, chaos, or social unrest, while preserving the
basics of the message being delivered. The Hays office was put in the situation of making the
delivery of the message more calm in such ways that it would not upset anyone or cause unrest.
Breen had emphasized that the PCA would interpret the code as a “full mandate for all law and
lawful authority” in the movies. No sympathy for criminals in movies. Also, movies could not
portray politicians as corrupt in any way. Any criticism of the government was labeled
“Communist propaganda” by Breen.
1934 - The President Vanishes by Lynn Starling was one of the first controversial movies that
had ot undergo censorship by Breen and the Hays office. This film was an antiwar film that
portrayed big businesses such as the steel industry, newspaper industry, banking industry, and oil
industry as fat capitalist warmongers who were simply interested in profitting from war and the
lives of american soldiers. In addition, a scene from the film shows a speech by a young member
of the American Communist Party, which was labeled by Hays as “communist propaganda” and
ordered to be removed. Such a movie was the kind of movie Hays did not want the industry to
make.
Black Fury, which starred Paul Muni, was another controversial film which depicted serious
problems in the coal mining industry. Immediately, this movie became labeled dangerous
because of its criticism of the coal industry. Breen warned studio head Jack Warner that there
was already a great deal of industrial unrest in the nation and that it would be better to focus the
blame less on “legitimate” employers and more on the private detectives.
This movie raised problems with the coal industry as well. After having gone through entire
script changes as a result of its passage through the Hays office, the plot of the movie completely
changed. Instead of depicting the real situation of life in the coal mines and a real worker strike,
the movie came out an entirely different story and was also ridiculously sugarcoated.
1935 - It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis was very controversial because its plot was
basically the facist takeover of the United States by a union of government and big business that
brutalized the people and reigned with fear and control. The main character, Doremus Jessup,
watches his country degenerate into a facist state. There is no happy ending either with the big
business still in control of the nation. The movie was so controversial that, in the end, it never
made it to the big screen.
The movie was at risk of creating political unrest in the nation and possibly political divide
because of the risk that it depicted. Hays
1936 - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer decided to bring a powerful play called Dead End to the big
screen no matter what the cost. Dead End was a strong depiction of the gap between the rich and
poor in the United States - the differences between the rich and the poor. It shows the life of
people of the lower class, their filth, their desperation, poor children starving on the streets of the
wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world. Goldwyn feared what the Hays’ reaction
would be, but, to his surprise, the reaction was fairly calm and approving of the film. After a
small amount of changes that were required to be made, Breen granted it a seal of approval, and
the movie hit the American screens in 1939.
The question is why did this movie pass while others similar to it and depicting the same sort of
problems did not? Films like Black Legion, Black Fury, and Fury did not make it although their
plots and the message behind them was quite similar to that of Dead End. The reason for Dead
End’s success was because the Catholic Church was sympathetic with the problems described in
the film - children from depressed families, poverty, etc, were all subjects which the Catholic
church believed should be revealed to the public.