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| Joseph I Breen (1888-1965) |
One of the greatest contributions from the Catholic community came from Joseph Breen. He was the head of the "Production Code Administration" (PCA) established in 1934. This Code stood during the golden age of Hollywood until it was replaced by the new rating system in 1968, which is still in effect today. It's standards and censorship sought to keep all audiences happy and the directors and producers on their toes.
In fact it was greatly due to Breen's influence that the movie "Casablanca" (1942) ended the way it did. He made it strictly understood that the character of Ricky & Ilsa must remain apart in order to avoid an adulterous affair. This left then no question on how the surprise ending was to play out.
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| Carmen Miranda (1909-1955) |
Something else you may have never noticed. The women in those days were not allowed to show their belly button's on film. Even with the famous Brazilian dancer Carmen Miranda no exceptions were made, as you can see. No matter the scene, no matter the costume, you will never see that belly button, even if is covered with only a simple jewel.
Though the Producers were in a larger sense Jewish, it was through the censorship run by Catholics that the films had a more Catholic theme as in "Boys Town"(1938) "Going My Way" (1944) "I Confess" (1953) and so on.
Some of the Catholics shown below, like Gary Cooper, were converts while others may have lapsed a little throughout their life.
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I've been reading your blog for a few weeks now and haven't had the courage to comment. I stumbled upon an awesome tv segment that my wife had TIVO-ed back in April 2010 on TCM. It's called "Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films"—a two-hour documentary (produced by the grand people at Flicker Alley) that featured “bits and pieces” of film treasures that unfortunately do not exist in their complete form today. There are nine segments of material that include clips from the likes of John Ford’s The Village Blacksmith (1922; the last reel), Lon Chaney’s The Miracle Man (1919) and the only color footage of silent screen flapper Clara Bow in an excerpt from Red Hair (1928). It also includes interviews from preservationists from the UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation. I just felt like I had to share this gem with you and thought you'd really enjoy it. I'm not sure if it's sold on dvd or if it was just a tv special but after reading your blog for so long, I felt compelled to share it. I hope you will find the time to watch it. Maybe try youtube? I'm not sure. I bet TCM website could give you more info than me. Best of luck with your blog. Thank you for taking the time to research about the great films of history.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I have not seen this special and could only find other comments of it, like yours, online. I would be interested in seeing the segment from "Miracle Worker." I really apreciate you sharing this. There is nothing like a good old documentary to help you appreciate the film itself more.
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