Original subtitles

[Music]

within 35 years not just what is

possible but what is permissible is

completely altered

this is the story of how the movies

reflect and influence a time of Rapid

change

how social military and artistic

advancements create a new world on the

screen and behind it

mostly this is a story of the tension

that exists between the films that are

created those who censor them

and the ones who oppose such censorship

[Music]

when the opposite is so much fun it

makes me proud to turn it down

[Music]

I'm going straight to help me please I'm

falling falling

[Music]

you never want to do the things

[Music]

at all

[Music]

the threat of censorship has long been a

restrictive Force upon Society

in the late 1800s through the turn of

the century a law called The Comstock

act enforces a penalty for sending

obscene materials through the mail

Anthony Comstock boasts of impounding

and destroying hundreds of thousands of

photographs books and contraceptive

devices

the punishment for such obscenity is up

to ten thousand dollars or ten years in

prison

Comstock also boasts of being

responsible for more than 15 suicides

[Music]

in this new century rapid change is upon

us

president Theodore Roosevelt is loyal to

strict Victorian values and against the

growing strain of women voicing their

desire for change

it's an entirely different world I was

raised with very strict parents they

felt it was not uh proper to show great

emotion in public

rules of society state that any sexual

indiscretions which give rise to public

gossip are punished by social death or

cutting

these hypocritical people who hid sex

you couldn't talk about it or that was

something you never talked about with

sex

suddenly the world is able to look at

itself moving

and we see for the first time an era

reflected on film

the visualness of the films the movement

of the films opens up a world on so many

levels that's impossible for us to

comprehend today

it was lifting a veil on the entire

world

electricity pours through Penny arcades

and Nickelodeon's where for pocket

change people see moving pictures

the New York evening World States for

the first time in the history of the

world it is possible to see what a kiss

looks like

the idea has unlimited possibilities

discussions in the debates started to

arise about what's appropriate

what's appropriate for people to see

which of course inevitably leads to

what's appropriate for people to be

doing so censorship immediately emerged

as a key issue linked directly to the

medium of film

[Music]

the Chicago Tribune launches an attack

on the Nickelodeons

describing their influence upon society

as vicious

the Presbyterian Methodist Baptist and

congregational frowned on theatricals as

being worldly

it's nothing new of course it was sex in

drama from the very word go way back in

ancient Greece

audiences demand to know the names of

their favorite Stars

and out of the Biograph Studios comes

little Mary Pickford

in this rare early film 19 year old Mary

co-stars with her off-screen husband

Owen Moore

art imitates life and their real

marriage is an unhappy one

[Music]

in Owen's dream Mary gives her husband

the wife he's always longed for

she also turns out to be his worst

nightmare

[Music]

Mary Pickford brings a fresh and honest

approach to film acting

her performance is natural surprisingly

subtle

I was a mood

that is I didn't do anything I didn't

feel

nothing to me so sacred

about that camera

Mary Pickford along with many other

ambitious artists flocked to Los Angeles

California

Hollywood of course attracted The

Adventurous the curious

the imaginative people left their homes

and flocked to Hollywood and they were

all thrown together like children into

this plot

and movie making was so much fun

eight to ten million Americans go to the

movies every day

fans flocked the theaters to see their

favorite Stars

I never thought of being a movie actress

that was something like being a

burlesque Queen that's so far back when

they were flickers

the first sexual Revolution is about to

take place and the medium of film is the

perfect outlet for open sexual

expression

enter upon the screen

the vamp

the vamp is the first dangerous woman of

the movies

so dangerous that her films are often

restricted

in 1917 in Chicago Theta beara's film

Camille is banned for anyone under the

age of 21.

Berra and Fox film corporations sued the

Chicago sensors for one hundred thousand

dollars

the lawsuit helped bring more than a

hundred thousand dollars worth of

patrons eager to see all of theta

beara's releases

[Music]

although the novelty soon wears off

the vamp doesn't last very long

they suddenly very quickly begin to look

like caricatures

foreign

Aldi recalls years later a man would run

20 miles if he ever stumbled on a woman

really looking like that

it was difficult to convince an audience

that you were such a femme fatale that

you could lure a man from his work and

his woman merely by raising and lowering

your eyelashes

director Cecil B Demille brings a

sensual appeal to the movies with his

sexual and societal melodramas

in 1915 Cecil B Demille brings to the

screen the cheat the story of a society

woman who borrows money from a rich

Japanese man

[Music]

the collateral for the loan involves

sexual favors

[Music]

and Rain eggs on her debt he takes his

revenge

[Music]

demille's introduction of overt Sato

masochism is sensational

yeah

both to male and female audience members

[Music]

Cecil certainly made a big effect in the

direction movies went toward

[Music]

Cecil had a a very large influence on

the development

of movies

with the power of film comes the

inevitable rise of the movie star

and Mary Pickford becomes the most

beloved female star in the world

her sexuality lies in her strength

[Music]

and in her childlike sense of fun

Mary Pickford is a dynamic Force

[Music]

Boon really and as Adolf zuker said

about her she could do anything she

could have run the whole business

I never had any trouble with my

directors because I didn't embarrass

them if I wish to I had the power

I don't believe in embarrassing people

I've seen I would suggest this

Mary also takes control of her personal

life

and begins a love affair with actor

Douglas Fairbanks

[Music]

Douglas Fairbanks is a very sexy man

an adventure some boy a delightful

action figure

he's got enormous charisma

Douglas and Mary Pickford were married

to other people had a notorious love

affair and were in fact under going a

fairly scandalous life together

in 1917 President Woodrow Wilson enters

America into World War One

stars of the screen go on tour singing

war bonds

they raised Millions

when Doug and Mary went to sell war

bonds they found that millions of people

came out for them

well they could not believe the good

fortune and they started to think wow

I'm in a position now of being a God to

people around the world I have to

rethink really how I am supposed to act

am I a role model now

as American men enlist for the war

opportunities arise for women

by 1917 700 000 women are in war work

and opportunities also Arise at the film

studios

the war gives women an excuse to lighten

their load and lavish clothes go into

storage

Cecil B demille's films increasingly

assert the importance of fashion as

Hollywood supplies the public with the

latest concepts of Allure and glamor

you had all of America and all the world

actually changing their looks as

something happened on the screen

the women wanted to look their best

and what they felt was the best look was

what they were seeing up on the screen

Gloria Swanson becomes Cecil B demille's

favorite star DeMille creates a perfect

persona for her one which embodies

glamor and sophistication like none

other

exuding Sleek Allure and confidence with

every move she makes

they loved one another he always called

her affectionately little fellow

she made the perfect star for him to

dress in these

incredible get-ups he understood that he

could use dream sequences and fantasy

sequences and returns to imaginary past

film found a way to give Americans a

whole new attitude towards sex a whole

new Freedom by pretending that either we

weren't responsible or it wasn't really

happening

how smart was that

and this isn't a Time the Victorian age

is just barely dying out

and women across the country are going

to see these movies

which not only show them all these new

fashion but much more importantly giving

them an empowerment in their lives

this is a fabulous time for women

a true Liberation is realized when

President Wilson gives women the right

to vote

women voted out the sale and

transportation of alcoholic drinks

The Volstead Act or national prohibition

Act is passed on October 28 1919.

prohibition gives a whole new reason to

rebel against societal rules

after World War one they threw up the

corsets the jazz came in

[Music]

the girls would go into the ladies room

and remove their corsets

so you could dance closer to the men

oh they thought that was scandalous

it was a celebration

people are under the impression that the

1960s was the time when all the moral

codes were broken and our world changed

but actually it had happened in the

1920s immediately following World War

One the whole structure of society

shattered

women cut their hair women cut off their

skirts they started smoking

everybody was drinking drugs were all

over the place

Hollywood is now the center of American

Film Production allowing producers

directors and stars to thumb their noses

at attempts for restraint and control

we were like children

sense of freedom and abandonment because

we've had a war to end all wars

everybody was going to be a millionaire

in the stock market even your taxi

drivers

Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford

secure divorces from their spouses and

quickly marry each other

they not only survived the Scandal they

are named king and queen of Hollywood in

1920.

it truly is amazing the way she over

wrote all of the potential scandals it

could have happened to her

she would never have survived CNN but

during the 24-hour news cycle but nobody

cared

the power of the star the money they

made the importance they were the

royalty they became

the importance of them not having a

scandal attached to them was Paramount

and I mean that the Moguls watching over

this

Hollywood is threatened with government

censorship when a series of scandals

become public in the heart of the film

world

[Music]

one actor is sacrificed in a scandal

that could not be repressed

comedian Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle is

charged with manslaughter when Starlet

Virginia rapid bleeds to death under

mysterious circumstances after a party

in San Francisco

things go wrong at parties

sometimes it gets in the papers people

who were running the industry said this

is not going to be good for business so

we have to clamp down and straighten

things out here

in December of 1921 Postmaster General

William H Hayes is invited to take

control of the film industry

Hayes first victim is Fatty Arbuckle

no question about it was escape from

he was a major major storm making this

endless

endless money and then the thing up in

San Francisco is all over the paper and

all Buckle was finished absolutely

finished

within days of his total acquittal the

exoneration in fact an unprecedented

apology coming from the jury

will Hayes bands him from the screen for

life

because that is what will Hayes had been

hired to do

[Music]

with the Arbuckle case still on the

front pages director William Desmond

Taylor is found dead in his Hollywood

home

both his girlfriend actress Mary miles

Minter and comedian Mabel Normand are

implicated in the murder

nobody really had the heart of it but

when it came down toward the end that

the most likely suspect involved Mary

miles winter people stopped going to her

movies

Mary miles winter was a little soft

sweet little thing and people could just

dismiss her

question was what was their involvement

with this man

what kind of lives were these three

individuals leading

all that made the media and of course

America question what is Hollywood like

we go see a product that they make every

week

they're feeding us ideas and images but

how do they live

are they not living by the same

standards the same moral values by which

we live

[Music]

Taylor's death gives Hayes his baptism

of Fire

[Music]

foreign

within 20 years the population of Los

Angeles has increased eight times its

size

a boom directly related to the film

industry

the top talent in Hollywood gathers to

create their own Studio

together Mary Pickford Douglas Fairbanks

Charlie Chaplin and DW Griffith form

United Artists

they all thought that they should do

something to get total creative control

and also the financial control

and they were voicing these opinions

that maybe we should form our own

company to do our own distribution and

that's how United Artists was born

the lunatics are taking over the asylum

all kinds of barbs were thrown at them

but of course that was because of the

genuine fear the formation of United

Artists sent through the industry sent

through those Studio locals

this really threatened what they had

claimed was their Authority

United Artists invites their peers to

join them in taking control of their art

italian-born actor Rudolf Valentino is

enticed by the promise of financial as

well as creative control

after years of frustration with

Paramount Studios and with his

typecasting

of Valentino is the first male exotic

sex symbol

The Daily Mirror describes him as the

personification of irresistible sex

magnetism

[Music]

Valentino is actually very shy and

private

and he is embarrassed by the attention

heaven knows I'm no Chic he States

I let them play me up as a lounge lizard

soft handsome devil whose only sin in

life was to sit around and be admired by

women

there was the kind of surrendering of

responsibility

that it's this man from another culture

the man with a different morality a

different set of sexual rules

takes you over against your will

it's the it's not your fault Avenue to

hot sex

[Music]

the European charms permeate the screen

Paula negri is aggressive

foreign

[Music]

and very modern

Paul and Mary was also a woman who knew

who to be for the public

she understood I need to play my role

off-screen as well as on

and when she came to Hollywood she

knocked people off their seats with her

behavior

the 1920s give rise to the flapper

this girl isn't frightening

she's fun

things started to show and although

there was objections to it I think the

power to change was stronger than the

power to repress it

there was a whole Revolution for women

suddenly it's okay to appear nude in

print for the sake of Art

nudity is presented as tasteful and

beautiful

[Music]

the Advent of art magazines has a lot to

do with a new permissiveness as more and

more females drop more and more clothing

in print on the stage

and on the screen

[Music]

Colleen Moore makes it okay to be a

rebellious flapper

Colleen Moore was your safe lover she

was your innocent flower she was your

flapper next door

whereas Clara Beau watch out

lock your doors protect your daughters

and you know cover up your boy's eyes

because Here Comes Claire about

Clara Bow so clearly liked sex always

[Music]

[Music]

clarabo is the first natural sex symbol

a woman who doesn't have to work at it

she just has to enjoy it

producer B P schulberg bills her as the

hottest jazz baby in films

she was really the personification of

the Discover

jazz baby

the time for change again he was the

perfect vehicle for it

Clara was a young woman who didn't have

a very good background

she was an utterly vulnerable creature

Clara leaves a free sexual lifestyle

also off-screen

as long as she brings in the box office

the studio protects her

and she is now Hollywood's

self-proclaimed it girl

[Music]

she really was pulling Paramount along

for much of 20s

so as a result people were afraid to

rein her in either on the screen or off

the screen

in a day when you know sexual matters

were never spoken of in mixed company or

anywhere else

alluding to shocking Behavior

Louise Brooks along with Clara Beau

represents a complete break from the

Victorian Spirit

Louise has a sensual and erotic ease

accompanied by a startling Beauty

her cool attitude in census Studio head

BP schulberg

barely a Starlet Louise has the attitude

of a star

Clara Beau knew how to play the game

Louise didn't want to play the game she

wasn't afraid to stand up there until

the head of the studio where to go

she didn't like what was going on

she didn't take any BS from anybody so

she became the bad girl at Paramount

Studios

my father loved that independent woman

Luis also had some pretty fiery language

and my father liked that too

in 1924 director William DeMille writes

that the New York State Board of sensors

has made Cuts in 386 films he States the

American people must conform to the idea

that ignorance is the best form of

Innocence

it must take for granted that to see

evil is to desire it

in 1925 Norma Talmadge stars in the lady

a society melodrama about a woman who is

betrayed and abandoned by her husband

destitute and pregnant she finds Solace

and acceptance in a brothel

due to her circumstances she is forced

to abandon her child

foreign

[Music]

office issues a list of don'ts to the

movie studios but they are careful to

include no Provisions for the actual

enforcement of this list

censorship becomes something of a paper

tiger left up to the individual states

or not at all

the motion picture

producers and Distributors Association

would take a film and look at it real by

Reel and get the scissors out and cut it

if they felt that it wasn't right for

people to see

this was costing the studios about two

million dollars a year and the reason

for that was because they didn't put the

parts back in they cut out

so you give a film is no longer what was

made

Gloria Swanson is used to living her

life the way she chooses ignoring

protests from the studio

in my own way in my own time I was a

rebel

I didn't go along with the current

I was the first to have a baby

that really said Hollywood obvious here

when I told Mr Alaska I was going to

have a child I thought he would never

come out of the swoon

Gloria Swanson is warned by Jessie

Laskey to curb her behavior both on and

off the screen

during her second divorce Gloria's

husband blackmails her with the claim

that she had been having extramarital

affairs with 14 men one of them being

Cecil B DeMille

Jessie Laskey insists that she settle

out of court admitting guilt for

something she has not done in order to

keep a public Scandal out of the papers

live your life on the screen for your

public whatever you do off-screen well

be careful about it because we don't

care what you do as long as it doesn't

get in the papers

Gloria Swanson is forced to sign a new

agreement outraged she responds in other

words the studio is putting me on a

tight leash

they were scaring me into being a

well-behaved star telling me that unless

I towed the line they could cut me off I

was angry and humiliated

Gloria Swanson is brought into the

United Artists fold where she is

welcomed to pursue her career on her own

terms

I go Where Angels feared to tread

so I I'm just as likely to swim upstream

when everybody's swimming down because I

have ideas of my own

for Gloria Swanson to turn down a

million dollars a year

from Paramount

to sign with United Artists is a

testimony to the power of United Artists

[Music]

producer Gloria Swanson acquires the

rights to and somehow manages to trick

Hayes into allowing her to bring to the

screen Somerset moms Reign the story of

a fallen woman on the run from the

police

brain was on Hayes list

of unfilmable plays so Gloria Swanson

went around the back door

and called it Sadie Thompson

she went and had lunch with Will Hayes

and said I need your help because of

course we would never have it be a

minister we want to change it to a

reformer and Hayes bought in Hook Line

and Sinker

Sadie's plans for escape are thwarted by

the reformer

[Music]

she gives up a second chance at life

because she is haunted by his words

when the reformer who has tried to

convert her succumbs to his own lust

Sadie returns to her former ways

with no enforced production code to stop

her

always one to push the envelope Cecil B

Demille creates the Godless girl an

attack on atheism with a shocking

scenario about a girl with no conscience

DeMille is famous for his tactic of

showing nearly anything he wants

and using a last real Redemption as

cover

you can show all the sin all the sex all

the violence all of the pravity you

wanted

as long as God was triumphed in the last

reel

[Music]

and the evil doers were punished

and virtue Triumph then people walked

into the light

and in the meantime he got away with all

the sex and violence

DeMille States his opinion on the matter

in order to promote reform it is first

necessary to show the wages of sin

foreign

[Music]

making movies in the period of the Hayes

office was a constant negotiation to see

what you could get away with

and what you couldn't it was just part

of doing business there is one woman who

not only ignores the sensors but she

defies them

Mae West has her own following in the

theater

not only does she star in racy plays she

writes as well as produces them

May is not afraid to speak openly about

sex

in fact she builds her entire career

around it

the lasting value and the lasting impact

of May West is that she liberated the

American public from Victorian prudary

and she was all about demolishing the

double standard between men and women

May States for the press in this

enlightened age of ours the world boasts

of the fact that it is more open-minded

and more intelligent than it has ever

been

science reveals greater Secrets every

day and even God is doubted fearlessly

but the great majority of people are

still terribly in the dark when it comes

to one of our greatest truths

sex

she had her own ethics

she proved all the people who ambassaded

her or put her down for uh you know

glorifying the homosexual or the

prostitute

she was not the hypocrite that a lot of

people were

in March 1927 May West and 23 members of

the cast of her play sex

plead not guilty before the grand jury

of New York

May and her cast are indicted for the

production of an allegedly immoral play

people like to be shocked so why not

Shock them they said

where's the harm and I know what they

like so I give it to her

I wrote the story myself

it's all about a girl who lost her

reputation but never missed it

it is only a matter of time before May

West appears on the motion picture

screen bringing an altogether new type

to the world of film

[Applause]

sexual parody with a seductive voice

foreign

hits the nation in 1926 when Rudolph

Valentino is laid to rest after he dies

from complications from a perforated

ulcer

writer H.L Menken comments

predicament of poor Valentino touched me

here was a young man who was living

daily the dream of other young men here

was one who was catnip to women

here was one who had wealth and fame

and here was one who was very unhappy

[Music]

team of stardom reaches across the globe

and beautiful women and talented

directors from all over the world come

to work in the most successful location

for the production of Motion Pictures

[Music]

Swedish actress Greta Garbo comes to

Hollywood and signs a contract to make

films at MGM Studios

she is Hollywood's latest foreign sexual

icon

you can't say that the vamp completely

disappeared with the flapper because of

course what was Garbo they were suddenly

pulled up short because they had a

realization that they had no heroin with

youth beauty or personality enough to

make free love sympathetic

so at that point

enter Greta Garba

Garbo's most revealing scenes are played

out with her lover off-screen John

Gilbert

her reaction to him it's just even a

physical thing if they touch hands

her face

changes

she really responded to him as she

didn't respond to anybody else that I

could see on the screen

Hollywood represents freedom to some and

shackles to others

videos own their stars and they keep

them on a short leash due to the

ever-present fear of impending

censorship

they were so afraid of the Scandal

you know they had to keep their eye on

they didn't trust these people with good

reason you know they were all

misbehaving like crazy

John Gilbert has no respect for a system

which he considers to be hypocritical

my father was irreverent

I don't think father hated anybody he

just sort of dismiss them but you don't

dismiss we be mayor

Louise Brooks also feels contempt for

the system and so she escapes Hollywood

studio Executives to star in Pandora's

Box filmed in Berlin and directed by g w

Pabst

that was the nature of her Liberty

gibbet character both off as well as on

camera

and it was her appeal to pass

Lulu is a mythical figure a creature who

uses her beauty to get what she desires

leading her down a self-destructive path

toward complete ruin

[Music]

the revealing scene in which she sits on

the shigulch's lap the old man who is

essentially just a pimp

she's on his lap and she says everybody

wants something from me and it's true

and it's also true that everybody who

does so and gets something from her

usually ends up being destroyed

but the key is that this happens with

her being unaware of it all she is

trying to do is share this incredible

sexuality or eroticism or even you could

just say affection

what Lulu does is to bring out the worst

qualities that exist at the deep dark

horrible heart of all men

her life destroyed Lulu ends up a

prostitute

on Christmas Eve she is brutally

murdered by Jack the Ripper

the only true love scene is this one

with Jack the Ripper

like Lulu Louise Brooks could not be

tamed

as Luis herself put it sex was the

business of the town and she herself

Louise was a

hard partying girl enjoying the

smorgasbord that Berlin had to offer

I really didn't know any of the actors

in the first place patch didn't want me

to know any he was so afraid that I'd

run out at night and go go to all those

lesbian joints or get drunk

the sensors take the shears to Pandora's

Box

Pandora's Box was hugely censored in

Germany and butchered to death because

it was so morally objectionable in the

view of the sensors and that by the time

it hit the United States which was much

later it was further butchered and it

played in New York for instance for

about 10 minutes

a Brash experimentation that up to now

has only been discussed as a theoretical

possibility

at that point nobody was interested in

silent films

the best silent film of 1928 or 9 could

not compete with the worst sound film at

the box office

before MGM made Garbo's first talkie

they prepared her for more than a year

Clara Beau has only two weeks of

preparation for the undistinguished

properties Paramount gives her

wild party is the story of a college

girl living the party life at school

[Music]

she is reformed by the love she has for

her professor you mean you hate me

yes

I can get you one and I love you

I hate you for what you've been and I

I love you for what you could be

will be killed

Clara's Behavior behind the scenes can

no longer be buried by the studio

one

you or two minutes ago you were getting

cash with me

and if it wasn't me it would be somebody

else you couldn't love anyone it seems

like a little girl really there was

something of every damn day with clothes

she was so innocent

so vulnerable she had no protection at

all

in 1931 a disgruntled assistant

publishes a scandalous pamphlet exposing

Clara Beau for having numerous affairs

she was an enormously big star for a

long time and she did get unfortunate

some publicity that was not

the best of situations at that time

new faces arrive with voices to match

established Stars find their positions

threatened as the studios prepare to

change all of the rules

Clara Beau has a portion of her salary

placed into a trust

if she misbehaves the trust fund

disappears

when things started to change with the

coming of sound and she really had a

problem and it was obvious that they

were not going to be able to carry her

haven't you ever had a girl back home

that used to hold close in your arms and

kiss sometimes

oh

I thought so

couldn't you shut your eyes and pretend

I'm I'm

um

she wasn't gonna be able to carry the

studio any longer financially then

things changed in a big way and she

really was

censored or censured in a way that

financially

Paramount now focuses on Marlena

Dietrich as their new sex symbol

they expect her not only to be their

answer to Garbo but they also are

relying on her to make it in sound

pictures

what she disliked very much was that At

first she felt that she was an airs out

Scarborough

she was brought as a rival to MGM they

didn't care about Dietrich per se as

long as she was able to make MGM sweat a

little Paramount was happy

Dietrich has an amused no-nonsense

approach to sex and she is appalled by

the morals clause

she states in America sex is an

obsession in other parts of the world

it's a fact

my mother was very angry

they have no right

what I do as somebody who earns their

living is one thing

what I do outside of that structure

she lived her life the way she wanted to

live it not the way the studio would

have liked

Studio contacts Louise Brooks to return

to Paramount and dub her voice over the

silent footage that she had shot for the

film the canary murder case

she refuses

and she ends her career

[Music]

so they called me and they said you must

return to Hollywood to make this into a

turkey

I said lie I'm sorry I'm not returning

to Hollywood they said well you must be

kidding I said no I'm not kidding they

said well how can we make it into a

donkey without you and I said I really

don't know

it was her theory that the studios were

capitalizing on all the confusion over

sound in order to break contracts and

cut salaries and tame the Stars

the first publicity that came out about

me in Hollywood when talking they said

Louise Brooks is one of those

unfortunate people whose voice did they

apparently put this out as if I didn't

have enough trouble whose voice didn't

record well

that Hollywood treatment is murders just

murders are you not a person anymore you

know the people who've been to die with

you and you spent weekends with they

look right at you it isn't like this is

what they is we buff you you don't exist

anymore

foreign

October 1929 the world as we know it

collapses

when the depression finally hit

they still kept cranking out movies

for a few cents to be able to go to a

movie and get lost in that make-believe

world

in the entire history of movies

1929 was the most profitable year ever

the big problem in terms of censorship

and the content of movies was that all

of a sudden the film is on a disk a disc

cannot be censored the point is you

can't cut that

I'm Carrie Malott

I am what I am

I don't know how they finally settle

things in this world or the next but

when the day comes I'll stand there with

my chin up and take what's coming to me

and I wouldn't trade places with you you

white-livered sweet smelling hypocrite

that they gave me a one-way ticket to

Hell

by 1929 all of Hollywood converts to

sound

giving the studios the perfect

opportunity to clean house

Louise Brooks finally returns to

Hollywood only to be cast in bad B

westerns and short films

[Music]

the greatest of many ironies of Louise's

downfall was that her final films were

just small parts and terrible films of

which probably the most terrible is

Wendy Riley goes Hollywood Please Mr

Lane don't put that story Mr lacrosse

will be here in a few minutes yeah he'd

be a good guy the kid lose a contract

event goes to when she loses her

contract I lose my money but the

director of the film is more interesting

for Fatty Arbuckle who at that point had

long disgraced himself and been out of

work and was allowed to come back and

try to redeem himself by directing but

only if he used the pseudonym will be

good like a couple of facts it's said

ending for both of them

sound Alters audiences expectations and

makes it impossible for more demure and

older actresses to compete

was that all right

the sound coming it was really an

absolute Enlightenment it's hard to

describe the Panic for everybody the

whole town was taken

the classic play rain is remade but in

an entirely different style starring

Joan Crawford

Gloria Swanson was a lady who just

happened to be in a questionable

profession whereas with Crawford you

kind of got the feeling she really liked

it

used to pep you

were born holy Willy look at this the

Wabash blues music and a nipple liquor

that's what a rainy day is for says I

can you dance Hanson Joan Crawford was a

performer of much greater ferocity she

was more Manish in in some respects and

I think that colored her performance Mr

Davidson why do you worry about me

you've had your own soul and trust and

you have failed it is my business to

show you the way to redeem it

having anything to say about myself then

you can choose but one of two paths

what's the second choice

destruction

and who's gonna distract me

film's got a little bit down and dirty

in the 30s

oh I didn't know you were in the shower

did you have a good time with Oscar in

the medicine ball Warner Brothers

decided that we're going to shoot the

headlines and this is not a happy time

and we're going to show that yeah I'm a

[ __ ] and host of blame my father a

swell start you gave me ever since I was

14 months had been nothing but men dirty

rotten men and you're lower than any of

them I'll hate you as long as I live

while there is a rough production code

still in place filmmakers continue to

work around it not hear somebody with

could I do he's my boss and I have to

earn my own living

are you letting me go

I'll need everything I've given you

all your bonds and securities

think of myself

I've gone through a lot to get those

things

my life has been bitter and hard I'm not

like other women there are a lot of

things that the studios fought and they

would get around it by various devious

ways of doing it

[Music]

oh I'm hot

I wonder where my dress is

[Music]

do you have a dress one

pardon my appearance

I find it hard to

said that you had this enormous tug of

war between on the one hand the god of

Commerce and on the other hand the god

of God no Mr Davidson your garden me

could never be Shipmates and the next

time you talk to him you can tell him

this for me that Sadie Thompson is on

her way to Hell Top This has gone far

enough oh no it hasn't gone far enough

you've been telling me what's wrong with

me now I'm gonna tell you what's wrong

with you you'll keep yelling at me to be

punished to go back and suffer how do

you know what I've suffered you don't

know you don't care and you don't even

ask and you call yourself a Christian

why another my miserable

you know you're big enough alone you're

starting the power to hang me all right

man be down to you trespass against us

the Catholic Church which was very

powerful in those days and all these

other decency groups are complaining

about the movies and so uh the studios

are really caught in in a vice here

because they want to make money

especially during the Depression when

many of the studios including Paramount

either went into receivership or came

darn close

Cecil's just had to change a few details

we couldn't have women being strangled

in the bedroom so often you know

in 1931 Gene Harlow appears in the Iron

Man

Now isn't that better

the story of a manipulative girl who

returns to her husband only when he

becomes a champion in the ring well you

don't have to worry the kid's been

knocking him over lately oh I read every

word of it

because all I had eyes for

well you've been following his doings

huh

I thought you'd be interested

her and her lover almost ruin him but

they destroy themselves in the end

[Music]

so what do you think I'm gonna do to

support you

that's me

I'm gonna hold the bag am I well you

started this or they're causing my wife

oh quit your crime we're in a geminist

every man for himself

Gene Harlow was terrifically desirable

because

she

had a kind of quality of abandon

really unrestricted

she was Reckless

obviously indicated by the fact that she

did not favor

underwear famously

although her Talent is clearly

undiminished and her public appeal still

strong Clara Beau retires at the age of

28. she states later on a sex symbol is

a heavy load to carry when one is tired

hurt and bewildered

Marlena Dietrich has become one of the

most powerful women in Hollywood

Dietrich became a star so quickly

because there was something in her that

people wanted in Garbo and didn't find

self-mocking humor could do you more

good what makes you think I'm nervous

one thing your hands are trembling

that's because you touched me duck

in Joseph Von sternberg's Shanghai

Express she plays the Exotic Shanghai

Lily a mysterious call girl who has

become entangled in political espionage

in Shanghai Express people come to her

in such time as you should grow weary on

me

I'm weary of you now the warlord even

has to come to her

to negotiate with her even though she's

held captive she has a power over him

don't touch me

Dietrich and Von Sternberg are a perfect

match for each other both off and on the

screen

she writes I am his product all of his

making and I am fascinated by that face

up there on the screen and look forward

to the rushes each day to see what I his

creature will look like

dietrich's love and respect for Von

Sternberg does not deter her Carefree

lifestyle

she simply cannot be monogamous

a lot of people could claim they could

create their own rules

Dietrich did create

rules this woman is not only insatiable

she's calling the shots

don't forget we traveled with my father

and his mistress you know and she she

traveled with her lover

most of my dear friends came from my

mother's lovers

I had a lot of strange fathers some of

them were women some of them

when people say to me how's your father

I usually say well which father would

you like me to talk about

May West finally crosses over from the

stage to the screen

she is bright and outspoken on the

subject of sex

Dietrich finds her refreshing and is

delighted to have her on the Paramount

lot

Marlena and may recognized each other as

really liberated women both on the

screen and in their personal life

she got some flowers some roses she says

you know I think this diet broad is hot

for me even though Dietrich was bisexual

I don't think Miss West was if she was

it would have to be an awful masculine

moment

Paramount contemplates what to do with

this dangerous yet profitable actress

for me we had a man named Luigi loraski

and one of Luigi's jobs was to Shepherd

May through her pictures

and Luigi would go to call Mae's at it

again and she'd be doing something

either in action with voice or in her

body movements and he said may you can't

do that and this he said okay I won't do

that but you can't stop me from doing

this come up again anytime I shall

then I hope you will be alone

so do I

have warm dark and handsome

May decides to bring her greatest

achievement on stage to life upon the

screen from her stage creation of

Diamond Lil

it was no cinch putting Lil into films

male immense the sensors you know no

rough stuff

that it's hard to be funny when you have

to be clean

come on Paul tell your fortune

you can be had

the censor Jeffrey Sherlock said we

weren't used to having sex kidding so

the Minutemen I find you making love to

another woman you expect to be doing

well boy with a gift like that should be

working at it

said oh I recall being with Those

sensors in the projection booth and they

were laughing and of course then after

the screen was over well we had to cut

this maybe to cut this one to cut this

in the papers church people preach

against Mae West on Sunday but then

Monday and Tuesday night they're in the

theater laughing along with everybody

else

William Randolph Hearst attacks May West

in the Press

he States isn't it about time that

Congress did something about May West

any form of censorship would Inspire her

all the more to subvert it

she could

make reading the phone book a suggestive

activity so they might censor

her plots

or her dialogue but they couldn't really

censor her personality very well

sorry you think more of your diamonds

than you do of your soul I'm sorry you

think more of my soul and you're doing

my diamonds

maybe I ain't got no soul

her sexual frankness alarms the forces

of reaction

the Catholic Legion of decency is formed

in 1933.

its aim is to stop all forms of

incitement to moral depravity in movies

in 1933 it really took a grass roots

movement and that's namely the Catholics

to form an organization the Bishops

went into the pulpit and said

you can't go to any movies this week

underpaint of sin

mortal sin

prohibition is lifted in December 1933

and the country no longer has to hide

its thirst

six months later the movie studios

finally acquiesced to censorship

they could not afford a boycott LED from

America's pulpits

it all came together one big boom that

fell on Hollywood in July 1st 34 when

they had to sign this

production code Administration agreement

like with another way of amongst them

tamping down on creativity these are the

onflow Silicon

in waves like one after another

a filmmaker does not want censorship

filmmaker wants to be free

to create

and tell a certain kind of a story but I

think the filmmaker should have the

right to make the film that that he or

she wants to make

one last film gets through before the ax

Falls

of human bondage is the story of a cruel

woman who seduces a man uses him up and

ruins his life

a human bondage was made in a period

which was the spring in 1934 when there

still was no really enforceable code

there was a code but it had no teeth you

disgust me

me

I disgust you

you

are too fine

you won't have none of me but you'll sit

here all night looking at your naked

females Mildred you cared you dirty

swine

I never cared for you not once I was

always making a fool of you you're bored

me stiff I hated you it made me sick

when I had to let you kiss me I only did

it because y'all begged me you hounded

me you drove me crazy

after you kissed me I always used to

wipe my mouth wipe my mouth for example

they changed the Fatal illness of the

Betty Davis character from syphilis to

probably

tuberculosis you can't really tell what

it is she's dying of

well this is what you might call the

irony of tape the censorship-minded

people say thank God we had the

production code to clean up Hollywood

but the production code was probably one

of the worst things that happened to

Hollywood and that most of the classic

movies of that era were classic in spite

of the code not because of it

John Gilbert's own path of

self-destruction has led him past the

point of redemption for his career

alcoholism and dies in January 1936.

I had created a whole Fantasy Life of

growing up with him I had this great

feeling of security that I'd never had

and then boom it was over

a sex symbol's Prime is limited

some disappear into the Shadows

While others continue to wear the mask

of a goddess

May West is Unapologetic

faced two first films were out of

circulation for 30 years

ultimately it's good to break down

barriers at whatever cost even if it's a

lengthy backlash kill ultimately prevail

[Music]

Estates I freely chose the life that I

led because I was convinced that a woman

has as much right as a man to live the

way she does if she does know actual

harm to society

what few people realize is that my work

has had a deliberate plan and purpose

you had to be eternally youthful

internally beautiful

you see there are more than a few gray

hairs and there are more than a few

lines and if you've smoked a hundred

thousand cigarettes that's going to show

it

over and over again the people who

wander through life never really

realizing that they have absolutely

nothing to do with their faith

but when your mind you look back you'll

see it you really have no control

Clarabelle reflects on her Heyday in

Hollywood

had individuality she says we did as we

pleased we dressed the way we wanted

today they're sensible and end up with

Better Health but we had more fun

Dietrich takes a different approach

there is a lack of dignity to stardom

she states I was an actress I made films

finish

film fades it disintegrates

[Music]

sometimes it is restored and preserved

decades later some of these films can

once again be seen as they were made

now and hopefully for all time

the beauty of it

we forget it

they throw it in a trash bin

that was beautiful acting

later in life Gloria Swanson searched

for her lost films

she states

I would love to see them again and know

that they are not lost forever

that after all was supposed to be the

great virtue of pictures

[Music]

that they would last forever

[Music]

I love your loving arms they hold a

world of Jaws a place to Nestle when I

am lost

his chair oh what a happy bear want to

rest happiness seems to bless my little

honey I love you more each day when

years have passed away you'll find my

love belongs

[Music]

and when the world seems wrong I know

that I belong right in my honey loving

on

why oh why oh why be good when he and

bad is so Sublime after all before the

fall where we really having such a good

time why oh why oh why be good when the

opposite is so much fun it makes me

prone to turn it down

the devil's got me on the Run

[Music]

why why oh why be good when immorality

is just so swell I can't say no so off I

go I'm going straight to help me please

I'm falling falling

you never want to do the things

[Music]

[Music]

foreign

[Music]