Original subtitles

You want entertainment?

Wholesome, interesting, and vital?

This, the motion picture industry, is pledged to provide.

What would you do if you did go to Hollywood?

Fornicating. That's what I call disgusting.

What the hell's the matter with him?

He was gay, and I thought I fell in love with a man.

A steady stream of sturdy stuff.

You mind it? There's more, darling.

Don't say any word.

You're just a little tramp.

You used to be sweet and clean.

She's wicked, but I love her.

Would you be dark if I put on something more comfortable?

You want to make whoopee tonight?

Definitely. Yippee and whoopee.

We're all alone. No chaperone can get our number.

The world's in slumber.

Let's misbehave.

There's something wild about you, child, that's so contagious.

Let's be outrageous.

Let's misbehave.

When Adam won his hand, he wouldn't stand for teasing.

He didn't care about those apples out of season.

They say the spring means just one thing to little lovebirds.

We're not above birds Let's misbehave

Let's

misbehave

Let's misbehave.

You'll be just so sweet and only meet your fate, dear. It would be the great

event of 1928, dear.

When I first entered these stages in the early 20s, motion pictures were still

very young.

But as young as the industry was, it didn't take long before films were being

scrutinized by panels throughout the country.

Some were banned, some were declared obscene, some condemned as mortal sins,

and some even caused riots.

By 1922, the situation had become so bad that the industry hired ex-postmaster

general Will Hayes to institute its first censorship code.

The Code sets up high standards of performance for motion picture

producers. It states the considerations which good taste and community value

make necessary in this universal form of entertainment. Respect for law,

respect for every religion, respect for every race, and respect for every

nation.

Will Hayes was first a very good friend of mine, a very nice man, a very common

man. He liked to joke.

He didn't drink. He didn't smoke.

But outside of that, I mean, he was very human.

And he was dedicated to the industry and I think did probably more good for the

industry than anybody else that I can think of. But by the late 1920s, the

situation changed for the worse.

Theater attendants fell and producers panicked. They were no longer willing to

listen to the Hayes office.

Gradually, more and more exploitive scenes were added in an effort to get

people back into the theaters.

I learned firsthand about this not-so-new policy in an early talkie I

was in called Party Girl.

This scandalous plot may seem camp to our modern ears, but it was more than

shocking in its day.

Leda, what happened?

Do you have to ask?

Oh.

Oh, I'm terribly sorry.

How could I have done such a thing?

What can I do to make it right?

If you can't see your own obligation, I can ask nothing.

Obligation?

Wait. Why, we don't even know each other.

Why didn't you know I... I'm in love with someone else.

Well, at least I was in good company.

Here is a young Barbara Stanwyck starring in Babyface.

Say, I like it here. How about a job?

Oh, now, don't tell me in this great big building there ain't someplace for me.

Have you had any experience?

Plenty.

I'd rather wait in there.

I hate crowds.

Don't you?

The boss won't be back for an hour.

Well, then why don't we go in and talk this over?

This film, like Sign, would soon be banned from theaters around the country.

Barbara Stanwyck at times may have been provocative, but another star at Panama

drove the center absolutely crazy.

She

was

an interesting figure in the history of the cinema because...

I don't know that I think she was ever really particularly very sexy. She was

kind of funny, she was out front in a way that women particularly weren't in

their times, and I think that that had as much to do with her success as

anything else.

Her particular gift was a power of suggestion and innuendo. She could make

the most innocent lines sound wicked.

Oh, Mr.

Clayton, I was thinking over everything you said, and I made my decision.

Good. I'm glad you made up your mind so quickly.

Oh, very quick in a slow way.

You see, I can't discuss it over the phone. It's got a lot of angles to it.

You better come up and see me.

Well, I'll be glad to.

In fact, I'll come over right away if it's convenient for you.

Most convenient.

I'll tell you this much, you're going to like what I got in mind.

Uh-huh.

I'll be ready.

Goodbye.

The code not only didn't stop May, but worse, it was powerless against

Hollywood's producers who sometimes went to the extent of even exploiting

children.

These early 30s performances shocked the public and provoked a popular cry for

wholesome family entertainment.

In fact, by 1934, boycotting films became a national movement, and a legion

of decency was formed by the Catholic Church to demand change.

Hollywood's producers knew they had to do something, so in 1934, they created

what would become the most important censor office in the country.

Every studio had to have their films approved by Mr. Joseph Breen, hired by

Will Hayes, who prepared a simple set of commandments that spelled out what

Hollywood could and could not do.

Its broad general purpose is to ensure screen entertainment which will

be reasonably acceptable to our patrons everywhere.

Entertainment which is definitely free from offense.

Kisses can last no more than three seconds.

In love scenes, keep at least one foot on the floor.

Nudity isn't allowed, plain and simple.

Excessive violence is forbidden.

Show that crime does not pay.

Profanity is not allowed.

Brothels and places suggesting sexual sin are not proper locations.

There is no room on the screen at any time for pictures which offend against

common decency.

The vulgar, the cheap... and the Torby is out.

The code worked, and the film industry cleaned up its act.

Stars like Shirley Temple were given much more wholesome roles.

They even went so far as to clean up Betty Boop.

Put your

buns below, but leave the damsel to me.

You mean... Betty had sex appeal, so

the Hays office demanded that she be covered up, which meant...

losing the garter and the short skirt.

But when Betty lost her sex appeal, she lost her audience as well and

disappeared from the screen within a couple of years.

This censored W.C. Fields sequence

of The Dentist was not only banned because of its not-so-subtle sexuality,

but also because of strong disapproval from the dentists of America.

Have you ever had this tooth pulled before?

No.

This won't hurt you much.

No.

whole sequence be cut.

And this is all that remains.

Relax.

Would you like a drink?

The biggest censorship battle of the 1930s did not involve W.C. Fields, Mae

West, or even Shirley Temple.

For that matter, it didn't even involve a human being.

King Kong may have been frustrated in his search for Fay Wray, but not nearly

as frustrated as Joe Breen, who found the film excessively violent and

demanded over six minutes of cuts such as these.

You've seen King Kong looking in the window.

Look at what he saw and what Green tried to make sure that you would never see.

The most controversial scene was the romantic interlude between Fay Wray and

King Kong.

The peeling off of her clothes and his obvious infatuation with the starlet

went against two of the production code's forbidden lists, nudity and

perversion.

As Mae West had her imitators, King Kong had his.

But some may have gone a bit too far.

In The Love Life of a Gorilla, producers promised the audience a look at a love

cult between natives and gorillas.

The Hayes office made them break their promise by forcing them to change the

title and cut these scenes.

He was paralyzed.

He wanted to shoot but could not.

Here, being enacted before his very eyes, was the fantastic monkey worship.

an actual living thing in our midst.

The love life of a gorilla was still shown, changing its name to Forbidden

Adventure and playing at theaters that Hayes and Breen could not control.

It was just one of the many exploitation movies that independents produced in

Hollywood during the 30s. They tried to call their films educational, but it was

obvious that education had very little to do with it.

That night there was a wild party.

I drank some champagne and it went to my head.

And then it...

I gave myself to him.

Another film banned by the Legion of Decency was Sex Madness.

Sex Madness takes you behind the scenes where you will learn the story of young

and innocent Millicent as she finds herself falling in with bad company.

Oh, I'm tired.

Me for bed.

Bed? Did you say bed?

That's not to relax him. That's for action.

You will follow Millicent down the crimson path of immorality.

She lost not only her honor, but her health.

Not an aspect of the disease will be left.

It will even be fixed on me.

What in God's name are you talking about?

I thought I was a human.

They were disguised as educational films. I can remember at a...

theater back in Bath, New York, where they had some sort of a medical film. It

was a VD film, of course, and they had separated the audience. I mean, there

was a showing for men and a showing for women, and there were all sorts of cries

about nurses in attendance at all times, and it was sort of a sex technique, and

they were kind of funny. There was a narrator on stage as well as the film to

be seen, and it was...

what somebody once said about the women's magazine years later, kind of a

pious pornography.

You will see it all in this no-hold-barred film expose.

Lust. Man, oh, man, she got it. Boy, oh, boy, look at that baby.

Debauchery. You can phone home and you're staying with friends.

Perversion in its extreme.

Sex madness.

Coming soon to this theater.

In the 1940s, Hollywood not only produced motion pictures to entertain

and educate the troops, but also films like The Gang's All Here to keep up the

public morale.

But director Busby Berkeley might have gone a bit too far with his suggestive

dance, which faced its own censorship battles.

Can you believe that in Argentina, this was banned not because of the costumes,

but because the dancers exposed their bare feet?

Then in the 1940s, Hollywood was wracked by a major censorship battle, which made

the cuts imposed on King Kong in the 30s seem minor.

This time, Hollywood censors went to war with producer Howard Hughes over his

production of The Outlaw.

And if the truth be known, The Outlaw was outlawed by his own promotion, his

own advertising, and even by his own coming attractions.

Now, Howard Hughes gives you The Outlaw.

The outlaw is the most exciting entertainment you have ever seen.

Savage love.

Primitive emotion.

I think the advertising campaign had a lot to do with the people that were

looking at the film.

I want to tussle with Russell.

I can't remember him all. They were all corny as can be.

He was trying to get a seamless bra, which they did not have in those days.

And he was ahead of his time, as usual.

And it was a ridiculous contraption. I never wore it.

Once I found out what he wanted, I...

threw the thing under the bed and put on my own bra and put Kleenex over the top

of it and put the blouse back on. The wardrobe girl was having a fit. She

says, I'm going to get fired.

And I said, forget it. They won't ever know the difference. And we went out and

did it.

And he never knew.

With the nation's attention focused on Jane Russell's bosom, the censors and

Howard Hughes went to battle.

He didn't.

You see anything of Dr. and the sheriff?

They'll lay right behind you and put those hands where they belong.

There was cleavage in it, and of course in those days you didn't show any

cleavage at all.

And it was, I remember the shot they got, as a matter of fact, and it was not

even supposed to be in there because it was an accident.

It was a, there was a, the bed and Billy the kid was lying on the bed and I was.

The camera was right across from me, and I leaned over this way. I had a blouse

on that went like so, and I leaned over to pull the covers up, and they got too

much cleavage. Be careful of your wound. You'll hurt yourself.

Hughes fought Breen for two years over this scene.

Breen's office demanded that over eight feet or five seconds be cut out.

Instead of eight feet, Hughes cleverly cut out eight inches, which amounted to

only about one second.

We've slowed it down, and this is how the uncensored version looked.

When you see the picture today, it's just, you know, it's kind of a slow,

dull picture, and it certainly doesn't have any, there's nothing very naughty

about that picture at all.

Jane Russell and Howard Hughes teamed up again and ran into a bigger fight with

the censors, this time over the French line.

I remember in the French line he wanted me to wear a bikini. Well, nobody in

this country wore a bikini.

And you only heard about bikinis in the south of France where, you know, some

naughty girls in the south of France wore bikinis. So he wanted me to do a

dance number in a bikini. And I said, no way.

I'm looking for trouble.

I'm going to throw the book away.

Be unpredictable from day to day.

In every way I can, can, can, can, can.

This Cinderella is looking for a fella who tell her what she's sweet as I am.

Looking for trouble, won't mind the trouble.

In trouble looks like a M-A-N.

After the French line ruckus, because there was one about the costume that I

eventually wore.

It was a one-piece bathing suit, but it had holes cut out in it. And then, of

course, they had a fit about that.

And after that was over, I just said, I said to him that I did

not ever want to get in a picture or be in one that had any censorship problems

at all.

Jane's problems with censorship unfortunately didn't end with the French

line. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes matched Jane with Marilyn Monroe, who sang

Little Girl from Little Rock, the song whose lyrics were censored by Joe Breen

himself.

Then someone broke my heart in Little Rock.

So I...

They left their pieces there Like a little lost lamb I roamed about I

came to New York and I found out That men are the same way everywhere

I liked Marilyn very much. She was very shy,

and she was having trouble with the front office for some reason.

Trouble was nothing new to Marilyn, whose background was already full of

censorship problems, dating back to her calendar photos.

Her reputation caused censors to stay on the set and monitor her actions, even

down to a kiss.

How about me? Did you like me too?

Well, at first sight, I thought you were some kind of a hooligan, yelling and

stomping like that.

But when I realized you were doing it for me, I was attracted to you.

Attracted?

You are?

I still am. You still are?

Really attracted?

I can imagine how far we've traveled in whatever direction since then.

is that in the love scene, we had to reshoot the love scene because Marilyn

opened her mouth during the kiss.

And that was the censorship problem.

I mean, you're so big and strong and, well, so darn heavy

-looking. I guess I am in pretty good shape for the rodeo, because you've got

to be when you're competing in all five Class A events.

We went to reshoot it on another day, and Joshua Logan was directing the

scene. He said, now, Marilyn, don't open your mouth, you know. And I'd come to

kiss her, and she'd open her mouth. I said, okay, cut, take two.

Marilyn, don't open your mouth.

And she kept opening her mouth.

So after about the seventh or eighth time, when I went to kiss her and she

opened her mouth, I went and I looked and I...

looked in her mouth like this, and I turned to the camera and I said, you

will tell mother where I've gone.

Marilyn eventually got fed up with Hollywood and left for New York.

Her replacement was Sherry North.

Marilyn Monroe was put on suspension, and Fox was courting me very heavily

because they wanted another blonde to threaten Marilyn.

She didn't want to do what they wanted, which was called How to Be Very, Very

Popular, which was the first film I did at Fox when I went under contract.

It's so innocent by today's standards, I can't believe it.

But it was a lot of, you know, shaking and gyrating and jumping around and all

that kind of crazy stuff.

And I think, really, at the time, everything on film was very innocent,

but if there was any kind of hype about it.

And since I had come from Broadway and I was the hottest 90 seconds on Broadway,

I already came with a questionable...

And so when I did the dance number, all of the kids that I had worked with in

the chorus were in the show.

And they said, you're getting quite a reputation, and people at our church ask

us not to work with you, and things like that. When you were coming up in this

business and doing bathing beauty contests and all that kind of stuff,

and doing little cheesecake photos and things like that. There was a man in

town who did films, and girls would walk around pools in their bathing suits, you

know, and he would photograph it, and then he would sell these through the

mail as home movies.

And they were very innocent, and Marilyn did them, and everybody who did

cheesecake did them when you were broke. He paid $50 for film.

So when I went to do my first film, I thought, well, I'm not just going to

walk around the pool. I have to dance.

So they were tried in court, and there was a lot of publicity about they were

to censor them, and they were lewd and lascivious and all that kind of stuff.

So there was a court date, and they showed the films in court, and the judge

said... Well, they're really just kind of boring.

But it was a big censorship thing, and it was the same thing, you know, with

Marilyn and the calendar.

And that night was that I had been vindicated. It hit the front page of the

paper, and Marilyn was getting her photo play award.

And we met out in front, and she said, Oh, first me with the calendar, and now

you with the lewd films.

And it seemed like we were these racy, lewd, lascivious people.

Sherry faced yet another type of censorship battle.

While her most personal measurements were front-page news, censors

continuously made sure that none of it showed.

We always used to laugh at Fox Studio because all of the costumes were made,

they were all boned and padded out because of that bullet bra or whatever

you call it. You could extend...

you know, across the room, as long as you didn't show any cleavage this way.

And so the standard thing in the wardrobe department was all the busts

were made the same.

And we always used to laugh because we'd all say, look, look, we all measure

exactly the same. And when we lie down, nothing moves.

And there was one special brassiere at Universal that it was sort of like,

well, everybody used it.

That's it open for you, honey.

In a mow, honey.

Because of the cleavage problem and they couldn't really display their charms,

they went the obvious, which was patting their bras.

Look, Miss Dimple Toes, if you people at the school think that Vic and me, Vic's

my husband and he's out of town on a job, if you think we're raising a

juvenile delinquent, say it.

No, Mrs. Delaney, we don't think... Don't double talk me.

You've got me pegged as a no-good relative.

The only reason I came here is because... Come on, honey. Don't draw

diagrams of me.

The bullet bra is very pointed breasts that look like a

pyramid.

That's my only description.

Two pyramids.

I don't remember inviting you in here.

I won't look.

And I think that...

Guys in those days had probably thought all women had breasts like pyramids, you

know, and they were very discouraged when they found out otherwise.

And that's the way they got around it, by wearing this brassiere and

covering this up to here and then becoming larger this way. That way the

Hayes office never could peek, you know.

The Hayes office could peek at scripts and make sure American audiences saw

only what they approved.

But the producers knew what would sell in Europe and reshot several scenes.

In this scene, undercover agent Russ Tamblyn meets the leading drug dealer

played by Jackie Coogan.

When the film played outside the United States, viewers got a closer look at

this unhappy girl.

Russ calls his teacher and wakes her up.

Hello? Viewers outside Breen's control saw a slightly different version of this

scene. What is this, a joke?

No, no, no, this isn't a gag.

You've just got to believe me. I can't explain now.

You're looking for excitement?

Why not? I'm a citizen.

Upon reading the script of High School Confidential, the censors demanded that

Mamie be completely cut from the film.

They found her character to be a nymphomaniac and unnecessary to the

story. That's why I worry, thinking of you coming up against those young, tight

sweaters.

You ought to know.

Stop treating me like a stranger.

Let's get out of town slowly.

Relatives should always kiss each other hello and goodbye politely.

You're getting paid for my room and board.

The producers fought for Mamie and finally won out.

But that wouldn't be Mamie's only problem with the Hayes office.

Oh, I did a movie called Girlstown.

And I was put into girls like it's a Catholic school for bad

girls. You don't look so tough to me. You do everything the sisters tell you

to do.

I give them a fair shake, they give me a fair shake.

I'll bet you do.

Use a lot of soap.

You need it.

I was asked to supervise pictures to be produced by a producer new to our lot

named Suggsmith.

And the first picture he started to work on, It was called Girlstown.

So we sent the picture over to Monsignor Little, as I remember it.

And he called me, told me about objections that remained,

and I discussed them with Zugsmith.

Zugsmith said, could I talk to Monsignor Little?

It's a free country. I couldn't say no.

Put him on the phone.

And he managed to aggravate Monsignor Little so completely that the first and

only time that I knew of, he lost his temper and said he was going to condemn

the picture.

The blonde bombshells of the 1950s were notorious for being in trouble with the

census. One of the most famous and controversial blondes to come out of

Hollywood at that time was Jane Mansfield.

Ladies and gentlemen, now for another special award.

To present that award, a very special young lady who came to Hollywood by way

of UCLA.

I'm sure she is easily recognized, at least here in her own community,

although she could very easily travel anonymously just any place, Miss Jane

Mansfield.

Sweet of all of you.

Thank you very much.

Now, down to business.

Though determined to be a star, Jane was never able to capture the magic of

Marilyn.

Later, in an effort to restore her failing career, she finally bared it all

for... Promises, promises.

It outraged the censors.

Jane Mansfield's career would never recover.

Later,

about 1967, we were to do...

a nightclub act in a place called Biloxi, Mississippi, called Gus Stevens

Supper Club.

We were both booked in there at different times.

Jane had just gotten back from Europe, and I was held over in New York while I

was doing a play, and I'd asked her if she would please switch times with me.

And she said that she would. She'd take the kids down, and that's when she met

her death.

I was very distraught. I was devastated when Jane died because I felt that

possibly...

Maybe in some way I had contributed to it. It wasn't that I was psychic, but it

was that there was a protectiveness that prevented me from going down there, and

maybe the same thing would have happened to me.

And

now

let's join my co-host, Peter Fonda.

This is Hollywood Boulevard.

It's changed a little since I first came to town 46 years ago.

And this, you'd scarcely give it a second look now.

But 50 years ago, this was the most important building in Hollywood.

This was the censor's office.

As a teenager and active film goer, I remember the 50s as a time when stars

like Marilyn Monroe, Sherry North, or Jane Mansfield made the term sex goddess

mean something.

But the sex goddesses had it easy when it came to censorship compared to

Babydoll.

Babydoll!

Babydoll!

We thought that Babydoll was going to be a sleeper.

As a matter of fact, it was a low-budget, small, black-and-white

production done all on location in Mississippi.

And Carl and Eli were wonderful stage actors, not necessarily big movie

names.

Marilyn Monroe had wanted to do the film, and Warner Brothers had wanted

her.

Elia Kazan and Tennessee Williams did not because Marilyn was such a big star

and she brought her own image to any production that she did. And they wanted

an unknown girl so that Babydoll became the new image.

The story was of a 19-year-old girl who was promised in marriage to an older

man, Archie Lee, Carl Malden.

And the marriage had not been consummated. And it was very funny, the

fact that he was constantly peeking at her through holes in the wall and so

forth to see her sleeping or to try to catch her in the bathtub or something.

Because unless there was furniture in the house, the marriage was not going to

be consummated until her 19th birthday.

Carl Malden, because this new modern...

Cotton gin has been built by the Eli Wallach, the Vaccaro character.

He's been losing a lot of his business. Now, if he loses his business, he can't

buy the furniture for the house. If he doesn't have any furniture in the house,

Babydoll is not going to let him consummate the marriage. So he's a very

desperate man.

He goes out and burns down Eli Wallach's cotton gin.

Eli... hears about this, he finds out that Carl Malden did it. So he comes to

get revenge.

And his revenge is by taking the virginity of Babydoll.

In carrying out our action, which was, I wanted that woman to confess about

the burning of my cotton gin.

And this was one of the steps en route to doing it. Whenever she got too

frantic and too frightened, I pulled back.

Should we just relax?

Would you move over and make a little room?

Is that enough room for you?

Not for me. How about you?

What a lovely remark your husband made.

Good neighbor policy, I mean.

Eli Wallach.

Intimidate baby doll and he begins to tease her now in a very subtle way

You you absolutely saw nothing because nothing happened I think he took a

feather and and he talked to me in low voice now baby doll becomes very aroused

by this without quite Understanding what's happening to her?

Delegate? Me?

Neither much of you, but what there is is choice.

When the controversy happened, the most incredible things were said about this

scene. They said that he had his hands on very intimate places on my body.

It didn't happen. It was suggested in the emotion, the deep emotion that was

felt within the scene. But you did not see those things. If you actually looked

at that film objectively, you could see that nothing happened.

There's the absolute delicacy of your skin.

Well, what should I say? Thanks or something?

No, you just smiled at me.

You've got an attractive smile.

Oh, yes, you do.

Come on, now smile.

There, you see, you do. You do have them.

In the swing scene, a lot of esoteric magazines wrote about it later, saying

that was a real seduction.

Where were his hands? What was he doing?

Actually, we were shooting in November.

It was cold as hell in Mississippi.

In order that our breath not show on the screen, since it was supposed to take

place in the summer, we'd chew on ice cubes.

until Kazan said action. Then we'd spit out the ice cubes so the breath was the

same temperature as the air.

That's one of the things we were concerned about. Also, we were freezing,

so we had long johns on and there were radiators down below heating us so that

we would have a sense of warmth.

And it always impresses me that people say, oh, that was a sexy scene. We were

freezing.

I think I'll go and make us some lemonade.

What did you do that for?

I don't want to be deprived of the pleasure of your company.

What's that?

Oh, Mr.

McCarroll, you're certainly getting familiar.

Don't you have any fun-loving spirit about you? Well, this isn't fun.

Well, why do you giggle then, hmm?

Because I'm ticklish.

You're ticklish?

Don't be so skittish.

I'll get up then.

I feel so weak.

It was very, very early on a Sunday morning when...

I was called by Vernon Scott of the UPI, who said, your film has just been banned

by the Catholic Legion of Decency, and Cardinal Spellman has just denounced it

from the pulpit of St. Patrick's Cathedral. What do you have to say?

And I said, which film?

Because it seemed to me that there was nothing as censorable about Babydoll. I

was astounded, because I thought we were doing a rather biblical film.

in the sense that revenge is in the Bible.

If someone commits an outrageous act against you, an eye for an eye and a

tooth for a tooth.

That's what I thought. I didn't think anything about the sexuality of it.

And then, of course, everybody, when the controversy happened, just couldn't

believe it because there we were not only banned and probably one of the most

controversial films of all time, but they had the crib shot the entire block

on Broadway.

And it just, you know, it sort of put more coal on the fire.

Today, it's hard to believe the furor Babydoll caused in the 1950s. when Time

magazine called it, quote, the dirtiest American-made motion picture that has

ever been legally exhibited, end quote.

Oh, I think it's the terrible irony of American films that the censors, both in

Hollywood and in the country at large, were always much more exercised about

sexuality than they were about violence.

Violence became a substitute for sex. I mean, that was where you got your action

and your conflict and your drama and your excitement.

Cut.

That's enough.

It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see why they banned films like Blood

Feast. But sometimes the problems are not quite so clear.

At least that was the case with Peeping Tom, a film that was pulled from

theaters within days of its first release.

Don't be shy.

For me, it's my first time, too.

Directed by Michael Powell, who was known for family classics like The Red

Shoes and Teeth of Baghdad, Peeping Tom told the story of a seemingly shy

individual with some deep-rooted problems.

20 years after its first release, director Martin Scorsese personally

resurrected Peeping Tom.

But at that time, I heard that it was black and white and that it was cut.

I had no idea what, you know, and then later on, I was so involved with the...

My fascination with trying to find older films to preserve them and this idea

where all these directors were in the early 70s when I started to make films

in Hollywood. I got to meet a lot of the directors whom I loved, or at least I

got to see them, talk to them maybe once or twice.

But the one person left that had his name on a number of films that I adored,

and the one person left was Michael Powell.

Not! I want to ask you something rather personal.

How long is it since you've gone out without that?

Without what?

That camera.

Oh.

I don't think I know.

Exactly. I don't think I've ever seen you without it. Then I thought that not

only did they make Thief of Baghdad, I mean, partially direct, but some of the

major scenes directed, The Red Shoes, one of my very favorite films, The Tales

of Hoffman, which taught me a great deal about camera movement and...

the movement of actors inside a frame,

Black Narcissus, Matter of Life and Death, these incredible films.

And having been, I'm also kind of an Anglophile, I like British films, but

these British films were so different from the other British films.

Not only that, but then he made this film Peeping Tom. That's the one that

Jim McBride talked about. That's the one that people claim was kind of dirty and

nasty. And then I heard later on, a few years later, that it was shown after

McBride talked to me about it.

In the early 70s, it was shown at the Museum of Modern Art.

What? how this sees grown-ups.

Me, for instance.

Not you.

Why not?

I will never see you.

Mark.

Whatever I photograph, I always lose.

The hero of the film is not the psychotic crazy that you would think.

He's a very sweet character.

And it's a guy that you seem to identify with, or if not identify with,

sympathize with.

All this filming isn't healthy.

And that you need help.

Get it, Mark.

Why are you putting that light on my face?

Mark?

Please let me finish.

It's for Helen.

What do you mean?

It's for Helen.

She wanted to see something I photographed.

My daughter sees enough of my face without photographs.

Please, don't be frightened.

I'm frightened.

I find that very different from the other approaches of this kind of

material, or a slasher picture or an exploitation picture.

The picture's really not an exploitation film.

I think it was... Michael always says it was a very sweet film. He doesn't

understand what all the problem was.

Do you know what the most frightening thing in the world is?

It's fear.

I did something very simple.

Very simple.

When they felt the spike touching their throat and

knew I was going to kill them, I made them watch their own

deaths.

I made them see their own terror as the spike went in.

And if death has a face, they saw that too.

Right after the film was just shown at the New York Film Festival, right on

television on Fright Night, Channel 9, Fright Night, Friday nights at 1 o'clock

in the morning, you know, a picture of Boris Kulov comes on and you hear a lot

of thunder and lightning and you see Peeping Tom.

And it's the full version, you know, something that was banned 20 years ago.

It's okay to show now on television. It's no problem.

It's madness, total madness.

By the late 60s, Americans got more and more upset about the amount of sex and

violence Hollywood was putting in its films. The motion picture producers

decided it would be best to discard the outdated production code that no one was

listening to and to replace it with what we know today, a classification system,

which I became personally acquainted with right away.

It is designed to inform parents about the suitability of movie content for

viewing by their children.

One of the first films to test the new rating system was Easy Rider.

which starred Dennis Hopper, myself, and newcomer Jack Nicholson. Easy Rider was

a document of the changing times, and believe me, after the 1960s, nothing

remained the same.

Easy Rider had everything the establishment feared.

Sex, violence, rock and roll, and drugs.

Easy Rider was one of the first conventional movies to show drug use.

That's not to say that people hadn't been making movies about drugs.

Quite the opposite.

These high school boys and girls are having a hop at the local soda fountain.

Innocently, they dance.

innocent of a new and deadly menace lurking behind closed doors.

Marijuana, the burning weed with its roots in hell.

In this film, you will see the ease with which this vicious plant can be grown in

your neighbor's yard, rolled into harmless-looking cigarettes, hidden in

an innocent shoe or watch case.

If you want a good film, try one of these.

You will meet Bill.

who wants to pride in his strong will as he takes the first step toward

enslavement.

Smoking the soul-destroying reaper, they find a moment's pleasure, but at a

terrible price.

Divorce me!

Murder. Suicide.

And the ultimate end of the marijuana addict.

Hopeless insanity.

See this important film now.

Before it is too late.

When it was first produced back in the 1930s, Reefer Madness was banned in many

states for its bold exhibition of drug use and racy sex.

Of course, that didn't stop these low-budget roadshow artists who went

city by city showing their films in small theaters and leaving before the

cops could come.

The filmmakers probably never dreamt that Reefer Madness would become a hit

in the 1960s, and it was not the only one.

After the success of Reefer Madness, exhibitors went back to the film vaults

for another camp classic, Cocaine Fiends. We're looking for a guy that's

been peddling dope to school kids. I'm going to take you on a sleigh ride with

some snowbirds.

Sleigh ride?

Snowbirds? In the summer?

Gosh, you are dumb.

Yes, Frank.

Sleigh ride.

Snowbird. This is the gutter slang of the Cocaine Fiends. Say, I know a fella

that could put you on a show right away. In this film, you will meet Jane

Bradford. Maddox, got a headache? She's a young and innocent cocktail waitress.

Jane Bradford is about to lose that innocence.

I got the grandest headache medicine in the world.

Yes, Jane.

Headache medicine.

Why, that's marvelous.

I feel better already.

This is the startling expose of youngsters sucked into the white powder

whirlpool.

The 60s were no better captured on film than in Woodstock, the 1968 documentary

on the legendary music festival.

Woodstock's candid look at drugs, the Vietnam War, and the lifestyles of this

generation found a popular audience throughout America.

It also incurred the wrath of censors and police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who

denied theater entry to the town's youth.

We'll be right back.

Even with the new rating system, censorship didn't disappear.

In the 1970s, the major battles just moved from Hollywood to the hinterlands,

with local censors condemning two of the biggest films to come out during the

decade.

Taxi Driver caused a heated battle over its classification with the rating board

at war with director Scorsese.

You talking to me?

You talking to me?

Talking to me?

Then who the hell else are you talking to? Talking to me?

Well, I'm the only one here.

Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?

Fuck out of here, man.

Get out of here.

Fuck on this.

The biggest problem I had with censorship was the ratings board issue

on the taxi driver.

The problem was violence and open sexuality, they claimed.

For me, the violence was very honest.

It was very honest and it was filled. It was an explosion of rage.

And that was the only way I could do it.

The color of the blood was so red, so vibrant, that it made it seem to me like

fake blood. So I thought, well, I got an idea. Why don't we tone down the color,

and that'll take away some of the shock effect.

But in actuality, what happened was that it made it worse, and that was the idea.

The idea was to make it stronger, and you make it stronger by, in a sense, at

that time, reflecting the tabloid image, an image on like a daily news, New York

Daily News, images on the front page of violence and that sort of thing, so that

it became even more, in my mind, it became a little more difficult to take.

Violence wasn't the only controversial issue affecting the censors. In carnal

knowledge, the censorship issue was simply sex.

Why, mister, why is it more?

The script, written by Jules Feiffer, was rich with four-letter words and

sexual encounters.

This prompted the Georgia police to seize the film and arrest the local

theater manager for distributing obscene material.

A local jury found him guilty, and the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the

conviction. The case finally went to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was

overturned.

Sandy, please take your hand off my breast.

Why? Because I want you to.

How could it be any fun for you if you know I don't want it? I didn't say it

was fun.

Then why your hand where it is?

Because the way we're going, by this time I should be feeling you up.

I don't feel that way about you, Sandy.

That brings us to our last story.

During the Christmas of 1985, a movie hit the screens that would generate a

national grassroots uprising.

Silent Night, Deadly Night presented a homicidal maniac who was disguised as

none other than Santa Claus, upsetting not just church groups, but a wide range

of Americans throughout the entire country who simultaneously demanded that

film be pulled.

But the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was

stirring, not even a mouse, the stockings were hung by the chimney with

care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Brian survived Christmas.

Silent night.

Deadly night.

It was withdrawn in all the theaters except the few that refused to return it

because the business was so good that they just wouldn't.

Almost all the theaters had contracts to play it for five weeks.

They could play it as little as two weeks, but they had the right to play it

for five.

And my understanding, and again, you get to hearsay because unless you're sitting

in the office where the phone rings, You don't know. My understanding was that it

was withdrawn at the request of the studio from almost all of them. I know

at least in Boston and Buffalo that they refused to return it because in Boston

they were doing standing room only for the full five weeks. The film was re

-released the next year with two substantial changes.

Gone was the reference to Santa, and the new publicity campaign featured the fact

that it had been banned throughout the country. A movie that shocked America.

hollywood and frightened the government the movie they tried to ban you've read

about it you've heard about it now you can see it in all its terrifying horror

silent night deadly night the movies as i've often said spent 60 years saying

they lived happily ever after suddenly the movies began to say you'll be lucky

to get through the weekend i think the lack of censorship of some kind of

Guidelines some kind of controls or something gives you less freedom not

more freedom freedom because what happens is now the things that you

weren't allowed to do now become Obligatory I mean if you have to get in

it and it's on the screen they have to chew on each other's mouths You know

they have you have to throw in Blood you have to throw in Brains blowing out

you know in films are at least people distributing films

feel that that's the case Roger Corman had an incredible way of Formula making

up a formula for his pictures. There's exploitation films and in boxcar

birthday. He told me remember every 15 pages nudity Pages that yeah in the

script and whether it's a leg Full nudity or maybe just the suggestion of

nudity, but every 15 pages. You got to keep that interest going I think it'd be

a whole lot better if everybody were naked and didn't shoot each other

And get rid of the guns and the knives and the violence you know Everything had

to be way up here, and if it wasn't then you had to have little netting you know

put in Never never never not even a shadow Which is very unrealistic and

pretty stupid, but on the other hand I like it a lot better than what's going

on today

You can have something up to here, and I mean, you know, people have x-ray eyes.

They want to think of something, they're going to think of it anyway.

I think it's outrageous that every argument settled on television today is

settled with a weapon.

That the only solution to any argument or discussion between people is with

violence. I am appalled by that.

Who is so smart or so bright or so intelligent that they are capable of

telling the rest of us what we should think, what we should see, or that we're

not mature enough to handle certain subjects? I think that's totally

ridiculous.

Don't show that. I'll have to call the censor on you. Don't wear that.

Don't read that.

Don't touch that. I'll have to call the censor on you. You're too hot. We're

gonna get caught.

Cause you're too hot to handle.

You're too hot. You show up a lot.

But you keep it up. My mama's gonna make me change the channel. No, no, no, no,

no, no.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You're too hot. We're gonna get caught.

Cause you're too hot to handle.

You're too hot. Like to show off a lot.

But you keep it up. My mom is gonna make me change the channel.

Don't make that.

Don't take that.

Don't shake that.

Gonna call a censor on you.

Don't hold that.

Don't take that.

Don't bring that. I'm gonna call a censor on you.

Don't say that.

Don't say that.

Don't do that. I'm gonna call the system on you.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

We're all alone, no chaperone can get our number. The world's in slumber.

Let's misbehave.

There's something wild about you, child, that's so contagious.

Let's be outrageous.

Let's misbehave.

When Adam won his hand, he wouldn't stand for teasing.

He didn't care about those apples out of season.

They say the spring means just one thing to little lovebirds.

We're not above birds.

Let's misbehave.

Let's misbehave.