hays code in film noir

Question 1

what is the hays code?

Answer 1

• self-imposed industry set of guidelines for movies released between 1934 and 1968
• prohibited profanity, suggestive nudity, violence, sexual persuasions and rape
• rules around the use of crime, costume, dance, religion, national sentiment and morality
• introduced to better control what people would see on screen

Question 2

why was the hays code introducted?

Answer 2

• film was used to challenge ideas and beliefs as well as entertain
• 1920s - movies had images of women in power / making their own decisions
• these things brought widespread condemnation from religious, civic and political organisations
• many felt that the movie industry was morally questionable
• created to protect the american public from potentially indecent and immoral influences
• certain groups had organised boycotts of the cinema out of anger that films were becoming indecent, resulting in a 12% loss over a 3 month period, so film studious agreed to follow the hays code

Question 3

the end of the hays code

Answer 3

• late 50s and early 60s film started pushing the boundaries of the code
• the dissolution of the studio system made way for the code to be replaced by the age-based rating system that is still used today

Question 4

film noir characteristics and the hays code

Answer 4

• film noir characters are driven by personal gain and sexual motivations, though sex and sexuality was prohibited
• primarily crime stories about murder or theft
• hays code made it difficult for film makers to fully portray the film noir stories as the plot conflicted with the rules of the code
• film noir style often had a corrupt world, which is where law enforcement and society is unreliable or corrupt
• an important rule of the hays code was to make sure the government was never ridiculed, which made the story difficult to portray

Question 5

film noir characters and the hays code

Answer 5

• characters motivations often conflicted with the hays code
• characters motivations are frequently sexual or out of self interest
• the corrupt nature of film noir includes lawyers and police officers, but this was difficult as you could not ridicule the law (enforcement) under the hays code

Question 6

double indemnity - sexual content

Answer 6

• things to hint that phyllis and walter have has sex instead of showing it: dissolving from kidding to sitting on a couch
• walter is sat in the dark whilst phyllis is sat in the light, symbolising how having sex with phyllis has pushed him into the dark

Question 7

creativity in film noir - dialogue

Answer 7

• dialogue filled with passion and symbolisim, that probably would never had been there / been more obvious if the writers had more freedom.

“There’s a speed limit in this state, Mr. Neff,” she says. ‘Forty-five miles an hour.” ​

He replies, “How fast was I going, Officer?” ​

She answers, “I’d say around 90.” ​

Question 8

creativity in film noir - violence

Answer 8

• in the scene where walter is killing mr dietrichson, the camera stays on phyllis’s face as we hear her husband struggle, the music crescendos while phyllis has a face of deep satisfaction
• powerful visually as we are left to our imagination to fill in the blanks, we hear walter killing mr dietrichson instead of seeing it even though we’ve been introduced to him as the non-murdering type
• sound cues also tell us everything we need to know as well as phyllis’s face
• we could see something that makes the story move forward as we learn things about the characters (phyllis’s satisfaction in her husbands murder) which perhaps fits better than watching a murder, thanks to the hays code

Question 9

film noir endings in the hays code

Answer 9

• criminals always had to receive their comeuppance, as characters could not get away with murder
• code mandated that wrongdoers had to get what they deserve
• resulted in many of these films having tragic and deep endings