This article was originally written about programming for the TCM Now Playing newsletter in October 2025.
On Tuesday, October 28th, TCM will celebrate the publication of Kim Luperi and Danny Reid’s new book, “Pre-Code Essentials: Must-See Cinema from Hollywood’s Untamed Era 1930-1934,” with a night of films that were made before the strict implementation of the Production Code. This Code, written by publisher Martin Quigley and Catholic priest Father Daniel Lord, had been formally adopted by Hollywood in 1930 as a guide to what was not acceptable onscreen, but it was more public relations than reality. The Code forbade the nudity that had been in silent films like Ben-Hur (1925), costumes that were too revealing, sexually suggestive dancing, mention of White Slavery (prostitution), miscegenation (romantic relationships between “the white and Black races”) and scenes of actual childbirth, which were removed from scripts before they were filmed or cut from final prints.
Censorship was nothing new to motion pictures. From the very beginning, religious and civic groups tried to have a say in what could and could not be shown in their community. The first serious threat to Hollywood happened in the early 1920s, following news reports of drug addiction in the film industry, the murder of director William Desmond Taylor and the rape trial of comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. Despite Arbuckle’s acquittal and the support of many in the public, Arbuckle was banned from appearing on screen. To counter the protests, Hollywood formed the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, headed by former Postmaster General Will H. Hays, who had been chairman of the Republican National Committee and President Harding’s campaign manager. Hollywood chose Hays to run the MPPDA in 1922 because he was pro-business and a Protestant from the Midwest, which they felt would reassure the public that Hollywood would clean up its act.
Three events forced Hollywood to seriously enforce the Production Code in 1934: the election of Franklin Roosevelt, the Great Depression and the rise of the Catholic Legion of Decency. Once in office, Roosevelt formed federal agencies, and the studios feared the government would oversee film production. This came at a time when the 1929 market crash and subsequent Depression were deeply damaging to the economy and movie attendance was markedly down. Studios cut salaries and budgets while they struggled to attract audiences, who were saving money by staying home and listening to the newest entertainment, radio, for free. For the next few years, Hollywood pushed the envelope with violent, racy, innuendo-filled movies to get the public back in the theaters. As a direct result of these “immoral” films, the Catholic Church formed the Legion of Decency in 1933-1934, an early form of movie ratings to let Catholics know which films were approved or forbidden by the Church. “A” meant approved and not morally objectionable, “B” was partially morally objectionable and the dreaded “C” meant the film was condemned by the Church. An estimated 20 million Catholics in the United States pledged not to watch films the Church disapproved of, and Hollywood had to respond. In desperation, they formed the Production Code Administration to enforce the Code. Every film had to have the literal seal of approval from the PCA or it could not be shown in major theaters, which were mostly owned by the studios.
Employees’ Entrance (1933), Jewel Robbery (1932), Night Nurse (1931), The Divorcee (1930), Heat Lightning (1934), Three on a Match (1932) and Heroes for Sale (1933) were all made before the Code was enforced and will be airing during our TCM Book Night.
Employees’ Entrance stars Warren William as Kurt Anderson, a tyrannical and lecherous department store manager who has affairs with female employees and treats everyone harshly, declaring, “There’s no room for sympathy or softness. My code is ‘smash or be smashed.’” He proceeds to smash many lives with the full knowledge of the Board of Directors because he gets results. Madeline (Loretta Young), an aspiring model, is found hiding in the store after hours by Anderson, who takes her to dinner, sleeps with her and gives her a job at the store. Knowing that Anderson disapproves of marriage, his new assistant, Martin (Wallace Ford), secretly marries Madeline, but the demands of his new job consume his life and hurt their marriage. Both get drunk during the Employees Ball, and Madeline passes out in Anderson’s hotel room, with the scene fading out as he approaches the bed. The implication of rape is undeniable.
The Divorcee was Norma Shearer’s attempt to prove to her husband, MGM studio production chief Irving Thalberg, that she could play sexy parts. It worked, and Shearer won a Best Actress Academy Award. In a time when divorce was still considered a social stigma, Shearer played a woman who discovers her husband (Chester Morris) had an affair after three years of marriage. He tries to convince her that it doesn’t matter, saying, “It’s not the end of the world, darling,” but she decides to play the man’s game and sleeps with his best friend (Robert Montgomery).
Unmarried sex occurs in director Mervyn LeRoy’s Heat Lightning. Two bank robbers on the lam, George (Preston Foster) and Jeff (Lyle Talbot), stop at a service station in the California desert on their way to Mexico and are surprised when the owner, Olga (Aline MacMahon), turns out to be George’s former lover. Olga tries to keep her younger sister, Myra (Ann Dvorak), away from the wrong kind of man, but when Myra comes home from a drunken dance, it’s implied that she had sex with her date, while George is shown leaving Olga’s bedroom, telling the audience what they’ve been doing. Barbara Stanwyck uncovers medical abuse in Night Nurse, playing a newly graduated nurse who works for private clients. She discovers that the wealthy children she is caring for are being slowly starved to death by employees (including the violent chauffeur, played by Clark Gable) with the help of a crooked but rich doctor, while their mother is constantly drunk and throwing parties that resemble orgies.
Infidelity and marijuana are featured in Jewel Robbery, a comedy starring William Powell and Kay Francis. Powell plays the debonair head of a robber gang who holds up a Vienna jewelry store and falls in love with a married baroness (Francis) who has a string of lovers. During a robbery, Powell makes the store owner smoke a “cigarette,” which turns out to be marijuana. When asked if the owner will be alright, Powell replies that it’s a “pleasant, harmless smoke. And he will awaken in the morning refreshed and happy with a healthy appetite.” Powell later gives a cigarette case full of marijuana to a security guard, who passes it on to the president of police and a lieutenant, who all get stoned. Drug use is also suggested in Three on a Match, in which a young and bored society mother (Ann Dvorak) runs off with a gangster and abandons her child, ending up destitute. Dvorak’s constant sniffing and wiping her nose are silently recognized by others as cocaine use. Meanwhile, World War I veteran William Wellman directed Heroes for Sale, a story about Tom Holmes (Richard Barthelmess), who is injured in battle, taken to a German hospital and given morphine by a doctor before being returned in a prisoner swap. When he returns to America, he’s hopelessly addicted and ends up in rehab. The film doesn’t flinch from showing Holmes bargaining with a drug dealer, trying to get drugs from his family doctor, suffering from withdrawal or the cruelty of those who judge him.
The frankness with which these films deal with sex, drugs and infidelity would not be seen again until the 1950s and 1960s, when changing morals and the threat of television caused Hollywood to relax their adherence to the Code. The Production Code would remain in effect, although with diminishing power, until 1968, when the modern movie ratings system was created.
