Pre-Code and Post-Code Hollywood

[ClassyCo]

Any one else interested in the shift of classical Hollywood from Pre-Code to Post-Code and the changes that clouded the industry of the era?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

 

[Grant Jennings]

A lot of the Hayes Office rules were ridiculous but I think they resulted in writers and directors being a little more creative and insinuating things rather than showing them. That's not to say that some films didn't suffer because of the code. I think "Rebecca" suffered, not irreparably, but it would have been a better film if a certain major plot-point hadn't been changed.

In my opinion the actor whose career appeared to change the most because of the code was Norma Shearer; she successfully shifted from sexually liberated contemporary women in her pre-code films to noble heroines and period dramas after the code was put into effect.

 

[ClassyCo]

A lot of the Hayes Office rules were ridiculous but I think they resulted in writers and directors being a little more creative and insinuating things rather than showing them. That's not to say that some films didn't suffer because of the code. I think "Rebecca" suffered, not irreparably, but it would have been a better film if a certain major plot-point hadn't been changed.

In my opinion the actor whose career appeared to change the most because of the code was Norma Shearer; she successfully shifted from sexually liberated contemporary women in her pre-code films to noble heroines and period dramas after the code was put into effect.

Shearer did entirely reinvent herself at the start of the sound era, but I also think the naughtiness of Jean Harlow and Mae West also took a hit, too.