137-460: Loose Ankles is a 1930 pre-Code romantic comedy with songs, produced and released by First National Pictures , which had become a subsidiary of Warner Bros. The film was directed by Ted Wilde and stars Loretta Young , Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. , Louise Fazenda and Edward Nugent . It was a remake of the 1926 silent film titled Ladies at Play , which had been produced by First National Pictures . Both versions were adapted by Gene Towne from
274-457: A World War I veteran cast onto the streets with a morphine addiction from his hospital stay. In Wild Boys of the Road (1933), the young man played by Frankie Darrow leads a group of dispossessed juvenile drifters who frequently brawl with the police. Such gangs were common; around 250,000 youths traveled the country by hopping trains or hitchhiking in search of better economic circumstances in
411-486: A chorus girl , she regularly received diamonds and pearls as gifts, but now must content herself with a corned beef sandwich. In Union Depot (1932), Douglas Fairbanks Jr. puts a luscious meal as the first order of business on his itinerary after coming into money. Given the social circumstances, politically oriented social problem films ridiculed politicians and portrayed them as incompetent bumblers, scoundrels, and liars. In The Dark Horse (1932), Warren William
548-582: A sin . Profanity includes slurs , but most profanities are not slurs, and there are many insults that do not use swear words. Swear words can be discussed or even sometimes used for the same purpose without causing offense or being considered impolite if they are obscured (e.g. "fuck" becomes "f***" or "the f-word") or substituted with a minced oath like "flip". Profanity may be described as offensive language, dirty words, or taboo words, among other descriptors. The term profane originates from classical Latin profanus , literally ' before (outside)
685-469: A bloody miracle , or as an adverb, such as in they drove damn fast . One type of adverbial profanity is to use it as a modal adverb , such as in no you fucking can't . Compound words can be created to create a new modifier, such as pisspoor . Many European languages use profanity to add emphasis to question words in the form of who the hell are you? or with a preposition in the form of what in God's name
822-588: A building named after himself that is larger than the Empire State Building . He tricks everyone he knows into poverty to appropriate others' wealth. He is ultimately shot by his secretary ( Verree Teasdale ), who then ends the film and her own life by walking off the roof of the skyscraper. Americans' mistrust and dislike of lawyers was a frequent topic of dissection in social problem films such Lawyer Man (1933), State's Attorney , and The Mouthpiece (1932). In films such as Paid (1930),
959-496: A cablegram to all the studios in March 1934 mandating that Dillinger not be portrayed in any motion picture. The genre entered a new level following the release of Little Caesar (1931), which featured Edward G. Robinson as gangster Rico Bandello. Caesar , along with The Public Enemy (starring James Cagney ) and Scarface (1932) (starring Paul Muni ), were, by standards of the time, incredibly violent films that created
1096-462: A case of using the name of one group to demean another, Hun came to be associated with a brutish caricature of Germans, first during the Renaissance and again during World War I . Some terms for people of low class or status can become generically profane or derogatory. English examples include villain , lewd , and scum . Profanity is used to indicate the speaker's emotional state, and
1233-674: A censorship board in 1921. Virginia followed suit the next year, and eight individual states had a board by the advent of sound film. Many of these boards were ineffectual. By the 1920s, the New York stage, a frequent source of subsequent screen material, had topless shows; performances were filled with profanity, mature subject matter, and sexually suggestive dialogue. Early during the sound system conversion process, it became apparent that what might be acceptable in New York would not be so in Kansas. In 1927, Hays suggested studio executives form
1370-435: A comedic effect. Profanity often presents as formulaic language , in which specific words can only be used in specific phrases, often developed through grammaticalization . Many of these phrases allow words to be swapped, presenting variations on a phrase like what in the bloody heck , why in the flamin' hell , and how in the fuckin' hell . Profane phrases can be used as anaphoric pronouns , such as replacing him with
1507-429: A committee to discuss film censorship. Irving Thalberg of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Sol Wurtzel of Fox , and E. H. Allen of Paramount responded by collaborating on a list they called the " Don'ts and Be Carefuls ", based on items that were challenged by local censor boards, and which consisted of eleven subjects best avoided, and twenty-six to be handled very carefully. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved
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#17327946026661644-623: A dispossessed juvenile delinquent is in court expecting a jail sentence. However the judge lets the boy go free, revealing to him the symbol of the New Deal behind his desk, and tells him "[t]hings are going to be better here now, not only here in New York, but all over the country." A box-office casualty of this hopefulness was Gabriel Over the White House , which entered production during the Hoover era malaise and sought to capitalize on it. By
1781-502: A given context. Those still learning a language, such as children and non-native speakers, are more likely to use profane language without realizing that it is profane. Acceptable environments for profanity are learned in childhood as children find themselves chastised for swearing in some places more than others. Swearing is often milder among young children, and they place more stigma on terms that are not seen as profane by adults, like fart or dork . Young children are more likely to use
1918-500: A high and self-sufficing purpose. Hays and others, such as Samuel Goldwyn , obviously felt that motion pictures presented a form of escapism that served a palliative effect on American moviegoers. Goldwyn had coined the famous dictum, "If you want to send a message, call Western Union " in the pre-Code era. However, the MPPDA took the opposite stance when questioned about certain so-called "message" films before Congress in 1932, claiming
2055-473: A local or magistrates court. Police also have the power to issue fixed penalty notices to alleged offenders. It is a defence in some Australian jurisdictions to have "a reasonable excuse" to conduct oneself in the manner alleged. In Brazil, the Penal Code does not contain any penalties for profanity in public immediately. However, direct offenses against one can be considered a crime against honor , with
2192-448: A lot further than more recent efforts such as Wall Street , and it's amazing how much plot and character are gracefully shoehorned into 75 minutes." The film featured pre-Code megastar Warren William (later dubbed "the king of Pre-Code" ), "at his magnetic worst", playing a particularly vile and heartless department store manager who, for example, terminates the jobs of two long-standing male employees, one of whom takes his own life as
2329-651: A memory." Although the liberalization of sexuality in American film had increased during the 1920s, the pre-Code era is either dated generally to the start of the sound film era, or more specifically to March 1930, when the Hays Code was first written. Over the protests of NAMPI, New York became the first state to take advantage of the Supreme Court's 1915 decision in Mutual Film vs. Ohio by instituting
2466-470: A new type of anti-hero. Nine gangster films were released in 1930, 26 in 1931, 28 in 1932 and 15 in 1933, when the genre's popularity began to subside after the end of Prohibition . The backlash against gangster films was swift. In 1931, Jack Warner announced that his studio would stop making them and that he himself had never allowed his 15-year-old son to see them. Profanity Profanity , also known as swearing , cursing , or cussing , involves
2603-475: A penalty of imprisonment of one to three months or a fine. The analysis of the offence is considered "subjective", depending on the context of the discussion and the relationship between the parts. Section 175 of Canada's Criminal Code makes it a criminal offence to "cause a disturbance in or near a public place" by "swearing […] or using insulting or obscene language". Provinces and municipalities may also have their laws against swearing in public. For instance,
2740-946: A person as one who masturbates are often used as terms of abuse, such as the English use of jerk-off and wanker . Terms for sexually promiscuous women can be used as profanity, such English terms like hussy and slut . Reference to prostitution brings its own set of profanities. Many profane words exist to refer to a prostitute, such as whore in English, putain in French, puttana in Italian, kurwa in Polish, блять ( blyat' ) in Russian, and puta in Spanish. Some languages, including German and Swedish, do not see significant use of sexual terms as profanity. Profanities for
2877-546: A picture, to be titled Mad Dog of Europe , which was intended to be a full-scale attack on Hitler. Jaffe had quit his job at RKO Pictures to make the film. Hays summoned the pair to his office and told them to cease production as they were causing needless headaches for the studios. Germany had threatened to seize all the properties of the Hollywood producers in Germany and ban the import of any future American films. In
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#17327946026663014-592: A plague on others. The names of various diseases are used as profane words in some languages; Pokkers ( transl. pox ) appears in both Danish and Norwegian as an exclamation and an intensifier. Death is another common theme in Asian languages such as Cantonese . Terminology of mental illness has become more prominent as profanity in the Western world, with terms such as idiot and retard challenging one's mental competency. Profane phrases directed at
3151-448: A potential government takeover of film censorship and social research seeming to indicate that movies that were seen to be immoral could promote bad behavior, was enough pressure to force the studios to capitulate to greater oversight. In 1922, after some risqué films and a series of off-screen scandals involving Hollywood stars, the studios enlisted Presbyterian elder Will H. Hays to rehabilitate Hollywood's image. Hays, later nicknamed
3288-549: A product of the excesses of the previous decade. In looking back upon the 1920s, events were increasingly seen as occurring in prelude to the market crash. In Dance, Fools, Dance (1931), lurid party scenes featuring 1920s flappers are played to excess. Joan Crawford ultimately reforms her ways and is saved; less fortunate is William Bakewell , who continues on the careless path that leads to his ultimate self-destruction. For Rain or Shine (1930), Milton Ager and Jack Yellen composed " Happy Days Are Here Again ". The song
3425-478: A profane term can vary between dialects within the same language. Publishers of dictionaries must take profanity into consideration when deciding what words to include, especially when they are subject to obscenity laws. They may be wary of appearing to endorse the use of profane language by its inclusion. Slang dictionaries have historically been used to cover profanity in lieu of more formal dictionaries. In some cultures, there are situations where profanity
3562-471: A result. He also threatens to fire Loretta Young 's character, who pretends to be single to stay employed, unless she sleeps with him, then attempts to ruin her husband after learning she is married. Films that stated a position about a social issue were usually labeled either "propaganda films" or "preachment yarns". In contrast to Goldwyn and MGM's definitively Republican stance on social issue films, Warner Brothers, led by New Deal advocate Jack L. Warner ,
3699-503: A sentence's length without changing its meaning. The use of expletive sometimes refers specifically to profanity as an interjection . Epithet is used to describe profanities directed at a specific person. Some languages do not have a general term for the use of profanities, instead describing it with the phrase "using bad language". These include Mandarin ( zang hua ), Portuguese ( palavrao ), Spanish ( decir palabrotas ), and Turkish ( küfur etmek ). Historical profanity
3836-615: A similar manner to swearing , especially in the United States. Cursing originally referred specifically to the use of language to cast a curse on someone, and in American English it is still commonly associated with wishing harm on another. Equivalents to cursing are used similarly in Danish ( bande ), Italian ( imprecare ), and Norwegian ( banne ). The terms swearing and cursing have strong associations with
3973-484: A social environment as informal, and mark the speaker as part of an in-group . The way speakers use profanity in social settings allows them to project their identity and personality through communication style, and in some circumstances it can be used as a method used to impress one's peers. Stylistic swearing is used to add emphasis or intensity to speech, which can be used to emphasize an idea in an aggressive or authoritative fashion, make an idea memorable, or produce
4110-469: A specific demographic. These are used to project xenophobia and prejudice , often through the use of stereotypes . They typically develop in times of increased contact of conflict between different races or ethnic groups, including times of war between two or more nations. Terms for minority groups are sometimes used as swears. This can apply to both profane terms such as kike or non-profane terms such as gay . Many of these are culture-specific. In
4247-404: A swear. The Cockney dialect of English uses rhyming slang to alter terms, including profanity; titty is rhymed as Bristol city , which is then abbreviated as bristols . Speakers and authors may engage in self-censorship under legal or social pressure. In the 21st century, censorship through social pressure is associated with political correctness in Western society. This has led to
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4384-440: A term of abuse for a dishonest person in a criminal setting. Profanity is often associated with lower class professions like soldiers and carters . Expectancy violations theory holds that expectations about a speaker's behavior come from impressions based not only on the speaker's identity, but how the specific speaker typically communicates and the socially expected way to speak to a given listener. Swearing in formal contexts
4521-753: A term of abuse with klotzaak . Words for the buttocks are used as a term of disapproval in many languages, including English ( ass or arse ), French ( cul ), Polish ( dupa ), Russian ( жопа , zhopa ), and Spanish ( culo ). Similar words for the anus appear in languages like Danish ( røvhul ), English ( asshole or arsehole ), German ( Arschloch ), Icelandic ( rassgat ), Norwegian ( rasshøl ), and Polish ( dupek ). Excrement and related concepts are commonly invoked in profanity. European examples include shit in English, merde in French, scheiss in German, and stronzo in Italian. Illness has historically been used to swear by wishing
4658-424: A vulgar word can constitute a swear word. Conversely, words with greater connotative senses are not always used profanely. Bastard and son of a bitch are more readily used as general terms of abuse in English compared to terrorist and rapist , despite the latter two being terms being associated with strongly immoral behavior. Some profane phrases are used metaphorically in a way that still retains elements of
4795-415: A way that might arouse passion or be made to seem right and permissible. All criminal action had to be punished, and neither the crime nor the criminal could elicit sympathy from the audience. Authority figures had to be treated respectfully, and the clergy could not be portrayed as comic characters or villains. Under some circumstances, politicians, police officers and judges could be villains, as long as it
4932-406: Is a greater violation of expectations than swearing in informal conversation. Whether the profanity is spoken in public or private is also a factor in social acceptability. Conversations that involve profanity are correlated with other informal manners of speech, such as slang, humor, and discussion of sexuality. Native speakers of a language can intuitively decide what language is appropriate for
5069-533: Is again enlisted, this time to get an imbecile, who is accidentally in the running for Governor, elected. The candidate wins the election despite his incessant, embarrassing mishaps. Washington Merry-Go-Round portrayed the state of a political system stuck in neutral. Columbia Pictures considered releasing the film with a scene of the public execution of a politician as the climax before deciding to cut it. Cecil B. DeMille released This Day and Age in 1933, and it stands in stark contrast to his other films of
5206-456: Is another form of euphemism, with English examples including the replacement of fuck with the f-word or effing and the use of " four-letter words " to refer to profanity in general. Chinese and some Southeast Asian languages use puns and sound-alikes to create alternate swear words. The Chinese word for bird, niao , rhymes with the Chinese word for penis and is frequently invoked as
5343-536: Is associated with neurological conditions such as Tourette syndrome , dementia , and epilepsy . The ability to use profanity can remain intact even when neurological trauma causes aphasia . Frequent swearing is more common among people with damage to the brain or other parts of the nervous system . Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex can negatively affect one's ability to control their use of profanity and other socially inappropriate behaviors. Damage to Broca's area and other language-processing regions of
5480-498: Is associated with the right hemisphere . Swearing is associated with both language-processing parts of the brain, the left frontal and temporal lobes, as well as the emotion-processing parts, the right cerebrum and the amygdala . The association of emotional swearing with the amygdala and other parts of the limbic system suggests that some uses of profanity are related to the fight-or-flight response . Profanity requires more mental processing than other forms of language, and
5617-605: Is common in Polish, for example, while swearing in Dutch is more commonly in reference to disease. Words for excrement and for the buttocks have profane variants across most cultures. Though religious swears were historically more severe, modern society across much of the world has come to see sexual and anatomical swears to be more vulgar. Common profane phrases sometimes incorporate more than one category of profanity for increased effect. The Spanish phrase me cago en Dios y en la Puta Virgen ( transl. I shit on God and on
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5754-682: Is considered acceptable, including its presence in the home and children's access to broadcasts. Profanity may be avoided when discussing taboo subjects through euphemisms . Euphemisms were historically used to avoid invoking the names of malevolent beings. Euphemisms are commonly expressed as metaphors, such as make love or sleep with as descriptors of sexual intercourse. Euphemisms can be alternate descriptors such as white meat instead of breast meat , or they may be generic terms such as unmentionables . Minced oaths are euphemisms that modify swear words until they are no longer profane, such as darn instead of damn in English. Substitution
5891-470: Is decidedly anti-capitalist; however, its preface claims otherwise: In many parts of the South today, there exists an endless dispute between rich land-owners, known as planters, and the poor cotton pickers, known as "peckerwoods". The planters supply the tenants with the simple requirements of everyday life and; in return, the tenants work the land year in and year out. A hundred volumes could be written on
6028-634: Is difficult to reconstruct, as written records may not reflect spoken language. Despite being relatively well known compared to other linguistic mechanisms, profanity has historically been understudied because of its taboo nature. Profanity may be studied as an aspect of linguistics and sociology, or it can be a psychological and neurological subject. Besides interpersonal communication, understanding of profanity has legal implications and related to theories of language learning. In modern European languages, swearing developed from early Christianity, primarily through restrictions on taking God's name in vain in
6165-442: Is disagreement as to whether freedom of speech should permit all forms of profane speech, including hate speech, or if such forms of speech can be justifiably restricted. Censorship is used to restrict or penalize profanity, and governments may implement laws that disallow certain acts of profanity, including legal limitations on the broadcast of profanity over radio or television. Broadcasting has unique considerations as to what
6302-407: Is done involuntarily as an emotional response to excitement or displeasure. Frequent swearing can become a habit, even if the speaker does not have a specific intention of being profane. Profanity is often used as a slot filler, which functions as a modifier , and modifying a noun with a swear is commonly used to indicate dislike. A profane word can modify words as an adjective, such as in it's
6439-553: Is especially common in Arabic. Self-immolating oaths, such as I'll be damned , involve speakers casting harm upon themselves. These are often invoked as conditional statements based on whether something is true— I'll be damned if... Profanity directed at an individual can take the form of an unfriendly suggestion. English examples include go to hell and kiss my ass . Some profanities, such as your mother ! , imply taboos or swear words without using them explicitly. Whether speech
6576-518: Is furious at being denied the right to marry whom she pleases, decides to create a scandal. She advertises in the paper for an unscrupulous man to compromise her. Gilly Hayden ( Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. ) answers the ad and arrives at Ann's apartment. In order to make the affair as scandalous as possible, Ann's maid asks Fairbanks to remove his clothing. Before the newspaper men arrive, Ann's two aunts show up and attempt to force Gilly to marry their niece. Gilly, not wanting to force Ann into marriage, jumps out
6713-407: Is good etiquette. A tradition exists in some parts of China that a bride was expected to speak profanely to her groom's family in the days before the wedding, and one Aboriginal Australian culture uses profanity to denote class. The idea of censoring taboo ideas exists in all cultures. Swearing inappropriately can be punished socially, and public swearing can bring about legal consequences. There
6850-477: Is inhabited by the archangel Gabriel upon being knocked unconscious. The spirit's behavior is similar to that of Abraham Lincoln . The president solves the nation's unemployment crisis and executes an Al Capone -type criminal who has continually flouted the law. Dictators were not just glorified in fiction. Columbia's Mussolini Speaks (1933) was a 76-minute paean to the fascist leader, narrated by NBC radio commentator Lowell Thomas . After showing some of
6987-508: Is most common in Russian. Though profanity exists in nearly all cultures, there is variation in when it is used and how it affects the meaning of speech. Each language has unique profane phrases influenced by culture. Japanese is sometimes described as having no swear words, though it has a concept of warui kotoba ( transl. bad words ) that are not based on taboos but are otherwise functionally equivalent to swears. One linguistic theory proposes that sound symbolism influences
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#17327946026667124-448: Is often seen as more socially acceptable when coming from men, and it is commonly associated with machismo . Profanity varies in how it affects a speaker's credibility. It can be seen as unprofessional in some circumstances, but it can make an argument more persuasive in others. Milder words can become more impactful in different circumstances; cheat may be more provocative in schools or gambling clubs, and informer replaces crook as
7261-651: Is preserved in the Library of Congress . In early 2012, Loose Ankles was released on DVD by Warner Archive in a double bill with The Naughty Flirt , starring Alice White . Pre-Code Hollywood Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines (popularly known as
7398-494: Is profane depends on context, because what is taboo or impolite in one environment might not be in another. Swear words vary in their intensity, and speakers of a language might disagree that weaker swear words are actually profane. Isolated profanities are often seen as more profane than those used in context. The identity of the speaker affects how profanity is seen, as different cultures may hold classes, sexes, age groups, and other identities to different standards. Profanity
7535-591: Is sometimes made between religious profanity, which is casual, versus blasphemy, which is intentionally leveled against a religious concept. It was commonly believed among early civilizations that speaking about certain things can invoke them or bring about curses. Many cultures have taboos about speaking the names of evil creatures such as Satan because of these historical fears. Religions commonly develop derogatory words for those who are not among their members. Medieval Christianity developed terms like heathen and infidel to describe outsiders. Secularization in
7672-595: Is that? . Modifier profanities are frequently used as an expletive attributive , or intensifiers that put emphasis on specific ideas. These commonly take the form of interjections to express strong emotion, such as the English examples bloody hell and for fuck's sake . Such stand-alone profanities are among the most common in natural speech. Expletive infixation is the use of a profane word as an intensifier inside of another word, such as modifying absolutely to become abso-fucking-lutely . Some languages use swear words that can generically replace nouns and verbs. This
7809-401: Is to ENTERTAIN. ... This we must keep before us at all times and we must realize constantly the fatality of ever permitting our concern with social values to lead us into the realm of propaganda ... the American motion picture ... owes no civic obligation greater than the honest presentment of clean entertainment and maintains that in supplying effective entertainment, free of propaganda, we serve
7946-596: The Gospel of Matthew implies condemnation of all swearing, though only the Quakers have imposed such a ban. Islam , Judaism , and Brahmanism forbid mention of God's name entirely. In some countries, profanity words often have pagan roots that after Christian influence were turned from names of deities and spirits to profanity and used as such, like perkele in Finnish, which was believed to be an original name of
8083-581: The Great Depression of the 1930s motivated studios to produce films with racy and violent content, which boosted ticket sales. Soon, the flouting of the code became an open secret. In 1931, The Hollywood Reporter mocked the code, and Variety followed suit in 1933. In the same year as the Variety article, a noted screenwriter stated that "the Hays moral code is not even a joke any more; it's just
8220-630: The Hays Code ) in 1934. Although the Hays Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor, and it did not become rigorously enforced until July 1, 1934, with the establishment of the Production Code Administration . Before that date, film content was restricted more by local laws, negotiations between the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) and the major studios, and popular opinion than by strict adherence to
8357-492: The Old Testament . Invocations of God were seen as attempts to call upon his power, willing something to be true or leveling a curse. Other mentions of God were seen as placing oneself over him, with the person uttering a name implying power over the name's owner. Modern study of profanity as its own subject of inquiry had started by 1901. Sigmund Freud influenced study of the topic by positing that swearing reflects
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#17327946026668494-689: The Victorian era was sometimes ridiculed as being naïve and backward. When the Code was announced, The Nation , a liberal periodical, attacked it. The publication stated that if crime were never presented in a sympathetic light, then, taken literally, "law" and "justice" would become the same. Therefore, events such as the Boston Tea Party could not be portrayed. And if clergy were always to be presented positively, then hypocrisy could not be examined either. The Outlook agreed. Additionally,
8631-662: The Western world has seen exclamations such as God! divorced from their religious connotations. Religious profanity is not inherent to all languages, being absent from Japanese, indigenous languages of the Americas , and most Polynesian languages . European languages historically used the crucifixion of Jesus as a focal point for profane interjections. Phrases meaning "death of God" were used in languages like English (' Sdeath ), French ( Mort de Dieu ), and Swedish ( Guds död ) Christian profanity encompasses both appeals to
8768-483: The "Match King", who attempts to corner the global market on matches. William's vile character, Paul Kroll, commits robbery, fraud, and murder on his way from a janitor to a captain of industry. When the market collapses in the 1929 crash, Kroll is ruined and chooses suicide over imprisonment. William played another unscrupulous businessman in Skyscraper Souls (1932): David Dwight, a wealthy banker who owns
8905-525: The "screen Landis". In 1924, Hays introduced a set of recommendations dubbed "The Formula", which the studios were advised to heed, and asked filmmakers to describe to his office the plots of films they were planning. The Supreme Court had already decided unanimously in 1915 in Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio that free speech did not extend to motion pictures, and while there had been token attempts to clean up
9042-529: The 1920s. "After two years the Jazz Age seems as far away as the days before the war", F. Scott Fitzgerald commented in 1931. In the sense noted by Fitzgerald, understanding the moral climate of the early 1930s is complex. Although films experienced an unprecedented level of freedom and dared to portray things that would be kept hidden for several decades, many in America looked upon the stock market crash as
9179-442: The 1926 play Loose Ankles by Sam Janney. Sam Janney was to direct the film but died in a car crash during production. The film's copyright was renewed, so it will not go into the public domain until January 1, 2026. Ann Harper Berry ( Loretta Young ), a young socialite, receives an inheritance of $ 70,000 per year (approximately $ 1 million today) from her deceased grandmother. The will stipulates, however, that she will only receive
9316-980: The Hays Code, which was often ignored by Hollywood filmmakers. As a result, some films in the late 1920s and early 1930s depicted or implied sexual innuendo , romantic and sexual relationships between white and black people, mild profanity , illegal drug use , promiscuity , prostitution , infidelity , abortion , intense violence , and homosexuality . Nefarious characters were seen to profit from their deeds, in some cases without significant repercussions. For example, gangsters in films such as The Public Enemy , Little Caesar , and Scarface were seen by many as heroic rather than evil. Strong female characters were ubiquitous in such pre-Code films as Female , Baby Face or Red-Headed Woman , among many others, which featured independent, sexually liberated women. Many of Hollywood's biggest stars, such as Clark Gable , Bette Davis , James Cagney , Barbara Stanwyck , Joan Blondell , and Edward G. Robinson , got their start in
9453-406: The Italian porco dio ( transl. pig of a God ). Animal-related profanity is distinct from other forms in that it is used similarly across different languages. Terms for dogs are among the most common animal swears across languages, alongside those for cows, donkeys, and pigs. Swear words related to monkeys are common in Arabic and East Asian cultures. Slurs are words that target
9590-570: The October 29, 1929, market crash) highlighted Bow's sexual attractiveness. 1920s stars such as Bow, Gloria Swanson , and Norma Talmadge freely displayed their sexuality in a straightforward fashion. The Great Depression presented a unique time for film-making in the United States. The economic disaster brought on by the stock market crash of 1929 changed American values and beliefs in various ways. Themes of American exceptionalism and traditional concepts of personal achievement, self-reliance, and
9727-488: The Pre-Code era was more incendiary than the gangster film; neither preachment yarns nor vice films so outraged the moral guardians or unnerved the city fathers as the high caliber scenarios that made screen heroes out of stone killers. In the early 1930s, several real-life criminals became celebrities. Two in particular captured the American imagination: Al Capone and John Dillinger . Gangsters like Capone had transformed
9864-458: The audience as to how to commit crime. Sadistic violence and reaction shots showing the faces of individuals on the receiving end of violence were considered especially sensitive areas. The Code later recommended against scenes showing robbery, theft, safe-cracking, arson, "the use of firearms", "dynamiting of trains, machines, and buildings" and "brutal killings", on the basis that they would be rejected by local censors. No motion picture genre of
10001-606: The audience feels sure that evil is wrong and good is right." The Code contained an addendum, commonly referred to as the Advertising Code, that regulated film advertising copy and imagery. On February 19, 1930, Variety published the entire contents of the Code. Soon the men obligated to enforce the code – Jason Joy, who was the head of the Committee until 1932, and his successor, Dr. James Wingate – would be seen as generally ineffective. The first film
10138-425: The audiences' desire for realism led to certain unsavory social, legal, and political issues being portrayed in film. The length of pre-Code films was usually comparatively short, but that running time often required tighter material and did not affect the impact of message films. Employees' Entrance (1933) received the following 1985 review from Jonathan Rosenbaum : "As an attack on ruthless capitalism, it goes
10275-399: The authority to order studios to remove material from a film in 1930, but instead worked by reasoning and sometimes pleading with them. Complicating matters, the appeals process ultimately put the responsibility for making the final decision in the hands of the studios themselves. One factor in ignoring the Code was the fact that some found such censorship prudish. This was a period in which
10412-529: The ban on homosexuality or the use of specific curse words, were never directly mentioned but were assumed to be understood without clear demarcation. Miscegenation, the mixing of the races, was forbidden. The Code stated that the notion of an "adults-only policy" would be a dubious, ineffective strategy that would be difficult to enforce. However, it did allow that "maturer minds may easily understand and accept without harm subject matter in plots which does younger people positive harm." If children were supervised and
10549-480: The bastard in tell the bastard to mind his own business . They can similarly be used to support a noun instead of replacing it, such as in John is a boring son of a bitch . Though profanity is usually associated with taboo words, obscene non-verbal acts such as hand gestures may be considered profane. Spitting in someone's direction has historically been seen as a strong insult. Exposure of certain body parts, often
10686-401: The brain can similarly make people prone to outbursts. Damage to the right hemisphere limits the ability to understand and regulate the emotional content of one's speech. In every Australian state and territory it is a crime to use offensive, indecent or insulting language in or near a public place. These offences are classed as summary offences . This means that they are usually tried before
10823-460: The breaking point. These economic circumstances led to a loss of nearly half of the weekly attendance numbers and closure of almost a third of the country's theaters in the first few years of the depression. Even so, 60 million Americans went to the cinema weekly. Apart from the economic realities of the conversion to sound, were the artistic considerations. Early sound films were often noted for being too verbose. In 1930, Carl Laemmle criticized
10960-439: The connection between mobsters and Broadway productions in movies such as Lights of New York (1928), Tenderloin (1928), and Broadway (1929). The Hays Office had never officially recommended banning violence in any form in the 1920s—unlike profanity, the drug trade or prostitution—but advised that it be handled carefully. New York's censor board was more thorough than that of any other state, missing only around 50 of
11097-502: The country's 1,000 to 1,300 annual releases. From 1927 to 1928, violent scenes removed included those in which a gun was pointed at the camera or "at or into the body of another character". Also subject to potential censorship were scenes involving machine guns, criminals shooting at law enforcement officers, stabbing or knife brandishing (audiences considered stabbings more disturbing than shootings), whippings, choking, torture and electrocution, as well as scenes perceived as instructive to
11234-1072: The divine, such as God or heaven, and to the diabolic, such as the Devil or hell. While the impact of religious swearing has declined in the Christian world, diabolic swearing remains profane in Germany and the Nordic countries . Islamic profanity lacks a diabolic element, referring only to divine concepts like Muhammad or holy places. Words related to Catholicism, known as sacres , are used in Quebec French profanity , and are considered to be stronger than other profane words in French. Examples of sacres considered profane in Quebec are tabarnak ( tabernacle ), hostie ( host ), and sacrament ( sacrament ). When used as profanities, sacres are often interchangeable. The Book of Leviticus indicates that blasphemous language warrants death, while
11371-410: The early 1900s, the United States was still primarily a rural country, especially in self-identity. D. W. Griffith 's The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) is one of the earliest American films to feature urban organized crime. Prohibition 's arrival in 1920 created an environment in which those who wished to consume alcohol often had to consort with criminals, especially in urban areas. Nonetheless,
11508-483: The early 1930s. Complicating matters for the studios, the advent of sound film in 1927 required an immense expenditure in sound stages, recording booths, cameras, and movie-theater sound systems, not to mention the new-found artistic complications of producing in a radically altered medium. The studios were in a difficult financial position even before the market crash as the sound conversion process and some risky purchases of theater chains had pushed their finances near
11645-578: The economic realities of a country struggling to find its next meal. In Blonde Venus (1932), Marlene Dietrich 's character resorts to prostitution to feed her child, and Claudette Colbert 's character in It Happened One Night (1934) gets her comeuppance for throwing a tray of food onto the floor by later finding herself without food or financial resources. Joan Blondell 's character in Big City Blues (1932) reflects that, as
11782-441: The end of the 20th century. Another increase in the study of profanity took place with the onset of the 21st century. Profanities have literal meanings, but they are invoked to indicate a state of mind, making them dependent almost entirely on connotation and emotional associations with the word, as opposed to literal denotation . The connotative function of profanity allows the denotative meaning to shift more easily, causing
11919-450: The era. Other stars who excelled during this period, however, like Ruth Chatterton (who decamped to England) and Warren William (the so-called "king of pre-Code", who died in 1948), would be largely forgotten by the general public within a generation. Beginning in late 1933 and escalating throughout the first half of 1934, American Catholics launched a campaign against what they deemed the immorality of American cinema. This, along with
12056-399: The events implied elliptically, the code allowed what Brandeis University cultural historian Thomas Doherty called "the possibility of a cinematically inspired thought crime ". The Code sought not only to determine what could be portrayed on screen, but also to promote traditional values. Sexual relations outside of marriage could not be portrayed as attractive and beautiful, presented in
12193-494: The film's message. The Jazz Age prelude was almost singularly used to cast shame on the boisterous behavior of the 1920s. Cabin in the Cotton (1932) is a Warner Bros. message film about the evils of capitalism. The film takes place in an unspecified southern state where workers are given barely enough to survive and taken advantage of by being charged exorbitant interest rates and high prices by unscrupulous landowners. The film
12330-495: The genitals or buttocks, is also seen as profane in many parts of the world. Though cursing often refers to the use of profanity in general, it can refer to more specific phrases of harm such as damn you or a pox on you . Historically, people swore by or to the ideas that they were invoking, instead of swearing at something. Oaths in which the speaker swears by something, such as by God , can be used as interjections or intensifiers, typically without religious connotation. This
12467-443: The intentional creation of new euphemisms to avoid terms that may be stigmatizing. Some become widely accepted, such as substance abuse for drug addiction , while others are ignored or derided, such as differently abled for disabled . The brain processes profanity differently than it processes other forms of language. Intentional controlled swearing is associated with the brain's left hemisphere , while reflexive swearing
12604-439: The legal system turns innocent characters into criminals. The life of Joan Crawford 's character is ruined and her romantic interest is executed so that she may live free, although she is innocent of the crime for which the district attorney wants to convict her. Religious hypocrisy was addressed in such films as The Miracle Woman (1931), starring Barbara Stanwyck and directed by Frank Capra . Many pre-Code films dealt with
12741-570: The list, and Hays created the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) to oversee its implementation. However, there was still no way to enforce these tenets. The controversy surrounding film standards came to a head in 1929. Director Cecil B. DeMille was responsible for the increasing discussion of sex in cinema in the 1920s. Starting with Male and Female (1919), he made a series of films that examined sex and were highly successful. Films featuring Hollywood's original " It girl " Clara Bow such as The Saturday Night Kid (released four days before
12878-587: The listener's female relatives, either by describing sexual activity involving them or suggesting that the listener engage in activities with them. Aboriginal Australian languages sometimes invoke one's deceased ancestors in profanity. The names of political ideologies are sometimes invoked as swear words by their opponents. Fascist is commonly used as an epithet in the modern era, replacing historical use of radical . Far-left groups have historically used words like capitalist and imperialist as terms of abuse, while Western speakers use communist in
13015-455: The listener's mother exist across numerous major languages, though it is absent from Germanic languages with the exception of English. These phrases often include terms of abuse that implicate the subject's mother, such as son of a bitch in English or wáng bā dàn ( transl. child of a cuckolded man ) in Mandarin. Russian profanity places heavy emphasis on the sexual conduct of
13152-488: The machinations of the gigolos, and when the club is raided, they manage to escape with their aid. Ann blackmails her aunts into consenting to her marriage with Gilly, threatening to expose their scandalous behavior at the nightclub if they don't. This leaves the couple free to pursue their romance. The songs were written by Jack Meskill and Pete Wendling , and the dances were staged by Roy Mack. Loose Ankles survives intact, and it has been shown on Turner Classic Movies and
13289-617: The mildest terms as swear words, such as pooh-pooh . Adolescents develop an understanding of double meanings in terms like balls . The severity of a swear word may decline over time as it is repeated. In some cases, slurs can be reclaimed by the targeted group when they are used ironically or in a positive context, such as queer to refer to the LGBTQ community . People who speak multiple languages often have stronger emotional associations with profanity in their native languages over that of languages that they acquire later. The severity of
13426-411: The money after she has been married to someone who meets with the approval of her two prudish aunts Sarah ( Louise Fazenda ) and Katherine ( Ethel Wales ) Harper. The will also stipulates that everyone will lose their inheritance if a scandal involving Ann occurs before she is married. In the case of a scandal, the entire estate will be donated to an organization for the welfare of cats and dogs. Ann, who
13563-564: The motion picture "Czar", was paid the then-lavish sum of $ 100,000 a year (equivalent to more than $ 1.7 million in 2022 dollars). Hays had previously served as U.S. Postmaster General under president Warren G. Harding and as the head of the Republican National Committee . At the time of his hiring, he was president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA); he held
13700-601: The movies before, such as when the studios formed the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry (NAMPI) in 1916, little had come of the efforts. In 1929, Catholic layman Martin Quigley , editor of the prominent trade paper Motion Picture Herald , and Father Daniel A. Lord , a Jesuit priest, created a code of standards (of which Hays strongly approved) and submitted it to
13837-420: The negative associations of swear words mean they are often emotionally charged. Expressions of anger and frustration are the most common reason for swearing. Such expressions are associated with abusive profanity, which is the most negatively charged and is specifically chosen to insult or offend the subject. This may take the form of a direct insult, such as calling the subject an asshole , or by addressing
13974-434: The office reviewed, The Blue Angel , which was passed by Joy without revision, was considered indecent by a California censor. Although there were several instances where Joy negotiated cuts from films, and there were indeed definite, albeit loose, constraints, a significant amount of lurid material made it to the screen. Joy had to review 500 films a year using a small staff and little power. The Hays office did not have
14111-414: The original meaning, such as the English phrases all hell broke loose or shit happens , which carry the negative associations of hell and shit as undesirable places and things. Others are nonsensical when interpreted literally, like take a flying fuck in English as well as putain de merde ( whore of shit ) in French and porca Madonna ( the sow of Madonna ) in Italian. A distinction
14248-491: The overcoming of odds lost great currency. Due to the constant empty economic reassurances from politicians in the early years of the Depression, the American public developed an increasingly jaded attitude. The cynicism, challenging of traditional beliefs, and political controversy of Hollywood films during this period mirrored the attitudes of many of their patrons. Also gone was the carefree and adventurous lifestyle of
14385-663: The penis and vulva are often used as interjections. Penile interjections are often used in Italian ( cazzo ), Russian ( хуй , khuy ), and Spanish ( carajo ). Vulvar interjections are often used in Dutch ( kut ), Hungarian ( pisca ), Russian ( пизда , pizda ), Spanish ( coño ), and Swedish ( fitta ). Such terms, especially those relating to the vulva, may also be used as terms of abuse. Profanities related to testicles are less common and their function varies across languages. They may be used as interjections, such as in English ( balls or bollocks ), Italian ( coglione ), and Spanish ( cojones ). Danish uses testicles as
14522-413: The perception of entire cities. Capone gave Chicago its "reputation as the locus classicus of American gangsterdom, a cityscape where bullet-proof roadsters with tommygun-toting hoodlums on running boards careened around State Street spraying fusillades of slugs into flower shop windows and mowing down the competition in blood-spattered garages". Capone appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1930. He
14659-482: The period. Filmed shortly after DeMille had completed a five-month tour of the Soviet Union , This Day and Age takes place in America and features several children torturing a gangster who got away with the murder of a popular local shopkeeper. The youngsters are seen lowering the gangster into a vat of rats when the police arrive, and their response is to encourage the youths to continue this. The film ends with
14796-489: The position for 25 years and "defended the industry from attacks, recited soothing nostrums , and negotiated treaties to cease hostilities". Hollywood mimicked the decision Major League Baseball had made in hiring judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as League Commissioner the previous year to quell questions about the integrity of baseball in the wake of the 1919 World Series gambling scandal ; The New York Times called Hays
14933-548: The progress Italy has made during Mussolini 's 10-year reign, Thomas opines, "This is a time when a dictator comes in handy!" The film was viewed by over 175,000 jubilant people during its first two weeks at the cavernous Palace Theater in Albany, New York . The election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) in 1932 quelled the public affection for dictators. As the country became increasingly enthraled with FDR, who
15070-481: The pronunciation of profanities. This includes the suggestion that profanities are more likely to include plosives , but this remains unstudied, especially outside of Indo-European languages . The use of profanity is the most common way to express taboo ideas. The dichotomy between its taboo nature and its prevalence in day-to-day life is studied as the "swearing paradox". It is used casually in some social settings, which can facilitate bonding and camaraderie, denote
15207-565: The prostitute Virgin ) invokes scatological, religious, and sexual profanity. Other swear words do not refer to any subject, such as the English word bloody when used in its profane sense. Not all taboo words are used in swearing, with many only being used in a literal sense. Clinical or academic terminology for bodily functions and sexual activity are distinct from profanity. This includes words such as excrement and copulate in English, which are not typically invoked as swears. Academics who study profanity disagree on whether literal use of
15344-527: The rights and wrongs of both parties, but it is not the object of the producers of Cabin in the Cotton to take sides. We are only concerned with the effort to picture these conditions. In the end, however, the planters admit their wrongdoing and agree to a more equitable distribution of capital. The avaricious businessman remained a recurring character in pre-Code cinema. In The Match King (1932), Warren William played an industrialist based on real-life Swedish entrepreneur Ivar Kreuger , himself nicknamed
15481-452: The same manner . The use of political terms in a profane sense often leads to the term becoming less impactful or losing relevance as a political descriptor entirely. Words for animals can be used as terms of abuse despite not being inherently profane, commonly referencing some attribute of the animal. Examples in English include bitch to demean a woman or louse to describe someone unwanted. They may also be used in interjections like
15618-645: The streets in protest became a prevalent sight during the Great Depression. The Bonus Army protests of World War I veterans on the capital in Washington, D.C., on which Hoover unleashed a brutal crackdown, prompted many of the Hollywood depictions. Although social issues were examined more directly in the pre-Code era, Hollywood still largely ignored the Great Depression, as many films sought to ameliorate patrons' anxieties rather than incite them. Hays remarked in 1932: The function of motion pictures
15755-516: The studios wanted to appease the German government. The ban on Jews and negative portrayals of Germany by Hitler's government even led to a significant reduction in work for Jews in Hollywood until after the end of World War II. As a result, only two social problem films released by independent film companies addressed the mania in Germany during the pre-Code era ( Are We Civilized? and Hitler's Reign of Terror ). In 1933, Herman J. Mankiewicz and producer Sam Jaffe announced they were working on
15892-503: The studios. Lord's concerns centered on the effects sound film had on children, whom he considered especially susceptible to the medium's allure. Several studio heads, including Irving Thalberg of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), met with Lord and Quigley in February 1930. After some revisions, they agreed to the stipulations of the Code. One of the main motivating factors in adopting the Code was to avoid direct government intervention. It
16029-435: The subconscious, including feelings of aggression, antisocial inclinations , and the broaching of taboos. Significant activity began in the 1960s with writings on the subject by Ashley Montagu and Edward Sagarin , followed by increased study the following decade. Specific types of discriminatory profanity, such as ethnophaulism and homophobia, came to be described as part of a broader type of profanity, hate speech , toward
16166-538: The subject profanely, such as telling someone to fuck off . It can also be used to indicate contempt . Cathartic profanity is used as an expression of annoyance, and it is often considered less rude than profanity directed at a specific subject. Profanity can be used as a statement of agreement or disagreement, though disagreement is more common; the hell it is and my ass are examples of English profanities that indicate disagreement. The potent nature of swearing means that it can be used to gain attention, including
16303-450: The surface of American life in the Depression was the fear of the angry mob, portrayed in panicked hysteria in films such as Gabriel Over the White House (1933), The Mayor of Hell (1933), and American Madness (1932). Massive wide shots of angry hordes, comprising sometimes hundreds of men, rush into action in terrifyingly efficient uniformity. Groups of agitated men either standing in breadlines, loitering in hobo camps, or marching
16440-570: The temple ' , pro meaning ' outside ' and fanum meaning ' temple, sanctuary ' . This further developed in Middle English with the meaning to desecrate a temple . In English, swearing is a catch-all linguistic term for the use of profanities, even if it does not involve taking an oath . The only other languages that use the same term for both profanities and oaths are French ( jurer ), Canadian French ( sacrer ), and Swedish ( svära ). English uses cursing in
16577-685: The thunder god Ukko , the chief god of the Finnish pagan pantheon. Profanity related to sexual activity, including insults related to genitals, exists across cultures. The specific aspects invoked are sensitive to a given culture, with differences in how much they emphasize ideas like incest or adultery. Certain types of sex acts, such as oral sex, anal sex, or masturbation, may receive particular attention. Verbs describing sexual activity are frequently profane, like fuck in English, foutre in French, fottere in Italian, jodido in Spanish, and ебать ( yebatˈ ) in Russian. Words describing
16714-426: The time the film was released on March 31, 1933, FDR's election had produced a level of hopefulness in America that rendered the film's message obsolete. Adolf Hitler 's rise to power in Germany and his regime's anti-Semitic policies significantly affected American pre-Code filmmaking. Although Hitler had become unpopular in many parts of the United States, Germany was still a voluminous importer of American films and
16851-734: The urban-crime genre was mostly ignored until 1927 when Underworld , which is recognized as the first gangster movie, became a surprise hit. According to the Encyclopedia of Hollywood entry on Underworld , "The film established the fundamental elements of the gangster movie: a hoodlum hero; ominous, night-shrouded city streets; floozies; and a blazing finale in which the cops cut down the protagonist." Gangster films such as Thunderbolt (1929) and Doorway to Hell (1930) were released to capitalize on Underworld ' s popularity, with Thunderbolt being described as "a virtual remake" of Underworld . Other late-1920s crime films investigated
16988-410: The use of notionally offensive words for a variety of purposes, including to demonstrate disrespect or negativity, to relieve pain, to express a strong emotion, as a grammatical intensifier or emphasis, or to express informality or conversational intimacy. In many formal or polite social situations, it is considered impolite (a violation of social norms ), and in some religious groups it is considered
17125-435: The use of profanity in anger. Various efforts have been made to classify different types of profanity, but there is no widely accepted typology and terms are used interchangeably. Blasphemy and obscenity are used similarly to profanity , though blasphemy has retained its religious connotation. Expletive is another English term for the use of profanity, derived from its original meaning of adding words to change
17262-428: The use of profanity is easier to remember when recalling a conversation or other speech. Exposure to profanity leads to higher levels of arousal , and it can cause increases in heart rate and electrodermal activity as part of a fight-or-flight response. Swearing has also been shown to increase pain tolerance , especially among people who do not regularly swear. Compulsive swearing is called coprolalia , and it
17399-419: The use of profanity to cause shock. In some circumstances, swearing can be used as a form of politeness, such as when a speaker gives positive reinforcement by describing something as pretty fucking good . Propositional or controlled swearing is done consciously, and speakers choose their wording and how to express it. This is more common when using descriptive swearing. Non-propositional or reflexive swearing
17536-557: The wall-to-wall banter of sound pictures, and director Ernst Lubitsch wondered what the camera was intended for if characters were going to narrate all the onscreen action. The film industry also withstood competition from the home radio, and often characters in films went to great lengths to belittle other media. The film industry was not above using the new medium to broadcast commercials for its projects however, and occasionally turned radio stars into short feature performers to take advantage of their built-in following. Seething beneath
17673-638: The window with nothing on but a woman's robe. By this time, Ann and Gilly, though they had only spent a short time together, have fallen in love. Lint Harper (Raymond Keane), Gilly's roommate, becomes interested when Gilly tells him what happened with Ann. He decides to try to get Ann to marry him in order to get a part of her fortune. He takes her to a nightclub called the Circus Cafe. While there, Ann meets Gilly and her two aunts, who are being escorted by two gigolos (two other roommates of Gilly), who have come to spy on their niece. The aunts become drunk through
17810-403: The word to shift until its meaning is unrelated to its origin or to lose meaning and impact altogether. Literal meanings in modern profanity typically relate to religion, sex, or the human body, which creates a dichotomy between the use of highbrow religious swears and lowbrow anatomical swears. Languages and cultures place different emphasis on the subjects of profanity. Anatomical profanity
17947-502: The youngsters taking the gangster to a local judge and forcing the magistrate to conduct a trial in which the outcome is never in doubt. The need for strong leaders who could take charge and steer America out of its crisis is seen in Gabriel Over the White House (1933), about a benevolent dictator who takes control of the United States. Walter Huston stars as a weak-willed, ineffectual president (likely modeled after Hoover) who
18084-470: Was clear that they were the exception to the rule. The entire document contained Catholic undertones and stated that art must be handled carefully because it could be "morally evil in its effects" and because its "deep moral significance" was unquestionable. The Catholic influence on the Code was initially kept secret, owing to the Anti-Catholic bias of the time. A recurring theme was "throughout,
18221-622: Was even offered seven-figure sums by two major Hollywood studios to appear in a film, but he declined. Dillinger became a national celebrity as a bank robber who eluded arrest and escaped confinement several times. He had become the most celebrated public outlaw since Jesse James . His father appeared in a popular series of newsreels giving police homespun advice on how to catch his son. Dillinger's popularity rose so quickly that Variety joked that "if Dillinger remains at large much longer and more such interviews are obtained, there may be some petitions circulated to make him our president." Hays wrote
18358-404: Was featured in countless newsreels , it exhibited less desire for alternative forms of government. Many Hollywood films reflected this new optimism. Heroes for Sale , despite being a tremendously bleak and at times anti-American film, ends on a positive note as the New Deal appears as a sign of optimism. When Wild Boys of the Road (1933), directed by William Wellman , reaches its conclusion,
18495-582: Was repeated sarcastically by characters in several films such as Under Eighteen (1931) and 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1933). Less comical was the picture of the United States' future presented in Heroes for Sale that same year (1933), in which a hobo looks into a depressing night and proclaims, "It's the end of America". Heroes for Sale was directed by prolific pre-Code director William Wellman and featured silent film star Richard Barthelmess as
18632-423: Was the most prominent maker of these types of films and preferred they be called "Americanism stories". Pre-Code historian Thomas Doherty has written that two recurring elements marked the so-called preachment yarns. "The first is the exculpatory preface; the second is the Jazz Age prelude." The preface was essentially a softened version of a disclaimer that intended to calm any in the audience who disagreed with
18769-426: Was the responsibility of the Studio Relations Committee, headed by Colonel Jason S. Joy, to supervise film production and advise the studios when changes or cuts were required. The Code was divided into two parts. The first was a set of "general principles" that mostly concerned morality. The second was a set of "particular applications", an exacting list of items that could not be depicted. Some restrictions, such as
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