- 6 weeks ago
Old Hollywood was never as innocent as it seemed! Join us as we revisit unforgettable film moments that defied censors and pushed boundaries, from suggestive innuendo and even nudity to gender-bending antics and iconic lines. These scenes made waves in their day and helped reshape what was allowed on the silver screen. Which classic moment surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments!
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00:00No, no, you better not come over here, Rio.
00:03Why not?
00:04They put the fire on them.
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:08And today, we're counting down our picks for the old Hollywood moments that flew in the face of censors and industry standards.
00:15For this list, we'll be looking mostly at movies that violated or somehow slipped past the production code that dictated what could be shown on screen between 1934 and 1968.
00:26No, but she was ruined just the same.
00:30Number 10. The Monster's Capture – Bride of Frankenstein
00:35As head of the production code administration, Joseph Breen had the ability to take a hatchet to the film's campy screenplay, even after it had begun shooting.
00:55He had warned James Whale, the director, to curb any overtly religious illusions in the story of Dr. Frankenstein and his creature.
01:03But for everything Whale cut, it seems like plenty of covert instances made it into the film.
01:08To be a light to mine eyes and a comfort in time of trouble. Amen.
01:15The movie makes a pretty obvious reference to the story of Christ and the crucifixion in the scene where the monster is captured by the villagers.
01:35This violates the code's rules about how to depict religious imagery, though it received no comment by Breen.
01:41The film still faced further cuts in several local and international markets.
01:46I could have read a race. I might even have found the secret of eternal life.
01:51Henry, don't say those things. Don't think of them. It's blasphemous and wicked.
01:56Number 9. Preoccupied with Sex – The Moon is Blue
01:59This romantic comedy is incredibly blunt when it comes to sex and adults' relationships.
02:05Early in the film, William Holden meets his match in the incredibly honest actress played by Maggie McNamara.
02:11I'll be darned if I know whether you're just incredibly naive or whether you're ripping the pants off me.
02:16Well, it's very simple. Look, let's face it. Going to a man's apartment almost always ends in one of two ways.
02:22Either the girl is willing to lose her virtue or she fights for it.
02:26I don't want to lose mine, and I think it's vulgar to fight for it. So I always put my cards on the table.
02:31She asks him point blank if he's going to seduce her.
02:34He takes her up to his apartment, where she's pretty cavalier about topics like infidelity and virginity.
02:41Well, you're always asking if people plan seduction, or if they're bored with virgins, or if they have a mistress.
02:46Now, if that isn't being preoccupied with sex, I'd like to know what is.
02:50You may be right.
02:53But don't you think it's better for a girl to be preoccupied with sex than occupy?
02:58The movie so outraged the code office that they refused to give it a seal of approval.
03:03This would have been a disaster in the late 30s or 1940s, but United Artists released the film anyway,
03:09and it actually became a hit, helping to erode the influence of the production code.
03:14I like you.
03:15I could be lying.
03:17That's true. Are you?
03:21I don't know. I've never run up against anybody like you before.
03:25How nice.
03:27Number 8. The Ending.
03:29Along with everything else.
03:30Some like it hot.
03:31You know something, Mr. Feeley?
03:33What?
03:34You're dynamite!
03:36You're a pretty hot little firecracker yourself.
03:40Billy Wilder's gender-bending comedy might seem pretty tame by today's standards,
03:45but having stars Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis dress in women's clothes was risky.
03:51This act would have fallen under what the production code called,
03:54quote, sex perversion, and the movie's now legendary final moments would also fall under that same label.
04:01Jerry, Jerry, listen to me.
04:03Listen to me.
04:03There are laws, conventions.
04:05It's just not being done.
04:07Shh, Joe!
04:08This may be my last chance to marry a millionaire.
04:10An eccentric older man has fallen for Jack Lemmon's drag character, Daphne,
04:15and has proposed marriage.
04:17Forced to reveal himself,
04:18it turns out his enamored suitor isn't bothered at all.
04:21I can never have children.
04:24We can adopt some.
04:26But you don't understand, Osgood.
04:29Oh, I'm a man.
04:32Well, nobody's perfect.
04:34Scandalous as it may have been with the censors,
04:36who refused to give it a seal of approval,
04:39the audiences loved it.
04:41Number 7.
04:42The Model, Dracula's Daughter
04:43The Hays Code had existed for years before it was finally enforced around 1934.
04:48Universal's monster movies had thrived in that pre-code era,
04:53but after the Breen office became more powerful around 1934,
04:57those movies became a lot less daring.
04:59Dracula's Daughter was a notable exception.
05:02Have you ever modeled before?
05:04No, I haven't.
05:06I'm doing a study of a young girl's head and shoulders.
05:09You won't object to removing your blouse, will you?
05:12No, I guess not.
05:12In one scene, the movie's vampire, Countess Zaleska,
05:17brings a female model to her home and has her disrobe for a portrait.
05:21The Countess's lingering gaze is pretty unmistakable.
05:24Why are you looking at me that way?
05:27Won't I do?
05:29Yes, you'll do very well indeed.
05:31This was all even after the script was rewritten to adhere to censorship guidelines.
05:36Most of their notes had to do with the young model,
05:38Lily's degree of nudity on screen.
05:41I suppose you want these pulled down, won't you?
05:43Yes.
05:50Finish your while and it'll warm you.
05:53Number 6. A Tortured Coming Out
05:55The Children's Hour
05:57I've never loved a man.
05:59I never knew why before.
06:03Maybe it's that.
06:04Hollywood had already adapted this Lillian Hellman play in the 1930s.
06:09That version removed any notion of queerness.
06:12This version stays truer to the text.
06:14You're afraid of hearing it, but I'm more afraid than you.
06:19I won't listen to you.
06:20No, you've got to know.
06:22I've got to tell you I can't keep it to myself any longer.
06:26Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine play teachers whose lives and careers are torn apart
06:31when a child starts a rumor that they are lovers.
06:33The accusation isn't true, but MacLaine's character does end up coming out.
06:38I do love you.
06:43I resented your plans to marry.
06:46Maybe because I wanted you.
06:48Maybe I've wanted you all these years.
06:51I couldn't call it by name before, but maybe it's been there since I first knew you.
06:57Her character's painful revelation never uses the word gay explicitly.
07:01But given how anguished and disgusted she is with herself,
07:05that's probably why the MPAA let it slide.
07:08The children's hour doesn't just make being gay look miserable,
07:12it makes it look unbearable.
07:13I've ruined your life and I've ruined my own.
07:17I swear I didn't know it.
07:20I didn't mean it.
07:23Oh, I feel so damn sick and dirty.
07:26I can't stand it anymore.
07:29Number 5.
07:30Jane Russell's Assets
07:32The Outlaw
07:32Howard Hughes was known for his renegade approach to life and work.
07:37As director of The Outlaw, he knew he was making a Western for a more adult audience.
07:41You know, I think he's in love with you.
07:44What are you talking about?
07:45The crazier a man is about a woman, the crazier he thinks and the crazier he does.
07:50He's only crazy about one thing, himself.
07:53His aim to showcase star Jane Russell's body was a success.
07:58Hughes had to make several cuts to scenes that featured a little too much of his new star,
08:02but it still wasn't enough.
08:04I had to give you something for your money, didn't I?
08:07Oh, I see.
08:08So you sent the sheriff after us for good measure, huh?
08:11Scenes of Russell's bust being prominently displayed got him in trouble with the code
08:16and lost him his distributor.
08:18Hughes released it independently and had to drum up his own publicity from the surrounding scandal
08:23before it could receive a wider release years later.
08:26You came back.
08:28You don't think I did it on your account, do you?
08:31You didn't?
08:32Number 4.
08:33Frankie's Relapse.
08:35The Man with the Golden Arm.
08:36You know what you're letting yourself in for?
08:38Frank Sinatra's punishing performance as Frankie, a musician suffering from substance use disorder,
08:50is a distressing watch even 70 years after its release.
08:53The Man with the Golden Arm never actually names the illicit substance behind his downfall,
08:58but it's easy to guess.
09:00Frankie's Relapse near the end of the film breaks major rules of the production code,
09:21including rules about depicting the use and trafficking of drugs,
09:24but it's also incredibly upfront and authentic in a way that's still affecting.
09:29The Code fought the movie every step of the way,
09:32but eventually gave it the seal of approval six years after its initial release.
09:36Oh, I'm so cold. I'm so cold.
09:40So cold.
09:44Make me warm, please.
09:46Number 3.
09:47A Proposition.
09:49The Pawn Broker.
09:50Don't you say nothing about this, you hear?
09:52Nothing.
09:54Like I said, my boss was to find out I've been messing around in private.
09:59So don't tell Rodriguez nothing, you hear nothing.
10:01Released nearly two decades after the end of the Second World War,
10:05this movie follows a Holocaust survivor plagued by traumatic memories of his experiences.
10:10It broke several of the remaining code rules explicitly,
10:13featuring an explicitly gay character,
10:15scenes of sex work,
10:17and most controversial of all,
10:19female nudity.
10:19A scene sees Thelma Oliver playing a sex worker,
10:23offering a trade with Rod Steiger's title character.
10:26Just $20 more.
10:30I make you happy.
10:33Like you'd never know.
10:38I'll show you how pretty I am.
10:41She is seen half nude,
10:42a novelty for the time.
10:44Because this film deals unflinchingly with its subject matter,
10:47the code's initial objections to its content were waived
10:50in deference to the seriousness of the material.
10:53Everything that I love
10:55was taken away from me and
11:02I did not die.
11:07Number 2.
11:08I don't give a damn.
11:09Gone with the Wind.
11:10There's a lot that's controversial about Gone with the Wind.
11:13And that was true even at the time of its release.
11:16Scarlet, I will not make money out of the enforced labor and misery of others.
11:20You weren't so particular about owning slaves.
11:22That was different.
11:22We didn't treat them that way.
11:24Its romanticization of the Old South,
11:26and the racism that entails,
11:28is not what got it cited by the production code.
11:31Childbirth was banned,
11:32even if shown in silhouette.
11:34The scene where Melanie gives birth in Atlanta clearly broke that rule.
11:38Talk to me, Scarlet.
11:40Please.
11:42Talk to me.
11:43Don't try to be brave, Melanie.
11:44Yell all you want,
11:45and there's nobody to hear.
11:46Mom says that if she puts a knife under the bed,
11:49it cuts the pain in two.
11:51Scarlet O'Hara's self-defense murder of a Yankee soldier
11:54was incredibly graphic for the time.
11:56Another big no-no.
11:58But the movie's immortal dialogue,
12:00spoken by Clark Gable's Rhett Butler,
12:02gave censors the most headache.
12:04Where shall I go?
12:05What shall I do?
12:07Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
12:10The code only relented on the word damn
12:12because it was a quotation straight from the book.
12:14A convenient caveat in the rules.
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12:31Number one, the shower scene, Psycho.
12:37From the opening scene,
12:38Alfred Hitchcock's suspense masterpiece had censors nervous.
12:42Why don't you call your boss and tell him
12:43you're taking the rest of the afternoon off?
12:46Showing two unmarried people in bed together
12:48was a huge transgression already,
12:51but they had other things to worry about.
12:53The shower murder sequence begins with the taboo image of a flushing toilet.
12:57Although there's no explicit mention of toilets in the code,
13:00this was considered a groundbreaking moment in itself.
13:03But in 1960,
13:05the code took graphic murders and nudity absolutely off the table.
13:13Hitchcock's rapid editing and strategic concealment of wounds and body parts
13:18presented a dilemma.
13:20Psycho doesn't really show anything.
13:22Most of it lives in the minds of its audience.
13:24It's a masterclass in cinematic technique
13:26and a massive trolling of the weakening production code itself.
13:30Sometimes,
13:31just one time can be enough.
13:35Did you already know about any of these scandalous movies?
13:39Let us know in the comments.
13:40This is where I get off.
13:42Oh no,
13:42no,
13:42no,
13:43no,
13:43no.
13:43You don't get off that easy.
13:45All right,
13:46driver,
13:46once around the park,
13:47slowly,
13:48and keep your eyes on the road.
13:50Do you agree with our picks?
13:53Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo,
13:55and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
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