1930s Film Essay

The 1930s are designated has Hollywood’s “Golden Age” because of the various innovations made in the industry during this time. Classic films released during that decade include Gone With The Wind, The Wizard of Oz, King Kong, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
One major development that came in the late 1920s was the advent of the synchronized sound system in film. This allowed mass audiences to watch feature length films with dialogue, music, and sound effects for the first time in history. The development of these films (known as “talkies”) truly came to mainstream cinemagoers beginning in the 1930s. Many Hollywood features followed specific genres. Popular ones of the day included musicals, westerns, animated films, and comedies. Musicals,
Prior to 1930, studios created films that depicted controversial activities and practices, such as woman wearing promiscuous clothing items and men drinking from flasks. There were no rules banning any of these things, rather there were rough guidelines that encouraged filmmakers to be cautious about certain subjects. The Motion Picture Producers and Distributers of America (MPPDA), which represented the five major Hollywood studios at the time, implemented the Motion Picture Production Code in 1930. This was a move towards self-regulation in order to thwart economic boycotts by the public and ensure government intervention did not occur. All studio executives endorsed it. The code outlined numerous things films should not depict to viewers under twelve categories, most notably crimes, sex, vulgarity, profanity, etc. In 1934, The Catholic Legion of Decency wanted to be able to express more influence over what could be depicted on screen. Their group threatened boycotts unless the formation of a new regulatory group was achieved that would oversee all new films preparing for exhibition. Worried about how potential boycotts would hurt their profits, the MPPDA spawned a new department in 1934, the Production Code Administration (PCA). This department ensured that only films it deemed appropriate ever made it to general audiences, as all films that were shown in public had to have a particular seal from the PCA. “Given vertical and nearly complete control of the industry by the major studio members of the association, not a single important feature was released without the seal in the next two decades” (Page 103). Although many thought these rules and regulations would make the art of telling certain stories impossible, it actually often led to many filmmakers simply being more creative in their approach. Instead of explicitly showing the forbidden acts being