Censorship that changed classic scripts?

[SomeRandom]

This place is practically endless in its discussions of censorship.
And while that’s all very well and good for politics and even art, sure.
But what about the actual impacts real life censorship has had in the filming process?

I was watching some behind the scenes making of things on some of my “Universal classics collection.”
You know, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, the Karloff Mummy, The Invisible Man etc etc.

In those days, the Hollywood scripts (I’m assuming especially genre fiction like Horror and Sci Fi) had to first be approved by the “Censorship Board” in order to begin production and filming.
(I’m not an American so you can fill me in on that, if you guys like.)

But it resulted in some… interesting changes to these classic films.
For example in Bride of Frankenstein initially Franky was supposed to be literally crucified. This was deemed too blasphemous, so it changed to the iconic scene we know and love.
A lot of the dialogue was deemed rather blasphemous, so was toned down or used wry “synonyms” instead.
Apparently they were supposed to wreck a crucifix or something, but this again was deemed too blasphemous and they instead had Frank topple over a religious statue. Which they accomplished by leaving out which statue it was (a saint I think, iirc.) Ironically being arguably more blasphemous.

It was interesting to listen to directors, producers and even screenwriters note how they are sometimes pulled back by studios “fearing offence.” Going right back to the silent films of old.

Which is your favourite example?
Any that destroyed something that had potential?
Any that I’ve missed?

Discuss as you please

 

[Nimos]

Which is your favourite example?
Any that destroyed something that had potential?
Any that I’ve missed?

Discuss as you please

I don't think I have any examples like those you mentioned, as I haven't really looked into that, but it's interesting to hear, so thanks for that.

The only one I can really think of was Life of Brian, which created a lot of tension, I can't remember if they ended up changing anything in it, or if they just took the bull at the horns so to speak.

In general, I think that movies and art should be allowed to be as free as possible, and occasionally provocative because it does help us reflect on our values and question them.
It is very easy for something we deem offensive or problematic to simply be hidden away or ignored because people are too afraid to talk about a given topic or might simply not have given it much thought, to begin with.

But it is obviously a fine balance because topics should also be treated with some respect, it is fairly easy to provoke just for the sake of doing it, so there needs to be some intelligence behind it.

Meaning, that anyone could very easily provoke an ethnic group or religious group if they simply wanted to provoke them, nothing hard about that. But if they truly believe there is an issue, they ought to do it in an intelligent way, where the actual problem is the focus.

 

[Stevicus]

In those days, the Hollywood scripts (I’m assuming especially genre fiction like Horror and Sci Fi) had to first be approved by the “Censorship Board” in order to begin production and filming.
(I’m not an American so you can fill me in on that, if you guys like.)

Hays Code - Wikipedia

In 1934, Joseph I. Breen, a prominent Catholic layman who had worked in public relations, was appointed head of the new Production Code Administration (PCA). Under Breen's leadership, which lasted until his retirement in 1954, enforcement of the Production Code became notoriously rigid. Even cartoon sex symbol Betty Boop had to change from being a flapper and began to wear an old-fashioned housewife's skirt. However, by 1934, the prohibition against miscegenation was defined only as sexual relationships between black and white races.[53]

Breen's power to change scripts and scenes angered many writers, directors and Hollywood moguls. Breen influenced the production of Casablanca (1942), objecting to any explicit reference to Rick and Ilsa having slept together in Paris, and to the film mentioning that Captain Renault extorted sexual favors from his supplicants; ultimately, both remained strongly implied in the finished version.[54] Adherence to the Code also ruled out any possibility of the film ending with Rick and Ilsa consummating their adulterous love, making inevitable the ending with Rick's noble renunciation, one of Casablanca's most famous scenes.[55]

The first major instance of censorship under the Production Code involved the 1934 film Tarzan and His Mate, in which brief nude scenes involving a body double for actress Maureen O'Sullivan were edited out of the master negative of the film.[56] Another famous case of enforcement involved The Outlaw, a 1943 western produced by Howard Hughes, which was denied a certificate of approval and kept out of theaters for years since the film's advertising focused particular attention on Jane Russell's breasts. Hughes eventually persuaded Breen that this did not violate the code and the film could be shown.[57]

The Hays Code required a change in a major element of the plot of Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel Rebecca. In the novel, the narrator discovers that her husband, the aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter, killed his first wife Rebecca, and she makes light of it, since it followed Rebecca having strongly provoked and taunted him. This could not be retained in Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 adaptation, as it would have meant having a major character get away with murder and living happily ever after, which would have been a flagrant violation of the Code. In Hitchcock's version, Rebecca died in an accident and Maxim de Winter was guilty of no more than hiding the facts of her death.[58] The 2020 remake, not bound by the Code, restored du Maurier's original plot element.

The PCA also engaged in political censorship. When Warner Bros. wanted to make a film about Nazi concentration camps, the production office forbade it, citing the above-mentioned prohibition on depicting "in an unfavorable light" another country's "institutions [and] prominent people", with threats to take the matter to the federal government if the studio went ahead.[59] This policy prevented a number of anti-Nazi films being produced. In 1938, the FBI unearthed and prosecuted a Nazi spy ring, subsequently allowing Warner to produce Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939),[60] with the Three Stooges' short subject You Nazty Spy! (1940) being the first Hollywood film of any sort to openly spoof the Third Reich's leadership.[61]

Some films produced outside the mainstream studio system flouted the code. One example is Child Bride (1938), which featured a nude scene involving a twelve-year-old child actress (Shirley Mills). The Code began to weaken in the late 1940s, when the formerly taboo subjects of rape and miscegenation were allowed in Johnny Belinda (1948) and Pinky (1949), respectively. In 1951, the MPAA revised the code to make it more rigid, spelling out more words and subjects that were prohibited. In 1954, Breen retired, largely because of ill health, and Geoffrey Shurlock was appointed as his successor.

Some of Hollywood's creative class managed to find positives in the Code's limitations. Director Edward Dmytryk later said that the Code "had a very good effect because it made us think. If we wanted to get something across that was censorable... we had to do it deviously. We had to be clever. And it usually turned out to be much better than if we had done it straight."[62]