Mark A. Vieira

If you want a scholarly book on pre-Code films that is the best at explaining the historical context, read “Pre-Code Hollywood” by Thomas Patrick Doherty. If you want one that combines fanboy enthusiasm, great anecdotes, and understands how empowering the period was to women, read “Complicated Women” by Mick LaSalle. If you want one with extraordinary pictures, has great balance, and gives the best insights into the audience reactions at the time, read this one, “Forbidden show more Hollywood” by Mark Viera.

Viera’s book, building upon what he published previously (“Sin in Soft Focus”) is the newest of the three, having been published in 2019, and he takes full advantage of this to include photos that are simply fantastic. This is a very handsome book and leafing through its pages is an absolute joy. If you’re new to the pre-Code films this would be a great book to start with, because its beautiful visuals communicate the emotion and feeling of the era, as if the people involved were looking through time at you.

On top of that, Viera focuses on 20-25 films, giving the reader information about the origin of the script, comments from the cast/director/studio heads, how it ran up against conservative criticism, and how it was commented on by viewers across America in letters to movie magazines. It’s a very well researched account with plenty of new information, giving the book a great balance. His chapter on “The Sign of the Cross” is particularly impressive, and I also loved reading about “Convention City,” a film that was unfortunately lost, literally destroyed by censors. Reading comments like the one from B.P. McCormick of Canon City, Colorado, objecting to the use of the directness of saying a mother is “having a baby” in film, is eye-opening, and there are many others.

There are some odd chapter divisions in trying to break things out by major film, but then including several other films in the chapter, and the book sometimes gets a little too much into the details of the specifics of the process, but these are quibbles. I have to say, it would also have been nicer if it had dealt a little more with the issue of race in these films, though it touches on it.

My biggest criticism, however, is how it makes a point of softening the view of Joseph Breen, a political reactionary and anti-Semite who between mid-1934 and 1954 single-handedly had the most power over content produced in America. Not only did he ruin a lot of movies in that interval by dogmatically imposing his own narrow-minded views on them, but he had pre-1934 movies censored – many irrecoverably, to the master negative (which Viera himself does acknowledge). It’s mind-boggling to me that Viera feels Breen’s legacy is the subject of a misconception though, pointing out his industry friendships over his tenure as evidence of his “not being a lifelong anti-Semite,” without a shred of reflection that during this time, Breen held all the power. It’s as if he was seeking some kind of artificial happy ending, and unprotected as the industry was by the Supreme Court between 1915 (Mutual Film vs. Industrial Commission of Ohio which ruled the films were not protected under the First Amendment) to 1952 (the case involving Rossellini’s The Miracle which overturned it), there was no recourse, resulting in a dark period for the freedom of expression.

That’s what makes the pre-Code era such a delight though. While the salacious aspects of films in this period were played up in the effort to boost sagging box office numbers because of the Depression, they touched on so many other things, challenging traditional gender roles and the institution of marriage, acknowledging sexual pleasure and freedom, satirizing businessmen, the police, and the justice system, and showing that sometimes evil did win in this world. That’s what made the films so “dangerous” in the eyes of the Midwest Catholics who led the charge to put a lid on all this. Viera is successful in capturing at least some of this, and he’s certainly successful in capturing the joy of these old films, and for that I’m very happy he published this book.

Quotes:
On censorship, this extracted from the 1930 book Censored by Morris L. Ernst and Pare Lorentz, speaking of Will Hays (who was a pussycat compared to Breen, making it ironic that the Production Code is referred to as the Hays Code):
“A man used to the ways of political subterfuge, with no especial literary or scientific background, Will Hays particularly epitomizes the class-conscious, fearful yet aggressive spirit that has made the American movie an industry, and little else. Search hard and find a man more fitted to handle petty politicians, middle-aged meddling prudes, and aggressive financiers. The controllers, the movie barons are satisfied with his work. We can expect no fight for freedom, taste, or mature thought in this product so long as the Bishop of Hollywood chants his platitudes and swings his incense pot of purity.”

On “dangerous ideas”, this from Father Daniel Lord, who drafted the original Production Code:
“These authors are injecting into basic stories an underlying philosophy of life. These stories discuss morals, divorce, free love, unborn children, relationships outside of marriage, single and double standards, the relationship of sex to religion, marriage and its effects upon the freedom of women. These subjects are fundamentally dangerous.”

On sex, from Tallulah Bankhead in an interview with Gladys Hall of Motion Picture magazine:
“When I first started to make pictures, I was said to be trying to ‘do a Garbo.’ A fatal thing to say about anyone. If there’s anything the matter with me now, it’s certainly not Hollywood’s state of mind about me. The matter with me is I haven’t had an affair for six months. Six months is a long, long while. I want a man!” show less

1939 was the best year for movies ever - I doubt that the films from the 2014 Academy Awards will be as remembered and loved as those from 1939. This book starts in January and details all the major films released in 1939. There are numerous beautiful photographs from the films (although none in color but then just Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind were shot in color). There is a 2 page summary of some of the things that either went on behind the scenes or how casting was done or how the show more film did as well as one or two reviews. All of this is good. However, I would have also liked a full credit list of the cast and crew of the film. It also would have been neat to have a cross reference chart to see what person appeared or worked on the most of these beloved films of 1939. The book is a must for film buffs but could have had more detail. show less

The subject is interesting and the movie stills are well-chosen, but the writing is a slog to get through. Facts are jumbled together in disorganised paragraphs and chapters without cohesion, making the coverage staccato instead of flowing.

“Nineteen thirty-nine was a watershed year. The Great Depression was barely over, but America was again feeling the chill winds of change. Politics, economics, and art braced for war. There was a lull before the storm, and Hollywood, as if expecting to be judged by posterity, produced a portfolio of classics. What year before or since has yielded as many masterpieces?” – Mark A. Vieira, Majestic Hollywood

Told in chronological order by month, this book provides a summary of 50 movies show more released in 1939. The structure is the same for each film: title, release date, a quote, a one-sentence plot summary, production highlights, critical reactions, and photos of the performers. It is amazing how many classics emerged in one year.

We also get a glimpse into the culture of the time, in such gems as: “In the 1930s there was a code of etiquette in movie theaters. Audience members did not wear hats, talk, or put gum under theater seats. It was customary to applaud when “The End” flashed on the screen. It was also customary to applaud at the end of a satisfying or well-acted scene.”

The substance of the book lies in the production notes. Some films get more attention than others, and avid film buffs may already know some of the content, but most was new to me. It is well-packaged, and the photos are wonderful. It evokes a bygone era and I thoroughly enjoyed it. show less