Censoring Science in 1930s and 1940s Hollywood Cinema
2013; American Chemical Society; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1021/bk-2013-1139.ch019
ISSN1947-5918
Autores Tópico(s)Cinema and Media Studies
ResumoFrom 1930 to 1968 movie studios sent their screenplays to Hollywood's official censorship organizations to make sure these scripts met the standards of the Motion Picture Production Code or "Hays Code." The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, also known as the "Hays Office," administered the Hays Code from 1930 to 1934. From 1934 a newly formed organization within the Hays Office, the Production Code Administration, oversaw enforcement of the Hays Code. In this chapter I explore how these censorship organizations applied their interpretation of the Hays Code to issues involving movie science in the early years of its administration in the 1930s and early-1940s. I examine the censorship files of three science-heavy movies from these years, Warner Brothers' Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, Paramount Studios' Island of Lost Souls and Universal Pictures' Captive Wild Woman. These films serve as case studies showing how film censors' concerns about scientific research often dovetailed with their primary concerns over sex and violence in movies. These case studies also demonstrate how censors considered the potential moral consequences of science and scientific ways of thinking including the theological implications of scientific research, the blasphemy of scientism, and science's usurping of religion's role.
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