All language subtitles for Hollywood Uncensored (1987)

You want entertainment?

Wholesome, interesting, and vital?

This, the motion picture industry, is
pledged to provide.

What would you do if you did go to
Hollywood?

Fornicating. That's what I call
disgusting.

What the hell's the matter with him?

He was gay, and I thought I fell in love
with a man.

A steady stream of sturdy stuff.

You mind it? There's more, darling.

Don't say any word.

You're just a little tramp.

You used to be sweet and clean.

She's wicked, but I love her.

Would you be dark if I put on something
more comfortable?

You want to make whoopee tonight?

Definitely. Yippee and whoopee.

We're all alone. No chaperone can get
our number.

The world's in slumber.

Let's misbehave.

There's something wild about you, child,
that's so contagious.

Let's be outrageous.

Let's misbehave.

When Adam won his hand, he wouldn't
stand for teasing.

He didn't care about those apples out of
season.

They say the spring means just one thing
to little lovebirds.

We're not above birds Let's misbehave

Let's

misbehave

Let's misbehave.

You'll be just so sweet and only meet
your fate, dear. It would be the great

event of 1928, dear.

When I first entered these stages in the
early 20s, motion pictures were still

very young.

But as young as the industry was, it
didn't take long before films were being

scrutinized by panels throughout the
country.

Some were banned, some were declared
obscene, some condemned as mortal sins,

and some even caused riots.

By 1922, the situation had become so bad
that the industry hired ex-postmaster

general Will Hayes to institute its
first censorship code.

The Code sets up high standards of
performance for motion picture

producers. It states the considerations
which good taste and community value

make necessary in this universal form of
entertainment. Respect for law,

respect for every religion, respect for
every race, and respect for every

nation.

Will Hayes was first a very good friend
of mine, a very nice man, a very common

man. He liked to joke.

He didn't drink. He didn't smoke.

But outside of that, I mean, he was very
human.

And he was dedicated to the industry and
I think did probably more good for the

industry than anybody else that I can
think of. But by the late 1920s, the

situation changed for the worse.

Theater attendants fell and producers
panicked. They were no longer willing to

listen to the Hayes office.

Gradually, more and more exploitive
scenes were added in an effort to get

people back into the theaters.

I learned firsthand about this
not-so-new policy in an early talkie I

was in called Party Girl.

This scandalous plot may seem camp to
our modern ears, but it was more than

shocking in its day.

Leda, what happened?

Do you have to ask?

Oh.

Oh, I'm terribly sorry.

How could I have done such a thing?

What can I do to make it right?

If you can't see your own obligation, I
can ask nothing.

Obligation?

Wait. Why, we don't even know each
other.

Why didn't you know I... I'm in love
with someone else.

Well, at least I was in good company.

Here is a young Barbara Stanwyck
starring in Babyface.

Say, I like it here. How about a job?

Oh, now, don't tell me in this great big
building there ain't someplace for me.

Have you had any experience?

Plenty.

I'd rather wait in there.

I hate crowds.

Don't you?

The boss won't be back for an hour.

Well, then why don't we go in and talk
this over?

This film, like Sign, would soon be
banned from theaters around the country.

Barbara Stanwyck at times may have been
provocative, but another star at Panama

drove the center absolutely crazy.

She

was

an interesting figure in the history of
the cinema because...

I don't know that I think she was ever
really particularly very sexy. She was

kind of funny, she was out front in a
way that women particularly weren't in

their times, and I think that that had
as much to do with her success as

anything else.

Her particular gift was a power of
suggestion and innuendo. She could make

the most innocent lines sound wicked.

Oh, Mr.

Clayton, I was thinking over everything
you said, and I made my decision.

Good. I'm glad you made up your mind so
quickly.

Oh, very quick in a slow way.

You see, I can't discuss it over the
phone. It's got a lot of angles to it.

You better come up and see me.

Well, I'll be glad to.

In fact, I'll come over right away if
it's convenient for you.

Most convenient.

I'll tell you this much, you're going to
like what I got in mind.

Uh-huh.

I'll be ready.

Goodbye.

The code not only didn't stop May, but
worse, it was powerless against

Hollywood's producers who sometimes went
to the extent of even exploiting

children.

These early 30s performances shocked the
public and provoked a popular cry for

wholesome family entertainment.

In fact, by 1934, boycotting films
became a national movement, and a legion

of decency was formed by the Catholic
Church to demand change.

Hollywood's producers knew they had to
do something, so in 1934, they created

what would become the most important
censor office in the country.

Every studio had to have their films
approved by Mr. Joseph Breen, hired by

Will Hayes, who prepared a simple set of
commandments that spelled out what

Hollywood could and could not do.

Its broad general purpose is to ensure
screen entertainment which will

be reasonably acceptable to our patrons
everywhere.

Entertainment which is definitely free
from offense.

Kisses can last no more than three
seconds.

In love scenes, keep at least one foot
on the floor.

Nudity isn't allowed, plain and simple.

Excessive violence is forbidden.

Show that crime does not pay.

Profanity is not allowed.

Brothels and places suggesting sexual
sin are not proper locations.

There is no room on the screen at any
time for pictures which offend against

common decency.

The vulgar, the cheap... and the Torby
is out.

The code worked, and the film industry
cleaned up its act.

Stars like Shirley Temple were given
much more wholesome roles.

They even went so far as to clean up
Betty Boop.

Put your

buns below, but leave the damsel to me.

You mean... Betty had sex appeal, so

the Hays office demanded that she be
covered up, which meant...

losing the garter and the short skirt.

But when Betty lost her sex appeal, she
lost her audience as well and

disappeared from the screen within a
couple of years.

This censored W.C. Fields sequence

of The Dentist was not only banned
because of its not-so-subtle sexuality,

but also because of strong disapproval
from the dentists of America.

Have you ever had this tooth pulled
before?

No.

This won't hurt you much.

No.

whole sequence be cut.

And this is all that remains.

Relax.

Would you like a drink?

The biggest censorship battle of the
1930s did not involve W.C. Fields, Mae

West, or even Shirley Temple.

For that matter, it didn't even involve
a human being.

King Kong may have been frustrated in
his search for Fay Wray, but not nearly

as frustrated as Joe Breen, who found
the film excessively violent and

demanded over six minutes of cuts such
as these.

You've seen King Kong looking in the
window.

Look at what he saw and what Green tried
to make sure that you would never see.

The most controversial scene was the
romantic interlude between Fay Wray and

King Kong.

The peeling off of her clothes and his
obvious infatuation with the starlet

went against two of the production
code's forbidden lists, nudity and

perversion.

As Mae West had her imitators, King Kong
had his.

But some may have gone a bit too far.

In The Love Life of a Gorilla, producers
promised the audience a look at a love

cult between natives and gorillas.

The Hayes office made them break their
promise by forcing them to change the

title and cut these scenes.

He was paralyzed.

He wanted to shoot but could not.

Here, being enacted before his very
eyes, was the fantastic monkey worship.

an actual living thing in our midst.

The love life of a gorilla was still
shown, changing its name to Forbidden

Adventure and playing at theaters that
Hayes and Breen could not control.

It was just one of the many exploitation
movies that independents produced in

Hollywood during the 30s. They tried to
call their films educational, but it was

obvious that education had very little
to do with it.

That night there was a wild party.

I drank some champagne and it went to my
head.

And then it...

I gave myself to him.

Another film banned by the Legion of
Decency was Sex Madness.

Sex Madness takes you behind the scenes
where you will learn the story of young

and innocent Millicent as she finds
herself falling in with bad company.

Oh, I'm tired.

Me for bed.

Bed? Did you say bed?

That's not to relax him. That's for
action.

You will follow Millicent down the
crimson path of immorality.

She lost not only her honor, but her
health.

Not an aspect of the disease will be
left.

It will even be fixed on me.

What in God's name are you talking
about?

I thought I was a human.

They were disguised as educational
films. I can remember at a...

theater back in Bath, New York, where
they had some sort of a medical film. It

was a VD film, of course, and they had
separated the audience. I mean, there

was a showing for men and a showing for
women, and there were all sorts of cries

about nurses in attendance at all times,
and it was sort of a sex technique, and

they were kind of funny. There was a
narrator on stage as well as the film to

be seen, and it was...

what somebody once said about the
women's magazine years later, kind of a

pious pornography.

You will see it all in this
no-hold-barred film expose.

Lust. Man, oh, man, she got it. Boy, oh,
boy, look at that baby.

Debauchery. You can phone home and
you're staying with friends.

Perversion in its extreme.

Sex madness.

Coming soon to this theater.

In the 1940s, Hollywood not only
produced motion pictures to entertain

and educate the troops, but also films
like The Gang's All Here to keep up the

public morale.

But director Busby Berkeley might have
gone a bit too far with his suggestive

dance, which faced its own censorship
battles.

Can you believe that in Argentina, this
was banned not because of the costumes,

but because the dancers exposed their
bare feet?

Then in the 1940s, Hollywood was wracked
by a major censorship battle, which made

the cuts imposed on King Kong in the 30s
seem minor.

This time, Hollywood censors went to war
with producer Howard Hughes over his

production of The Outlaw.

And if the truth be known, The Outlaw
was outlawed by his own promotion, his

own advertising, and even by his own
coming attractions.

Now, Howard Hughes gives you The Outlaw.

The outlaw is the most exciting
entertainment you have ever seen.

Savage love.

Primitive emotion.

I think the advertising campaign had a
lot to do with the people that were

looking at the film.

I want to tussle with Russell.

I can't remember him all. They were all
corny as can be.

He was trying to get a seamless bra,
which they did not have in those days.

And he was ahead of his time, as usual.

And it was a ridiculous contraption. I
never wore it.

Once I found out what he wanted, I...

threw the thing under the bed and put on
my own bra and put Kleenex over the top

of it and put the blouse back on. The
wardrobe girl was having a fit. She

says, I'm going to get fired.

And I said, forget it. They won't ever
know the difference. And we went out and

did it.

And he never knew.

With the nation's attention focused on
Jane Russell's bosom, the censors and

Howard Hughes went to battle.

He didn't.

You see anything of Dr. and the sheriff?

They'll lay right behind you and put
those hands where they belong.

There was cleavage in it, and of course
in those days you didn't show any

cleavage at all.

And it was, I remember the shot they
got, as a matter of fact, and it was not

even supposed to be in there because it
was an accident.

It was a, there was a, the bed and Billy
the kid was lying on the bed and I was.

The camera was right across from me, and
I leaned over this way. I had a blouse

on that went like so, and I leaned over
to pull the covers up, and they got too

much cleavage. Be careful of your wound.
You'll hurt yourself.

Hughes fought Breen for two years over
this scene.

Breen's office demanded that over eight
feet or five seconds be cut out.

Instead of eight feet, Hughes cleverly
cut out eight inches, which amounted to

only about one second.

We've slowed it down, and this is how
the uncensored version looked.

When you see the picture today, it's
just, you know, it's kind of a slow,

dull picture, and it certainly doesn't
have any, there's nothing very naughty

about that picture at all.

Jane Russell and Howard Hughes teamed up
again and ran into a bigger fight with

the censors, this time over the French
line.

I remember in the French line he wanted
me to wear a bikini. Well, nobody in

this country wore a bikini.

And you only heard about bikinis in the
south of France where, you know, some

naughty girls in the south of France
wore bikinis. So he wanted me to do a

dance number in a bikini. And I said, no
way.

I'm looking for trouble.

I'm going to throw the book away.

Be unpredictable from day to day.

In every way I can, can, can, can, can.

This Cinderella is looking for a fella
who tell her what she's sweet as I am.

Looking for trouble, won't mind the
trouble.

In trouble looks like a M-A-N.

After the French line ruckus, because
there was one about the costume that I

eventually wore.

It was a one-piece bathing suit, but it
had holes cut out in it. And then, of

course, they had a fit about that.

And after that was over, I just said, I
said to him that I did

not ever want to get in a picture or be
in one that had any censorship problems

at all.

Jane's problems with censorship
unfortunately didn't end with the French

line. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes matched
Jane with Marilyn Monroe, who sang

Little Girl from Little Rock, the song
whose lyrics were censored by Joe Breen

himself.

Then someone broke my heart in Little
Rock.

So I...

They left their pieces there Like a
little lost lamb I roamed about I

came to New York and I found out That
men are the same way everywhere

I liked Marilyn very much. She was very
shy,

and she was having trouble with the
front office for some reason.

Trouble was nothing new to Marilyn,
whose background was already full of

censorship problems, dating back to her
calendar photos.

Her reputation caused censors to stay on
the set and monitor her actions, even

down to a kiss.

How about me? Did you like me too?

Well, at first sight, I thought you were
some kind of a hooligan, yelling and

stomping like that.

But when I realized you were doing it
for me, I was attracted to you.

Attracted?

You are?

I still am. You still are?

Really attracted?

I can imagine how far we've traveled in
whatever direction since then.

is that in the love scene, we had to
reshoot the love scene because Marilyn

opened her mouth during the kiss.

And that was the censorship problem.

I mean, you're so big and strong and,
well, so darn heavy

-looking. I guess I am in pretty good
shape for the rodeo, because you've got

to be when you're competing in all five
Class A events.

We went to reshoot it on another day,
and Joshua Logan was directing the

scene. He said, now, Marilyn, don't open
your mouth, you know. And I'd come to

kiss her, and she'd open her mouth. I
said, okay, cut, take two.

Marilyn, don't open your mouth.

And she kept opening her mouth.

So after about the seventh or eighth
time, when I went to kiss her and she

opened her mouth, I went and I looked
and I...

looked in her mouth like this, and I
turned to the camera and I said, you

will tell mother where I've gone.

Marilyn eventually got fed up with
Hollywood and left for New York.

Her replacement was Sherry North.

Marilyn Monroe was put on suspension,
and Fox was courting me very heavily

because they wanted another blonde to
threaten Marilyn.

She didn't want to do what they wanted,
which was called How to Be Very, Very

Popular, which was the first film I did
at Fox when I went under contract.

It's so innocent by today's standards, I
can't believe it.

But it was a lot of, you know, shaking
and gyrating and jumping around and all

that kind of crazy stuff.

And I think, really, at the time,
everything on film was very innocent,

but if there was any kind of hype about
it.

And since I had come from Broadway and I
was the hottest 90 seconds on Broadway,

I already came with a questionable...

And so when I did the dance number, all
of the kids that I had worked with in

the chorus were in the show.

And they said, you're getting quite a
reputation, and people at our church ask

us not to work with you, and things like
that. When you were coming up in this

business and doing bathing beauty
contests and all that kind of stuff,

and doing little cheesecake photos and
things like that. There was a man in

town who did films, and girls would walk
around pools in their bathing suits, you

know, and he would photograph it, and
then he would sell these through the

mail as home movies.

And they were very innocent, and Marilyn
did them, and everybody who did

cheesecake did them when you were broke.
He paid $50 for film.

So when I went to do my first film, I
thought, well, I'm not just going to

walk around the pool. I have to dance.

So they were tried in court, and there
was a lot of publicity about they were

to censor them, and they were lewd and
lascivious and all that kind of stuff.

So there was a court date, and they
showed the films in court, and the judge

said... Well, they're really just kind
of boring.

But it was a big censorship thing, and
it was the same thing, you know, with

Marilyn and the calendar.

And that night was that I had been
vindicated. It hit the front page of the

paper, and Marilyn was getting her photo
play award.

And we met out in front, and she said,
Oh, first me with the calendar, and now

you with the lewd films.

And it seemed like we were these racy,
lewd, lascivious people.

Sherry faced yet another type of
censorship battle.

While her most personal measurements
were front-page news, censors

continuously made sure that none of it
showed.

We always used to laugh at Fox Studio
because all of the costumes were made,

they were all boned and padded out
because of that bullet bra or whatever

you call it. You could extend...

you know, across the room, as long as
you didn't show any cleavage this way.

And so the standard thing in the
wardrobe department was all the busts

were made the same.

And we always used to laugh because we'd
all say, look, look, we all measure

exactly the same. And when we lie down,
nothing moves.

And there was one special brassiere at
Universal that it was sort of like,

well, everybody used it.

That's it open for you, honey.

In a mow, honey.

Because of the cleavage problem and they
couldn't really display their charms,

they went the obvious, which was patting
their bras.

Look, Miss Dimple Toes, if you people at
the school think that Vic and me, Vic's

my husband and he's out of town on a
job, if you think we're raising a

juvenile delinquent, say it.

No, Mrs. Delaney, we don't think...
Don't double talk me.

You've got me pegged as a no-good
relative.

The only reason I came here is
because... Come on, honey. Don't draw

diagrams of me.

The bullet bra is very pointed breasts
that look like a

pyramid.

That's my only description.

Two pyramids.

I don't remember inviting you in here.

I won't look.

And I think that...

Guys in those days had probably thought
all women had breasts like pyramids, you

know, and they were very discouraged
when they found out otherwise.

And that's the way they got around it,
by wearing this brassiere and

covering this up to here and then
becoming larger this way. That way the

Hayes office never could peek, you know.

The Hayes office could peek at scripts
and make sure American audiences saw

only what they approved.

But the producers knew what would sell
in Europe and reshot several scenes.

In this scene, undercover agent Russ
Tamblyn meets the leading drug dealer

played by Jackie Coogan.

When the film played outside the United
States, viewers got a closer look at

this unhappy girl.

Russ calls his teacher and wakes her up.

Hello? Viewers outside Breen's control
saw a slightly different version of this

scene. What is this, a joke?

No, no, no, this isn't a gag.

You've just got to believe me. I can't
explain now.

You're looking for excitement?

Why not? I'm a citizen.

Upon reading the script of High School
Confidential, the censors demanded that

Mamie be completely cut from the film.

They found her character to be a
nymphomaniac and unnecessary to the

story. That's why I worry, thinking of
you coming up against those young, tight

sweaters.

You ought to know.

Stop treating me like a stranger.

Let's get out of town slowly.

Relatives should always kiss each other
hello and goodbye politely.

You're getting paid for my room and
board.

The producers fought for Mamie and
finally won out.

But that wouldn't be Mamie's only
problem with the Hayes office.

Oh, I did a movie called Girlstown.

And I was put into girls like it's a
Catholic school for bad

girls. You don't look so tough to me.
You do everything the sisters tell you

to do.

I give them a fair shake, they give me a
fair shake.

I'll bet you do.

Use a lot of soap.

You need it.

I was asked to supervise pictures to be
produced by a producer new to our lot

named Suggsmith.

And the first picture he started to work
on, It was called Girlstown.

So we sent the picture over to Monsignor
Little, as I remember it.

And he called me, told me about
objections that remained,

and I discussed them with Zugsmith.

Zugsmith said, could I talk to Monsignor
Little?

It's a free country. I couldn't say no.

Put him on the phone.

And he managed to aggravate Monsignor
Little so completely that the first and

only time that I knew of, he lost his
temper and said he was going to condemn

the picture.

The blonde bombshells of the 1950s were
notorious for being in trouble with the

census. One of the most famous and
controversial blondes to come out of

Hollywood at that time was Jane
Mansfield.

Ladies and gentlemen, now for another
special award.

To present that award, a very special
young lady who came to Hollywood by way

of UCLA.

I'm sure she is easily recognized, at
least here in her own community,

although she could very easily travel
anonymously just any place, Miss Jane

Mansfield.

Sweet of all of you.

Thank you very much.

Now, down to business.

Though determined to be a star, Jane was
never able to capture the magic of

Marilyn.

Later, in an effort to restore her
failing career, she finally bared it all

for... Promises, promises.

It outraged the censors.

Jane Mansfield's career would never
recover.

Later,

about 1967, we were to do...

a nightclub act in a place called
Biloxi, Mississippi, called Gus Stevens

Supper Club.

We were both booked in there at
different times.

Jane had just gotten back from Europe,
and I was held over in New York while I

was doing a play, and I'd asked her if
she would please switch times with me.

And she said that she would. She'd take
the kids down, and that's when she met

her death.

I was very distraught. I was devastated
when Jane died because I felt that

possibly...

Maybe in some way I had contributed to
it. It wasn't that I was psychic, but it

was that there was a protectiveness that
prevented me from going down there, and

maybe the same thing would have happened
to me.

And

now

let's join my co-host, Peter Fonda.

This is Hollywood Boulevard.

It's changed a little since I first came
to town 46 years ago.

And this, you'd scarcely give it a
second look now.

But 50 years ago, this was the most
important building in Hollywood.

This was the censor's office.

As a teenager and active film goer, I
remember the 50s as a time when stars

like Marilyn Monroe, Sherry North, or
Jane Mansfield made the term sex goddess

mean something.

But the sex goddesses had it easy when
it came to censorship compared to

Babydoll.

Babydoll!

Babydoll!

We thought that Babydoll was going to be
a sleeper.

As a matter of fact, it was a
low-budget, small, black-and-white

production done all on location in
Mississippi.

And Carl and Eli were wonderful stage
actors, not necessarily big movie

names.

Marilyn Monroe had wanted to do the
film, and Warner Brothers had wanted

her.

Elia Kazan and Tennessee Williams did
not because Marilyn was such a big star

and she brought her own image to any
production that she did. And they wanted

an unknown girl so that Babydoll became
the new image.

The story was of a 19-year-old girl who
was promised in marriage to an older

man, Archie Lee, Carl Malden.

And the marriage had not been
consummated. And it was very funny, the

fact that he was constantly peeking at
her through holes in the wall and so

forth to see her sleeping or to try to
catch her in the bathtub or something.

Because unless there was furniture in
the house, the marriage was not going to

be consummated until her 19th birthday.

Carl Malden, because this new modern...

Cotton gin has been built by the Eli
Wallach, the Vaccaro character.

He's been losing a lot of his business.
Now, if he loses his business, he can't

buy the furniture for the house. If he
doesn't have any furniture in the house,

Babydoll is not going to let him
consummate the marriage. So he's a very

desperate man.

He goes out and burns down Eli Wallach's
cotton gin.

Eli... hears about this, he finds out
that Carl Malden did it. So he comes to

get revenge.

And his revenge is by taking the
virginity of Babydoll.

In carrying out our action, which was, I
wanted that woman to confess about

the burning of my cotton gin.

And this was one of the steps en route
to doing it. Whenever she got too

frantic and too frightened, I pulled
back.

Should we just relax?

Would you move over and make a little
room?

Is that enough room for you?

Not for me. How about you?

What a lovely remark your husband made.

Good neighbor policy, I mean.

Eli Wallach.

Intimidate baby doll and he begins to
tease her now in a very subtle way

You you absolutely saw nothing because
nothing happened I think he took a

feather and and he talked to me in low
voice now baby doll becomes very aroused

by this without quite Understanding
what's happening to her?

Delegate? Me?

Neither much of you, but what there is
is choice.

When the controversy happened, the most
incredible things were said about this

scene. They said that he had his hands
on very intimate places on my body.

It didn't happen. It was suggested in
the emotion, the deep emotion that was

felt within the scene. But you did not
see those things. If you actually looked

at that film objectively, you could see
that nothing happened.

There's the absolute delicacy of your
skin.

Well, what should I say? Thanks or
something?

No, you just smiled at me.

You've got an attractive smile.

Oh, yes, you do.

Come on, now smile.

There, you see, you do. You do have
them.

In the swing scene, a lot of esoteric
magazines wrote about it later, saying

that was a real seduction.

Where were his hands? What was he doing?

Actually, we were shooting in November.

It was cold as hell in Mississippi.

In order that our breath not show on the
screen, since it was supposed to take

place in the summer, we'd chew on ice
cubes.

until Kazan said action. Then we'd spit
out the ice cubes so the breath was the

same temperature as the air.

That's one of the things we were
concerned about. Also, we were freezing,

so we had long johns on and there were
radiators down below heating us so that

we would have a sense of warmth.

And it always impresses me that people
say, oh, that was a sexy scene. We were

freezing.

I think I'll go and make us some
lemonade.

What did you do that for?

I don't want to be deprived of the
pleasure of your company.

What's that?

Oh, Mr.

McCarroll, you're certainly getting
familiar.

Don't you have any fun-loving spirit
about you? Well, this isn't fun.

Well, why do you giggle then, hmm?

Because I'm ticklish.

You're ticklish?

Don't be so skittish.

I'll get up then.

I feel so weak.

It was very, very early on a Sunday
morning when...

I was called by Vernon Scott of the UPI,
who said, your film has just been banned

by the Catholic Legion of Decency, and
Cardinal Spellman has just denounced it

from the pulpit of St. Patrick's
Cathedral. What do you have to say?

And I said, which film?

Because it seemed to me that there was
nothing as censorable about Babydoll. I

was astounded, because I thought we were
doing a rather biblical film.

in the sense that revenge is in the
Bible.

If someone commits an outrageous act
against you, an eye for an eye and a

tooth for a tooth.

That's what I thought. I didn't think
anything about the sexuality of it.

And then, of course, everybody, when the
controversy happened, just couldn't

believe it because there we were not
only banned and probably one of the most

controversial films of all time, but
they had the crib shot the entire block

on Broadway.

And it just, you know, it sort of put
more coal on the fire.

Today, it's hard to believe the furor
Babydoll caused in the 1950s. when Time

magazine called it, quote, the dirtiest
American-made motion picture that has

ever been legally exhibited, end quote.

Oh, I think it's the terrible irony of
American films that the censors, both in

Hollywood and in the country at large,
were always much more exercised about

sexuality than they were about violence.

Violence became a substitute for sex. I
mean, that was where you got your action

and your conflict and your drama and
your excitement.

Cut.

That's enough.

It doesn't take a lot of imagination to
see why they banned films like Blood

Feast. But sometimes the problems are
not quite so clear.

At least that was the case with Peeping
Tom, a film that was pulled from

theaters within days of its first
release.

Don't be shy.

For me, it's my first time, too.

Directed by Michael Powell, who was
known for family classics like The Red

Shoes and Teeth of Baghdad, Peeping Tom
told the story of a seemingly shy

individual with some deep-rooted
problems.

20 years after its first release,
director Martin Scorsese personally

resurrected Peeping Tom.

But at that time, I heard that it was
black and white and that it was cut.

I had no idea what, you know, and then
later on, I was so involved with the...

My fascination with trying to find older
films to preserve them and this idea

where all these directors were in the
early 70s when I started to make films

in Hollywood. I got to meet a lot of the
directors whom I loved, or at least I

got to see them, talk to them maybe once
or twice.

But the one person left that had his
name on a number of films that I adored,

and the one person left was Michael
Powell.

Not! I want to ask you something rather
personal.

How long is it since you've gone out
without that?

Without what?

That camera.

Oh.

I don't think I know.

Exactly. I don't think I've ever seen
you without it. Then I thought that not

only did they make Thief of Baghdad, I
mean, partially direct, but some of the

major scenes directed, The Red Shoes,
one of my very favorite films, The Tales

of Hoffman, which taught me a great deal
about camera movement and...

the movement of actors inside a frame,

Black Narcissus, Matter of Life and
Death, these incredible films.

And having been, I'm also kind of an
Anglophile, I like British films, but

these British films were so different
from the other British films.

Not only that, but then he made this
film Peeping Tom. That's the one that

Jim McBride talked about. That's the one
that people claim was kind of dirty and

nasty. And then I heard later on, a few
years later, that it was shown after

McBride talked to me about it.

In the early 70s, it was shown at the
Museum of Modern Art.

What? how this sees grown-ups.

Me, for instance.

Not you.

Why not?

I will never see you.

Mark.

Whatever I photograph, I always lose.

The hero of the film is not the
psychotic crazy that you would think.

He's a very sweet character.

And it's a guy that you seem to identify
with, or if not identify with,

sympathize with.

All this filming isn't healthy.

And that you need help.

Get it, Mark.

Why are you putting that light on my
face?

Mark?

Please let me finish.

It's for Helen.

What do you mean?

It's for Helen.

She wanted to see something I
photographed.

My daughter sees enough of my face
without photographs.

Please, don't be frightened.

I'm frightened.

I find that very different from the
other approaches of this kind of

material, or a slasher picture or an
exploitation picture.

The picture's really not an exploitation
film.

I think it was... Michael always says it
was a very sweet film. He doesn't

understand what all the problem was.

Do you know what the most frightening
thing in the world is?

It's fear.

I did something very simple.

Very simple.

When they felt the spike touching their
throat and

knew I was going to kill them, I made
them watch their own

deaths.

I made them see their own terror as the
spike went in.

And if death has a face, they saw that
too.

Right after the film was just shown at
the New York Film Festival, right on

television on Fright Night, Channel 9,
Fright Night, Friday nights at 1 o'clock

in the morning, you know, a picture of
Boris Kulov comes on and you hear a lot

of thunder and lightning and you see
Peeping Tom.

And it's the full version, you know,
something that was banned 20 years ago.

It's okay to show now on television.
It's no problem.

It's madness, total madness.

By the late 60s, Americans got more and
more upset about the amount of sex and

violence Hollywood was putting in its
films. The motion picture producers

decided it would be best to discard the
outdated production code that no one was

listening to and to replace it with what
we know today, a classification system,

which I became personally acquainted
with right away.

It is designed to inform parents about
the suitability of movie content for

viewing by their children.

One of the first films to test the new
rating system was Easy Rider.

which starred Dennis Hopper, myself, and
newcomer Jack Nicholson. Easy Rider was

a document of the changing times, and
believe me, after the 1960s, nothing

remained the same.

Easy Rider had everything the
establishment feared.

Sex, violence, rock and roll, and drugs.

Easy Rider was one of the first
conventional movies to show drug use.

That's not to say that people hadn't
been making movies about drugs.

Quite the opposite.

These high school boys and girls are
having a hop at the local soda fountain.

Innocently, they dance.

innocent of a new and deadly menace
lurking behind closed doors.

Marijuana, the burning weed with its
roots in hell.

In this film, you will see the ease with
which this vicious plant can be grown in

your neighbor's yard, rolled into
harmless-looking cigarettes, hidden in

an innocent shoe or watch case.

If you want a good film, try one of
these.

You will meet Bill.

who wants to pride in his strong will as
he takes the first step toward

enslavement.

Smoking the soul-destroying reaper, they
find a moment's pleasure, but at a

terrible price.

Divorce me!

Murder. Suicide.

And the ultimate end of the marijuana
addict.

Hopeless insanity.

See this important film now.

Before it is too late.

When it was first produced back in the
1930s, Reefer Madness was banned in many

states for its bold exhibition of drug
use and racy sex.

Of course, that didn't stop these
low-budget roadshow artists who went

city by city showing their films in
small theaters and leaving before the

cops could come.

The filmmakers probably never dreamt
that Reefer Madness would become a hit

in the 1960s, and it was not the only
one.

After the success of Reefer Madness,
exhibitors went back to the film vaults

for another camp classic, Cocaine
Fiends. We're looking for a guy that's

been peddling dope to school kids. I'm
going to take you on a sleigh ride with

some snowbirds.

Sleigh ride?

Snowbirds? In the summer?

Gosh, you are dumb.

Yes, Frank.

Sleigh ride.

Snowbird. This is the gutter slang of
the Cocaine Fiends. Say, I know a fella

that could put you on a show right away.
In this film, you will meet Jane

Bradford. Maddox, got a headache? She's
a young and innocent cocktail waitress.

Jane Bradford is about to lose that
innocence.

I got the grandest headache medicine in
the world.

Yes, Jane.

Headache medicine.

Why, that's marvelous.

I feel better already.

This is the startling expose of
youngsters sucked into the white powder

whirlpool.

The 60s were no better captured on film
than in Woodstock, the 1968 documentary

on the legendary music festival.

Woodstock's candid look at drugs, the
Vietnam War, and the lifestyles of this

generation found a popular audience
throughout America.

It also incurred the wrath of censors
and police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who

denied theater entry to the town's
youth.

We'll be right back.

Even with the new rating system,
censorship didn't disappear.

In the 1970s, the major battles just
moved from Hollywood to the hinterlands,

with local censors condemning two of the
biggest films to come out during the

decade.

Taxi Driver caused a heated battle over
its classification with the rating board

at war with director Scorsese.

You talking to me?

You talking to me?

Talking to me?

Then who the hell else are you talking
to? Talking to me?

Well, I'm the only one here.

Who the fuck do you think you're talking
to?

Fuck out of here, man.

Get out of here.

Fuck on this.

The biggest problem I had with
censorship was the ratings board issue

on the taxi driver.

The problem was violence and open
sexuality, they claimed.

For me, the violence was very honest.

It was very honest and it was filled. It
was an explosion of rage.

And that was the only way I could do it.

The color of the blood was so red, so
vibrant, that it made it seem to me like

fake blood. So I thought, well, I got an
idea. Why don't we tone down the color,

and that'll take away some of the shock
effect.

But in actuality, what happened was that
it made it worse, and that was the idea.

The idea was to make it stronger, and
you make it stronger by, in a sense, at

that time, reflecting the tabloid image,
an image on like a daily news, New York

Daily News, images on the front page of
violence and that sort of thing, so that

it became even more, in my mind, it
became a little more difficult to take.

Violence wasn't the only controversial
issue affecting the censors. In carnal

knowledge, the censorship issue was
simply sex.

Why, mister, why is it more?

The script, written by Jules Feiffer,
was rich with four-letter words and

sexual encounters.

This prompted the Georgia police to
seize the film and arrest the local

theater manager for distributing obscene
material.

A local jury found him guilty, and the
Georgia Supreme Court upheld the

conviction. The case finally went to the
U.S. Supreme Court, where it was

overturned.

Sandy, please take your hand off my
breast.

Why? Because I want you to.

How could it be any fun for you if you
know I don't want it? I didn't say it

was fun.

Then why your hand where it is?

Because the way we're going, by this
time I should be feeling you up.

I don't feel that way about you, Sandy.

That brings us to our last story.

During the Christmas of 1985, a movie
hit the screens that would generate a

national grassroots uprising.

Silent Night, Deadly Night presented a
homicidal maniac who was disguised as

none other than Santa Claus, upsetting
not just church groups, but a wide range

of Americans throughout the entire
country who simultaneously demanded that

film be pulled.

But the night before Christmas, when all
through the house not a creature was

stirring, not even a mouse, the
stockings were hung by the chimney with

care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon
would be there.

Brian survived Christmas.

Silent night.

Deadly night.

It was withdrawn in all the theaters
except the few that refused to return it

because the business was so good that
they just wouldn't.

Almost all the theaters had contracts to
play it for five weeks.

They could play it as little as two
weeks, but they had the right to play it

for five.

And my understanding, and again, you get
to hearsay because unless you're sitting

in the office where the phone rings, You
don't know. My understanding was that it

was withdrawn at the request of the
studio from almost all of them. I know

at least in Boston and Buffalo that they
refused to return it because in Boston

they were doing standing room only for
the full five weeks. The film was re

-released the next year with two
substantial changes.

Gone was the reference to Santa, and the
new publicity campaign featured the fact

that it had been banned throughout the
country. A movie that shocked America.

hollywood and frightened the government
the movie they tried to ban you've read

about it you've heard about it now you
can see it in all its terrifying horror

silent night deadly night the movies as
i've often said spent 60 years saying

they lived happily ever after suddenly
the movies began to say you'll be lucky

to get through the weekend i think the
lack of censorship of some kind of

Guidelines some kind of controls or
something gives you less freedom not

more freedom freedom because what
happens is now the things that you

weren't allowed to do now become
Obligatory I mean if you have to get in

it and it's on the screen they have to
chew on each other's mouths You know

they have you have to throw in Blood you
have to throw in Brains blowing out

you know in films are at least people
distributing films

feel that that's the case Roger Corman
had an incredible way of Formula making

up a formula for his pictures. There's
exploitation films and in boxcar

birthday. He told me remember every 15
pages nudity Pages that yeah in the

script and whether it's a leg Full
nudity or maybe just the suggestion of

nudity, but every 15 pages. You got to
keep that interest going I think it'd be

a whole lot better if everybody were
naked and didn't shoot each other

And get rid of the guns and the knives
and the violence you know Everything had

to be way up here, and if it wasn't then
you had to have little netting you know

put in Never never never not even a
shadow Which is very unrealistic and

pretty stupid, but on the other hand I
like it a lot better than what's going

on today

You can have something up to here, and I
mean, you know, people have x-ray eyes.

They want to think of something, they're
going to think of it anyway.

I think it's outrageous that every
argument settled on television today is

settled with a weapon.

That the only solution to any argument
or discussion between people is with

violence. I am appalled by that.

Who is so smart or so bright or so
intelligent that they are capable of

telling the rest of us what we should
think, what we should see, or that we're

not mature enough to handle certain
subjects? I think that's totally

ridiculous.

Don't show that. I'll have to call the
censor on you. Don't wear that.

Don't read that.

Don't touch that. I'll have to call the
censor on you. You're too hot. We're

gonna get caught.

Cause you're too hot to handle.

You're too hot. You show up a lot.

But you keep it up. My mama's gonna make
me change the channel. No, no, no, no,

no, no.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You're too hot. We're gonna get caught.

Cause you're too hot to handle.

You're too hot. Like to show off a lot.

But you keep it up. My mom is gonna make
me change the channel.

Don't make that.

Don't take that.

Don't shake that.

Gonna call a censor on you.

Don't hold that.

Don't take that.

Don't bring that. I'm gonna call a
censor on you.

Don't say that.

Don't say that.

Don't do that. I'm gonna call the system
on you.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no.

We're all alone, no chaperone can get
our number. The world's in slumber.

Let's misbehave.

There's something wild about you, child,
that's so contagious.

Let's be outrageous.

Let's misbehave.

When Adam won his hand, he wouldn't
stand for teasing.

He didn't care about those apples out of
season.

They say the spring means just one thing
to little lovebirds.

We're not above birds.

Let's misbehave.

Let's misbehave.