Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-03
The Code of the Movies.

The doom of the murderer, the tip
pier, the philanderer, the gangster,
bootlegger, wife beaten, dog stealer and
other rough customers who heretofore
have bid for fame as movie heroes and
won it on the silver screen seems to
be sealed by the Code-duly capitalized
adopted by the board of directors OF
the Motion Picture Producers and Dis
tributors of America, Inc, of which
Will Hays is president.
Adoption of the Code, it is announced,
will not only determine the character
of most of the pictures exhibited in
$4,000 theaters in this country, serving
a weekly audience of 250,000,000 per-
sons, but uniteS by their voluntary ac-
ton the twenty major motion picture
companies of America in formal recog-
milton of the dictum that Right Will
Triumph in the End.
The Code sets down a number Of
basic principles to be followed by the
producers in grinding out their MIL
lions of feet of film. Some of them
follow:
That every effort shall be made to
reflect in drama and entertainment the
better standards of life:
That law, natural or human, shall
not be ridiculed;
That sympathy shall not be created
for the violation Of the law.
Mankind generally has realized the
difference in the entertainment which
tends to improve the race, and the
entertainment that tends to degrade.
Crime, brutality, vice, are among the
facts of life, but it is recognized that
there is a right way and wrong way
to present such facts on the screen.
Thus the new Code provides:
That crimes against law shall never
be presented in such way as to throw
sympathy with the crime as against law
and justice;
That acts of murder or brutality shall
be presented only in such way as will
not inspire imitation;
That methods of crime shall not be
presented in explicit detail on the
screen; that revenge in modern times
shall not be justified as motive;
That the use of liquor in American
life shall be restricted to the actual
requirements of characterization or plot.
That is all excellent. Secondary only
to the interest in the Code will be the
manner of its Interpretation by the
ethical producers. For obviously much
is left to their good taste and discrimi-
nation. "Acts of murder or brutality
shall be presented only in such a way
as will not inspire imitation" says the
Code, which probably means that, for
every FLOODED murder on the
screen, justice, swift and triumphant,
must be the inevitable accompaniment
and the murderer must indicate in
unmistakable words and actions that
the whole thing was most repulsive to
him and that the punishment was
well deserved lesson. Otherwise, imita-
ton might be inspired. But at the
same time the Code forbids any sympa-
thy for the criminal. Actors who take
such parts hereafter must be most
despicable fellows, devoid of any good.
The directors doubtless will have
hard nut to crack regarding treatment
of criminals mothers. Should they, I'M
der the Code, be permitted any rights
at all? Criminals certainly have moth
ers. But if the mothers sob, will such
heart-rending noises tend to forbid imi-
tation Of the crime, or will it merely
enlist the sympathy of the audience for
the criminal? The Code would accom-
plish much If it banned sobbing moth
ers altogether. But here we run into
the realization that sobbing mothers
are, after all, among the facts of life,
and the movies must present them.
Some of the talking pictures have
been eloquent arguments for the neces-
sity for adoption Of Code. Whether
the instrument under discussion is go
ing to answer the purpose is left to the
future. But may every villain come to
an untimely end, and do so without
profanity!
Gangsters who take the law into
their own hands are at least sufficiently