[Dixielandjazz] Fw: Why was the BG Movie so vapid?

[lrg4003 at aol.com]

Generally accurate Phil  up to the point you suggest that films were better when F. Scott Fitzgerald (and add William Faulkner to other Hollywood literati)
was there writing.  Fitzgerald ended up with just two very unmemorable credited scripts and a handful of other uncredited, non of which you would recognize today.  While he had many stories and novels converted to film (including "Benjamin Button" a couple of years ago), as a Hollywood screenwriter he was pretty much a failure.   Musical content:  F. Scott Fitzgerald coined the term "Jazz Age" to describe (critically) the 1920's.

KC Clarinet





-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Wilking <philwilking at bellsouth.net>
To: Larry Garrett <lrg4003 at aol.com>
Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sun, Aug 15, 2010 5:45 pm
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Fw: Why was the BG Movie so vapid?


Actually, that is not quite accurate. 
 
In the late 1920's some motion pictures had gotten so "raunchy" that there was an active movement to establish a government censorship board similar to the British one. To stave off the government censors, the motion picture industry established its own self-censorship office, the so-called "Hayes" office. 
 
The Hayes office restrictions were sometimes a bit overboard, that is true. All evil-doers had to come to a bad end by the end of the film, "ladies of the evening" (never whores) almost invariably had hearts of gold, married couples always had twin beds, no toilets were ever used (nor even shown in full view in bathrooms even if the scene was a father shaving while talking to his son), that sort of thing. The result was unrealistic many times, but points were still made through skillful writing by people who knew good English. 
 
This lasted until Otto Preminger released "The Moon Is Blue" after World War 2. He refused to take the word "virgin" out of the heroine's dialog (she bore a remarkable resemblance to a very young Debby Reynolds), the Hayes office refused to issue a seal of approval, he released the picture without it and it was a success. Thus the beginning of the trend toward the modern graphic "blood and guts and tits and asses" movies, with scripts churned out by those who can't even spell "subtlety" or "good taste," much less know what they mean. As contrasted with the late 1930's when the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald were writing scripts. 
 
"There is nothing new under the sun except the history you don't know," Harry S Truman. 
 
Phil Wilking 
 
Those who would exchange freedom for 
security deserve neither freedom nor security. 
 
----- Original Message ----- From: "Pat Ladd" <pj.ladd at btinternet.com> 
>>> 
>> It is only recently, as Hollywood pushes the censorship limits, that 
>> we've come to accept real sex, graphic violence, complete freedom of 
>> speech, the "F" word etc., etc., etc. in movies. 
>>  
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