From Reasons Supporting the Preamble of the Code from the Production Code of 1930:
I. So correct entertainment raises the whole standard of a nation. Wrong entertainment lowers the whole living conditions and
moral ideals of a race.
Note, for example, the healthy reactions to
healthful sports, like baseball, golf; the unhealthy reactions to sports
like cockfighting, bullfighting, bear baiting, etc.
Note, too, the effect on ancient nations of gladiatorial combats, the obscene plays of Roman times, etc.
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Now god knows I do love the occasional bear baiting (I probably engage in it every other Saturday at least) but I have noticed it produces an "unhealthy" reaction in me.
Hollywood would also notice the "unhealthy' (and profitable) reaction produced by "wrong entertainment" and respond to the code in the forties and fifties with two genres that would hit their respective strides in those two decades: Film Noir and Biblical Epics. They both allowed things "disallowed" by the code due to their settings and narratives, and Hollywood was ripe to exploit any loophole it could find. Call it Code Baiting.
Up next, Cinema Styles will strive to "lower the whole living conditions and moral ideals" of the masses as we venture into - Wrong Entertainment!
