Movielogr
Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema (2007)
Directed by Elaina Archer
Overview
Before the G, PG and R ratings system there was the Production Code, and before that there was, well, nothing. This eye-opening documentary examines the rampant sexuality of early Hollywood through movie clips and reminiscences by stars of the era. Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Marlene Dietrich and others relate tales of the artistic freedom that led to the draconian Production Code, which governed content from 1934 to 1968. Diane Lane narrates.
Length 70 minutes
Actors
Cary Grant | Diane Lane | Marlene Dietrich | Bette Davis | Gloria Swanson | Cecil B. DeMille | Budd Schulberg | Leslie Howard | Sessue Hayakawa | Myrna Loy | Charlie Chaplin | Louise Brooks | Barbara Stanwyck | Michael Westmore | Greta Garbo | Edna Purviance | Bebe Daniels | Joan Crawford | Holly Madison | Jean Harlow | Owen Moore | Mabel Normand | Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle | William Wellman Jr. | John Gilbert | D.W. Griffith | Mary Pickford | Pola Negri | Clara Bow | Ann Harding | Mae West | Douglas Fairbanks | Rudolph Valentino | Theda Bara | Jeanine Basinger | Theodore Roosevelt | A.C. Lyles | Will H. Hays | Fannie Ward | Colleen Moore | Texas Guinan | Cari Beauchamp | William Randolph Hearst | Mary Miles Minter | Leatrice Joy Gilbert | Maria Riva | Woodrow Wilson | Virginia Rappe | Marc Wanamaker | Michael Schlesinger | Bob Mitchell | Mark Viera | Kevin Thomas | Betsy Moore | Barry Paris | Chris Basinger | Paul Tucci