Thou Shalt Not: The Scoop on Sin

“Well, I think is that the denial of reality was what the Production Code was all about. When you establish these kinds of moral views, you’re not trying to describe the world as it really is. You’re trying to describe the world as someone thinks it ought to be.”

Produced by Warner Brothers and sometimes shown on Turner Classic Movies, Thou Shalt Not is a breezy 68-minute documentary on the pre-Code Hollywood era. It’s a good, brief introduction with lots of clips and examples of the movies being discussed. The commentators include:

• Jerry Beck wrote several books on the history of American cartoons, co-founded Cartoon Brew, and currently runs Cartoon Research and Animation Scoop.
• Rudy Behlmer is a film historian whose has written 10 books on classical Hollywood. He also wrote and performed commentary tracks on movies like Gone With the Wind, Frankenstein, and Casablanca.
• Molly Haskell is a noted film critic whose career at the Village Voice is well remembered. She also wrote the book From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies. You can find her personal site here.
• Hugh Hefner, founder of “Playboy” magazine, is also a noted movie fan and advocate for film preservation.

• Jonathan Kuntz is a professor of film and television history at UCLA.
• John Landis directed Beverly Hills Cop III.
• Tony Maietta is a film historian who has contributed to several documentaries and commentaries. You can find his personal site here.
• Leonard Maltin is a well-known film critic and author. His blog can be found here.
• Camille Paglia is the author of several film essay books and a professor at the University of the Arts. She also has the best line in the movie when she says that pre-Code Norma Shearer is “slut city”.
• Jack Valenti was the head of the MPAA for 38 years and helped to create the movie ratings system.
• Jeffrey Vance is a film historian and author of several books on silent comedians. He’s also recorded several film commentary tracks, including one for Night Nurse.
• Mark A. Viera should be well known to anyone who’s reading this site. He’s the author of Sin in Soft Focus, one of the best books about pre-Code available.

The documentary contains lengthy clips and discussion around the following movies:

• A Free Soul
• Baby Face
• Beast of the City
• “Bosko’s Picture Show”
• The Common Law
• Convention City
• The Divorcee
• Employees Entrance
• Female

• Footlight Parade
• Forsaking All Others
• I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
• I’m No Angel
• Illicit
• King Kong
• Madame Satan
• Night Nurse
• Penthouse
• Possessed
• The Public Enemy

• Queen Christina
• Red Headed Woman
• Safe in Hell
• She Done Him Wrong
• Tarzan and His Mate
• Three on a Match
• Wonder Bar

There isn’t a whole lot to critically discuss about the documentary as it mostly sticks to the story about how and why censorship came about and the ways in which studios flouted the Production Code in the early 1930s. There’s definitely an emphasis on Warner Brothers pictures that is unmistakeable, and the absence of a discussion of horror pictures or even the works of Ernst Lubitsch may raise a few eyebrows.

But for anyone who wants a brief rundown of pre-Code antics along with some excellent clips and a nice ‘beginner’s list to pre-Code’, this movie should fit the bill nicely.

Trivia & Links

• If you’re interested in learning more about the history of the Production Code, check out my What is Pre-Code Hollywood? page. I also have up on the site a list of pre-Code films.

• TCMDB also has an article by Stephanie Zacharek that serves as a good summary of what the film covers.

Awards, Accolades & Availability

• This film is available in the second Forbidden Hollywood Collection. It’s on the third disk as a bonus feature for Night Nurse.

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