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how censorship played a role in the making of "double indemnity" (1944) by tracy taylor Several Hollywood films of the 1930s were affected by the motion picture industry's efforts to self-regulate and censor its own product. One of the prime examples of a movie that was "both influenced by the Production Code, and influenced how the Code was applied (or not applied) to later films" was Billy Wilder's 1944 film noir, Double Indemnity. (Biesen 42) Double Indemnity may well have been less successful had it been approved when first submitted for production, by MGM, in 1935. Author James M. Cain had not yet established himself in American popular culture, consequently his popularity could not have influenced the public to see the picture. Also, the "hard-boiled" school of fiction was in its fledgling stage during this time. The dark, sordid worlds created by Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Cain were not yet in the arena of "acceptable" literature. The fact that "the Hays Office knocked it in the head" (Ibid 42) caused the script to be put in limbo for eight years. Ironically, by forcing the script to be set aside and rewritten, the Production Code made the final version a better picture. How did Double Indemnity's Production Code experience influence how the Code was applied to subsequent films? Primarily by being not only a critical triumph, but a financial success as well. After Double Indemnity, the studios were more inclined to take chances with similar scripts, such as Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946). In addition, Wilder's film set a new standard of acceptable sexual innuendo in dialogue and psychologically-implied violence. Where would the Hays Office finally draw the line? That would be for later motion picture productions to find out. Biesen, Sheri Chinen. "Censorship, Film Nor, and Double Indemnity, Film & History, Vol. 25, No. 1-2, 1995, pp. 41-52. Copyright © 2003 The Write Word, Inc. All rights reserved. |
