Pre-Code Hollywood: State and Regional Censorship: Hot Saturday (1932)

This video is a look at the censorship the Hollywood studios faced from state and regional censor boards. Before the Production Code was strictly enforced in July 1934, the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) tried to help the Hollywood studios navigate the various state and regional censor boards by pointing out those scenes and dialogue that the censor boards may want deleted. I use as an example the film, “Hot Saturday” (1932), to illustrate just some of the scenes and lines of dialogue that various censor boards demanded to be removed from the film. Note not all deletions were required by all of the censor boards, which means that audiences across the country may have been seeing different versions of the film.

[maxlinder]

Such dirty things to say ...very shocking ..oh my !!!!

[jessej]

So glad you did another of these! Love them! ❤️

[riverbender]

A really interesting example of nit-picking by the arbiters of morality. Thank You.

[stevenroland]

Sometimes I just think that the Censor picked out something so they can look busy.

[Mister_Pedantic]

I have seen this film and quite a few other pre-code films. The censorship seems silly by our standards.

[pre-codefilmclipsandmore]

Thanks for the reply. One of the facebook pre-code groups won't allow the posting of anything before March 31, 1930. That is too strict for me.

[mikebrough]

Cary Grant seems to be... over-represented in these clips. Lovely boy, as Sergeant-Major Shuttup would have said.

[franksmith]

When I see things like this I always imagine some of these people temporarily transported to 2023 to see what our society accepts as normal now. They'd be beyond shocked.

[dearbrad]

I can understand why they were hard with censorship. I mean some of those scenes were hot and heavy. Got my pulse racing it did.❤

[pre-codefilmclipsandmore]

Very informative! What is the source for the info?

[pre-codefilmclipsandmore]

Have you noticed much difference between 1929 films, and the ones after March 31, 1930? I didn't realize there was no code at all before March 31, 1930. I guess Cock-Eyed World would be a good example.

[quietwyatt]

How odd. And what was the deal with “Camille Renault”?

[riverbender]

Micromanaged to the nth degree. Shameless.

[andrewyoung]

I guess the code was problematic
But i want a version of the code today
Most movies of late are vulgar dull and lazy