Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema (2007)
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.
Production Companies
Additional Info
| Budget | $0.00 |
|---|---|
| Revenue | $0.00 |
| Original Language | en |
| Popularity | 1.944 |
Directed By
Elaina Archer
Crew
Scott Eyman
Todd Friedrichsen
Elaina Archer
Elaina Archer
Todd Friedrichsen
Elaina Archer
Todd Friedrichsen
Elaina Archer
Jason Burns
Richard Rosenzweig
Michael Yakaitis
Haydee Serrano
Marvin Paige
Kristen Kirst
Jeff Levy
Sarah Weiss
Maria Newman
Hugh Hefner
John Sinner
Luana Osling
Barbara Lockridge
Kathryn Rzasa
Patrick Nevins
Patrick Nevins
Bill Sheehy
Jeff Levy
Sarah J. Baker
Todd Friedrichsen
TOP CAST
Diane Lane
Narrator (voice)
Chris Basinger
Self
Jeanine Basinger
Self
Cari Beauchamp
Self
Leatrice Joy Gilbert
Self
A.C. Lyles
Self
Bob Mitchell
Self
Barry Paris
Self
Maria Riva
Self
Michael Schlesinger
Self
Budd Schulberg
Self
Kevin Thomas
Self
Mark Viera
Self
Marc Wanamaker
Self
William Wellman Jr.
Self
Michael Westmore
Self
Holly Madison
Model: Special Shoot
Betsy Moore
Silent Movie Theatre Actor
Paul Tucci
Silent Movie Theatre Actor
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle
Self (archive footage)
Theda Bara
Self (archive footage)
Clara Bow
Self (archive footage)
Louise Brooks
Self (archive footage)
Charlie Chaplin
Self (archive footage)
Joan Crawford
Self (archive footage)
Bebe Daniels
Self (archive footage)
Bette Davis
Self (archive footage)
Cecil B. DeMille
Self (archive footage)
Marlene Dietrich
Self (archive footage)
Douglas Fairbanks
Self (archive footage)
Greta Garbo
Self (archive footage)
John Gilbert
Self (archive footage)
Cary Grant
Self (archive footage)
D.W. Griffith
Self (archive footage)
Texas Guinan
Self (archive footage)
Ann Harding
Self (archive footage)
Jean Harlow
Self (archive footage)
Sessue Hayakawa
Self (archive footage)
William H. Hays
Self (archive footage)
William Randolph Hearst
Self (archive footage)
Leslie Howard
Self (archive footage)
Myrna Loy
Self (archive footage)
Mary Miles Minter
Self (archive footage)
Colleen Moore
Self (archive footage)
Owen Moore
Self (archive footage)
Pola Negri
Self (archive footage)
Mabel Normand
Self (archive footage)
Mary Pickford
Self (voice) (archive footage)
Edna Purviance
Self (archive footage)
Virginia Rappe
Self (archive footage)
Similar Movies
Manda huevos
A look at the different masculinities portrayed in Spanish cinema through time. (A sequel to “Barefoot in the Kitchen,” 2013.)
Head Wind
An investigation of government censorship in Iran.
Video Nasties: Draconian Days
The highly anticipated follow-up to their critically acclaimed VIDEO NASTIES: MORAL PANIC, CENSORSHIP & VIDEOTAPE documentary, director Jake West and producer Marc Morris continue uncovering the shocking story of home entertainment post the 1984 Video Recordings Act. A time when Britain plunged into a new Dark Age of the most restrictive censorship, where the horror movie became the bloody eviscerated victim of continuing dread created by self-aggrandizing moral guardians. With passionate and entertaining interviews from the people who lived through it and more jaw dropping archive footage, get ready to reflect and rejoice the passing of a landmark era.
The Wikipedia Promise
In 2001, Jimmy Wales published the first article on Wikipedia, a collaborative effort that began with a promise: to democratize the spreading of knowledge, monopolized by the elites for centuries. But is Wikipedia really a utopia come true?
Belarus: An Ordinary Dictatorship
It’s the last dictatorship of Europe, caught in a Soviet time-warp, where the secret police is still called the KGB and the president rules by fear. Disappearances, political assassinations, waves of repression and mass arrests are all regular occurances. But while half of Belarus moves closer to Russia, the other half is trying to resist…
Princess Diana: The Mourning After
In "Diana: The Mourning After" Christopher Hitchens sets out to examine the bogusness of "a nation's grief", tries to uncover the few voices of sanity that cut against the grain of contrived hysteria. His findings suggested that the collective hordes of emotive Dianaphiles sobbing in the streets were not only encouraged but emulated by the media. In the aftermath of Diana's death a three-line whip was enforced on newspapers and on TV, selling the sainthood line wholesale. The suspicion was that journalists, like the public, greeted the death as a chance to wax emotional in print, as a change from the customary knowing cynicism, to wheel out all those portentous phrases they'd been saving up for the big occasion. Sadly, they just seemed to be showboating; the eulogies, laments and tear-soaked platitudes ringing risibly hollow.
In the Lost City
The city of Madrid as it appears in the Spanish films of the 1950s. A small tribute to all those who filmed and portrayed Madrid despite the dictatorship, censorship and the critical situation of industry and society.
Històries de Bruguera
The history of Bruguera, the most important comic publisher in Spain between the 1940s and the 1980s. How the characters created by great writers and pencilers became Spanish archetypes and how their strips persist nowadays as a portrait of Spain and its people. The daily life of the creators and the founding family, the Brugueras. The world in which hundreds of vivid colorful paper beings lived and still live, in the memory of millions, in the smile of everyone.
Cover Your Ears
When does art become obscenity? Cover Your Ears takes a close look at this question through the lens of the past 100 years of music and the ever-evolving discussion of legal and moral lines in the industry
You Can’t Watch This
Peer through the lens of a high profile political dissident, banished from the online world. After introducing the viewer to each of the five characters, the film recounts how each individual then came to lose their access to social media and the affect it had on them at the time, and since the event. With their stories told, they present the broader issues raised by their media de-platforming and what they foresee in their future in media and the whole of Western Culture at-large.
His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th
A retrospective documentary about the groundbreaking horror series, Friday the 13th, featuring interviews with cast and crew from the twelve films spanning 3 decades.
Los prohibidos
Documentary film that follows Silvana Castro, a woman who works at the National Congress Library in Argentina where the books that were forbidden during the military dictatorship are kept. After the exhibition of the books is suspended, she'll try to open it again.
Cleanflix
When a small Utah-based edited movie company is caught sanitizing Hollywood's copyrighted material, the film industry strikes back with a devastating blow.
Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape
A documentary analyzing the furore which so-called "video nasties" caused in Britain during the 1980s.
Project Censored the Movie
'Project Censored: The Movie' explores media censorship in our society by exposing important stories that corporate media fails to report/under report. Using the media watchdog group, Project Censored, as their road map, two fathers from California decided to make a documentary film that will help to end the reign of Junk Food News that Corporate Media continues to feed the American people.
The ABCs of Book Banning
In recent years, more than 2,500 books have been removed from school districts around the US, labeled as banned, restricted, or challenged, and made unavailable to millions of students. By no accident, the themes targeted are the usual scapegoats of the American Right—LGBTQ+ issues, Black History, and women’s empowerment—impeding the power of future generations to develop their own thoughts and opinions on critical social issues. By weaving together a lyrical montage of young readers and authors, THE ABCs OF BOOK BANNING reveals the voices of the impacted parties, and inspires hope for the future through the profound insights of inquisitive youthful minds.
Freedom to Love
It is a sex education film of sorts dedicated to all forms of human sexuality.
Obaida
OBAIDA, a short film by Matthew Cassel, explores a Palestinian child’s experience of Israeli military arrest. Each year, some 700 Palestinian children undergo military detention in a system where ill-treatment is widespread and institutionalized. For these young detainees, few rights are guaranteed, even on paper. After release, the experience of detention continues to shape and mark former child prisoners’ path forward.
The Cleaners
A deep dive into the hidden industry of digital cleaning, which rids the Internet of unwanted violence, porn and political content.
The Fantastic
In Maija Blåfield’s documentary, eight former North Koreans talk about what it was like to watch illegal films in a closed society. In addition to the 'waste videos', South Korean films were also smuggled into the country via China.