Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1930)

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12 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD April 5, 1930 A CODE Regulating Production of Motion Pictures Formulated by the Association of Motion Picture Producers, Inc., and the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America, Inc. Motion picture producers recognize the high trust and confidence which have been placed in them by the people of the world and which have made motion pictures a universal form of entertainment. They recognize their responsibility to the public because of this trust and because entertainment and art are important influences in the life of a nation. Hence, though regarding motion pictures primarily as entertainment without any explicit purpose of teaching or propaganda, they know that the motion picture within its own field of entertainment may be directly responsible for spiritual or moral progress, for higher types of social life, and for much correct thinking. During the rapid transition from silent to talking pictures they have realized the necessity and the opportunity of subscribing to a Code to govern the production of talking pictures and of reacknowledging this responsibility. On their part, they ask from the public and from public leaders a sympathetic understanding of their purposes and problems and a spirit of cooperation that will allow them the freedom and opportunity necessary to bring the motion picture to a still higher level of wholesome entertainment for all the people. GENERAL PRINCIPLES 1. No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrong-doing, evil or sin. Will H. Hays Re-elected (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, April 1. — Members of the MPPDA and a number of other producers yesterday ratified Will H. Hays’ new Code of Motion Picture Morals. The MPPDA at its meeting of the board of directors, returned to office Hays as president ; Carl E. Milliken, secretary ; F. L. Herron, treasurer, and George Borthwick, assistant treasurer. Among those present were Hiram S. Brown, Charles H. Christie, R. H. Cochrane, E. W. Hammons, Nicholas Schenck, Albert Warner, Harry Warner and Adolph Zukor. 2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented. 3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation. PARTICULAR APPLICATIONS I. — CRIMES AGAINST THE LAW. These shall never be presented in such a way as to throw sympathy with the crime as against law and justice or to inspire others with a desire for imitation. 1. Murder a. The technique of murder must be presented in a way that will not inspire imitation. b. Brutal killings are not to be presented in detail. c. Revenge in modern times shall not be justified. 2. Methods of Crime should not be explicitly presented: a. Theft, robbery, safe-cracking, and dynamiting of trains, mines, buildings, etc., should not be detailed in method. b. Arson must be subject to the same safeguards. c. The use of firearms should be restricted to essentials. d. Methods of smuggling should not be presented. 3. Illegal drug traffic must never be presented. 4. The use of liquor in American life, when not required by the plot or for proper characterization, will not be shown. II. — SEX. The sanctity of the institution of mar riage and the home shall be upheld. Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationship are the accepted or common thing. 1. Adultery, sometimes necessary plot material, must not be explicitly treated, or justified, or presented attractively.