Sodom and Gomorrah : the story of Hollywood (1935)

Page scan 00080 from Sodom and Gomorrah : the story of Hollywood

Record Details:

Title:
Sodom and Gomorrah : the story of Hollywood
Date:
1935
Publisher:
Los Angeles : End Poverty League
Volume:
Sodom and Gomorrah : the story of Hollywood
Leaf #:
00080
Language:
English
Collection:
Books
Format:
Books
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Date Added:
August 22, 2024
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7b SODOM AND GOMORRAH with religious pictures. "Religious pictures would be uninteresting to the vast majority of people," he said. (However, all the past religious pictures have been exceedingly profitable.) Nothing is being asked of Hollywood except the elimination of obscene and sympathetic crime features. The point that is so hard for the film executives to grasp is that a picture can have crime, menace, and romance without being disgustingly filthy. It is likewise possible to show a romance in progress without showing the couple involved lying together on a couch in a darkened room. Cecil B. De Mille's "Sign of the Cross" gave us a view of the conditions at Nero's court without giving us a picture of Nero and Poppaea in a suggestive pose. Crime in pictures is another thing. The films have sinned far less in their use of crime situations than in sex. After all, a film must have enough action to provide interest. If some of the pictures did not surround criminals with so much glory, there would be little to object to on that score. In most of the films the criminal is the menace, and he is presented in an unsympathetic light. Before the advent of the gangster picture, Hollywood generally devoted its sympathies to the law. The gangster film, however, with two or three notable exceptions, tended to idolize the racketeer. But even so, there is not so much ground for objection to the crime element as to