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Topic: Navels and The Hays Office

Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

posted March 23, 2008 03:58 AM

In her book "The Million Dollar Mermaid", Esther Williams recounts an episode during the making of "Andy Hardy's Double Life" (1942).

She says that she was wearing a two-piece swimsuit and in deference to the Hays Office it had a little skirt across the panty so that her navel was nowhere to be seen. Also, to be sure that no cleavage was revealed there was a tie on her bra to cover any possible exposure.

I was reminded of this whilst recently watching a new DVD release of the British 1951 film "Lady Godiva Rides Again." In this Diana Dors enters a bathing beauty contest wearing a two-piece costume. In a succession of shots she wears a smallish pair of pants which shows off her navel, however, one shot shows her wearing a high-waisted pantie section which hides it.

With the beauty of DVD stills I discovered that in this last mentioned shot her bikini bottom was not just pulled up but the pants were not the same as in the other shots. Sure, it looked the same when run in real-time, but the pattern was not quite the same. The bra remained the same in all shots.

Now here's my question. Do you think that two versions were shot? One for the UK and one for the US? If this was the case perhaps someone forgot to tell the film editor!

Some of our younger members may not be aware of this quaint US ruling which lasted for many years.

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Maurice

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Claus Harding
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1149
From: Washington DC
Registered: Oct 2006

posted March 23, 2008 10:01 AM

Maurice,

Good example of the kind of crazy rules the 'Hays people' set down. I remember the one about two people never being shown together on a bed unless one person has at least one leg on the floor!
I could easily imagine that the scene could have been shot twice for different markets. given the influence of the Hays office in the US.
Another possibility is that the navel issue could have been brought up during filming and a clumsy insert shot or two could have been ordered.
To me the Hays office exemplified the worst kind of censorship: a very rigid, out-of-touch morality that cut across the board as opposed to looking at each film's content and meaning and going from there.

Good post; more people need to remember Hays when they debate what was and wasn't shown in older films.

Claus.

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"Why are there shots of deserts in a scene that's supposed to take place in Belgium during the winter?" (Review of 'Battle of the Bulge'.)

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted March 23, 2008 01:38 PM

Though I wasn't around back then, (as that all ended before i was born.) I thought that the Hay's office offered a handy thing for the public for two reasons ...

One: people who may have lighter sensibilities, wouldn't have to be wary of taking thier families to the movie theater to see a film. It's interesting that the whole family, durings the "Hay's regime", could see a film on ANY SUBJECT, but the family could be assured that the subject would be tackled in a tasteful manner.

Number two : You don't have to drop down into the sewer to discuss or film any number of subjects. I believe that when the hay's office left the scene, film-makers were allowed to be a lot more lazy about what they put on screen. It took ingenuity at times to show on screen, what you couldn't show on screen; to suggest something outlandish and perhaps immoral through looks, clever dialogue and such, instead of just putting up images that, while some would be comfortable, others would be put off by it and besides, the more risque your material would be, the harder it would be to get as many people to see it as possible.

I remember a film called "hardcore" with George C Scott, about a very religious man who finds out that his runaway daughter has been sucked into the hardcore porn industry and kept against her will. Though there are a few images that are hard to watch, the film did a very good job of not going to the sewer to tell the story.

I remember that long take of George C Scott, as he first finds out what has happened to his daughter, when he looks (barely) at the screen and winces in pain at what he's seen (and we haven't seen) on the big screen, and ends up weeping intensely. We don't have to see what was on the screen, we don't need that voyeurism, we can see the damage on his face.

So, to conclude, I don't wish to sound prudish, (hell, anybody who knows me, knows me well! I'm anything but that!), but I do believe that our desire to portray anything on screen these days is to bring down the excellent craft of storytelling and dumbs down things for the audience and leaves them, well ... dumber! Leave something to the imagination!

The Hay's office did serve a very useful service.

(By the way, many people STILL hold to those "outdated" morals.)

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Claus Harding
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1149
From: Washington DC
Registered: Oct 2006

posted March 24, 2008 07:42 AM

Osi,

I agree that the fine art of 'leaving it to the imagination' is more or less a lost art with most filmmakers these days.

My point about the Hays office was about how even interesting subjects could be ruined by having to adhere to the set-in-stone ideas from Hays about who got punished in the end and such. The 'pre-code' films from the early 30es show a life and imagination that was somewhat stifled by the rules that were later imposed.

Best,
Claus.

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"Why are there shots of deserts in a scene that's supposed to take place in Belgium during the winter?" (Review of 'Battle of the Bulge'.)

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Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted March 24, 2008 08:58 AM

You have good points too Harding ...

After all, Betty Boop was never the same after they "softened" her image after the "code" went into effect.

... though Betty (and Mae West) were leading contributors to the code.

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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