The Dame in the Kimono

"This excellent, lively study examines the 'raucous debate' sparked by the Code over the morals and ideals of American movies." --Publishers WeeklyThe new edition of this seminal work takes the story of the Production Code and motion picture censorship into the present, including the creation of the PG-13 and NC-17 ratings in the 1990s.Starting in the early 1930s, the Production Code Director, Joe Breen, and his successor, Geoff Shurlock, understood that American motion pictures needed enough rope--enough sex, and violence, and tang--to lasso an audience, and not enough to strangle the industry. To explore the history and implementation of the Motion Picture Production Code, this book uses 11 movies: Dead End, GoneWith the Wind, The Outlaw, The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Bicycle Thief, Detective Story, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Moon Is Blue, The French Line, Lolita, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The authors combine a lively style with provocative insights and a wealth of anecdotes to show how the code helped shape American screen content for nearly 50 years."A readable, intimate account of the rise to near-tyrannical power, and the fall to well-deserved ignominy, of the old Production Code Administration." --Atlantic Monthly"A valuable insight into our own innocence and naiveté." --The New York Times Book Review"The triumph of Leff and Simmons's fine work is that they have reminded us of how fatuous and inimical a code of conduct can be: how tempting it is as a theoretical answer, and how intrinsically flawed it is as a working solution." --The Times of London