In 1915, the United States Supreme Court ruled that motion pictures were not covered by the First Amendment. As a result of this, city and state censorship ordinances began to take hold in the motion picture industry and films that contained “immoral content” were ostracized. As Hollywood became more glamorous and subsequently more dangerous, at least in the point of view of the puritanical outsider, persistent calls for the “cleaning up” of Hollywood filled the 1920s.

In 1922, to answer the considerable public outcry, the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (now the MPAA) was formed to self-police the movie industry. Led by Will H. Hays, the former United States Postmaster General, the Association fought off attempts at federal censorship by imposing a morality clause. Hays and the Association lacked the authority to censor or change things in Hollywood, however, and business went on pretty much as usual.

With the advent of talkies in 1927, there was a “need” for further enforcement as people were now able to talk about all sorts of morally reprehensible things. Various individuals began lobbying for a higher standard of censorship and film producers kept ignoring Hays and the Association. There was a kind of understanding in Hollywood and the “dos and don’ts” of the Association functioned more like a bit of advice than any sort of authoritative statement.

From 1930 to 1934, the economics of the Great Depression and changing social mores created one of the most interesting times in American cinema history. Studios began to produce racier films and Hays’s Association was unable to keep up. The films reflected the experience of the times, providing entertainment and titillation for masses.

After 1934, however, different groups of so-called “moral authority” brought about the Hays Code in a concrete, enforceable form. The Code stipulated a slew of provisions that were all based around three basic fundamentals:

1. No picture shall be produced that 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, wrongdoing, evil or sin.
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.

There were also specific provisions given regarding the Code that made it difficult for films to express much by way of freedom of thought or style. As a result, many of the films produced under the Hays Code had to work harder to get their point across. This led to some of the most interesting and compelling films in history, including 1942’s Casablanca and some of the racier subtle comedies of the day.

Turner Classic Movies delved into their archives to gather a sense of the pre-Code era with the Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 1. Released with three films, 1931’s Waterloo Bridge, 1933’s Baby Face, and 1932’s Red Headed Woman, the collection featured some of the spiciest and most controversial films of pre-Code Hollywood.