David O. Selznick vs. the Hays Office: Battling the censors for Gone with the Wind and Rebecca.

Rebecca (1940): Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) has
a secret that's a lot less shocking than it should be...

"In the Tradition of Quality"
-company motto of Selznick International Pictures

For a brief moment, producer David O. Selznick's independent Selznick International Pictures was at the very top of the business. The studio had already released some successful and well-received films, several of which are now regarded as classics, including: A Star Is Born; The Prisoner of Zenda; and Intermezzo.

In 1939, Selznick released Gone with the Wind, which not only won the Best Picture Oscar but which remains - adjusted for inflation - the biggest ticket seller of all time. In 1940, his studio followed up with Rebecca, the only movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock to have won the Best Picture Oscar, and which was also a considerable box office success. Those two motion pictures made Selznick International 1940's top-grossing Hollywood film studio.

Both movies are marked by quality filmmaking and by screenplays that are remarkably faithful to their source novels. Both movies share another common feature: Selznick's struggles to guide them, intact, past the censors.

Gone with the Wind (1939): "Frankly, I just don't care." 
Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it?

GONE WITH THE WIND: THE HAYS OFFICE RETREATS

"No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown to the side of crime, wrong-doing, evil or sin."
-the first of the major principles governing the Motion Picture Production Code, aka the Hays Code

The Motion Picture Production Code was not enforced through government entities. It was adopted in 1930 by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) under the leadership of Will H. Hays, as a way for studios to police themselves - in no small part to prevent government censorship. There was no legal enforcement of the Code... but by 1934, mainstream American movie theaters would not screen a movie that lacked Hays Office approval.

David O. Selznick's published memos reflect his increasing frustration with these restrictions, particularly as they applied to Gone with the Wind and Rebecca. In the case of Gone with the Wind, most of the tension surrounded Clark Gable's final line: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." The Hays Code strictly prohibited profanity, and the censorship office tried to persuade Selznick to change the line to "Frankly, I just don't care."

Selznick appealed the decision, ultimately lobbying Hays himself in an October 1939 memo.  He never actually threatened to release the film without Hays Office approval.  Still, it was clear that he was digging in hard in support of Rhett Butler's famous last words.

Selznick's lobbying worked. In November 1939, shortly before Gone with the Wind's official release, the Hays Office revised its code. A strict ban on any profanity was amended, so that profanity was allowed by censor discretion if it was deemed to be "essential and required."

In short: David O. Selznick battled the Hays Office, and he won. That time, at least...

Rebecca (1940): Mrs. Danvers caresses Mrs. de Winter's
cheek with the sleeve of the late Rebecca's dress.

REBECCA: SELZNICK FORCED TO COMPROMISE.

"There is one drastic change that was forced on us by the Hays Office and that almost caused us to abandon the picture. I don't want (author Daphne du Maurier) to think we are imbeciles when she sees this change... It was something forced upon us."
-David O. Selznick, preparing a message regarding changes to Rebecca.

Selznick's next motion picture also ran into problems with the Hays Office. Joseph Breen, head of Production Code Administration, wrote to Selznick that the screenplay for Rebecca violated the Code. In his report on the preproduction script, Breen observed that it contained "inescapable inferences of sex perversion" and references to a further "alleged illicit relationship," as well as including an ending that directly violated the Code's specifications.

Selznick's memos reveal his frustration, with him even contemplating something he'd never threatened with Gone with the Wind: To release the movie without Hays Office approval. But he was exactly one film too late for that. Gone with the Wind was not just a movie; it was an event. By November 1939, it was apparent that Gone with the Wind was going to succeed no matter what he Hays Office did, so the only sensible course for Hays was to find a way to endorse it - even if that meant changing the rules.

I actually prefer Rebecca as a movie... but it was not a cultural phenomenon like Gone with the Wind.  Not even close.  I suspect cooler heads were able to talk Selznick into compromising, even if it damaged the story.

It wasn't an outright loss for Selznick. The final film flatly ignores Breen's first two objections. Sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson)'s adoration of the deceased Rebecca has an all but unmistakable sexual element. In one of the movie's best scenes, Joan Fontaine's heroine walks into the bedroom previously occupied by Rebecca.  The room has been kept unchanged, maintained practically as a shrine. Mrs. Danvers proudly walks her new mistress through the room. She shows off Rebecca's luxurious dresses, fondling the sleeve of one before using that same sleeve to caress the new Mrs. de Winter's cheek. The young woman is both mesmerized and repelled. Mrs. Danvers then shows off Rebecca's nightgown, made of sheer fabric, pushing her hand beneath the gown and marveling at how she can see her hand through it - at which point the heroine visibly recoils and flees. It's subtext... but it's pretty strong subtext. Meanwhile, the scripted references to another "illicit relationship" that censor Breen objected to? They remain entirely intact.

While Selznick won two out of three battles on Rebecca, he did not win when it came to the ending. The backstory was significantly altered to gain Hays Code approval. Selznick was so disappointed by the decision that he prepared an explanation and apology to author Daphne du Maurier in the memo quoted above.

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot: The movie that broke The Hays Code.

SOME LIKE IT HOT AND THE FALL OF THE HAYS CODE

"A film which followed the code of the Hays Office to the strictest letter might succeed in being a great work of art, but not in a world in which a Hays Office exists."
-Thedor W. Adorno

The Code was always doomed. The one constant in history is that the standards and values of the public change. After World War II and throughout the 1950s, more and more filmmakers came to Hollywood from abroad - filmmakers with little respect or patience for the Hays Code and who likely found personal satisfaction in pushing it as far as they could.  Meanwhile, European films offering blatant sexuality made American fare look plain and timid by comparison.

In 1959, Billy Wilder released his comedy classic, Some Like It Hot, starring Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon as men who, after witnessing a gangland massacre, dress as women to evade the killers.  In the guise of a woman, Curtis falls for Marilyn Monroe, while Lemmon ends up engaged to another man. By today's standards, it plays like innocent fluff... But it played openly with ideas of fluid sexuality, and the Hays Office refused to endorse it.  The movie was further condemned by the Catholic League of Decency, which dubbed it "seriously offensive to Christian and traditional standards of morality and decency."

Neither Wilder nor studio United Artists were bothered in the least, and the lack of Hays Office approval did nothing to stop the film from being a huge critical and box office success. The Motion Picture Production Code would officially limp on until 1968 - but after Some Like It Hot, these guidelines, once upon a time enforced with absolute rigidity, were nothing but meaningless words on paper.

One suspects Selznick likely felt a tiny bit jealous that Wilder had done what he had once wanted to.

Review: Gone with the Wind
Review: Rebecca

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On Twitter:

Follow @RandomMusings09

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads