Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema

Movie

Documentary

Before the G, PG and R ratings system there was the Production Code, and before that there was, well, nothing. This eye-opening documentary examines the rampant sexuality of early Hollywood through movie clips and reminiscences by stars of the era. Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Marlene Dietrich and others relate tales of the artistic freedom that led to the draconian Production Code, which governed content from 1934 to 1968. Diane Lane narrates.

Date: 05/23/2007

Rating: 4.9

Cast: Diane Lane, Chris Basinger, Jeanine Basinger, Cari Beauchamp, Leatrice Joy Gilbert, A.C. Lyles, Bob Mitchell, Barry Paris, Maria Riva, Michael Schlesinger, Budd Schulberg, Kevin Thomas, Mark Viera, Marc Wanamaker, William Wellman Jr., Michael Westmore, Holly Madison, Betsy Moore, Paul Tucci, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Theda Bara, Clara Bow, Louise Brooks, Charlie Chaplin, Joan Crawford, Bebe Daniels, Bette Davis, Cecil B. DeMille, Marlene Dietrich, Douglas Fairbanks, Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Cary Grant, D.W. Griffith, Texas Guinan, Ann Harding, Jean Harlow, Sessue Hayakawa, William H. Hays, William Randolph Hearst, Leslie Howard, Myrna Loy, Mary Miles Minter, Colleen Moore, Owen Moore, Pola Negri, Mabel Normand, Mary Pickford, Edna Purviance, Virginia Rappe, Theodore Roosevelt, Barbara Stanwyck, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, Fannie Ward, Mae West, Woodrow Wilson

Diane Lane