I’d hardly call the 40’s and 50’s in film a ‘stupid age’. Wow, there were so many great films made then.
But I love the pre-code dvd’s they’ve got out too. Barbara Stanwyck in Sadie McKee having sex with the railroad guard to be able to stay in the boxcar and get outta town. BUT, there was no sex scene. It was clearly implied.
Red-Headed Woman. Three On A Match, etc.
Netflix has the pre-code series.
There were many great films made, but the ones that actually got effected by the Hays Code were damaged by it. Forced to do dumb things like send Scarface to trial instead of having him get shot, put married couples in separate beds, it even kept them from making anti-Nazi movies. The problem the Hays Code had was the same problem internet filters have, they were hooked on concepts without paying attention to context. The Code said bad guys had to face justice, but the people running the Code didn’t understand that getting gunned down WAS justice. They didn’t want sex on film, but they didn’t understand that if a married couple has kids we already know they do it, separate beds won’t change that. So they forced stupid changes.