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How Did "Stagecoach" (1939) Get Past the Censors?
Self | September 9, 2018 | PJ-Comix

Posted on 09/09/2018 3:35:18 PM PDT by PJ-Comix

One question that has intrigued me for years is HOW did the John Ford movie starring John Wayne, "Stagecoach," make it past the censors in 1939. Back in those days the Hollywood Code was strictly enforced yet "Stagecoach" clearly featured a prostitute which would have been prohibited. Even worse, she was portrayed in a sympathetic light.

Yeah, I know it did not explicitly say that Dallas the Prostitute, played by Clair Trevor, was a prostitute but the movie left no doubt that was the case. Particularly revealing was the scene in Lordsville when against her objections, the naive Ringo Kid (John Wayne) walked her to her new job and even he realized that Dallas was a hooker which was made obvious by all the hookers hanging out in the section of town where she was going.

Yet somehow, the censors let this pass. Wasn't there at least some sort of objection by the censors (mainly Joseph Bream who was really strict)? Anyway, still amazed that "Stagecoach" made it to the Silver Screen back in those days complete with it's all too obvious prostitute character.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: 1939; censors; clairtrevor; johnford; johnwayne; stagecoach
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To: o-n-money

And GWTW had a prostitute/madam, Belle Watling, so apparently that was acceptable. But “damn” brought out the pearl clutchers for sure.


21 posted on 09/09/2018 4:03:07 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Have an A-1 day.)
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To: Publius

Unless your a liberal note media.


22 posted on 09/09/2018 4:03:57 PM PDT by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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To: digger48

Seriously?? No wonder I dont watch movies on TV due to the ads.


23 posted on 09/09/2018 4:04:44 PM PDT by max americana (Fired libtard employees 9 consecutive times at every election since 08'. I hope all liberals die.)
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To: BenLurkin

Prostitutes are part of western lore. They are tough women in the west. Its housewives that are often the bad women. Housewives are often considered too frail or nosy, or rumormongers. The prostitutes are depicted as women who can handle themselves and know the men. And by the way, they like the men. Thats the way westerns are in most movies and TV shows as well as real life. Calamity Jane was said to be a prostitute.


24 posted on 09/09/2018 4:05:11 PM PDT by poinq
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To: PJ-Comix
The Movie Production Code took aim at explicit sexual content and its enforcers rarely challenged implied content. In Stagecoach, the revelation of one of the characters as being a prostitute was a moment of embarrassment and degradation for her -- something that the Code's enforcers no doubt approved of. Moreover, the revelation that even a well-mannered woman might be a prostitute tacitly warned men to be cautious in their evaluation of women -- a lesson that was also consistent with the Code's morality.
25 posted on 09/09/2018 4:06:12 PM PDT by Rockingham
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To: PJ-Comix

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031971/trivia

“The Breen Office, the censorship watchdog in Hollywood, rejected Dudley Nichols treatment because of the story’s sympathetic portrayal of the prostitute Dallas, Doc Boone’s constant drunkenness, the Ringo Kid’s thirst for revenge and the marshal’s involvement in some deaths. Nichols’s first draft script took the Breen Office suggestions to heart and the production went ahead without further objections from the censors.”


26 posted on 09/09/2018 4:07:37 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (<img src="http://i.imgur.com/WukZwJP.gif"> zXSEP5Z, Audt7QO. xnKL3lW, RZ9yuyQ. XywCCJd, zQ9Ghyq.)
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To: max americana

It’s twoo
It’s two

I’ll have to remember which channel when I watch that movie for the 147th time


27 posted on 09/09/2018 4:07:43 PM PDT by digger48
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To: poinq

I somehow doubt that many of them looked like Miss Kitty tho.


28 posted on 09/09/2018 4:08:54 PM PDT by digger48
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To: digger48

I think the best scene was when Charlene Holt was fixing her nighties and JW was knocking at her window XD


29 posted on 09/09/2018 4:12:10 PM PDT by max americana (Fired libtard employees 9 consecutive times at every election since 08'. I hope all liberals die.)
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To: digger48

I somehow doubt that many of them looked like Miss Kitty tho.

...

From the pictures I’ve seen they looked very masculine.


30 posted on 09/09/2018 4:13:55 PM PDT by Moonman62 (Give a man a fish and he'll be a Democrat. Teach a man to fish and he'll be a responsible citizen.)
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To: FrankR

“Gunsmoke”

And then there was Miss “Kitty”.


31 posted on 09/09/2018 4:16:03 PM PDT by fruser1
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To: Publius

***Censorship ended in 1968.***

Ended in the worst possible way, with the murder of Bobby Kennedy. The news media went into hysterics and blamed violence on TV shows(which were still safe for kids), comic books, pulp fiction book covers, violent cartoons, toy guns, violent movies you could still take a kid to.
So, pulp fiction changed their covers, comic books did the same, cartoons became more Hanna-Barbera garbage factory trash, movies on TV were butchered to remove all violence, TV shows like Gunsmoke were downgraded to kiddie shows, toy guns disappeared from the toy stores.
To keep government away from movies, the industry said they would “police themselves” with a joke of a ratings system. “G,M.R,X” were the first. With the Hays code gone scenes were reshot to ADD more blood and guts with lots of sex to get the then coveted “R” rating.


32 posted on 09/09/2018 4:17:03 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: fruser1

Well...”Miss Kitty” was the Marshall’s private stash...he went up the stairs a lot.


33 posted on 09/09/2018 4:21:50 PM PDT by FrankR (IF it wasn't for the "F-word", and it's deritiives, the left would have no message at all.)
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To: SamAdams76

Boogie Nights has some very intense dramatic (non-sexual) scenes toward the end. Worth watching, especially if you’ve already made it half way through.


34 posted on 09/09/2018 4:22:06 PM PDT by Atticus
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To: PJ-Comix

Stagecoach has nothing on the 1961 movie The “Last Sunset” starring Rock Hudson & Kirk Douglas. Incest. Cuckoldry. Suicide. This movie really slipped by the censors.


35 posted on 09/09/2018 4:25:04 PM PDT by LongWayHome
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To: max americana

It shouldn’t have taken four of you.


36 posted on 09/09/2018 4:27:43 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: Bernard; All
Ann Margaret , in 1960, as a belle de jour. If that actually happened in any mining or cow town rioting would have ensued as males fought in the street for the privilege of paying for such a stunning beauty's services.

My favorite lady of the evening character is Kathy Jurado in ‘The Big Country’. After being frozen out and snubbed by his bride Gregory Peck repairs to Ms. Jurado’s establishment but can't bring himself to break his vows. Ms Jurado playing the ultimate worldly wise but not hardened character says; “You paid for services so as you don't want sex I still owe you something. Perhaps some advice would be helpful. One thing I do know about is people and especially men. You must, hard as it is, continue in the path you are on and fight these people. They are evil and there can never be peace with them. However, beware that you do not become what you fight. Good men become corrupted by their virtue and lose sense of mercy. Now go after having a good stiff drink.”

Her words resonate in the final scene in which Burl Ives vile family gang is beaten and most of Pecks cohorts want to lynch the survivors. Peck says something like ‘No, there has been enough killing. The law will deal with these and I will make sure of it.”

When I was 12/13 I thought that and ‘Ride the High Country’ were great philosophical dramas. Now I feel sad that this is what liberalism, not leftism, was back in 1958-1961. How did these lunatics take over the party of JFK and Harry Truman??

37 posted on 09/09/2018 4:28:52 PM PDT by robowombat (Orthodox)
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To: max americana
Another fave is Rio Bravo...

"That was "Rio Bravo." Robert Mitchum played the drunk in "El Dorado." Dean Martin played the drunk in "Rio Bravo." Basically, it was the same part. Now John Wayne, he did the same in both. He played John Wayne."

-Chili Palmer

Angie Dickenson was HAWT back then in her unmentionables

38 posted on 09/09/2018 4:29:28 PM PDT by digger48
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To: poinq
Prostitutes are part of western lore. They are tough women in the west. Its housewives that are often the bad women. Housewives are often considered too frail or nosy, or rumormongers. The prostitutes are depicted as women who can handle themselves and know the men. And by the way, they like the men. Thats the way westerns are in most movies and TV shows as well as real life. Calamity Jane was said to be a prostitute.

Per a talk at a Civil War Roundtable from an historian who had looked into it: the life expectancy of a prostitute in that era was about five years. They were deadenders, typically alcoholic and diseased. Add in malnutrition and lack of medical care, and you can take your pick as to what finally carried them off.

39 posted on 09/09/2018 4:30:14 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: poinq

“Soiled Doves”.


40 posted on 09/09/2018 4:32:47 PM PDT by katana (We're all part of a long episode of "The Terrific Mr. Trump")
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