How about films made before 1934?
“How about films made before 1934?”
The Legion of Decency’s influence on Congress got the Hayes Code passed. Catholic Culture in America at that time was strong and powerful and united. You see a clear cut and dramatic change in movies after 1934. People think everything was wholesome and pure in “the good old days”. Not so!
Look at some of the early silent films, nudity, heavy sexual innuendo, etc. Every watch 1927 Greta Garbo film “The World, the Flesh and the Devil”? Pretty steamy. Of course society at that time did not accept the vulgar and foul language we have now, or the profanity, and so you don’t see much of it in movies either, but it was not non-existent by any means.
In a sense, the Hayes Code helped give rise to “screwball comedies” because now male-female expressions of passion had to be more coy. You see many cute jokes and physical comedy that gently hint at something, which adults would see as lightly humorous and children not even comprehend. I wish I could remember the movie where Cary Grant does a very quick imitation of a “gay” (using that word, but in such a way it’s not blatant, but you do get the double entendre).
Clark Gable’s famous line to Vivien Leigh at the end of Gone with the Wind, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” almost was cut from the movie. The censors wanted it changed to “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a darn” due to the Legion of Decency standards. However, the director forcefully argued that the impact was just not the same and the overall themes in the movie (love, lust, violence, war, death, redemption) were such that the audience would not be offended at this last line.