See No Evil: Life Inside a Hollywood Censor

1970, 1971 Pocket Books edition
Jack Vizzard
See No Evil: Life Inside a Hollywood Censor
Original price unknown, purchase price $1.50
Falling apart paperback
B


Vizzard tells of how as a young man in 1943 he left a monastery, before he took his final vows, in order to enforce the Production Code.  He became more worldly as a result, while still trying to hold on to his values in a changing world.  He also tells of how the Code fell apart, gradually at first and then quickly in the mid-1960s, with such challenges as Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, Alfie, and Blow-Up.  At the time of writing, the G, M (soon to be replaced by GP and then PG), R, and X ratings of my childhood had come in.  (PG-13 arrived in 1984, by which time I was almost old enough for R-movies on my own.)

Vizzard does a good job of covering the vivid personalities, including foul-mouthed-to-make-his-points Joe Breen, the head of the Production Office, and there are many funny anecdotes.  He disagrees with the idea that violence is worse than sex in movies, seeing them both as excesses.  (He also seems to condone McCarthyism, or at least see left-wing writers as a genuine menace in movies, particularly in the 1940s and '50s.)  But he does point out the inconsistencies that directors, writers, producers, critics, and of course censors were forced into by the inconsistencies of the larger culture.

Even if you don't agree with his conclusions, it's a thought-provoking, entertaining read.