The Hays Code and Classic Hollywood

From 1934 to 1968 the Production Code Administration, run by Joseph Breen, approved every Hollywood script. Crime could not pay, marriages could not be shown failing, and married couples slept in twin beds on screen.

Filmmakers learned to imply everything: shadows, double meanings, and endings that punished sinners. Film noir thrived inside these limits.

The code cracked in the 1950s under pressure from foreign films and independents, and the MPAA rating system replaced it in 1968..