Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema

4.9

70 minutes

5/23/2007

Overview

Before the G, PG and R ratings system there was the Production Code, and before that there was, well, nothing. This eye-opening documentary examines the rampant sexuality of early Hollywood through movie clips and reminiscences by stars of the era. Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Marlene Dietrich and others relate tales of the artistic freedom that led to the draconian Production Code, which governed content from 1934 to 1968. Diane Lane narrates.

Cast List

Diane Lane
as Narrator (voice)
Chris Basinger
as Self
Jeanine Basinger
as Self
Cari Beauchamp
as Self
Leatrice Joy Gilbert
as Self
A.C. Lyles
as Self
Bob Mitchell
as Self
Barry Paris
as Self
Maria Riva
as Self
Michael Schlesinger
as Self
Budd Schulberg
as Self
Kevin Thomas
as Self
Mark Viera
as Self
Marc Wanamaker
as Self
William Wellman Jr.
as Self
Michael Westmore
as Self
Holly Madison
as Model: Special Shoot
Betsy Moore
as Silent Movie Theatre Actor
Paul Tucci
as Silent Movie Theatre Actor
Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle
as Self (archive footage)
Theda Bara
as Self (archive footage)
Clara Bow
as Self (archive footage)
Louise Brooks
as Self (archive footage)
Charlie Chaplin
as Self (archive footage)
Joan Crawford
as Self (archive footage)
Bebe Daniels
as Self (archive footage)
Bette Davis
as Self (archive footage)
Cecil B. DeMille
as Self (archive footage)
Marlene Dietrich
as Self (archive footage)
Douglas Fairbanks
as Self (archive footage)
Greta Garbo
as Self (archive footage)
John Gilbert
as Self (archive footage)
Cary Grant
as Self (archive footage)
D.W. Griffith
as Self (archive footage)
Texas Guinan
as Self (archive footage)
Ann Harding
as Self (archive footage)
Jean Harlow
as Self (archive footage)
Sessue Hayakawa
as Self (archive footage)
William H. Hays
as Self (archive footage)
William Randolph Hearst
as Self (archive footage)
Leslie Howard
as Self (archive footage)
Myrna Loy
as Self (archive footage)
Mary Miles Minter
as Self (archive footage)
Colleen Moore
as Self (archive footage)
Owen Moore
as Self (archive footage)
Pola Negri
as Self (archive footage)
Mabel Normand
as Self (archive footage)
Mary Pickford
as Self (voice) (archive footage)
Edna Purviance
as Self (archive footage)
Virginia Rappe
as Self (archive footage)
Theodore Roosevelt
as Self (archive footage)
Barbara Stanwyck
as Self (archive footage)
Gloria Swanson
as Self (voice) (archive footage)
Rudolph Valentino
as Self (archive footage)
Fannie Ward
as Self (archive footage)
Mae West
as Self (archive footage)
Woodrow Wilson
as Self (archive footage)