Thou Shalt Not, a 1940 photo by Whitey Schafer illustrating the Code's strictures In 1968, after several years of minimal enforcement, the Production Code was replaced by the MPAA film rating system. The film industry followed the guidelines set by the code well into the late 1950s, but it began to weaken, owing to the combined impact of television, influence from foreign films, controversial directors (such as Otto Preminger) pushing boundaries, and intervention from the courts, including the US Supreme Court. The Production Code spelled out acceptable and unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States.įrom 1934 to 1954, the code was closely identified with Joseph Breen, the administrator appointed by Hays to enforce the code in Hollywood. Under Hays's leadership, the MPPDA, later the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), adopted the Production Code in 1930 and began rigidly enforcing it in 1934. Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Will H. The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968.
