

Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
1 hour 10 minutes2007-05-23
4.9
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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

Diane Lane
Narrator (voice)

Chris Basinger
Self

Jeanine Basinger
Self

Cari Beauchamp
Self

Leatrice Joy Gilbert
Self

A.C. Lyles
Self

Bob Mitchell
Self

Barry Paris
Self

Maria Riva
Self

Michael Schlesinger
Self

Budd Schulberg
Self

Kevin Thomas
Self

Mark Viera
Self

Marc Wanamaker
Self

William Wellman Jr.
Self

Michael Westmore
Self

Holly Madison
Model: Special Shoot

Betsy Moore
Silent Movie Theatre Actor

Paul Tucci
Silent Movie Theatre Actor

Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle
Self (archive footage)

Theda Bara
Self (archive footage)

Clara Bow
Self (archive footage)

Louise Brooks
Self (archive footage)

Charlie Chaplin
Self (archive footage)

Joan Crawford
Self (archive footage)

Bebe Daniels
Self (archive footage)

Bette Davis
Self (archive footage)

Cecil B. DeMille
Self (archive footage)

Marlene Dietrich
Self (archive footage)

Douglas Fairbanks
Self (archive footage)

Greta Garbo
Self (archive footage)

John Gilbert
Self (archive footage)

Cary Grant
Self (archive footage)

D.W. Griffith
Self (archive footage)

Texas Guinan
Self (archive footage)

Ann Harding
Self (archive footage)

Jean Harlow
Self (archive footage)

Sessue Hayakawa
Self (archive footage)

William H. Hays
Self (archive footage)

William Randolph Hearst
Self (archive footage)

Leslie Howard
Self (archive footage)

Myrna Loy
Self (archive footage)

Mary Miles Minter
Self (archive footage)

Colleen Moore
Self (archive footage)

Owen Moore
Self (archive footage)

Pola Negri
Self (archive footage)

Mabel Normand
Self (archive footage)

Mary Pickford
Self (voice) (archive footage)

Edna Purviance
Self (archive footage)

Virginia Rappe
Self (archive footage)

Theodore Roosevelt
Self (archive footage)

Barbara Stanwyck
Self (archive footage)

Gloria Swanson
Self (voice) (archive footage)

Rudolph Valentino
Self (archive footage)

Fannie Ward
Self (archive footage)

Mae West
Self (archive footage)
