Joe Breen's Oscar

Dickinson College Dickinson Scholar Faculty and Staff Publications By Year Faculty and Staff Publications 2005 Joe Breen's Oscar Stephen Weinberger Dickinson College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.dickinson.edu/faculty_publications Part of the Film Production Commons Recommended Citation Weinberger, Stephen. "Joe Breen's Oscar." Film History 17, no. 4 (2005), 380-391. This article is brought to you for free and open access by Dickinson Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Film History, Volume 17, pp. 380–391, 2005. Copyright © John Libbey Publishing ISSN: 0892-2160. Printed in United States of America Joe Breen’s Oscar Joe Breens Oscar Stephen Weinberger t the twenty-sixth Academy Awards ceremo- A raconteur par excellance, Breen delighted in nies held on the evening of 25 March 1954, relating, often to people who had heard the stories Asomething quite remarkable occurred, al- before, and in various forms, how he had bested the though it attracted little attention at the time. Hollywood moguls. How, for example, at a meeting As often happens at this event, one film swept most with Harry Warner to discuss the Catholic boycott of ofthe awards. From HeretoEternity won eightOscars, Warner theaters in Philadelphia, the stressed-out including those for best picture, best supporting actor president of Warner Brothers began ‘shedding tears and actress, best director, and best screenplay. the size of horse turds and pleading for someone to In addition to the usual categories, there were get him off the hook’.2 Or how, at his first meeting four honorary Oscars awarded that night. One went with Harry Cohn, ‘the Ogre of Gower Street’, he went to Pete Smith for his series ‘Pete Smith’s Speciali- toe to toe with the fearsome head of Columbia Pic- ties’; another to 20th Century-Fox for introducing tures. After glancing at Breen’s portfolio, Cohn, per- CinemaScope; and a third to Bell and Howell for its haps to take the measure of the man said, ‘What’s numerous achievements. The fourth award went to this shit?’ To which Breen responded, ‘Mr. Cohn, I Joseph Ignatius Breen ‘for his conscientious, open- take that as a compliment ... My friends inform me ... minded, and dignified management of the Motion that if there’s any expert in this town on shit – it’s you Picture Production Code’. Breen, who was about to ... So if I have to be judged, I’m glad it’s by profes- retire, had served almost twenty-one years as the sionals’.3 head of the Production Code Administration, the As chief enforcer and interpreter of the Produc- body that censored virtually all films shown in Ameri- tion Code, Breen was certainly capable of being high can theaters. That the film industry was now bestow- handed and capricious. This document, which as of ing its highest honor on its chief censor must have 1930 served as the Ten Commandments of the film caused many writers, producers, and directors in the industry, was the creation of Daniel Lord, a Jesuit audience to roll their eyes at what seemed like the and professor at St. Louis University, and Martin latest and not least of Tinsel Town’s hypocracies. Quigley, a prominent Catholic layman and publisher During his time as the head of the PCA, Breen of the Motion Picture Herald. Its stated purpose was had cultivated a reputation that bore little resem- to ensure that ‘No picture should lower the moral blance to ‘open-minded and dignified’. This was a standards of those who see it’.4 It then provided a man who rarely missed an opportunity to impress detailed list of what could not appear on screen, upon his listeners that before them stood someone such as detailed depictions of seduction, rape, mur- who loved a good brawl. On 22 June 1934 when Will der, complete nudity, etc. Not only was Breen totally Hays, the head of the Motion Picture Producers and dedicated to enforcing both the spirit and the letter Distributors of America, introduced Breen to the of the Code, but, according to Vizzard, he was quite directors of that body as his choice to head the capable of quoting passages in the Code that did censorship office, the new appointee began, ‘Very well, gentlemen. I accept the job. But on one condi- Stephen Weinberger is a professor of history and tion. And the condition is that you understand that I film studies at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsyl- come from a race of people who have a long history vania, whose primary scholarly interest is film censor- of committing suicide – on the other guy.’1 Jack ship. He has written on Quentin Tarantino for Vizzard, who relates this story in his memoir about Literature/Film Quarterly and his article on Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The Cyclist appears in an upcoming his ten years working for Breen, added, ‘Joe never issue of Film Quarterly. did disappoint them’. Correspondence to Weinberg@Dickinson,edu. FILM HISTORY: Volume 17, Number 4, 2005 – p. 380 Joe Breen’s Oscar 381 not exist. ‘The conspicuous example was, with that Later that year, he expressed the very same Old Testament figure up in the air again, “Remem- sentiments to Wilfrid Parsons, S.J., the editor of ber, the Code forbids nudity, or the suggestion of America, with whom he had worked closely on im- nudity – in fact or in silhouette!”’5 This, of course, plementing the Code. ‘It may be that Hays thought went well beyond the Code, which merely addressed these lousy Jews out here would abide by the Code’s actual nudity, and made no mention of suggestions provisions but if he did then he should be censured of nudity. for his lack of proper knowledge of the breed. These However, to those who had the temerity to Jews seem to think of nothing but money making and challenge Breen’s reading of the Code, wrath was sexual indulgence. They and they alone make the their reward. Joe would fire back, ‘I don’t give a decisions. Ninety-five per cent of these folks are fiddler’s fuck [a favorite] whether it’s in the Code or Jews of Eastern European lineage. They are prob- not. I won’t pass your scene.’6 ably the scum of the earth.’13 Breen would not only see himself above the In that same letter, Breen presented a way to Code, but on at least one occasion informed a new force the studio heads to conform to the Code. subordinate who was studying the regulations, Maintaining his stream of anti-semitic invective, he ‘Don’t pay any attention to that thing. Just you listen proposed that ‘We shall have to get next to the men to me. I am the Code!’7 who have their money tied up in these producing Certainly, Breen had his supporters. This im- companies. It can’t be that the bankers, once their age of him riding into town like a U.S. marshall, attention is drawn to the situation, will stand idly by determined to rid it of violence and sin, resonated and allow our people throughout the nation to be well with many American communities. Shortly after debauched by the Jews. Some bankers may – some his appointment, the Terre Haute (Indiana) Star an- Jew bankers. But you can’t make me believe that our nounced that, ‘Joe Breen, the two fisted assistant to American bankers ... have fallen so low that they will Mr. Hays ... now has his coat off and what he is permit their money to be used to paganize this saying about what is fit and what is right for the nation.’14 screen carries a terrific punch to the cowering, Although it would take pressures from various found-out direction and script writing ilk. Smut, sources to eventually force Hollywood’s adherence glossed vice, faked romance, unhealthy sex appeal, to the Code, one of these turned out to be exactly will not pass Joe Breen if he can spot it. He is that what Breen proposed. Less than ten months after his kind of an editor.’8 letter, an article entitled ‘Clean Scripts or No Cash Not surprisingly, what Thomas Doherty calls Says Giannini’ appeared in the Hollywood Re- ‘Breen’s severe brand of Irish Catholicism’9 also porter.15 It explained that A.P. Giannini, the president earned him considerable hostility, and this extended of the Bank of America and one of Hollywood’s major well beyond the borders of America. In a particularly sources of financing announced that he would sup- caustic article that appeared in the British Film port only those films that the PCA had cleared. Weekly, Glyn Roberts dubbed him ‘the Hitler of Hol- It is therefore not surprising that for many film lywood’.10 historians, the image of Joe Breen is that of a bellig- Aside from Breen’s public image as a feisty erent, profane, and sanctimonious bigot. Yet, there and profane defender of conventional morality, there is considerably more to his story. Although he pre- is also the bigoted side of the man that appeared in sented himself to Hollywood as a self-confident and his private correspondence. Particularly during his indefatigable defender of the Code, Breen’s private early years in the Hays office, he made numerous correspondence reveals a very different picture. and, at times, scathing anti-Semitic comments.11 In Less than a year after assuming office, he began 1932 a frustrated Breen complained to Martin questioning whether he was up to the demands of Quigley that, ‘I hate like hell to admit it, but really the the job.

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