Love Stories and General Principles: The Development of the Production Code
This chapter examines Thalberg’s role in crafting the Motion Picture Production Code and its influence on cinematic sensuality in a post-talkie context. In 1929, Thalberg would write “General Principles to Cover the Preparation of a Revised Code of Ethics for Talking Pictures” on behalf of a three-person subcommittee, thus informing the industry’s adoption of a formal Production Code in 1930. These Principles outline Thalberg’s theorization of how studios could engage with the issue of regulation while still maintaining their commitment to “entertainment value.” The chapter takes these General Principles – and Thalberg’s extemporaneous defence of them at a 1930 meeting of the Association of Motion Picture Producers – as a lens through which to consider early-Code films such as Norma Shearer vehicle The Divorcée (Leonard, 1930) and Anita Loos-penned Red-Headed Woman (Conway, 1932), starring Jean Harlow.