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  1. Dartmouth Libraries
  2. Research Guides
  3. Dartmouth Libraries Guides
  4. Film Studies
  5. Hollywood and the Production Code

Film Studies

This guide is an introduction to the resources for Film Studies at Dartmouth. If you are interested in Television, see the separate research guide for Television.
  • Introduction
  • Basic information on film
  • Finding a specific film title
  • Streaming film services
    • Readings on streaming video
  • National cinemas This link opens in a new window
  • Course guides for Film & Media Studies
  • Starting your research ...
  • Researching early films
  • Film history through the decades
    • 1960's film history
    • 1970's film history
  • Books about film
  • Film reviews
  • Journals & magazines about film
  • Film theory
    • Feminist film theory
    • Auteur theory
  • Film criticism
    • Feminist film criticism
  • Box office information
  • Film audiences
  • Mass media Industry
  • Primary sources for historical film research
    • Cinema Pressbooks from the Original Studio Collections
    • Congressional Hearings & Communism
    • Film Daily
    • Herrick Library Digital Collections
    • Hollywood and the Production Code
    • Media History Digital Library
    • Moving Picture World
  • Themes
  • Acting
  • Racial & ethnic representation on film
    • African American diaspora
    • Asian American diaspora
    • Hispanic American diaspora
    • Native American & Indigenous peoples diasporas
    • Examples on film
  • LGBTQIA+
    • Examples on film
  • Women on/in/creating Film
    • Examples on film
  • Film genres This link opens in a new window
  • Film & society
  • Screenwriting
  • Film adaptations
    • Shakespeare on film
    • Television to Film adaptations
  • Color in film
  • Film music
  • Film festivals
    • A short list of film festivals
  • Film awards
  • Disney
  • Hitchcock
  • Internet resources
  • Future of Media
  • Back to Film & Media
  • Scholarly communication This link opens in a new window
  • Video Help

Production Code Administration

The Production Code Administration (PCA) was responsible for ensuring that Hollywood complied with restrictions that existed then on the political, religious, social, economic, and sexual content of movies. The collection contains records on approximately 500 movies produced between 1930 and 1964. It chronicles the activities of the PCA in relation to films submitted to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for approval. Records are arranged by film title and contain correspondence between representatives of the film studios, the PCA, and special interest groups; internal memoranda-of-record, news clippings, script extracts, song lyrics, film reviews, Code certificates, reports on foreign censorship, copies of advertisements and promotional materials, analysis charts, synopses, credit sheets, theater and book reviews, censor board reports and photographs of interest to the PCA (costumes, for instance). The collection serves numerous academic disciplines: Film Studies, American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Popular Culture, Women's studies, Cultural Studies, Literature. Related PSM and SR products include Gallup Looks at the Movies: Audience Research Report, 1940-1953; D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation; Warner Brothers Screenplays, 1930-1950; Film Daily & Film Daily Yearbook The Complete Collection, 1915-1970. [Gale-Thomson]

These reels contains files from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Production Code Administration documenting over forty years of self-regulation and censorship in the motion picture industry.

Thanks to Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, you can see which titles are on what reels on their Gould Guide.

We now have approximately 1,000 titles available online from GALE and the Margaret Herrick Library.

  • Resource logoHollywood, censorship, and the Motion Picture Production Code, 1927-1968 by Archives Unbound (GALE)
    • On Campus or VPN
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Production Code Administration Files collection documents forty years of self-regulation and censorship in the motion picture industry. The Production Code was written in 1929 by Martin J. Quigley, an influential editor and publisher of motion picture trade periodicals, and Reverend Daniel A. Lord, a Jesuit advisor to Hollywood filmmakers.
  • Resource logoProduction Code Administration records by Motion Picture Association of America (Margaret Herrick Library Digital Collections)
    • Open Access Icon
    • Database
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    Full documentation from a selection of 500 film titles in the Motion Picture Association of America Production Code Administration records. Will Hays, as president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) in 1930, introduced the Production Code, a document designed to help the industry regulate itself by following certain moral principles and guidelines. Hays chose Joseph Breen to oversee the administration of the Code in 1934. ...
  • History of cinema. Series 1, Hollywood and the production code by Margaret Herrick Library, Acadamy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
    Call Number: Library Depository #5076r reels 1 - 33
    ISBN: 9781578033546
    There is an accompanying guide.

Finding resources about the Hollywood Production Code in the library's collections

You can use this subject heading to start your research in the online catalog:

  • motion pictures censorship united states history

Book(s) about the Production Code

  • Cover ArtHollywood's censor: Joseph I. Breen & the Production Code Administration by Thomas Doherty
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.62 .D64 2007
    ISBN: 9780231512848
    Cultural historian Thomas Doherty recounts the untold tale of the man who dictated "final cut" over more movies than anyone in the history of American cinema. Empowered by industry insiders and millions of like-minded Catholics, Joseph I. Breen oversaw the editing of A-list feature films, low-budget B movies, short subjects, previews of coming attractions, and even cartoons. Populated by a colorful cast of characters, including Catholic priests, Jewish moguls, visionary auteurs, hardnosed journalists, and bluenose agitators, Doherty's insightful, behind-the-scenes portrait brings a tumultuous era; and an individual both feared and admired-to vivid life.
  • Cover ArtPolicing cinema: movies and censorship in early twentieth-century America by Lee Grieveson
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.62 .G75 2004
    ISBN: 9780520239661
    White slave films, dramas documenting sex scandals, filmed prize fights featuring the controversial African-American boxer Jack Johnson, D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation--all became objects of public concern after 1906, when the proliferation of nickelodeons brought moving pictures to a broad mass public. Lee Grieveson draws on extensive original research to examine the controversies over these films and over cinema more generally. He situates these contestations in the context of regulatory concerns about populations and governance in an early-twentieth-century America grappling with the powerful forces of modernity, in particular, immigration, class formation and conflict, and changing gender roles. ...
  • The world according to Hollywood, 1918-1939 by Ruth Vasey
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry PN 1995.62 .V37 1997
    ISBN: 9780299151942
    The most visible cultural institution on earth between the World Wars, the Hollywood movie industry tried to satisfy worldwide audiences of vastly different cultural, religious, and political persuasions. The World According to Hollywood shows how the industry's self-regulation shaped the content of films to make them salable in as many markets as possible. In the process, Hollywood created an idiosyncratic vision of the world that was glamorous and exotic, but also oddly narrow. ...

Keeping up with Film Studies journal literature

Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Film Studies? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's, you can download and read the articles you want from the journals for which we have subscriptions.

You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's also available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.

  • << Previous: Herrick Library Digital Collections
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  • Last Updated: May 23, 2025 11:30 AM
  • URL: https://researchguides.dartmouth.edu/filmstudies
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Subjects: Film and Media Studies
Tags: Arts, box office, festivals, FILM, film aesthetics, film color, film criticism, film music, film reviews, film studies, future of media, genres, LGBTQIA+, media industry, primary resources, queer cinema, representation in film, screenwriting, streaming film services, themes, women in film

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