Changes

1934 was a pivotal year for the United States. Americans were enduring the fifth year of the Great Depression and the rural population was in an extreme state of suffering that had begun prior to the stock market crash in October 1929. Urban citizens fared little better, yet those who had a nickel to spare spent it at the moves. Particularly popular throughout the decade were gangster films. The films of this genre criticized many aspects of society and portrayed the gangster as a victim of the system. Moviegoers were able to identify with film gangsters as they too were stressed by the task of financial survival.<ref>Nicole Rafter, ''Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society''(New York: Oxford University Press, 200), 21</ref> Audiences were enthralled by the characters on screen that were living freely and without responsibility. Due to the great success of these films, primarily shot at Warner Brothers Studios, actors such as James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and newcomer Humphrey Bogart became movie stars.

The popularity of these actors and the genre as a whole was due in part to the uncensored cinematic violence and sexual innuendo portrayed on screen. The extra-cinematic exploits of such outlaws as John Dillinger and Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd, coupled with the rise in crime due to bootlegging during Prohibition, added to the appeal of the screen gangster. All of that changed in 1934. The gangster character changed from a courageous, enterprising individual to a weak victim of society. Evident alterations of characters and the overall atmosphere of films of this genre were due to the enforcement of the Production Code, the capture of America’s outlaws, and passage of the 21st Amendment.

== Conditions and Attitudes of the U.S. in the Early 1930s ==

In 1933, American society was enduring what was arguably the worst year of the Depression. With the unemployment rate a staggering 24.9 percent, and honest jobs scarce, “dishonest ones sometimes seemed more attractive than standing in soup lines.”<ref>U.S. Department of Labor, ''Compensation and Working Conditions''(Fall, 2001) by Albert E Schwenk and Robert VanGiezen. Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/cm20030124ar03p1.htm (accessed April 9, 2012).</ref><ref>U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, ''The F.B.I. and the American Gangster.'' FBI.gov, http://www.fbi.gov/about_us/history/a-centennial-history/fbi_and_the_american_gangster_1924-1938 (accessed March 2, 2012).</ref>The real-life outlaws and gangsters of the day——— John Dillinger, "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and Al Capone——— were portrayed to the public as having anti-establishment attitudes and being free of the daily burdens with which average citizens were encumbered.

== The Hays Code ==

Prior to the enforcement of the Production Code in 1934, which censored films for content and morality, the movie industry was free to portray its heroes and villains more realistically and less romantically, thus providing honest insight into 1930’s society. The Code was the ultimate product of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) which was established in 1922. Acting as president, Will Hays helped to establish the MPPDA in order to curtail censorship that was being implemented by local and state governments.<ref>Richard B. Jewell, ''The Golden Age of Cinema: Hollywood, 1929-1945'' (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007), 114.</ref>

On July 1, 1934 Breen replaced the ineffective SRC with the Production Code Administration (PCA). The PCA not only reviewed scripts prior to filming, it also scrutinized the final production of the film and either issued a “Seal of Approval” or returned the film to the studios to make the recommended changes. If the film was released without the approval of the PCA, the studio was fined $25,000. More importantly, without the PCA’s Seal, major urban theaters did not show a film, thus leaving the studios with no other choice but to adhere to the regulations stipulated under the Code.<ref>Jewell, 133.</ref>The new “morality” stipulated by the Code had dramatic consequences for the gangster genre. The ability of the gangster to evade capture and enjoy a brief period of luxury, sin, and excitement was stifled by the first general principle of the Code, which stated that “the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing or sin.”<ref>Jewell, 117.</ref>Additionally, the Code forbade the ridicule of law enforcement and sex was off limits.

== Real Life Gangsters ==

Until the summer of 1934, shortly after enforcement of the Code, bank robbers and gangsters moved freely throughout the American Heartland. Newspapers and radios unabashedly publicized the inept efforts of the police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in their attempts to capture America’s Public Enemy Number One, John Dillinger. After Dillinger and many of his peers were captured or killed in 1934, the FBI was suddenly respected while the gangster and outlaw were no longer seen as folk heroes.

Studios were careful to depict violence and murder off-camera and filmed dead bodies as bloodless and handsome victims. This romantic vision of crime and death was true in the extra-cinematic escapades of Dillinger and his peers. The public read and heard of bank robberies and the entertaining escapes the outlaws made at the expense of law enforcement. Those romantic notions came to a crashing halt in 1934. received no national notoriety until On May 23, 1934, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were slaughtered in an ambush by police in Gibsland, Louisiana. On the side of a dusty road, one hundred fifty bullets pierced through the couple’s car and into their bodies. When the firing ceased, a lawman approached the vehicle and witnessed an unforgettable scene that was “‘like a slaughterhouse.’”<ref>Bryan Burrough, '' Public Enemies: Americas Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-1934''(New York: Penguin Press, 2004), 359</ref>

== Conclusion ==

Many people saw no futures for themselves during the Depression and were captivated by the gangsters, both real and fictional, who lived for the moment, however brief. The events of 1934 changed the opinions of movie audiences as the Hays Code dictated morality, real-life gangsters were killed in non-heroic and well publicized situations, and the end of Prohibition meant the end of the bootlegger. Although the gangster genre continued after 1934, it did so without the grit and authenticity of the pre-Code films that were made when outlaws and bootleggers lived off the screen.

== References ==

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