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119-451: The story begins with a standard, narrated version of Little Red Riding Hood (with the wolf from Dumb-Hounded , the cartoon which saw the debut of Avery's Droopy ). Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf , and Little Red Riding Hood's grandma rebel at this stale and derivative staging of the story and demand a fresh approach. The annoyed narrator accedes to their demands and starts

238-565: A Jesuit, wrote: "Silent smut had been bad. Vocal smut cried to the censors for vengeance." Thomas Doherty, Professor of American studies at Brandeis University , has defined the code as "no mere list of Thou-Shalt-Nots, but a homily that sought to yoke Catholic doctrine to Hollywood formula. The guilty are punished, the virtuous rewarded, the authority of church and state is legitimate, and the bonds of matrimony are sacred." What resulted has been described as "a Jewish owned business selling Catholic theology to Protestant America". Joseph I. Breen ,

357-443: A baby with her. Blair declared there was no such sequence. Mark Kausler provided a copy of a continuity script that clarified that Wolf married Grandma and not Red. Little Red Riding Hood Little Red Riding Hood is a European fairy tale about a young girl and a sly wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th-century European folk tales . The two best known versions were written by Charles Perrault and

476-454: A cinematically inspired thought crime". The code sought not only to determine what could be portrayed on screen, but also to promote traditional values. Sexual relations outside marriage, which were forbidden to be portrayed as attractive or beautiful, were to be presented in a way that would not arouse passion or make them seem permissible. Any sexual act considered perverted, including any suggestion of same-sex relationships, sex or romance,

595-412: A committee to discuss film censorship. Irving G. Thalberg of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Sol Wurtzel of Fox Film Corporation , and E. H. Allen of Paramount Pictures responded by collaborating on a list they called the "Don'ts and Be Carefuls", based on items that were challenged by local censor boards. This list consisted of eleven subjects best avoided and twenty-six to be handled very carefully. The list

714-453: A film that ridiculed law enforcement and often used racial epithets. However, the Legion's condemnation of the film did not attract a unified response from religious authorities, some of which considered that other films, including The Ten Commandments (released that same year), had a similar amount and intensity of sensuous content. During the 1950s, studios found ways of both complying with

833-402: A major element from Daphne du Maurier 's 1938 novel where the narrator discovers that her husband (the aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter) killed his first wife (the titular Rebecca) and she makes light of it, since it followed Rebecca having strongly provoked and taunted him. As having a major character get away with murder and living happily ever after would have been a flagrant violation of

952-494: A number of versions exist, including La finta nonna (The False Grandmother), written among others by Italo Calvino in the Italian Folktales collection. It has also been called "The Story of Grandmother". It is also possible that this early tale has roots in very similar East Asian tales (e.g. "Grandaunt Tiger"). These early variations of the tale do differ from the currently known version in several ways. The antagonist

1071-564: A parent or adult guardian), and "X" meaning persons under 16 would not be admitted. By the end of 1968, Geoffrey Shurlock stepped down from his post, and the PCA effectively dissolved, being replaced by the Code and Rating Administration (CARA), headed by Eugene Dougherty. The CARA would replace "Code" with "Classification" in 1978. In 1969, the Swedish film I Am Curious (Yellow) , directed by Vilgot Sjöman ,

1190-596: A previous matriarchal era). The girl, leaving home, enters a liminal state and by going through the acts of the tale, is transformed into an adult woman by the act of coming out of the wolf's stomach. Bruno Bettelheim , in The Uses of Enchantment : The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (1976), recast the Little Red Riding Hood motif in terms of classic Freudian analysis, that shows how fairy tales educate, support, and liberate children's emotions. The motif of

1309-494: A prominent Catholic layman who had worked in public relations, was appointed head of the PCA. Under Breen's leadership, which lasted until his retirement in 1954, enforcement of the Production Code became notoriously rigid. Even cartoon sex symbol Betty Boop had to change her characteristic flapper personality and dress, adopting an old-fashioned, near-matronly appearance. However, by 1934, the prohibition against miscegenation

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1428-401: A ruse to go outside and fetch some food for her aunt. Aunt Tiger, suspicious of the girl, ties a rope to her leg. The girl ties a bucket to the rope to fool her, but Aunt Tiger realizes this and chases after her, whereupon she climbs into a tree. The girl tells the tigress that she will let her eat her, but first, she would like to feed her some fruit from the tree. The tigress comes closer to eat

1547-671: A seal of approval. The film eventually got a general release in 1946. The David O. Selznick production Duel in the Sun was also released in 1946 without the approval of the Hays Office, featuring several on-screen deaths, adultery and displays of lust. The financial success of both films became deciding factors in the weakening of the Code in the late 1940s, when the formerly taboo subjects of rape and miscegenation were allowed in Johnny Belinda (1948) and Pinky (1949), respectively. In 1951,

1666-421: A significance from the dawn to blood. A sexual analysis of the tale may also include negative connotations in terms of rape or abduction. In Against Our Will , Susan Brownmiller describes the fairy tale as allegory of rape. Many revisionist versions focus on empowerment and depict Little Red Riding Hood or the grandmother successfully defending herself against the wolf. Such tellings bear some similarity to

1785-423: A specific audience of views including, women, children, lower-class, and those of "susceptible" minds, called for depictions of the "correct standards of life", and lastly forbade a picture to show any sort of ridicule towards a law or "creating sympathy for its violation". The second part was a set of "particular applications", which was an exacting list of items that could not be depicted. Some restrictions, such as

1904-588: A subsidiary could do. Thus, exempt from the rules imposed by the code, subsidiary distributors were utilized, and even created by major studios such as Columbia, in order to defy and weaken the code. United Artists followed suit and bought art film distributor Lopert Films in 1958, and within a decade all the major studios were distributing foreign art films. Author Peter Lev writes: Explicit sexuality became expected in foreign films, to such an extent that "foreign film", "art film", "adult film" and "sex film" were for several years almost synonyms. Beginning in

2023-526: A variant called "The True History of Little Goldenhood" in The Red Fairy Book (1890). He derived it from the works of Charles Marelles, in Contes of Charles Marelles . This version explicitly states that the story had been mistold earlier. The girl is saved, but not by the huntsman; when the wolf tries to eat her, its mouth is burned by the golden hood she wears, which is enchanted. James N. Barker wrote

2142-581: A variant with a male protagonist in his report of the Ibo people . An Iranian variant, featuring a little boy and the disrobing motif, appears in a 20th-century French anthology. Geneviève Massignon recorded a variant called "Boudin-Boudine" from an informant in Le Gué-de-Velluire . In this version, a little boy is protected from the wolf by his grandmother and father. Apart from the overt warning about talking to strangers, there are many interpretations of

2261-483: A variation of Little Red Riding Hood in 1827 as an approximately 1000-word story. It was later reprinted in 1858 in a book of collected stories edited by William E Burton, called the Cyclopedia of Wit and Humor . The reprint also features a wood engraving of a clothed wolf on a bended knee holding Little Red Riding Hood's hand. Jack Zipes anthologized several 19th century variants. Northcote Whitridge Thomas included

2380-540: A well-known song by the modern singer Idir , " A Vava Inouva ": I beseech you, open the door for me, father. Jingle your bracelets, oh my daughter Ghriba. I'm afraid of the monster in the forest, father. I, too, am afraid, oh my daughter Ghriba. The theme of the ravening wolf and of the creature released unharmed from its belly is also reflected in the Russian tale " Peter and the Wolf " and another Grimm tale " The Wolf and

2499-471: A woman again, he will kill himself. When Red soon appears onstage to perform again, the Wolf takes out two pistols and blasts himself in the head. The Wolf then drops dead, but his ghost appears and begins to howl and whistle at Red same as before. A rumor surfaced at the 1992 Conference of the Society for Animation Studies , that there was another alternate ending. According to this rumor, Wolf married Red and had

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2618-424: Is eaten, where the woodcutter kills or simply chases away the wolf with his axe. The story displays similarities to stories from classical Greece and Rome. Scholar Graham Anderson has compared the story to a local legend recounted by Pausanias in which, each year, a virgin girl was offered to a malevolent spirit dressed in the skin of a wolf, who raped the girl. Then, one year, the boxer Euthymos came along, slew

2737-408: Is not always a wolf, but sometimes a 'bzou' ( werewolf ), making these tales relevant to the werewolf trials (similar to witch trials) of the time (e.g. the trial of Peter Stumpp ). The wolf usually leaves the grandmother's blood and flesh for the girl to eat, who then unwittingly cannibalizes her own grandmother. Furthermore, the wolf was also known to ask her to remove her clothing and toss it into

2856-633: Is not even a joke any more; it's just a memory"; two years later Variety followed suit. On June 13, 1934, an amendment to the Code was adopted, which established the Production Code Administration (PCA) and required all films released on or after July 1, 1934, to obtain a certificate of approval before being released. The PCA had two offices: one in Hollywood and the other in New York City. The first film to receive an MPPDA seal of approval

2975-411: Is the musical scene where Red performs and "Wolfie", as she calls him, reacts in a highly lustful fashion. Those reactions were considered so energetic that the censors at the time demanded cuts in this scene and others. Avery claimed that a censor made him edit out footage of the Wolf getting sexually aroused at the sight of Red performing. However, an army officer at Washington, D.C. , then heard about

3094-419: Is tied up and Grannie instructs Red to get a preacher. She then kisses the Wolf. The two get married at a shotgun wedding. The Wolf says "I do" with Red aiming an anti-aircraft gun at his back. The final scene takes place at a nightclub. Grannie and the Wolf attend a performance of Red. Three baby wolves at their table go wild over Red. This ending was indeed animated and stills of the wedding scene are included in

3213-568: The Brothers Grimm . The story has varied considerably in different versions over the centuries, translations, and as the subject of numerous modern adaptations. Other names for the story are " Little Red Cap " or simply " Red Riding Hood ". It is number 333 in the Aarne–Thompson classification system for folktales. The story centers around a girl named Little Red Riding Hood, after the red hooded cape that she wears. The girl walks through

3332-490: The Holocaust film The Pawnbroker , directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Rod Steiger , was initially rejected because of two scenes in which actresses Linda Geiser and Thelma Oliver fully expose their breasts, and also because of a sex scene between Oliver and Jaime Sánchez that was described as "unacceptably sex suggestive and lustful". Despite the rejection, the film's producers arranged for Allied Artists to release

3451-551: The Motion Picture Association (MPA), adopted the Production Code in 1930 and began rigidly enforcing it in 1934. The Production Code spelled out acceptable and unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States. From 1934 to 1954, the code was closely associated with Joseph Breen , the administrator appointed by Hays to enforce the code in Hollywood. The film industry followed

3570-529: The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), where he "defended the industry from attacks, recited soothing nostrums, and negotiated treaties to cease hostilities". In 1924, Hays introduced a set of recommendations dubbed "the Formula", which the studios were advised to heed, and asked filmmakers to describe to his office the plots of films they were planning on producing. In 1915,

3689-671: The Supreme Court had decided unanimously in Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio that free speech did not extend to motion pictures. While there had been token attempts to clean up the films before (such as when the studios formed the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry (NAMPI) in 1916), little had come of the efforts. New York became the first state to take advantage of

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3808-503: The "animal bridegroom" tales, such as Beauty and the Beast or The Frog Prince , but where the heroines of those tales revert the hero to a prince, these tellings of Little Red Riding Hood reveal to the heroine that she has a wild nature like the hero's. These interpretations reframe the story as one of female empowerment and do not characterize Little Red Riding Hood as a victim. Hays Office The Motion Picture Production Code

3927-532: The 1920s, Hollywood was rocked by a number of notorious scandals, such as the murder of William Desmond Taylor and the alleged rape of Virginia Rappe by popular movie star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle , which brought widespread condemnation from religious, civic and political organizations. Many felt that the film industry had always been morally questionable, and political pressure was increasing, with legislators in 37 states introducing almost one hundred film censorship bills in 1921. In 1922, as they were faced with

4046-419: The 1941 classic hit song " Daddy ") and the wolf goes mad with desire. He brings her to his table and tries wooing her, but she wants nothing to do with him. Red escapes the Wolf, saying she is going to her Grandma's place, but nevertheless the Wolf manages to get there first. Grandma's place is a penthouse at the top of a 36-story skyscraper. Red's grandma is an oversexed man-chaser who falls head over heels for

4165-531: The 19th century two separate German versions were retold to Jacob Grimm and his younger brother Wilhelm Grimm , known as the Brothers Grimm , the first by Jeanette Hassenpflug (1791–1860) and the second by Marie Hassenpflug (1788–1856). The brothers turned the first version to the main body of the story and the second into a sequel of it. The story as Rotkäppchen was included in the first edition of their collection Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales (1812) – KHM 26). The earlier parts of

4284-491: The Association's new head. The chaos of the interim period had rendered enforcement impossible and Valenti, an opponent of the Production Code, began working on a rating system under which film restrictions would lessen, an idea that had been considered as early as 1960 in response to the success of the non-approved Some Like It Hot and Anatomy of a Murder . In 1966, Warner Bros. released Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ,

4403-498: The Code were rewritten to accept subjects such as miscegenation, adultery, and prostitution. For example, a proposed remake of Anna Christie , a pre-Code film dealing with prostitution, was canceled by MGM twice, in 1940 and in 1946, as the character Anna was not allowed to be portrayed as a prostitute. By 1962, such subject matter was acceptable, and the original film was given a seal of approval. Two 1956 films, The Bad Seed and Baby Doll , generated great controversy involving

4522-518: The Code, Hitchcock's version had Rebecca die in an accident with Maxim de Winter being only guilty for hiding the facts of her death. The 2020 remake , not bound by the Code, restored du Maurier's original plot element. The PCA also engaged in political censorship. When Warner Bros. wanted to make a film about Nazi concentration camps , the production office forbade it, citing the prohibition on depicting "in an unfavorable light" another country's "institutions [and] prominent people", with threats to take

4641-565: The Code, although their content was mostly toned down by the end of 1934 as the result of public outrage over the coverage of the killings of John Dillinger in July, and of "Baby Face" Nelson and three girls in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the latter two occurring during the same week in November, not deviating much from the Code until World War II. However, the most famous defiance of the code

4760-554: The Code, such as Vittorio De Sica 's Bicycle Thieves (1948), released in the United States in 1949. In 1950, film distributor Joseph Burstyn released The Ways of Love , which included The Miracle , a short film originally part of L'Amore (1948), an anthology film directed by Roberto Rossellini . This segment was considered to mock the Nativity, so the New York State Board of Regents (in charge of film censorship in

4879-504: The Code. "Those things which are included in the following list shall not appear in pictures produced by the members of this Association, irrespective of the manner in which they are treated": "Special care [must be] be exercised in the manner in which the following subjects are treated, to the end that vulgarity and suggestiveness may be eliminated and that good taste may be emphasized": In 1929, Catholic layman Martin Quigley , editor of

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4998-529: The Grimms' version, the wolf leaves the house and tries to drink out of a well, but the stones in his stomach cause him to fall in and drown (similarly to the story of " The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids "). Sanitized versions of the story have the grandmother locked in the closet rather than being eaten and some have Little Red Riding Hood saved by the lumberjack as the wolf advances on her rather than after she

5117-500: The Justice of the Peace who marries them), and having the unhappy couple and their half-human half-wolf children attend Red's show. The chase scene with Grannie and the Wolf ends in the completed film with him jumping out of a window. In the early script, the Wolf crawls back inside and explains that he is about to commit suicide. The chase continues and Red joins the two other characters. The Wolf

5236-473: The MGM photo library. The images were fully inked and painted. Blair had his own censorship tale. According to him, the censor was dirty minded and thought the film promoted bestiality between a woman and a wolf. Blair was instructed to animate a new ending, where the wolf's face is torn off as a mask and he is revealed to be a man. He completed the additional footage, though disgusted with the unnecessary censorship. At

5355-466: The MPAA approval was "the first of a series of injuries to the Production Code that would prove fatal within three years". In 1963, MPAA president Eric Johnston , who had previously "liberalized" the Code, died. The next three years were marked by a power struggle between two factions, which led to an erratic application of the Code. Finally, the "liberal" faction prevailed by 1966, installing Jack Valenti as

5474-447: The MPAA revised the code to make it more rigid, spelling out more words and subjects that were prohibited. That same year however, MGM head Louis B. Mayer , one of Breen's foremost allies, was ousted after a series of disputes with the studio's production head, Dore Schary , whose preference for gritty "social realism" films was often at odds with the Hays Office. In 1954, Breen retired, largely because of ill health, and Geoffrey Shurlock

5593-470: The MPPDA agreed it would abide by the Code. The production code was intended to put a limitation on films which were distributed to a large audience, making it more difficult to appeal to all individuals in the audiences. The code was divided into two parts. The first was a set of "general principles" which prohibited a picture from "lowering the moral standards of those who see it", so as not to wrongly influence

5712-434: The PCA. The first dealt with the deaths of children, including that of the "wicked child" protagonist Rhoda at the end, which had been the result of changing the ending from the original novel to abide with the Code's "crime must pay" rule. On the other hand, the second film was vociferously attacked by religious and moral leaders, partly because of its provocative publicity, while the MPAA attracted great criticism for approving

5831-585: The Seven Young Kids ", but its general theme of restoration is at least as old as the biblical story, " Jonah and the Whale ". The theme also appears in the story of the life of Saint Margaret , wherein the saint emerges unharmed from the belly of a dragon , and in the short story "The Red Path" by Jim C. Hines . A Taiwanese story from the 16th century, known as Aunt Tiger bears several striking similarities. In this story there are two girls who are sisters. When

5950-543: The Supreme Court's decision by instituting a censorship board in 1921. Virginia followed suit the following year, with eight individual states having a board by the advent of sound film, but many of these were ineffectual. By the 1920s, the New York stage, a frequent source of subsequent screen material, had topless shows, performances filled with curse words , adult subject matter, and sexually suggestive dialog. Early in

6069-422: The Wolf. The Wolf tries to escape, but Grandma blocks the exit and comes onto him. She locks the door, drops the key down the front of her evening gown, and poses provocatively for him. She dons a bright red shade of lipstick and a chase scene ensues. Whenever the Wolf attempts an exit, Grandma waits behind the door with puckered lips. He finally makes his escape by jumping out a window, severely injuring himself on

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6188-413: The above-mentioned final and better-known version in the 1857 edition of their work. It is notably tamer than the older stories which contained darker themes. Numerous authors have rewritten, adapted, or collected variants of this tale. Charles Marelle in his version of the fairy tale called "The True History of Little Goldenhood" (1888) gives the girl a real name – Blanchette. Andrew Lang included

6307-452: The appeals process ultimately put the responsibility for making the final decision in the hands of the studios. One factor in ignoring the code was the fact that some found such censorship prudish, owing to the libertine social attitudes of the 1920s and early 1930s. This was a period in which the Victorian era was sometimes ridiculed as being naïve and backward. When the Code was announced,

6426-414: The audience feels sure that evil is wrong, and good is right". On February 19, 1930, Variety published the entire content of the Code, and predicted that state film censorship boards would soon become obsolete; however, the men obliged to enforce the code—Jason Joy (head of the committee until 1932) and his successor, James Wingate—were generally unenthusiastic and/or ineffective. The Blue Angel ,

6545-540: The ban on homosexuality or on the use of specific curse words, were never directly mentioned, but were assumed to be understood without clear demarcation. The Code also contained an addendum commonly referred to as the Advertising Code, which regulated advertising copy and imagery. Homosexuals were de facto included under the proscription of sex perversion, and the depiction of miscegenation (by 1934, defined only as sexual relationships between black and white races)

6664-506: The beginning that the Code would be difficult to enforce. The Great Depression of the 1930s led many studios to seek income by any way possible. Since films containing racy and violent content resulted in high ticket sales, it seemed reasonable to continue producing such films. Soon, the flouting of the code became an open secret. In 1931, The Hollywood Reporter mocked the code and quoted an anonymous screenwriter saying that "the Hays moral code

6783-636: The boundaries of the new code would be current community standards and good taste. Any film containing content deemed suitable for older audiences would feature the SMA label in its advertising. With the creation of this new label, the MPAA unofficially began classifying films. The MPAA film rating system went into effect on November 1, 1968, with the four rating symbols: "G" meaning suggested for general exhibition (persons of all ages admitted), "M" meaning suggested for mature audiences, "R" meaning suggested as restricted (persons under 16 not admitted unless accompanied by

6902-418: The censored prints and asked Louis B. Mayer for uncut ones. The print was shown to military audiences overseas and went over great with them. Preston Blair on the other hand, who animated Red, did not recall any cuts to the film. He did recall, however, that the military went nuts over it. The film's original conclusion had Grandma marrying the wolf at a shotgun wedding (with a caricature of Tex Avery as

7021-412: The classic fairy tale, many of them sexual. Some are listed below. Folklorists and cultural anthropologists , such as P. Saintyves and Edward Burnett Tylor , saw "Little Red Riding Hood" in terms of solar myths and other naturally occurring cycles. Her red hood could represent the bright sun which is ultimately swallowed by the terrible night (the wolf), and the variations in which she is cut out of

7140-421: The code, while at the same time circumventing it. In 1956, Columbia acquired an art-house distributor, Kingsley Productions , that specialized in importing foreign art films, in order to distribute and capitalize on the notoriety of the film And God Created Woman (1956). Columbia's agreement with the MPAA forbade it from distributing a film without a seal of approval, but the agreement did not specify what

7259-412: The currently known, Grimms-inspired version. It was told by French peasants in the 10th century and recorded by the cathedral schoolmaster Egbert of Liège . A fifteenth-century collection of folklore described an anecdote about a woman whose husband was a werewolf though it bears little resemblance to Perrault's text. In Italy, Little Red Riding Hood was told by peasants in the fourteenth century, where

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7378-477: The decision that Major League Baseball had made in hiring judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as League Commissioner the previous year to quell questions about the integrity of baseball in the wake of the 1919 World Series gambling scandal ; The New York Times even called Hays the "screen Landis". Hays was paid the lavish sum of $ 100,000 a year ($ 1.82 million in 2023), and served for 25 years as president of

7497-503: The end, the studio never used this ending and Blair was unaware if the print survived. This ending, deleted for reasons of implied bestiality and how it made light of marriage (something that was considered taboo by the Hays Office 's Production Code), was replaced with one (that has also been edited, but only on television) where The Wolf is back at the nightclub and tells the audience he is done chasing women, and if he ever even looks at

7616-486: The ending with Rick's noble renunciation, one of Casablanca ' s most famous scenes. Some of Hollywood's creative class managed to find positives in the Code's limitations however. Director Edward Dmytryk later said that the Code "had a very good effect because it made us think. If we wanted to get something across that was censorable... we had to do it deviously. We had to be clever. And it usually turned out to be much better than if we had done it straight." Outside

7735-484: The film without the Production Code seal, with the New York censors licensing the film without the cuts demanded by Code administrators. The producers appealed the rejection to the MPAA. On a 6–3 vote, the MPAA granted the film an exception, conditional on "reduction in the length of the scenes which the Production Code Administration found unapprovable". The requested reductions of nudity were minimal, and

7854-552: The fire. In some versions, the wolf eats the girl after she gets into bed with him, and the story ends there. In others, she sees through his disguise and tries to escape, complaining to her "grandmother" that she needs to defecate and would not wish to do so in the bed. The wolf reluctantly lets her go, tied to a piece of string so she does not get away. The girl slips the string over something else and runs off. In these stories, she escapes with no help from any male or older female figure, instead using her own cunning, or in some versions

7973-421: The first film the office reviewed, which was passed by Joy with no revisions, was considered indecent by a California censor. Although there were several instances where Joy negotiated cuts from films and there were definite—albeit loose—constraints, a significant amount of lurid material made it to the screen. Joy had to review 500 films a year with a small staff and little power. He was more willing to work with

8092-502: The first film to feature the "Suggested for Mature Audiences" (SMA) label. As the PCA board was divided about censoring the film's explicit language, Valenti negotiated a compromise: the word "screw" was removed, but other language remained, including the phrase "hump the hostess". The film received Production Code approval despite the previously prohibited language. That same year, the British-produced, American-financed film Blowup

8211-587: The fruit, whereupon the girl pours boiling hot oil down her throat, killing her. According to Paul Delarue , a similar narrative is found in East Asian stories, namely, in China, Korea and Japan, with the title "The Tiger and the Children". The origins of the Little Red Riding Hood story can be traced to several likely pre-17th century versions from various European countries. Some of these are significantly different from

8330-419: The girls' mother goes out, the tigress comes to the girls' house and pretends to be their aunt, asking to come in. One girl says that the aunt's voice does not sound right, so the tigress attempts to disguise her voice. Then, the girl says that the aunt's hands feel too coarse, so the tigress attempts to make her paws smoother. When finally the tigress gains entry, she eats the girl's sister. The girl comes up with

8449-429: The grandmother whole, climbs into her bed, and waits for the girl, disguised as the grandmother. When Riding Hood arrives, she notices the strange appearance of her "grandmother". After some back and forth, Riding Hood comments on the wolf's teeth, at which point the wolf leaps out of bed and eats her as well. In Charles Perrault's version of the story, the first to be published, the wolf falls asleep afterwards, whereupon

8568-468: The guidelines set by the code well into the late 1950s, but it began to weaken, owing to the combined impact of television, influence from foreign films, controversial directors (such as Otto Preminger ) pushing boundaries, and intervention from the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court . In 1968, after several years of minimal enforcement, the Production Code was replaced by the MPAA film rating system . In

8687-402: The help of a younger boy who she happens to run into. Sometimes, though more rarely, the red hood is even non-existent. In other tellings of the story, the wolf chases after Little Red Riding Hood. She escapes with the help of some laundresses, who spread a sheet taut over a river so she may escape. When the wolf follows Red over the bridge of cloth, the sheet is released and the wolf drowns in

8806-527: The huntsman cutting open the wolf he interpreted as a "rebirth"; the girl who foolishly listened to the wolf has been reborn as a new person. The poem " Þrymskviða " from the Poetic Edda mirrors some elements of Red Riding Hood. Loki 's explanations for the strange behavior of " Freyja " (actually Thor disguised as Freyja) mirror the wolf's explanations for his strange appearance. The red hood has often been given great importance in many interpretations, with

8925-679: The late 1950s, increasingly explicit films began to appear, such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), Psycho (1960), and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960), often dealing with adult subjects and sexual matters that had not been seen in Hollywood films since enforcement of the production code began in 1934. The MPAA reluctantly granted the seal of approval for these films, although not until certain changes were made. Owing to its themes, Billy Wilder 's Some Like It Hot (1959)

9044-511: The liberal periodical The Nation attacked it, stating that if crime were never to be presented in a sympathetic light, then taken literally that would mean that "law" and "justice" would become one and the same; therefore, events such as the Boston Tea Party could not be portrayed. If clergy must always be presented in a positive way, then hypocrisy could not be dealt with either. The Outlook agreed and, unlike Variety , predicted from

9163-477: The mainstream studio system, the code was sometimes flouted by Poverty Row studios, while exploitation film presenters operating on the territorial (state-rights) distribution system openly violated it through the use of loopholes, masquerading the films as morality tales or muckraking exposés . One example of this is Child Bride (1938), which featured a nude scene involving a twelve-year-old child actress ( Shirley Mills ). Newsreels were mostly exempt from

9282-689: The matter to the federal government if the studio went ahead. This policy prevented a number of anti-Nazi films being produced. In 1938, the FBI unearthed and prosecuted a Nazi spy ring, subsequently allowing Warner to produce Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), with The Three Stooges ' short subject You Nazty Spy! (1940) being the first Hollywood film of any sort to openly spoof the Third Reich's leadership, followed soon after by The Great Dictator . Breen's power to change scripts and scenes angered many writers, directors and Hollywood moguls . Breen influenced

9401-406: The old woman while at the same time avoiding being noticed by woodcutters working in the nearby forest. Then he proceeded to lay a trap for Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood ends up being asked to climb into the bed before being eaten by the wolf, where the story ends. The wolf emerges the victor of the encounter and there is no happy ending. Charles Perrault explained the 'moral' at the end of

9520-459: The outcome was viewed in the media as a victory for the film's producers. The Pawnbroker was the first film featuring bare breasts to receive Production Code approval. The exception to the code was granted as a "special and unique case" and was described by The New York Times at the time as "an unprecedented move that will not, however, set a precedent". In Pictures at a Revolution , a 2008 study of films during that era, Mark Harris wrote that

9639-411: The pavement many floors below. He makes his way back to the nightclub, covered with bandages and bruises, swearing he is done with women and would kill himself before looking at another woman. Immediately, Red takes the stage and begins another performance. The Wolf pulls out two guns and commits suicide, but his ghost rises from his dead body and howls and whistles at Red as he did earlier. The element

9758-539: The pre-Code era and the transition period beginning in July 1934 were pulled from release exchanges (with some of them never seeing public release again), which led studios to remake some of its early 1930s-era films in later years: 1941 saw the release of remakes of The Maltese Falcon and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , both having had very different pre-Code versions released ten years prior. The Hays Code also required changes regarding adaptations of other media. For instance, Alfred Hitchcock 's Rebecca could not retain

9877-572: The prejudices against homosexuals , all in clear violation of the Hollywood Production Code. Furthermore, the postwar years saw a gradual, if moderate, liberalization of American culture. A boycott by the National Legion of Decency no longer guaranteed a film's commercial failure (to the point several films were no longer condemned by the Legion by the 1950s), and several aspects of the Code had slowly lost their taboo. In 1956, areas of

9996-404: The previous one. The girl did not leave the path when the wolf spoke to her, her grandmother locked the door to keep it out, and when the wolf lurked, the grandmother had Little Red Riding Hood put a trough under the chimney and fill it with water that sausages had been cooked in; the smell lured the wolf down, and it drowned. The Brothers further revised the story in later editions and it reached

10115-530: The production of Casablanca (1942), objecting to any explicit reference to Rick and Ilsa having slept together in Paris, and to the film mentioning that Captain Renault extorted sexual favors from his supplicants; ultimately, both remained strongly implied in the finished version. Adherence to the Code also ruled out any possibility of the film ending with Rick and Ilsa consummating their adulterous love, making inevitable

10234-455: The prominent trade paper Motion Picture Herald , and Jesuit priest Father Daniel A. Lord , created a code of standards and submitted it to the studios. Lord was particularly concerned with the effects of sound film on children, whom he considered especially susceptible to their allure. In February 1930, several studio heads, including Irving Thalberg of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , met with Lord and Quigley. After some revisions, they agreed to

10353-499: The prospect of having to comply with hundreds and potentially thousands of inconsistent, easily changed decency laws in order to show their films, the studios chose self-regulation as the preferable option, enlisting Presbyterian elder Will H. Hays , Postmaster General under former President Warren G. Harding and former head of the Republican National Committee , to rehabilitate Hollywood's image. The move mimicked

10472-558: The river. And in another version the wolf is pushed into the fire, while he is preparing the flesh of the grandmother to be eaten by the girl. The earliest known printed version was known as Le Petit Chaperon Rouge and may have had its origins in 17th-century French folklore . It was included in the collection Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals. Tales of Mother Goose ( Histoires et contes du temps passé, avec des moralités. Contes de ma mère l'Oye ), in 1697, by Charles Perrault . As

10591-540: The severity of horror elements in PG-rated titles such as Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom , the "PG-13" rating was created as a middle tier between PG and R. In 1990, the X rating was replaced by "NC-17" (under 17 not admitted) because of the former's stigma, being associated with pornography ; as the X rating was not trademarked by the MPAA (which expected producers would prefer to self-rate such product), it

10710-475: The sound system conversion process, it became apparent that what was acceptable in New York might not be so in Kansas . Filmmakers were facing the possibility that many states and cities would adopt their own codes of censorship, necessitating a multiplicity of versions of films made for national distribution. Self-censorship was deemed a preferable outcome. In 1927, Hays suggested to studio executives that they form

10829-402: The spirit, and married the girl who had been offered as a sacrifice. There are also a number of different stories recounted by Greek authors involving a woman named Pyrrha (literally "fire") and a man with some name meaning "wolf". The Roman poet Horace alludes to a tale in which a male child is rescued alive from the belly of Lamia , an ogress in classical mythology. The dialogue between

10948-410: The state) revoked the film's license. The ensuing lawsuit, Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson (dubbed the "Miracle Decision"), was resolved by the Supreme Court in 1952, which unanimously overruled its 1915 decision ( Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio ), and held that motion pictures were entitled to First Amendment protection, and thus the short could not be banned. This reduced

11067-501: The stipulations of the Code. One of the main motivating factors in adopting the Code was to avoid direct government intervention. It was the responsibility of the SRC (Studio Relations Committee, precursor to the PCA) headed by Colonel Jason S. Joy, a former American Red Cross Executive Secretary) to supervise film production and advise the studios when changes or cuts were required. On March 31,

11186-490: The story again in a dramatically different arrangement. The story begins again, now told in a contemporary urban setting. The narrator explains that Little Red Riding Hood (now portrayed as an adult) is an attractive performer in a Hollywood nightclub under the stage name "Red Hot Riding Hood", and the Big Bad Wolf, now a Hollywood swinger, follows Red to the club where she is performing. Red performs onstage (a rendition of

11305-546: The story ends. In later versions, the story continues. A woodcutter in the French version, or a hunter in the Brothers Grimm and traditional German versions, comes to the rescue with an axe, and cuts open the sleeping wolf. Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother emerge shaken, but unharmed. Then they fill the wolf's body with heavy stones. The wolf awakens and attempts to flee, but the stones cause him to collapse and die. In

11424-470: The studios, and his creative writing skills led to his hiring at Fox. On the other hand, Wingate struggled to keep up with the flood of scripts coming in, to the point where Warner Bros. ' head of production Darryl Zanuck wrote him a letter imploring him to pick up the pace. In 1930, the Hays office did not have the authority to order studios to remove material from a film, and instead worked by reasoning and sometimes pleading with them. Complicating matters,

11543-463: The tale so that no doubt is left to his intended meaning: From this story one learns that children, especially young lasses, pretty, courteous and well-bred, do very wrong to listen to strangers, And it is not an unheard thing if the Wolf is thereby provided with his dinner. I say Wolf, for all wolves are not of the same sort; there is one kind with an amenable disposition – neither noisy, nor hateful, nor angry, but tame, obliging and gentle, following

11662-467: The tale agree so closely with Perrault's variant that it is almost certainly the source of the tale. This version ends with the girl and her grandmother saved by a huntsman who was after the wolf's skin; this ending mirrors that in the tale " The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids ", which appears to be the source. The second part featured the girl and her grandmother trapping and killing another wolf, this time anticipating his moves based on their experience with

11781-607: The threat of government regulation, which had formerly been cited as justification for the Production Code, and the PCA's powers over the Hollywood industry were greatly reduced. Two Swedish films, One Summer of Happiness (1951), and Ingmar Bergman 's Summer with Monika (1953) were released in 1955 as exploitation movies, their success leading to a wave of sexually-provocative European product reaching American theaters. Some British films, such as Victim (1961), A Taste of Honey (1961), and The Leather Boys (1964), challenged traditional gender roles , and openly confronted

11900-474: The title implies, this version is both more sinister and more overtly moralized than the later ones. The redness of the hood, which has been given symbolic significance in many interpretations of the tale, was a detail introduced by Perrault. The story had as its subject an "attractive, well-bred young lady", a village girl of the country being deceived into giving a wolf she encountered the information he needed to find her grandmother's house successfully and eat

12019-515: The wedding. A parallel to another Norse myth, the chase and eventual murder of the sun goddess by the wolf Sköll , has also been drawn. A similar story also belongs to the North African tradition, namely in Kabylia , where a number of versions are attested. The theme of the little girl who visits her (grand)dad in his cabin and is recognized by the sound of her bracelets constitutes the refrain of

12138-519: The wolf and Little Red Riding Hood has analogies to the Norse Þrymskviða from the Elder Edda ; the giant Þrymr had stolen Mjölnir , Thor 's hammer, and demanded Freyja as his bride for its return. Instead, the gods dressed Thor as a bride and sent him. When the giants note Thor's unladylike eyes, eating, and drinking, Loki explains them as Freyja's not having slept, eaten, or drunk, out of longing for

12257-449: The wolf's belly represent the dawn. In this interpretation, there is a connection between the wolf of this tale and Sköll , the wolf in Norse mythology that will swallow the personified Sun at Ragnarök , or Fenrir . Alternatively, the tale could be about the season of spring or the month of May, escaping the winter. The tale has been interpreted as a puberty rite, stemming from a prehistoric origin (sometimes an origin stemming from

12376-419: The woods to deliver food to her sickly grandmother ( wine and cake depending on the translation). A stalking wolf wants to eat the girl and the food in the basket. After he inquires as to where she is going, he suggests that she pick some flowers as a present for her grandmother. While she goes in search of flowers, he goes to the grandmother's house and gains entry by pretending to be Riding Hood. He swallows

12495-453: The young maids in the streets, even into their homes. Alas! Who does not know that these gentle wolves are of all such creatures the most dangerous! This, the presumed original version of the tale was written for the late seventeenth-century French court of King Louis XIV . This audience, whom the King entertained with extravagant parties, presumably would take from the story's intended meaning. In

12614-456: Was The World Moves On (1934). For over 30 years, virtually all motion pictures produced in the United States adhered to the code. The Production Code was not created or enforced by federal, state, or city government; the Hollywood studios adopted the code in large part in the hopes of avoiding government censorship, preferring self-regulation to government regulation. Father Daniel A. Lord ,

12733-682: Was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code , after Will H. Hays , president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945. Under Hays's leadership, the MPPDA, later the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and

12852-460: Was appointed as his successor. Hollywood continued to work within the confines of the Production Code throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, but during this time, the film industry was faced with very serious competitive threats. The first threat came from television , a new technology that did not require Americans to leave their houses to see motion pictures. Hollywood needed to offer the public something it could not get on television, which itself

12971-599: Was approved by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Hays created the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) to oversee its implementation; however, there was still no way to enforce tenets. The controversy surrounding film standards came to a head in 1929. In a resolution passed on June 29, 1927, the MPPDA codified lists of "don'ts" and "be carefuls" into what they colloquially called their "Magna Charta". Many of these would later become key points in

13090-468: Was clear that those individuals portrayed as villains were the exceptions to the rule. The entire document was written with Catholic undertones, and stated that art must be handled carefully because it could be "morally evil in its effects", and its "deep moral significance" was unquestionable. It was initially decided to keep the Catholic influence on the Code secret. A recurring theme was "that throughout,

13209-407: Was defined only as sexual relationships between black and white races. The first major instance of censorship under the Production Code involved the 1934 film Tarzan and His Mate , in which brief nude scenes involving a body double for actress Maureen O'Sullivan were edited out of the master negative of the film. By the time the Code became fully functional by January 1935, several films from

13328-399: Was denied Production Code approval for its various instances of nudity, foreplay and intercourse. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released it anyway, under a specially-created pseudonym, Premier Productions. This was the first instance of an MPAA member company directly producing a film without an approval certificate. Also, the original, lengthy code was replaced by a list of eleven points outlining that

13447-408: Was forbidden. It also stated that the notion of an "adults-only policy" would be a dubious, ineffective strategy that would be difficult to enforce; however, it did allow that "maturer minds may easily understand and accept without harm subject matter in plots which does younger people positive harm". If children were supervised and the events implied elliptically, the code allowed "the possibility of

13566-415: Was initially banned in the U.S. for its frank depiction of sexuality; however, this was overturned by the Supreme Court. In 1970, because of confusion over the meaning of "mature audiences", the M rating was changed to "GP" meaning "for general exhibition, but parental guidance is suggested", then in 1972 to the current "PG", for "parental guidance suggested". In 1984, in response to public complaints regarding

13685-446: Was not granted a certificate of approval, but still became a box office smash, and as a result, it further weakened the authority of the Code. At the forefront of contesting the Code was director Otto Preminger , whose films violated the Code repeatedly in the 1950s. His 1953 film The Moon Is Blue , about a young woman who tries to play two suitors off against each other by claiming that she plans to keep her virginity until marriage,

13804-527: Was released without a certificate of approval by United Artists , the first production distributed by a member of the MPAA to do so. He later made The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), which portrayed the prohibited subject of drug abuse, and Anatomy of a Murder (1959), which dealt with murder and rape. Like Some Like It Hot , Preminger's films were direct assaults on the authority of the Production Code, and their success hastened its abandonment. In 1964,

13923-473: Was ruled out. All criminal action had to be punished, and neither the crime nor the criminal could elicit sympathy from the audience, or the audience must at least be aware that such behavior is wrong, usually through "compensating moral value". Authority figures had to be treated with respect, and the clergy could not be portrayed as comic characters or villains. Under some circumstances, politicians, police officers, and judges could be villains, as long as it

14042-426: Was the case of The Outlaw , a western produced by Howard Hughes , which was denied a certificate of approval after it was completed in 1941 since the film's advertising focused particular attention on Jane Russell 's breasts. When the film's initial 1943 release was shuttered by the MPPDA after a week, Hughes eventually persuaded Breen that this did not violate the code and the film could be shown, although without

14161-568: Was under an even more restrictive censorship code. In addition to the threat of television, the industry was enduring a period of economic difficulties that were compounded by the result of United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. (1948), in which the Supreme Court outlawed vertical integration as it had been found to violate anti-trust laws, and studios were not only forced to give up ownership of theaters, but they were also unable to control what exhibitors offered. This led to increasing competition from foreign films which were not bound by

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