How this was released in the year 1935. Since the precode era of horror movies ended in 1934. After that they didn't let them to publish any horrorfilms until the beginning of the 40's. So does anyone have any information about this? Was this "soft" enough for the cencorship in Hollywood, or was this actually made, before the year 1935?
"I never said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle"
There was nothing in the 1934 Production Code banning horror films, or any particular type or genre of film, for that matter; only certain content within any given film.
Are you posting from the U.K. perhaps? It's my understanding there was such a ban (although that may be too rigid and strong a word) on "horrific" films for a time, but I thought that was closer to the end of the decade.
Poe! You are...avenged!
Thanks for posting!
No I'm posting from Finland and I've just read a lot about the precode era so I was wondering how they managed to show this. But after reading your message and thinking about it, perhaps The Raven (1935) was made by the codes.
And yea that's true too they didn't ban horror films, they just banned certain content as you said. I guess I thought the banning was much harder than it actually was.
I guess I was just confused :P Thanks for your reply, it's always nice to broaden your horizons.
"I never said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle"
In the UK The Raven caused a censorship furore - questions were even asked in Parliament, and yet horror films were not officially banned. On January 1 1937 the British censor brought in the "H" for horrific certificate, which meant you had be 16 years old or over to see such films. However such talk in the UK had an effect on Hollywood production of horror films for a couple of years, and this, together with management changes at Universal Studios, caused very little horror product to be released between 1937-1938.
Ironically enough, though during the 2nd world war there was a ban placed on horror films from about 1942-1945 as they were considered damaging to morale -exactly the opposite of how they were thought of in the US!
The production code came into force in July 1934 in the US, but it's worth pointing out that nothing in The Raven overtly breeched the code. It seems apparent to me that a few things in the movie went over the heads of censors. The Black Cat would certainly not have passed, however. It's possible that the third Karloff/Lugosi film, The Invisible Ray was given a sci-fi sheen to deflect criticism of any horror stuff. Many of the murders take place off screen.
Hope that helps.
Don't cheese me off.I'm running out of places to hide the bodies.
Thanks very much for filling in the details.
It is interesting to compare the three films of the Karloff-Lugosi "trilogy" with the Production Code in mind. I always thought the raciest thing in THE INVISIBLE RAY was Lady Arabella's frank (for the time) attitude about sex, referring to her nephew and Diana as "healthy young animals," and all that entailed in the story's context...even her nephew was shocked. And what made it priceless was that it emanated from Beulah Bondi, who was often typecast as a prim spinster or uptight old biddy. I loved seeing her trudge through Universal's "jungle" in her safari shorts and wielding a blunderbuss.
Poe! You are...avenged!
The film was surprisingly dark for 1935. We actually have a man crushed to death and another (two) disfigured. I was particularly surprised about Bateman's back story where he burned a bank teller's face and blinded him.
I don't think that they could have shown that, but I'm still surprised to hear it told in dialogue.