The Waning of the Code: Breen's Decline as Producers, Moguls and Directors Defied the PCA

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The Waning of the Code: Breen's Decline as Producers, Moguls and Directors Defied the PCA

Joseph Breen / PCA / 1950s

Breen's monopoly on content began to fray after World War II and came under open attack in the early 1950s. Samuel Goldwyn publicly demanded changes to the Code, Howard Hughes flagrantly released The French Line (showcasing Jane Russell) despite Breen's refusal, and in 1951 Otto Preminger — backed by United Artists — released The Moon Is Blue without PCA approval after Breen objected to its frank dialogue. Breen briefly resigned in April 1941 (he would return in 1942 after a short stint as RKO general manager), but by the mid‑1950s it was clear the old ironclad system was weakening. Breen retired in 1954, handing the office to Geoffrey Shurlock, and received an honorary Academy Award praising his ‘‘conscientious…management’’ even as the industry was moving towards sexual frankness and artistic autonomy that would make the Hays Code increasingly untenable. The long fallout: a legacy of enforced conformity, stifled political storytelling in the 1930s, and a rulebook that studios and mavericks would spend two decades chipping away at before it finally collapsed.