Classic Film : Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

Nothing before 1934 (Hays Code).

The earlier, the better, as they seem to handle the subject matter better, especially with quality writing, instead of being crass.. Nothing after the 1970s. From any country. For some reason, they just seem to be better. Nothing silly, but something mature. I'm watching "Pale Flower" and loving it, and there's a mention of a guy who is a "dope addict"… I do remember liking "The Man With The Golden Arm", too.

Not the exploitation stuff like "Reefer Madness"

https://www.scribd.com/document/382737647/MortSahlFan-Song-List

Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

Different from the Others (1919) - First film about a homosexual relationship.



Different from the Others (1919)

Paul Korner is a homosexual musician who falls in love with his protégé Kurt. Unfortunately, the two are seen walking hand in hand by the blackmailer Franz. Though Paul agrees to Franz's demands at first, it gets out of hand and he ends up refusing to pay which has dire consequences for the lovers.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0009878/


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Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

https://archive.org/details/youtube-oEMeNthlvRQ

It won't show on YouTube because it VIOLATES their TOS… There are a lot of great things (movies, documents, etc) on archive.org

https://www.scribd.com/document/382737647/MortSahlFan-Song-List

Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects







I never saw it, but I remember reading that Jim Morrison hitchhiked 400 miles to see it in SF.

https://www.scribd.com/document/382737647/MortSahlFan-Song-List

Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

Of course Jean Genet is a renowned author. He wrote homosexual subjects usually set in prison. Having been in the joint Genet is one of my favorite authors.

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"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
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Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

Bigger Than Life, drug addiction, in this case cortisone. That came out a year after The Man with the Golden Arm. There must have been earlier movies.

Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

The Snake Pit, from 1948, about mental illness.

Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

"Spring Night, Summer Night" – taboo, but no exploitation at all. Very cinema-verite.

https://www.scribd.com/document/382737647/MortSahlFan-Song-List

Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A4xan

Häxan, a silent film from 1922. It is about witchcraft and was banned from being shown in the United States.

Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

Kewl film.



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"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
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Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

Design for Living (1933). It features a woman in a relationship with two separate men, who come to have a "gentleman's agreement" between them that neither will sleep with the woman and who each break that agreement.

Hark! Harold the angel sings.

Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

The Innocents, hinting at paedophilia

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Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

If we are talking about the earliest taboo subject movies, Lois Weber's Shoes (1916) should be on the list.

According to the IMDB synopsis, a young woman living with her family in dire poverty prostitutes herself for a pair of shoes.

It was recently broadcast on TCM which I no longer have the pleasure of watching since Comcast moved it to a paid sports package.

Check out the post by MortSahlFan on the Classic Film Board and add a few comments. I'd like to read more about this movie that I didn't even know existed until the TCM showing.

And This, Too, Shall Pass Away

Shoes

Watched this not too long ago and loved it! Lois Weber was a titan in her day - writing, producing, directing, and sometimes acting, with nearly 300 hundred credits from 1911 to 1934.

Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

Freaks, but that doesn't make your early cut off date by 2 years.

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Re: Earliest Movies About Taboo Subjects

Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet from 1940. It is a biopic about Paul Ehrlich but the last act is about his discovery of the cure for syphilis.
One prohibited topic of the Motion Picture Production Code adopted in 1930 was "sex hygiene and venereal diseases," and after 1934 studios were required to submit films to the Production Code Administration for preclearance review under the Production Code. Working under the puritanical restraints of the Production Code, Warner executives furthermore seriously considered not mentioning the word "syphilis" in the movie. However, Hal B. Wallis, president of the association, while advising caution, wrote to Warner Bros. that "to make a dramatic picture of the life of Dr. Ehrlich and not include this discovery [the anti-syphilis drug Salvarsan] among his great achievements would be unfair to the record." Following negotiations, the film received approval under the Production Code provided no scenes showing treatment of patients with syphilis were shown, and advertising of the film could not mention syphilis.
I just watched it. Not great.
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