10 Films Once Controversial Now Classic

This year, the Academy Awards is embroiled in controversy. The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite has been widely used on social media to shed light on the racial makeup of Academy voters. Any changes that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences makes internally will be historic, so we asked Jeremy Geltzer, author of Dirty Words and Filthy Pictures: Film and the First Amendment to reflect on some controversies of years past. Some of the films Geltzer examines in his book on media censorship were quite controversial at the time they were released. (It is hard to imagine A Clockwork Orange not being enormously controversial.) However, despite controversy over surrounding themes like race and violence, two of the films explored below went on to win Best Picture Oscars.

You can catch author Jeremy Geltzer at The Book Stall in Winnetka, IL, on Saturday, March 5th at 1PM. Follow Jeremy on Twitter at @HollywoodBabel.

1

Some Like It Hot (1959)

Director Billy Wilder’s cross-dressing comedy has been regarded by many viewers as one of the funniest films of all time with Marilyn Monroe in her finest form. But this classic was not a laughing matter to the Production Code Administration and the Catholic Legion of Decency; both monitored Hollywood movies to ensure clean, wholesome fun in the theaters. Some Like It Hot riled the regulators who branded the movie as “seriously offensive to Christian and traditional standards of morality and decency.” The censors were way off base, but as Joe E. Brown said in the film’s final line, “Nobody’s perfect.”

2

Psycho (1960) 

Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho shocked audiences when it was released—American filmgoers had never before encountered a mainstream slasher film. The low budget black & white film changed the industry by demonstrating that audiences were ready for more daring and provocative pictures. But Psycho was also controversial for two less obvious reasons. The Production Code Administration nearly denied the film a Seal of Approval because of the “incestuous relationship between Norman and his mother.” In addition, the PCA advised caution in showing a toilet in the bathroom—Hitchcock’s edgy film was the first time a flushing toilet was seen in an American motion picture.