Motion Picture Production Code
(Adopted 1930)The sanctity of the institution of marriage
and the home shall be upheld. No
film shall infer that casual or promiscuous
sex relationships are the common
thing... These [seduction and rape]
should never be more-than suggested,
and then only when essential to the plot.
They should never be shown explicitly...
Crime shall never be presented in such a
way as to throw sympathy with the
crime... Brutal killings are not to be
presented in detail ... Revenge, in modern
times, shall not be justified ... Mercy
killing shall never be made to seem right
or permissible ... Dances suggesting or
representing sexual actions or emphasizing
indecent movements are to be regarded
as obscene... Laws—divine, natural
or human—shall not be ridiculed.
