Hollywood Undermined
Hollywood Undermined
Many critics and commentators felt that America’s censorship bodies had been too lenient with The Carpetbaggers, and voices of protest led to a clampdown on what was deemed cinematic smut—notably Levine’s production of a biopic of Jean Harlow. Interventions from censors and Levine’s own uncharacteristic keenness to avoid controversy led to Harlow being perhaps the most compromised film of his career. Critics who had criticized The Carpetbaggers for being in bad taste now criticized Harlow for not being sexy enough. The chapter also explores Levine’s war of words with Bill Sargent, who was producing his own Harlow biopic, which appeared as an ugly spat in the pages of the trade press. And it examines critics’ accusations that Joe was undermining Hollywood and its institutions with his films’ insinuations.
Keywords: censorship, Motion Picture Association of America, Production Code, biopic, Hollywood, Paramount, independent production, Harlow, Carroll Baker, Bill Sargent
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