Hollywood studios spent a lot of money transitioning to talkies. To recoup the cost, they produced salacious films to attract big audiences. People certainly responded – including conservative groups, who pressured studios to protect family values. The Motion Picture Production Code was established in 1930 as a response but wasn’t enforced until 1934. These glass slides advertise films that charted the change from silent to sound cinema, including A Bill of Divorcement (1932), which flouted the production code by exploring a marriage breakdown, as well as John Ford’s The World Moves On (1934), the first film to receive a Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors of America (now MPAA) certificate under the new Production Code.
