pre-Code meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

pre-Code

adj

Etymology From pre- + code.

Prior to the introduction of the Hays Code, a set of moral guidelines for the US film industry widely applied between 1934 and 1968.

The Sign of the Cross, in certain senses the ultimate pre-Code movie, can still have a queasying ^([sic]) effect on viewers with its arena brutality, and its effect on 1933 audiences was that much stronger2005, Richard Barrios, Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall:

noun

Etymology From pre- + code.

A pre-Code movie, especially one that was subsequently banned under the Hays Code.

The most brutal pre-Codes take the viewer to Hell, and only sometimes back, just as the noir films did after the war a one-way ticket to oblivion, destruction, and death.2013 June 27, Andre Spicer, Helen Hanson, A Companion to Film Noir, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:
The good news is that most of the pre-Codes mentioned in these pages are either available on video or can be seen on television.2014 July 15, Mick LaSalle, Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man, Macmillan, →ISBN:

1 more example

I was surprised that there even were young people at the festival at all and even more surprised by the fact that they liked Pre-Codes more than any other genre - Pre-Codes are the earliest "classic" films you can watch.2024 November 8, Simone O. Elias, Old Films, Young Eyes: A Teenage Take on Hollywood's Golden Age, McFarland, →ISBN, page 113: