Maniac (1934)

My wife wanted to watch a short horror movie before our friends showed up and we only had an hour, so I popped this one in. My goodness, they were allowed to show this in 1934? Women in lingerie, stepping out of baths, undressing behind a screen for the doctor and then leaning out... things were very different before there was a film code.

The little informational bits in written text about insanity were interesting. Largely correct, at least for 1930 understandings. The acting is horribly over-the-top, the special effects (involving superimposing better films of the era over the action) are pretty second-rate, ut overall, it's an interesting watch. It's in the public domain, so you can probably find it online somewhere.

Regarding the Hayes Code, I recall one of the earlier versions of The Maltese Falcon (there were 2 made before the one with Bogart) actually had a scene with Spade's secretary putting her stockings on in his presence, and strongly implying that they'd just had sex. The popular perception among producers, then as now, was that sex sells (take a look at The Big Sleep, particularly Bogie and Bacall's discussion of horse racing, for the kind of thing they managed to get away with even after the code).

This was not a commercial release that played at your local movie house. The Espers themselves “toured” the film, taking it, a screen and a projector from town to town and showing it to folks with prurient interests in makeshift places, sometimes in tents. Sometimes they were run out of town for “indecency” or whatever.

@Robbery, or what is known as The American New Wave. That's why the Hays Code was thrown out and replaced with the rating system.

Although Reefer Madness is known as "the grandfather of all bad movies," that title truly belongs to Maniac (1934) as it predates Reefer madness and I swear was way ahead of its time.

Yeah, you might want to read the TV Tropes article for The Pre-Code Era...or rather, read the article at The Other Wiki, since Wikipedia articles are always better than TV Tropes Useful Notes articles.

But anyway, yes, Hollywood could get away with quite a bit more before 1934 and the crackdown than it could afterwards. Karma Houdini was seen more often, as bad guys didn't always have to be punished. There was a lot more Getting Crap Past the Radar—not that there wasn't any post-1934, but the sexual innuendo especially was a lot more blatant. Brief nudity popped up at least as far back as Intolerance in 1916, and was occasionally seen throughout the silent era and in to the early talkies; Jean Harlow is very briefly topless in Red-Headed Woman. The Smiling Lieutenant has a Be a Whore to Get Your Man ending. The Dark Horse has a Strip Poker scene. Design for Living has a One True Threesome ending. (I'm getting most of those titles off our The Pre-Code Era page, which, again, is a good starting point.)

It was quite a bit different than the tone of films made after The Hays Code. Took 30 years until censorship rules broke down and Hollywood filmmakers were able to get away with the kind of stuff they did back when Herbert Hoover was president.

Maniac was what was called a roadshow film. They were made even after the Hays code came in. Check out "Child Bride", a film that show the evil of child marrage and shows the 12 year old girl skinny dipping.

Well that's true enough. A film that didn't have to be screened in regular movie theaters didn't have to adhere to the Code. After all, hardcore porn dates back to silent movie days, so there's no reason that a film like Maniac couldn't have been made and shown in special circumstances.