Convention City

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Convention City (1933) is a pre-Code film produced by First National and released by Warner Bros. It was later banned by the Hollywood Production Code. No copies of the film are known to exist, making it the last missing feature from First National or Warner Bros.[1]

It was directed by Archie Mayo, written by Robert Lord, and starred Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, Dick Powell, Mary Astor, and Adolphe Menjou.

The plot revolved around drunk and sexed-up employees of the Honeywell Rubber Company at a convention in Atlantic City. Dr. James Wingate, chair of the Motion Picture Division of the State of New York Department of Education — which oversaw the state's censorship board — described it as "a pretty rowdy picture, dealing largely with drunkenness, blackmail, and lechery, and without any particularly sympathetic characters or elements."[2] Script changes, suggested by Wingate, Jason S. Joy (director of the Studio Relations Committee), and production head Hal Wallis were nominally incorporated into the script. When Convention City was released, it averaged twenty cuts per state board.

The feature cost $239,000 to produce, and earned $384,000 in domestic revenue and $138,000 from foreign release, for an eventual profit of $53,000.[3]

Because of the lewdness of the film and lack of influence of the Studio Relations Committee, which was supposed to control objectionable content, Convention City and films like it led to the creation of the Production Code Administration, led by Joseph I. Breen. In 1936, Jack Warner attempted to re-release Convention City in a censored form, but Breen deemed it beyond redemption.[4]

Patrick Picking of "The Vitaphone Project" has questioned the version of events leading to the film's destruction. The Summer/Fall 2006 installment of the project's newsletter reproduces a theatre advertisement showing the film on the bottom half of a double bill with Charlie Chan on Broadway. Since the latter film was released in 1937, it would appear that, contrary to conventional wisdom, Warner Bros. still circulated the film after its initial release. Studio records of the negative state, "Junked 12/27/48" (i.e., December 27, 1948). Warner Bros. destroyed many of its negatives in the late 1940s and 1950s due to nitrocellulose decomposition.[5]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ First National Pictures, 1928–1935 and Warner Bros. Talkies 1926–1935, at Vitaphone.org. Laddie and Freckles, two RKO features from 1935, appear to be the last missing features from a major Hollywood studio.
  2. ^ Vieira, Mark. Sin In Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood, Harry N. Abrams, 2003, p. 151. ISBN 978-0810982284.
  3. ^ John McElwee, "Musicals and Comedies Go Pre-Code", Greenbriar Picture Shows, March 30, 2008.
  4. ^ Vieira, p. 151.
  5. ^ John McElwee, "Musicals and Comedies Go Pre-Code", Greenbriar Picture Shows, March 30, 2008.

[edit] Sources

  • Mark A. Vieira, Sin In Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood (New York: Abrams, 1999)