Forbidden Hollywood: The Pre-Code Era (1930-1934): When Sin Ruled the Movies

by Mark A. Vieira

Then came the Miracle case. In May 1952, the US Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision banning Roberto Rossellini’s film The Miracle, and in the process threw out Mutual Film v. Ohio. As quoted in the May 31, 1952 issue of Boxoffice, Justice Tom Clark wrote: “The importance of motion pictures as an organ of public opinion is not lessened by the fact that they are designed to entertain as well as to inform. Nor should film be subject to censorship because it is an industry conducted for profit, as such a category would also include the press. Finally, the medium’s supposed capacity for evil, if it existed at all, was not sufficient justification for substantially unbridled censorship such as we have seen here.”