Single Beds and Double Standards (22 Jan. 1980)

Mounting scandals including drug addiction and murder force the studios to appoint Will Hays as a morals czar to oversee production.

Directors:

Kevin Brownlow, David Gill

Writers:

Kevin Brownlow, David Gill

Stars:

James Mason, Cedric Belfrage, Karl Brown

Cast

Episode credited cast:
James Mason	...	Himself / Narrator (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Cedric Belfrage	...	Himself
Karl Brown	...	Himself
Viola Dana	...	Herself
Allan Dwan	...	Himself
Byron Haskin	...	Himself
Henry Hathaway	...	Himself
Henry King	...	Himself
Anita Loos	...	Herself
Ben Lyon	...	Himself
Samuel Marx	...	Himself (as Sam Marx)
Colleen Moore	...	Herself
Albert S. Rogell	...	Himself (as Al Rogell)
Bob Rose	...	Himself
Adela Rogers St. Johns	...	Herself

Storyline

Mounting scandals including Wallace Reid's death from drug addiction, the unsolved murder of director William Desmond Taylor,and the two sensational murder/rape trials of comedian Fatty Arbuckle with the resultant outcry force the studios to appoint Will Hays as a morals czar to oversee production.

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Plot Keywords:

topless woman | movie director | year 1921 | roaring 20s | film producer | 

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Genres:

Documentary | History

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Details

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 January 1980 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Thames Television

Technical Specs

Color:

Color Black and White

Did You Know?

Connections

Features Ella Cinders (1926)

User Reviews

Hollywood Episode 3

Hollywood: Single BEds and Double Standards (1980)

**** (out of 4)

Third film in the documentary series takes a look at how quickly Hollywood fell to its knees and almost crumbled after a notorious scandal that ripped through front pages across the country. The documentary starts off showing Charles Chaplin and Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle as they're described as one of the most loved men and the other the most despised. We then get a brief bio of Arbuckle, which quickly turns to September 1921 when actress Virginia Rappe was killed at a party thrown by Arbuckle and even though he was obviously innocent of any crime, the newspapers ran stories of a brutal rape and murder. Arbuckle would face three juries and finally be found innocent but it was too late as his career was over and Hollywood was threatened as moral folks across the country got tired of this "sin town". To keep their doors open, the studios hired Will Hays to head the Motion Picture Producers Association, which called for a morality clause but in reality the double standards were thicker than they were before the Arbuckle case. Of the three episodes so far, this here is clearly the best of the bunch as it's still amazing to here the details about the Arbuckle case and see how certain newspapers pretty much made up anything they wanted and after he was found innocent these same newspapers would pretty much just hide the story. It's also interesting because a lot of people of today think the out of control behaviors in Hollywood are something new but this here shows that the drinking, drugs and sex were going on from the very beginning. The documentary also focuses on the many young girls who came to Hollywood to become stars but often found themselves working as prostitutes. We even get a few clips from a stag film, JAZZ BABIES, that features some of these young women who didn't make it big. There's no doubt this era was one of the most fascinating in the history of Hollywood and these 54-minutes do a terrific job at giving you a rundown of everything. Fans of silent films will certainly want to check this out as will those just interested in seeing the (early) dark side of Hollywood.