This Day and Age (film)

This Day and Age is a 1933 American PreCode film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. It is one of his rarest films and has been released on home video through the Universal Pictures Vault Series DVD collection.

Paramount Produced Properties lists Bartlett Cormack as the author of the original story, Boys in Office, on which this film is based. However, in his autobiography Cecil B. DeMille credits Sam Mintz as the author of the story, from which Bartlett Cormack wrote a scenario. According to information in the MPAAPCA files at the AMPAS library, the script for This Day and Age was submitted for approval by the AMPP on May 10, 1933. The AMPP responded with a letter to Paramount producer A. M. Botsford noting three major problems First, they questioned the general treatment of established law and order, as represented by Judge Maguire. Censor boards lately particularly New York State Board have been insisting on maintaining respect for established law and order, and have stated specifically that they will not tolerate any attempt to undermine this sentiment. We suggest a certain toning down of some of the speeches. The second problem is the necessity of portraying this story in such a way that it will not be taken as a direct bid for open revolt and encouragement for high school pupils to disregard all the tenets of regularly constituted authorities, and attempt the administration of government by violent means....The third element is the use of the rat pit as a means of forcing confessions out of the gangster. This seems to us to be dangerous. It is bound to be offensive to a large part of any audience, particularly women, and unless great care is exercised, it May be so gruesome as to prove inadmissable both under the Code and to the censor boards generally.In his book Cecil B. DeMilles Hollywood, author Robert S. Birchard relates how DeMille wasnt sure screenwriter Bartlett Cormacks script had a sense of current slang, so he asked Los Angeles High School student Horace Hahn to read the script and comment. ........

Source: Wikipedia