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Geoffrey Shurlock
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<h2 id="early-life">Early life</h2> <p>Shurlock was born on August 1, 1894, in <a href="/facts/Liverpool/kTqATlxg">Liverpool</a>, England, the son of Charles and Frances (Hallawell) Shurlock.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> He emigrated to the United States along with his parents in 1901, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1930. </p> <h2 id="career">Career</h2> <p>In 1922, he became a secretary to author/screenwriter/composer <a href="/facts/Rupert_Hughes/GmnsAYpw">Rupert Hughes</a>, the uncle of <a href="/facts/Howard_Hughes/8HrreyTh">Howard Hughes</a>. After leaving Hughes' employ, he took a job as a story reader with Paramount Pictures in 1926. In his six years at the studio (1926–1932), he had jobs as a scenario editor and an assistant to the vice president in charge of production. He also oversaw foreign language productions. </p><p>From 1932 to 1934, he served on the <a href="/facts/Motion_Picture_Association_of_America/QHz4RQIN">Motion Picture Association of America</a>'s studio relations committee. He then became the assistant to <a href="/facts/Joseph_Breen/XAp1hWYD">Joseph Breen</a>, director of the <a href="/facts/Production_Code_Administration/mywSeh2S">Production Code Administration</a> overseeing movie censorship. When Breen retired in 1954, Shurlock succeeded him as PCA Director. </p> <h2 id="views">Views</h2> <p>Shurlock believed that, "The code is a moral document. It enumerates certain rules which must be followed to ensure that moral values shall not become confused where antisocial or criminal conduct is essential to the telling of the story." </p><p>In his <i>New York Times</i> obituary, he was quoted as saying, "The code is a set of self-regulations based on sound morals common to all peoples and all religions. To put it simply, it lays down the thesis that the screen should never be used to make what is basically wrong appear to be right. It assumes that the Ten Commandants are as applicable in the field of the imagination as they are in real life."<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> </p><p>He proved more liberal than Breen, and as Hollywood movies began to become increasingly frank in their depiction of life, he tried to adapt. In 1959, he claimed that the movies could receive a seal if it handled a "moral conflict" in the "proper frame of reference" for any subject other than homosexuality, the year that <a href="/facts/Billy_Wilder/7aw1azcg">Billy Wilder</a>'s classic comedy featuring two male stars in drag <a href="/facts/Some_Like_It_Hot/cryGyuvl"><i>Some Like it Hot</i></a> hit the screen.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="liberalisation">Liberalisation</h2> <p>By the mid-1960s, he began to lose control over movie content, when the PCA's attempts to deny the seal of approval to <i><a href="/facts/The_Pawnbroker_(film)/rkWwkpEL">The Pawnbroker</a></i> in 1965 for nudity <i><a href="/facts/Who%2527s_Afraid_of_Virginia_Woolf%253F_(film)/c0DVy1bn">Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?</a></i> for vulgar language were overruled by the Motion Picture Association's Code Review Board. In 1967, Shurlock's PCA denied <a href="/facts/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/sQdE9Kg2">Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer</a> a seal to distribute <a href="/facts/Michelangelo_Antonioni/AXPqSFqn">Michelangelo Antonioni</a>'s <i><a href="/facts/Blowup/JIPLHfko">Blowup</a></i> due to <a href="/facts/Frontal_nudity/vbVcL8SP">frontal nudity</a>. </p> <h2 id="notable-censorship-attempts">Notable censorship attempts</h2> <p>Among the notable films Shurlock tried to censor were <i><a href="/facts/The_Man_With_the_Golden_Arm/Uo5ydV99">The Man With the Golden Arm</a></i>, producer-director <a href="/facts/Otto_Preminger/o7nDkYaR">Otto Preminger</a>'s 1955 film based on Nelson Algren's eponymous <a href="/facts/National_Book_Award/r4NzI66B">National Book Award</a>-winning novel about a drug addict. Preminger had released his 1953 movie comedy <i><a href="/facts/The_Moon_is_Blue/hAhwKLjV">The Moon is Blue</a></i> without the PCA seal, as the PCA under Breen had objected to the language used in the film. Preminger and his distributor, <a href="/facts/United_Artists/4cSJnjrI">United Artists</a>, decided to book the film before submitting it to the PCA, although depictions of drug addiction were forbidden by the Code, the portrayal of the drug addict by <a href="/facts/Frank_Sinatra/a0f0cEo3">Frank Sinatra</a> was so harrowing, no one would object that it glorified the use of narcotics. The PCA denied the film its seal,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> United Artists resigned from the MPAA in protest, and the movie was shown in theaters that normally wouldn't show a proscribed film.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> Three years later, drug addiction was depicted in <i><a href="/facts/A_Hatful_of_Rain/BAa2UYyu">A Hatful of Rain</a></i>, a mainstream release from <a href="/facts/Twentieth_Century_Fox/vd5eeD3S">Twentieth Century Fox</a>. </p> <h2 id="pussy-galore">Pussy Galore</h2> <p>Shurlock allowed the character of <a href="/facts/Pussy_Galore/63MvFWcK">Pussy Galore</a> to keep her double-entendre name in the <a href="/facts/Goldfinger_(film)/KeyjKwda">1964 film adaptation</a> of <a href="/facts/Ian_Fleming/MWV14uMq">Ian Fleming</a>'s <a href="/facts/James_Bond/FQQ7pp1y">James Bond</a> 1959 novel <i><a href="/facts/Goldfinger_(novel)/WRMIufKL">Goldfinger</a></i> after the name was used in press coverage of <a href="/facts/Honor_Blackman/KlcIAzN4">Honor Blackman</a> meeting <a href="/facts/Prince_Philip/bpTsnBv4">Prince Philip</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> </p><p>In 1968, the MPAA implemented the movie ratings system.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> He stepped down as Hollywood's chief censor in January 1969 and was named a special consultant to the PCA, a position he held until retiring in 1974. </p> <h2 id="death">Death</h2> <p>Shurlock died on April 26, 1976, in <a href="/facts/Woodland_Hills%2c_Los_Angeles/acsFpq6R">Woodland Hills, Los Angeles</a>, California.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="in-popular-culture">In popular culture</h2> <p>He was portrayed by actor <a href="/facts/Kurtwood_Smith/wywVDCbp">Kurtwood Smith</a> in the 2012 movie <i><a href="/facts/Hitchcock_(film)/qLhuLKNC">Hitchcock</a></i>, which dealt with the production of <a href="/facts/Alfred_Hitchcock/LqkmpImQ">Alfred Hitchcock</a>'s 1960 movie <i><a href="/facts/Psycho_(1960_film)/vxLkTw4a">Psycho</a></i>. </p> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>"Geoffrey M. Shurlock, Ex‐Head Of Motion Picture Code, Dead". The New York Times. Woodland Hills, California (published April 28, 1976). UPI. April 27, 1976. p. 40. Retrieved February 12, 2025. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/28/archives/geoffrey-m-shurlock-exhead-of-motion-picture-code-dead.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/28/archives/geoffrey-m-shurlock-exhead-of-motion-picture-code-dead.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"Geoffrey M. Shurlock, Ex‐Head Of Motion Picture Code, Dead". The New York Times. Woodland Hills, California (published April 28, 1976). UPI. April 27, 1976. p. 40. Retrieved February 12, 2025. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/28/archives/geoffrey-m-shurlock-exhead-of-motion-picture-code-dead.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/28/archives/geoffrey-m-shurlock-exhead-of-motion-picture-code-dead.html</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>"Geoffrey M. Shurlock, Ex‐Head Of Motion Picture Code, Dead". The New York Times. Woodland Hills, California (published April 28, 1976). UPI. April 27, 1976. p. 40. Retrieved February 12, 2025. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/28/archives/geoffrey-m-shurlock-exhead-of-motion-picture-code-dead.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/28/archives/geoffrey-m-shurlock-exhead-of-motion-picture-code-dead.html</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Mondello, Bob. "Remembering Hollywood's Hays Code, 40 Years On". npr.com. National Public Radio. Retrieved June 12, 2023. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2008/08/08/93301189/remembering-hollywoods-hays-code-40-years-on" target="_blank">https://www.npr.org/2008/08/08/93301189/remembering-hollywoods-hays-code-40-years-on</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"The Man with the Golden Arm film by Preminger [1955]". britannica.com. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved June 12, 2023. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Man-with-the-Golden-Arm-film-1955" target="_blank">https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Man-with-the-Golden-Arm-film-1955</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Brown, Rachel (October 11, 2010). "The Man with the Golden Arm". sensesofcinema.com. Senses of Cinema. Retrieved June 12, 2023. <a href="https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2013/cteq/the-man-with-the-golden-arm/" target="_blank">https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2013/cteq/the-man-with-the-golden-arm/</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Westenfeld, Adrienne (April 9, 2021). "Remembering the Time Prince Philip Saved James Bond". esquire.com. Esquire Magazine. Retrieved June 12, 2023. <a href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a36074920/prince-philip-james-bond-goldfinger/" target="_blank">https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a36074920/prince-philip-james-bond-goldfinger/</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>"Movie Ratings: Informing Parents Since 1968". motionpictures.org. Motion Picture Association. Retrieved June 12, 2023. <a href="https://www.motionpictures.org/film-ratings/" target="_blank">https://www.motionpictures.org/film-ratings/</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>"Geoffrey M. Shurlock, Ex‐Head Of Motion Picture Code, Dead". The New York Times. Woodland Hills, California (published April 28, 1976). UPI. April 27, 1976. p. 40. Retrieved February 12, 2025. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/28/archives/geoffrey-m-shurlock-exhead-of-motion-picture-code-dead.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/28/archives/geoffrey-m-shurlock-exhead-of-motion-picture-code-dead.html</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>