And there were pressures on independent exhibitors too; if they showed films that did not carry a seal, they ran the risk of boycott by the studios.
Farber points out that many of the rules embodied in the code were meant to assuage the objections raised by the Catholic church and that the PCA worked to avoid complaints from the Catholic Legion of Decency. He also notes, "Even with the tight regulations of the Code, pictures approved by PCA often had to undergo additional censorship to please the Legion." There were other groups bringing pressure behind the scenes, but none had the power of the Catholic Legion of Decency.
The Code itself included a number of provisions which the contemporary reader might find highly restrictive, though in practice some were given more latitude than others. For instance, one provision states,
There must be no scenes at any time, showing law-enforcing officers dying at the hands of criminals. This includes privata detectives and guards for banks, motor trucks, etc.
Yet, we can all cite scenes just like this in films all during the era of the PCA. A provision with more applicability to Sturges is the following:
No picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.
It is not that Sturges was lowering the moral standards of the audience, but he did manage to forgive sin and to suggest sexual activity and even outright crime without bringing down the wrath of God on the perpetrators. In any case, the filmmaker as given an out in the explanation offered for the provisions of the code:
Sympathy with a person who sins is not the same as sympathy with the sin or crime of which he is guilty. We may feel sorry for the plight of the murderer or even understand the circumstances which led him to his crime: we may not feel sympathy with the wron...