The National Legion of Decency, also known as the Catholic Legion of Decency,[1] was a Catholic group founded in 1934 by Archbishop of Cincinnati, John T. McNicholas, as an organization dedicated to identifying objectionable content in motion pictures on behalf of Catholic audiences. Members were asked to pledge to patronize only those motion pictures which did not "offend decency and Christian morality".[2] The concept soon gained support from other churches.
Condemnation by the Legion would often diminish a film's chances for success because it meant the population of Catholics, some twenty million strong at the time (plus their Protestant allies), would avoid attending any screening of the film. The efforts to help parishioners avoid films with objectionable content sometimes backfired when it was found that they helped draw attention to those films.[1] Although the Legion was often envisioned as a bureaucratic arm of the Catholic Church, it instead was little more than a loose confederation of local organizations, with each diocese appointing a local Legion director, usually a parish priest, who was responsible for Legion activities in that diocese. Film historian Bernard F. Dick wrote: "Although the Legion was never officially an organ of the Catholic Church, and its movie ratings were nonbinding, many Catholics were still guided by the Legion's classifications."[3]
In 1965, The National Legion of Decency was reorganized as the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures (NCOMP). In 1980, NCOMP ceased operations, along with the biweekly Review, which by then had published ratings for 16,251 feature films. [citation needed]
^ abLasalle, Mick (March 20, 2016). "Ask Mick Lasalle". San Francisco Chronicle.
^Cite error: The named reference time was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Dick, Bernard F., Forever Mame: The Life of Rosalind Russell, Univ. Press of Mississippi, September 18, 2009, p. 79ISBN 9781604731392
and 18 Related for: National Legion of Decency information
This is a list of films condemned by the NationalLegionofDecency, a United States Catholic organization. The NationalLegionofDecency was established...
provoked significant controversy, mostly because of its implied sexual themes, and the NationalLegionofDecency condemned the film. Despite the moral objections...
restrictions. The influence of the NationalLegionofDecency also waned by the 1960s. Evolution Increasingly common glamour shots of popular actresses and...
aimed at adults, but the content of her films was affected by the NationalLegionofDecency and the Production Code of 1934, which imposed guidelines on...
February 27, 1950. Motion pictures classified by NationalLegionofDecency. New York: NationalLegionofDecency. 1959. p. 240. OCLC 750484145. "Notice bibliographique"...
of films that are or have been at one time or another banned in the United States; including films banned in some American cities or states. List of banned...
English alchemist and physician NationalLegionofDecency, also known as the Catholic LegionofDecency Continuous level of detail, a computer graphics technique...
skimpy that it received a "condemned" rating from the Catholic NationalLegionofDecency. The outrageous outfits were designed by Howard Hughes and the...
of female navel exposure and other restrictions. The influence of the NationalLegionofDecency had also waned by the 1960s. With the withdrawal of the...
the NationalLegionofDecency no longer guaranteed a film's commercial failure (to the point several films were no longer condemned by the Legion by the...
Kansas, Ohio, and Maryland and given a "Condemned" rating by the NationalLegionofDecency. Despite the controversy, the film was a success and earned $3...
the censorship of literature. A successor organization to the NationalLegionofDecency, it was largely led by Roman Catholic priests. The NODL was founded...
Code in the United States. The film was condemned by the National LegionofDecency. The code's collapse and revision was foreshadowed when MGM released...
her." The NationalLegionofDecency stated the "propaganda film offers a warped, over-simplified emotional solution to the complex problems of civil liberties...
contains offensive and suggestive sequences." The NationalLegionofDecency is now known as the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures. Advertising...
Global Information