I know due to “the code”, that this is not probable, but what would be some early examples post code where the criminal gets away at the end? There is an Edward G Robinson film, I think maybe “Scarlet Street” where he has killed someone, and at the end, has become some sort of crazy street person. This I guess is not “getting away with it”, but at the end he is “free”. Any other early examples of a criminal not getting killed or arrested at the end.?
Since Vichy France was the enemy, perhaps it does not count, but there’s a lot of successful illegal activity in “Casablanca”, including the bribery of the police chief by the illegal casino, the use of forged letters of transit, and even murder of a German officer in front of the police chief. But war does put a different perspective on things like that.
Is Brother Orchid the Robinson film you refer to? Robinson is a gangland killer who manages to quit and becomes a monk at the end.
I believe that James Cagney in The Oklahoma Kid is not punished for his crimes.
Technically, The Adventures of Robin Hood counts, though King Richard probably pardoned Robin for helping him regain the throne.
Fletcher Christian is not punished for mutiny in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935).
THe short answer is No; there are no Hollywood films between 1934 and 1967 where crime or feminism was not punished in some way. Not always death or prison, but he Production Code Office would not affix its seal of approval unless they felt that the film conformed to the code. It was a strictly voluntary program, but none of the monompolized movie theatres would exhibit a film without the seal, so “voluntary” is a hollow technicality.
Did Scarlet O’Hara “get away” with her evil deeds because she didn’t die before the end of the movie? She was sentenced to life of loneliness and misery, which was good enough for the Code.
Fletcher Christian received a similar sentence. Brother Orchid sentenced himself to prison, so he was “allowed” to be happy. But still imprisoned. Characters who had transgressed were allowed to redeem themselves, but only through a great sacrifice. No one was allowed simply to “get away” with a crime or with female independence.
Now, there are of course those movies with a subtext that can be interpreted to subvert this standard. But explicitly, no; no one who ever transgressed against Catholic morality was ever allowed a happy ending.
RealityChuck, I looked into it and it was Scarlet Street- it turns out that the overseers of “the code” felt that Edward G. turning into a homeless derelict was considered punishment enough. **Brother Orchid ** is a personal fave, though.
If law breakers get away with it during the Production Code era, it’s usually in a historical context. In The Return of Frank James (1941), starring Henry Fonda, James gets away with on-screen bank robbery and murder because, as it happened in real life, a jury acquitted him.
Likewise, Billy the Kid gets away with murder in The Outlaw, but in that case the Production Code denied the movie its seal based on the story’s overall immorality, and the emphasis on Jane Russell’s breasts.
Small correction to my previous post: Frank James robbed a railroad express office, not a bank.
I just rewatched Arsenic and Old Lace, and it seems to me that it breaks the rule. While Jonathan Brewster is clearly the most criminal character, and ends up arrested, his accomplice Dr Einstein just walks out without the police realising who he is, and the serial killers Aunt Abby and Aunt Martha Brewster escape detection and punishment, because they just voluntarily commit themselves to Mr. Witherspoon’s “rest home”.