# The first Hollywood movie to use a swear word **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 21, 2004, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532 "2004-03-21T07:43:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532/21 "2004-03-24T01:37:26Z")
> [@PictsiePat](#): > > And for what it’s worth I don’t think that the infamous dam in “Gone with the Wind” was actually swearing. I have always understood the phrase “I don’t give a dam” was a reference to a tinker’s dam which is a small relatively worthless blob of metal. The word in Margaret Mitchell’s novel is “damn”, not “dam”. And “damn” was one of the words specifically proscribed by the Motion Picture Production Code. Producer David Selznick, with dictionary in hand, was able to convince the Production Code Office that “damn” was only a vulgarism, not an obscenity, and he was allowed to keep it after paying an obligatory fine. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532/22 "2004-03-24T01:53:21Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Producer David Selznick, with dictionary in hand, was able to convince the Production Code Office that “damn” was only a vulgarism, not an obscenity, and he was allowed to keep it after paying an obligatory fine. He’s lucky he wasn’t dealing with my MOM in the early 1940’s! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![LSD-25](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d78d45/32.png) [@LSD-25](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSD-25)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532/23 "2004-03-24T02:27:38Z")
> [@PictsiePat](#): > > I think Barbra Striesand was the first “big” movie star to say the F word in a mainstream movie “The Owl and the Pussycat” 1970. I could be wrong because I haven’t seen the film in years, but didn’t Dustin Hoffman say “fuck” or a derivative of it in Midnight Cowboy, in 1969? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532/24 "2004-03-24T03:24:09Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > How do you pronounce the hyphens? It’s Morse code. He’s saying “DO!” Homer Simpson, of course, would later popularize his own interpretation. ---
**Author:** ![Tenebras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532/25 "2004-03-28T00:46:13Z")
> [@PictsiePat](#): > > And for what it’s worth I don’t think that the infamous dam in “Gone with the Wind” was actually swearing. I have always understood the phrase “I don’t give a dam” was a reference to a tinker’s dam which is a small relatively worthless blob of metal. But I could be wrong, dopers correct me at will. Gotta love the OED… (“The utterance of the word ‘damn’ as a profane imprecation.” Ah… the profane imprecation…) The etymology section says that there were rumors that it came from the Hindi _dam_, meaning a small copper coin (I assume like a penny or as), which are “ingenious, but [have] no basis in fact.” No mention of tinkers, but the idea of it coming from _something_ worthless is there, but apparently is just a folk etymology. (It’s interesting that the worthless bit of metal has changed between the ninteenth and twentieth centuries, no?) This usage is apparently pretty old, witness “[n]ot that I care three damns what figure I may cut” in 1760 (From Goldsmith’s _Cit. W._, the bibliography isn’t online) and “[a] wrong system…not worth a damn” in Byron’s _Diary_ (1817). My personal favorite is from what is apparently a journal called _Eugenics Review_ from 1929: See the happy moron, He doesn’t give a damn. I wish I were a moron. My God! Perhaps I am! It reminds me a bit of Anthony deMello’s “you’re an ass” bit, but I may just being perverse. Tenebras ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532/26 "2004-03-28T15:53:07Z")
Damn, wrong about the F\_\_\_ and wrong about dam/damn. :o Time to hot tub. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532/27 "2004-03-28T17:21:22Z")
It’s not a “Hollywood” film (directed probably in NY or NJ), but my vote goes for the short and snappy [The Whole Damm Family and the Damm Dog](http://imdb.com/title/tt0235045/) (1905). ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2004, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532/28 "2004-03-28T18:59:16Z")
In _The Graduate_ (1967), when Benjamin is pounding on the window in the church to disrupt the wedding, Mrs. Robinson glares up at him and shouts, “What the fuck are you doing?!” which we can only lip-read through the glass as the camera zooms in on her. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Sparky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Saint\_Sparky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Sparky)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2004, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532/29 "2004-03-30T05:30:40Z")
Wow. What an interesting discussion that has originated with my little old question. I remember that scene from “The Graduate” **Walloon** , though I always use to thought it was just me and my dirty mind and not what she actually said. Heh. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Bell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aca169/32.png) [@Dan\_Bell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Bell)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532/30 "2013-10-14T22:39:38Z")
The first move to have a swear word in it was Gone With The Wind. Rhett Butler "Frankly Scarlet I don’t give a damn. There ya go ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532/31 "2013-10-14T22:53:15Z")
Did you read any of the other posts in the nine-year-old thread you revived? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2013, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532/32 "2013-10-14T22:55:12Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > The word in Margaret Mitchell’s novel is “damn”, not “dam”. And “damn” was one of the words specifically proscribed by the Motion Picture Production Code. Producer David Selznick, with dictionary in hand, was able to convince the Production Code Office that “damn” was only a vulgarism, not an obscenity, and he was allowed to keep it after paying an obligatory fine. Thirty years later when **Planet of the Apes** came out Fox thwarted MPAA censorship by arguing that Taylor’s infamous final line, "You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell! ", was him asking God to damn the apes to Hell and not using the Lord’s name in vain. Even today TV shows will bleep out the God part of “God damn”. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2013, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532/33 "2013-10-15T00:24:57Z")
Since this old thread was answered quite well years ago, I’m closing it. **samclem** moderator [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-first-hollywood-movie-to-use-a-swear-word/235532.md?page=1)