Citizen Kane (1941)
D. Orson Welles

This widely-acclaimed film from debut film director/actor Orson Welles (24 years old) is usually regarded as the greatest film ever made. The film, budgeted at $800,000, received unanimous critical praise even at the time of its release, although it was not a commercial success (partly due to its limited distribution and delayed release by RKO due to pressure exerted by famous publisher W.R. Hearst).

The film engendered controversy (and efforts at suppression in early 1941 through intimidation, blackmail, newspaper smears, discrediting and FBI investigations) before it premiered in New York City on May 1, 1941, because it appeared to fictionalize and caricaturize certain events and individuals in the life of William Randolph Hearst - a powerful newspaper magnate and publisher. The film was accused of drawing remarkable, unflattering, and uncomplimentary parallels (especially in regards to the Susan Alexander Kane character) to real-life. The notorious battle was detailed in Thomas Lennon's and Michael Epstein's Oscar-nominated documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane (1996), and it was retold in HBO's cable-TV film RKO 281 (1999) (the film's title referred to the project numbering for the film by the studio, before the film was formally titled).

The gossip columnist Louella Parsons persuaded her newspaper boss Hearst that he was being slandered by RKO and Orson Welles' film when it was first previewed, so the Hearst-owned newspapers (and other media outlets) pressured theatres to boycott the film and also threatened libel lawsuits. Hearst also ordered his publications to completely ignore the film, and not accept advertising for other RKO projects.

The Outlaw (1943)
D. Howard Hughes

This infamous adult-oriented sex-western was obsessed millionaire director/producer Howard Hughes' B-grade pet project. The B-grade western featured busty starlet Jane Russell in a breakthrough role. It was marketed salaciously for full effect - such as with this tasteless, salacious slogan: "What are the two great reasons for Jane Russell's rise to stardom?", angering the MPAA for its unapproved ad campaign. Hughes defied the Hayes Production Code (reportedly this was the first US film to do so), and sued the MPAA organization, but eventually backed down.

Hughes' picture was notorious for leering camera views of statuesque and formidable Jane Russell's ample, buxom cleavage - displayed to the fullest and greatest effect to anger Hays Code censors. She was often pictured with an oft-unbuttoned, low-cut peasant blouse. The film was denied a Production Code Administration seal of approval for the exploitative use of young star Jane Russell's prominent, bulging breasts and cleavage. It faced close scrutiny by the Hays Office (and Joseph Breen), due to its exploitation of star Jane Russell's prominently-uncovered 36D" chest in her debut film by Hollywood huckster Russell Birdwell. Salacious advertising added to the lurid sensationalism and kept the film from being widely circulated. In addition, pin-up shots of big-busted Russell rolling around in the hay had the desired effect at the box office (especially among WWII GIs). One of the film's most vulgar stunts, also orchestrated by Birdwell, was to have skywriting planes fly over San Francisco where they spelled the film's title followed by two giant circles -- each dotted in the center.

One local judge in Baltimore, Maryland was quoted as saying that Russell's breasts "hang over the picture like a summer thunderstorm spread out over a landscape." However, it appeared that the publicity pin-up shots were much more revealing, sultry and suggestive than the film itself.

The storyline -- the pursuit of Billy the Kid by Sheriff Pat Garrett (Thomas Mitchell), with Jane Russell as Doc Holliday's (Walter Huston) sexy, half-breed mistress Rio -- was considered too racy for contemporary audiences in 1941 when it was screened for the Hays Office. Its original release had to be postponed until 1943 - and then only in very limited release to theatres. After a one-week run at that time, Hughes decided to withdraw and shelve the film for three years after which it was finally placed in general release in 1946 (in a cut version) without a seal of approval, and then again in 1947. The eventual release of the mediocre, fictional film ended up as an example of triumphant ballyhooing and film marketing.

Song of the South (1946)
D. Harve Foster (live action), Wilfred Jackson (animation)

This remarkable Disney film was based on the "Uncle Remus" stories in the late 1800s of Joel Chandler Harris (first published as columns in the Atlanta Constitution newspaper), and was presented as one of their earliest, innovative live-action and animation mixtures. The film's song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" won the Academy Award for Best Song.

Set after the Civil War at a time when slavery was abolished during the Reconstruction Era in Georgia, its animated sequences featured Uncle Remus characters (i.e., Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox, and Br'er Bear) accompanied by live-action portions with handyman and folk story-teller Uncle Remus (Special Oscar-winning James Baskett) telling the tales of Running Away - The Briar Patch, the Tar Baby, and Br'er Rabbit's Laughing Place. The animated sequences told how Br'er Rabbit outtricked the fox and bear, and were designed as life lessons to help young Johnny (Bobby Driscoll), who was planning on running away, deal with the threatened divorce of his plantation-owning parents, and the bullying of two boys regarding Johnny's runt dog. Johnny also preferred to spend time with poor ('white-trash') blonde playmate Ginny Favors (Luana Patten) and black boy Toby (Glen Leedy) rather than his own peers.

Remarkably, it has never been released for home video consumption in the US (although it has been available in European and Asian markets). After this film's last theatrical release in 1986, it has simply vanished and been unavailable for purchase. Recently, a Disney spokesman reiterated the fact that the film may continue to be unavailable due to "the sensitivity that exists in our culture" and fears of political-correctness repercussions.

Although it has been rumored that the NAACP banned this Disney movie, that was untrue -- they simply expressed their disapproval of the portrayal of African-Americans in the film, and their concern about its potential to present an image of an idyllic master-slave relationship.

The main objection was its stereotypical depiction of blacks in the live-action sequences, although others have mistakenly thought that the movie actually depicted slavery and tacit approval of the master-slave relationship.

Baby Doll (1956)
D. Elia Kazan

Elia Kazan's film (based on Tennessee Williams' play) told about a thumb-sucking, white-trash, 19 year-old virginal 'baby doll' child bride (Carroll Baker) who was married (but unconsummated) to Mississippi cotton gin operator Archie Lee Meighan (Karl Malden), and seduced by a competing vengeful Sicilian cotton-gin owner Silva Vacarro (Eli Wallach in his film debut). In the opening scenes, Baby Doll was crib-bound in nursery furniture, spied upon through a wall by her 'peeping tom' husband, and given no privacy while taking a bath.

The defiant film was a pot-boiling, condemned, and censored drama (by the Catholic Legion of Decency) - it was viciously condemned for, among other things, a notorious, highly-sexual seduction scene on a swing, of the young 'baby doll' nymphet by Vacarro to get her to sign a letter about Archie's guilt, their game of hide-and-seek in the upstairs (and attic), and later their kissing scene under a turned-off bare bulb in an adjoining room while Baby Doll's sexually-frustrated husband Archie was speaking on the phone nearby.

The Oscar-nominated film (with four nominations, but no wins, including Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay) was called notorious, salacious, revolting, dirty, steamy, lewd, suggestive, morally repellent and provocative. Time Magazine was noted as stating: "Just possibly the dirtiest American-made motion picture that has ever been legally exhibited..." New York's Cardinal Spellman declared the film "evil in concept... certain to exert an immoral and corrupting influence on those who see it." The stark, controversial, black and white film was so viciously denounced by the Legion of Decency upon its release with a "C" (or condemned) rating that many theaters were forced to cancel their showings, but it still did moderately well at the box office despite the uproar.