What exactly did "Pre Hays Code" mean?

there were some full Monty shots but rather brief.

 

Minnie Mouse losing her bloomers has to be the most corrupting influence known to man. Who knows what children will think after seeing a naked cartoon rat.

 

A few post-code films, like a Joe McDoaks short, did show married couples in bed.

 

Joseph Breen loved Charlie Chaplin and felt he could do no wrong.

 

It wasn't the Hays code, it was the BREEN code. Joseph Breen took over the Production Code Administration in the early 30s and supervised the code crackdown in 1934. Hays was just a figurehead by then. Originally, pre-code referred to a particular set of films made in 1932 and '33 that contained some jaw-dropping scenes and lines to attract patrons who had very little money. Films up through 1931 were tame by comparison, and it's annoying that now everything filmed going back to 1895 is now referred to as "Pre-Code"! 1932 and 1933 films are significant in that they brought the code crackdown on.

 

...One example of the naughtiness of pre-Code movies that I like is in 42ND STREET. It's the first, street clothes, rehearsal of the show they're putting on. The chorus girls sit on the chorus boy's laps in formation.
One chorus boy yells, complaining, " Hey! Whaddaya think you're sittin' on? " to a chorus girl. " A flagpole!!!!!!!!! " she replies! When I told my 1924-born father that he said " Whoo! They really could be raunchy! " or similar.
I think the edits from King Kong of the nastier scenes were at least partly for length, as it was reissued in double and triple bills over the years.
I am told that, especially when shown projected on silver nitrite film, maybe in completely dark theaters (I think movie theaters to-day for greater safety leave a touch of " night light " on), some pre-Code tight gowns and such come awfully close to full nudity! Mick LaSalle argues that, had the pre-Code period lasted longer, there would have been full nudity. The pre-Code film SEARCH FOR BEAUTY, with Ida Lupino and Buster Crabbe (which for complicated reasons has a number of alternate cuts of bit players undressing) shows brief full nudity in some edits!

 

Chaplin did plenty wrong, but his films were genius.