US adds 'Baby Face,' 'Rocky Horror' to registry

[ZetaPhi708]

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - Films that helped usher in a new era of censorship, changed the way Hollywood thought about the audience, provided a first-hand look at one of the nation's great disasters and introduced the world to the word "gnarly" are among the 25 films the librarian of Congress named to the National Film Registry on Tuesday.

Among the films selected by James H. Billington for inclusion in the registry are the 1933 Barbara Stanwyck film "Baby Face," whose racy content inspired the Hays Production Code, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," which took audience participation to another level, and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," which gave use "gnarly buds," were all included in the registry.

"The films we choose are not necessarily the 'best' American films ever made or the most famous, but they are films that continue to have cultural, historical or aesthetic significance," Billington said.

Billington made his selections from more than 1,000 titles nominated by the public after lengthy discussions with the library's motion picture division staff and members of the National Film Preservation Board.

The registry, was created by Congress in 1989 to preserve films of cultural, historical of artistic significance. Selection in the National Film Registry singles out films for preservation either in the Library of Congress' own archive or facilities elsewhere.

Big studio releases usually are cared for at their own archives, or other variants of public and private film archives. Entry in the registry often puts a priority on the films named. If they aren't being preserved, inclusion in the registry often moves them up on the priority list.

With Stanwyck in the title role as a slutty bartender, "Baby Face" helped pave the way for the industry's self-regulatory Hays Production Code, which frowned on nudity and racy language. With the rise of the auteur filmmaker in the 1960s, and the release of such films as "Blow Up," the code started to crack, and was eventually junked in 1968 as one of the first actions by newly installed Motion Picture Assn. of America president Jack Valenti, who replaced it with the now familiar ratings system.

Warner Brothers cut some of the more objectionable scenes from "Baby Face" in order to release it. An uncensored version of the film was discovered last year, and that was the one selected by the registry.

"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" reinvented the midnight movie and created a cult following as the audience became as much a part of the film as the actors on the screen.

"It changed the whole movie experience as the audience became part of the show for good or bad," said Steve Leggett, National Film Preservation Board staff coordinator.

The oldest film included in the registry this year in a documentary of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and fire. The disaster was one of the first recorded on film, Leggett said.

Also included in the film list are some of Hollywood biggest hits of the 1970s and early 1980s including "The Sting"; "Cool Hand Luke"; "The French Connection" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High."

"In 'The Sting' you had two actors at the top of their game." Leggett said. "It was just huge, and really brought back Scott Joplin's music. It was a great con scheme and Robert Shaw, who unfortunately died young, played kind of the bad guy."

While "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" might seem an odd choice in the same year that "A Raisin in the Sun" and "The Music Man" were selected, Leggett says the film was significant culturally.

"There were tons of pretty good '80s teen films with 'Risky Business,' 'Sixteen Candles' and the like," he said. "But this one was kind of the first. It also introduced us to Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli."

A complete list of National Film Registry selections follows.

1) "Baby Face" (1933)

2) "The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man" (1975)

3) "The Cameraman" (1928)

4) Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort, S.C., May 1940

(1940)

5) "Cool Hand Luke" (1967)

6) "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982)

7) "The French Connection" (1971)

8) "Giant" (1956)

9) "H2O" (1929)

10) "Hands Up" (1926)

11) "Hoop Dreams" (1994)

12) "House of Usher" (1960)

13) "Imitation of Life" (1934)

14) Jeffries-Johnson world championship fight (1910)

15) "Making of an American" (1920)

16) "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947)

17) "Mom and Dad" (1944)

18) "The Music Man" (1962)

19) "Power of the Press" (1928)

20) "A Raisin in the Sun" (1961)

21) "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975)

22) San Francisco earthquake and fire, April 18, 1906

(1906)

23) "The Sting" (1973)

24) "A Time for Burning" (1966)

25) "Toy Story" (1995)


PERSONAL COMMENT: Just think, in 1,000 years, people will still be doing the Time Warp and throwing rice......