Watch Movies Banned by the National Legion of Decency on TCM

For more than 100 years, movies have been offending someone, and no group has spent more time on the front lines of “decency” battles than the Catholic Legion of Decency, later renamed the National Legion of Decency. They went all the way to the Supreme Court to argue for the right to ban films deemed “sacrilegious.”

Turner Classic Movies is going to show a series of films deemed “indecent” to let people judge for themselves what they think is appropriate. These films are quite mild in most respects by today’s standards, with the kind of material often shown on broadcast television. Not all of the films on the schedule are classics, but all are worth watching to see how standards change over time, and also to see some great stars and great performances.