Changes

The [[Motion Picture Production Code]] demanded that any person who killed another receive punishment for that death before the end credits rolled. The usual interpretation of that is that the malefactor must suffer the punishment in relatively short order, and not years later.

The [[Motion Picture Production Code]] demanded that any person who killed another receive punishment for that death before the end credits rolled. The usual interpretation of that is that the malefactor must suffer the punishment in relatively short order, and not years later.

In point of fact, very few criminals know to "quit while they are ahead." Thus, had Rhoda Penmark been a real person, she probably would have continued to commit crime after crime, until at length she would commit a crime that she could not conceal, and fall into the hands of an authority that would not make a botched attempt at summary justice aimed at sparing her any embarrassment or any such thing as what Christine Penmark attempts. Instead, that authority would see to it that Rhoda paid for her latest mistake, and in full. This might have happened many years later, but that she would successfully elude prosecution to the very end seems unlikely. So Mr. LeRoy might have achieved his objective (to show that crime never pays forever) by framing his story, not in a [[thunderstorm]] on a pier that takes place immediately after the failed murder-suicide, but instead in a courtroom where an adult Rhoda Penmark is awaiting [[jury]] deliberation after having stood trial for a murder that she committed ''as'' an adult. Following the wrapup of the story of Rhoda as a child, the adult Rhoda would have stood to receive the verdict in her adult case; that verdict would, of course, have been "Guilty" and the purpose of the Code would have been served.

In point of fact, very few criminals know to "quit while they are ahead." Thus, had Rhoda Penmark been a real person, she probably would have continued to commit crime after crime, until at length she would commit a crime that she could not conceal, and fall into the hands of an authority that would not make a botched attempt at summary justice aimed at sparing her any embarrassment or any such thing as what Christine Penmark attempts. Instead, that authority would see to it that Rhoda paid for her latest mistake, and in full. This might have happened many years later, but that she would successfully elude prosecution to the very end seems unlikely. So Mr. LeRoy might have achieved his objective (to show that crime never pays forever) by framing his story, not at a pier in a [[thunderstorm]] that rages immediately after the failed murder-suicide, but instead in a courtroom where an adult Rhoda Penmark is awaiting [[jury]] deliberation after having stood trial for a murder that she committed ''as'' an adult. Following the wrapup of the story of Rhoda as a child, the adult Rhoda would have stood to receive the verdict in her adult case; that verdict would, of course, have been "Guilty" and the purpose of the Code would have been served.

Furthermore, one could argue that Mervyn LeRoy ultimately did fail to observe the Code in every particular, and that the Production Code Administration failed to catch one key lapse: that Rhoda Penmark's biological grandmother, Bessie Denker, ''did'' escape punishment by moving from one jurisdiction to another and never being subject to [[extradition]]. That she never appeared on camera would seem to be almost a specious excuse, and perhaps this case was one of many, even before ''Psycho'' (1960), that strained the Code to the breaking point.

Furthermore, one could argue that Mervyn LeRoy ultimately did fail to observe the Code in every particular, and that the Production Code Administration failed to catch one key lapse: that Rhoda Penmark's biological grandmother, Bessie Denker, ''did'' escape punishment by moving from one jurisdiction to another and never being subject to [[extradition]]. That she never appeared on camera would seem to be almost a specious excuse, and perhaps this case was one of many, even before ''Psycho'' (1960), that strained the Code to the breaking point.