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OneRoury! It's early spring in 1931 at the offices of the motion picture producers and distributors of America in Hollywood, California.

25-year-old millionaire film producer Howard Hughes steps into a modest conference room.

The atmosphere is thick with cigarette smoke, curling and lazy spirals under the overhead fan,

a sure sign that the room was packed not long ago.

But now, there's just one man waiting.

Jason Joy, the head of Studio Relations Office. He stands and offers his hand. Mr. Hughes, good to see you. Thanks so much for coming in. Well, it's hard to tell if I had a choice. Feels a bit like I've been called into the principal's office. Oh, come on, Mr. Hughes, you know, it's not like that. Our job is to help keep you out of trouble.

Shooting is about to begin on Howard's latest movie, a gangster picture called Scarface.

As usual, Howard submitted an advanced copy of the script to the MPPDA, the industry regulator that oversees film content. But a few days ago, he received an urgent summons for a meeting.

Well, I assume I'm here because you've got some sort of problem with the script.

We have concerns.

Jason flips open a heavily annotated copy of the screenplay.

Why don't we start at the end, the last scene?

You've got your main character of vicious gang boss dying in a hail of bullets in a shootout with police. Exactly, right?

Live by the sword, die by the sword. Well, maybe. But the way at stage, it makes him look

a bit like a martyr, some kind of tragic hero. Oh, Tony Comante is not a hero. He's a maniac with

a Tommy gun. Well, we're just not sure the audiences will get the nuance. The hero of the story should be your policeman. Comante should be humiliated and shown to be the coward that he is. But he's not a coward. He's many things, but he's certainly not a yellow belly. You really think it'll fly if he suddenly turns into a wimp? Well, if the moral of your story is that crime doesn't pay, then we need to see that, don't

we? Show off the bravery of the police. Reinforce the power of law and order. Have them

capture it. Come onto you alive. Put him on trial. Face justice, the consequences of his actions.

...