The Front Page

The crooked mayor and sheriff are in the press room. A reporter walks past and ignoring them picks up the phone to his editor.

Kruger calling. There's a red hot statement from the governor. [Ed. Note: This is a lie.] The governor says the mayor and the sheriff have shown themselves to be a couple of eight-year-olds playing with fire. Quote him as follows: It's a good thing for the city that next Tuesday's election day, as the citizens will be saved the expense of impeaching the mayor and the sheriff. That's all.

The reporter then brushes past on his way out, "Hi, Your Honor," and flips the bird right in the mayor's face, pretending to examine his fingernail. The year is 1931.

This is the earliest incidence of the bird on film known to me. And it's a particularly blatant usage. You could not have gotten away with that after the Hays Code was enforced in mid-1934; there was a specific rule disallowing the ridicule of law enforcement officials. The pre-Code early sound years in Hollywood were the Wild West.