The Moving picture world (December 1920)

December 18, 1920 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 839 Exceptions Taken by British Censors to All Pictures Imported During 1919 Special from the Washington (D. C.) Bureau, Moving Picture World. THE Washington (D. C.) Bureau of Moving Picture World, through the courtesy of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, is enabled to present for the consideration of the exporters of moving picture films doing or desirous of doing business in Great Britain, a list of exceptions which have heretofore been made by the British Board of Film Censors in its routine work of examining films. During the year 1919, the last year for which figures are available, there was presented to the board a total of 6,233,155 feet of motion picture film. Although the board has in some years examined a larger footage, it is said the decrease so noted is due to the tendency on the part of the manufacturers, especially in the United States, to produce a less number of subjects, but to considerably increase the capital expenditure on each production and also its length. This film footage embraced 2,311 subjects, of which 1,454 were passed for universal exhibition, 829 passed for public exhibition with a restrictive certificate, while twenty-eight films were entirely rejected. Exception was also taken to 253 films. This number is said to be largely in excess of any previous year, proving, the board declares, that the films have become of a more complex nature, requiring even more thought and consideration on the part of the examiners than heretofore. The exceptions taken were for the following reasons: Materialization of the conventional figure of Christ. Unauthorized use of royal names, public characters and well known members of society. Inflammatory political subtitles. Indecorous and inexpedient titles and subtitles. Subtitles in the nature of swearing. Cruelty to animals, including cockfights. Irreverent treatment of religious observances and beliefs. Making young girls drunk. Excessive drunkenness. Brutality and torture to women. Subjects in which crime is the dominant feature. Commitment of crime by children. Criminal poisoning by dissemination of germs. The practice of the third degree in the United States. Cumulative effect of crime. Murders with realistic and gruesome details. Executions and crucifixions. Cruelty to children. Excessive cruelty and torture to adults. Fights showing extreme brutality and gruesome details. Gruesome incidents. Actual scenes of branding men and animals. Women fighting with knives. Doubtful characters exalted to heroes. Nude figures. Offensive vulgarity and indecent gestures. Improper exhibition of feminine underclothing. Impropriety in dress. Indecorous dancing. Reference to controversial or international politics. Scenes calculated to inflame racial hatred. Incidents having a tendency to disparage friendly relations with Britain's allies. Scenes dealing with India and other British dependencies by which the religious beliefs and racial susceptibilities of their peoples may be wounded. Antagonistic relations of capital and labor and scenes showing conflict between the protagonists. Scenes tending to disparage public characters and public institutions. Disparagement of the institution of marriage. Misrepresentation of police methods. Holding up the king's uniform to ridicule. Scenes in which British officers are seen in a discreditable light in their relations with eastern peoples. Prolonged and harrowing details in death-bed scenes. Medical operations. Excessive revolver shooting. Attempted criminal assaults on women. Scenes indicating that a criminal assault on a woman has just been perpetuated. Salacious wit. "First Night" scenes. Scenes dealing with, or suggestive of, immorality. Indelicate sexual situations. Holding up the sacrifice of a woman's virtue as laudable. Infidelity on the part of husband justifying adultery on the part of wife. Bedroom and bathroom scenes of an equivocal character. Prostitution and procuration. Effect of veneral disease, inherited or acquired. Confinement and puerperal pains. Deliberate adoption of a life of immorality, justified or extenuated. Disorderly houses. Women promiscuously taking up men. Dead bodies. "Clutching hands." Subjects in which sympathy is enlisted for the criminal. Animals gnawing men and children. Realistic scenes of epilepsy. Trial scenes of important personages that are sub-judice. Suggestions of incest. During the year twenty-eight films were totally rejected for the following reasons : The drug habit in connection with a notorious case. Insistence on the inferiority of the colored races. Predominance of crime and sympathy enlisted with the criminal. Advocacy of the doctrines of free love. Preaching anti-social and revolutionary doctrines. Realistic executions. Materialization of the Deity. Illegal joperations. Seduction of girls and attempts thereat treated without due restraint. CLARENCE L. LINZ. Paid advertising on the screen cheats your audiences and they know it — don't forget that. To cheat your audiences is the surest way to kill off your patronage. Don't let a few dollars now kill your business for the immediate future. A cheated customer will go elsewhere just as soon as he realizes what has been done to him. :— — — — ^ 1 I