Screenland (Oct 1923-Mar 1924)

Is Film Censorship DE M1EJIAN STUDIOS II Eleanor Stitt, one of the show girls of the revue, Artists and Models, in a costume not much unlike that worn on the stage during the production. "Opposing this counterfeit of life in motion pictures is, however, just like hitting against a brick wall. The American public seems to have a penchant for fairy tales, particularly on the screen. Most of the world seems to want to escape from reality. The Pollyanna picture allows them to make that mistake. "There is much discussion at the present time about the production of The Lullaby, in which Florence Reed is starred. I have not seen the play, but from what I have heard of the story it seems to me to be just another type of the mother theme which motion picture producers have been delighting in of late with the usual boiling over of sentimentality. Public Against Realities Generally," Mr. Barrett continued, "the public is not particularly inclined to favor realities. They like the snowy heroine, the blameless hero and villain who can't be reformed. This is one of the deep reasons for our Pollyanna film morality. "Even when you are capable of regarding the Pollyanna picture as artistic you have to admit that it is untruth iD glossing over unpleasant things. 5G "Personally I do not believe that bad pictures are being made at the present time. Although the distortion of life for which the censors are responsible is often harmful. How can any three people in the world decide for the rest of the world what is moral or immoral. "Censorship has succeeded only in putting the fear of God into the producer and in mutilating motion pictures or garbling the realities. Flaming Youth Condemned censorship as it is I think the recent film production of Flaming Youth was a short-sighted policy for any producer. It distorted life. And while it had no vicious qualities it was capitalizing the appeal of a book which was selling purely because of its sensational character. The book was written in a crude and inartistic way. As it was written the story could not be reproduced for the screen. But it was glossed over in a manner just as objectionable. "The legal censor is a political appointee. His job rests on the assumption that there are elements in motion pictures which require deletion. He does not deal with particulars. Therefore the picture censor is placed in the position where he must always make cuts in order to illustrate to the public that his job is a useful and necessary one. He must present a list of cuts every week in order to justify his job. To make the cuts he is under a psychological obligation to discover things in the motion picture that he may regard as objectionable. The Eye Sees What It Wants to See It is a psychological fact that what the eye is bent upon seeing it will see nine times out of ten. "When this state of affairs is brought to a constant review of motion pictures it means that a mental habit is formed. Objectionable matter will constantly be perceived where very often it does not exist. "Moreover the legal censor is concerned with the deletion of detail rather than with regarding the subject in its net or total effect. It is true that in drama or literature as well as in motion pictures detail which might at first glance seem objectionable when taken in context with what the story or play or picture means is dramatically and theoretically justifiable. This, however, raises the old point of contention between those who would censor and suppress and those who would not." Dr. E. Edward Young, pastor of the Bedford Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn and chairman of a special committee of the Crime Society which has been investigating Broadway d 11 Sugar-coating the realities of life under censorship is a decided menace " says Wilton A. Barrett, executive secretary . of the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. d " Screen censorship insists on the heroine, who is a virgin, the hero, who is chaste, and the villain, who is solid black. Everything and everybody under the censors must be black or white. There is no middle course. <I 11 Opposing this counterpart of life in motion pictures is just like hitting against a brick wall. The American public seems to have a penchant for fairy tales, particularly as to the screen."