Boxoffice (Apr-Jun 1939)

Ontario Censors Alert to Curb Film Seizure Draws Insidious Propaganda Films Ottawa Editorial Toronto — The Ontario board of moving picture censors found it necessary to use extreme caution to prevent the spread of film propaganda during the past year, insidious views in pictures being more of a problem than indecency, according to the annual report of Chairman O. J. Silverthorne issued at Toronto, who pointed out that the censors had found it impossible to prevent reference to European “isms” in all releases. It had been decided, however, that films of this nature must be in line with the thought in Ontario and with the policies expressed by the Provincial government. Only two features were rejected by the Ontario board during the 12 months ending March 31 last and one of these was imported from Soviet Russia. Important revision also had to be made in a number of European features including two from Poland, two from Germany and a Yiddish picture, the titles of which were not revealed. A total of 2,681 subjects, including features and shorts, had been examined and 380 were revised or had deletions. There had been many complaints about gangster films, Chairman Silverthorne declared, but there was something far more serious in the world today than gangster themes, in that world peace and security were being jeopardized by “national gangsters” of a type far worse than had ever been seen on the screen. The board continued to follow its adopted course of prohibiting ridicule of any religious denomination; subjects tending to debase morals; prolonged passionate love scenes when suggesting immorality; loose conduct between men and women; excessive drinking and scenes which might provide instruction in crime. One year ago he had expressed severe criticism of the general tone of British pictures, but this had now been unnecessary because the British producer had demonstrated that he could adapt his product to the American market, record runs and increased attendance for British films indicating that the public appreciated the improvement. Chairman Silverthorne complimented the industry in Ontario on its showing with respect to fire prevention, declaring in his report that, with only one film fire and three fires in theatres, the showing was better than could be produced in any other Province or State on this Continent during the past fiscal year. Stand Finds Approval Montreal — Several resolutions passed by the Northern District Woman’s Christian Temperance Union at its annual meeting here asked that the next Dominion WCTU convention be requested to send to the American WCTU an expression of endorsement of their efforts to have drinking scenes in cinema productions reduced. The Winnipeg Tribune Reminds of Censors Winnipeg — “Betting on the ponies is a far safer pastime than attempting to predict which film a censor board will ban next,” reads an article by Ben Lepkin, Winnipeg correspondent of Boxoffice, in the Tribune. In a measure, the article in the Tribune set out to reveal to what an extent censorship prevails throughout the Dominion, although “we have no single official body exercising the functions of a censor over all forms of artistic activity. Instead this power is wielded both by the Dominion government and by separate provincial bodies set up for this purpose.” The item after citing the banning of the American magazine Ken as an illustration of censorship of journals, returns to listing the vagaries of film censorship as follows: “For instance the Ontario board of moving picture censors passed without comment from the citizens of Ontario ‘Wuthering Heights’ which Quebec had banned. Now in a formal resolution the city council of Brantford, Ont., has asked the Ontario board to ban the picture, 'The Story of Alexander Graham Bell,’ not because the good burghers of Brantford believe it will injure anybody’s morals, but ‘because any story of the life of Graham Bell in which his residence in Brantford and his connection with the telephone during that time is not given a proper place would not be founded on fact. The showing of this picture as at present constituted will do an injustice not only to the city of Brantford but to the province as a whole and would create a false impression in the minds of the public as to the facts in connection with the life of Graham Bell.’ “Now if the Ontario board of censors does not take into account the fact that Bell spent eight months as a health-seeker in their town three years before he began his telephone experiments, and thus performs its duty in the interests of historical truth, the citizens of Brantford will be exceedingly wroth with it. “Nor is the west immune to these vagaries. Some time ago the Manitoba board decreed that a certain film must not be shown here until a portion of it had been cut out. The Saskatchewan censor, who occupies a chair next to the representative of Manitoba, found nothing wrong with the picture, and passed it along intact, thereby subjecting to its baleful influence the people of Saskatchewan, who, it seems, are of a hardier moral fibre. “Neither is radio to escape scot free. Going to bat on behalf of the tots of Toronto, General J. C. Draper, Toronto’s chief of police, has started a movement Montreal — The Quebec Attorney-General’s office has seized for investigation a German film shown before a German club in Montreal. Police stopped the showing on the technical grounds that the film had not been passed by the censor and that the club held no license permitting it to charge admission for such a showing. “Any German film under such circumstances would in these days be suspected as propaganda,” comments the -Ottawa Citizen, “and it is perhaps not that the Quebec provincial police claim this particular one, ‘Pour Le Merite*’ is a glorification of the Nazi regime. “Most films coming out of German studios are propagandist in intent, as Soviet Russian films were previously. ‘Pour Le Merite’ presents a history of the German air force from 1916 on. This period, of course, would cover episodes of the Great War, the making of the peace treaty of Versailles which rendered Germany utterly impotent in the air — except for certain civil lines of communication — and the gradual breaking away from the limitations imposed until today, when the Nazi Reich stands again confident in air might. “The title of the film is that of the German decoration which General Goering is said to prize the most ... In the present state of aircraft lack, both in Canada as well as Great Britain and France, it might be a salutary experience to see this film which the Quebec provincial police have seized. But it is not likely to be distributed for general release in Canadian theatres, even in these days of film propaganda and counter propaganda.” Two or three German films have been passed recently by Alberta board of censors, according to the chairman, Rev. Robert Pearson. He described them as “mostly old plays or historical pictures, with no propaganda or other material which should not be shown in Canada.” Assign Playwright Hollywood — Curt Goetz, Swiss playwright, has been assigned to script Metro’s “The Road to Rome,” a play by Robert Sherwood, which Joseph Mankiewicz will produce as a Clark Gable-Myrna Loy starrer. to censor blood-and-thunder radio programs which, the chief feels, are not good for the little ones. He seems determined to nip in the bud the possibility of any little Canadian boy growing up into another Orson Welles. “For a country which has no official censorship we seem to be doing pretty well.” Since the above appeared in the Winnipeg Tribune the magazine Ken has been readmitted to Canada according to an official announcement from government circles. “Wuthering Heights” passed the Manitoba censor without trouble or any deletion. The fuss over “Alexander” has received thorough coverage in Boxoffice. 80 BOXOFFICE :: May 20, 1939