Boxoffice (Jan-Mar 1941)

PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY ASSOCIATED PUBLICATIONS BEN SHLYEN Publisher MAURICE KANN Editor -in-Chief William G. Formby, Editor; Jesse Shlyen, Managing Editor; Louis Rydell, Advertising Manager; Morris SCHLOZMAN, BUSines s Manager; J. Harry Toler, Editor Modern Theatre Section; A. J. Stocker, Eastern Representative; Ivan Spear, Western Manager. Editorial Offices : 9 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA, NEW york city; Publication Offices: 4804 east 9th 1ST., KANSAS CITY, MO./ Hollywood: 6404 Hollywood blvd.; Chicago: 332 SOUTH MICHIGAN BLVD. FEBRUARY 22. 1941 Vol. 38 No. 14 This Thing Called Censorship FIRST major studio release since "Strange Cargo" to be condemned by the Legion of Decency, the industry is entitled to know more about the situation confronting "This Thing Called Love" than merely that it has been banned. In the censorship states, the film was passed without cuts. In script and final form, it went through the production code bath and must have come out clean and shiny because it has a seal of approval tied around its neck. A print had been in New York almost a month before the Legion took a look. Meanwhile, approximately forty first runs were booked in and around Christmas and New Year's, and played. Bought by the Music Hall, sight unseen, the New York run was set back by six weeks of "The Philadelphia Story” and an agreement to spot "Arizona" immediately after "Story." Representatives of the Legion first saw the film in the projection room along with a Hays office committee representing women's clubs. Later, the Legion reviewing body sat through it a second time when a militant minority struck for a "condemned" rating. Subsequently came a third showing out of which emerged such a listing. The Legion states the film never had any other rating and offers its official records to prove the point. Yet various interested parties on the other side stand stubbornly by their impression the picture was heading for a "B," or objectionable in part, classification. This impression, by the way, seems not to have given birth through wishful thinking, but through conversation and discussion. At any rate and regardless of impression no matter how created, "This Thing Called Love" stands condemned by the Legion. Case of the Seven SEVEN other attractions play a necessary part in this discussion, although there could be more. In "Vivacious Lady," the general idea, having to do with a married couple, was to get them started on their honeymoon. The plot threw obstacles in the way until time came to end the film, just as in "This Thing Caked Love." Legion rating on "Vivacious Lady," "A-2," or unobjectionable for adults. In "My Favorite Wife," two wives and one husband were the principals under the same roof. In "Too Many Husbands," there were two husbands and one wife, the same general obstacles, the same objective. Legion ratings in both cases, "B," or objectionable in part. In "The Philadelphia Story," the audience never knew, and certainly the principals did not, whether Katharine Hepburn had an affair with James Stewart by the swimming pool. In fact, Miss Hepburn expressed regret over the uncertainty. Legion rating, "B." In "Arise My Love," Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland spent days in the country and they were not married. In "Back Street," Margaret Sullavan lived with Charles Boyer for twenty-five years, while Boyer was married to, and had children by, another woman. Legion ratings, in both cases, "B." In "They Knew What They Wanted," Carole Lombard, while engaged to Charles Laughton, has a child by William Gargan. All, finally, was forgiven. Legion rating "A-2," or unobjectionable for adults. In "This Thing Called Love," Rosalind Russell and Melvyn Douglas are married. Theirs is a bedroom farce, certainly on the risque side, but involving no other man and no other woman. Yet this picture is condemned without reservation. And Now — j T IS OBVIOUSLY time now to put the quesI tion. Was this attraction condemned by the Legion because of content not widely dissimilar from plot and treatment characterizing, let us say, the seven films already outlined? Or was it condemned because the Legion, having warned producers some time since to watch their step, was on the lookout for a guinea pig and pounced upon the first likely candidate to stroll across its line of vision? This, then, is the possibility about which the industry is entitled to know. It ought to be of considerable interest to those who real’ze surface markings do not always, or necessarily, present a complete picture. There, and for this day at least, the discussion rests.