Canadian Moving Picture Digest (May 1, 1954)

cil MAY 1, 1954 PAGE THREE CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST Kay Presents I was not angry at the signing, but I was red in the face at the Unjust Smear. In defining an “immoral film,” the definition, which I quote, is as follows, “the dominant purpose or effect of which is erotic or pornographic, or which portrays acts of sexual immorality, perversion of lewdness, or which expressedly or impliedly presents such acts as desirable, acceptable, or proper patterns of behavior!” WAS looking at my garden, and it made me think of The Glenn Miller Story. There was a tenderness in the atmosphere, with everything so young and gentle. The love-story in The Glenn Miller Story has that quality. The tiny blades of grass, in the garden, the birds on the trees, and on the berry bushes, had a quiet air about them. The Sun was still gentle in its heat, as if conscious that the resurrected and young life, was still too young for too much warmth. As I read of the Glenn Miller Story going into its ninth week, at Loew’s Uptown, Toronto, I had an affectionate glow of thought for the people of the world, HERE is, also, the classification, “incite to crime,” and this is defined as follows, “the dominant purpose and effect of which is to suggest that the commission of criminal acts or contempt of Jaw is profitable, desirable, acceptable or respectable behavior; or which advocates or teaches the use of narcotics or habit-forming drugs.” The definitions are a base libel against the Motion Picture Industry, for no pictures, which come within with whom I had been a bit angry. Angry on account of the Hydrogen Bomb and the talk about a Nitrogen Bomb, angry because of the story about the Hydrogen Bomb, doing things which were unexpected, getting out of hand. NGRY because of the radioactive effect thousands of miles away, and the disclosure of the jet stream of air 20,000 feet up, and what could happen if the jet stream carried particles of dust from The Bomb. I was angry when I read of the pock-marked windshields, of millions of dead fish lining the shores of lakes, for which was given some excuse, and which made me wonder how many fish were dead in the Pacific! I was more angry, when I read of the attempts to “hush, hush,’ any accusations against the Hydrogen Bomb, and my anger was growing in intensity, when I read that there were some in power, who looked on such definitions would get to first base with the Industry's Code; and in all the forty years of my association with Motion Pictures, and among the thousands of pictures which I have seen, not one have I seen with or without a seal, which taught, that the Prostitution of Sex, was desirable, nor that Crime was a desirable voca tion or pursuit, DO not ignore the baseness in the makeup of some human beings, look at the filthy white slavers, and the double filthy dope peddlers, but that kind of Trading is not sold in our Theatres and upon our Screens. Let those, who gave Governor Thomas E, Dewey the “definitions” name the pictures which they have seen, to which these “definitions” could be applied. The new bill is the result of the recent Supreme Court descisions, which attacked the “vagueness” of the term “immoral.” Now, all that I have to see, is a Newsreel, Oppenheimer’s advice, not to make the Hydrogen Bomb, as an evidence of his disloyalty, an act of treason, which he had committed against the United States! It recalled the heresy charges against Jeanne D'Arc. showing Governor Dewey signing this Libellous Bill of Definitions, presented on our Screen, to make me turn blue in the face. HERE is the poem I just wrote about the Laughing I HAVE been angry at Senator Joe McCarthy’s grandstand Daffodils, let us have it, so that I can cool off. horseplay for a considerable time, for he is sidetracking the great objective of Peace in our Time, which peace could be as a Living Testimonial of our sincerity, bequeathed to our children. What is the matter with the brain-power, the sincerity of some of the wise men of the World, who have seen the devastation which wars bring to people, and to property, the degradation of Human Rights which occurs, the spoiled Spoils of such Conflicts, that these people cannot convince each other of the Futility of Wars and the Benefits of Peace! The laughing laughing daffodils, The daughters of the Spring, Throw back their hooded covering, Within the Magic Ring. I've lived to welcome you again, To see my garden glow, With hum of life and song of birds, Spring-stars from stars of snow. Wake up, wake up, you little buds, Close-wrapped on cherry-tree, A little robin cocks his head, And looks from you to me. S Evil so glib of tongue, and are its Ambassadors, the men and women, who wear the insignia of profound learning, and who continually use the alibi, “we cannot stop the March of Progress?” Is the destruction of life, evidence of Progress? Have we learned to climb to fantastic heights, beyond the ceiling of the clouds, penetrating into No Man’s Land of the Heavens, to drop bombs on the earth! Is this Progress of Science? I was very, very angry at people, for their apathy, for their cruelty, for their destructive ambition; and I wondered what God Would Do To Us, for our Great Sin, the Sin which is not exclusively scientific, nor the Sin of Physicists, whom we wall-in and to whom we dictate, “Create Death.” Wake up, wake up, you buried seeds, Spear a passage through The parting earth, for your birth, Life smiles and welcomes you, All in good time, my robin-friend, Blossoms must bloom, be merry, I promise you, I will not take, The blossoms, nor one cherry. THOUGHT of what the Atom Bomb had done, the dead, the wounded, the living-dead. 1 thought of Governor Thomas E. Dewey, who signed the New York State film censorship bill on April 12, 1954. Feather your nest, you wise, young bird, Blink your eyes for sleep, (Continued on Page 7)