Censored : the private life of the movie (1930)

Record Details:

Title:
Censored : the private life of the movie
Date:
1930
Publisher:
New York : Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith, Incorporated
Volume:
Censored : the private life of the movie
Leaf #:
000140
Language:
English
Collection:
Books
Format:
Books
Contributor:
Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Date Added:
March 21, 2024
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PRIVATE LIFE OF THE MOVIE crime is coloured by a million dollar morality. Roulette wheels, cards and dice are usually cut from the pictures while the great American Gambling resort, the Stock Exchange, is reproduced with great pride. Torture as represented by capital punishment may not be portrayed even as a form of partisanship for abolition of state murder. At the same time the horrors of the Iron Maid, and the abysmal suffering of characters as in Ben Hur are continued in many pictures. Thus we see that the censors are selective sadists — bearing no grudge against evidence of man's bestiality, but merely directing its use. Probably the most incongruous and illegal action ever taken by the censors was to bar Fatty Arbuckle from the films. No one need condone his notorious sexual escapade but surely the censors went far beyond the letter of the law when they banned pictures in which he acted. True enough, the public had some ground for outrage and complaint, but to the censor the sole test should have been within the four edges of the film. Does not the law relate to the effect of a picture? Canon Chase, 92