The international photographer (Jan-Dec 1937)

January, 1937 The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER Tin JUST A FEW NOTES ON CENSORSHIP By Earl Theisen, Associate Editor The motion picture industry does not fear intelligent criticism, but it does fear meddling. Theoretically, the censors are trying to remove the disrespect of ; the law, the dramatization of crime and the appearance of the attractiveness of evil from the movie; actually, they are, too much of the time, dabbling with academic discussions of abstract issues. Their efforts are directed, no less, to such evils as whether a man should kiss standing up or sitting down, and whether such kisses should be of three or five seconds duration. Limp verdicts as to whether the word "finger" should be used in films except in association with a wedding ceremony are passed. The nickname "Randy," short for Randolph, is prohibited because some outlanders use the word to describe a noisy revel. "Ran," however, is all right. One film was banned because it showed a dust cloud. And so forth. Lo Kang, the chief film censor of China, wrote in May, 1931, "to define such things as love and romance and determine the point at which they become objectionable is a difficult task." He expressed the hope that Hollywood could help with the definition. In August, 1934, a Nazi Board of Censorship rejected a script, "The Courage of Suzanne." The story was about a girl who wanted a film career very badly and a film executive who wanted to seduce her, also very badly, but the censor board found the subject unfit. "The Payoff," the story, was written by William Krause, Chief Nazi Film Censor, no less. "Frankenstein" was banned in some foreign countries because it presumed to imply that others besides God could make a man. Some of the demands advanced by local censors are a buffoonery at public intelligence, rather than a regulation of right and wrong. One director of a small town community board felt called on to write Will Hays demanding that he wage a crusade against the practice of seating men and women side by side in the theaters. She wrote: "The women should sit on one side and the men on the other, with a wide aisle between. The darkened interior of movie houses creates a spell for unguided persons, and too often things happen in the theater." It is a lamented fact that one of the leading occupations is the grand old sport of minding the other fellow's business, and this, after stripping away the outer shell, is the basis of censorship. It is a determination of various individuals to make the desires and preferences of others conform to their own. The censorship yardstick certainly varies and a thing that is considered beautiful in one locality is vulgar in another. One community board will permit while a few miles across the townsite another board will thumbs down. Besides the local boards of which there are over 250 in the United States, the states having censorship are New York, Ohio. Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Kansas. Florida has a regulatory committee that works with the National Board of Review. Certain cities such as Chicago have a city group of film surgeons. Massachusetts has a Sunday censor. The chief taboos of censorship are collusion in divorce, travesty of justice, undressing, feminine underclothing, religious ceremonies, flippant treatment of death, youthful depravity, offensive political propaganda, and human suffering. The vagaries of the film surgeons and their phobias are without number. Their likes, dislikes and what they had for breakfast strongly flavor the decisions, if results may justify a conclusion. In December, 1932, Pasadena, the railroad station for Hollywood where the celebritiy alight, banned the "Our Gang" comedies on the theory the films taught the children bad manners. Warner Brothers film "G-Man" was put back in the can in Chicago because it was too exciting for children. Such films as "Dr. Monica," "Side Streets," "The Devil Is a Woman," and so forth, were held up in Chicago for assorted reasons. Also, in Chicago, in July, 1936, the local censor board refused to issue a permit on "I Was a Captive in Nazi Germany," the reason being, the Germans might object. At the same time the local Warner Brothers office scratched their collective heads trying to get around the inference of an illegitimdte child in the film "Anthony Adverse," a movie generally rated as "artistic" by those who rate^things. If the sequence about the child could not be made nice the board was going to thumbs down, or words to that effect. Mae West's film, "It Ain't No Sin," was limited to adults only by this board. All is not serene within the censor ranks. They get into each others' long hair. In Portland the city council twice overruled the censor board when the movie snippers refused the showing of films. One such film was the R.K.O. film, "The Meanest Gal in Town." Mayor Anton Cermak got irked at the censor board in Chicago for passing the Douglas Fairbanks (Turn to Page 24)