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16 MOTION PICTURES sex motive still desired by those who have the right to determine what shall be shown? That can be decided not by a study of what the producers think, but by a study of the carefully thought out sets of standards put forth by the representative groups of people who have interested themselves in the problem. The best organized of these sets of crystallized public opinion are those of the various boards of censorship, all of which attempt to keep in touch with public opinion. In considering them, it must be borne in mind that they are not absolute, that no board rigidly adheres to them. The Pennsylvania Board of Censorship, which has been considered as representative of the best in American legal control of motion pictures, has formulated a very definite series of rules concerning the things that may not be shown, yet time and again mention is made, even in the rules themselves, that it is the spirit and not the letter thereof that will be carried out in the actual process of censoring. l One rule states that scenes in which the body is unduly exposed will be disapproved, yet in recent showings of the "Queen of Sheba", for example, the human form was repeatedly shown with an unusual amount of exposure, which was apparently not con- sidered "undue." The reason for the apparent departure from the regulations was that the Board apparently recognized that the scenes were in keeping with the historical setting and that the underlying motives were remarkably free from the suggestive. Morals vary with the passing of time; they are not the same in all parts of the world, even in the various parts of the United States. The narrowest and most poorly equipped censorship official soon after entering office realizes that his judgments must 1 The standards of the Pennsylvania Board of Censors were derived from those of the English censors, and in turn, have been adopted by practically all American previewing officials, with only minor changes. The present English standards which are given in Appendix C, are possibly too detailed to allow for a wise use of individual judgment which seems essential in cen- soring, but they are nevertheless in fundamental agreement with the accepted American standards.