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IMPRESSIONS AND REFLECTIONS
cates of the British Board of Film Censors?' This is certainly correct, but the Board itself does not appear to have expert knowledge of child psychology. I give an example. I recently saw a film, Somewhere in Camp, a film with a 'U' certificate. In this film a wife beats up her husband who has just returned from camp on unexpected leave, a scene which is hardly suitable for children. Or another soldier finds his wife with a 'lodger', and finally a scene is produced during which an old viveur looks for a housekeeper and the first gesture of the old gentleman when an aspirant appears is to search for details under his victim's frock. In five years from now such a film may be shown in our children's cinemas, not to mention the fact that some hundred thousand children have already seen it.
Perhaps one might be inclined to think that this was just an unhappy incident. 'You know all human institutions are frail' or some similar excuse may be brought forward. We do not criticise one incident, we criticise a system. Take, for example, a tU3 trailer introducing the recent film To Have and Have Not, with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall as main actors. This film is very rightly certified 'A'. But it appears that the recent practice of the Film Censors is to provide 'U' trailers even for 'A' pictures. Now, I would like to see an educationalist in this country who would approve of this so-called 'U' trailer to this very 'sexy' type of film. You see, for instance, in this 'U' trailer, a kissing scene accompanied by a dialogue between the leading actors from which even experienced adults may have something to learn. (I saw this trailer in an ABC cinema in Norwich on August 7th 1945.)
To sum up: the constructive potentialities of these children's cinemas are immense. Given good film material, available in greater quantity than is now being used, given further an intelligent and responsible club management by experienced youth club leaders, these clubs could eventually become a real supplementary instrument for the civic education of our children.
The need and urge for entertainment can, and indeed must, go together with education. Any obtrusive moralising by films is abhorred by children — either in the form of films, slide, or 'club promise'. Many local managers would, I firmly believe, share my request for a speedy and revolutionary reform of the present state of affairs. But such a request is difficult to fulfil without the necessary pressure of the House of Commons, in view of the centralised structure of the film industry which runs such clubs. Our political scientists have dealt, it seems to me, too much with the 'new despotism' within the civil service, the 'new despotism' within
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