FILM CENSORS IN AMERICA.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1012, 30 December 1910, Page 5

FILM CENSORS IN AMERICA.

The power of the moving-picture show for good or evil seems now to bo. a vital issue all over the country (says the "New York Evening Post"), and hundreds of city officers are searching through codes for ordinances under which they may legally stop the exhibition of certain films, or hurriedly passing new laws td meet tho situation, Chicago had had for somo timo an effective • way of dealing with objectionable shows in its special hoard, whose business it is to censor them in advance, and also to inspect the actual performances as a double safeguard. The five men on the board cover the city.. .From rhc censors' offie;: in tho City Hall the men go out to the manufacturers' places, to the five hundred theatres or moro "regularly, to tho score or more of filhl exchanges. There the rolls are run off for approval. In one case the policeman sat alone looking intently at tho "silent drama,", while half a dozen employees of tho exchange stood anxiously about him. He held up his hand, and the tho machine was stopped. "You'll have to cut out that murder," he said, decisively.

"But it will sDoil that story—that'? tho whole point!"" jileaded the manager) whilo the other men crowded around, adding their arguments. 'Can't lieln it," answered me policeman. "You'll have to clin that muruer and give it to me, or you'll get no permit for that film in Chicago." And thero was no heln for it. Tho film was taken out, the murder scene cut from it, and a "reading notice" inserted to explain what had happened in the hiatus. The list of objectionable features isnos a long one, Tint rather broad, and leaves much -to the discretion of tho censor. Crime must not be presented in a heroic aspect; thero must bo no murdprs; no burglars or other criminals are allowed to. escape the police. If tho film puts the erring 'boy in gaol, or restores him, repentant, to tho arms of his mother, with. a promise never, to do. so again, the nolice recognise the wholesome moral that" has been brought borne, and approve.' Faithless wives, - wayward '.insbands, kidnappings, hold-ups, slugging matches, and'any form of suKgastiveness also come undo* the bun w CincMO;