LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 120, 14 February 1921, Page 5

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

PICTURE CENSORSHIP Sir, —To lead the effusions of Ministers ! on the proposal to exclude moving pictures which feature murders, suicides, and robbery, only serves to show how little they have studied the matter, and bow narrow their outlook is. The Minister of Education (Mr. Parr) says that it was ridiculous to quote rhe murder in “Macbeth” as any justification, as no one would think of comparing it with ■ tlie murder done by a crook in a dive. Why should they not? Where was there such a thorough-going crook as Macbeth and his bloodthirsty spouse? Where a murder so foul as that of the venerable King Duncan sjid Macduff’s wife and "brood”? The Minister missed one point, viz., that is that the murders of Duncan, Banquo and the Macduff family are only referred to in the dialogue, • not actually acted upon the stage. The only death 'that actually occurs in "Macbeth” is that of the kingly crook himself, who is most righteously slaughtered by the outraged Macduff. The point I wish to make is that the beauty and majesty of language which Mr. Parr speaks of cannot be held out as a veil to tin ugly crime, such, as, for example, tho stabbling of Caesar in "Julius Caesar,” and if such crimes are tolerated in plays, I for one cannot see consistency in banning them from the screen, whether the incident itself be enacted in tights and ruffles cf three centuries ago or a sack suit of to-day. There is no real difference between a murder from the classics and one in a modern photo, play. Take, for instance, "Oliver Twist” and the murder therein of Nancy Sykes by her atrocious Bill. Never since I read the hook as a boy have I been able to erase the picture of poor Nancy crawling about in a welter of her own blood, with Bill brandishing his vicious club over her poor head. I have ,' ia ' dreds of "movie” murders, but find difficulty in recalling specific murders on the screen. The memory of the byKes murder will live with me for ever. I take it that every drama must , have wrong-doing as a leading motive, in order to point a moral. Aou , S 8 ? 110 * a drama without some high offence avrinst the moralities, and in most plays the wrongful act, whether acted KUtro-ested, is a feature. As in Che Silver King,” there would be no play without the murder of tho first act, and tales like East Bvnne would be rendered innocuous '"thout the murder at the opening. You can no more differentiate between romanHo murders and realistic ones (tho romantic one St easily Im frightfully realised than vou can between lust and love, 'if the Minister had come at the sexual stuff in pictures that is so repellent to the clean minded, his case would have Keen a good deal stronger than it is against criminal