Film Censorship in England

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 104, 23 July 1927, Page 23

Film Censorship in England

“Weak-Kneed Attitude" HOME OFFICE ATTACKED GREAT disappointment was expressed by Lord Danesfort in the course of a recent debate in the House of Lords at what he termed “the weak-kneed attitude of the Home Office.” A discussion on film censorship resulted in some interesting state* ments in regard to the movies in England. Lord Dapcsfort called attention to the British system of censorship, and. moved for papers. It was Impossible, he said, to exaggerate the subject, either from the point of view of the numbers who attended film exhibitions or of the wide influence of films. It was estimated that 20,000,000 a week visited the showing of films in Britain. This number includes many children. Quoting from the report of the Board of Film Censors, of 1925, to show the kind of objectionable material with which they had to deal, it was pointed out that “scenes of gross indecency as regards dress, dancing, gesture, and revelry” were contained in some pictures. Only Seven Rejections Out of 1,885 films submitted, of which 1,517 were passed without changes, 361 were passed after alteration, and of the whole number only seven were rejected. In the course of a report, the board said that they very much deprecated what seemed to be a growing habit on the part of actors of both sexes to divest themselves of their clothing on the slightest or no provocation. Some of the cabaret scenes were not decorous or even decent. Lord Oliver, who, according to the “Daily Telegraph.” said that he attended picture theatres a good deal, considered that the film industry appeared to exercise in an admirable manner the responsibility placed upon it by the Board of Censors. The Bishop of Southwark said it was difficult to exaggerate the influence of the cinemas, especially on the young. He thought that on the whole it had been beneficial. Lord DesboruUgh said that the Government were very grateful to Lord Danesfort for raising this very important subject. had been onlytht headf4ddp-d-c Never Again! Lord Banbury confessed that he had been to a motion picture theatre only once, and he created laughter among his colleagues when he declared that he never wanted to go again. No doubt, he said, there had been certain cases in which children had been convicted of crime, and their excuse had been that they had seen it in the pictures. He hoped that the Home Office could remedy what was admittedly an evil.