"Lummox ” Ban

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1046, 9 August 1930, Page 26

"Lummox ” Ban

AUSTRALIAN SECRETARY IGNORES REPORT OF J APPEAL BOARD I At Canberra last week the Minister lor Customs, Mr. Fenton, recently made available for publication the unanimous report by the Commonwealth Film Censorship Appeal Board, when ! the cinematograph film "Lummox" came before it for review. The Chief Secretary of New South Wales (Mr. Ckaffey) has since placed a ban on Ibe exhibition of the picture. I The Appeal Board’s report was as | follow: “Sex immorality is not lightly treated in the film. It appeals not to the thoughtless and depraved, but to the thougbful and the honourably tolerant. The chief character is a woman more sinned against than sinning, and no sympathy is excited for her seducer. He is clever and detectable. She atones for her one false step—the momentary weakness [ that wrecks her happiness, and wins respect by her subsequent long-suffer-ing self-sacrifice. The other girl in the story is saved by Lummox from a life of degradation, to which she seemed almost fated by tbe unfortunate circumstances of ber early life. She is raised from the depths, ber self-respect is restored, and she wins tbo honourable love of a man who knows and understands, and w'ho accepts ber for what she is, not what she has been. “One is inevitably reminded of the words spoken by Christ to the woman taken in adultery: ‘Go, and sin no more,’ and of His reproach to the Pharisees: ‘I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need to repentance.’ “There is nothing in the film that represents vice as other than it is to the enlightened mind, horrifying and degrading. Christian ethical principles are deliberately kept in view, and charitable sympathy with the w'eak and unfortunate is encouraged. The general moral effec-t is enhanced by the excellence of the acting. Everything shown in the picture is necessary in relation to tbe dramatic presentation of the events. If there be any parts that might be offensive if presented by themselves, they cannof be so regarded in relation to the artistic and moral effect of the whole film.”