GANG FILMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 February 1939, Page 5

GANG FILMS

DO THEY SPOIL BOYS? Do sensational films of gangsters and bandits lead to juvenile crime? This question was debated in London recently. A boy was charged at Sidmouth Juvenile Court with stealing a bicycle. It was stated that he visited the cinema three times a week and called himself a “tough guy.” One of the Magistrates who heard the case, Sir Archibald Bodkin, said: "These films are just ridiculous. There are much better subjects in Eng-

lish literature than rubbish about gangsters and bandits. They bore me stiff. “Even if there is a good film to see, one generally has to sit through this rubbish and watch gangsters shooting each other and having mad car races. “It may not be possible to, say that they definitely leave an impression on a boy’s mind, but I think it is quite definite that they leave no good effect.” An authority on child deliquency, head master of Red Hill School, near Maidstone, Mr Otto L. Shaw, said: “An impressionable child who goes wrong and finds himself in a juvenile court is generally the type who would go wrong in’any case, whether he saw films of racketeers or not. “My children in school go to see ‘horror’ films, and they produce no dreams or sleepless nights. Films play a very minor part in the causes of child delinquency. In fact, I would state definitely and categorically that films have no lasting effect on a child.” A Croydon woman, two children, Mrs L. Smythe, said:' “I believe that a lot of the trouble among children today would cease if only they would put a stop to these horrible gangster films. “It is not to be wondered at that children come away from the cinema •lull of mad ideas about holding up banks and shooting and killing people. I would not allow my children to go to the cinemas unless I. know what they were going to sec.”