CENSORING FILMS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21280, 26 November 1940, Page 10

CENSORING FILMS

GERMANY DEMANDS ACTION PRODUCER’S REFUSAL Louis de Rochemont, producer of “ March of Time,” said a German Government representative demanded removal of all portions of the Nazi picture “ Feuertaufe ” from the feature “ The Ramparts We Watch,” under threat of legal action and expulsion from Germany of Time and Life employees, states the Christian Science Monitor. Mr de Rochemont said in a statement that Baron Ulrich von Gienanth, Second Secretary at the German Embassy in Washington, notified him Germany would institute court action immediately, if the “ March of Time ” war feature were not censored. The producer declared that he, with the approval of Board Chairman Mr Henry R. Luce of “ Time,” refused to censor the picture and would welcome “ a showdown on Germany’s indirect censorship of American films.” Mr de said such censorship had been used by Germany for more than two years, and that he was determined to “ bring it out into the open.” The German Government, he declared, by “ such methods as they are trying to use now, have tried to dictate what shall or shall not be shown in certain pictures and refuse to allow any German scenes to be shown in connection with anything related to England.” “ Feuertaufe ” (“ Baptism of Fire ”) was made in Germany, Mr de Rochemont said, “to show the might of the German Army,” but has been so arranged with “ The Ramparts We Watch” that it “has become antiNazi propaganda, instead of proNazi propaganda.”