Power of early film: crime, sexuality and censorship

[silentfilm]

http://msdigifly.com/2016/01/14/power-of-early-film/

This is a very interesting article on censorship of silent films in Australia. I won't paste the text here, as there are some great photos that accompany the article.

[moviepas]

Australia did have a state by state Censorship board until modern times. When I imported film(16mm & 8mm gauges) into Australia they had to go the censorship office from the Post Office or airport and I had to be at the import location port before they sent it off and then wait for a card to say they were ready for collection. This meant if it came via air, I had to go back to the airport, way across town and an hour or more's drive which was stupid. There may or not be import duty by the foot then. They had file cards at the Censor office and if a film had been here before it would have to be viewed and a card struck up before I got the shipment back. They were always imported for Home Consumption. For many years New South Wales banned the screening of bushranger films(Aussie westerns or cowboy films). I live in Victoria. Woe was the name of the came if a customs officer gave me the films without the censor seeing the package first. The customs came after me to get the films back!!!! often these were classic US comedies or educational subjects. Censorship of TV in respect of TV is still in force in the sense that a program or DVD/blu ray can be banned in NSW or Victoria of crime series episodes drawn from real life subjects with real names inserted. There are ways around, of course, but they are trying to avoid being sued for defamation on the person depicted's life. Who cares, they did the crime(often violent murder) so that is the breaks they get.

[Donald Binks]

Crikey! I remember the days of silly censorship in Oz. We had the Commonwealth (Federal Government) censor and the States also had their own censors. I too lived in Victoria and right up until the 1970's the most ludicrous things would be banned. It all came to a head when films imported for the Melbourne Film Festival were banned and the head of that festival took a firmly entrenched stand against censorship which eventually saw the lifting of bans for the festival and later, a more relaxed classification system for general exhibition.

It really was a case of the puritanical minds of two parliamentarians in Victoria who sought to dictate and implant their stringent views on everyone else. I was at a performance of a play "The Boys in the Band" back I think about 1971 when members of the police vice squad took to the stage and closed the play down mid-perfomance due to some of the language!

It really then is such a contrast to today! I think even that notorious film "Salo" which was never allowed to be screened - has had a few public airings over the last few decades.

TV of course was rigidly censored and even very moderate swearing was not tolerated. One might get away with one "bloody" if it was deemed to have been in context and the drama was screened close to midnight. It took a well-known personality to imitate a crow call (and get himself banned) to start a revision. This was further enhanced when the SBS network commenced in 1981 and started to show the more racier product from continental Europe. It coined the saying 'that no matter when you turned SBS on, you were bound to see someone naked". Today it would appear that just about anything goes, and hard core swearing has now just recently been approved for audiences from 7.30pm onwards.

[Big Silent Fan]

An early film to be banned outright in Victoria in 1919 was the film Damaged Goods. The film, in part a response to the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases during World War I, was educational in nature. Damaged Goods however also made the claim that venereal disease afflicted the lower classes, and was the sole result of feminine weakness caused by drunkenness or deliberate seduction by ‘fallen’ women.

It really seems strange that "Damaged Goods" was banned? Lower classes? Perhaps it was rumors and lies that did it in?

Frank Thompson's book, "Lost Films" devotes nine pages to talking about this film which was brought to the screen by Richard Bennett (father of the Bennett sisters) after he had a long success playing the lead on the stage, both in England and in the States. The film was praised for it's message, "stressing the wholesome aspects of the film and the fact that no vulgarity, and no unnecessary facts are permitted to appear." The story described in the book is more about upper class society and the recklessness of youth in college. It's also about sham doctors who claimed to have a cure for syphilis but didn't. It was a death sentence for any man foolish enough to contract the disease.
Following the films success, in 1917, Richard Bennett toured American Army training camps and (during the same year)from March through October, 1917, Ronald Colman played the lead in the British theatrical version.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

An early film to be banned outright in Victoria in 1919 was the film Damaged Goods. The film, in part a response to the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases during World War I, was educational in nature. Damaged Goods however also made the claim that venereal disease afflicted the lower classes, and was the sole result of feminine weakness caused by drunkenness or deliberate seduction by ‘fallen’ women.

It really seems strange that "Damaged Goods" was banned? Lower classes? Perhaps it was rumors and lies that did it in?

Frank Thompson's book, "Lost Films" devotes nine pages to talking about this film which was brought to the screen by Richard Bennett (father of the Bennett sisters) after he had a long success playing the lead on the stage, both in England and in the States. The film was praised for it's message, "stressing the wholesome aspects of the film and the fact that no vulgarity, and no unnecessary facts are permitted to appear." The story described in the book is more about upper class society and the recklessness of youth in college. It's also about sham doctors who claimed to have a cure for syphilis but didn't. It was a death sentence for any man foolish enough to contract the disease.
Following the films success, in 1917, Richard Bennett toured American Army training camps and (during the same year)from March through October, 1917, Ronald Colman played the lead in the British theatrical version.

But would this refer to the American filming, which by then was 4-5 years old, or the British film of the same year, which I understand is extant...