(1) That the living figure of Christ should not be allowed.
(2) That under no circumstances whatever would nudity be permitted.
The Examiners judged upon the broad principle that nothing should be
passed which in their opinion would demoralize an audience. They laid
down forty-three reasons for refusing to pass films.
The question is often asked in the public Press, and occasionally in
Parliament, “What has become of the censor? Why does he not exercise
his powers of suppression? Is there such an office?” This question is
becoming increasingly urgent and acute.
There has been a tendency for the last two years to allow to filter
through on to the public market films distasteful to modest vision.
The so-called comic films are becoming more and more suggestive. We
are aware that the modern tendency in female attire is to lower the
neck and shorten the skirt. There is beauty in a painted nude figure,
showing the perfect formation of limbs; this is from the standpoint of
art.
It is the prevailing fashion in modern American “comedy films” for
“bathing belles” to figure largely, and this is unnecessary unless the
film actually depicts seaside life, surf-bathing, or is advertising a
standard bathing costume approved of by the exponents of the “modiste”
costume. There are also passages in these films which call for the
excision of certain portions.
A flagrant breach of “censorship” is occasioned by allowing a film of
the following nature to appear upon the open market. This depicts a
Chinaman who runs an opium den, and who is also a money-lender. The
story goes that he has designs upon a pretty English girl. To become
acquainted, he advances money to her father, followed by further
loans, which are used as a lever; for the father finally forces his
pretty daughter to marry the Chinaman.
The scene changes to the girl’s bedroom, where the pretty wife, clad in
a diaphanous nightdress, has a terrific struggle with the Chinaman.
Only one conclusion is possible, and there is no moral attached to the
picture, which only produces a feeling of disgust--that the paternal
human nature should have been so shown as actually existing between
father and daughter.