FILM VULGARITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 58, 10 March 1927, Page 6

FILM VULGARITY.

"What the Australian censors say about certain classes of imported films is thought by many. It is not that the cinema, as represented by these pictures, is immoral, but that it is vulgar. What it needs, say these judges, is "more refinement of feeling and sentiment." Unfortunately, as an English investigator recently reported, the measure of a great deal of the work done in America is the intelligence of what is called the "hick"; that is to say, a picture is designed to please the average inhabitant of the country town, and if it pleases him all is well. The censors' report illustrates the difficulty of censorship. Downright indecency can be censored, but vulgarity is an elusive thing. The most melancholy feature of the report, however, is that only half a million feet of British films were brought into Australia last year against fifteen and a-half million of American. The monopoly Hollywood is almost complete, and if ustxalia shows signs of being Americanised no one need be surprised,