"Blue" Days Back Again?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 70, 23 March 1940, Page 5 (Supplement)

"Blue" Days Back Again?

Film. News

ONE does not have to be a prude to realise that war is not conducive to a high moral tone in the community. The Great War had a lesson that was not revealed entirely in the emergence of the world from Victorian draperies of thought and action to shortskirted frankness. And the problem that this war will bring is not completely centred in the minds of clergymen—it has emerged already as a query of growing importance in the entertainment world.

Recently American film magazines have been featuring illustrated stories dealing with films of pro-censor, prcHays Office Great War days. They recall scenes from pictures of those days which remind us that the films of to-day in comparison arc pure and highly moral in tone. Scenes of passion, of Bacchanalian revels and other "questionable'' • subjects that leave little or nothing to the imagination look far from pleasant in "stills" that are now being reproduced in these magazines. -And the question those articles ask is "Will the war bring those days back again?"

In the light of present precautions bcinpr taken in America —the producers of "Gone With the Wind" sought permission to allow the use of the word "damn"! —the answer would seem to be "No," but only time will tell. As will be seen from an English article, reproduced here, thc stage and the radio in Great Britain have already suffered. Biggest hope for the protection of the films from this influence is the selfimposed censorship of the Hollywood companies, now known as "the Hays Office." It will he recalled that a year or two ago there was a great outcry in thc United States of America against films of nn undesirable nature. Prominent in the fight that ensued was the Catholic Church, which blacklisted a number of films which it considered detrimental to public well-being. Such an effect was shown in reduced attendances nt all picture theatres that the film companies, realising that public taste demanded entertainment of a less objectionable nature, instituted its own censorship. Whether the system will stand up to the temptations of wartime conditions cannot yet be sa.id with •certainty. But so far it seems that the films are maintaining a considerably higher standard than some other forms of entertainment. It seems, too, from the following article that the public, including the soldiers, does not want that standard to be lowered. "Broader and bluer" seems to he the slogan of entertainment these days and nights, writes Moore Raymond in the "Sunday Dispatch" (London). A rash of rudery-crudcry has broken put since the war started, and jokes called the "doubtful" kind are being heard in unusual places from unexpected lips.

E<i<lio, stage, cabaret have all been affected (and infected); and only films have kept tlieir pre-war purity of sorts. Of course, almost every one of the pictures we are seeing now was made before the war, so wo haven't yet bad a chance to discover if the film business lias also been invaded by the blue epidemic. "C'est La Guerre!" Comedians who put across the bread jokes, managers who allow them, and audiences who laugh at them all have the same reply to anyone who comments on tlie outbreak: "Well, there's a war on." I'm not sure that I.can follow the argument. Do they mean: "There's a war on, and people need cheering up as much as possible, so thev ought to be given the best jokes, anil the best ones are the broad ones"? Or do they mean: "There's a war on, and that means the usual moral values have disappeared, and people want broader stories, so they have to be provided with them." Or do they mean: "There's a war on, and it's, a beautiful excuse for smut." The most surprising relaxation in censorship has been that of the 8.8.C. A few blue cracks got across occasion-

ally before the war. These were usually followed by listeners' protests, and then a tightening up of the censorship, a warning to artists, and a closer examination of the scripts before the comics went on the air. There seems to be very little supervision now, and the comedians arc slipping in a surprising number of hot ones. Stage censorship, both official and unollicial, is obviously slacker. Soldiers Don't Laugh. An interesting point is that comedians are at tlieir broadest when performing at troop concerts in this country. I haven't heard any myself, but a singer I know is always entertaining the forces, and he tolls me that the comics are putting over the most sizzling gags to mixed audiences at troop concerts. He says they don't laugh much, but they look embarrassed. As for West End cabarets, it is always expected to be rather warm. Now it is running the highest temperature in its history. Whether this general outbreak of rudery is barm fid or undesirable or wicked, it is not for me to say. Some people argue that entertainment has no flavour without, spice. Others say there should be no censorship at all, because the public knowbest, and they'll stay away from anything they don't like and don't want. Others are violently antagonistic to anything at all suggestive, and talk about the decadence that preceded the fall of Koine. But, whatever the value of any of these opinions, the facts are there for everyone to bear. I^.