Slackened Censorship

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 98, 19 January 1940, Page 5

Slackened Censorship

Entertainment Trends In Wartime

ONE of the lesser evils of war is t hat it usually results in a lowering of moral standards. The four yea rs of the last conflict broke down, for good or ill, conventions of behaviour that had stood for nearly a ceutury —in fact, since Britain had last bee n engaged in a major struggle, -

The Victorian code that went by the board in 1914 was formulated in the

piping times of peace that followed the Napoleonic campaigns and the reign and Regency of George the Fourth. The morals of the times of George the Fourth (and of George the Fourth himself, for that matter) could give Mae jWest some new screen ideas today. In other fields of entertainment there are already signs of a slackening of censorship, official and private. There has probably never been so much nudity on the London stage. The humblest music-hall does not consider its bill complete without a ‘'strip-tease” act or at least a more or Jess decorous fan dancer to help down the mother-in-law jokes. Even the British Broadcasting Corporation is kicking up its elegant heels and permitting material that would never have done in Broadcasting House. Liberty of Licence. Will the war mean a new era of liberty and licence for the screen? It is difficult to judge yet. For one thing, films, unlike the theatre and the world of literature, have no precedent to go

by. In th years from 1914 to 1918 the screen was still growing up to greatness and was considered a vulgar form of entertaianment, anyway.

It was not till the early ’twenties, when soiled stellar laundry was ou exhibition weekly in the Californian courthouses and pictures had become sufficiently powerful for possible porno-

graphy to poison the miud of the world’s youth, that Hollywood experienced its first storm of public moral wrath, and nearly perished in the ordeal. This time America-is not at war. The censorship safeguards, moreover,, are far wider and more stringent in the case of the screen than in that of the Nevertheless, some present tendencies are not exactly inspiring. Perhaps it is just a coincidence that the early months of 'the' 'war >ave produced a' fresh outbreak .of tbe.‘.‘lo.v.e life’’ lunacy that once made. Hollywood the laughing stock of the world. • • Publicized Passions. Perhaps it is merely that,, viewed against the background of the titanic tragedy of Europe, the highly publicized passions and matrimonial misadventures of the pampered darlings of the studios, most of whom are really in love with nothing but love and with no one but themselves, seem more puerile than usual. Perhaps it is that, face to face with sterner realities, -we can no longer weep over the sorrows of the glamorous cuties who annually break their hearts and scatter the pieces artistically over the front pages of the popular papers, or even try to keep track of the latest moves in the game of progressive polygamy that passes for marriage in the film city. Whatever it is, the new. epidemic of Hollywood divorces and irresponsible romances that are too obviously raw material for the divorce mill, is disturbing.