PICTURES AND MORALS

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 41, 16 February 1918, Page 4

PICTURES AND MORALS

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —At last I see that.a correspondent who' signs "Observer" has properly, countered the Government Censor in his (Mr. Joliffe's) reply to the school teacher. Of course he has not seen "Crime Glorified," neither has anyone else including your , correspondent who said, "Hurrah for the Censor" when ha tried to flatten the schoolmasters, but this is only juggling with words used by the schoolmasters. The writer of this is an old reprobate of nearly seventy, who knowe many count tries on this little planet earth, who has seen cabarets nightly, and knows the Bowery shows of New York, and other haunts of a like nature in many coun^ tries. With such an old sinner it does not matter what they throw on the screen, but I would never think of taking my young-friends, boys or girls, to see some pictures that have been shown, any more than I would think of taking them to see the real life of what is picturised. I used to like taking young people to see the earlier pictures of twelve years ago, but since they started these sex problems: I go alone. ■...'.' The Censor says "sex problems bore the child and leave it cold and unaffected." Well, it all depends what kind of youngster lie alludes to There are children,, arid there are children, some are four or five and some are fourteen and fifteen. lam quite certain -it is not the thing to let children see murders, "half-naked vampire women, divorce, robbery and violence, iri fact, all the crimes on the calendar being enacted in pictures before"their eyes, and parts of these low, degrading scenes. No, the Censor is right, there is no glorification of crime, as the last act generally ends up with' the "villainy vanquished and virtue victorious" kind of finish. The worst of picture shows is that you cannot tell what sort of a programme you are going to ccc, arid while^ children and young folks would enjoy~the clever comics and beautiful photographic scenes of Italian lakes, industries, travel, • gazette, etc., you have to sit out some pictures that make a hardened old fellow like me ashamed to be in the 6ame building with young people in their teene. People don't take young girls to a theatre to see plays as "Pink Dominoes"; or some of the French and. Continental plays, but here in pictures you cannot say what a certain picture play is like before you see it, and I strongly think the Censor is too easy, and it would be better to allow children only in certain. picture theatres that exclude the class of picture I have alluded to. In conclusion, I am not a wowser, or school teacher, or a parson, but only a plain OLD REPROBATE.