CENSOR SAYS " NO "

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 11, 12 July 1930, Page 10

CENSOR SAYS " NO "

"ALL QUIET" BANNED

BOARD UPHOLDS DECISION

Probably it was inevitable that the much discussed war story "All Quiet on the Western Front" would be filmed, and the screen version has apparently been a big success from a box office point of view in England, America, and Australia. But its exhibition in the Dominion is not to be allowed. The Government film censor, Mr. W. A. Tanner, recently ■yiewed tlio picture version of Unrique JSemarque's "best seller" in the ordinary course of his censoring duties, and he decided that it would nut bo in the best .interests of the people of the Dominion fov its exhibition to be allowed.

An appeal was lodged agaiiis* the Censor's decision, as provided for by the Act, and the Appeal Board yesterday, after viewing'the film, upheld the Censor's action. As the Appeal Board's decision is final, the film is now definitely banned.

Mr. Tanner told a. "Post" repreaeutative this morning that he was glad an appeal had been lodged, as he felt the responsibility of refusing a permit to such a picture. Sir lan Hamilton, he said, might be justified in his view that the film was a good bit of antiwar propaganda, but was the screen the right medium for such propaganda? If the screen was to be used for propaganda work, where should the line be drawn? Prohibitionists and others would • all want to use it to forward their causes.

"As fnr as 'All Quiet' is i-ou-oernccK/' said Mr. Tanner, "the New Zealand public are not deprived- of anything, for the book is not banned: from it they can get all they want. In Australia, I believe, the position, curiously enough, is reversed: the book is banned, but not the film." Mr. Tanner added that he recognised the fact that the film had a certain merit in its appe.'il for peace, but the film, as a whole, he thought, contained elements which it was not in the best interests of tho people of the Dominion to have thrust vividly before them.