"BLACK LIST" FILMS SENSATION

Evening Star, Issue 20986, 28 December 1931, Page 9

"BLACK LIST" FILMS SENSATION

PICTURES SHOWN IN CELLARS r Objectionable films shown to secret audiences in various parts of the country are the subject of remarkable revelations which have just been made public in England. a The films are shown almost daily in London and in large towns in the provinces. Big sums are charged l for admission. These_ disclosures are made by Mr Cecil Bishop, formerly of the C.1.D., in his new book, ‘ Women and Crime.’ The difficulty of putting a stop to these shows, he says, is due to the subtlety with which arrangements are made.

“A room, a large shed, or a cellar is hired for a day. The films are taken to the appointed place in time to prepare the camera. The visitors arrive by arrangement five minutes before the show is due to start.

“ Within half an hour of the conclusion of the programme films and camera have been secreted in some hiding place three or four miles from the place where they were used. “ Next day they are taken to some other place and exhibited again.” Mr Bishop states that some time ago he was approached by a well-known London solicitor in connection with the case of a boy of twenty-one who had been blackmailed by two men he had met at an indecent film show. He accompanied the solicitor to a cellar in the SVest End at an address which had been given to the lad. “There were eight people present,” he says. “Tliree of these were Americans, one was a Frenchman, and the rest were Englishwomen. ' “ Each visitor paid a fee of five pounds, and the film lasted about fortyfive minutes. It was without exception the most disgusting exhibition that I have ever seen. We failed to catch the scoundrels who were blackmailing the lad.”