SEX APPEAL

Evening Star, Issue 21934, 22 January 1935, Page 9

SEX APPEAL

TREATMENT BY FILMS

BERNARD SHAW'S VIEWS

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright,

LONDON. January 21

“ Sex appeal is a perfectly legitimate element in all line arts dealing directly with humanity,” declared Mr Bernard Shaw during a broadcast. Ho added that the Archbishop of Canterbury referred to undesirable films. There were none. No film studio would spend £50,000 on making a film unless it was very desirable indeed; possibly not by the archbishop, but certainly by a large section of the human race who were not archbishops. “ Let us cense talking about desirable and undesirable, and consider whether one can extirpate films detrimental to public morals. A censorship involving the handing over of the job to some frail, erring mortal man, making him omnipotent on the assumption of an official status which confers infallibility and omniscience, is silly. One of the most sacred functions of the theatre is to educate and refine sex appeal, the treatment of which, under a censorship, is often vulgar. Yet the good done by the association of sex appeal with beauty, cleanliness, poetry, < and music is incalculable.”