SEX APPEAL IN FILMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 18, 22 January 1935, Page 7

SEX APPEAL IN FILMS

IS IT BERNARD SHAW SAYS “YES” CENSORSHIP CRITICISED t Briluh Official Wireless. , Received Jan. 21, 7.12 p.m. RUGBY, Jan. 20“Sex appeal is a perfectly legitimate element in all the fine arts dealing directly with humanity/’ declared Mr. Bernard Shaw during a broadcast. He added that the Archbishop of Canterbury had referred to undesirable films. There were none. No film studio would spend £59,900 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 cease talking about the desirable and undesirable and consider whether we can extirpate films detrimental to the public morals,” Mr. Shaw proceeded. “Censorship involves the handing over of a job to some frail, erring, mortal man, making him omnipotent. Assumption of official status confers infallibility and omniscience. It is silly. One of the most sacred functions of the theatre is to educate and refine sex appeal, treatment of which under censorship is often vulgar. Y'et the good done by associating sex appeal with beauty, cleanliness, poetry and music is incalculable.”