That Outlaw

For 24 years Hollywood has been struggling to keep movies out of the clutches of local censors. The Hays-Johnston organization, Hollywood's chief effort to mind its own morals, costs the studios a sizable (and secret) amount of money every year. Last week the long, costly struggle was getting a serious setback.

Producer Howard Hughes was trying to market The Outlaw, his film horse opera starring busty Jane Russell, as a frank sexhibition (TiME, March 25). Sample ballyhoo line: "How would you like to tussle with Russell?" His efforts were not going unnoticed by the public, the industry, the police, the church.

In St. Louis, The Outlaw -- grossing some $20-$30,000 a week -- had turned out to be the city's favorite movie. It was also the No. i cinemattraction in Kansas City, Indianapolis, Louisville.

In Harrisburg, Catholicism's Most Rev. George Leo Leech denounced The Outlaw as "a destructive and corrupting picture which glamorizes crime and immorality," urged all parents to keep children away.

In Galveston, Bishop Christopher E. Byrne called for a year's boycott of Houston's Loew's Theater, which insisted on running the Hughes film.

In Minneapolis & St. Paul, exhibitors nervously received church delegations, cancelled Outlaw bookings.

In San Francisco, the film was collared by the cops, cleared by a jury trial in municipal court. Said Judge Twain Michelsen: "I cannot bring myself to the legal conclusion that the picture . . . has left you ladies and gentlemen of the jury in a state of moral suspense, or of mental lewdness and licentiousness, bewitched and seduced. . . ."

In Manhattan, the trade sheet Variety gave Producer Hughes a brisk editorial spanking: ". . . in place of the start that was made toward easing both industry self-regulatory measures and local political censorship, films are now faced with increasing threats from blue-pencilers all along the line. That's what has . . . the industry so burned at ... Howard Hughes. . . ."

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