The Censors

Cinemogul Sam Goldwyn got off a letter to Eric Johnston, president of the Motion Picture Association of America. The subject vibrated sympathetically on the very purse strings of Goldwyn and his fellow moviemakers: screen censorship.

Wrote Goldwyn: "I believe the time has come ... to bring the Production Code up to date . . . Today there is a far greater maturity among the audiences than there was 25 years ago . . . Unless the code is brought reasonably up to date, the tendency to bypass it, which has already begun, will increase. This can lead to excesses . . ."

The troublesome Motion Picture Production Code was originally designed, in 1930, to clean up Hollywood, which in those days was making such hot-blooded pictures as Luring Lips and Flame of Youth. But in recent years, moviemakers aiming for pictures with an adult appeal, and others frankly bent on box-office excitement, have rejected censorship, turn ing the resultant publicity to their advantage. Samples:

> The Moon .Is Blue (TIME, July 6) was denied the code seal because of its lighthearted approach to sex (the script contains such words as "virgin," "pregnant," "seduction," "mistress"). The picture is making a fine profit (see above), despite the fact that 1) local censorship groups have banned it from dozens of theaters around the U.S., and 2) it has been condemned by the Roman Catholic Legion of Decency, a censoring body of greater rigidity than the code and infinitely greater power over the box office.

> The French Line (RKO Radio), starring Cinemactress Jane Russell, opened last week in St. Louis after the code seal was denied. In one scene, Jane, scantily dressed, does a dance that the Johnston Office regards as "overly suggestive." Even Jane said later that she disapproved of the scene. Last week Archbishop Joseph E. Ritter of St. Louis forbade Catholics in his archdiocese to see the picture "under penalty of mortal sin."

Can the M.P.A.A. come across with some sensible easing of the code? This month the organization plans to discuss a few changes, dealing mostly with some outdated restrictions on miscegenation and the use of liquor.

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