The Censor

One of the big troubles with censorship, as even censors could plainly see last week, is that anyone can get into the act.

P: In New Jersey, a county commander of the Catholic War Veterans boasted that he had been able to persuade two theaters to cancel bookings of the Charlie Chaplin classic, City Lights. He was trying to promote similar pressure by the veterans' organization on a national scale. The reason, he explained, is that the real-life Chaplin "appears guilty" of "Communistic leanings."

P: In Dallas, a theater chain called off its plans to show the British film version of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, which has been awaiting U.S. release for two years (TIME, Dec. 4). On protests from Jewish groups that the movie's faithful portrayal of Fagin was a slur on Jews, Joseph Breen, Hollywood's own unofficial censor, had denied the picture a seal of approval. The film's U.S. distributor, Eagle Lion Classics, appealed for a reversal by the Motion Picture Association of America.

P: In Vienna, Ninotchka, Ernst Lubitsch's sprightly 1939 spoof of Communists and the U.S.S.R., could no longer be seen. The movie had packed two of the city's theaters for weeks. But when the Russians took their turn at policing Vienna's international district, they "suggested" that it was time to change the bill.

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