Freedom to Film

By unanimous vete, the U.S. Supreme Court decided this week that the censors of New York had no right to ban the film La Ronde and the censors of Ohio had no right to ban "M." Before passing judgment, the court held a private screening of the two pictures. La Ronde is a French version of famed Viennese Playwright Arthur Schnitzler's Reigen, a sexual not-somerry-go-round. "M" is a remake of an old Peter Lorre thriller wherein a psychopath lures small girls to their deaths with candy and balloons. Justices Douglas and Black issued a separate opinion, holding all state film censorship contrary to the First (freedom of speech) Amendment. The other seven justices did not go into the grounds on which they upset the states' action.

The Supreme Court refused to reverse the murder conviction of Florida Undertaker A. Elwood North, found guilty of bludgeoning and strangling his business partner, Mrs. Betty Albritton. North appealed to the Supreme Court on the ground that an evangelist had been permitted to say grace twice at the dining table of the jury that convicted him. The preacher had read from Psalms and Proverbs, North contended, and might have prejudiced the case with references to "destruction of the wicked."

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