Controlling Hollywood Censorship And Regulation In The Studio Era

This article will demonstrate the significant influence that psychiatric consultants exerted on the policy of the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) and, as a result, on cinematic representations...

The Influence of ‘Psychiatrist Friends’ on British Film Censorship in the 1960s

Colour Films in Britain: the negotiation of innovation 1900-1955 by Sarah Street

From The Snake Pit to The Garden of Eden: A time of temptation for the Board

Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (Film)

Hammer Film Productions’ move to colour in the 1950s has often been discussed in terms of their application of blood and gore becoming the primary concern for the British Board of Film Censors who sought to remove a number of shots deemed to be more objectionable when seen in colour rather than black-and-white. In order to circumvent these restrictions, it has been suggested that Hammer went against the BBFC’s wishes by submitting work prints of their colour films in black-and-white in the hope that the examiner would be unable to detect the objectionable material. However, records from the period suggest that the BBFC were not entirely against this process, and that using black-and-white stock during post-production had more to do with cost-cutting than an attempt to out-do the censor. Primarily through an analysis of BBFC reports from this period, this article will therefore address the complexities surrounding the censorship of Hammer’s early colour films, paying specific attention to what this practice of submitting black-and-white prints reveals about the decisions taken by the Board when viewing horror in both monochrome and colour.

‘The curse of the thing is Technicolor blood: why need vampires be messier feeders than anyone else?’: The BBFC and Hammer’s Colour Films, 1957–1962’

Existing research on British censorship during the 1940s has often favoured the notion that a so-called ‘H’ ban effectively upheld the import, production, and exhibition of the horror film in Britain during the later-half of the Second World War. However, through an analysis of contemporary critical reception and censorship discourses, it becomes apparent how this ‘ban’ was nowhere near as clearly defined as is often argued. While the ‘H’ ban may have succeeded in barring a small number of low-brow fantasy horror films from cinema screens the genre prevailed in various guises, with the films of producer Val Lewton bringing about a shift away from fantasy towards representations of the everyday. Furthermore, the role of the script supervisor at the British Board of Film Censors clearly demonstrates an alternative to censorship through an involvement with the studios prior to production in order to avoid such restrictions. This article therefore presents an analysis of such negotiations at the BBFC during this period, with Lewton production of The Body Snatcher (Wise, 1945) representing an example of how horror remained a fixture on British screens, through both self-censorship and a move away from the type of film typically associated with the ‘H’ classification.

‘The most objectionable story I have ever had to report on’: Film censorship in post-Second World War Britain and the re-telling of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Body Snatcher

Existing research on British cinema during the 1940s has often assumed an opposition between realism and fantasy or, as it is also known, ‘realism and tinsel’. However, through an analysis of contemporary critical reception and censorship discourses, it becomes apparent that this division was nowhere near as clearly defined as is often argued. While the ‘quality’ realist film of the 1940s demonstrates a concern with verisimilitude and the reproduction of the surface appearances of reality, when confronting the darker aspects of reality, realism was deemed to be far more closely associated with the horrific. Following a number of decisions made by the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) which were heavily criticised by the local authorities and the press, the Board became increasingly wary of these horrific confrontations with the everyday. The release of The Snake Pit (1948) in the UK sparked a series of debates in the press, with one side questioning the suitability of a film dealing with the particular...

‘It was good to get out into the fresh air after seeing this film’: Horror, Realism and Censorship in Post-Second World War Britain

This video essay is a response to the journal’s call for work that considers the intersection of ideology, technology and aesthetic histories. The essay explores the story of Eastmancolor in Britain by contrasting and comparing the experiences of three areas of industry work affected by Eastmancolor film stock: cinematographers, laboratory staff, and archivists. The discourse that emerges from the interplay of these interviews shows how films and practices were affected when Eastmancolor offered a challenge to the prevailing principles of restraint and realism within British cinema. Specifically, the essay considers the industrial and aesthetic politics that emerged when Eastmancolor began to challenge the Technicolor monopoly; the efforts of cinematographers, directors and laboratories to explore and control the aesthetic opportunities this new film stock offered; and the digital technologies being utilised to unlock the now-faded status of many of those Eastmancolor productions. From industry politics and aesthetic challenges to ethical debates around the use of digital tools to produce an ‘authentic’ chromatic record and claims of ownership of the ‘accurate’ version of a film, the essay uses the voices of industry workers to offer a different and potent perspective on colour as a disruptive force within British national cinema. This videographic work was produced as part of the AHRC-funded project ‘The Eastmancolor Revolution and British Cinema, 1955-85’.

Paul Frith

Papers

‘The curse of the thing is Technicolor blood: why need vampires be messier feeders than anyone else?’: The BBFC and Hammer’s Colour Films, 1957–1962’

‘The most objectionable story I have ever had to report on’: Film censorship in post-Second World War Britain and the re-telling of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Body Snatcher

‘It was good to get out into the fresh air after seeing this film’: Horror, Realism and Censorship in Post-Second World War Britain

Talking Colour: Remembering the Eastmancolor Revolution