‘Sordidness, Corruption and Violence almost Unrelieved’: Critics, Censors and the Post-war British Crime Film

Abstract

This article examines the responses of critics and censors to a cycle of contemporary crime films produced in Britain in the late 1940s. Films such as They Made Me A Fugitive, Brighton Rock and No Orchids for Miss Blandish were the objects of critical hostility and political controversy on account of their ‘sordid’ and ‘brutal’ representation of British society. The article argues that these films had been passed for public screening as a consequence of a period of institutional instability within the British Board of Film Censors. Following the public outcry that attended the release of No Orchids for Miss Blandish, however, the Board sought to reassert its authority by forbidding any further films of the same sort.

Keywords:

• Cinema
• Crime Films
• Moral Panic
• Censorship
• British Board of Film Censors

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article was presented as a paper at the 2004 European Social Sciences and History Conference at the Humbolt University, Berlin. My thanks to Professors Clive Emsley and Haia Shpayer-Makov and to other members of the Criminal Justice Network for their comments on that occasion. I am further indebted to Dr Andrew Spicer, who kindly provided copies of several key films.

Notes

 [1] Vesselo, ‘The Quarter in Britain’ (Autumn 1947), 120.

 [2] Browning and Sorrell, ‘Cinema and Cinemagoing in Great Britain’, 134.

 [3] The British Film Industry , 182.

 [4] Mayer, Sociology of Film: Studies and Documents, 17.

 [5] Manvell, Film, 136.

 [6] See Ellis, ‘The Quality Film Adventure’, 66–93.

 [7] Petley, ‘The Lost Continent’, 98.

 [8] Wood, British Film Industry, Leaflet A, n.p.

 [9] ‘Filmography, 1939–1997’, in Chibnall and Murphy, eds, British Crime Cinema, 189–241.

[10] See in particular Murphy, Realism and Tinsel, 146–90, and Spicer, Film Noir, 175–95. While a definitive study of this cycle of films has yet to appear, there have been signs of critical interest in several articles and chapters, including, but not limited to, Clay, ‘When the gangs came to Britain’; Durgnat, ‘Some Lines of Inquiry into Post-war British Crimes’; Miller, ‘Evidence for a British Film Noir Cycle’; Murphy, ‘Dark Shadows around Pinewood and Elstree’; and Wollen, ‘Riff-raff realism’.

[11] The case of No Orchids for Miss Blandish has long been a censorship cause célèbre and is partly documented in Robertson, The Hidden Cinema, 92–7. See also McFarlane, ‘Outrage’, based largely on contemporary press accounts. No other account hitherto has made use of both the BBFC records and the Home Office files in accounting for the changes in censorship policy in the late 1940s.

[12] On the subject of wartime crime, see Thomas, An Underworld at War.

[13] Today's Cinema, 25 June 1947: 19 & 10.

[14] In 1944 Jones, a striptease artist, and an American army deserter, Karl Hulten, were responsible for a spree of violent robberies culminating in the murder of a taxi driver. They allegedly spent the money at the dog races.

[15] Orwell, Decline of the English Murder and Other Essays, 13.

[16] BBFC Scenario Reports 1946–47, No.77a, Deserter, 17 July 1947 (AFW), material held by the Special Collections Unit of the British Film Institute (hereafter BFI).

[17] Monthly Film Bulletin 15, no.175 (July 1948): 92.

[18] Calder, The People's War: Britain 1939–1945, 512.

[19] Observer, 29 June 1947; Observer, 20 November 1947; Observer, 2 November 1948.

[20] Sunday Times, 11 January 1948; Sunday Times, 18 April 1948.

[21] , ‘British Films of the Quarter’ (Summer 1947): 77; ‘The Quarter in Britain’ (Spring 1948): 43; ‘British Films of the Quarter’ (Summer 1948): 100.

[22] Monthly Film Bulletin 13, no.148 (April 1946): 45; Monthly Film Bulletin 13, no.149 (May 1946): 61; Monthly Film Bulletin 14, no.163 (July 1947): 95; Monthly Film Bulletin 14, no.168 (December 1947): 171; Monthly Film Bulletin 15, no.172 (April 1948): 47.

[23] The Times, 19 April 1948.

[24] Manchester Guardian, 17 April 1948.

[25] The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA) HO45/23091: Sir Sidney Harris to Sir Andrew Maxwell (Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office), 21 April 1948.

[26] Orwell, Decline of the English Murder, 13.

[27] , ‘The Quarter in Britain’ (Autumn 1947): 120.

[28] Manvell, ‘Critical Survey’: 13.

[29] Kracauer, From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film, 4. ‘What films reflect,’ Kracauer argued, ‘are not so much explicit credos as psychological dispositions—those deep layers of mentality which extend more or less below the dimension of consciousness.’

[30] BBFC Scenario Reports 1949, No.30, Irene, 13 June 1949 (MK); BBFC Scenario Reports 1946–47, No.9, For Them That Trespass, 22 April 1946 (JCH); No.65a, Death Wore A Silk Stocking, 30 April 1947 (MK); No.89, A Gunman Has Escaped, 29 September 1947 (AFW); No.108a, Double Pursuit, 6 November 1947; No.112a, Noose, 18 December 1947.

[31] TNA HO45/23091: Sir Sidney Harris to Sir Andrew Maxwell, 21 April 1948.

[32] TNA HO45/23091: Sir Sidney Harris to Sir Andrew Maxwell, 21 April 1948, Sir Sidney Harris to E. W. Wingrove (General Secretary of the BFPA), 19 May 1948.

[33] The shooting script for They Made Me A Fugitive, held by the BFI Library (S14131), has a different ending from the finished film. Narcy confesses to Inspector Rockcliffe as he dies (‘Soapy killed that copper. I fixed it that way. Morgan's just a bad amateur.’) The script ends with a scene not in the film where Sally visits Clem in prison (recalling their first meeting) and tells him: ‘I saw Inspector Rockliffe outside. He says he's got your re-trial all set. He can't guarantee you'll get off altogether, but at least they'll lop off a few of those fifteen years.’ There is no evidence to suggest why the ending was changed, though the decision must have been taken during the shooting of the film.

[34] BBFC Scenario Reports 1946–47, No.41, A Convict Has Escaped, 23 December 1946 (AFW); No.41a, 16 December 1946 (MK).

[35] The BBFC certified films as either ‘U’ (suitable for universal exhibition) or ‘A’ (suitable for adults, meaning that children under 16 could not see the film unless accompanied by an adult). An ‘H’ (for ‘horrific’) category had been added in the 1930s prohibiting exhibition to anyone under 16.

[36] BFI Library microfiche for They Made Me A Fugitive: ‘Sally In A Black Market Alley’, Sunday Chronicle, 29 June 1947; Sunday Express, 29 June 1947; Leonard Mosley, Daily Express, 27 June 1947; News Chronicle, 27 June 1947; Ewart Hodgson, News of the World, 29 June 1947; ‘Now Let's Drop the Spiv’, Daily Mail, 27 June 1947; ‘Gangsters In Soho’, Daily Telegraph, 27 June 1947.

[37] BBFC Scenario Reports 1946–47, No.55, Brighton Rock, 4 March 1947 (AFW); No.55a, 4 March 1947 (MK).

[38] For a comprehensive account of the film's production, see Chibnall, Brighton Rock.

[39] BFI Library microfiche on Brighton Rock: ‘This takes the gilt off’, Evening Standard, 9 January 1948; ‘Bold analysis of Spivery’, Reynold's News, 11 January 1948; ‘Holiday at Brighton’, Observer, 11 January 1948; News Chronicle, 9 January 1948; Sunday Express, 11 January 1948; ‘False, Nasty: Is This What You Want To See?’, Daily Mirror, 8 January 1948.

[40] Orwell, Decline of the English Murder and Other Essays: 69–70.

[41] BBFC Scenario Reports 1944–45, No.88, No Orchids for Miss Blandish, 3 July 1944, with addendum dated 11 October 1944 (JCH); No.88a, 7 July 1944, with addendum dated 12 October 1944 (NC).

[42] Kinematograph Weekly, 11 January 1945: 182.

[43] TNA HO45/23091: Sir Sidney Harris to Sir Andrew Maxwell, 21 April 1948. This is an ‘official’ letter that was accompanied by the personal letter of the same date quoted in note 31.

[44] BFI Library microfiche for No Orchids for Miss Blandish: ‘A disgrace to British films’, Evening Standard, 13 April 1948; ‘Nasty … Gross … Brutish. A dish for twisted minds’, Daily Express, 16 April 1948; Star, 16 April 1948; Sunday Pictorial, 18 April 1948; Daily Mirror, 16 April 1948; ‘A Letter to the Censor’, Sunday Times, 18 April 1948.

[45] Monthly Film Bulletin 15, no.172 (April 1948): 47.

[46] TNA HO45/23091: Sir Sidney Harris to Sir Andrew Maxwell, 21 April 1944 (personal letter).

[47] The Times, 19 April 1948.

[48] Parliamentary Debates: House of Commons, 5th Series, vol.449, col.1811, 21 April 1948.

[49] Parliamentary Debates: House of Commons, 5th Series, vol.452, col.775, 17 June 1948.

[50] TNA HO45/23091: Quoted in an internal memorandum by A. W. Haigh, 29 April 1948.

[51] BFI Library microfiche for No Orchids for Miss Blandish: ‘LCC calls for private screening’, News Chronicle, 22 April 1948; ‘No Orchids: Last Minute Queues’, Evening News, 24 April 1948.

[52] ‘Storm in a Teacup’, Manchester Guardian, 17 June 1948.

[53] ‘Supplement to “The Other Side”: No Orchids for Miss Blandish’, Renown Pictures Corporation, undated but probably early or mid-June 1948, on the BFI Library microfiche for the film.

[54] Manchester Guardian, 8 June 1948.

[55] TNA HO45/23091: Sir Sidney Harris to Sir Andrew Maxwell, 21 April 1948 (official letter).

[56] TNA HO45/23091: Sir Sidney Harris to Sir Andrew Maxwell, 21 April 1948 (official letter), Sir Sidney Harris to E. W. Wingrove, 19 May 1948.

[57] TNA HO45/23091: Sir Sidney Harris to Sir Andrew Maxwell, 21 April 1948 (official letter), Arthur Watkins to Joseph Breen, 18 November 1949.

[58] TNA HO45/23091: Sir Sidney Harris to Sir Andrew Maxwell, 21 April 1948 (official letter), Sir Sidney Harris to E. W. Wingrove, 18 November 1949, with accompanying ‘Memorandum’.

[59] TNA MEPO2/8342: Jan Read to Sir Harold Scott, 6 May 1948.

[60] TNA MEPO2/8342: Jan Read to Sir Harold Scott, 6 May 1948, Sir Harold Scott to Jan Read, 8 November 1948.

[61] TNA MEPO2/8342: Jan Read to Sir Harold Scott, 6 May 1948, Sir Michael Balcon to P. H. Fearnley (Public Information Officer, New Scotland Yard), 12 April 1949.

[62] From the shooting script of The Blue Lamp held by the BFI Library (S25), dated 27 May 1949.

[63] BBFC Scenario Reports 1949, No.24, The Blue Lamp, 18 April 1949 (AFW); No.24a, 15 April 1949 (FNC).

[64] See Aldgate and Richards, Best of British, 125–47; and Barr, Ealing Studios, pp.81–94.

[65] BFI Library microfiche on The Blue Lamp: Dilys Powell, ‘Films—“The Blue Lamp”’, Britain Today, April 1950: 36–7; News of the World, 22 January 1950; Daily Express, 20 January 1950; Daily Graphic, 20 January 1950; Daily Mirror, 18 January 1950.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James Chapman

James Chapman is Professor of Film at the University of Leicester.