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| Back in 1948, people who pretended to care about the public's 'moral welfare' (whilst secretly harbouring other - more sinister - intentions) claimed that films like No Orchids for Miss Blandish might 'harm' those who saw it. Such assertions were drivel in 1948 and remain so to this very day. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar or a fool. Or both. |
Monthly Film Bulletin
April 1948
Vol. 15 No. 172
Le corbeau
France - 1943 - 92m - bw
British Lion (A) (cut)
D: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Corridor of Mirrors
UK - 1948 - 105m - bw
General Film (A) (cut)
D: Terence Young
Cup-Tie Honeymoon
UK - 1948 - 93m - bw
Mancunian (A) (cut)
D: John E. Blakeley
Dick Barton: Special Agent
(USA: Dick Barton, Detective)
UK - 1948 - 70m - bw
Exclusive (U)
D: Alfred J. Goulding
Followed by: Dick Barton Strikes Back (1949, Apr/1949), Dick Barton at Bay (1950, Nov/1950).
Enrico IV
(aka: Henry IV)
Italy - 1943 - 94m - bw
Film Traders (A)
D: Giorgio Pastina
Escape
UK - 1948 - 79m - bw
20th Century Fox (A)
D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Farrebique ou Les quatre saisons
France - 1947 - 85m - bw
GCT (U)
D: Georges Rouquier
Followed by: Biquefarre (1983).
The First Gentleman
(USA: Affairs of a Rogue)
UK - 1948 - 110m - bw
Columbia (A) (cut)
D: Alberto Cavalcanti
The Fugitive
USA - 1947 - 104m - bw
RKO Radio (A) (cut)
D: John Ford
The Greed of William Hart
(USA: Horror Maniacs)
UK - 1948 - 79m - bw
Ambassador (A)
D: Oswald Mitchell
The Guilty
USA - 1947 - 71m - bw
Pathé (A)
D: John Reinhardt
Holidays With Pay
UK - 1948 - 114m - bw
Mancunian (A)
D: John E. Blakeley
Miranda
UK - 1948 - 80m - bw
General Film (A)
D: Ken Annakin
Followed by: Mad About Men (1954, Dec/1954).
The Murderers Are Amongst Us
Die Mörder sind unter uns
(USA: Murderers Among Us)
Germany - 1946 - 86m - bw
Film Traders (A)
D: Wolfgang Staudte
No Orchids for Miss Blandish
(aka: Black Dice)
UK - 1948 - 102m - bw
Renown (A)
D: St. John Legh Clowes
This routine B-movie caused an unexpected storm of controversy on its release, with a craven MFB leading the charge: "This must be the most sickening exhibition of brutality, perversion, sex and sadism ever to be shown on a cinema screen... the cast literally battle their way through a script laden with suggestive dialogue. All the women are sluts and most of the men vicious murderers... scenes of unpleasant bedroom interludes and revolting orgies of beating-up and murder almost on the scale of massacre... It seems an extraordinary oversight on the part of the British Board of Film Censors that this monstrosity has been passed for public showing with an A certificate." After several councils banned the film outright (prompted by 'outrage' in Parliament), an utterly perplexed BBFC was forced to apologise for 'failing to protect the public'! The Board was clearly the victim of a manufactured scandal, one of many whipped-up over the years by self-proclaimed moral arbiters peddling bogus claims of 'harm' to cloak their real objectives: Maintenance of the social and political status quo via the application of rigid censorship rules for commercial films aimed primarily at working class audiences. As for No Orchids for Miss Blandish, contemporary cinemagoers had the last laugh, since the hysterical overreaction by our 'betters' propelled the film to huge commercial success wherever it played!
Philo Vance's Gamble
USA - 1947 - 61m - bw
Pathé (A)
D: Basil Wrangell
Series: The Canary Murder Case (1929).
A Sister to Assist 'Er
UK - 1948 - 59m - bw
Columbia (U)
D: George Dewhurst
Snowbound
UK - 1948 - 87m - bw
RKO Radio (A)
D: David MacDonald
Spring in Park Lane
UK - 1948 - 90m - bw
British Lion (U)
D: Herbert Wilcox
Untamed Fury
USA - 1947 - 63m - bw
Pathé (A)
D: Ewing Scott
Wild West
(aka: Prairie Outlaws)USA - 1946 - 73m - bw
Pathé (U)
D: Robert Emmett Tansey
Series: Harmony Trail (1944, Jan-Feb/1950).
The Woman on the Beach
USA - 1947 - 71m - bw
RKO Radio (A)
D: Jean Renoir
Wyoming
USA - 1947 - 83m - bw
British Lion (U)
D: Joseph Kane
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