4 Wartime concerns and local anxieties
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Sian Barber
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the period from 1940 to 1950 and covers two distinct eras, the war and the post-war period. During the period 1939–45, film censorship was carried out by the Ministry of Information in close collaboration with the BBFC, while in the post-war period, business as usual resumed, with national censorship responsibilities returning to the BBFC. In the immediate post-war period, and partly precipitated by the shift in standards brought about by the war, tougher and grittier material began to emerge on British screens. During this period the work of local authorities focused on censoring films to ensure that matters of morality and standards of public behaviour were maintained. This chapter will indicate how films concerned with social hygiene – notably The Birth of a Baby, which did not possess a BBFC certificate due to its propagandistic nature – reveal that the system of applications to local authorities was alive and well throughout the period. Both this film and films cited later in this chapter which emerge in the immediate post-war aftermath speak to non-conflict-related anxieties which informed local decisions made about film and cinema.
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the period from 1940 to 1950 and covers two distinct eras, the war and the post-war period. During the period 1939–45, film censorship was carried out by the Ministry of Information in close collaboration with the BBFC, while in the post-war period, business as usual resumed, with national censorship responsibilities returning to the BBFC. In the immediate post-war period, and partly precipitated by the shift in standards brought about by the war, tougher and grittier material began to emerge on British screens. During this period the work of local authorities focused on censoring films to ensure that matters of morality and standards of public behaviour were maintained. This chapter will indicate how films concerned with social hygiene – notably The Birth of a Baby, which did not possess a BBFC certificate due to its propagandistic nature – reveal that the system of applications to local authorities was alive and well throughout the period. Both this film and films cited later in this chapter which emerge in the immediate post-war aftermath speak to non-conflict-related anxieties which informed local decisions made about film and cinema.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vi
- List of acronyms vii
- Acknowledgements viii
- Introduction 1
- 1 A new form of leisure 15
- 2 New regions and new anxieties 43
- 3 Councils, committees and the perils of the cinema 64
- 4 Wartime concerns and local anxieties 103
- 5 The changing landscape of the post-war world 137
- 6 Local alliances in a permissive decade 164
- 7 New categories, new permissions 191
- 8 New boundaries and new regions 228
- Conclusions 250
- Films cited 255
- Bibliography 259
- Index 269
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vi
- List of acronyms vii
- Acknowledgements viii
- Introduction 1
- 1 A new form of leisure 15
- 2 New regions and new anxieties 43
- 3 Councils, committees and the perils of the cinema 64
- 4 Wartime concerns and local anxieties 103
- 5 The changing landscape of the post-war world 137
- 6 Local alliances in a permissive decade 164
- 7 New categories, new permissions 191
- 8 New boundaries and new regions 228
- Conclusions 250
- Films cited 255
- Bibliography 259
- Index 269
