Censored Scenes From the Early Days of Cinema

By Minnesotastan in Film on Mar 26, 2010 at 12:27 pm

YouTube link.

In the 1920s and 1930s, censorship of movies was often goverened by local boards, and achieved by snipping the scenes from the film reels.  It won’t surprise anyone that those clipped film segments were sometimes saved.  Here a number of them have been assembled into a montage, which was submitted to the 2007 72 Hour Film Festival in Frederick, Maryland.

Censors of that period seem to have been particularly interested in feet.  The video is probably safe for work (depending on where you work).


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  1. chris mathers
    Mar 26th, 2010 at 1:57 pm

    does the music have to be so extra creepy?

  2. Candace
    Mar 26th, 2010 at 2:38 pm

    I totally agree lol, the music is very unsettling, especially towards the end how it gets slower lol.

  3. dw13
    Mar 26th, 2010 at 5:11 pm

    I am deeply offended by what passes for decency on Neatorama nowadays. :)

  4. Jerry
    Mar 26th, 2010 at 5:24 pm

    Hoochie Mama!!!

  5. jabberjaw
    Mar 26th, 2010 at 6:16 pm

    Somebody else has seen Cinema Paradiso.

  6. ted
    Mar 26th, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    I couldn’t get past the preachy beginning.

  7. lulu
    Mar 26th, 2010 at 8:22 pm

    Oh, how pretentious is the presenter? You must never let your work be censored! LOL

    Looking at those clips of allegedly censored images, surely no one would try to claim that the world today would be a much better place IF ONLY they hadn’t been censored. If they were considered too risque at the time, who are WE to look back and say the censors were wrong?

    There are people now who think that TV should be full of ”f**k” and other such words. But, frankly, would TV be any better just because today’s censors give in to a bunch of whiny people who can’t think past their own whims? What about OTHER people? The people who will be watching? You know, not everyone wants to hear cuss words in every show they watch. Some people actually like clean language. Oh, but they must have such small minds, right? To not want the artist (right) to be free to express themseves. (Hand over brow, fainting.)

  8. Morgan
    Mar 26th, 2010 at 9:14 pm

    I have to agree, the first thing I noticed was the creepy music…..very very creepy! Not really making me want to watch these movies like the other compilation Endless Night did.

  9. Ray
    Mar 26th, 2010 at 10:16 pm

    Feet…the heart and sole of evil!

  10. m***f***r
    Mar 26th, 2010 at 11:35 pm

    Ahem… who’s whiny again?
    Don’t watch the cussy programs if you don’t want to lulu.

    I don’t think I know anyone who thinks that TV should be FULL of such words, but I know plenty that think that some programs should reflect the way that parts of the world really are, including how people in those parts of the world actually talk. Why should anything be censored, as long as people that don’t want to see the material are allowed the chance to refuse to see it, and as long as the production of the material does not cause anybody any harm? Who is anybody else to decide what people can produce, and what people can see?

  11. Roscoe Allen
    Mar 27th, 2010 at 10:36 am

    After 2012, when Sister Sarah Palin is chosen to lead us forward into the end-times, our local teabagging boards will censor hip-hop music. All references to bitches, ho’s, and gansta neegas will be replaced with Jesus appropriate material (and supported by lucrative Corporate product placement in the arts!). Displays of feet in film will be deemed liberal and all feet shown will require a birth certificate. Tattoos will be taxed and screened to detect followers of the anti-christ … and you all thought these snipps were tame … Censorship, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet …

  12. sunnyroberto
    Mar 27th, 2010 at 11:38 am

    Censorship is a slipery slope, and once the government thinks it can censor you, they don’t stop. Remember senator Al Gore (D-Tennessee) dragged all those musicians (Frank Zappa and Dee Snider) in front of a senate committee back in the 1980′s??

    However, it appears that most of the censorship in these clips came from the local movie theaters, not the government, so it’s technically not censorship. I would imagine that nowadays you couldn’t do that, either show the flick in its entirety or don’t show it at all.

  14. Squiggy
    Mar 27th, 2010 at 7:28 pm

    The music is especially unsettling when you consider that every one of those people are dead now.

  15. Teeja
    Mar 27th, 2010 at 10:57 pm

    “Who are WE to look back and say the censors were wrong?”

    We are the ones who aren’t so insipid, timid, superstitious or immature. At least, some of we are.

  16. luckysquirrel
    Mar 28th, 2010 at 10:42 pm

    is not the music a variation on the haunted mansion ride from disney, or is the haunted mansion ride a variation of this? music is creepy, it’s just a music box interpretation of something (which admittingly i don’t know what it is)…i enjoy seeing this, who cares about the intro, or if someone is spreading their views…i enjoy it for seeing it…4 minutes of my life to watch something that is more entertaining than a rickroll, that is neatorama worthy

  17. ericp
    Mar 29th, 2010 at 12:08 pm

    Is it just me or does more than half of what they censored have to do with feet?

  18. Wonder
    Mar 29th, 2010 at 12:30 pm

    I would be curious to see if anything is censored now that wasn’t back then. Taste change and censorship does too.

  19. PJ
    Mar 30th, 2010 at 6:31 pm

    @sunnyroberto:

    It wasn’t Al Gore who championed censorship in music (the PMRC, as it was called), it was his wife, Tipper, and a few other congresscritters’ wives and such.

    And like everyone else, I found the music very, very disturbing. Anyone know what it is?

    MORE FEET!


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