Protecting the family and the nation: The official censorship of American cinema in Ireland, 1923-1954

Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

Volumn 20, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 283-300

  Rockett, Kevin ^a,b  

^a TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN   (Ireland)

^b Dun Laoghaire Co   (Ireland)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61149307703     PISSN: 01439685     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01629778900000151     Document Type: Review

References (27)

1. James Montgomery, The menace of Hollywood, Studies, 31 (December 1942), p. 420
2. The history of indigenous Irish film production and of representations of the Irish in British and American cinemas may be found in Kevin Rockett, Luke Gibbons, John Hill, Cinema and Ireland (London, 1987; 1988)
3. Irish Catholic, 17 February 1917, p. 6
4. Film Censor Martin Brennan's report to the Censorship of Films Appeal Board. The Board upheld the ban on 27 April 1954
5. The Irish Times, 5 February 1956, p. 6
6. Cited, Thomas P. Gallagher, in Fr. S.J. Richard Devane, ed., Irish Cinema Handbook (Dublin, 1943), p. 93
7. Dail Debates, 3, 10 May 1923, col. 762
8. Michael Adams, Censorship: the Irish experience (Alabama, 1968), p. 243. This book is the most comprehensive account of the censorship of publications in Ireland
9. Official Film Censor's Annual Reports, 1924-1940. There are some contradictions and overlaps in the reports, but this slightly cautious figure is net of Montgomery's decisions being reversed by the Appeal Board
10. James C. Robertson, The British Board of Films Censors: film censorship in Britain, 1896-1950 (London, 1985), pp. 186-188. In fact, 186 films were banned during this period, but eight of these were approved with cuts within a year of being banned. Of the 186 films banned, 95 were banned during the years 1931-1934 inclusive. The Irish censors banned 585 films during the same 4 years
11. Report of Official Film Censor to the Minister for Justice for the period 1 November 1923-31 October 1924, dated 13 November 1925, p. 2
12. Report of Official Film Censor to the Minister for Justice for the Year 1927, dated 18 January 1928, p. 2
13. Hand-written draft of Report of Official Film Censor to the Minister for Justice for the Year 1931, dated 11 January 1932. The typed report is dated 14 January 1932, but does not include this section
14. He made this comment in the course of his decision to cut I Am Suzanne (Rowland V. Lee, Fox Film Corp.; USA, 1933) on 9 June 1934
15. Editorial, A censor of films, The Irish Times, 11 May 1923, p. 4
16. T. J. Beere, Cinema statistics in Saorstat Eireann, Journal of the Statistical and Social Enquiry Society of Ireland, 89th session, 1935-1936
17. Aspects of the Los Angelesation of Ireland, Irish Communications Review, 1 (1991)
18. Declan Kiberd, Inventing Ireland: the literature of the modern nation (London, 1996), p. 103
19. James Montgomery, Film censorship in the Irish Free State, unpublished, 9 December 1936, p. 2
20. Report of Official Film Censor to the Minister for Justice for the Year 1930, from Official Film Censor to the Minister for Justice, dated 14 January 1931
21. Report of Official Film Censor to the Minister for Justice for the Year 1937, dated 12 January 1938
22. Report of Official Film Censor to the Minister for Justice for the Year 1939, dated 10 January 1940
23. Quoted, Gallagher, Irish Cinema Handbook (Dublin, 1943), pp. 94-95
24. Professor William Magennis, The cinema as a social factor, Studies, 33, March 1944, p. 5
25. Montgomery, Menace (1942), p. 427. Montgomery assumes a stable, linear and a particular class-determined reading of novels and music, which, of course, is a position that can be challenged
26. The Bellman, The Bell, 3 (2), November 1941, p. 108
27. The Bell (1941), p. 113