Censorship, Scripts, Suppression, and Selection: Twentieth Century-Fox and the Story of the Berlin Airlift in The Big Lift and Es begann mit einem Kuß (It Started with a Kiss), 1950–1953

This article analyzes various political, economic, creative, and cultural levels of censorship in Twentieth Century-Fox’s semidocumentary feature film The Big Lift (1950) and its German-language release version Es begann mit einem Kuß (It Started with a Kiss, 1953). Alongside the political context of the early Cold War, it locates the two versions within major socioeconomic changes that film studios faced at the time. In this, the study also offers the first comprehensive comparison of The Big Lift with its West German release version, examining the nature and impact of cuts and dubbing on the plot of Es begann mit einem Kuß.