"Teaching About Censorship in the British Film Industry of the 1930s at the Open University"

"Teaching About Censorship in the British Film Industry ofthe 1930s at the Open University" Anthony Aldgate Anthony Alágate is a Lecturer in History at Open University. The observations in this article were developed in connection with the American Historical Association's project on The Historian and The Moving-Image Media. The area of censorship, in particular, has turned out to be a decidedly rich source ofhistorical research and teaching of late, not least in regard to forming a more accurate picture of the mainstream British cinema and its role in society during the turbulent decade of the 1930s—one of the main concerns of our Open University course on Popular Culture. Traditionally, the British cinema ofthe day has been characterized, like many national cinemas, as mere "entertainment" and as hardly ever displaying any "serious" intent. Its major social role, for all the occasional and briefnods in the direction of some sort of "realism" (with a handful of documentaries, feature films, and the like), was to provide fantasies and "an escape from reality". That's what the mass of cinemagoing audiences wanted, so the more simplistic accounts would have it, and that's what the film-makers intended to provide. The cinema's political role was non-existent; it never dealt with the pressing issues ofthe decade or with controversial matters. It simply fell in line with the other media of the day and offered little in the way of comment or a conscience. The nature of the relationship between cinema and society is viewed unproblematically, for the purposes of this argument, and its broad contours might be summed up thus: "the times were difficult, but the cinema provided fantasy and escape for a country beset by difficulties". Beyond fulfilling the role of "a dream factory", however, the British cinema did not have much of a meaningful part to play in "the national life". (1) For some years now, though, many of the assumptions which lay at the heart of that thesis have come under careful scrutiny. And the current line of thinking on the matter emphasizes the fact that the cinema fulfilled an ideological role and projected a vision of the world which underpinned the prevailing social and political structures. To that extent, it may be said that the British cinema had a positive and purposeful role to play in shaping "the national life" because it helped, along with several other factors, of course, to achieve that "high degree of consensus" which undoubtedly characterized British society during the 1930s, despite its many attendant problems. In short, the forms and institutions of the mainstream British cinema had a hegemonic function and this was a significant element in contributing towards the remarkable stability of British society throughout the period. (2) This particular feature must be attributed, for the most part, to the inherently conservative nature of much of the British film industry, its personnel and practices, and to its close working relationship with the various governments of the day. In addition, however, it clearly owed a good deal to the highly supervised and well regulated process of censorship which obtained at the time and which has formed, more recently, the basis of some valuable historical research. (3) Censorship was largely conducted by the British Board ofFilm Censors (BBFC), a body which had been established and maintained since 1912 by the film trade. It claimed to act independently in reaching its decisions, and to provide a voluntary form of censorship in the best interests of the industry and the 70 cinemagoing public at large. It was deemed voluntary in so far as films were submitted "voluntarily" to the Board for review and classification. But in practice, after 1933, the film renters agreed not to distribute unclassified films. And although the BBFCs decisions were not legally binding, most local authorities which granted licenses to premises for the public exhibition of films expected that such films had been viewed by the BBFC. There were only two visible links between government and the BBFC but they were important ones. The Home Office regularly issued circulars to local authorities advising them of the Board's rulings and decisions which were expected to be followed. And the...