Critical Writing Index

Censored! Only In Canada: The History of Film Censorship-the Scandal off the Screeen

by Malcolm Dean

Toronto: Virgo Press, 1981

"Censored! Only in Canada-Pity.

In December of 1894 the Edison Kinetoscope made its Canadan debut in Toronto, spawning a new form of art and entertainment in Canada-the moving picture.

By December of 1908 the Toronto City Council was petitioning the Police Commissioners Board to grant no more licenses for moving picture shows until the city was granted the power to regulate them. The battle was on.

Censored! Only in Canada reveals, for the first time, correspondence and documents from previously confidential files of Canada's film censors. The result is an intriguing expose of how film censors have determined the destiny of film in Canada. Malcolm Dean's fascinating text contrasts the tragedy of censorship with its innate humor. It is the first complete history of film censorship in Canada, and an authoritative source of Canadian film history. Censored! Only in Canada includes stills from many censored films, tables, breif histories of U.S. and British film censorship, as well as a survey of film censorship legislation around the world."-- from the back of the book.

Contents: Foreword by Gerald Pratley, Acknowledgments, Introductions; Chapter 1 The Call to Arms: 1896 to world war one; Chapter 2 The Censors and Society: World war one to World war two; Chapter 3 Innocence Lost: World war Two to 1959; Chapter 4 Liberty and Licence: 1960 to 1969; Chapter 5 Problems and Enigmas: 1970 to 1980; Chapter 6 The Provincial Censors: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan,The Yukon; Chapter 7 Federal Censorship: Proposed, Purported, Political; Chapter 8 Last Tango in Ottawa; Chapter 9 The Pseudoscience of Censorship; Addendum 1 History of British Censorship; Addendum 2 History of U.S. Censorship; Ap

ITEM 1981.071 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

The Astrology Game – Malcolm Dean

Carry on Sergeant – Gerald Thomas

The Kiss – William Heise

The Gay Deceiver – John M. Stah

Les Enfants Du Paradis – Marcel Carne

Scarlet Street – Fritz Lang

All Quiet on the Western Front – Lewis Milestone

The Last Tango in Paris – Bernardo bertolucci

Diary of a Nazi – Vladimir Braun

Woman in Dunes – Hiroshi Teshigahara

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – Karel Reisz

Jules et Jim – Francois Truffaut

The Killing of Sister George – Robert Aldrich

Fellini's La Dolce Vita – Federico Fellini

Ilsa, She-Wolf of the S.S. – Don Edmonds

Pretty Baby – Louis Malle

In Praise of Older Women – George Kaczender

Ulysses (1967) – Joseph Strick

A Married Couple – Allan King

A Message From our Sponsor (1981) – Al Razutis

The Tin Drum – Volker Schlondorff

Life of Brian – Terry Jones

High – Larry Kent