Censorship Ruins Adaptation of Legitimate Plays To Motion Pictures, Says Harry Wagstaff Gribble

"The movies have strewn the entrails of the theatre all over the place," said Harry Wagstaff Gribble, noted producer and playwright, recently returned from Hollywood, in an interview with the CRIMSON yesterday.

"Censorship is what ruins the plays which are taken from Broadway and turned into pictures," continued Mr. Gribble, "It makes motion picture production absolutely dishonest. There isn't a fact of life which can be shown on the screen. In certain shows you can't even mention the fact that a woman is going to have a baby. The reason why pictures are unintelligible even to minors is that they are not made to conform with any standard of morality but with a synthetic code made up by committees of bigoted people.

"Censorship makes producers and directors dishonest. You cannot say that a man and a woman are having an affair. Somehow by hints and insinuations you have to get around this, and as a result you get something emasculated.

"If two he-men are having a fight, you are not even allowed to have them say, 'damn, damn you, or hell.' You cannot say 'kept woman.'

"Censorship has created a situation where you can only hint that a man is keeping a woman. You can't show him unlocking the door of her house, but you can show him in her bedroom.

"Not that it is necessary to be pornographic, but within these limitations, it is impossible to portray life with any realism or accuracy. We have now come to the point where it is not permissible to have a character say 'My God' in horror and consequently you get an affected and totally unreal product.