Brattle Theatre Files Court Suit Attacking Sunday Film Censorship

Last spring's ban of the Swedish film "Miss Julie" from Sunday showings at the Brattle has brought court action by the theater attacking the constitutionality of the Massachusetts Sunday censorship law.

Brattle Films Inc., under the management of Cyrus Harvey, Jr. '47 and Bryant Halliday '49, have filed suit in the Middlesex superior court testing the constitutional right of the Massachusetts Commissioner of Safety to ban "Miss Julie" last February. They expect the case to be heard within the next two weeks.

Besides Otis M. Whitney, Commissioner of Public Safety, who twice refused the Brattle's petition for a Sunday license, the case is also directed against Cambridge City Manager John J. Curry. The judgement of neither man is questioned. At stake is the constitutionality of the rights of the Public Safety Commissioner to grant or refuse Sunday licenses within the Commonwealth.

Theater's Chances Good

The State Street firm of Peabody, Koufman and Brewer filed the case for Brattle Films. Joseph M. Koufman '41 indicated yesterday that one the basis of recent Supreme Court decisions relating to similar film cases in the State of New York, he thought the chances of winning the suit for the Brattle were good. In New York, earlier decisions banning the movie "The Miracle" have been reversed.

Massachusetts law permits the Commissioner of Safety to refuse Sunday licenses to films "inconsistent with the Sabbath's due observance." The plaintiffs claim this law is contrary to the free speech clauses of the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the National Constitution and to Article 16 of the State Constitution.

Safety Commissioner Whitney used this law when he refused the Brattle's application to show "Miss Julie" last February. When the Cambridge theater reapplied to show the movie on a later Sunday in February, the petition was again refused on the grounds that a public showing would not be in keeping with proper observance of the Lord's Day.