The Turn to Gruesomeness in American Horror Films, 1931-1936 by Jon Towlson

Author:Jon Towlson [Towlson, Jon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2016-09-12T21:00:00+00:00

THE RAVEN AND CENSORSHIP BACKLASH

A number of scholars dwell on the poor reviews and box office performance of The Raven, as illustration of its unoriginality and as a symptom of the censorship backlash against it and other horror films. However, a number of reviews were enthusiastic: The Film Daily (June 4, 1934), for example, proclaimed it “FANTASTIC MELODRAMA THAT SHOULD CLICK WITH PATRONS WHO GO FOR THE BIZARRE STUFF,”452 and its box office take in many territories was above-average. It opened very well at The Roxy in New York (on July 4), where, according to Motion Picture Daily (July 6, 1935), “it broke all holiday marks … since the theatre went into receivership in 1932.”453 Despite soaring July-August temperatures it also did above average business in Cleveland, Oklahoma, Buffalo and Cincinnati.454 It is, however, clear that a backlash against horror pictures was beginning to foment among the state and overseas censors that summer. Although Massachusetts and Kansas passed The Raven without cuts on July 12 and 31, respectively; earlier, in June, New York had ordered among the deletions “all views of Judge and torture machine, excepting final view where he is to be released”; Ohio the same; Virginia on July 10 requested to be cut all views of the swinging torture machine and the acetylene torch remark, while Pennsylvania and Quebec on July 17 and 22 ordered to be cut all torture room scenes and the acetylene torch remark.

On July 10 Ontario rejected the film with the comment, “features horror and shuddering melodrama. Full of fiendish and diabolical doings.” British Columbia initially rejected the film but, on July 26, after the film had been “reconstructed” by the Canadian Film Exchange, passed it. Meanwhile, Alberta passed the film with the warning: “The Alberta Censor Board advises nervous and excitable people to avoid this picture as it is a HORROR PICTURE.”455

In Britain the right-wing press seized upon the film as evidence of the need for tighter cinema censorship generally and of horror films in particular. It used The Raven as part of a campaign to pressure the British Board of Film Censors into introducing a stricter ratings system that would prevent children under the age of 16 from attending horror films (this eventually came to pass in 1937 with the introduction of the formal “H” certificate which replaced the Horrific advisory label). On August 2, the London Daily Telegraph published an article lambasting the British Board of Film Censors for passing The Raven, which the reviewer adjudged “quite the most unpleasant picture I have ever seen … it exploited cruelty for cruelty’s sake”456; two days later the London Times (August 4) used similar language to describe the film as one of “‘horror’ for ‘horror’s’ sake,” that “exploits degrading abnormalities of human nature.” Common to the argument of these social commentators was that horror films, such as The Raven, had a capacity for harm, not just to children, but to adults with “certain mentalities [that] are susceptible.”457 Therefore, while “intelligent people will find

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