Most Laughable Censorship Ever?

HONDO

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Coming very soon is some of the most laughable censorship ever applied to movie posters and it isn't Australian or New Zealand. I assure you will be amused once you see it.

HONDO

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Cover Up ( 1949 )                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Far Top two images are U.S. 3 sheets &  the just above two U.S.one sheet images have in each case the original artwork plus the same poster heavily censored.

Let's start with the 3 sheet. On the original there are three hand guns. On the 2nd poster censorship has William Bendix's gun blacked out, Dennis O'Keefe's gun turned into a telephone and the gun on the ground changed into a genie lamp.    

The U.S. one sheets immediately above shows the original one sheet first with three hand guns depicted. On the image just above here is the censored version. William Bendix holding a threatening  piece of paper, Dennis O'Keefe as the one armed man and the apparently dead man on the ground holding his prize possession, his hat.       

According to eMovieposter.com the censoring likely occurred in Canada where they censored out almost every gun that was shown on a poster.

I would like to hear from Chris on if he can confirm this type of censoring happened and what he can inform us about on this matter.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Be it be Canada which I am sure it is or some where else this is the most amusing censorship I have ever seen. Does Anyone else agree?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Sven

The genie lamp is hilarious! 

Pancho

Oh. My. God.

theartofmovieposters

Sven said:

The genie lamp is hilarious! 

Agree!

[Deleted User]

The genie lamp and telephone certainly are hilarious!  And go right along with typical Canadian humor so why not?

David

Sven said:

The genie lamp is hilarious! 

:rofl: 

Pancho

I've come across a daybill with a remarkably stupid rating label - I just wonder if anyone has seen a stupid rating label they'd care to share?

HONDO

Pancho said:

I've come across a daybill with a remarkably stupid rating label - I just wonder if anyone has seen a stupid rating label they'd care to share?

Can we see your example?

Bruce

Lawrence, I have sold many tens of thousands of posters that originated in Canada, and I can assure you that either all, or the vast majority of this particular kind of censorship originated there (I know for certain).

What is very sad is that they used a specific type of black ink that completely bonds in to the paper. I have seen restorers able to lighten it, but never remove it, so to restore it, it must be painted over.

But as I say on many of these when I auction them, depending on how you look at it, this can either be a major detraction or a cool addition!

Bruce

The censors hated guns, knives, and too much female flesh. This is probably the most frequently censored one-sheet I have encountered.

Bruce

P.S. Note the Canadian censor stamp in the top right.

HONDO

You must have enjoyed the Cover Up posters I previously posted then.

Bruce

HONDO said:

You must have enjoyed the Cover Up posters I previously posted then.

I do now, and did when I first auctioned them in 2007 and 2013.

When I auctioned the censored one, I graded it as "fair" and described its condition this way:

"Note that this poster has been censored! It likely occurred in Canada, because the vast majority of posters with censor paint like this have originated in Canada, where they were crazy about censoring out images that were deemed either "too sexy" or "too violent", and that generally included almost any gun that was shown. On this poster, they covered up one gun, turned the gun on the floor into a genie lamp (!) and O'Keefe is now holding a phone! Depending on how you look at it, this is either a huge defect or kind of a neat curiosity but know that the censor paint most likely cannot be removed."

David

Seeing censorship like that is kind of cute all these years later.

Pancho

Nothing too strange so far - dodgy sexploitation film, R rating. But look at the yellow label:



WTF?? So I can take my 5 year old son in with me?? Can't imagine this style of rating lasted too long!

Sven

I was thinking the same re: my 5yr old...OMG!

theartofmovieposters

HAHAHAHAHA...funny!

Rich

I had a DOA lobby card where they removed the gun Ed O'Brien was holding and replaced it with a wad of money

HONDO

Rich said:

I had a DOA lobby card where they removed the gun Ed O'Brien was holding and replaced it with a wad of money

Just had a look and very amusing indeed.

Bruce

There are a zillion of these in my auction history.

Sometimes the censors did a great job, and other times...

Consider this example:





Apparently,  the portion of the image that showed a sexy scantily clad Susan Hayward and the tagline ("For this woman, he broke God's own Commandment!") was just "too much" for that particular theater in those much more innocent times!

Bruce

Or how about this one:

Bruce

Note that in both cases above, they carefully censored one sexy image, but ignored another! Weird.

David

In the Captains Table both female images were 'adjusted'

HONDO

David

Yep, that's what I was thinking.

Bruce

David said:

In the Captains Table both female images were 'adjusted'

I did not look close enough! But it still is odd they did not also give the second girl a one piece.

David

Bruce said:

David said:

In the Captains Table both female images were 'adjusted'

I did not look close enough! But it still is odd they did not also give the second girl a one piece.

Very true.