Excessive Examples Of Film Censorship In Australia.

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      # 1.  Key Witness ( 1960 ). Originally was released in the U.S.A.  with a running time of 82 minutes,on the 6th of October, 1960. Eventually released in Sydney Australia on the 28th of March, !962 with a reduced running time of 65 minutes. A total of 17 minutes was removed, apparently  to allow the film to be passed by the Australian censor. I cannot find any information on the rating the film was awarded for release here. If any one has an Australian poster of Key Witness please let us see it. The two black and white scenes at the top of the page may or may not have appeared in the final version shown in Australia. There is also another scene where Jeffery Hunter has a switchblade held to his throat and we all know how the Australian censors dispised any form of knives around this period so most likely this scene would have been censored.

The following may give us an idea as to why the film was so heavily censored.

"An average Los Angeles citizen witnesses a gang member murder when he stops to use a telephone. Aware that he is the only witness against them, the gang members seek out his identity and terrorize him and his family to keep them from testifying against them''.

If you are wondering about the song ''Ruby Duby Do'' advertised on the poster, it is a catchy instrumental and it is performed by Charles Wolcott conducting the MGM Studio Orchestra. Google it and have a listen as I am sure you will enjoy it.

More examples of other heavily censored films will follow at a later date.

David

Geeze, 20% of the film cut - how could you not notice those skips

And here's the instrumental




And the same version with words

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 The most popular version of Ruby Duby Do was by Tobin Matthews. The first release pressing on Chief Records had his name spelt incorrectly. An instrumental with a few words introduced at the beginning of the record.

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 Lurking in the wings waiting to make an appearance.

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 # 2. Pyro ... The Thing Without A Face ( aka Wheel Of Fire in Australia ) from 1964.The film was originally released in the U.S.A. with a running time of 99 minutes. The Australian release running time was only 75 minutes long, leaving 22 minutes missing. Just how much of the running time was due to censorship problems and also perhaps the Australian distributor Paramount Pictures cutting the film down to a suitable support film length, would be any ones quess. Note the Australian distributors tame looking daybill with the tagline ''The romantic suspense sensation!'' then compare it to the U.S. poster. It is like they are advertising two different films.

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 The Split  aka The Manster in the USA was an American film shot in Japan film from 1959. Released in the U.S.A. in 1962 under the title The Manster, but in overseas markets as The Split. The film was released in Australia in 1962 in a heavily censored version running only 58 minutes compared to the U.S. running time of 72 minutes. This mean 19.4 % of the film was removed, so you may as well say a fifth of the film. This film along with the previous two examples certainly proves the Australian censors were kept very busy and when they were not outright banning films they were ordering massive cuts to the films be applied.