Skip to content
1981
Volume 9, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2040-3275
  • E-ISSN: 2040-3283

Abstract

Abstract

Existing research on British censorship during the 1940s has often favoured the notion that a so-called ‘H’ ban effectively upheld the import, production, and exhibition of the horror film in Britain during the later-half of the Second World War. However, through an analysis of contemporary critical reception and censorship discourses, it becomes apparent how this ‘ban’ was nowhere near as clearly defined as is often argued. While the ‘H’ ban may have succeeded in barring a small number of low-brow fantasy horror films from cinema screens the genre prevailed in various guises, with the films of producer Val Lewton bringing about a shift away from fantasy towards representations of the everyday. Furthermore, the role of the script supervisor at the British Board of Film Censors clearly demonstrates an alternative to censorship through an involvement with the studios prior to production in order to avoid such restrictions. This article therefore presents an analysis of such negotiations at the BBFC during this period, with Lewton’s production of The Body Snatcher (Wise, 1945) representing an example of how horror remained a fixture on British screens, through both self-censorship and a move away from the type of film typically associated with the ‘H’ classification.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/host.9.1.7_1
2018-04-01
2024-10-10
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/host.9.1.7_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): BBFC; censorship; critical reception; realism; the 1940s; Val Lewton
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error