Movie classics banned in Ireland: a former film censor explains the cuts & bans in new film
American actor Clark Gable (1901 - 1960) as Rhett Butler, and British actress Vivien Leigh (1913 - 1967) as Scarlett O'Hara, in Gone With The Wind, directed by Victor Fleming, 1939(Image: Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)In the Opinion of the Censor is an Irish documentary that charts how successive censors banned around 2,500 films and cut a further 11,000 following the Censorship of Films Act 1923.Filmmaker Andrew Gallimore (One Night in Millstreet) begins his story with 1923 act which decreed that all films must be approved by the censor, a role heavily shaped by Church and State.Gallimore’s documentary opened at the Irish Film Festival in London in November and demonstrates how the heavy censorship mirrored Ireland’s shifting cultural andpolitical values, with clips from Casablanca, Life of Brian, The Last Temptation of Christ and Ulysses.READ MORE: Shane MacGowan tribute album to be released next yearREAD MORE: 'Philo took me under his wing and I tried to do the same with Professor Brian Cox'Former film censor John Kelleher, who narrates the documentary, said: “It’s a fascinating way to look at the history of a changing Ireland over the hundred years since independence in 1923.“I was shocked and angry at many of the censorship decisions made when I was younger. 200 films were banned in the 70s in Ireland when I was a young adult in my cinema-going prime.“I was amused at many of the decisions of the early censors, which were reflective of the time they lived in.Former film censor John Kelleher(Image: Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins)“For example, James Montgomery, the first censor, who banned 1700 films, defined ‘nudity’ as any part of a woman that was unclothed below the neck!“I became a censor in 2003 because I wanted to modernise the office and replace the censorship of the past with classification, based on consumer guidance for parents and young people.“I was the last Film Censor and the first director of Film Classification."Here, Mr Kelleher and the documentary’s director highlight six films that were either censored or banned and tell us why...I’M NO ANGEL (1933)Mae West in 1933 movie I'm no Angel John Kelleher: This was censored because the censor couldn’t handle Mae West’s feisty female sexuality, her come-hither eye-rolling and witty innuendo.The distributors hadn’t even submitted her first film She Done Him Wrong to the censor because they knew it would be rejected.With I’m No Angel, they cut 17 minutes out of it before submitting it, but the censor still said ‘No!’Andrew Gallimore: Distributors knew it would be so difficult to sell Mae West to the Irish market that her first film, She Done Him Wrong, wasn’t even submitted to the censor.And despite cutting 17 minutes from the film first, I’m No Angel was still banned.GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)Andrew Gallimore director of One Night in Millstree and In The Opinion Of The CensorJK: Thirteen severe cuts were made to it by the censor, mostly relating to aspects of female sexuality (including pregnancy and childbirth.The American ambassador interceded on behalf of the distributor, watching it with the censor, James Montgomery, who made only minor concessions to him. The reality is that the early film censors treated the Irish people as if they were children.AG: James Montgomery was the censor for seventeen years during which time he banned over seventeen hundred films.His term of office ended with Montgomery demanding thirteen cuts to the biggest film of its day, Gone with the Wind.So severe was Montgomery’s cutting of Gone With the Wind, that the American Ambassador intervened.He sat through the film with Montgomery and managed to win a few concessions. But as for the “Yankee insults”, the “attempted rape”, “Scarlett’s declaration of birth control” and “the midwifery requisites”… that all had to go.CASABLANCA (1942)A movie still of Humphrey Bogart and Dooley Wilson on the set of the Warner Bros classic film Casablanca in 1942 in Los Angeles(Image: Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)JK: It was banned when first submitted in March 1943 under the Emergency Powers Act because Ireland was neutral during WWII and Casablanca was seen as favouring the Allies and being anti-German.After the war, it was re-submitted and allowed in, but with extraordinary cuts. The main thrust of which was to conceal the fact – from the Irish audience – that Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) had a romance in Paris.The fact that Ilsa (mistakenly) believed her husband had been murdered by the Nazis made no difference.In the eyes of the Irish film censor she was a married woman and adultery was unacceptable on screen. It’s worth noting the censor’s power extended beyond the films themselves.Richard Hayes actually interfered with their titles too. He arbitrarily changed the title of I Want a Divorce to The Tragedy of Divorce, Married Bachelor was retitled A Bachelor Looks at Marriage and – inexplicably – Misbehaving Husbands became Henry Goes Haywire!AG: In 1942, Richard Hayes banned Casablanca under the Emergency Powers legislation, as it was deemed to infringe Irish neutrality during WW2 – you couldn’t screen anything that reflected Germany in a bad light.In 1945, when it was re-submitted after the war, Hayes passed it, although with cuts that reflected his “simple moral code”. His cuts were designed to suppress any reference to the Paris romance between Rick and Ilsa.Because, although Ilsa mistakenly believed she was a widow (she thought her husband had died at the hands of the Gestapo), in the eyes of the censor, she was still a married woman.THE GRADUATE (1968)The Graduate 1967 MGM film with Dustin Hoffman and Katherine Ross(Image: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo)JK: The censor banned this outright on the grounds that it was contrary to public morality.The distributor appealed and the appeals board allowed it in, but withcuts, which meant that Irish cinemagoers were completely unaware Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft) seduced Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman).This was an outrageous decision that completely interfered with the core story of the film.AG: In 1968, Christopher Macken banned The Graduate.The appeals board overturned Macken’s ban, but they made no less than 11 cuts, so the nation’s moral code was upheld and Irish audiences were blissfully unaware of Mrs Robinson’s seductive intentions.MONTY PYTHON’S LIFE OF BRIAN (1979)Scene fromMonty Python’s Life of BrianJK: The censor, Frank Hall, (my first boss in RTE Television), was the most famous satirist in the country.Notwithstanding that, he promptly banned this brilliant Monty Python satire, revealing a strict Catholicism that surprised many.(The ban was lifted by his successor a few years later).Commenting on his decision, Frank Hall said: “It was offensive to Christians and to Jews alike because it make them appear like a terrible bunch of gobs****s.”AG: Frank Hall was, ironically, one of Ireland’s best-known satirists, but when he became censor his strong Catholicism led him to ban one of cinema’s classic satires.Life Of Brian was banned on the grounds, as Hall described it to the Irish Times, that it was offensive to Christians and to Jews as well, because it made them appear like a terrible bunch of gobs****s.NATURAL BORN KILLERS (1994)Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson in 1994 movie Natural Born Killers(Image: Absolute Film Archive)JK: The next censor, Sheamus Smith, who was remarkably liberal compared to his predecessors, (he said ‘it’s the director’s job to cut the film’) had a particular issue with violence. His unusual decision to ban this film was highly controversial.AG: Sheamus Smith is widely regarded as the first liberal censor.But even he banned Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers, citing its “wall-to-wall violence which is made light of” and “in the context of (IRA violence) the fact that we were living in a violent society in Ireland”.How to watch In the Opinion of the CensorYou can watch the new movie here. It will be shown on RTE Television in 2026.Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.
