Banned films that were shit

[rutabowa]

Sometimes I have to wonder just what sort of a place England is.

England in the early 1980s you mean

 

[rutabowa]

Cannibal Holocaust is brilliant, apart from the animal mutilation scenes

I had to turn off Cannibal Ferox, as there was some material in it i would construe as being all-but child porn - anyone know what i mean?

i used to have cannibal ferox on copied VHS, i can't remember the bit you mean... it was ages since i watched it though

 

[DaveCinzano]

Remember James Anderton? He was a bible bashing loony who became chief of the Greater Manchester Police. He was a grade A cunt who tried to turn Manchester into something resembling Taliban Afganistan. He even looked like Moses.

He didn't confine his biblical wrath to film censorship; he also dabbled in literary criticism, having a real bee in his bonnet about David Britton/Savoy's Lord Horror novel and comics.

Raids of the frequency to which Savoy were now accustomed began in 1976. James Anderton took over as Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police on 1 July 1976. Between the years 1977 and 1981 the Chief, in an annual report to London, detailed that he had obtained a total of 1,010 search warrants from magistrates, issued for the purpose of raiding under the Obscene Publications Act (meaning that, on average, at least one Manchester high street shop and distributor was being raided every two days).

The confiscation of the novels The Gas and The Tides of Lust was just part of a major raid on Savoy that ultimately resulted in the prosecution of both Britton and Butterworth, and landed David Britton in prison (albeit a full 19 months later). Britton and Philip Bunton (shop manager) at Orbit Books were charged with selling obscene material for gain in an operation utilising about 25 police officers and vehicles, as well as an unknown amount of plain-clothed officers who had been observing stock movement for about a week before the raids.

The obscene material took the form of seven paperback novels: No Place for a Lady by A DeGranamour; Something for the Boys by Kenneth Harding; Mama Liz Drinks Deep, Mama Liz Tastes Flesh, and Secret Sisterhood, each by Howard Rhinegold; Cruel Lips by Marcus Van Heller; and Two Suspicious Girls by Katy Mitchell.

Charges were brought under Section Two of the Obscene Publications Act. More serious charges than these it is difficult to get, yet the novels in question contain no pictorial matter and their authors, Rhinegold in particular, are erudite and often comical...

The novels were already widely available in bookshops and newsagents around the country, such as the London-based WORDS AND MUSIC chain, who initially supplied Savoy.

...Long after the trial several of the titles were reprinted by an English publisher.

The saga - or rather Anderton's religious fervour and art critiquing - was referenced in Mark Kick-Ass Millar's first comic, Saviour; notorious homophobe Anderton was also pastiched as a character in the Lord Horror novel, and in various Savoy comics.

 

[DaveCinzano]

England in the early 1980s you mean

David Britton's conviction for writing and publishing an 'obscene' novel was only overturned in 1992! And the ruling with regards the comics remained!

That said, in 1994 over in the US comic artist Mike C Diana was convicted of obscenity for his artwork published by Mike Hunt Comix; he got three years probation, had to undertake monthly psychiatric evaluation (at his own expense!), was required to maintain a full-time job, pay legal costs, to have no contact with minors, and was forbidden to draw, even for his own amusement.

Just to be clear - he wasn't a violent person, he wasn't accused of kiddy-fiddling - he drew some pictures.

 

[DaveCinzano]

And I think shippou-chan might be able to fill in the details about Christopher Handley, the American manga fan who had his entire comic collection, his magazines, his DVDs and his computers seized under obscenity laws, after a postal inspector decided that a very small number of comics he had ordered from Japan contained "questionable content".

For the heinous crime of ordering comics from Japan he faced up to twenty years in prison. In the event he 'only' got SIX MONTHS, plus THREE YEARS of supervised release, and then FIVE YEARS of probation.

 

[dylans]

And I think shippou-chan might be able to fill in the details about Christopher Handley, the American manga fan who had his entire comic collection, his magazines, his DVDs and his computers seized under obscenity laws, after a postal inspector decided that a very small number of comics he had ordered from Japan contained "questionable content".

For the heinous crime of ordering comics from Japan he faced up to twenty years in prison. In the event he 'only' got SIX MONTHS, plus THREE YEARS of supervised release, and then FIVE YEARS of probation.

Thread on issues related to this here.

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=321580
Those keen to ban or prosecute fictional images in order to "protect the children" should take notice of this sort of literary persecution. Cartoon images deemed "extreme porn" are now liable for prosecution

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

basically i'm fucked arn't i?

 

[Orang Utan]

He didn't confine his biblical wrath to film censorship; he also dabbled in literary criticism, having a real bee in his bonnet about David Britton/Savoy's Lord Horror novel and comics.



The saga - or rather Anderton's religious fervour and art critiquing - was referenced in Mark Kick-Ass Millar's first comic, Saviour; notorious homophobe Anderton was also pastiched as a character in the Lord Horror novel, and in various Savoy comics.

my flatmate has access to a copy of that lord horror book - i think he has to go round to his house to read it as he won't lend it out

 

[DaveCinzano]

Thread on issues related to this here.

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=321580

Thanks for the link, I'd missed that thread.

 

[DaveCinzano]

my flatmate has access to a copy of that lord horror book - i think he has to go round to his house to read it as he won't lend it out

I read an interview with Fenella Fielding in the Independent in which Savoy/Lord Horror came up; the journalist mentioned that he had a copy of the book lurking somewhere in his house, and that he'd told David Britton if he ever found it again he'd sooner torch it than reread it

 

[DaveCinzano]

basically i'm fucked arn't i?

You might get sent to a special comic crime gaol, where everyday you get beaten with canes and slippers, but it's offset with slap-up feeds of mounds of mashed potatoes laden with sausages, and lashings of ginger beer.

Or you might end up in some overcrowded Victorian shithouse having to pretend you're an internet fraudster, because explaining the nuances of hentai to some of your co-habitees might not be an option for one wishing to avoid wrongful noncebashings.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

England in the early 1980s you mean

I assume by this that the practice no longer continues?

 

[Part 2]

I didn't think Grotesque was up to much tbh