ENGL 351: Advanced Film

Course Materials

Required Texts

  1. Frances Couvares, Movie Censorship and American Culture (Washington D.C.: The Smithsonian Institution, 1996).
  2. Robert Sklar, Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies (rev. and updated). New York: Random House, Inc. (Vintage Books), 1994.
  3. Course Pack (at Copy Corner on George Bush Drive).

    Contains:
    • Timeline of U.S. Movie Censorship
    • "The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 and Addenda"
    • "The Voluntary Movie Rating System" by Jack Valenti
    • Stanley Fish, "There's No Such Thing as Free Speech, and It's a Good Thing, Too" in Paul Berman, ed. Debating PC: the Controversy over Political Correctness on College Campuses (New York, 1993)
    • American Civil Liberties Union Briefing Paper #14: "Freedom of Expression in the Arts and Entertainment." WWW 1/14/98.

Research Bibliography and Web Sites
(All book are in Evans Library--check for availability; Evans Library Call #s Listed)

Index
    Film Index International (Chadwyck Healey) (includes citations for film criticism back to 1930)

Books, Microtexts, Reports
    U.S. Film and Law

  • Carmen, Ira H. Movies, Censorship, and the Law. Ann Arbor: Univ. Of Michigan Press, 1966. KF4300. C3
  • Censorship of Motion Pictures (microform). New York: National Council on Freedom from Censorship, 1939. Microtext Dept. Fiche C 18461 Check shelf
  • Davy, Charles. Footnotes to the Film. New York: Arno Press, 1970 (reprint of 1938 ed.) (See chapter on "Censorship and Film Societies" by F. Hardy.)
  • De Grazia, Edward. Banned Films: Movies, Censors, and the First Amendment. New York: Bowker, 1982. KF4300 D43 1982
  • Ernst, Morris Leopold. The First Freedom. New York: Macmillan, 1946. 323.443 E71f
  • Facey, Paul W. The Legion of Decency; a Sociological Analysis of the Emergence and Development of a Social Pressure Group. New York: Arno Press, 1974. (Originally author's thesis, 1945). PN 1995.5 F27 1974
  • Gardner, Gerald C. The Censorship Papers: Movie Censorship Letters from the Hays Office, 1934-1968. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1987. PN1995.62 .G37 1987
  • Inglis, Ruth. "Freedom of the Movies; a Report on Self-Regulation from the Commission on Freedom of the Press. Chicago: Univ. Of Chicago Press, 1947. 323.446 C734f
  • Koppes, Clayton R. Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics, Profits, and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies. Berkeley: Univ. Of California Press, 1990, c. 1987. D743.23 K66 1990
  • Koenigil, Mark. Movies in Society (Sex, Crime, and Censorship). New York: R. Speller, 1962. PN 1994. K57
  • Kuhn, Annette. Cinema, Censorship, and Sexuality, 1909-1925. London, New York: Routledge, 1988. PN 1995.65 G7 K84 1988 (U.S. and Great Britain)
  • Phelps, Guy. Film Censorship. London: Gollancz, 1975. PN1994 .P53
  • Popular Culture and Political Change in Modern America. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991. (See chapter on "Progressive reform, censorship, and the motion picture industry".) E169.1 P5985 1991
  • Randall, Richard S. Censorship of the Movies; the Social and Political Control of a Mass Medium. Madison: Univ. Of Wisconsin Press, 1968. KF4300 .R3
  • Schumach, Murray. The Face on the Cutting Room Floor; the Story of Movie and Television Censorship. New York: Da Capo Press, 1974 .
  • Spring, Samuel. Risks & Rights in Publishing, Television, Radio, Motion Pictures, Advertising and the Theatre. New York: Norton, 1952. KF2994 .S66
  • United States. Congress. House. Committee on Small Business. Subcommittee on Special Small Business Problems. "Movie Ratings and the Independent Producer: a Report of the Subcommittee on Special Small Business Problems of the Committee on Small Business, House of Representatives, Ninety-Fifth Congress, second session." Washington, DC: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1978. Report no. 95-996. Issued March 21, 1978. Documents Div./U.S. Docs. Dept. 95-2:H .rp.996
  • Vasey, Ruth. The World According to Hollywood, 1918-1939. Madison: Univ. Of Wisconsin Press, 1997. PN1995.62 .V37 1997
  • Vizzard, Jack. See No Evil: Life Inside a Hollywood Censor. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970. PN 1994 .A4 H65
  • Walsh, Frank. Sin and Censorship: the Catholic Church and the Motion Picture Industry. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1996. PN1995.5 W27 1996
  • What Shocked the Censors (Microform): A Complete Record of Cuts in Motion Picture Films Ordered by the New York State Censors from January 1932 to March 1933. New York: National Council on Freedom from Censorship, 1933. Fiche C 18428 Check Shelf

    Countries other than U.S.

  • Aldgate, Anthony. Censorship and the Permissive Society: British Cinema and Theatre, 1955-1965. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. PN 1995.65 G7 A43 1995
  • Burns-Bisogno, Louisa. Censoring Irish Nationalism: the British, Irish, and American Suppression of Republican Images in Film and Television, 1909-1995. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1997. PN1993.5 .J3 H57 1992
  • Carty, Ciaran. Confessions of a Sewer Rat: a Personal History of Censorship and the Irish Cinema. Dublin: New Island Books, 1995. PN1995.65 I73 C37 1995
  • Golovskoy, Valery S. Behind the Soviet Screen: the Motion-Picture Industry in the USSR, 1972-1982. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1986. PN1993.5 R9 G65 1986
  • Great Britain. Committee on Obscenity and Film Censorship. "Obscenity and Film Censorship: an Abridgement of the Williams Report." Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1981. KD8075 .A8672 1981
  • Higginbotham, Virginia. Spanish Film under Franco. Austin: Univ. Of Texas Press, 1988. PN1993.5 S7 H54 1988
  • Johnson, Tom. Censored Screams: the British Ban on Hollywood Horror in the Thirties. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1997. PN1995.9 .H6 J65 1997
  • Richards, Jeffrey. The Age of the Dream Palace: Cinema and Society in Britain, 1930-39. London, Boston: Routledge & K. Paul, 1984. PN1995.9 S6 R48 1984
  • Robertson, James C. The Hidden Cinema: British Film Censorship in Action 1913-1972. London, New York: Routledge, 1989. PN1995.65 .G7 R64 1989
  • Uchegbu, Benjamin O. "The Nature of Colonial Anti-Nationalist Propaganda in British Africa. Microform: the Case of the Colonial Film Censorship in British Nigeria, 1945-48: a content analysis of colonial censors' reports on films considered "suitable" or unsuitable for African audiences at the peak of the nationalist ferment." (Ph.D. thesis New York Univ. 1978) Microtext film B 2896
  • Zonal Film Archives (Hamburg, Germany). Catalogue of Forbidden German Feature and Short Film Productions Held in Zonal Film Archives of Film Section, Information Services Division, Control Commission for Germany, (BE). Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1996. PN1995.65 .G5 Z66 1996

Articles
(some titles and author names are missing; check Wilson Index to complete)
  • "Applying Social Science Research to Film Ratings" Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media v. 34 Fall '90 p. 443-68.
  • "Berating Ratings" Film Comment v. 26 Sept/Oct '90 p. 3-6+.
  • Billboard v. 109 Feb 15, '97 p. 63-4+. (Great Britain)
  • "Blue Movies." The Public Interest no. 119 Spring '95 p. 86-90. H1 P81
  • "Breaking the Board" Premiere v. 7 Feb '94 p. 40-42 (covers Dallas, TX)
  • Davis, Robert Murray. "Anglo-American Impasse: Catholic Novel & Catholic Censor." Dalhousie Review v. 72 Winter '92/'93 p. 467-81. (On Evelyn Waugh & Joseph Breen)
  • The Economist v. 300 July 19 '86 p. 45 (Great Britain & video)
  • "Film Ratings: X, Y, or Z?" The Economist v. 315 June 30 '90 p. 87.
  • "First major film with an 'NC' rating is embraced by the studio" New York Times Late NY ed. July 21 '95 p. C3.
  • Gunther, Albert C. (On x-rating) Journal of Communication v. 45 (Winter '95) p. 27-8.
  • "Kids' stuff" The Christian Century v. 112 Aug 2-9 '95 p. 731-32.
  • "Killer Movies." Maclean's v. 105 Mar 30 '92 p. 4, 48-51+. AP5 M2
  • Lau, Emily. "Censor & Be Damned." Far Eastern Economic Review v. 136 Apr 2 '87, p. 32-33.
  • Mathews, Tom Dewe. "Clocking the Censor." Sight & Sound ns4 (June '94) p. 30-1 (Great Britain)
  • "Miramax film heightens clash with Disney" Wall Street Journal (Eastern ed.) Mar 30 '95 p. B1+.
  • "Movies and TV vs. The censors: the fight goes on. USA Today (periodical) v. 119 Mar '91 p. 90-3. (TV & movies)
  • Patterson, Alex. Film Comment v. 27 May/June '91 p. 7.
  • "Philosophers and Obscene Movies." Quarterly Review of Film Studies v. 9 Spring '84 p. 154-7. PN 1994 .Q34
  • "These film-makers are vile. They celebrate kinky sex and mass murderers. So, if no one else will speak out, I will. Let's have more of their movies." New Statesman (London 1996) v. 126 Jan 10 '97 p. 43. (Great Britain?)
  • U.S. News & World Report v. 110 Mar. 25 '91 p. 18 (China)
  • Variety v. 365 Dec 16-22 '96 p. 1+
  • Variety v. 366 Mar 24-30 '97 p. 9+ (Australia)
  • Variety v. 363 June 24-30 '96, p. 18 (Egypt)
  • Young, Paul. Variety v. 360 Aug 14-20 '95 p. 1+

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