Skip to main content
Taylor & Francis Group Logo
    Advanced Search

    Click here to search products using title name,author name and keywords.

    • Login
    • Hi, User  
      • Your Account
      • Logout
      Advanced Search

      Click here to search products using title name,author name and keywords.

      Breadcrumbs Section. Click here to navigate to respective pages.

      Chapter

      The British censors and horror cinema
      loading

      Chapter

      The British censors and horror cinema

      DOI link for The British censors and horror cinema

      The British censors and horror cinema book

      The British censors and horror cinema

      DOI link for The British censors and horror cinema

      The British censors and horror cinema book

      ByMark Kermode
      BookBritish Horror Cinema

      Click here to navigate to parent product.

      Edition 1st Edition
      First Published 2001
      Imprint Routledge
      Pages 13
      eBook ISBN 9780203996768
      Share
      Share

      ABSTRACT

      In 1960, Britain’s then chief censor, John Trevelyan, decided that one of the most celebrated scenes of world cinema needed to be re-edited before it could be shown to the British public. His motives were twofold: first, the sequence, which depicted the hair-raising murder of a wet, naked woman had ‘shots of blood all over the place’ and was clearly ‘sadistic’ in intent; second, ‘there had been much publicity in the press on two sensational killings, one in which a girl student had been decapitated’ (Trevelyan 1973: 160). Although neither was the woman in the film a student, nor was she decapitated, Trevelyan felt that it would be best if he took a pair of scissors to the sequence ‘to lessen the sadism’ and generally take the sting out of the film’s terrifying tale. And so it was that Mr Trevelyan sat down to re-edit the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), perhaps the finest sequence from one of the most influential movies ever made, and just one of the many victims of the British censors’ undeclared war against horror films.

      T&F logoTaylor & Francis Group logo
      • Policies
        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms & Conditions
        • Cookie Policy
        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms & Conditions
        • Cookie Policy
      • Journals
        • Taylor & Francis Online
        • CogentOA
        • Taylor & Francis Online
        • CogentOA
      • Corporate
        • Taylor & Francis Group
        • Taylor & Francis Group
        • Taylor & Francis Group
        • Taylor & Francis Group
      • Help & Contact
        • Students/Researchers
        • Librarians/Institutions
        • Students/Researchers
        • Librarians/Institutions
      • Connect with us

      Connect with us

      Registered in England & Wales No. 3099067
      5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG © 2022 Informa UK Limited