Frankenstein ( 1931 ) Banned in South Australia Only.
8th June, 1932. 13th May, 1952 Advertisement for the first release in Adelaide, S.A. on the 28th May, 1952.
Frankenstein ( 1931 ) was passed for public exhibition in Australia by the Australia censor but was then banned for exhibition in South Australia by the South Australian censor. The film was eventually released in South Australia in Adelaide in 1952.
There were other cases where films were banned in one Australian state only after being originally passed by the Australian censor. Probably the two most famous examples apart from Frankenstein were All Quiet On The Western Front ( 1930 ) banned in Victoria and When The Kellys Rode banned in N.S.W in 1934 and eventually released there in 1948.
From "'Australian Censorship History" -- ''In 1972, apparently the final states of N.S.W. and S. A. authorised Commonwealth Censors to act on the States' behalf ( all other States had done so in or before 1949 ).
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Apparently our Parent and Grandparents were comfortable lying about their ages...
OH!
Thank you
Above on the left is the original newspaper advertisement for the re-release everywhere else in Australia except N.S.W. including Adelaide, S.A. where the advertisement originated from. This re-release was planned to go hand in hand in with the N.S.W. first release in 1948. The image on the right is from the Glenelg, Adelaide, S.A, original 1930s release.
The BEF strategy appears to have been to screen the film in N.S.W. for the first time in 1948 and also re-release it in all other states that had originally screened it and capitalise on the censorship angle and push the banning aspect to help sell the film but cleverly not mentioning the ban had only been originally in N.S.W. and to hopefully perhaps lead some people to think it was a first release screening Australia wide. Remember 14 years is a long time and some people have short memories and there was little information out there at that time apart from through newspapers and radio to inform people of the facts. As the film apparently wasn't very good I believe BEF realised they needed to push the banning of the film as it would be important publicity to be used to attract audiences.
It's enough to make you pull your hair out!
I can understand why people spend years researching and studying our censor system...would take just that to piece the bits together...forget about trying to make sense of it.
Some more information about All quiet On The Western Front which was banned in Victoria only in 1930 that I had mentioned briefly at the start of this thread. The film was banned on Pacifism grounds. In 1939 All Quiet On The Western Front was then banned Australia wide again on Pacifism grounds for the duration of the war. The film had a nationwide Australian re-release in 1948.