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We want it scary...but not TOO scary!

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  • HONDO said:


     ( Bruce from 1997 )
    Wow! We took GREAT photos 22 years ago. I think I have that camera kicking around somewhere. Maybe we should go back to it!




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  • The Bird With The Crystal Plumage ( 1970 ). Original U.S.A. one sheet.



    Different similar design used on both the Australian one sheet and daybill. The Australian censors disdain for threatening  knives resulted in the tamer looking Australian posters being produced.
  • edited November 2019


    Bewitched ( 1945 ). Original U.S.A. insert and Australian daybill posters.

    The image of a woman seen brandishing scissors in a threatening manner appearing on the U.S. artwork was apparently deemed by Australian censorship guidelines to be too much for Australians to view on a poster.This image oddly replaced by a stand alone knife dripping blood, when the image should have been a pair of scissors.
  • HONDO said:

     Portion of an Australian daybill printed for the 1961 film The Mark and sent to New Zealand for it's release there. Note the censoring of the newspaper headlines and story. To sum up the film content the following will give you a clue as to why the poster was most likely censored there. ''A man who served time for intent to molest a child tries to build a new life with the help of a sympathetic psychiatrist '' from IMDB. Australia banned more films than New Zealand ever did but New Zealand certainly excelled in film poster material censoring and at times was bordering on the ridiculous.





    The Australian daybill and a U.S.A. printed International  one sheet that were  used in New Zealand.  Both posters had censorship snipes attached over an image of Maria Schell and Stuart Whirman in bed. 
  • edited January 2020


    Man On The Prowl ( 1957 ) U.S.A. insert and Australian daybill posters. ''The killer was in the bedroom... - her sleeping children were at his mercy...'', the beginning of the taglines used on the U.S. poster were not used on the daybill with only the last part of the original wording used.

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    Previously covered on my Hondo's This And That thread  I felt this information also needed to be included on this thread as well for those who perhaps hadn't see it, and to have it included here with similar material.
     


    Psycho ( 1960 / 1969 RR ). U.S.A. Pressbook showing the Norman Bates character weilding a knife.




    The 1971 Australian re-release daybill with the knife missing and only a clenched fist shown. Our Australian film censors certainly didn't like threatening knive images being displayed over many decades.


  • The Vulture ( 1966 ) original U.S.A. one sheet.



    The Australian original release one sheet. The following taglines printed on the U.S. poster were left off the Australian version along with another very small alteration I will mention shortly..



    BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!



    Original U.S.1/2 sheet



    The same designed U.S. 1/2  sheet  was also used in Australia. On the U.S. poster the female on the right of the poster has a crater looking indentation under her left eye. This has been painted over on the Australian used 1/2 sheet along with the taglines mentioned earlier.  



    Giving credit where credit is due this Australian censorship alteration  was originally picked up by Bruce's team.

    I noticed also that there is an error on the Australian used 1/2 sheet. Anyome care to comment?

  •                                 

                                                     Suspense ( 1946 ) original U.S.A. insert poster, complete with dagger.



                                                     Much less suspensful looking Australian daybill version, minus the dagger.
    \


    A Brisbane Queensland placed 1946 Australian newspaper advertisement where it would appear to me that a local artist used his imagination here to produce an interesting result, but perhaps not what the censor would have preferred or approved.


  • The Black Belly Of The Tarantula ( 1971 ) original U.S.A. 3 sheet poster and an original Australian daybill poster.  

    The Australian version is minus the threatening knife image and has modified taglines. 
  • very interesting, thanks


  • Blood And Black Lace  ( 1964 ). A U.S.A. first release insert poster and an Australian  first release daybill

    A complete reversal to the norm here with the Australian daybill being more ''scary'' and effective than the U.S. poster. Anyone agree? 
  • I'm always biased towards a daybill! That said - a little colour in the daybill would have been nice, but I think the daybill is the scarier.




  •  A Reflection Of Fear ( 1972 ). An original U.S.A. one sheet and an Italian 1p poster.



    An Australian released one sheet with toned down images. Designed to fall in with Australian censorship guidelines perhaps, but seeing the film was classified M  on October 1 1972, eleven months after the R certificate was introduced in Australia, one only has to wonder why the original artwork wouldn't have been by this this time acceptable to have  used it here as well.



    The Australian daybill similar to the Australian one sheet and an Italian locandina poster that used the U.S. one sheet image.




  • Werewolves On Wheels ( 1971). Original U.S.A. insert and an Australian daybill. The film was only passed by the Australian censor and released here in 1975. The image of a man appearing to be deliberately run over by a werewolf on a motorcycle was apparently far to unsuitable for poster artwork displaying here in Australia.




  • Man On The Prowl ( 1957 ). Original U.S.A. insert poster and an Australian daybill.

    The following '' The killer was in the bedroom... her sleeping children were at his mercy'' wording  that is printed on the insert is absent from the Australian daybill, leaving only ''any woman would do what she did!''. 


  • Crescendo! ( 1970 ). Original U.K. quad and a U.S.A. 3 sheet poster.




    Italian 2p poster and an Australian daybill.

    Crescendo! was produced by Hammer Films and it  would be safe to say that it isn't one of their better known films.

    None of the violent scenes appearing on the overseas material, or any violence at all allowed on the Australian daybill.

    ''The Night The Loving Ended  And The Killing Began!'' tagline added later to the daybill before completing the poster. This was done to cover over the remaining section of the originally drawn  scene that was similar to the one depicted on the Italian poster of the man holding the  dripping blood axe.
  • HONDO said:


    The Damned / These Are The Damned ) ( 1963). U.K. quad, Australian daybill and a U.S.A. one sheet. Big difference in the style of artwork used by the three countries on their posters.



    The Damned ( 1963 ) aka These Are The Damned in the U.S.A. The gang member brandishing a knife scene on both the U.K.quad and the U.S.A. one sheet is missing from the Australian daybill. The knife is a lot clearer on this new image.



    Original scene from the film.



  • Lord Of The Flies ( 1963 ) original release U.K. one sheet.



    Australian daybills printed for the Australian release in 1966. Was the delayed release due to censorship problems, or was it just the fact that this film would have appeared to have very limited appeal at the box office in Australia outside of the arthouse cinema bookings?



    The pig's head on a stick image which appears on the original British country of origin poster is absent from the two Australian posters. Was the pig's head absence from the Australian posters due to a censorship problem one has to wonder?



  • La Residencia ( 1969 ) country of origian Spanish poster artwork and some Italian poster artwork of the same film.



    U.S.A. insert poster titled in America The House That Screamed  and the Australian daybill titled here as  The Fihishing School.

    The blood dripping  broken glass or multiple knives images are missing from the Australian daybill poster along with the full about to be flogging scene reduced to the victim's image being displayed in close up only. The Australian taglines appear to me that they are promoting the film as beiing a thriller rather that a horror film.






  • Bluebeard's 10 Honeymoons ( 1960 ) original U.S.A. insert poster and the original Australian daybill.

    The two skulls and the woman in the bath strangulation images are missing altogether from the Australian daybill and the skeleton bride image altered to a living bride on the daybill. The tagline appearing on the U.S. insert was a no-no as well.

    Images only were originally displayed  by Pancho here in September 2015, but now they are back again, this time with some details now included here as well.




  • The Strange Woman (1946 ) Australian daybill and The Ox-Bow Incident ( 1955 ) daybill.



    House On Haunted Hill ( 1959 ) Australian daybill and the original U.S.A. insert poster artwork. Apparently allowing scenes of hanging men was acceptable on Australian film posters prior to this film's release, but a skeleton hanging a woman in a horror film certainly wasn't o.k. with the Australian film censor in 1959. 
  • As much as I'd love to have that daybill, removing the hanged woman does damage its balance
  •  

    Riot In Juvenile Prison ( 1959 ). Original U.S.A. insert and an Australian daybill that has just surfaced.

    The taglines on the U.S. poster ''Boy and girl inmates together under one roof!!! Their teen-age emotions were tender and ripe ... something had to explode!'' were not included on the Australian daybill.

    What I find odd though is the ''For general exhibition'' censorship rating allocated to this genre of film  
  • Yes that rating is strange. You would think it might have been Not Suitable.
  • I'd like one those Riot daybills
  •  

    Twice Told Tales ( 1963  ) original U.S,A. insert and an Australian re-titled as Nights Of Terror in Australia daybill posters.

    For our posters all skeletons, coffins and other related images were apparently deemed far too horrific for displaying on posters here in  Australia.

  •   

    Chambers Of Horrors ( 1966  ) original U.S.A. insert poster and a Spanish film poster.


     

    A French film poster and an actual image from the film. Axe and hook images  were featured extensively on film posters from around the world.



    In Australia we were allowed a severed hand only, apart from a mild image situated in the centre  of the daybill poster.


  •  

    Invitation To A Gunfighter ( 1964 ). New Zealand censorship applied to an Australian printed daybill used there. They were very strict in New Zealand regarding not showing any violence towards women on any printed advertising matter. The double censorship snipes certainly downgrade  the appearance of an otherwise nice looking poster.

  •   

    The Full Treatment ( 1960 ) original Australian daybill that used the original G.B. country of origin title when released here. When screened in the U.S.A. the more sensationally titled Stop Me Before I Kill! was used there.

    The Australian censor objected to strangling scenes on film advertising material, so the attempted strangling scene above had to go.

    The following The Outrage ( 1964 ) Australian daybill is a great example ( and amusiing as well ) of Australian censorship.


     
        
     Interestingly the Australian daybil of The Full Treatment  has a Suitable Only For Adults snipe attached to it.  The following 1962 Australian  newspaper advertisement confirms this rating.



  • Also interesting is that the daybill left off the director's name, screenplay and producer. Wouldn't be allowed to happen nowadays with billing being contractual on advertising. 




    Peter
  • edited March 2023
    Also interesting is that the daybill left off the director's name, screenplay and producer. Wouldn't be allowed to happen nowadays with billing being contractual on advertising. 



    Was the above form of censorship classification presentation  the reason that caused the credit absence?
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