Cinema: The New Pictures: Feb. 19, 1940

Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (Warner Bros.) is 606, the arsenical compound that the dumpy, cigar-puffing Jewish genius found he could shoot into syphilitics and kill the pale spirochetes of syphilis without killing their victim. Warner Brothers have long been afraid that the bullet might ricochet from the Hays Office, the State censorship boards, the U. S. cinemillions conditioned to regard any mention of syphilis as indecent. Consulted in advance, after a fortnight's solemn thought the Hays experts spoke. Their verdict: the word syphilis must be mentioned as seldom as possible in the picture;...

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