Cinema: Fadeout for Censors?

In the careless youth of the cinema, long before the first feature-length film, the U.S. screen was as free as the U.S. press. Then, in 1907, Chicago gave birth to movie censorship. Last week, after decades of kowtowing by a timid film industry, enemies of censorship made a strong bid to end the reign of censors now entrenched in seven states and 50 cities.

Into Atlanta's federal district court trooped legal representatives of Independent Producer Louis de Rochemont, who helped launch the "Negro-problem" movie cycle with his Lost Boundaries (TIME, July 4), and Film Classics, Inc., the picture's distributor. They asked for...

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