Trivia request!: When was the 1st time swearing was allowed in a British film?!

[SceneByScene]

SUBJECT: Trivia request!: When was the 1st time swearing was allowed in a British film?!





Saw this film 'Night Train to Munich' (1940) the other day on TV's Film4 channel - a great movie!



However, I was astounded to hear the word 'bloody' in this 1940 film! Astounded just because in those days it was not - as it appears to be now(!) - 'de rigeur' to swear in any & every film ,-) !



Not that one minds(!), it is just intriguing that it was allowed by the bods at the censor office back in 1940.



Interestingly, in a wartime-movie designed clearly to be propaganda, the word was effectively used to describe the Nazi regime in Czechoslovakia. Plus the word was used by a well-known British comedic character actor, playing a Czech bureaucrat under the thrall of the German invaders' regime. So one can see a few possible reasons as to why the word was allowed!!



So do any of you statistics-knowledgeable! people out there know if this was the first time such a word was allowed past/by the censors?! or if not, which was the first time/film such a word was allowed in a British moive?



~ by SceneByScene ~

[orpheum]

The Crazy Gang got away with murder.in "Okay For Sound" they did their sketch with a character called Farquahar.So we have a lot of "stupid Farquahar" in that sketch.In "Gasbags" the Gang are in the Maginot Line trying to disguise themselves as trees.Charlie Naughton says "and i am a son of a beach".Mind you i think that they were the exception.In any event given that many of the examiners were ex army types,plus one spinster lady,i kid you not,perhaps they were prepared to cock a deafun.

[Mr Sloane]

Not forgetting Pygmalion 1937







Eliza - "Walk? Not bloody likely. I'm going to take a taxi."

[CaptainWaggett]

After Pygmalion and Night Train Munich, the next use of 'bloody' I can think of is The Captive Heart (IIRC Guy Middleton does the honours). There's also a joke about 'sufficient' being spelled like the Sergeant-Major's blessing - with two F's and one C

[GoggleboxUK]

I suppose it depends on your definition of swearing.



Gone with the Wind (1939) was the first official movie that someone swore in. The very last line in the movie "Frankly my dear, I don't give a dahm." Shocking in it's day.



Hells Angels has a pilot saying "Goddamn it". That came out in 1930.



One of the earliest mainstream Hollywood movies to use the word fuck was director Robert Altman's irreverent antiwar film, MASH, released in 1970 at the height of the Vietnam War. During the football game sequence about three-quarters of the way through the film, one of the MASH linemen says to an 8063rd offensive player, "All right, bud, your fuckin' head is coming right off." Also, former Beatle John Lennon's 1971 release "Working Class Hero" featured use of the word, which was rare in music at the time and caused it to, at most, be played only in segments on the radio. The first example of the F-bomb in movies was seen in Ulysses (1967).



Another interesting fact about swearing in film is the frequency of usage. 1997 Britsh film Nil By Mouth is the daddy of them all with 470 uses of the F-bomb in just 128 minutes. That's a staggering 3.34 FPM (Fucks per minute). In comparison, Casino has only 2.37 FPM.



One of the most offensive terms for female genitalia, the c-word, is the ultimate four-letter word in British English, the final media taboo. The first use of the word in a UK TV drama was in Mosley, a drama about the rise and fall of the British Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley. This was first shown on Channel 4 in the late 1990s. The word is also the title of a novel by Stewart Home, published in 1999, about the break down of a writer as he rather badly loses the plot, both literally and creatively.



Every film in which actress Dame Judi Dench swears results in complaints, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has said in its annual report. A handful of film-goers objected to her use of an expletive in 12A-rated Bond movie Quantum of Solace, but the complaints were "expected", it said.

[CaptainWaggett]

name='GoggleboxUK' date='01 July 2010 - 01:59 PM' timestamp='1277989177' post='446475']

I suppose it depends on your definition of swearing.



Gone with the Wind (1939) was the first official movie that someone swore in. The very last line in the movie "Frankly my dear, I don't give a dahm." Shocking in it's day.



[

Surely the 'bloody' in Pygmalion predates that (and it's a word that's still taboo on the BBC before the watershed. There was a fracas about it slipping into The Archers only a few years ago).



Though 'damn' did remain taboo for quite a while after GWTW. The last line of the stage play Life with Father ('I'm going to be baptised, dammit') had to be changed for the film.

[Rowdon]

name='GoggleboxUK' date='01 July 2010 - 01:59 PM' timestamp='1277989177' post='446475']





Gone with the Wind (1939) was the first official movie that someone swore in. The very last line in the movie "Frankly my dear, I don't give a dahm."

Does anyone know if it's true that they were originally told to change it to "Frankly my dear, I just don't care.", but refused to budge. Eventually a compromise was reached, whereby Gable could say the line as written, but had to stress the word "give" rather than the more logical "damn". Nowadays, everybody says "I don't GIVE a damn.", but that stress pattern seems to only apply to that phrase ...

[ShirlGirl]

I've always thought that the emphasis on "give" instead of on "damn" very odd indeed and have wondered why Gable did that.

[will.15]

So what was the second movie with damn (because that was probably the beginning of when it became common)?



I tried to find the answer and discovered Pymalion, released prior to GWTW also had the damn word. I've seen it many times and don't recall it. I guess because it isn't spoken at the end.



I just realized that answers the first post. Higgins says it to Mrs. Pierce.



Maybe it doesn't answer the first post, but it apparently is the first time damn is spoken in a movie. If bloody was used prior to 1937, I don't know (never knew bloody was a swear word).

[CaptainWaggett]

name='will.15' date='01 July 2010 - 04:25 PM' timestamp='1277997955' post='446503']

I don't know (never knew bloody was a swear word).

Supposedly it's a contraction of 'By our lady' (ie the Virgin Mary). Probably the most famous example of its censorship is Stanley Holloway having to sing about the 'Ruddy' Tower when he sang this for the BBC



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a0cFYa5Ffw

[Steve Crook]

name='orpheum' date='01 July 2010 - 11:38 AM' timestamp='1277980730' post='446416']

The Crazy Gang got away with murder.in "Okay For Sound" they did their sketch with a character called Farquahar.So we have a lot of "stupid Farquahar" in that sketch.In "Gasbags" the Gang are in the Maginot Line trying to disguise themselves as trees.Charlie Naughton says "and i am a son of a beach".Mind you i think that they were the exception.In any event given that many of the examiners were ex army types,plus one spinster lady,i kid you not,perhaps they were prepared to cock a deafun.

There are lots of ways of swearing without swearing.



Worker complaining to his boss about being cold

Finally says "We need more heat. Do I need to spell if out? H - E - F - A - T"

Boss "There's no 'F' in 'Heat'"

Worker: "That's what I've been trying to tell you"





It amuses me the way that many Americans seem to change "Oh my God" to "Oh my gosh" whenever they're on TV or radio. Even if they're in a program with lots of Brits swearing all around them. It seems to be deeply ingrained in them that they must never swear, especially in any way with religious connotations, on American TV



Steve

[will.15]

name='Steve Crook' date='01 July 2010 - 10:40 PM' timestamp='1278020430' post='446595']





It amuses me the way that many Americans seem to change "Oh my God" to "Oh my gosh" whenever they're on TV or radio. Even if they're in a program with lots of Brits swearing all around them. It seems to be deeply ingrained in them that they must never swear, especially in any way with religious connotations, on American TV



Steve

My mother always said son-of-a-bee instead of, you know.



One of my high school phys ed teachers was admonished for cursing in front of the students. When he appeared to do it again he said, "I said chicken shed. You know, where they keep chickens."

[penfold]

Victor MacLagen and Edmund Lowe trade "Sonofabitch"s in What Price Glory from 1926.....if you can lipread.....

[GoggleboxUK]

I like the chatacter from the Michael Keaton film Johnny Dangerously who can't quite get swearing right.



He says " You icehole!" and "Fargin' basticles!"

[GRAEME]

name='GoggleboxUK' date='01 July 2010 - 01:59 PM' timestamp='1277989177' post='446475']





[b] The very last line in the movie "Frankly my dear, I don't give a dahm." Shocking in it's day.

Pedants corner: It isn't the last line, of course! "Tomorrow is another day" anyone?

[darrenburnfan]

In Sammy Going South, chosen as The Royal Performance Film of 1963 and attended by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, Edward G. Robinson uses the word "bastard" about halfway through the "U" certificate film. I wonder if that shocked the Queen mum at the time. I don't think the word would be regarded as anything other than mild these days. I can't remember the word being used in any other "U" film before then.

[dylan]

name='GoggleboxUK' date='01 July 2010 - 01:59 PM' timestamp='1277989177' post='446475']

One of the most offensive terms for female genitalia, the c-word, is the ultimate four-letter word in British English, the final media taboo. The first use of the word in a UK TV drama was in Mosley, a drama about the rise and fall of the British Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley. This was first shown on Channel 4 in the late 1990s. The word is also the title of a novel by Stewart Home, published in 1999, about the break down of a writer as he rather badly loses the plot, both literally and creatively.

There was the frequent use of the rhyming slang word "Berk" (Berkshire Hunt) in The Long And the Short And The Tall (1961). The also frequent "Bastard" was cut from the version shown on US TV but "Berk" remained.



D.

[Mark O]

I'm unable to lipread coherently myself but having watched 'Sink the Bismark' recently the Captain of a Ship mouths something like 'fucking bastards'. ........did he or didn't he?

[Mark O]

name='darrenburnfan' date='02 July 2010 - 08:51 AM' timestamp='1278057065' post='446656']

In Sammy Going South, chosen as The Royal Performance Film of 1963 and attended by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, Edward G. Robinson uses the word "bastard" about halfway through the "U" certificate film. I wonder if that shocked the Queen mum at the time. I don't think the word would be regarded as anything other than mild these days. I can't remember the word being used in any other "U" film before then.

I doubt it, having a husband, father-in-law, and son-in-law who all served the senior service, I've never really regarded bastard, bleeding, and bloody as swear words, as in 'it was a bloody war', or 'you, what's the bleeding time' lol, I assume the origins of bastard date back to mediaeval times, though it would cruel and unsensitive to use it as it was originally meant in these modern times.

[Gerald Lovell]

name='Mark O' date='02 July 2010 - 03:27 PM' timestamp='1278080846' post='446777']

I'm unable to lipread coherently myself but having watched 'Sink the Bismark' recently the Captain of a Ship mouths something like 'fucking bastards'. ........did he or didn't he?

I think he did, Mark!



There's also Imogen Hassall's line about the cat in her flat being called " 'Cooking Fat', or something like that" in Carry On Loving.