Brit Movie

+ Reply to Thread
Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 36
  1. #1
    Senior Member Country: England darrenburnfan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Posts
    2,648
    Liked
    98 times
    I was chatting to someone about the subject of the "X" certificate film in the 1950's and 1960's, when no person under the age of sixteen years was allowed into a cinema to see one...or, indeed, any part of a cinema programme that contained an "X" film. As far as I know, if the police went into a cinema when an "X" film was showing and found anyone under 16 had been admitted, the cinema could lose its licence. So cinema managers and staff had to be very careful as to who they let in. Now the strange thing was that when I started work as a 15 years old trainee projectionist at the Plaza in 1962, the film that was showing on the day I started work there was the "X" certificate film A Kind Of Loving. The guy I was chatting to told me that he knew a girl back then who was only 15 and worked as an usherette in a cinema and was allowed to watch "X" films. So, were the cinemas in those days breaking the law employing people under the age of 16, or were cinema workers exempt from the prohibition? Can anyone shed any light on this?

  2. #2
    Senior Member Country: UK
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    728
    Liked
    7 times
    Underage people getting into cinemas to watch X rated movies was a constant complaint in the late 1950s and early 1960s as the number of X films rapidly proliferated.



    I assume it still goes on now with 18, 15 and 12 rated movies although you don't here anything of it. I certainly used to go into X movies when I was 16 when the age limit was 18.

  3. #3
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Posts
    2,281
    Liked
    0 times
    oone of my friends was able to get into X films when he was 12.I didnt manage it till i was 14.

  4. #4
    Senior Member Country: Scotland Gerald Lovell's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    3,699
    Liked
    182 times
    I remember some friends and I thought we were doing well by sneaking in to see Up Pompeii (which was an "AA") when we were 12.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Country: Great Britain
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Posts
    604
    Liked
    2 times
    The first X-film I saw was Creature From The Black Lagoon when I was 14. I don't think the police were interested, or had powers, to monitor audiences. I believe the rating system was a self-regulation matter created by the industry although some vigilant Watch Committees got involved. Some cinemas wouldn't allow under 16's to see any films in the evening.



    D.

  6. #6
    Senior Member Country: England zettel45's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    1,078
    Liked
    32 times
    First X film I saw was Alien when I was 15. At that time you had to be 18 to see an X. Was it 16 before that?

  7. #7
    Senior Member Country: Scotland Gerald Lovell's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    3,699
    Liked
    182 times
    When we were about 12, my friends and I tried to go and see The Graduate, which was an "X". We got into the cinema quite easily, as we hadn't realised the programme had been changed, and we were now to be entertained by Elvis Presley in Kissin' Cousins.

  8. #8
    Administrator Country: Wales Steve Crook's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Posts
    23,156
    Liked
    418 times
    name='zettel45' date='13 July 2010 - 01:52 PM' timestamp='1279025567' post='451307']

    First X film I saw was Alien when I was 15. At that time you had to be 18 to see an X. Was it 16 before that?
    From 1951, when it was introduced, to 1970, it meant "Suitable for those aged 16 and over", and from 1970 to 1982, when it was dropped, replaced by the 18 certificate, it was redefined as meaning "Suitable for those aged 18 and over."



    Steve

  9. #9
    Senior Member Country: England zettel45's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    1,078
    Liked
    32 times
    name='Steve Crook' date='13 July 2010 - 02:54 PM' timestamp='1279029256' post='451333']

    From 1951, when it was introduced, to 1970, it meant "Suitable for those aged 16 and over", and from 1970 to 1982, when it was dropped, replaced by the 18 certificate, it was redefined as meaning "Suitable for those aged 18 and over."


    Ta. Presumably the hike in age-limit reflected the more extreme content that started to come into movies at that time?

  10. #10
    Senior Member Country: England darrenburnfan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Posts
    2,648
    Liked
    98 times
    Actually, I got to see my first X film by a fluke when I was ten years old in 1957 (actually, as it was in March, 1957, I was still a month away from my tenth birthday, so I was still nine). The film was "Rebel Without a Cause" at the Focus and I asked a man to take me in, knowing that the woman in the paybox that day was a very old lady who was a bit doddery and often didn't know what day it was, let alone what certificate a film had. As predicted, she let him take me in, being under the impression that it was an A certificate film.

  11. #11
    Super Moderator Country: UK batman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Posts
    25,707
    Liked
    255 times
    I think my first X film was a Paul Naschy werewolf film ... can't remember which one though.

  12. #12
    Senior Member HUGHJAMPTON's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    5,833
    Liked
    1 times
    name='Steve Crook' date='13 July 2010 - 02:54 PM' timestamp='1279029256' post='451333']

    , and from 1970 to 1982, when it was dropped, replaced by the 18 certificate, it was redefined as meaning "Suitable for those aged 18 and over."



    Steve


    It must have been a bit of a limbo land when it first started? Because I can remember seeing The Graduate, as a AA rating, in 1970, but Soldier Blue as an X Certificate.



    Come to think of it, I saw Clockwork Orange the following year as an X certification. And others well into the 70's, or have I misread your post, Steve?



    Yeah, I'm having a funny half hour, don't worry.

  13. #13
    Senior Member Country: Scotland narabdela's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    1,038
    Liked
    20 times
    My first Xperience was a rather excellent double-bill of "Live Now-Pay Later" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", which must have been circa 1961/62.



    You never forget these rites of passage.

  14. #14
    Senior Member Country: England darrenburnfan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Posts
    2,648
    Liked
    98 times
    Actually, the "X" certificate wasn't changed to the "18" certificate until 1982. An earlier change had occured in July, 1970, when the new "AA" certificate was introduced. This denoted that no person under the age of 14 years was allowed in to see the film. At the same time, quite a few recent "X" films, such as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, were reclassified "AA".

  15. #15
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Posts
    2,281
    Liked
    0 times
    In 1961 i went with my friend who looked 16 and an american friend who was 13 to the Odeon Temple Fortune to see "Spare The Rod" which believe it or not was an "A" certificate.so you could not go in if you were under 16 unless accompanied by an adult.When we got to the paydesk my friend represented himself as being over 16.However we were refused admission because you had to be over "21"to be classified as an adult.What i would often do is wait outside the cinema and wait for an adult to come along and ask them if i could accompany them into the cinema.I think that would be rather frowned on today although there is of course the 12A certificate.So i suppose that still could happen.

  16. #16
    Senior Member Country: England zettel45's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    1,078
    Liked
    32 times
    I once tried to get in to see "10" - the Dudley Moore/Bo Selecta debarcle - which, I'm sure must've been an X. Unfortunately, I asked for a child's ticket price. I really hadn't thought that one through, had I?



    PS: saw 10 years later on TV and realised that even on a child's ticket I'd have been paying way too much. Dodged a bullet, frankly.

  17. #17
    Senior Member Country: UK
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    728
    Liked
    7 times
    The reorganisating of the certificates in 1970 was one of the last acts of John Trevelyan's reign as head of the BBFC. A previous attempt to set up an AA certificate (which would have been for films a bit too adult for an A but not enough for an X - "AA" standing for A Advisory; not an age limit per se) had been made in 1961 but the local authorities had rejected it.



    The relaxation of the MPAA ratings in the late 1960s started to give the BBFC real problems since by the late 1960s the majority of films being released in the UK were 'X' rated by the Board. When the 'X' certificate was first set up only about a dozen films a year were X rated. This proportion had steadilt increased over the years. To address this, Trevelyan:



    (a) introduced an intermediate AA rating for films that were regarded as 'soft x's'



    ( raised the X rating from 16 to 18. The purpose of this was to allow more adult material to be shown uncut.



    (c) Made the A certificate advisory so that children under 14 could see them unaccompanied by adults



    Unlike in 1961, Trevelyan had got his act together and got this through.



    Naively, Trevelyan originally seemed to think that once the X rating was raised to 18 then the BBFC would be cutting less X films. In fact the same proportion of X films continued to be cut (about 50%) throughout most of the 1970s even with the raised rating and, for example, the board continued to cut for an X some films that had been passed PG by the MPAA.



    In 1982, James Ferman reorganised the certificates again to replace the letters with numbers and introduce more clarity. Hence the X became 18 and the AA became a 15 (so the age limit was raised by one). A became PG to clarify the advisory nature of the rating.

  18. #18
    Senior Member Country: Aaland dremble wedge's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    3,706
    Liked
    85 times
    First '18' for me was Ruthless People when I was 15. Presumably it was given that certificate to stop impressionable minds undertaking half-baked kidnap schemes.



    My sister took me along to that, shortly afterwards I went to see David Cronenberg's The Fly without adult accompaniment. That was much more of the kind of thing I had expected from an '18'

  19. #19
    Senior Member Country: England zettel45's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    1,078
    Liked
    32 times
    name='dremble wedge' date='14 July 2010 - 01:46 PM' timestamp='1279111613' post='451816']

    First '18' for me was Ruthless People when I was 15.


    Ruthless People was an 18?! Well, I suppose it did contain scenes of a Bette Midler nature that some children might have found disturbing....

  20. #20
    Senior Member Country: UK CaptainWaggett's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    23,704
    Liked
    492 times
    My father took me to my first X certificate when I was, ahem, 14. However he promptly fell asleep and snored rather loudly throughout the film so I felt obliged to alert social services and have him arrested



    DBF's original question is an interesting one. Clearly it's not quite like teenage supermarket staff who aren't meant to sell cigarettes or alcohol as there really wouldn't be much point in having a 15 year old projectionist who had to be blindfolded during The Quatermass Xperiment! Anyone know what the law was?

Similar Threads

  1. Earn Your Producer's Foundation Certificate!
    By Raindance in forum Dates for your Diary
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 03-11-09, 11:20 AM
  2. Writers Foundation Certificate
    By Raindance in forum Dates for your Diary
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 27-08-09, 05:35 PM
  3. X certificate films
    By paul bisson in forum General Film Chat
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 24-08-09, 09:39 AM
  4. Uncut version of Caligula gets 18 certificate
    By stuartfanning in forum British Films and Chat
    Replies: 16
    Last Post: 22-07-08, 12:07 PM
  5. SKY MOVIES - recording not possible on 18 Certificate films
    By aphra in forum Home Entertainment Equipment
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: 24-08-07, 03:03 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts