"X" certificate films and the under 16's.

[darrenburnfan]

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?

[m35541]

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.

[orpheum]

oone of my friends was able to get into X films when he was 12.I didnt manage it till i was 14.

[Gerald Lovell]

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.

[dylan]

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.

[zettel45]

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?

[Gerald Lovell]

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.

[Steve Crook]

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

[zettel45]

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?

[darrenburnfan]

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.

[batman]

I think my first X film was a Paul Naschy werewolf film ... can't remember which one though.

[HUGHJAMPTON]

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.

[narabdela]

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.

[darrenburnfan]

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".

[orpheum]

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.

[zettel45]

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.

[m35541]

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.

[dremble wedge]

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'

[zettel45]

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....

[CaptainWaggett]

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?