5 STATEMENT 7 BITS & BITES
Crazy, Zany & Bizarre
11 RESTRICTED REVIEWS
17 ADVICE & CONSENT
21 SEX GUIDE
Staying Power by Paul Brock
23 WHY BABY WHY
Sauna Snatch
30 INTERVIEW: Marc Stevens by R. Allen Leider
35 FLASHBACK
39 Tanya Roberts
Charlie's Newest Angle
44 SENSUAL SATURDAY
While Hubby's Away Wifey Will Play by Erich Blau
48 BELINDA
A High Class Blonde
54 THE DEVIL COMES TO BONEVILLE
And — He Wants to Ban the Bible by W. J. Scanlan
58 SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION
71 SPARRING PARTNERS
Three Knockout Nookies
83 EROTIC ENCOUNTERS
Needy Neighbour by Ritt Marmow
92 HOT HANDS
Beachcombers
Digs Her Own Clams
PUBLISHER'S STATEMENT
WHY?
Wby does this country still have censor boards? With all the outcry against them
in the past two years, you'd think they'd be as dead as the dodo by now. The fact
that they aren't means that somebody wants them. Who?
The obvious answer is prudes and self-appointed moral guardians, but I don't think
it's the real one. After all, those people are just noisy citizens, few in number
and without any real power—not the sort of people governments are apt to
be responsive to, especially not here in Ontario.
In Ontario, big government listens to big business and, in the realm of film censorship,
that means the distribution companies, the local arms of the giant American corporations
whose job is to advertise films, book them into theatres and funnel money back
to the studios, after taking a healthy chunk for themselves. These are the business
interests who support censor boards across Canada.
For the distribution companies, films are not works of art, but commercial products,
put on the market for the sole purpose of making money. They support the censor
boards because for a nominal fee usually around $100 per feature), the boards
protect them from the consequences of an obscenity bust.
Busts are expensive. There are legal fees; there's a copy of the film tied up
for evidence instead of being out making money elsewhere; there's time lost from
the job; there's money lost from the bad publicity; there's the threat of jail
sentences and, worst of all, there's the possibility of loss of license—which
means closing down the business and there go all the profits.
Theatre owners, of course can face the same hassles for exhibiting an obscene
movie. They, too, quietly support the board.
If the censor board approval can save a distributor from all this, then it's worth
the money and it makes perfect sense for distributors to be big, but quiet—distributors
like to maintain a low profile — supporters of censorship.
But the boards can't protect the distributor. Obscenity is a federal, criminal
charge. Any citizen or any cop can lay obscenity charges against a film, provided
he can come up with some reason for callipg the film 'obscene.' Over a year ago,
an Ontario minister laid charges against Monty Python's Life of Brian, claiming
it was an affront to his god. The point to this is that the censors cannot do
the one useful job that the distributors want them to do. And the distributors
know this.
Why, then, do they continue to support the boards? Guess who controls the distribution
licenses, at least in Ontario? That's right—the Censor Board. And as long
as they do, the distributors will continue to support them. And as long as that
happens, you and I will be going to butchered movies.