Cinema: Pretty for the People

Censors were busy making sure that U.S. moviegoers saw and heard no British evil.

In Boston, the Massachusetts state board of censors met Will Shakespeare at the pier. They hacked such words as b-wdyh~s-and wh-r-from the cinema version of his Henry V, missed some saltier though subtler sallies. But the cuts were only for Sundays and children’s matinees. Week nights, Bostonians could hear the worst.