Cinema: Brigitte at the Bar

Lush French Cinemactress Brigitte Bardot displays her charms so bountifully in And God Created Woman—a story of a woman indiscriminately seeking a bed-mate—that customers are packing into highbrow art theaters around the nation to give her some lowbrow ogling. But when Brigitte went on display in Philadelphia, she stopped the show. “Dirt for dirt’s sake,” cried District Attorney Victor H. “Blanc. Last week the D.A.’s office confiscated the film from two theaters and charged the owners with violating an anti-obscenity film provision in the state’s criminal code.

Quick support for Brigitte’s right to be shown came from Mayor Richardson Dilworth,* longtime political foe of Fellow Democrat Blanc. Cracked Dilworth: “Mr. Blanc thinks he’s going to get all the votes of the women’s clubs by denouncing sin.” In turn, Blanc darkly noted that Dilworth’s former law partners were representing the film distributor, declared: “In my opinion, the mayor is using his elective office to help his old law firm.”

Just when the battle seemed lost, Brigitte found some friends in Pennsylvania’s State Supreme Court, which two years ago canceled a state movie censorship act, but left standing the anti-obscenity film statute. The court slapped D.A. Blanc with an injunction requiring him to let the movie be shown until a Philadelphia common pleas court decides this week if it is bad enough to be banned for good. Back in business at week’s end, Brigitte was drawing more oglers than ever.

*For other news of Philadelphia’s Dilworth, see NATIONAL AFFAIRS.