Movies from the UK that have been cut or banned in Australia.
Diamonds Are Forever
Directed by Guy Hamilton / UK / 1971 / IMDb
In December 1971, a 10764-feet (119:36) print of DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER was passed with an M-rating.
Although it was not noted as being pre-cut, United Artists Australasia had briefly censored one scene.
Australian Cinema Pioneer reports.
In the sequence before the opening titles, James Bond suddenly removes a brown bikini top from a sunbathing woman, showing her partly tanned chest and untanned left breast and nipple. Bond needs to use her bikini to strangle her, to obtain the vital information of the precise location of Blofeld.
The Australian Film Censorship Board ordered the elimination of ‘all shots of female nudity, being the woman’s left breast and her left nipple’. United Artists (A’asia) Pty Ltd, when requested made the one distributor cut to all film prints of DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, reducing the official running time by less than one second.
Cruel Passion
Directed by Chris Boger / 1977 / UK – Italy – West Germany / IMDb
In March 1979, a 2673.50-meter (97:27) print of CRUEL PASSION was censored by 0.7-meters (00:02) for an R-rating.
The cuts were made to remove footage that the Censorship Board considered ‘undesirable in the public interest’.
Greater Union Organisation (GUO) was the applicant.
Imported & domestic videos
In February 1981, Video Brain had a 93-minute tape passed with an R-rating. It was described as being the ‘UK version’. This indicates that it was an import of the 1979 British pre-cert on the Intervision label.
Intervision made their own submission to the Censorship Board in August 1981. The 92-minute tape was banned due to the ‘sexual exploitation of a minor’
This was followed in November 1981 by a third submission, which was again R-rated. The 92-minute video was submitted by Meridien Electronics and was said to be the ‘British version’. Again, we presume this was an import of Intervision’s UK pre-cert.
In June 1982, Intervision re-submitted a 92-minute tape and this time received an R-rating.
Please e-mail us if you can confirm the difference, if any, between the Australian and British tapes.
The final submission came in February 1984, when VCL Communications received an R-rating for a 93-minute tape. This does not appear to have been released.
All of the R-ratings for videotapes were awarded because of sex, which was said to be:
Frequency: Frequent
Explicitness/Intensity: Medium
Purpose: Gratuitous
