Movies from Canada that have been cut or banned in Australia.
Pre-November 1971 decisions are here.
My Secret Life
Directed by John Hofsess – Leland R. Thomas / 1969 / Canada / IMDb
In July 1978, a 2329.20-meter (84:54) print of MY SECRET LIFE was banned because of ‘indecent language’.
14th Mandolin was the applicant.
Initiation
aka The Initiation (Classification Board title)
Directed by Denis Héroux / 1970 / Canada / IMDb
In May 1972, an 8653-feet (96:08) print of INITIATION was censored by 230-feet (02:33) for an R-rating. The cuts were made to remove ‘indecency’.
Filmways Australasia was the applicant.
Video release
In August 1987, Roadshow Home Video had a 90-minute tape passed with an R-rating.
It was awarded for sex, which was described as being:
Frequency: Infrequent
Explicitness/Intensity: Medium
Purpose: Gratuitous
Further information
For more Denis Héroux, see THE AWAKENING on this page.
The Awakening
aka Gli Spogliati
Directed by Denis Héroux / 1970 / Canada / IMDb
In January 1973, a 2693.00-meter (98:10) print of THE AWAKENING was censored by 4.87-meters (00:10) for an R-rating. The cuts were made to remove ‘indecency’.
Filmways Distributors was the applicant.
Re-rated for Italian circuit
In September 1975, a 2307.33-meter (84:06) print of was passed with an R-rating. This was 14-minutes shorter than the January 1973 R-rated version.
It was submitted by Cinema Italia under its Italian title, GLI SPOGLIATI.
Loving and Laughing
Directed by John Sone / 1971 / Canada / IMDb
In October 1972, a 2645.00-meter (96:25) print of LOVING AND LAUGHING was banned because of ‘indecency’.
A 2562.76-meter (93:25) ‘reconstructed version’ lost a further 10.36-meter (00:23) before being awarded an R-rating in June 1973.
Filmways Australasia was the applicant.
Sex films in early 70s Australia
In 2009, Paul Harris from Melbourne’s Triple R radio interviewed producer Antony I. Ginnane. The discussion touched on the Australian box-office success of Canuxploitation films such as LOVING AND LAUGHING.
February 14, 2009
AIG – Once the R-certificate came out, it gave a great stimulus to a certain sort of Australian genre production, whether it was ALVIN PURPLE or whether it was FANTASM. We were riffing on things like LOVING AND LAUGHING and BEDROOM MAZURKA.PH – The Danish churned out sex comedies, I think it was a French-Canadian film LOVING AND LAUGHING, companies like Cinepix churned them out as well. When the producers looked at these films because they sold around the world and were very successful, they must have looked at the Australian returns and said to themselves, this is funny. This film has sold around the world and has done very well, played for a month here and there, but in Australia, these films played for over a year each.
AIG – Indeed, but of course the theory there, and probably what upset Cinepix or some of the other people, was that they sold them flat to Australia. Filmways bought LOVING AND LAUGHING and a number of those pictures of the time for probably $10,000 a pop, which they were very pleased to get at the time because there were not a lot of Quebec. French-Canadian pictures into Australia.
– Not Quite Hollywood (2008) DVD launch
– Film Buffs Forecast, RRR radio
Video release
A 95-minute tape of LOVING AND LAUGHING was again passed with an R-rating in July 1988.
It was awarded for ‘drug abuse’, and for sex, which was identified as being:
Frequency: Infrequent
Explicitness/Intensity: Medium
Purpose: Gratuitous
Roadshow Home Video, the applicant, does not appear to have gone ahead with the release.
Review
Mike reports
Unknown source – 95:36
Reggie (Gordon Fisher) has had a sheltered life so far but has a job lined up as a French tutor to a young girl in Vermont. When his car breaks down on the way he is rescued by a group of hippies and lives in their commune while it is being repaired. He has second thoughts about French teaching and gets Lucien (André Lawrence), the leader of the hippy family, to replace him while he stays in the commune. The hippies are constantly harassed by the police but they use their wit and nudity to get the upper hand. LOVING AND LAUGHING very likely posed problems for the Film Censorship Board in terms of both drugs and sex.
The drugs material consists of 00:24 of the hippies smoking cannabis cigarettes and 00:39 of them smoking cannabis out of a bong.
There are also a few sex scenes which will have caused issues.
52:25 to 53:25 – Lucien has settled in at the French student’s house and finds that the mother and both daughters are sexually interested in him. The older sister Joan (Julie Wildman) seduces him and a fairly mild sex scene takes place. The scene is dark.
54:48 to 55:45 – Back at the hippy commune Reggie is trying to comfort a girl who says that men are never interested in her. He does so by persuading her to show him her breasts and they have a nude sex scene on a swing.
55:47 to 56:36 – We see more of the two previous sex scenes and this time they are intercut with each other
At 75:34, we see a sex scene between Lucien and Belinda (Susan Petrie), the younger daughter to whom he is supposed to be teaching French, in the back of a limousine. No thrusting is seen but there is full body nudity.
There are also several instances of natural nudity in LOVING AND LAUGHING in the context of bathing or swimming.
The potentially problematic scenes run for 04:48 (01:03 for drugs and 03:45 for sex), rather more than the 03:23 required by the Board before they issued an R-rating, so it’s likely that some way of reducing the sex scenes was found instead of removing them completely.
Sex and the Lonely Woman Part 2
Directed by Ted Leversuch / 1971 / Canada / IMDb
In February 1977, a 2278.70-meter (83:04) print of SEX AND THE LONELY WOMAN PART 2 was banned because of ‘indecency’.
Regent Trading Enterprises was the applicant.
Review
Mike reports
Something Weird Video (us) – DVD – 65:28
Carolyn (Barbara Mills) is frustrated at being neglected by her producer husband Lennie (Art Jenoff) and has taken to driving out of town, pretending her car has broken down, and seducing the first man who stops to help her. Her victim this time is Gregg (Sergio Regules) who is afraid that her husband will find out. He does not actually care as he couples with other men when he is away on business and allows Carolyn her sexual freedom. All goes well until Carolyn is abducted by three thugs who stage a barely competent attempt to extort ransom money from her husband. The thugs are duly arrested, Gregg dies after one of them shoots him, and Carolyn drives away to seek the next man who can fix her engine.
SEX AND THE LONELY WOMAN PART 2 is portrayed as being a sequel to Ted Leversuch’s SEX AND THE LONELY WOMAN (1972), but it is actually a retitling of THE PERFECT ARRANGEMENT (1971), his earlier film. It doesn’t really work under any title as some of the acting is extremely amateurish and the voice artist who dubbed Gregg reads his lines so monotonously that the viewer can’t really believe that Carolyn would see anything in him.
Unfortunately, the extant (2026) print is around 18 minutes shorter than the one submitted in Australia in 1977. There are very sudden jump cuts as soon as a sex scene is about to begin and it is not clear how strong the sexual activity would have been in the complete version. However, one scene that remains, and would certainly have been problematic for the Film Censorship Board, occurs when the three kidnappers spot Carolyn and Gregg kissing in their car and decide to abduct her. After shooting Gregg, they drag her away from her car and take turns to rape her. This scene is softcore but very graphic. It lasts 00:50 but may, like the other sex scenes, have been longer in the complete version.
Diary of a Sinner
Directed by Ed Hunt / 1974 / Canada / IMDb
In March 1975, a 2645.20-meter (96:25) print of DIARY OF A SINNER was censored by 61.20-meters (02:13) for an R-rating. The cuts were made to remove ‘indecency’.
Warner Brothers were the applicant.
William reports.
I have been trying to track down an uncut of this Canuxploitation film, but so far, the only version I found runs 74:21. The UK pre-cert release from Champion Video label is this length, so I presume that was the source. There is a second UK pre-cert tape on the Olympus label, which has a similar running time.
Running Brave
Directed by Donald Shebib / 1983 / Canada / IMDb
In January 1984, a 2880.15-meter (104:59) 35mm of RUNNING BRAVE was rated PG for ‘adult concepts’.
The following month, the submission of a censored 2825.29-meter (102:59) version received a G-rating. The Film Censorship Board reported it was, ‘reduced by importer’s deletions…to obtain lower classification’.
Roadshow Distributors, the applicant, released it theatrically.
Modified video
In July 1984, the Censorship Board reconfirmed the G-rating for a 103-minute video.
Roadshow Home Video, the applicant, issued it on tape.
Australia Movie & TV Censorship reports
Roadshow Home Video (au) – VHS – 99:27 (PAL) – Censored
Trinity Home Entertainment (us) – 2004 – DVD – 105:38 (NTSC) – Censored
Indianyouth.org 40th Anniversary Edition (us) – 106:11 (NTSC) – Uncut
Times refer to the uncut DVD
Shower & locker room
Censored at 14:04 by 00:26 – The opening of the scene with the guys singing, trash talking and towel fighting in the shower. The Roadshow VHS begins when Billy (Robby Benson) enters the locker room.
Censored at 15:11 by 00:09 – Dennis (Jeff McCracken) turning his back on Billy and saying ‘Piss on him if he can’t take a joke’ followed by Billy putting on his shirt.
The Trinity Home Entertainment DVD also censors the shower and locker room sequence. It retains the language but removes more of the nudity.
Billy & Dennis
Censored at 17:26 by 00:05 Dennis saying ‘Oh, shit, Sioux Indian, huh?’ followed by Billy staring at him.
Boxing flashback
Censored at 18:47 by 00:03 – The bookmaker (Derek Campbell) saying, ‘I’m sending bullshit’ as a young Billy (Kendall Smith) hands him money.
Frank’s body
Censored at 80:23 by 00:16 – Billy shaking the corpse of Frank (Denis Lacroix) while shouting ‘Frank?, Frank?, Frank?, Frank?, Why?, Why?’.
Race commentary
Censored at 93:35 by 00:02 – The commentator (Fred Keating) saying, ‘Shit, there he goes’.
Censored at 98:17 by 00:01 – The commentator saying, ‘Oh, shit’.
A comparison between the uncut version and Roadshow’s VHS is on my YouTube channel.