Catholic Legion of Decency (1936-1978)

[Big Magilla]

From an entry in the Barbie Reviews threads:

The Legion of Decency which was in place from 1936 through 1978 was a pretty scary thing.

Growing up in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the only thing more terrifying than the Legion to a Catholic kid was the perceived threat of the end of the world by an atomic bomb being dropped on the U.S. by the Soviets.

We Catholics had to take a pledge at mass once a year that we would uphold the Legion which had four ratings which were roughly A1 for all audiences, A2 for adults and teens, A3 for adults only, B for objectionable, and C for condemned. Kids were led to believe that if you went to see a condemned movie, God would strike you dead as you left the theatre.

In 2007, M. Owen Lee, a Catholic priest and educator, came out with a book called The Best films of Our Years in which he listed his top ten films of every year from 1935-2006 with essays on his all-time ten best films which included the condemned 8 1/2. His annual lists included such condemned films as L'Avventura and Rosemary's Baby. It seemed like the final nail in the coffin of the Legion.

Now, I don't know, the support for Sound of Freedom and condemnation by the Trumpers of anything "woke" puts us right back in the days of The Moon Is Blue and Baby Doll.

Here's a list of Legion of Decency condemned movies. It's funny now looking in a rear-view mirror, but it was anything but funny back then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_f ... of_Decency