MovieChat Forums > The Nun's Story (1959) Discussion > Was this movie on the 'Condemned List'?

Was this movie on the 'Condemned List'?

posted 12 years ago by nycruise-1
2 replies | jump to latest

There was (is?) an organization called something like the "Catholic League of Decency" that used to issue rate all Hollywood movies and assign them a "sin rating."

All Disney movies received "A" ratings - which is like the old "G" rating, except that it carried with it a religious connotation: watching an "A" movie did not offend God.

"B" designated a questionable religious call, something like okay for parents but not young people.

"C" was "CONDEMNED" - and that meant if you saw a "C" movie you immediately committed a mortal sin (same as not attending church on Sunday). Two "C" movies were the early 60s' "Mondo Cane" (a documentary which showed various mating rituals in tribal communities - the nudity and pelvic thrusts got you in trouble) and Billy Wilder's "Kiss Me Stupid!" (Dean Martin has an wild affair with Kim Novack while he is married).

"The Nun's Story" seems like a good candidate for a "C" rating: it blows the lid off the wacko world of Penguin Island and shows what insane women run the convent.

I can only imagine the Catholic Church was NOT very happy about THAT - and would have actively discourage its members from seeing this movie.

"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"

[–] murph24 11 years ago

It was called the National Legion Of Decency, and it's remarkable how much influence it exerted on studios and filmmakers from the 1930s into the early 50s. Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus was re-edited to avoid a "Condemned" rating from the organization.

Since The Nun's Story makes it clear Gabrielle is leaving the cloistered life because she doesn't have the necessary vocation to continue, I had a feeling the Legion would give the film a pass. And indeed they did; the film received a rating of A-II, which meant it was "morally unobjectionable for adults and adolescents." Their opinion:

This entertainment film, noble, sensitive, reverent and inspiring in its production, is a theologically sound and profound analysis of the essential meaning of a religious vocation through the story of a person who objectively lacked a fundamental qualification for an authentic religious calling. If the film fails to capture the full meaning of religious life in terms of its spiritual joy and all-pervading charity, this must be attributed to the inherent limitations of a visual art.

http://archive.org/stream/motionpicturescl00nati/motionpicturescl00nat i_djvu.txt

[–] pjglynndoora 11 years ago

I'm glad it wasn't condemned