Walter Tanner
Encyclopedia
Walter Alfred Tanner was born in Northampton
, England
, the son of William Wilcox Tanner
, Member of Parliament for Heathcote
, Christchurch
, and Emily E. Browett. He married Laura Matilda Maude Torckler in 1907. They had one son and one daughter. He died in Wellington aged 79.
Tanner worked for the Customs Department censoring publications for seditious content before becoming Chief Censor
William Jolliffe's assistant censor of cinematograph films in 1924. On Jolliffe’s death in 1927, Tanner became New Zealand
’s second Chief Censor, a position he held until 1938.
Tanner’s tenure straddled the introduction of sound to motion pictures. He wrote that “the more vivid presentations of life made possible by the addition of sound and colour has made it necessary to issue an increased number of certificates recommending films as more suitable for adult audiences.” The introduction of sound also appeared to increase the number of bans. In 1930, 102 films, 3.9% of those submitted, were banned.
between Māori Chief Te Kooti
and British forces in 1869. New Zealand director Rudall Hayward
intended to premier it on 11 November 1927. Conscious of the need to forestall adverse Māori reaction to the film, the government decided to consult Māori and asked Ringatu
Māori from Whakatane
to attend a private screening on the day intended for the premiere. The next day, Tanner refused to approve the film until changes were made to two intertitle
s, one that referred to Te Kooti “resorting to faked miracles”, the other referring to Te Kooti’s lieutenant Peka McLean as “torture master” and “stage manager of miracles”. The subsequent “storm of publicity” surrounding the film ensured it played to full houses when it premiered a few days later at the Strand Theatre in Auckland
on 17 November 1927.http://www.filmarchive.org.nz/news/newsreel-51.html. Tanner wrote a conciliatory letter to Hayward in 1928 calling the whole affair “a case of pure misunderstanding”.
Western Samoa was governed by New Zealand under a League of Nations
Trusteeship
from 1914 until independence in 1962. As such, New Zealand censorship law also extended to films intended for exhibition in Samoa. Because New Zealand legislation provided that no film could be approved which "in the opinion of the censor, depicts any matter that is against public order and decency
, or the exhibition of which for any other reason is, in the opinion of the censor, undesirable in the public interest", Tanner had broad discretion to consider matters that, in his view, were uniquely relevant to Samoa. He wrote in 1929 however, that film censoring in Samoa “should certainly be done at Apia” by those sensitive to local colonial conditions: “One of the principal concerns in Samoa is to see that the white man is not brought into contempt by the exhibition of films which would tend to lessen the respect of the natives for the white man, which is so essential. From the motives of safety this is necessary in a territory where the natives heavily outnumber the whites. Even a picture with the famous dog Rin Tin Tin
would be questionable as the dog frequently fights and overcomes the villain — a white man".
and Hedy Lamarr
’s fifth film Ecstasy
. He required cuts to King Kong
.
Films from other dominions of the British Empire
appeared to fare slightly better than American and foreign films. In 1932 Tanner listed 74 British quota films examined in the first nine months of that year. Two had been rejected (a ban rate of 2.7%), one for “vulgar incidents”, the other for bad language. Seven required cuts for bad language (“my God” and “by God”), three for vulgar incidents, and two for violence.http://nzfilmsociety.pbwiki.com/November%201973
Tanner was succeeded as Chief Censor by his assistant, W A von Keisenberg
, in 1938.
Film Archive website http://www.filmarchive.org.nz/news/newsreel-51.html
New Zealand Film Society website http://nzfilmsociety.pbwiki.com/November%201973
Office of Film and Literature Classification (New Zealand)
http://www.censorship.govt.nz/censorship_dash.html#censor
Northampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the son of William Wilcox Tanner
William Tanner (New Zealand)
William Wilcox Tanner was a New Zealand politician of the Liberal Party. In 1905 he was associated with the New Liberal Party group.-Early life:...
, Member of Parliament for Heathcote
Heathcote (New Zealand electorate)
Heathcote was a 19th century parliamentary electorate in Christchurch, New Zealand.-History:Heathcote existed from 1861 to 1893.George Williamson Hall resigned in 1862. He was succeeded by William Sefton Moorhouse in the 1862 by-election...
, Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, and Emily E. Browett. He married Laura Matilda Maude Torckler in 1907. They had one son and one daughter. He died in Wellington aged 79.
Tanner worked for the Customs Department censoring publications for seditious content before becoming Chief Censor
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
William Jolliffe's assistant censor of cinematograph films in 1924. On Jolliffe’s death in 1927, Tanner became New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
’s second Chief Censor, a position he held until 1938.
Tanner’s tenure straddled the introduction of sound to motion pictures. He wrote that “the more vivid presentations of life made possible by the addition of sound and colour has made it necessary to issue an increased number of certificates recommending films as more suitable for adult audiences.” The introduction of sound also appeared to increase the number of bans. In 1930, 102 films, 3.9% of those submitted, were banned.
Silent era
Tanner’s decisions were not without controversy in either era. One example in the silent era concerned the New Zealand feature film The Te Kooti Trail (1927), a re-enactment of the war fought in the Bay of PlentyBay of Plenty
The Bay of Plenty , often abbreviated to BOP, is a region in the North Island of New Zealand situated around the body of water of the same name...
between Māori Chief Te Kooti
Te Kooti
Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki was a Māori leader, the founder of the Ringatu religion and guerrilla.While fighting alongside government forces against the Hauhau in 1865, he was accused of spying. Exiled to the Chatham Islands without trial along with captured Hauhau, he experienced visions and...
and British forces in 1869. New Zealand director Rudall Hayward
Rudall Hayward
Rudall Charles Victor Hayward was a pioneer New Zealand filmmaker from the 1920s to the 1970s, who directed seven feature films and numerous others. He was born in England, and died in Dunedin while promoting his last film....
intended to premier it on 11 November 1927. Conscious of the need to forestall adverse Māori reaction to the film, the government decided to consult Māori and asked Ringatu
Ringatu
The Ringatū church was founded in 1868 by Te Kooti Rikirangi. The symbol for the movement is an upraised hand, or "Ringa Tū" in Māori.Te Kooti was one of a number of Māori detained at the Chatham Islands without trial in relation to the East Coast disturbances of the 1860s...
Māori from Whakatane
Whakatane
Whakatane is a town in the eastern Bay of Plenty Region, in the North Island of New Zealand, and is the seat of the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. Whakatane is 90 km east of Tauranga and 89 km north-east of Rotorua, at the mouth of the Whakatane River.The town has a population of , with...
to attend a private screening on the day intended for the premiere. The next day, Tanner refused to approve the film until changes were made to two intertitle
Intertitle
In motion pictures, an intertitle is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of the photographed action, at various points, generally to convey character dialogue, or descriptive narrative material related to, but not necessarily covered by, the material photographed.Intertitles...
s, one that referred to Te Kooti “resorting to faked miracles”, the other referring to Te Kooti’s lieutenant Peka McLean as “torture master” and “stage manager of miracles”. The subsequent “storm of publicity” surrounding the film ensured it played to full houses when it premiered a few days later at the Strand Theatre in Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
on 17 November 1927.http://www.filmarchive.org.nz/news/newsreel-51.html. Tanner wrote a conciliatory letter to Hayward in 1928 calling the whole affair “a case of pure misunderstanding”.
Western Samoa was governed by New Zealand under a League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
Trusteeship
Trusteeship
Trusteeship may refer to*Trust law *Trusteeship *United Nations Trusteeship...
from 1914 until independence in 1962. As such, New Zealand censorship law also extended to films intended for exhibition in Samoa. Because New Zealand legislation provided that no film could be approved which "in the opinion of the censor, depicts any matter that is against public order and decency
Decency
Decency is the quality or state of conforming to social or moral standards of taste and propriety.-See also:*Taste *Communications Decency Act*Public indecency*Indecent exposure*Sodomy law*Norm *Grotesque body...
, or the exhibition of which for any other reason is, in the opinion of the censor, undesirable in the public interest", Tanner had broad discretion to consider matters that, in his view, were uniquely relevant to Samoa. He wrote in 1929 however, that film censoring in Samoa “should certainly be done at Apia” by those sensitive to local colonial conditions: “One of the principal concerns in Samoa is to see that the white man is not brought into contempt by the exhibition of films which would tend to lessen the respect of the natives for the white man, which is so essential. From the motives of safety this is necessary in a territory where the natives heavily outnumber the whites. Even a picture with the famous dog Rin Tin Tin
Rin Tin Tin
Rin Tin Tin was the name given to a dog adopted from a WWI battlefield that went on to star in twenty-three Hollywood films. The name was subsequently given to several related German Shepherd dogs featured in fictional stories on film, radio and television.-Origins:The first of the line Rin Tin...
would be questionable as the dog frequently fights and overcomes the villain — a white man".
Sound era
Tanner’s most controversial decision from the sound era remains his banning of All Quiet on the Western Front on 18 June 1930 for “being out of keeping with the unwarlike atmosphere” of the period. A recut version of the film was eventually passed by the Board of Review in 1931. Tanner also refused to approve The Blue AngelDer blaue Engel
The Blue Angel is a film directed by Josef von Sternberg in 1930, based on Heinrich Mann's novel Professor Unrat. The film is considered to be the first major German sound film and it brought world fame to actress Marlene Dietrich...
and Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy Lamarr was an Austrian-American actress celebrated for her great beauty who was a major contract star of MGM's "Golden Age".Lamarr also co-invented – with composer George Antheil – an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping, necessary to wireless...
’s fifth film Ecstasy
Ecstasy (film)
Ecstasy – Extase in Czech, Ekstase in German – is a Czech film made in 1933 by the Czech director Gustav Machatý. It stars Hedy Lamarr, credited under her original surname Kiesler, and Zvonimir Rogoz....
. He required cuts to King Kong
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional character, a giant movie monster resembling a gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. These include the groundbreaking 1933 movie, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, as well as various sequels of the first two films...
.
Films from other dominions of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
appeared to fare slightly better than American and foreign films. In 1932 Tanner listed 74 British quota films examined in the first nine months of that year. Two had been rejected (a ban rate of 2.7%), one for “vulgar incidents”, the other for bad language. Seven required cuts for bad language (“my God” and “by God”), three for vulgar incidents, and two for violence.http://nzfilmsociety.pbwiki.com/November%201973
Tanner was succeeded as Chief Censor by his assistant, W A von Keisenberg
W A von Keisenberg
William Arthur Leopold von Keisenberg was New Zealand's third Chief Censor, a position he held from 1938 to 1949.- Career :...
, in 1938.
Sources
Edwards, S. R., “Docudrama from the twenties” 41 Historical Review 58 (November 1993)Film Archive website http://www.filmarchive.org.nz/news/newsreel-51.html
New Zealand Film Society website http://nzfilmsociety.pbwiki.com/November%201973
Office of Film and Literature Classification (New Zealand)
Office of Film and Literature Classification (New Zealand)
The Office of Film and Literature Classification is the government agency in New Zealand that is responsible for classification of all films, videos, publications, and some video games in New Zealand...
http://www.censorship.govt.nz/censorship_dash.html#censor
External links
- Office of Film and Literature Classification (New Zealand)Office of Film and Literature Classification (New Zealand)The Office of Film and Literature Classification is the government agency in New Zealand that is responsible for classification of all films, videos, publications, and some video games in New Zealand...
- http://www.censorship.govt.nz/censorship_dash.html#censor
- Film Archive website http://www.filmarchive.org.nz/news/newsreel-51.html
- New Zealand Film Society website http://nzfilmsociety.pbwiki.com/November%201973