On 4 November 1994, Kenneth Brannagh returned to his home town to introduce a special charity premier of his film, "Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein". All proceeds were in aid of the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action and Ulster Youth Theatre. Such was the response from people throughout the Province wishing to attend that two other cinemas in the multiplex had to be taken over to accomodate everyone. Obviously such an event couldn’t go unattended by members of the Vampire Society who turned out as always, suitably clothed. Especially as this was the first time Frankenstein was ever to run in Belfast.
Frankenstein first came to Belfast in April 1932, when James Whale’s 1931 classic was shown in cinemas throughout Britain and Eire. Over 10,000 turned up for the first viewings, the people of Belfast talked of nothing else but the horror movie. It looked like it was going to be a run away success.
One of the audience however was not so impressed. The Rev. Popham Horsford left the picture house without a complaint, returned home and wrote a letter complaining about the film and how horrible it was, to the Belfast Police Committee of the City Council. He signed the letter as coming from the "Film Committee of the Churches." It appears that he wasn’t only the founding member, but the only member of this ‘committee’ as no such group existed.
The Police Committee contacted the Classic Picture House to arrange a private viewing. Of the fifteen strong committee only five members showed up. After the movie one of them stated that the movie was ‘blasphemous and unedifying’. The committee held a short meeting after the showing and informed the picture house manager that they were banning the film and it was not to be shown. They did not give a reason for the ban and pointed out that there was no appeal from the Police Committee’s decision.
The manager of the Classic was furious, he was now stuck with the most popular film of all time and not allowed to show it. All the local newspapers carried full page reports on the banning of the film. Belfast booksellers reported a massive upsurge in demand for Mary Shelley’s 1818 publication, Frankenstein on which the film was based.
An interview in The Northern Whig newspaper from one of the five members of the Police Committee gave his reasons for the ban as;
....we had to think of the possible effect the picture might have on immature or unbalanced minds. In this connection let me observe that at every Court of Assize or Session defending counsel have advanced the plea that their youthful clients got the inspiration for their crimes at the cinema.
The function of the cinema should be entertainment, amusement, recreation. One of the scenes depicts a little girl bidding goodbye to her daddy on her way to gather flowers. She meets a monster by the lake, and after innocently exchanging her flowers with him he brutally murders her.
Then we have the agony of the father running with the corpse of his child and other episodes of the same sort. I am not aware that any persons in Belfast other than our highly-cultured critics would consider such an exhibition with all its realities either amusing or entertaining.
The ban was discussed by the City Council on Monday May 2, 1932 at a meeting in the City Hall. The public gallery was packed. A lengthy debate followed between those who had no objections to the film and those who had. During the meeting a letter of protest was read from Universal Pictures. Extracts are as follows;
"...it carries the British Board of Film Censors certificate, authorising its exhibition throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
.....Those who are familiar with the book or stage version and have seen the film as presented is enormously superior to either the stage or literary version of the story. This is due largely, if not entirely, to the fact that many of the passages which might have caused anxiety in the minds of readers do not appear in the film, and indeed, are not even suggested. The film is therefore, is not indecent, immoral , or blasphemous.
...Certainly no complaint was lodged with the management of the Classic by any of the public. It would appear that one complaint is sufficient to bring the Police Committee into any cinema and have a film banned at a moments notice, despite the fact that the film carries a British Board of Film Censors certificate. What use, then, is this certificate in Northern Ireland?"
Universal hoped that when the letter was read the council would realise that the ban was the protest of one man. However the clergy man had found some allies in certain councillors. One councillor even added that the film was responsible for a number of fires in Ballywalter. After the meeting a short statement was issued;
"At a meeting of the Belfast City Council on Monday 2 May, 1932, the council decided to enforce the ban on the film Frankestein. The psychological effect of such films led to evil."
The ban on ‘Frankenstein’ was never lifted and it is therefore ironic that responsibility for the latest version lies with one of Belfast’s own son’s, the only city in the British Isles to ban Universal’s original film.
