`Lord Jim'
SIR,— I was delighted to read Isabel Quigly's pro- test against the grant of a 'U' certificate to the film Lord Jim. My wife and 1. who are infrequent cinema-goers, attended a charity performance last week and were so nauseated by the torture scene and its aftermath, in which the torturer offers his victim the embraces of a native girl, that we imme- diately left the cinema. The repulsiveness and vul-
garity of these episodes were aggravated by the film's total failure, up to that point at least,' to attempt any characterisation; their only apparent purpose was to titillate the groundlings.
If Lord Jim were merely one more bad film, this would hardly merit comment. But if material of this kind is judged fit for exhibition to children, the film industry must bear a large measure of responsibility for the degradation of popular taste, of which it is at once the exploiter and the Victim.
RALPH INSTONE
The Mill Hill, Barnes Common, SW I3
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