A Sunday Cinema Decision The result of the referendum on
Sunday Cinemas at Croydon is significant and satisfactory. Roughly 34,000 'Voted in favour of Sunday opening and 24,400 against. The polling has much more than local import- ance in that the choice was not simply between Sunday cinemas and no Sunday cinemas, but between no cinemas and Sunday cinemas showing selected films approved by a committee on which the Churches and the local Borough Council will be represented, together with two representatives of the cinema houses. This is as sound a compromise as could well be reached between opposing views. The argument that if films are not good enough for Sunday they are not good enough for weekdays is unconvincing. There is no arbitrary line to be drawn between good films and bad films, but there is a very broad distinction between the best and the worst, and it is altogether appropriate that on a day which is traditionally differentiated from the rest of the week by its con- secration to higher ends, mental, spiritual, and physical, an attempt should be made to show only the best. If other towns follow Croydon's example the basis may well be laid for a kind of film white-list which would be useful for many purposes.
Previous page
