Showing all 22 items
Jump to:
Certification
| Certification |
|
Sex & Nudity
-
- No sex act ever appears in this film. However, the murder victim is shown wearing a frilly see-through robe. Furthermore, evidence comes out at trial describing the victim as manifestly guilty of adultery, fornication, and promiscuity on a grand and manifold scale. The prosecution advances the theory that the defendant, her husband, killed her in a jealous rage.
- A police witness alludes to abortion (described as "illegal operation"). Furthermore, police evidence reasonably establishes the defendant to have had an adulterous relationship with his secretary, causing her to fall pregnant. The defendant, realizing the implications of his act for the first time, desperately pleads with the woman involved NOT to have an abortion. Presumably, she desists from her planning in that direction.
- Except for the murder victim (see above), all characters, male and female, adult and child, dress modestly and appropriately for being seen on a public street, a public park, a business office, or a hotel lobby, or in court, or (briefly) in a remote hunting lodge. (But if a judge "looks sexy in his black robe," no costumer could be held responsible for that.)
Violence & Gore
-
- A murder takes place on-screen. A man invades a woman's house and crudely suggests an assignation. When she refuses, he seizes her and tries to commit rape against her. She bites his knuckles. He then lands her a vicious blow to the head, knocking her nearly senseless. Then he takes a pillow and smothers her to death with it. That done, he lays the body out on her bed, places a lighted cigarette in her lifeless fingers, and then withdraws, intending to simulate an accidental death by asphyxia from smoking in bed.
- A man, finding himself under arrest for murder, tries briefly to resist arrest.
- A trial in the case ends in a mistaken guilty verdict for another man. However, the original murderer panics, takes flight, is apprehended, and then confesses to his deed, thus clearing the other man.
- A police car, on a non-official errand, strikes and severely injures a small boy. The car's occupants summon medical aid almost at once. No obvious blood or open fractures appear. (Though an orthopedic surgeon might not approve of the boy's mother lifting the boy off the street to cradle him in her arms, when no one can know the extent of his internal injuries, if any.)
- A man suffers a heart attack and subsequently dies.
- A judge asks the county district attorney to remain in the courtroom for a one-on-one conference. Before the conference begins, the judge takes off his judicial robe, revealing appropriate business attire. Doffing the robe does look like preparing to "duke it out." But the combat, such as it is, that takes place between the two men is entirely verbal. Neither man threatens the other with anything more serious than professional embarrassment.
- Two children briefly watch a Western action film on television. Shown on the screen is what looks like a classic gun battle between the US cavalry and a Beringian (probably Apache, Navajo, or "central-casting Hollywood Indian") war party.
Profanity
-
- None spoken or even hinted at. But in the murder trial, counsel for the defense, on cross-examination, asks a police witness "what in God's Name" gives him authority to act in a manner less than appropriate to the description of his duties.
Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking
-
- The murderer (see above) comes to the house smoking a cigarette. He then uses this cigarette to simulate a death-by-asphyxia from smoking in bed. (See above.)
- A judge, a US Senator, and the Senator's wife sit down to a dinner, cocktails, and cigarettes in a hotel restaurant.
- The judge smokes a pipe, and even boasts that the pipe will make him look distinctive to voters.
- Two politicians, and one of their campaign managers, meet in a private hotel room and drink hard liquor dispensed from a glass carafe. (No character in this film drinks any intoxicating liquor straight out of a bottle.)
- The beverage served at a town founder's day picnic may or may not be beer.
- No character ever gets drunk, or consumes alcohol or tobacco in front of any child.
- No character uses any drug other than alcohol or tobacco.
Frightening & Intense Scenes
-
- A police car strikes and injures a small boy (see above). The boy is shown close-up, screaming in horror as two tons of metal come hurtling toward him. Another boy cries out in terror at seeing what has happened to his friend. And the boy's mother rushes out of her house and, sobbing, cradles the boy. (Fortunately the boy survives, as subsequent dialog makes clear.)
- A murder defendant at trial makes a heartfelt plea to another witness not to have an abortion, whether his case goes badly for him or not. Subsequently, when he stands convicted, this witness cries out to him in anguish.
- In addition to the high-speed non-official errand that ends in the injury to the boy (see above), a murderer tries to flee the jurisdiction of the crime and is the subject of a high-speed highway chase. Highway patrolmen intercept him and then fire warning shots when he tries to hop a freight train.
- The above is the only occasion for anyone to fire a shot in anger. Two men fire hunting shots and kill a duck in another scene.
