Netflix's DVD Carrie, 1952

[janeslogin]

On Netflix’s disk of Carrie 1952 there is a blurb out front about “section 16”, “Destitute”, could not play in US theaters ‘‘at the time’’ because of politics. Do you have any idea what they are talking about.

[Quotes are approximate, I cannot pause or slow down the blurb.]

[armedmonkey]

J. Edgar Hoover tried to suppress the film because he thought that the pig’s blood scene was a personal attak as he had “blood on his hands” and always wanted to be Prom Queen. It didn’t help that the dress Sissy Spacek wore was remarkably similar to the one habitually worn by Hoover while entertaining.
But seriously, it was McCarthyism. From Turner Classic Movies

The problem was political. The rising tide of McCarthyism had hit Hollywood so hard the studio was afraid to distribute a film showing American characters as immoral and, eventually, unsuccessful. Finally, they cabled Wyler in Rome, where he was preparing to shoot Roman Holiday (1953), asking his permission to make cuts that would make the film more positive. Although he had final cut in his contract, the studio was not obligated to release the film, so he consented, even though it meant losing Olivier’s suicide scene (it would be included among the extras in the DVD version).