312 F. Supp. 1382

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. 35 MM COLOR MOTION PICTURE FILM ENTITLED “LANGUAGE OF LOVE”, 12 reels, 10,342 feet, English and Finnish sound tracks, Defendant.

No. 69 Civ. 5433 (MP).

United States District Court, S. D. New York.

May 21, 1970.

See also D.C., 311 F.Supp. 108.

Whitney North Seymour, Jr., U. S. Atty., S. D. New York, for plaintiff, by Michael C. Silberberg, and David Paget, New York City, of counsel.

Hofer, Levine & Rich, New York City, for claimants, by Arnold I. Rich, New York City, of counsel, and Ephraim London, New York City (Trial Counsel for claimants).

*1383OPINION

POLLACK, District Judge.

The advisory1 jury reported that the film involved herein is an appeal to prurient interest, an offensive affront to contemporary community standards and utterly without redeeming social importance and value.2 Motions are now made for a directed verdict for the claimants, for a new trial and for a stay of the judgment.

To prevent harm to others, the purveyors of obscenity are by statute3 deprived of the opportunity of free expression thereof. The Constitution does not protect obscenity.4 A society may protect its citizens from public assault by motion pictures that are deeply disturbing, vulgar displays whose fundamental effect and purpose is an appeal to prurient interest without social value.5 The cloak6 denominated “educational value” will not save such motion pictures when the educators have been used, as here was done, to put a gloss, albeit a lengthy one,7 on contraband. The business promoters of this type of display may not inflict it on the public at large. In my opinion, the outermost constitutional limit of free speech has finally been exceeded by the brinkmanship of this film.

Implicit in the jury’s verdict is a finding, with which the Court agrees, that the producers of the film intended the commercial exploitation of prurient (a pathological) interest in viewing audiences.8 The educators utilized to supply the discussion scenes did not author the scenes of sexual depiction. In fact, one of the educators testified that when she *1384saw the latter, she felt disturbed “from the aesthetical point of view”. She objected to at least two scenes about genital organs in motion and requested that they be frozen into still portrayals. However, the pruning was hardly sufficient to bring the film as a whole within bounds of permissible expression. It is a fair inference that the educators were employed to garnish the sexual portrayals and were pawns in a scheme to exploit morbid curiosity in offensive displays of nudity and sexual acts.

Most of the legal points raised by the claimants have been answered heretofore. United States v. 35 MM Color Motion Picture Film. Entitled “Language of Love”, 311 F.Supp. 108 (S.D.N.Y. 1970).

Additional points were disposed of at the trial and those now made and not already covered are lacking in merit.

Motions denied.

So ordered.

United States v. 35 MM Color Motion Picture Film Entitled “Language of Love”
312 F. Supp. 1382

Case Details

Name
United States v. 35 MM Color Motion Picture Film Entitled “Language of Love”
Decision Date
May 21, 1970
Citations

312 F. Supp. 1382

Jurisdiction
United States

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