Benjamin DeCasseres, who wrote intertitles for films produced by the Famous Players–Lasky Corporation—including the first American release of Nosferatu—leaked to his friend H. L. Mencken the Pennsylvania State Board of Censors’ notes for one of the films he was working on. Mencken, amused by the absurdity of the mandated moral “corrections,” published the list verbatim as an item titled “Lifting Them Up” in his and George Jean Nathan’s Répétition Générale column in The Smart Set 68, no. 3 (July 1922). The incident exemplifies both DeCasseres’s irreverent wit and his enduring association with Mencken, with whom he collaborated and corresponded for many years.

Lifting Them Up. — Proof of the rationalizing and uplifting influence of official censorship upon the movies, as afforded by the cuts ordered by the Pennsylvania State Board of Censors in a German film based upon the familiar old tear-squeezer, Camille — a film called “Poor Violetta” in Germany and here produced by the Famous Players under the name of The Red Peacock, with titles by Benjamin De Casseres:

Reel 1a
Eliminate subtitle: “Gaston du Pont, her satellite,” and substitute: “Gaston Dupont, her fiancé.”

Reel 3a
Eliminate subtitle: “Count Girgy sees an opportunity,” and substitute: “Count Girgy sees an opportunity to vary his hectic life with an act of humanity.”
b
Eliminate subtitle: “Violette, you may remain as maid in this house if you wish to,” and substitute: “Violette, my house is lonely. Let me do an unselfish act. Be my ward and enjoy the comforts of my home as a sister would.”
c
Eliminate views of Girgy embracing and kissing Violette after bringing her wrap to her, and all views of Girgy kissing and embracing Violette in any other reel, throughout the picture.

Reel 4a
Eliminate subtitle: “Alfred, I love you. Take me away from this,” and substitute: “Alfred, I love you. I was happy as Girgy’s ward until you returned. Take me away.”
b
Eliminate views of Alfred shaking his head to express “No.”
c
Insert, after Alfred has fallen at Violette’s feet with his head in her lap and she is fondling and kissing him, subtitle: “Come to me, Violette; we will be married at once and say nothing about it.”

Reel 5a
Insert a subtitle after: “I love Alfred. He is all I have in the world; I cannot let him go,” when Violette sinks in chair and Claire goes out of the room, to this effect: “Realizing that for his own reasons Alfred had not told his father of his marriage, Violette loyally kept the secret.”
b
Insert a subtitle during the views showing Violette leaving her home and before she goes to Gaston Dupont, to this effect: “With a courageous determination to find some means of honestly earning money to aid Alfred.”
c
Eliminate subtitle: “I am here, ill in body and soul. Take me away, anywhere,” and substitute: “I am here, ill in body and soul. You offered to help me. Are you good friend enough to take me, unselfishly, where I can learn to dance, so that I may earn money?”
d
Eliminate subtitle: “My dear Alfred: Forgive me, I am leaving you. My illness will become a greater and greater burden on you, and our financial troubles are growing each day. You have your future to consider. Violette.” And substitute: “My dear Alfred: Forgive me, I am leaving you for a time that I may earn money to overcome our financial troubles, which are growing each day. I love you and hope for the future. Violette.”
e
Eliminate all views in this and other reels following of Gaston Dupont embracing and kissing or making love to Violette.
f
Eliminate subtitle: “We will go south and there will soon be roses in your cheeks,” and substitute: “You may trust me. We will go south and there will soon be roses in your cheeks. You shall learn to dance there.”

Reel 6a
Eliminate all views of Gaston Dupont making love to Violette, kissing or embracing her.
b
Eliminate subtitle: “You’d better not dance this evening; your cough,” and substitute: “You’d better rest this evening; your cough.”
c
Eliminate the word “you” from subtitle: “It was my money you loved, not me—you.”
d
Eliminate subtitle: “Now I know you for what you are—and I’m through with you,” and substitute: “I’m through with you forever.”