From Somewhere to Fraternity

In Washington last week, the U.S. Navy issued a pious pronouncement. It had banned From Here to Eternity, a movie about sex, sadism and misery in the pre-World War II Army, because the film is "derogatory to a brother service." The Navy took this solicitous stand despite the fact that the Army-Air Force Motion Picture Service had already approved the movie. Said Brigadier General Frank Dorn, the Army's deputy chief of information: "The general reaction at the end is good for the Army."

This quick journey from somewhere to inconsistency left Army-Navy relations about the same as ever. Anonymous Navy spokesmen, chuckling deeply, thought that the Army couldn't possibly ban the movie from its screens because it had spent a lot of the taxpayers' money helping to produce scenes at Hawaii's Schofield Barracks. Anonymous Army spokesmen, with a knowing air, thought that the Navy (which has joined the Roman Catholic Legion of Decency in banning The Moon Is Blue) might be making a record for the future. Coming soon: The Caine Mutiny, a movie about sex, misery and a fumbling Annapolis-bred skipper, which the Navy may want to ban from all the ships at sea.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.