Letters, Sep. 20, 1954

The Bad Companions

Sir:

You are mystified (in the Aug. 30 issue) by the "senseless" atrocities of the four supposedly well-brought-up boys from Brooklyn? In an earlier issue of TIME [Aug. 9], the English author, J. B. Priestley, in his comments on the new sadism, explains the matter quite thoroughly, except that the British do not make a cult of masculinity, as we do ... In America, however, grandmaws and tiny tots alike throng to the movies, where filmdom's masterminds charitably make room for a nice, big torture scene" in color . . ....