Movies: The Double Standard

The National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures, which was once called the National Legion of Decency, no longer deserves to be called an old fuddy-duddy. For more than a year now, the N.C.O.M.P. has been taking an increasingly tolerant view of sexual matters on the screen (TIME, Dec. 3, 1965). For example, both Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Ulysses were granted N.C.O.M.P. approval in the A-IV classification—"morally unobjectionable for adults, with reservations."

Still, film makers have a difficult time figuring out how far they can go without getting into trouble. Only...