The Miracle Case

Film Censorship and the Supreme Court

By: Laura Wittern-Keller, Raymond J. Haberski

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Paperback | 30 October 2008

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It was only a forty-minute foreign film, but it sparked a legal confrontation that has left its mark on America for more than half a century. Roberto Rossellini's II Miracolo (The Miracle) is deceptively simple: a demented peasant woman is seduced by a stranger she believes to be Saint Joseph, is socially ostracized for becoming pregnant out of wedlock, but is finally redeemed through motherhood. Although initially approved by state censors for screening in New York, the film was attacked as sacrilegious by the Catholic establishment, which convinced state officials to revoke distributor Joseph Burstyn's license. In response, Burstyn fought back through the courts and won. Laura Wittern-Keller and Raymond Haberski show how the Supreme Court's unanimous 1952 ruling in Burstyn's favor sparked a chain of litigation that eventually brought filmmaking under the protective umbrella of the First Amendment, overturning its long-outdated decision in Mutual v. Ohio (1915). Their story features a more formidable cast than did the film itself, with the charismatic Francis Cardinal Spellman decrying the film as a Communist plot, while outspoken film critic Bosley Crowther vigorously advocated "freedom of the screen." Meanwhile, movie producers stood by silently for fear of alienating the Church and its large movie-going membership, leaving Burstyn to muster his own defense. More than the inside story of one case, this book explores the unique place that the movies occupy in American culture and the way that culture continues to be shaped by anxiety over the social power of movies. The Burstyn decision weakened the ability of state censorship boards and the Catholic Church to influence the types offilms Americans were allowed to see. Consequently, the case signaled the rise of a new era in which films would be more mature and more controversial than ever before. Focusing on this single most important case in the jurisprudence surrounding motion picture expression, Wittern-Keller and Haberski add a significant new dimension to the story of cinema, censorship, and the history of First Amendment protections.

Industry Reviews

"An important milestone in the history of America's 'cultural wars, ' the Supreme Court's 1951 decision in Burstyn v. Wilson deserves to be told in greater detail than previously provided by general histories of film censorship. Thanks to Wittern-Keller and Haberski that has now been accomplished."--Gregory D. Black, author of Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies

"A fascinating and informative study that shows how debates about a little-known Italian film challenged fundamental ideas in America about censorship and freedom of expression and helped to forge a cultural revolution in the United States."--Robert Brent Toplin, author of Reel History: In Defense of Hollywood

"This lively work will stand as an important contribution to film history."--Historian

"[The authors] have taken this critical Supreme Court decision and constructed a thoughtful historical narrative that contextualizes it for a popular audience. Their book is accessible public history that demonstrates the importance of the Supreme Court in regulating public taste. . . . The authors' concluding bibliographic essay is critical for anyone currently working on American motion picture history. It not only introduces readers to the key books and articles on motion picture censorship and archives related to the subject, but it also includes references on the creation of an American audience for foreign films."--American Historical Review

"An interesting, well-written case study . . . of a case, [that] dealt with the constitutionality of a New York statute that permitted the banning of motion pictures on the ground that they were 'sacrilegious.&8217; . . . The case is discussed in the context of the history of film censorship in general, and the authors provide a well-documented account of how this controversy emerged from a simple dispute into a Supreme Court decision that affected the entire nation."--Choice

"Wittern-Keller and Haberski have produced an entertaining and readable work that will appeal to students studying the history of freedom of speech, and also to faculty who wish to enliven their constitutional law pedagogy with a case which has been obscured by time but which nevertheless deserves a second look."--Law and Politics Book Review

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