“Per ragioni di ordine pubblico”: Government control of British and American films in Italy in the aftermath of World War II (1946-1959)

Foreign films’ censorship in Italy was mainly investigated in relation to the fascist era, a period of decrees aimed at controlling foreign narratives and suppressing representations deemed politically troublesome or morally inconvenient (Mereu Keating 2012, 2016; Ranzato 2016). In this perspective, Mereu Keating analysed the preventive censorship over foreign films guaranteed by dubbing (2016) and the policies adopted in relation to overseas productions (2012). The present study considers the immediate post-World War II period to demonstrate that the dubbing of foreign films in post-fascist Italy served similar functions of control and manipulation dictated by the predominant power structures of the time. Even though the entire system of laws enforced on the matter was abrogated after the fall of fascism (D. Lgs. Lgt. No. 678/1945), the censorship practices related to audiovisual content operated in the previous decades continued to remain in place. The Central Office for Cinematography (Law No. 379/1947) – whose commission became part of the General Direction of Entertainment in 1948 and acted on behalf of the prime minister – consistently inspected all audiovisual products, imposing cuts and significant alterations to imported films to avoid issues of public disorder (Curti 2023). In the commission’s perspective, it was essential that the Allies were not negatively perceived by the Italian audience, and that the country’s national prestige remained unaffected by their narrative. Hence, examining a selection of films translated between 1946 and 1959, this paper explores how censorship was exercised by the Central Office for Cinematography on British and American productions of the period. By focusing on war films and crime drama through the lens of Descriptive Translation Studies, this study investigates how manipulation was effectively achieved through dubbing. The aim is therefore to analyse how Italian translators dealt with the conditions imposed by the Central Office’s commission, identifying the translational strategies they adopted to remove or avoid problematic references to Italianness and Italian institutions that occurred in the Allies’ productions.