The Birds and Beasts Were There

[Fedya]

[*The Birds and Beasts Were There*|http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0240379/] is a 1944 WB short that aired after Alfred Hitchcock's *The Birds* on April 1. I noticed that on the opening title card, there was a substantial black rectangle covering something up; I presume this is in the print of the movie.

 

Any idea what it might be?

 

(For the record, the short really needed to be in Technicolor, like MGM's Traveltalks shorts.)

[CineSage_jr]

It was probably the name of someone who was later Blacklisted.

[FredCDobbs]

Wasn't this a British film?

[CineSage_jr]

Making up false stories? I was speculating; the word "probably" that started the posting should've been a tip-off in that regard, but those blacked-out spaces often do indicate Blacklisted personnel.

 

Even if it was (and I don't know if that's the case), if Warner's acquired the rights to show it in the U.S. it would have been subject to whatever modification (or mutilation) the studio deemed necessary to exhibit it on these shores without the sort of controversy and charges of coddling "Reds" that association with such names would've brought down on them. A number of American production people worked on both sides of the Atlantic (especially after the Blacklist began here), so it's entirely plausible that the excised name is of someone who ran afoul of HUAC.