MovieChat Forums > Follow the Fleet (1936) Discussion > Get Thee Behind Me, S*!*!

Get Thee Behind Me, S!!

posted 16 years ago by neil-kirton
6 replies | jump to latest

I'm surprised this isn't mentioned under alternate versions or anything, but several times when "Follow the fleet" has been shown on British T.V. (certainly over the last 20 or so years) the song "Get Thee Behind Me, Satan" has been edited to remove the word Satan!

Get thee behind me -----
I want to resist
But the moon is low and I cant say no...

...He promised to wait
But I wont appear and he may come here
----- he's at my gate
Get thee behind me

Was this done in the 30's when the film first released (in Briton only?) and has remained so in most versions shown on TV over here (I remember at least once when the full version was shown).

More importantly is the edited version in the BRITISH REGION 2 D.V.D. releases.

P.S. Looks like we're finally getting a region 2 release of Roberta!

[–] Cracklinrosie 15 years ago

I have the film Neil (region 2), and the word "Satan" has been reinstated! Harriet sings it so well, and I have learnt today she was Ricky Nelson's Mother!

"He does know about second breakfast doesn't he"?

[–] axis12002 15 years ago

In the UK "Fred & Ginger Collection Vol 1" each film has a filmed intro from Astaire's daughter. For 'Follow the Fleet' she explains that the removal of the word 'Satan' was done by the British censor for the original release.

Rather than just muting the sound on the 'offending' word (I'm not sure that this would have been technically possible) they physically removed the relevant frames of film - resulting in some really jarring jump-cuts.

Whilst the censored version is shown during the intro the actual film contains the unedited version of the song.

I tried looking this up the BBFC website but that doesn't have any info on the edit which could mean that prior to submission RKO knew thay wouldn't get it through and did the edit themselves before it went through the classification process.

[–] skiddoo 13 years ago

And everybody goes on and on about the US Code. :) Seems our British cousins had their own problems.

[–] Doghouse-6 15 years ago

Just a little piece of trivia regarding this song: it was written for TOP HAT, and was intended to be sung by Ginger while Fred goes to hire a gondola (the one we ultimately see being piloted by Eric Blore while Fred finally explains the identity mixup).

Poe! You are...avenged!

[–] lnoft97 13 years ago

SATAN! SATAN! SATAN! SATAN! SATAN! SATAN! SATAN! SATAN! SATAN! SATAN!

(looks around to see if The Prince of Darkness materialized to fetch me away to his dark realm, sees only the black dog who lives up the street...)

[–] liscarkat (16530) 2 years ago

The censors did the right thing. It's a well-known fact that anyone who hears the word "Satan" will automatically go to Hell.