Jacobellis v. Ohio

This was a landmark case that helped define the legal standards for determining obscenity.

In 1964, movie theater manager Nico Jacobellis was convicted of exhibiting an obscene movie, Louis Malle's Les Amants, "The Lovers." The advertising for the film made it sound quite daring:

"When all conventions explode . . . in the most daring love story ever filmed!" "As close to authentic amour as is possible on the screen." "The frankest love scenes yet seen on film." "Contains one of the longest and most sensuous love scenes to be seen in this country."

Yet to most critics and filmgoers, the film was nothing more than a sensitive love story, directed by the renowned French director Louis Malle and starring the internationally famous actress Jeanne Moreau. In the words of the Supreme Court decision:

"The Lovers" involves a woman bored with her life and marriage who abandons her husband and family for a young archaeologist with whom she has suddenly fallen in love. There is an explicit love scene in the last reel of the film, and the State's objections are based almost entirely upon that scene. The film was favorably reviewed in a number of national publications, although disparaged in others, and was rated by at least two critics of national stature among the best films of the year in which it was produced.

Although the film was shown in some 100 U.S. cities, including Columbus and Toledo, Ohio, Jacobellis was prosecuted for showing it in Cleveland Heights, a middle-class suburb of Cleveland.