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Although the British Board of Film Censors had passed the film on 14 March 1967 with an "X" certificate after cuts, the Greater London Council granted a local "X" certificate to the uncut version in May 1967. The uncut version was a huge success, opening at the Academy Cinema One (516 seats) on 1 June 1967 for 44 weeks before moving next door to the smaller Academy Cinema Two (404 seats) for a further 26 weeks. When the film finally closed on 2 October 1968 it was still being advertised as "X" (London).
The film attracted controversy on its original release due to an early use of the word "fuck."
When the film was submitted to the BBFC in 1967 they requested 29 cuts to remove strong language and crude sexual references from Molly's final soliloquy. In return director Joseph Strick replaced all the offending footage with a blank screen and a high pitched shrieking sound. This resulted in the BBFC rescinding the cuts and passing the film fully intact.
The film was not passed by the film censors in Ireland until September 27, 2000, 33 years after its release.
This was passed for cinema in March 1967 and thus became the first film in the UK to feature the word "fuck". Marianne Faithfull's single use of the word in the film I'll Never Forget What's'isname (1967) would follow 3 months later.
When first released theatrically the film was deemed so controversial by the New Zealand censors that it could only be screened before gender-segregated audiences in that country.