William Winter went so far as to warn American women that " La Tosca " contained scenes which were " not only shocking to the nervous system and grossly offensive to persons of true sensibility, but which might inflict irreparable injury on persons yet unborn . " Several early critics, including Arthur Bingham Walkley and Jules Lema�tre, wrote at length on Scarpia's graphic description of Cavaradossi's torture and the sound of his off-stage screams in Act 3, which they considered both gratuitously violent and inartistic.
32.
A reviewer for the magazine Hebdo-Film said : " That a man of talent, an artist, as the director of most of the great films which have been the success and glory of Gaumont, starts again to deal with this unhealthy genre [ the crime film ], obsolete and condemned by all people of taste, remains for me a real problem . " the film was criticised for being " old-fashioned and inartistic ", However, it did receive some underground praise, French poets Andr?Breton and Louis Aragon calling it " the reality of this century.
