BOGART and Bacall without a cigarette in hand would be like The Magnificent Seven without guns. But Hollywood's love affair with nicotine is the unexpected new target of Scotland's new SNP government, in the latest bid to crack down on Scotland's poor public health.
Despite decades of films in which the likes of James Dean, Bette Davis, Clint Eastwood and Sir Sean Connery were rarely seen without a light, ministers are now plotting to deter film-makers showing smoking on-screen.
They are backing calls for all films with excessive smoking to be given an 18 certificate, so younger teenagers and children are barred from seeing anyone light up.
Anti-smoking groups have long complained that Hollywood's glamourisation of smoking has lured youngsters into a habit.
In the United States, film authorities have agreed to warn viewers before a showing about excessive smoking in a movie.
Ministers have no power to change the regulations, but have pledged to raise the issue at Westminster.
If enacted, movie characters as diverse as Bridget Jones and Gandalf from Lord Of The Rings- who regularly reached for his pipe in times of crisis - could fall foul of the new law, causing their films to be ranked an 18, alongside sexually explicit and violent movies.
The change was proposed last week by SNP backbencher Kenneth Gibson and has now received support from Minister for Public Health, Shona Robison.
She said: "The Scottish Executive recognises that images of smokers featured in films, TV and magazines may influence young people to smoke. In developing our longer term national smoking prevention strategy, therefore, we will work with the UK government and other devolved governments to explore ways to reduce negative and increase positive images of smoking in the media. It does not seem unreasonable for issues relating to film classification to form part of these considerations."
A spokesman for Forest, the pro-smoking lobby group, said: "This is an absurd suggestion and it insults everyone's intelligence to suggest that just because you see someone smoking on screen, you will think it is a good idea."
"You could have children being able to watch 15-rated films with scenes of people having graphic sex, but only if they don't then light up afterwards," he added.
Currently, guidelines for the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) state that any glamourisation of smoking "may be a concern". Smoking is logged by BBFC examiners but so far it is not believed that smoking levels have affected film classification.
However, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) recently declared that it will take into account "depictions that glamourise smoking or movies that feature pervasive smoking outside of a historic or other mitigating context".
That means old films will not be affected, but new movies with smoking may come with a warning.
Earlier this month, US medical researchers released a report which calculated that American teenagers had been 'exposed' to 13.9 billion 'smoking impressions' in 534 box office hits between 1998 and 2003. The research found that three-quarters of all films contained smoking.
The worst offenders were The Perfect Storm and Lord Of The Rings.
The actor found to smoke most in films during that period was Brad Pitt, closely followed by Nicolas Cage.
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