I watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail last night. I watched for the “extra” scene with Carol Cleveland as Zoot (well, as “Dingo” really) in Castle Anthrax. Sure enough, it was there. I don’t recall seeing this before the DVD release – from the first time I saw it in 1975 until I saw that DVD, it wasn’t there.
But it’s now apparently the “standard” version, because it was on the BBC broadcast.
That’s kind of weird. we’ve had George Lucas screwing with his films (he just did it again for the Disney+ release, as we’ve discussed already), and there have been numerous “Director’s Cut” and longer versions of films for DVD and Blu Ray release, but those generally don’t get used as the Broadcast version (except for the Star Wars films and maybe Bladerunner). This change to Monty Python isn’t even a “Director’s Cut” scene.
What other cases are there?
– The “restored” version of the 1933 King Kong seems to be the standard now, with the “strip tease” scene and the Kong Chewing on People scenes put back in.
– Likewise the 1931 Frankenstein with the Throwing the girl in the Water scene and the “Now I know what it feels like to BE god” line restored.
–Have they restored the “seduction” scene to Amadeus? The film makes a LOT more sense with it in place.
I don’t think they usually broadcast the “Director’s Cut” versions of films (partly, I suspect, because they’re longer), so I haven’t seen the full versions of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, or Cameron’s Aliens or Terminator 2. Aside from TCM and PBS, nobody broadcasts silent films, but I haven’t seen the fully restored Metropolis or The Lost World or The Phantom of the Opera (with the Handschiegl color scenes added, in addition to the Technicolor scenes)
Does E.T. changing all the guns to walkie talkies count?
I had the tape of The Jerk growing up and watched it a lot. Then one time I caught it on TV and there was a whole extra scene after Navin Johnson is rich, but before he loses it all in the cross-eyed class action suit, where a guy from the charity office visits him and Steve Martin gets totally pissed off, like, “Get out of here! There are way more deserving people than me!” and the charity guy has to explain he’s looking for donations, not recipients. It was pretty funny, but not on the VHS tape I was familiar with. Not sure which was the original theater version but both my tape and the TV broadcast would have been in the 90s, well over a decade after the movie premiered.
The 1986 film Highlander had 3 versions. The Japanese cut had longer fight scenes, and more acrobatic choreography. The European cut had a flashback scene in World War II, when Connor rescued Rachel from the Nazis, explaining her loyalty to him in the 1980s.
When the DVD was released in 1997, we Yanks finally got to see the entire story.
Blazing Saddles has added cuts with Bart’s battle with Mongo. When it was released to theaters all we saw was the Candygram for Mongo bit, with none of the carnivalesque bits now shown on TV.
Speaking of Mel Brooks, my wife and I were discussing again one of those changes.
She swears that she saw a scene I have never seen (and which other people have also said they saw).
Just before DR. Frankenstein goes on stage with The Monster in their big debut, he runs into Eye-gor, who has no hump
Frankenstein: What happened to your hump?
Eye-gor: NEVER with a tux!
As sort of corroboration for this, when Eye-gor and Inga run to Frankenstein’s aid after the Monster has stormed off (into the arms of the police), you can clearly see that he has no hump. But the film, as it currently exists, doesn’t explain this.
When I bought the DVD, I went to the “deleted scenes” to look for this scene, and it’s not there. I’ve looked on the internet for it, or any signs or notices of its existence, and haven’t been able to find anything.
It’s not clear when the scene was removed, or why, but it was clearly before I saw the film (which I did shortly after its initial theatrical run)
Here’s one notice of it:
Alterations to movies were not uncommon when they were released to TV.
*
The Madmen of Mandoras* was released in 1963. New footage was shot for its TV release either in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s. The title was of course changed to They Saved Hitler’s Brain. A Fistful of Dollars (1964) - From IMDB:
“When this movie made its U.S. network television debut on “The ABC Sunday Night Movie” in February 1975, a new prologue was added in which an unidentified lawman or politician (Harry Dean Stanton) orders Joe (Clint Eastwood) to get rid of the gangs of San Miguel in return for a pardon. Neither Eastwood nor Leone were involved in the shooting of this additional footage. A double with his face hidden and stock footage of Eastwood were used. Monte Hellman directed the new footage. This prologue is now available on the Special Edition released in 2005.” Two-Minute Warning (1976) – From IMDB:
“The notorious re-edited and re-worked television version of this movie premiered on NBC in prime-time on February 6, 1979. This version was conceived during negotiations between Universal Pictures and NBC in 1978, because NBC refused to air a film centered around a homicidal sniper. The network-television version was cut and added around 40 minutes, introducing a 30-minute art-heist robbery plot and losing around half the length of the film’s original plot. This version is the most often one shown on broadcast television in the U.S. The television version of the movie was released for the first time on home media in June of 2016 almost 40 years after its first TV broadcast. “
“Actors who appeared in the film’s television version who didn’t appear in the cinema movie included Rossano Brazzi, Joanna Pettet, Paul Shenar, James Olson, and William Prince. Warren Miller reprised his role as “The Sniper” and Charlton Heston shot three short new scenes for the television version. Heston’s hair is of a noticeably different color in these new scenes.”
Airplane! had some deleted footage they used on TV. A lot of it seemed to be padding, but I distinctly remember a scene between the two kids with coffee somberly discussing their life choices as they faced doom.
I was kind of irked when that extra Grail scene popped up. It was partially because I wanted to see the movie exactly as I remembered it, not one that had been fiddled around with, but it was mostly because it was a pretty lame scene. It’s hard to believe that it actually scored a big laugh.
Metropolis (1927) had a crap-ton of footage restored when a negative of the original cut was discovered in a museum in Argentina, as well as a compete print in New Zealand. Going by Wikipedia, it was about 25 minutes worth of footage. I think the complete version is well worth seeing, even if you’ve already watched the abbreviated movie.
The TV version of the 1978 Superman is 45 minutes longer than the theatrical version (theatrical, 143 minutes; TV, 188 minutes). The main differences I remember are scenes with Jor-El on Krypton. For years, the extra footage was only available with pan-and-scan picture and mono sound. I am told that the blu-ray disk has attempted to fix that. Has anybody seen the blu-ray version?
There are lots of added scenes to various movies that were only added for the TV screenings. Not what I had in mind when I started this, but here are a few:
Creator – the TV version added a cut flashback to Harry and his wife at an amusement park.
The Thing – the TV version added some extra scenes of the men walking around the camp. Some versions also add a voice-over giving their names and a brief description.
Dune – there’s a cobbled-together version for TV that adds still scenes at the beginning with voice-over narration (not princess Irulan or the “talking book” in the theatrical release) that explains the background of the movie. It also includes scenes cut from the theatrical release, like the making of Water of Life by almost drowning an adolescent sandworm. The directing ctredit is given to “Alan Smithee”, that pseudonym used when the real director disapproves.
I don’t count the “Metropolis” restoration as “added scenes” – it’s a restoration. the Lost World (1925) and Phantom of the Opera have also benefitted from such restorations, which was the original intent and original release form. I certainly recommend watching these restored versions, because the movie makes a helluva lot more sense with all the parts in.
Then there’s They Saved Hitler’s Brain(1968), which was made by shooting new scenes and tacking them onto a pre-existing movie called Madmen of Mandoras, released i 1963.
I’ve seen it. It’s hard to imagine someone taking a movie about neoNazis* keeping Hitler’s head alive and making it worse, but, by gum, they did. You can easily tell the newer scenes from the older ones – it’s like a different movie. Which, of course, it is. Laughably bad, but I’m not sure it’s entertainingly bad.
*actually, I suppose they’re just Nazis when they “harvest” his head. Their recruits are neo-Nazis.
It really wasn’t that funny. You’ll also notice that the line between the two kids that got one of the biggest laughs in the theater was, sadly but probably understandably, cut for TV.