The Spy in Black

[MonicaMC]

I am SOOO done with Movies Unlimited. Now that I have The Spy in Black and The Jack of Diamonds, I want better prints, especially of The Spy in Black, since (a) it was P&P's first collaboration, (b) the story is better, and (c) the DVD copy I have cut off one of the scenes I was most interested in before it was over.

Preamble/rant over, here are the questions:

(1) I've found Region 2 and Region 4 DVDs of The Spy in Black, but no region 1. Am I correct in concluding that there has been no N American release of The Korda Collection on DVD?

(2) At the hotel in Kiel, the soldiers read from a paper extolling the success of the U-Boat raids. The body of the article has a big CENSORED over it. Was that the newspaper censoring content, or something different? And for whom - the public, the soldiers, or both?

[Steve Crook]

I am SOOO done with Movies Unlimited. Now that I have The Spy in Black and The Jack of Diamonds, I want better prints, especially of The Spy in Black, since (a) it was P&P's first collaboration, (b) the story is better, and (c) the DVD copy I have cut off one of the scenes I was most interested in before it was over.

Preamble/rant over, here are the questions:

(1) I've found Region 2 and Region 4 DVDs of The Spy in Black, but no region 1. Am I correct in concluding that there has been no N American release of The Korda Collection on DVD?

(2) At the hotel in Kiel, the soldiers read from a paper extolling the success of the U-Boat raids. The body of the article has a big CENSORED over it. Was that the newspaper censoring content, or something different? And for whom - the public, the soldiers, or both?

(1) The one sold by Movies Unlimited is a North American release. It doesn't actually mention any region coding on the case so in might be "region 0" or have nor region coding so that it can play anywhere. My DVD player plays everything from everywhere without my having to enter any codes or anything like that. That's very useful but it means that I can't tell if there is any region coding on a DVD

(2) I'm fairly sure it's trying to show that the German newspaper is being censored in Germany in 1917. When one of the the two German navy officer in the hotel reads the newspaper to the other he reads out the start of the article and then stops where it is censored.



But if you wind back a few scenes, we see the newspaper "boy" bringing the newspapers into the hotel, and it doesn't look like they're censored there



Of course nobody finds it unusual that a German newspaper, the "Kieler Post", should have its banner headline and the main article, in English
Maybe that's why it was censored?

Steve

[MonicaMC]

Good morning! I think these forums should just have a P&P section called, "Ask Steve."

(1) The one sold by Movies Unlimited is a North American release.

I wouldn't call it a release as such. The distributing company in this case is something called VCI Entertainment, which, like Sinister Cinema, appears to create the DVD by crudely recording it off a less than stellar print of the film. (You probably know what I'm trying to convey, but I'm sure you would be more articulate.) It's even worse than the other DVD I received, because (1) the scene got chopped off at the end, as I mentioned; and (2) it's not even divided into chapters. It's essentially a video version of a DVD.

Also, I think the advertised cover is false advertising. The copy I have is an entirely different cover from that pictured on Movies Unlimited - the one shown online is the version that shows up on all the "legit" copies I've seen. Had MU shown something else, at least I would have been tipped off to call their customer service line to check the distribution company.

That's the lesson learned here, I think: call their customer service first to see if they will be sending you the version you want. Meanwhile, until I make sure my laptop (Mac) is okay switching between regions at will, better a bird in the hand.

[Steve Crook]

Good morning! I think these forums should just have a P&P section called, "Ask Steve."

Lots of other people do

BTW what scene was cut from that VCI version?
I think I bought it but haven't played it. I prefer the other versions

Steve

[MonicaMC]

BTW what scene was cut from that VCI version?

Well, admittedly it wasn't the whole scene, but -- *sniff* -- they cut Rev. Harris's last line after Veidt points the gun on him. One thing I've noticed about British actors: their beatwork is so CLEAN, I don't like to miss anything, especially when I've seen it earlier and I know that bit has been chopped out. And I'm more of a bear when it's a favorite actor or film of mine: I remember getting a copy of Marty a long time ago, and there were bits that were gone, and bits I hadn't seen before. Drove me crazy - I had no idea what parts of the film originally appeared in the theatres back in '55; and of course I wanted ALL of the footage. (In that case I had purchased from a physical store, so I took it back. That clerk probably wished he never got out of bed that morning when he first tried to tell me that they couldn't take back new VHS tapes that had been opened and viewed. *blushing*)

I can be pretty particular about movies. Another quirk of mine is that I hate arriving at the cinema even a second after the feature begins. (Especially these days; it's getting to be such that I can find live theatre cheaper than an evening show at the cineplex.) I'm not quite as bad as Woody Allen was in Annie Hall, but if you make me late to a picture, you don't want to be around me.

[Steve Crook]

Well, admittedly it wasn't the whole scene, but -- *sniff* -- they cut Rev. Harris's last line after Veidt points the gun on him.

"Oh dear"

The exchange just before then is one of my favourites

Rev Harris: That medal ribbon. I don't seem to recognise it. What is it?
Capt Hardt: The Iron Cross... Second Class.
Rev Harris: Second Class... then you must be a prisoner of war?
Capt Hardt: No. [draws gun] You are.
Rev Harris: Oh dear.

Steve

[MonicaMC]

The exchange just before then is one of my favourites

Rev Harris: That medal ribbon. I don't seem to recognise it. What is it?
Capt Hardt: The Iron Cross... Second Class.
Rev Harris: Second Class... then you must be a prisoner of war?
Capt Hardt: No. [draws gun] You are.
Rev Harris: Oh dear.

Exactly. When I first saw that scene -- when Powell does the closeups of the principals, then a close-ish/medium of the unwitting Harris, I LOL and said, "Oh, Freddie, you are in the wolf's lair now!" (I know that was WWII, but still...)

Thinking about personal favorites, would that there were a copy of Deborah Kerr's deleted scene out of Contraband - I would dearly have loved to have seen that - for shame, Mr. Seabourne, and your team -- for not rescuing DK from the cutting room at least for posterity! :)

[Steve Crook]

Exactly. When I first saw that scene -- when Powell does the closeups of the principals, then a close-ish/medium of the unwitting Harris, I LOL and said, "Oh, Freddie, you are in the wolf's lair now!" (I know that was WWII, but still...)

Thinking about personal favorites, would that there were a copy of Deborah Kerr's deleted scene out of Contraband - I would dearly have loved to have seen that - for shame, Mr. Seabourne, and your team -- for not rescuing DK from the cutting room at least for posterity! :)

There are a few other scenes that we know were filmed but were then cut from the initial release of the film and haven't been seen.

In Black Narcissus, the ending in the book has Sister Clodagh going back to the convent in Calcutta and reporting her failings to the Mother Superior. It's described in the script, Jack Cardiff told us that he filmed it and was very pleased with the result with the rain running down the window representing Clodagh's tears for her failings. See Lost Scene From Black Narcissus

But they did too good a job filming the nun's leaving Mopu what with the "coming of the rains". the last shot of the "House of Women" through the clouds and Clodagh's farewell to Mr Dean. So P&P decided that the film should end there.

Another one is the final scene in The Tales of Hoffmann where Niklaus (Pamela Brown) is shown as a golden statue and is revealed as Hoffmann's muse. (S)he has been his friend and companion all the way through the film but at the end he stops chasing the other women and settles down with him/her (Niklaus was always a bit androgynous). That was filmed and printed. It was included when the film was shown at the Vienna Film Festival but what with the long operatic third act (the Antonia segment) P&P finally bowed to the pressure from Korda and others and cut the scene with the golden statue

Steve