alan gowdy

Anyone see it the other night on Sky? It's some years since my last viewing, but I'm sure this print was very heavily (and none too subtly) edited. The turkish bath scene was cut to one shot - the indignant reaction of Blimp to the soldier's deception was completely lost and this made him appear merely pathetic in the final scene rather than sympathetic. Shame!

"Don't forget... one of petrol, two of meths"

MrDrakesDuck

eek! smash

I taped over an older ITV recording with the Sky broadcast so if it's an edited version..... hysteric

"I thought I had to shoot Germans, not chew 'em"

Steve Crook

I didn't bother watching any of the recent Powell & Pressburger films on Sky Cinema - because I don't get Sky Cinema :)
They don't show gems like this often enough to warrent me paying them anything, and of course I have them all on tape & DVD.

But as for an edited version, there were various ham-fisted edits made in the 1940s when distributors though that the full 163 mins would be too much for some people. It usually isn't, but distributors don't (or didn't) have a very high opinion of their audiences.

The worst one was the initial US release when it was hacked back to 120 mins. The flashback idea was removed and the story was just shown as a stright line starting with Theo & Hoppy at the Bathers Club.

There were other edits at about 140 mins but I'd be surprised (horrified) if that's what Sky showed. The full film was restored in the 1980s and has been easily available since then. In fact it's now hard to find any of the cut versions.

Can anyone confirm if it was cut?
How long did it run for (approx)?

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

ollie

Steve, it ran for 156.42 including titles, does that mean they definatly made some cuts and if so why.
checked the repeat showing of peeping tom on film 4 and the print set up was fine this time doh

it makes you sick moon

cheers Ollie.

"Bullseye !!"

Steve Crook

Not necessarily ...

Because of the different frame rates between projected film (24 frames per second) and that on TV (25 frames per second) a film shown on TV (or recorded onto video/DVD/LD etc.) will have a slightly shorter running time to that shown in most sources for the film as the film is being shown a fraction faster. To check, take the running time given for the cinematic release, multiply by 24 & divide by 25. If that's not the same as the running time on TV (to within a minute or two) then there have probably been cuts made.

So we take the 163 mins length of the cinematic release, multiply by 24 & divide by 25 and that gives us 156.48 mins for a TV showing.

So were there any cuts made or did Alan mis-remember it?

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

ollie

Steve,
iv'e seen you post this info before i just couldn't remember the calculation for the conversion so it looks like the complete version thumbs_u
just a comment on the film,this was my first viewing of col blimp,and i must say i found it an instantly enjoyable watch,i've struggled with a few p+p's recently,i didn't know much about them before i started checking the forum out,in fact the only recolection i had was the same as jim posted a while ago,the ubiqitous ping pong ball scene in amolad,i cant dissmiss anything out of hand yet as i'm going to revisit what i've seen so far.

cheers Ollie.

"Bullseye !!"

alan gowdy

... I'll say this for Sky's print though... it was immaculate. No dirt, scratches or splices evident and the colour rendition was nice and rich, like Technicolor should be.

"Don't forget... one of petrol, two of meths"

Steve Crook

There's one print that's shown at various festivals that starts off with a notice saying that it's a BFI restoration - and that notice itself is heavily scratched so that always gets the first good laugh. But the rest of the print is very good quality.

It is a lovely film. A great story and beautifully portrayed.

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS