batman

Or when the 'official' release is of lesser quality that the 'bootleg' ... as I have found with one or two films recently.

Bats.

JamesM

Then that register was compiled by an idiot or compiled over ten years ago and is now invalid.

Since 1996 all British films in copyright in the UK are also in copyright in the US.

In fact Carlton issued NIEs in 1997 for these three films listed on this US government webpage:-

Federal Register Notice

Here is a list of all the films they issued NIEs for:-

Carlton Film Distributors, Ltd.

49th Parallel.
After the ball.
Alf's button afloat.
All over town.
Arsenal stadium mystery.
Ask a policeman.
Aunt Sally.
Backroom boy.
Band wagon.
Bank holiday.
Baroud.
Bees in paradise.
Black orchid.
Boys will be boys.
Britannia of Billingsgate.
Bulldog Jack.
The camels are coming.
Car of dreams.
Channel crossing.
Charley's aunt.
Checkpoint.
Chu chin chow.
The clairvoyant.
Climbing high.
Cloak without dagger.
Convict 99.
Cottage to let.
Crackerjack.
Cuckoo in the nest.
A cup of kindness.
Dangerous exile.
The day will dawn.
Delayed action.
The demi-paradise.
Dirty work.
Double exposure.
Dr. Syn.
East meets West.
The embezzler.
Evensong.
Evergreen.
Everybody dance.
Everything is thunder.
Falling for you.
Fanny by gaslight.
Father came too.
Fighting stock.
The fire raisers.
First a girl.
The Flemish farm.
Fly away Peter.
The fool and the princess.
For freedom.
Foreign affaires.
Forever England.
Freedom radio.
Friday the thirteenth.
The frozen limits.
Gangway.
Gas bags.
The gentle sex.
Gentlemen, the queen.
Ghost train.
The ghoul.
Give us the moon.
The gold express.
The good companions.
Good morning boys.
The great barrier.
The guv'nor.
Head over heels.
The heart within.
Heat wave.
Hey hey USA.
Hi gang.
Hindle wakes.
Hound of the Baskervilles.
I thank you.
I was a spy.
I'll be your sweetheart.
The iron duke.
It happened in Rome.
It's a boy.
It's love again.
It's that man again.
Jack ahoy.
Jack of all trades.
Jack's the boy.
Jew suss.
Just Smith.
King Arthur was a gentleman.
King of the damned.
King Solomon's mines.
Lady in danger.
The lady vanishes.
The lamp still burns.
Little friend.
The lodger.
London belongs to me.
Love in waiting.
Love on wheels.
Lucky number.
The man from Toronto.
Man of Aran.
Man who changed his mind.
The man who knew too much.
Me and Marlborough.
The Mikado.
Millions like us.
Miss London Ltd.
My heart is calling.
My old Dutch.
My song for you.
The naked truth.
Neutral port.
A night in Montmartre.
Non-stop New York.
OHMS
Oh Daddy.
Oh Mr. Porter.
OK for sound.
Old Bill and son.
Old bones of the river.
On the night of the fire.
One night with you.
One way out.
Owd Bob.
P C Josser.
The passing of the third floor back.
Penny and the Pownall case.
The phantom light.
A piece of cake.
Pot luck.
Princess charming.
Red ensign.
Rhodes of Africa.
Roadhouse.
Rome express.
The root of all evil.
Sabotage.
Said O'Reilly to McNab.
Sailing along.
School for secrets.
Secret agent.
The secret place.
Seven sinners.
The silver fleet.
Smash and grab.
Soldiers of the king.
Song for tomorrow.
The Spanish gardener.
Sport of kings.
Star of my night.
Stormy weather.
Strange boarders.
Suspended alibi.
Sweet devil.
Taxi for two.
That Riviera touch.
There goes the bride.
There's always a Thursday.
They knew Mr. Knight.
Things are looking up.
Third time lucky.
Thirty nine steps.
Time flies.

[[Page 44850]]

To the public danger.
Trouble in the air.
Tudor rose.
The tunnel.
Turkey time.
Uncensored.
Unpublished story.
A warm corner.
The way ahead.
The way we live.
We dive at dawn.
Wheel of fate.
Where there's a will.
Wild boy.
Windbag the sailor.
Windom's Way.
A window in London.
Young and innocent.
Zoo baby.

tvden

loads of these been on eBay as bootlegs at one time or another !!! there all at it

Client Fan

The complexities of the law are all very well but it is clear that there seems to be flouting of 50-year rules and retrospective extentions etc, right under our noses all the time.

Quite a few British titles popped up on those "3-on-1 disc" jobbies widely available in Poundland just a couple of years ago - including some of the early sound Hitchcocks - mostly in crap, fuzzy prints.

Many of the more obscure Hitchcock titles (Number Seventeen etc) regularly play on obscure UK satellite channels such as Open Access - again the prints are rhymes-with-white in quality.

Just last night BBC2 showed a 1951 British film called The Scarlet Thread. I'm not sure of the studio but it seemed to be a British production through and through. On the BBFC website there is no entry for the film since it's original cinema classification. There is a good 5-10 minute discrepancy between the running times of the BBC version and the cinema version, even taking the 4% PAL speed-up into account.

This makes me wonder where the print was licensed from. The print shown was very ropey, and ended abruptly with a clearly-inserted still "The End" card that looked like pasted on from a 30's poverty row quickie. It really did look like the BBC had shown any old battered print that they could get their hands on - like a devil-may-care screening of something they had no legal obligations to worry about over.

batman

I watched that film too. With all the wonderful location filming a decent print would have really enhanced my viewing of it. Also, the sound was conspicously poor and the very abrupt ending caught me by surprise too. It felt like the whole denouement had been chopped off in it's prime. I would love to see a full clean print of this film.

Bats.

ps - it was also good to see Sydney Tafler playing a slightly different sort of crook

tvden

I looked this up on IMDB and it does look a good film and as I like Sidney Tafler I have added it to my wanted list, its aka the wall of death

JamesM

The BBFC gives no length of release but says the film was cut. Where did you get your cinema running times from? According to the BFI site, the film was 84 mins in length. The BBC2 version would have lost 6 minutes of that but the time quoted on the BFI database may be the pre-certification running time. Lewis Gilbert was gagging to break boundaries (he made Britian's first X with Cosh Boy, release a year later) and might have overdone it.

I do know that the BBC does actually own the copyright to Butchers Films so they would not even have to license this title.

Steve Crook

The IMDb gives a run time of 85 minutes. Those run times are for the initial cinematic release (to the best of their knowledge)

Steve

JamesM

Then the Beeb have messed up. Missed the ending it seems.

image45

How many edits exist for this at the 'beeb'?

"Seya next time!"

Client Fan

The BBFC website lists the film as being submitted at 84m 18s. It doesn't give the actual release length after cuts no, but it seems highly unlikely that they would demand 6 whole minutes of cuts from a film of this sort from this era.

If the BBC have such easy access to the Butchers' titles, I wish they'd make more use of it!

batman

aka Wall of Death .... that explains the Maxwell Reed mix up in some of the TV guides.

Bats.

ChristineCB

Yes. Exactly. I don't like the illegal profiteering function, but the rightholders can always produce superior versions and use whatever profiteering occurred as a basis to finance the superior-release project.

Dave B

Bearing in mind the alternate title "Wall of Death", Tafler refers to an escape route - if all else fails - across a wall and a sloping roof (but it takes nerve).

The sudden way that the film ended on BBC2 makes me think that the missing bit featured Harvey attempting to cross the wall, but losing balance because of the alcohol he'd been drinking.

Also, the fate of Harry Fowler was left unresolved

batman

I am glad I was not the only one frustrated by the poor presentation of this great little film.

Bats.