|
The Oblong Box (1969)
|
| Director |
Gordon Hessler |
| Cut Formats |
VHS |
| Classifications |
R |
| Cut Footage |
(a) The pre-credits voodoo scene runs
about 50s longer in the DVD. The additional footage consists of several
short additional shots and extensions of individual shots. The extra footage
tends to appear immediately after the shots of Vincent Price approaching
the hut. The longest extra shots are about 10s of dancing that appear after
the first shot of the Africans following the close-up of the fire when
the AIP credit disappears.
(b) After Chris Lee is strangled by the corpse in the coffin the close-up
of his face dissolves to a scene of Price and Hilary Dwyer walking in a
garden and talking about Africa. This scene is entirely missing from the
VHS and runs 1m 3s (it is a fairly superfluous scene).
(c) The VHS bridges the missing scene by inserting the scene of the
body being found in the lake before cutting back to Sir Edward putting
on his red mask. In the DVD the scene of the body in the lake comes after
the scene with Sir Edward and his red mask. Because of this, the order
of scenes between the two versions moves out of synch for several minutes
until they join together again for the scene in which Lee and Sir Edward
have dinner.
(d) The murder of Carl Rigg's character runs about 15s longer in the
DVD and includes additional shots of Sir Edward stabbing at him (from Rigg's
POV) as well as a close-up of Rigg leaning forward and blood dripping out
of his mouth.
(e) When Sir Edward grabs the prostitute (Uta Leuka) by her breast
the DVD print runs about 7s longer than the VHS and the scene is extended
so that you see her exposed breast and she utters an additional line -
"that will cost you extra". Incidentally, Leuka appears to have been dubbed
by Hira Talfrey, who played Clifford Evans' housekeeper/lover in Curse
of the Werewolf and has a small role in this film as one of Price's servants.
(f) When the film cuts back upstairs from the tavern antics, the DVD
cuts into the scene earlier to allow you to see Leuka's breasts in the
mirror. The VHS misses off the first couple of seconds of this shot so
that you don't see her breasts.
(g) When Leuka has her throat cut you see both sides slashed in the
DVD but only one side in the VHS. The slashing you do see in the VHS is
slightly shorter (and therefore you don't see the gaffe of the blood coming
out of the knife before it touches Leuka's neck).
(h) When Ivor Dean's policeman goes into the outfitters the VHS cuts
immediately to Lee hearing the doorbell ringing. The DVD has an additional
31s of footage - in the DVD after Dean goes into the outfitters we cut
to a scene of Lee giving a woman some medicine and brief dialogue is exchanged
and she leaves. Then we see Sir Edward lying on his bed and he gets up
and looks out of the window to see the police arrive and Dean going up
to ring the doorbell. Then we cut to Lee hearing the doorbell as in the
US VHS.
[Source: IMDB] |
| Reason |
Sourced from a cut UK print [speculation]. |
| Uncut Releases |
M-rated US DVD (MGM) running to 96:08
NTSC or 92:17 PAL. |
| Comments |
"The original video version released locally by Playaround
Video ran 91 mins after conversion out from its PAL runtime (approx 87
mins) and carried the original theatrical R rating. It was double-billed
with Gordon Hessler's wonderful Cry Of The Banshee. Mind you, as
has been stated on more than one occasion here, it was probably sourced
from the modified UK master, which would have been the already censored
1970 theatrical print in this case. The film was trimmed for cinema release
in the UK by the BBFC back in 1970, but released in a longer print in the
US by its American co-producer AIP for the American market. The film was
originally released in the US with the experimental MPAA classification
M, which was the precursor of today's R rating (allowing for more adult
content)." [M. C. Thomason] |