French "I married a witch" (1 Viewer)

[Miguel M Santos]

Saw last night the french release of "I MARRIED A WITCH" with Fredric March and Veronica Lake and I was very, very disappointed... the sound was awful throughout, with a permanent hiss, and the picture quality not much better.

To make things worst, the print was taken from a non-english language copy of the film, as a newspaper article was translated into polish, or so it seemed to me. Anyway, was definitely not english (or french for that matter).

It also had the ending tampered with. Some frames seemed to be missing (the jumps between scenes was too sudden) and the end credits were replaced by a black screen with "The End" written on it. I am not sure if anything was actually cut (I hadn't seen the film) but it was something wrong with that final sequence.

In short, avoid it. It's overpriced and definitely not worth it. And I am going to think twice before I buy any other DVD from that distributor.

 

[Peter Yee]

"The End" at the end of a movie of that era would be quite likely. The credits come at the beginning of the movie and there isn't a list of thousands at the end.

I'm sorry to hear that you didn't get a pleasing version of the movie, however.

 

[Miguel M Santos]

Sorry, I don't think I was clear enough. "The End" was written in modern font, in white over a black screen. That was not the way the film originally ended, I am sure. It didn't had a cast list at the end, but some didn't anyway (some RKO films come to mind). As I said the end was a bit strange and it seemed that there were frames missing. It just went too fast, and the final line is barely heard - and then it cuts.

 

[Peter Yee]

Sounds very much like they lost some of the film and had to substitute a modern ending. I guess we'll never know what it should have looked like without another home video source. Now are you sure they actually got all of the final dialogue?

 

[Miguel M Santos]

I agree entirely with you. It looks like a poor replacement. The transition to the begining of the last scene is not with the usual fade-out, but rather like a jump on a scrached vinyl. The first few seconds also look a bit jumpy.

The last line of the film is Veronica Lake's saying something about "we are going to have some troubles" or something to that effect. It does sound like a 1940's punch line/ending of the film. But then you'd expect a fade out or a dissolve to the card saying "The End", and that doesn't exist.

 

[Peter Yee]

Available used on VHS, but I haven't patronized that format for the last 6 years, so I'm not willing to drop $15 to find out how it may have looked. Fortunately, it's a Warner Bros. release, so there's hope that it will come to DVD someday, and presumably in a decent version.

 

[JohnMor]

The Warner Bros. VHS I have has Veronica Lake saying "We're gonna have trouble with her someday." Then Frederic March says, "Oh, that's impossible. I hope!" Then they hear the father's laughter and the camera pans across the living room to show the father's smoke trapped in a bottle, locked inside a cage on the mantle. He laughs and starts singing, tipsily, "Good Night Ladies" and the scene dissolves to the end title card, which is an eagle, with the logo "A United Artists Release."

Sounds like at least 30 to 40 seconds is missing from the DVD. Hope Warners does this film justice on DVD someday.

Oh, and BTW, the audio on the VHS is pretty bad, too. Maybe the elements for this film aren't in great shape anymore.

 

[Miguel M Santos]

I checked the DVD last night against what John said. The dialogue is all there, but no end credits with a logo. And I still think that the transition to that see is a bit too "jumpy". So I doubt that it gets to 30 seconds. More likely it's just a couple of seconds. The sound is very bad indeed.

Also, can you check in that scene that when the maid comes in, if she has her head partly cut off? (this can be just the adjustment from the academy ratio to 4:3). Thanks.