Love at First Bite - Soundtrack Restored? (1 Viewer)

[walter o]

Marc Edward told me (whom I consider very reputable) when I had dinner with him (havent seen it myself, but did buy the DVD) that apperently the scene that featured the song "basketball jones" was omitted from the DVD rather than rescored.

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

Small mistake: in the instance of "Basketball Jones," the card game scene where the cartoon is playing is intact, but the song itself has been removed from the cartoon and the scene.

Video Watchdog magazine #116 has a detailed list of cuts, but to summarize in brief, moments where Segal and Gould break into impromptu songs like "Happy Birthday to You" have been cut, and the number of songs Reno casino lounge singer Phyllis Shotwell performs has been reduced from 4 to 1, with images and audio of her singing them either cut or rescored.

 

[walter o]

I wonder if my old video tape of it I recorded off Cinemax back in 1991 is complete? I need to check it out. That really is a shame, thanks for clarifiying it Marc!

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I have that Basketball Jones cartoon on 35mm, it was printed at the start of Reel 1 of the movie "Tunnel Vision".

 

[walter o]

WEll all major etailers are still taking orders for TEEN WITCH, LOVE AT FIRST BITE, PARTY ANIMAL, BORELO, etc, so lets cross our fingers Sony will NOT cancel the last batch of the MGM catalog titles.

 

[David Williams]

While I'm disheartened by this new trend, could you guys please start a new thread if you want to talk about movies other than Love at First Bite? Thanks.


What would make you think they would cancel the titles? I would assume a lot of work has already gone into them at this late stage (about 7-8 weeks from release).

 

[Sam Favate]

So is Love at First Bite going to be in anamorphic widescreen, despite what we think will be edited musical selections?

Any other word on extras? A trailer maybe?

 

[Paul_Scott]

the specs that MGM released indicated anamorphic with a trailer-

 

[Christian Preischl]

I just got my copy. First thing I checked was the disco scene, and I'm sad to report that "I love the night life" is still replaced. :frowning:

To add insult to injury, it's listed in the end credits. I also checked my old shoddy VHS copy from the UK, and the song is intact on that one. Depressing.

Chris

 

[walter o]

So best to keep the cable copy then??

 

[Paul_Scott]

:frowning:










that sucks.
i wanted this movie for thelongest time, in the worst way, and now i'm torn over two mintutes that the studio f#cked over.
i didn'think it was possible to hate Sony/MGM anymore than i already did.

 

[Thomas T]

Why blame the studio?

Obviously it's a music rights issue and financially, the company (in this case MGM or Sony) has to decide whether it's financially worth it to to cede to the artist's or music publisher's demands. Hypothetically, let's say Alicia Bridges demands $1,000,000 plus a percentage from the DVD profits in exchange for the use of her song. Is it a smart business decision to give in to her demands? Probably not.

I mean it's not like Grease being held up because of Olivia Newton John's demands. Without Newton-John, there is no Grease. They had to work something out. Without Ms. Bridges' participation, Love At First Bite survives quite nicely, thank you very much.

Again, the above scenario is all hypothetical. It is not my intention to infer Ms. Bridges is at fault but it's clearly something to do with the music end, a rights issue, copyright, whatever and may involve more than one person and more than one company and thus more complicated to get everyone on the same page.

 

[Paul_Scott]

on the otherhand, let's say Bridges (or whatever rights holder) was asking only $5000 and the studio said 'get lost-fans of the filmwill buy it regardless and others won't even know the difference".

whose to say.

all i know is - here is another studio releasing yet another modified version of a filmthat i used to love quite a bit and that i will now have the grind my teeth watching at some point, knowing it is not 'genuine' article.
i'm getting a little bit sick of it.

 

[PopBodhi]

I do *love the nightlife* and I saw this film in a theater back in the late 1970s. It's really too bad about the music - no sale. I'm forgetting this ruined DVD.

 

[Ted Todorov]

I didn't know about this -- can anyone elaborate?

Ted

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

It's not the fault of the artist. "I Love the Night Life" is owned by Universal Music, and they are notorious for charging hefty fees for DVD relicensing on older films. It was them who, ironically, held up the DVD release of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and GREASE (not Olivia Newton-John) for many years, as mentioned in this thread.

 

[Carlos Garcia]

I saw it in the theater, and loved it, especially the song. I saw the movie on LD a few years back and the song it was replaced with made me want to throw up! No way in heaven will I buy this version. I choose to remember the movie as I saw it in the theater in '79. I really wish every movie or TV show that's released on DVD with music changed, would bomb horrifically in sales, just to send these greedy studios a message...For crap, I'd rather have nothing. Thank you.

 

[Carlos Garcia]

Yes.

 

[Thomas T]

"just to send these greedy studios a message"

Greedy studios? Why? Because they won't pay outrageous prices when music publishers demand mega bucks for their product? That's kind of like calling a hold up victim greedy when a robber sticks a gun to his head demanding his wallet. Maybe they should jack up the price of the DVD to compensate them for the extra money they had to cough up. But then, of course, everybody would be screaming how their being overcharged in comparison to other DVD companies. Can't win ...

The story I heard Mark was that Newton-John was suing over insufficient royalties for Grease which was the reason for the delay in Grease coming out. That Newton-John sued is a fact but I'm glad to hear that the blame is with the publishing company and not Olivia.

 

[Dave Farley]

No sale here.