International THE ALAMO (John Wayne's extended cut) (2 Viewers)

[Robert Harris]

And even if Criterion does pick it up, I doubt they would be able to do a restored version of the roadshow. Even the Criterion roadshow of "Mad Mad World" was a reconstruction that took the best of the existing elements and did what they could. Is it possible to do this for "The Alamo?" Who knows?

Yes. And that's all that can be done with the roadshow.

 

[battlebeast]

Touche but It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World is a film comedy classic with some of the world's greatest comic actors, not a (for the most part) historically inaccurate bloated epic which wasn't critically admired in the first place.

That being said I do intend to purchase the German Alamo import as I have more John Wayne movies in my collection than any other actor.

Sooooo... THE ROCK and ARMAGEDDON are important films?

 

[skylark68]

Slightly OT, but are there other significant, or at least fairly popular, films where the roadshow version is no longer extant, or in quality enough condition compared with the version that is readily available for a proper bluray release? I'm curious.

 

[Thomas T]

Slightly OT, but are there other significant, or at least fairly popular, films where the roadshow version is no longer extant, or in quality enough condition compared with the version that is readily available for a proper bluray release? I'm curious.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): After the New York premiere, Kubrick cut 19 minutes from the film. I believe some of that cut footage has been found but not all of it.

Hawaii (1966): Apparently no decent version of the Roadshow exists. Twilight Time released the general release version in HD but used the SD Roadshow version that was released on laser disc as a bonus feature.

A Star Is Born (1954): It opened with a running time of 181 minutes but after its premiere, Warner cut it down to 154 minutes. Using stills and photos to compensate for missing footage, it was restored to a running time of 176 minutes, still 5 minutes short of its original running time.

Many other films of course but these three were the only Roadshow films that came to mind.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): After the New York premiere, Kubrick cut 19 minutes from the film. I believe some of that cut footage has been found but not all of it.

It was never lost. The footage was cut from the film by Kubrick after seeing how the film played with audiences over its first handful of screenings; it was gone by the second week and certainly long before it went wide.

There was a semi-big to-do several years ago over the disclosure that the cut footage was being stored in an underground salt mine with other studio holdings, but it was never seriously believed to be lost. It’s simply that Kubrick didn’t believe the footage belonged in the film and MGM and then Warner were happy to oblige his request and have declined to make the footage available to the public as a bonus feature.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

South Pacific is a good example. The trims made to the roadshow version now only exist in a surviving print which has long since gone pink. Fox included those scenes in a bonus roadshow version on their DVD edition, and included the same standard definition master of the longer cut on their Blu-ray edition. You can tell when it cuts to the roadshow footage due to the tremendous step down in quality.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

The Sand Pebbles. IIRC, the longer cut is only on the DVD.

 

[Garysb]

A Star Is Born (1954): It opened with a running time of 181 minutes but after its premiere, Warner cut it down to 154 minutes. Using stills and photos to compensate for missing footage, it was restored to a running time of 176 minutes, still 5 minutes short of its original running time.

.

Per Ron Haver's book about "A Star Is Born" and it's restoration the full soundtrack in mono was found but in doing the restoration using stills to fill in the missing footage, he chose to cut about 5 minutes because of a lack of interesting stills and better flow. I believe what was cut was mostly instrumentals. I think there was one bit of dialog cut. When Norman is looking for Esther after he gets back from location shooting, he finds her apartment where he is approached by fans wanting autographs. He refuses and they get angry at him. Part of this scene is still in the film where you hear him yelling at people to get away from his car. So the entire roadshow soundtrack does exist. What was cut may have been included as an extra on one or more of the video releases.

 

[Joseph Goodman]

It was never lost. The footage was cut from the film by Kubrick after seeing how the film played with audiences over its first handful of screenings; it was gone by the second week and certainly long before it went wide.

There was a semi-big to-do several years ago over the disclosure that the cut footage was being stored in an underground salt mine with other studio holdings, but it was never seriously believed to be lost. It’s simply that Kubrick didn’t believe the footage belonged in the film and MGM and then Warner were happy to oblige his request and have declined to make the footage available to the public as a bonus feature.

I first read that the trims to 2001 existed (within the film's separation masters) 20+ years ago on the Usenet group rec.arts.movies.tech, probably in posts by RAH or Richard P. May.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I first read that the trims to 2001 existed (within the film's separation masters) 20+ years ago on the Usenet group rec.arts.movies.tech, probably in posts by RAH or Richard P. May.

Man, I remember that group - those were the days.

 

[AshJW]

Sooooo... THE ROCK and ARMAGEDDON are important films?

To some they might and that’s totally fine.

To me not so much.

 

[Alan Tully]

Touche but It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World is a film comedy classic with some of the world's greatest comic actors, not a (for the most part) historically inaccurate bloated epic which wasn't critically admired in the first place.

Ha, oh I can't leave that unanswered. Historical films are inaccurate (nearly all of them, maybe all of them), Spartacus actually won that first battle against Crassus (& a few battles after), The Great Escape Is almost comically inaccurate, & it was made only 19 years after the event happened (but it's still one of my favourite films). If you're interested in history (I am), read a book or two, & aren't most epics bloated. I love The Alamo, & you're perfectly entitled to hate it (after all, it's all just opinions), but that's unfair.

 

[Robert Harris]

It was never lost. The footage was cut from the film by Kubrick after seeing how the film played with audiences over its first handful of screenings; it was gone by the second week and certainly long before it went wide.

There was a semi-big to-do several years ago over the disclosure that the cut footage was being stored in an underground salt mine with other studio holdings, but it was never seriously believed to be lost. It’s simply that Kubrick didn’t believe the footage belonged in the film and MGM and then Warner were happy to oblige his request and have declined to make the footage available to the public as a bonus feature.

The footage exists in multiple forms. No mystery.

 

[Bartman]

I bought The Alamo extended cut laserdisc and enjoyed it. I showed it to some of my non-videophile friends and their reaction was "why would you want to watch an old movie like that". Mind you, those same friends couldn't understand my interest in the Beach Boys music! The regular Alamo is streaming on Prime, free in HD, I'll have to check it out.

A word of warning, international package postage rates went thru the roof in March 2020. Apparently, it's an international agreement. It's so bad I no longer order from Amazon UK, a pity.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

I bought The Alamo extended cut laserdisc and enjoyed it. I showed it to some of my non-videophile friends and their reaction was "why would you want to watch an old movie like that". Mind you, those same friends couldn't understand my interest in the Beach Boys music! The regular Alamo is streaming on Prime, free in HD, I'll have to check it out.

A word of warning, international package postage rates went thru the roof in March 2020. Apparently, it's an international agreement. It's so bad I no longer order from Amazon UK, a pity.

There are a few dvd & Blu-ray titles on my wish list on Amazon UK and most of them have a delivery cost of $25!!

 

[Tony Bensley]

A word of warning, international package postage rates went thru the roof in March 2020. Apparently, it's an international agreement. It's so bad I no longer order from Amazon UK, a pity.

There are a few dvd & Blu-ray titles on my wish list on Amazon UK and most of them have a delivery cost of $25!!

That is a pity. I guess if I'm ever able to order DVDs/Blu-rays again, anything from the UK will be off limits. Too bad!

 

[battlebeast]

Or, some of you could combine on shipping... I’m sure it’s much cheaper to ship in the US... so if five or six of you Ship from Europe to one US adress, and then they ship to various people... it
Might be cheaper per person.

 

[Mark Stenroos]

I find that the added footage in the scene where the Alamo defenders discuss their belief or non-belief in god is much more balanced in the extended version than in the cut version, which basically endorses the Xian point of view.

 

[MatthewA]

It's interesting that John Wayne chose to make this film so soon after the Disney version of Davy Crockett caused such a sensation on TV.

 

[Robert Harris]

It's interesting that John Wayne chose to make this film so soon after the Disney version of Davy Crockett caused such a sensation on TV.

He’d been planning for a decade.