Q"

cut out, of course. The videocassette version combines the new material wiih the restored deletions, The Secrol Pollcenran's Olher Ball (1982;MG|zI/UA cosserte ond CED dsc) This performance movie of vanous British comics and musicians doing their blts for the benefit of Amnesty International had a couple o{ ihings cut when it was imported to the US from England for theatrical release. Restored are a comedy sketch called "The Ken Campbell Show" and ihe ever precious Donovan singing "Catch the Wind." One comedy routine was cut, however, a John Cleese sketch called "Clothes Ofi."

The Godlather: The Gonrplete Egle (1981;Paromount cossefes) This chronologcally re-edited version o{ The Godlarhsr (1972) and its sequel, The Godlallrer, Parl

Two (1974),

orlg:rnated as a'77 NBC television broadcasi called The Godlalher Saga, wiih director and coscreenwriter Francis Ford Coppola supervising the reediting and adding footage (particularly some with John Cazale). Thls three-cassette version of the crime-family story further includes the language and violeni sequences cut for the TV showing, making this a video orignal-the definitve versron, available in no oiher medium.

$afurday Nlght fever

disc,

(1977; Porcmor:rnf cosserlle ond LV

RCA CED disc) lVhafs in a rating? The basis for movie versions which cqnnot play in theaters. This is the way it works: The Motion Picture Association o{ America (MPAA), in conjunction with the Classificabon and Rating Adminishation (CARA), assigns the voluntarily adopted G, PG, R and X ratings to movies submitted for screening. Member companies (which include virtually ail the major shrdio and independent movte producers) may appeal or submit re-edited versions to change the original rating. Shictly speaking, the rating applies only to theatrical release-to neither broadcast and cable TV nor to videocassette and disc. According to MPAA by-laws, only +he currently rated version of a movie may be in theatrical release at any time. In the case of Satrrday ilight Fever, the orignal, R-rated version was re-edited and, in'79, resubmitted to the MPAA to earn a PG rating. Miid "cover shots," fiimed during production with an eye toward TV showrngs, were substih:ted for some sexualiy explicit and strong-language shois. The oriqnnal version was pulied from official theaf rical disbibution. Paramount offers both the R- and the PG-rated versions on cassette, and Paramount and RCA both offer the R version on disc. Indy Warhol'c Dtacul,a ( 1974) andf,ndy Warhol's Franhongteln (1974; Wdeo Gems cosseffes) Producer Warhol's twin excursions into 3D gore earned X rabngs not so much for explicit sex scenes but for the creators' intestinal fortihrde in displaying intestines-usually unattached to the bodies from which they came. In '75, both movies were resubmitted to the MPAA with some cuts and they received R ratings. These cassettes are probably the only way to see the original versions. Last Tango ln Parls (1973; CBS-Fox csssefe ond LV disc) In another case ol difierent versiors appearing under different ratings, Bemardo Bertolucci's psychosexual drama is ihe only movie the MPAA knows of that was oriqnally rated X, was re-ediied and resubmitted for an R-then restored to its original state and resubmitted for an X. (The only similar case involves 19BO's Catigda, which began with an X, was re-edited and given an R, then withdrawn from MPAA consideration altogeiher, leaving it with no official rating. Ifs not yet on vrdeo, though.) The Lacl (and {irst) Tar:go on cassette and disc is the current X-rated, theatrical version. However, the ostensibly uncut fast fango appearing on cable TV is, aimost invariably, ihe R-rated version. Missing is a key seguence-the one with Marlon Brando's heated couphng with Maria Schneider after the two first meet in a Parisian apartnent. Oddly, the scene has'been removed even though both parties are clothed and no genitalia are exposed. In another scene, an obtrusive foreground object serves as a "censored" sticker partially blocking the sight of Brando and Schneider having sex in the background.

Scenes and Segmenls Gut

flagh Gordon

(1980; MCA LV disc)All o{ the earliest LV videodiscs contained approximaiely a half-hour of programming per side, which, with most movies, meant videodisc-player owners had to keep getting up from their chairs to change discs. Hour-per-side discs were evenhrally developed, but, in the beginning, the "hour" was achrally just less than 55 minutes. Consequenily, the I lO-minute science-fiction romp Flash Gordon had to be trimmed to fit onto two sides. Snlpped was part of a chase scene wherein the Daie Arden character executes a somersauli to avoid her pursuers. Ghocl Story (1981;MCA LV disc)Another videodisc obstacle, since overcome, was the need to press some LV discs in Japan while the main American pressing plant was inoperative. The censorship restrictions in Japan are much more stringent than those in the US, however, so movies containing even snippets of sexual material would have had to undergo surgery to be pressed in Japan. Problematic movies were put on hold und the American plant was working again, but in ai least one case, that of Ghoat Story, some re-editing was allowed. Removed was a segment showing a bit of male frontal nudity and another with some female nudity. Considering the gratuitous nahrre of showing the male genltalia-while a character was plummeting from a fugh-rrse wlndow to his death-this is an example ol a cut probably working for ihe video version's good, Unlike the disc, the cassette is complete.

The Thtng (from trnolher Wctd) (1951; NostalEa Merchant cassette) Nostalgia Merchant chose to bring out the shorter, '56 re-issue of this Howard Hawks-directed
science-fiction story since, according to president Earl Blair, master print quality of the later version is stgnificanl ly beiter than the'51 version's. RCA VideoDiscs has a qualifier on its videodisc of the'5i version siating that "this videodisc is reproduced from the best available copy of the original feafure," somethlngr which appears on few

other discs.

The'56 re-lssue is minus two scenes. One, inside a greenhouse, depicts slaughtered scientists hangtnq upside down. The other shows Margaret Sheridan tying Kenneth Tobey to a chair and then rehashing their romance up to that point. Evldently, hangrng was too good for him. Silenl Running (1971;MCA cossefeJ Nobody's perfeci-not the future humanklnd which eradicated vrrhrally all plant life in this science-fiction tale, nor the technicians who made the videoiape master from which Sllent Bunning was mass-produced. Missing rs Bruce Dern's climachc line compa.-ring his outer-space iettisoning o{ endangered flora to puttiag a note into a bottie and ihrowing it inio lhe ocean. MCA says its mosier of tllent Bunr

ning

has since been corrected, though no new rurs of prerecorded cassettes are planned ai present. n

38

Video Review