AMC Edited Limelight
MRS QT
Yes, it's true - I know that Limelight was a legnthy feature to begin with, but
they took a few liberties here. Not that the scenes missing were that
important - just wondered if anyone else noticed.
Lori :)
CChplnfan
Lori noted:
Which ones did they take out, Lori? I wonder if they're doing some editing on
most of them, because _The Circus_ seemed a lot shorter than what I'd
remembered it too...
Leslie
AZquints
Lori wrote:
>>Which ones did they take out, Lori? I wonder if they're doing some editing
on
most of them, because _The Circus_ seemed a lot shorter than what I'd
remembered it too...<<
I'm glad somebody else mentioned this because I thought there was a good reel
missing from The Circus, maybe more, but I couldn't place exactly what. It
didn't help that I was only semi-conscious at that hour & I didn't tape it.
-Mark
MRS QT
Well, I believe they took out the scene where Calvero goes to the pub and is
stood up by his agent. That entire segment is missing.....they also took took
out some scenes with Mrs. Alsop and the Maid.....I didn't watch they whole tape
- so who knows what else was gone....but becz they were missing some things
said later didn't make much sense. For instance, when Calvero is lecturing
Terry about not being able to walk, "I know a man with no arms that can play a
concerto on the violin and does it all with his feet!" - and when the maid
enters the room and says, "You're husband asked me to look in on you." Both
these lines lost their meaning since we never saw the armless man or heard
Calvero asking the maid to check on Terry. I wonder whatelse was missing.....
As for The Circus - again I didn't watch the entire Video - the only thing I
noticed was there was a blacked out part of the film right after the little
black kitten scares Charlie and before Merna tells him he is the hit of the
show...it just went black for about 20 seconds....the musice contiued though.
Lori :)
dsu...@concentric.net
In article <19971212061...@ladder01.news.aol.com>, mr...@aol.com
(MRS QT) wrote:
> Well, I believe they took out the scene where Calvero goes to the pub and is
> stood up by his agent. That entire segment is missing.....
This scene was only reinserted on the laserdisc reissue. Picky as I am,
I'm not at all surprised that a television print wouldn't have it.
> As for The Circus - again I didn't watch the entire Video - the only thing I
> noticed was there was a blacked out part of the film right after the little
> black kitten scares Charlie and before Merna tells him he is the hit of the
> show...it just went black for about 20 seconds....the musice contiued though.
That must be the scene where Charlie takes Myrna aside and whispers bad
things about gypsies into her ear.
MRS QT
dsulpy wrote about the missing pub scene in AMC's showing of Limelight:
>This scene was only reinserted on the laserdisc reissue. Picky as I am,
>I'm not at all surprised that a television print wouldn't have it.
I don't have the laserdisc version of Limelight - I have the CBS/FOX Video
released in 1989 and it did include all scenes that I'm aware of. Do you also
have a videotape, possibly released prior to the one I have? I was wondering
if you knew who put it out?
Lori :)
David Totheroh
MRS QT wrote:
From this, and other reports, it is my assumption that CBS/Fox started
using new masters for their tapes when they re-issued the series when
Attenborough's Chaplin came out. Some of the confusion comes from the
fact that they are apparently still using the same 1989 packaging.
The Claudius scene was included only in the Premiere, and maybe some
other very early screenings. The fact that Calvero comments on his
friendship with Claudius later in the film, I don't see as meaningless
without the antecedent footage at all, just not so spelled out. From
what I understand, CC himself made the decision to excise the scene to
tighten the film a bit and because he felt the scene to be a little too
grotesque. So this becomes one of those grey areas, should it be
considered to be part of the original because it appeared in what could
be considered to be post-preview screenings, or is it more appropriate
to keep it out because the filmmaker edited it out fairly early in the
run?
The liner notes on the laserdisc call the scene "four minutes of film
cut from the film by Chaplin soon after its premiere and restored with
the permission of the Chaplin estate especially for this LaserDisc."
I didn't see the AMC screenings, but it wouldn't surprise me at all that
some other scenes might have been snipped. It happens all the time on TV
for time considerations.
David
dsu...@concentric.net
In article <34917BBB...@aol.com>, David Totheroh <DTot...@aol.com>
wrote:
Thanks, David. So that's the answer why my videotape DOESN'T have the
scene, but Lori's DOES.
Doug
Bob Tiernan
I don't watch films that I apparently cut off the credits
and who knows how many seconds/minutes of what follows,
but my taped "Limelight" starts with a shot of little
Geraldine and a boy watching a street vendor just seconds
before Charlie walks by on the sidewalk behind them.
I haven't seen this in years and years, but I want to see
this depending on what's snipped. Could anyone tell me
what preceded this shot, if anything, and how many seconds
or longer?
Bob T.
Mr. Stan Gelin
Subject: AMC Edited Limelight
I would like to relate a somewhat amusing story of the Night I saw Limelight for the very first time.
I recorded it off AMC and saw it that evening. My wife who was busy in the kitchen for the first 10 minuets of the move came in durring one of Chaplins Stage routines and remarked, "He"s kind of like Charlie Caplin, Is't he?" So I said, "Yes he is," wondering if she would ever figure out that he was.
We sat through the whole movie together. When they showed his final stage routine with Keaton, where Calvero's leg kept shortening, my wife and I were doubled up with laughter.
When the credits ran and it was revealed that Calvero was indeed
Chaplin, my wife was amazed.
I said to her, "Who do you know that can do this comedy as well as Chaplin?"
"I don't know." she replied as I was totally thrilled by seeing her entertained by this Genius.
Hanhuck
>From: Bob Tiernan <zu...@teleport.com>
It sounds like you missed only the credits and a few seconds of a shot panning
the street. The first scene in the movie is of Calvero (Chaplin) drunkenly
walking down the sidewalk to open the door of his boarding house with the
musician playing and Chaplin's three children (Geraldine, Josephine, and
Michael, I believe) watching.
Hannah
=============================
"Rabies is an innocent disease, compared to the Moral Sense." -- Mark Twain
Calvero
Bob Tiernan wrote in message ...
>
>
>I don't watch films that I apparently cut off the credits
>and who knows how many seconds/minutes of what follows,
>but my taped "Limelight" starts with a shot of little
>Geraldine and a boy watching a street vendor just seconds
>before Charlie walks by on the sidewalk behind them.
>I haven't seen this in years and years, but I want to see
>this depending on what's snipped. Could anyone tell me
>what preceded this shot, if anything, and how many seconds
>or longer?
>
>
>Bob T.
>
Other than the opening credits and the beautiful music :), you didn't miss
too much. The first subtitles read "The glamour of limelight, from which
age must pass as youth enters", "A story of a ballerina and a clown...", and
"London; a late afternoon in the summer of 1914...". Camera then opens to
street scene with Geraldine, Michael, and Josephine watching the street
musician.
And my notes on the cut version: My copy is also from AMC from a few years
ago and I never had trouble understanding when Calvero (not to be confused
with me :) ) said "I know a man with no arms...", or when the maid (or
whoever she was) coming in to check on Terry. But it does help add a little
to the story. I have been thinking about buying Fox's version since my copy
(although in pretty good condition) is a bit worn from watching it oodles of
times. Now I definitely will buy it :).
Ever Smiling,
Calvero :)
-------
email -- cal...@bigfoot.com (when replying, remove aaa -- helps avoid spam
:) )
homepage -- http://members.tripod.com/~Calvero
Chaplin Fans Unite! -- http://members.tripod.com/~Calvero/chaplin.htm
-------
"Life is a desire, not a meaning." - Calvero (Chaplin) from LIMELIGHT
Bob Tiernan
On 14 Dec 1997, Hanhuck wrote:
> It sounds like you missed only the credits and a few seconds of a shot
> panning the street.
Thanks. I thought as much. I will watch it. Bad enough that I flubbed
setting the recorder for City Lights (was 3:30 AM instead of 3 as the
others) and when I set it for The Circus, AMC was apparently off the air
at least via my cable company and some tech problems.
Bob
Tatum Fan
This reminds me of a scene edited out of a film because of a remark made by
another filmmaker:when Jack Lemmon and "Save the Tiger"'s director screened the
film for Billy Wilder, there was a scene early in the film in which Jack's
character spent some time with his mistress (about a 5-minute scene). Jack
considered it some of his best work, but Wilder told them to remove it! His
rationale? It slowed down the film, but also was basically irrelevant to the
rest of the picture's narrative. Plus, and I can't remember exactly what it
was, but Wilder made a remark to the effect that the scene reiterated something
the audience would already know about the character just by his behavior in the
rest of the film.
dsu...@concentric.net
In article <19971215072...@ladder02.news.aol.com>,
tatu...@aol.com (Tatum Fan) wrote:
Another good example of this are the outtakes to "The Fisher King" (on the
Criterion laser). There's a brief scene where Jack is trying to learn
Lydia's name, and rushes into her office building. The brief cut scene is
him rushing into the receptionist saying something like "that girl who
just walked in here... what's her name"? Then, having learned it, cut to a
scene where he's trying to find her name in the phone book. The released
version of the film just has him spotting her walking into the office
building, then cuts to the phone book. At first, I thought: "why'd they
cut out this little scene that does add to the plot - after all, that's
how Jack finds out her name", then I realized it doesn't matter HOW Jack
finds out her name - it's obvious from his actions in the film that he's
gone into the office and found out her name SOMEHOW (since he's looking it
up in a phone book) - but what does it matter how?
I think this perhaps the same reason the pub scene was cut out of
Limelight. Yes - it makes clear the later comment, but does that later
comment really need to be clarified?
Constance Kuriyama
Thanks for the anecdote. I once had a Ph.D. student who got all the way
through _A Night At the Show_ without realizing that CC was playing Mr.
Rowdy.
Connie K.
--
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>--CBK--<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
"Words can defeat the imagination." --Charlie Chaplin