This film is widely listed as being 98m, I have just watched it as part of the Paul Robeson collection released by Network in the UK, it's 86m 59s PAL format @ 25 fps, this would equate to about 91m in the cinema at 24 fps, I'm wondering is the version I saw cut, or is the widely quoted 98m running time wrong; has anyone seen a version that clocks in at 98m?
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<url>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWUK0E_GNYQ</URL>;
The 98 minutes stated in many places is probably the original running time, and cuts have been made in later distributions, and many of the scenes that were cut might be what is now called been "lost".
24 fps at cinemas and 25 fps on television, makes movies a little shorter, I have forgotten the formula how to count it, on TV if it's an old TV version.
But in this case it doesn't really answer how 12 minutes have disapeared.
My theory taken partly from some of my old movie books is that when Alexander Korda (the producer) begun selling his older movies to American Television in the late 1940s, plus begun to distibute those movies to Germany and Italy markets that had been closed during circa 1933 to 1945, many scenes where cut maybe because it was new times and attitudes had changed. If it's American TV versions that is in circulations cuts might also have been made to fit into time slots.
Another example is MGM's and Marx Brothers "A Night at the Opera" that had a long singing sequence with italians in Italy before what is now the first scene nowdays, those scenes were cut during re-releases of the movie during World War 2 when Italy was the enemy to USA. Since those scenes are not restored on DVD versions (and according to the commentary tracks) might be lost forever.
so many movies - so little time