Kino Video VHS


The box for the Kino Video VHS has the running time listed as 88 minutes, but IMDb has it at 92. What is missing from the 88 minute version?

"That is the whitest white part of the eye I have ever seen; do you floss?"

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Kino's web page at http://www.kino.com/video/item.php?film_id=75 says "This Kino on Video version of Contraband is eight minutes longer than the version originally released theatrically in the U.S."

So the original American release only ran for 80 minutes.
Kino managed to find another 8 minutes.
But the original UK release ran for 91 mins 7 secs (according to the BBFC) so there are still a few more bits to be found.

I found another piece about it which says:
"Eight minutes were cut from Contraband for its U.S. release; some just snips here and there, others more major. The most regrettable loss is the opening minutes of Veidt's and Hobson's table scene at the Three Vikings Restaurant, which in the U.S. version begins at the point when Veidt and Hobson begin drinking together and look at Veidt's watch. Another cut sequence shows black male dancers and white female dancers in a nightclub production number [The "White Negro" caberet designed & executed by Hedley Briggs], a racial combination that would have outraged much of white America at the time, especially in the Southern states. All this cut footage has been restored for Kino's home video release, which was mastered from a British print archived at the British Film Institute."

Steve

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Thank you Steve! Very helpful! I've been holding off on watching it because I wanted to make sure it was a quality copy.

Walk. Don't Drive.

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