TCM showed the movie today in the edited 79 minute version. It sure would be nice to the the movie UNCUT and without commercial interuptions that they constantly advertise. Enough said!
shareYou know, I wondered at least once if a scene was cut, because the particular transition didn't make sense.
shareYou can contact TCM via their web site - tcm.com of course -- I will be because I noticed some odd transitions as well. They didn't seem major to me (as they did for the previous respondee to your post).
sharePast experience indicates that TCM will probably ignore you.
shareI know I hate when they do that. They cut out part of the scene in the French cafe where they meet on Saturdays and the piano concert. There might be another scene, but that's bad enough.
shareThis movie obviously has lots of drop outs and frozen scenes, even the TCM version that we watched last year.
Recently we watched it on VHS from the library and that one even has more frozen scenes. I guess there is no watchable copy around any longer :(.
It's too bad, because this is one of the best film noirs I ever watched!
Wish it would be available on DVD...
It was shown again 6/12/12 on TCM and it ran well within the 90 minutes allotted to it. If those scenes were in the original they were not in the one this time either. Could it be a full-length print is not available? TCM is pretty good about bringing back these older movies and would they they really edit for time?
As to Robert Young, I think his mouseiness was what made the movie work. He's not your usual movie cad who is just so slick in his seductions. For reasons he himself probably doesn't understand, these intelligent women find something irresistable about him and throw themselves at him. But he is not all that bright himself; in a usual noir film he would have found or at least looked for some clever way to knock off his wife and get her money. But in this film he gets lucky over and over instead and two of the women die without his assistance. It makes it a quirky little noir.
What is missing from the film is why he gives it all up voluntarily on the stand; he did not seem particularly remorseful at any time in his story. His lawyer had to have known the (true) wife's body had decayed beyond recognition--clever of the movie to hold that point to the very end--so unless he confessed at the pool, which we don't see, he was in the clear. As I think someone else surmised here maybe the Code forced the writers to have him brought to a deadly justice for his being such a cad even though he himself did not commit a homicide. He certainly had not felt guilty at all about hurting his wife's feelings and having come back to the ranch was prepared to kill her. That's the "crime" he dies for? He must have been aware his courtroom was on a high floor and i guess he was trying to commit suicide? And would the court officer just shoot him like that? What was on the cop's mind? Shoot him before he could fall and hurt someone on the sidewalk?
Neat little film; too bad for the non sequiter ending.
[deleted]
The explanation for the ending was explained during a recent airing by Eddie Muller of the Film Noir Foundation.
It was Code requirements.
I'm home. I'm home, Archie. - RIP, Jean.
Your post contains a spoiler and should be labelled as such.
shareI've never seen commercial interruptions on TCM - I've only seen them before and after movies. Are you saying you saw commercials during a movie on TCM?
And they don't cut them down. They work with the prints they get. It's too bad they can't always their hands on uncut versions. If there is a longer one available than the one I've seen, I'd love to see it!
It sure would be nice to the the movie UNCUT and without commercial interruptions that they constantly advertise.
When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...share
Elsa,
"And they don't cut them down."
But, TCM doesn't just make the claim that they don't -- themselves -- cut movies. They make that claim, certainly: "He knows how to cut. We know how not to." But, they make another claim, as well. They claim that they show movies un-cut. That claim doesn't specify who does the cutting. It says that the movies they show will not be cut, period.
So, to make that claim and then show films that have been cut -- by any party -- is to lie. Now, I loves me some TCM, I'm very grateful for all the movies they've allowed me to see, but that doesn't mean they get a pass for doing wrong. For me, cut movies are just wrong. I'm against cut movies. Showing cut movies is a sucky thing to do. Showing cut movies when you claim you don't show cut movies is ANOTHER sucky thing to do.
They've shown the great Frank Perry film, Last Summer, I believe several times now (at least twice), and always in a butchered form. While claiming to show their movies uncut.
Two wrongs make two wrongs, no matter what else good you've done.
Matthew
I'm lucky to have seen an uncut version of this film and I was really disappointed Friday night. I'm suprised Mr. Muller, in particular, agreed to have anything to do with airing the butchered copy.
shareWhere did you see/get an uncut version? I'd like to see it.
I don't believe TCM has to withhold showing a movie that I know I'd like to see just because it may have been cut (who knows when). I have to catch most of my older movies from them, and in most cases I probably won't see it if they don't show it. I expect if they could get a longer version, that's what they will show.
As for Mr. Muller, you can go to the Film Noir Foundation's web site and ask him why. My guess is a cut version is better than none.
I am also lucky to have seen an uncut version which was broadcast on France 3 TV (Europe) last night with the French title 'Ils ne voudront pas me croire'. See the link here:
http://www.france3.fr/emission/ils-ne-voudront-pas-me-croire/diffusion -du-26-08-2013-00h25
The stated running time was 1 hour 40 minutes and there were no advert breaks. I note that the full running time according to the IMDb is 95 minutes, so I am presuming that 95 minutes is the NTSC running time for American transmissions, which would convert to almost 99 minutes using the PAL-NTSC calculation of multiplying by 1.04.
I definitely watched a scene where Ballentine and his wife are at the piano concert and Ballentine turns and notices Verna sitting further back with Trenton. The four of them briefly bump into each other in the interval and Ballentine then takes Verna aside and they have a tense exchange which ends in an embrace, if I recall. I just thought I'd mention this scene as some have said that this is one of the bits deleted from the TCM version. It is proof that a full, unedited version is available!
By the way, I really enjoyed it. I don't buy any of these criticisms about Robert Young being miscast. I haven't seen this actor in any other movies so I came to this with a clean mind. If you come to this movie already pre-loaded with the opinion that a proper film noir must have a baddie that looks like Robert Mitchum then inevitably you won't like the casting of Young. Just judge the film on its own merits rather than trying to rank it against other films of the same genre.
Your PAL-NTSC calculation is the wrong way round. PAL runs films at 25 fps, so films run shorter on PAL TV and Video. This movie was shown complete and uncut on November 10th on BBC2 in the UK, running just over 91 minutes, which is the correct running time for a PAL broadcast.
shareAmbak,
I've looked at this again and you seem to be right. I think I got confused by misleading information posted by The Bear (link below) in which he says that to convert from NTSC to PAL you multiply by 1.04. I didn't notice that someone else corrected him in a later post:
http://forums.thedigitalfix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=314175
I checked the TV schedule for last Sunday and, after some searching, I found that this film was indeed broadcast on BBC2. However, I notice that the running time is actually stated as 95 minutes on the Radio Times website:
http://www.radiotimes.com/film/nbt97/they-wont-believe-me
Are you sure that the actual running time was 91 minutes for this broadcast? If so, then maybe the stated running time on Radio Times is the original running time of the film- not the PAL running time of the film when shown on BBC2.
This still left me with one outstanding query- how come the running time for the French showing was clearly stated as 1 hour 40 minutes? Unfortunately, I didn't record that French broadcast so I can't be sure what the actual running time of the film was. Either it contained extra scenes or there is another reason. Quite possibly the other reason is that the running time included an introduction to the film before the film itself started. This introduction would have lasted several minutes, which I watched. I don't recall it being as long as five minutes but nevertheless it is a plausible explanation why the running time was stated as 1 hour 40 minutes. It is therefore quite possible, in hindsight, that the French version was actually 95 minutes long, with a five minute introduction to the film.
One final point: why on earth is BBC2 showing feature films like this starting at 6.25am on a Sunday morning? Is this just a one-off or have they been doing this on a regular basis? I'm really annoyed- it defies logic. They don't show these rare old films any more in the early afternoons like they used to. In fact they rarely show them on free-to-air British TV at all. The vast majority of the BBC2 audience would have been totally unaware that this film was being broadcast. I could understand it if they had shown it in the early hours of Sunday morning, for those returning home from a night out, but 6.25am would have been way too late for this audience anyway. It is an example of totally thoughtless TV scheduling, in my view.
I recorded the movie and it does run just over 91 minutes. Don't take the schedules too literally, a 95 minute slot doesn't contain 95 minutes of programming. The times in the Radio Times are for the start of each programme and, although the BBC does not have advertising, they do have endless trailers between shows. Even the start times are not necessarily kept to. I've set my machine to record something only to find it started early. An example of this is a programme called "The One Show" on BBC1, advertised as running from 7pm to 7.30pm. It actually starts at 6.57pm and finishes at 7.27pm!
As regards the BBC showing old movies early in the morning, they do this on BBC2 most weekends, usually RKO movies. This coming weekend (Nov 16/17) has an old British drama "Emergency Call" at 7.35am on Saturday and on Sunday at 6.55am another from the RKO catalogue, "The Velvet Touch". Not the most convenient scheduling I agree, but at least they are showing old black and white stuff which can be recorded for later viewing.
I just saw this the other morning on TCM and it ran barely 80 minutes. Even the description of the movie on the screen menu read "95 minutes". So, apparently, they're still airing the cut version. I wish they would air the un-cut movie. I'd really like to see it, too.
I have the Image Entertainment / Turner Home Video NTSC laserdisc of this film (released in 1990). The feature runs approximately 94 minutes, despite mislabeling on the disc jacket. I really prefer the full length version - and know that TCM has access to a full length print. I will admit that there are some rough spots in a couple of reels, but not enough to warrant just cutting the film.
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