MovieChat Forums > Monte Carlo or Bust! Discussion > Different Versions

Different Versions

posted 16 years ago by grambax
2 replies | jump to latest

I'm really surprised that this film seems almost forgotten, has received few posts here and been ignored for DVD releases. It isn't quite as good as Those Magnificent Men... but its still an excellent example of 60s epic comedy.

I should point out though that there seem to be two radically different cuts, unmentioned by IMDb.

The version shown occasionally on British TV is in my experience cut down to little over an hour and a half, from over two hours, rendering some of the plot incoherent and doing the film a grave mis-service.

I can't swear to it, but I think the VHS, at least in the UK, was also this shortened version. I wonder about the laserdisc version, mentioned on another thread.

[–] JacintoCupboard 9 years ago

I've seen this film numerous times over the years, I think I first saw it at the drive in as a kid at time of release, anyway I never gave too much thought to plot elements before, but having just watched the version that is a little over 2 hours long, I can say even that version seems to have some huge holes in it.

Seems clear to me that they needed to cut this movie down to a reasonable time and a lot got lost. Some of this appears in the various split screen shots I think.

I doubt anyone is going to be baffled by what has happened that isn't shown, but the omission does tend to take one out of the fun occasionally.

[–] grambax 9 years ago

Thankfully the DVD and BluRay (both already deleted I think) are the full theatrical cut. Like yourself I saw it as a boy on its release (actually I think it was "doing the rounds" of local cinemas a year or two later; nothing as "exotic" as a drive-in here in the UK!) and I agree that it was always a little choppy. That may have been a result of the international nature of the production, but coming as it did at the very end of the 60s I'd guess it was probably planned as more of an epic roadshow release and, as they were already going out of fashion, cut down a bit for a more regular release.

Its isn't one of my absolute favourites - I don't think it really holds up against The Great Race or Those Magnificent Men, but it is a fun film and a fairly fond memory. I'm glad to have it on DVD. The 90min or so TV version is pretty disgraceful. As you say, it isn't exactly hard to follow, but the jumps get really pretty hard to ignore by then.