I always wanted to see the scene that was deleted for the American run (Caligula eating his child's feotus). I was expecting it on the DVD but it was missing. Just that awakward cut from Claudius opening the door to his shocked reation. Has anyone seen it and does it appear on the european DVD?
shareLet's be specific: Are you talking about an actual scene of Caligula graphically eating his child? If so, no such scene existed. Instead, when Caligula thrusts his dagger in, the camera- as if it was an actor- decides to turn away, so we only hear Drusilla screaming, and a chilling sound of the child (intense stuff, my favorite example of less is more). Next we see Claudius outside the room, at the door, and out pops Caligula with blood on his mouth. Claudius looks in, looks horrified and turns away. And the scene (and episode) ends there. According to Herbert Wise, the scene was to continue with the door slowly opening, until it reveals Drusilla's butchered corpse. However, the censors really disagreed, and that footage was excised and probably lost forever.
shareAs a 14 year old, I saw the series on tv in 1978. I truly think that I remember the scene you describe, including 'the door slowly opening, until it reveals...' etc.
Actually, this memory was the reason for me to now check the IMDB message board in order to find whether a complete DVD edition has been released, including this horrendous yet impressive moment.
Thus, I think this 'footage' was actually part of the original tv-movie as it was broadcasted in 1978. More people than just I are keeping memories of it.
It's about time someone pops up with an authentic video recording of the broadcast. Even a broadcast that proves me wrong I consider welcome. In the mean time, I will keep on looking for an edition that includes the particular scene.
If your 14-year-old viewing was on American Television Channel PBS, November 1977 to January 1978, with THIS episode on New Years Day, then there was NO way that footage could have been broadcast. The US premiere deleted several other pieces:
-Much of the African dance at the Actium Banquet.
-Macro ordering the de-virginizing of Sejanus' daughter.
-The killing of Caesonia's baby.
-An overhead shot of Messalina and Silius in bed together.
-A line of Joshua Ben Joseph's paternity of a soldier raping his mother.
-A scene of Agrippinilla and Nero getting it on (a sequence that has remained excised on all US prints, VHS, and DVDs until the 35th anniversary edition).
-Not to mention a whole lot of breasts, bums, and excessive blood scenes (the shot of corpses lying on Roman streets after the Sejanus purge).
So, there's a 99% chance the 'butchered Drusilla corpse' would never have been seen on MASTERPIECE THEATRE that New Years Day in 1978.
No, I saw 'I, Claudius' in 1978 on Dutch television. And Dutch television isn't (and wasn't) in the habit of censuring sexually tinted material in quality movies. Not on New Years Day, not on any other day.
But you keep saying movie when it's a TV-series. Are you sure you're not just confusing it with the erotic movie?
Then again, even if it was 1979 instead of '78, that movie would not have had a TV premiere yet. But perhaps some other film?
No one in their right mind can confuse the BBC-series "I, Claudius" with the rather ridiculous, err... 'erotic' movie 'Caligula'.
Well in any case Beeld&Geluid don't have it. It took me some time to explain the question to them as they kept referring me to the official DVD.
It was apparently repeated in the '90s but whether that was from the same Dutch subtitled master tapes or not is unknown.
I spoke to someone who'd actually come across a different episode on the old phillips N1500 home video system so it's possible for it to turn up. And it's possible that the Dutch copy was requested months before it aired so that that one deleted scene is still there.
You might try running some 'wanted' ads for a while. Sometimes they work! Let me know if you ever find any trace of it. The BBC guy I spoke to was very sorry that they no longer had it so they would be thrilled as well to see it again.
I wonder if the OP read the books the series was based on and thinks the scene was included. I read Fortunes of War and swore a particular scene was cut from the DVD. But, alas, it was never filmed.
shareI doubt it. Caligula's cannibalistic infanticide was Jack Pulman's invention for this serial. Robert Graves' novels have Claudius mention the possibility that Caligula murdered Drusilla, but not the why and how.
shareI watched the series on KCET 28 in the LA-OC market in 1978 and I saw Macro ordering the rape of Sejanus`s daughter, the killing of Caligula`s and Cæsonia`s child, and the overhead shot of Messalina and Silius in bed together as well as another topless scene of Sheila White in bed. Different local PBS affiliates may have made different cuts.
Worse is the new normal. ~ Mark Steynshare
My memory of the initial broadcast also supplies the naked corpse but I expect it's because my imagination supplied it at the time.
share2) Now I've asked someone at the BBC and they say this episode was recut before and after first transmission. So in 1976 the BBC viewers had two chances (the premiere and 1 rerun) to see "the fetus shot". From 1977 onward it had been cut and was then lost.
Which broadcaster do you think showed it?
I saw the original and I never saw the naked, mutilated Drusilla, only the horror of Claudius.
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