Both the Live Home Video and the Image DVD have a running time of 142 minutes. Back when the film made its debut and I taped it (editing out the commercials along the way), I thought my old tape (long worn out) ran longer than that, and I've heard others say it seems as if there are scenes and lines of dialogue missing from the home video version. Anyone know if this is true?
shareI've no idea whether or not the home video version is missing scenes...I'm 2 years younger than the film itself! However, I first saw it being aired on PBS in 1995 or 96. Since I went out the very next day and rented a copy so I could rewatch it 4 times, I think I would have noticed if there were missing scenes, but PBS could simply have been drawing from the same version the home video does.
There definitely are several points in the film when scenes seem to be missing, but I don't know if those scenes were cut before filming, during filming or when trying to cut it down for home video production. I own the DVD and there are no "missing scenes" or other special features, but that doesn't prove anything.
Just curious - where in the film do you think scenes are missing? I've always thought the jockey club scene was a trifle abrupt - unless it was just to indulge Anthony Andrews' skill as a rider! - and there's a mistake in the dialogue during the scene where Percy tells Armand that he is the Scarlet Pimpernel ("You can be far more valuable to us -", "-useful to us?"), which makes me think that the scene has been altered at some point.
Sarah
"Tony, if you talk that rubbish, I shall be forced to punch your head" - Lord Tony's Wife, Orczy
My copy of the 1982 version is 136 minutes, on DVD, no commercials or other add-ins.
This is exactly as I saw it when the network reran it in 1987. Whether they chopped it for the rerun I do not know.
As a side note, we had some serious storms the night I taped this so for years (until it came out on VHS in the early 1990s at a reasonable price) I would watch this movie and have to remember it was on tape so I wouldn't go to the basement. ;-}
I know this is an old message but this has bugged me for a very long time. I saw the original 2 night mini-series and loved a scene that was either fencing or sword fighting (not sure which after all these years) at the club that had the horse racing scene. All subsequent airings - and someone made me a copy of a rerun that was shown on TNT or TBS a few years later - no longer had this scene. I would love to have a copy of the original mini-series. (I do have both the VHS and DVD releases.)
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