15 replies to this topic

[Mr. Somerset]

Just curious. Has anyone here ever seen the ABC re-edit of OHMSS that was broadcast in the 70s? I believe the film began with Tracy's rescuing OO7 and had a Laz-alike voice over narration to describe how he got himself in that situation. I've always heard the re-edit was crap, of course, but never had the opportunity to see just how bad it was.

[Blofelds Cat]

The film segues from the gunbarrel to Bond escaping from Piz Gloria on ski's. As he heads down the slopes, with Blofelds men in pursuit, the narration kicks in to explain how he came to be in his predicament.

The first half of the film goes backwards and forwards with the narration bridging the jumps in continuity. The second half plays as normal but of course repeats the bit where 007 escapes from Piz Gloria.

Some violence has been trimmed along with a couple of risque lines about Besant's.

It's an interesting cut (which doesn't mean it's any good).

cheers.

[Qwerty]

The film segues from the gunbarrel to Bond escaping from Piz Gloria on ski's. As he heads down the slopes, with Blofelds men in pursuit, the narration kicks in to explain how he came to be in his predicament.

The first half of the film goes backwards and forwards with the narration bridging the jumps in continuity. The second half plays as normal but of course repeats the bit where 007 escapes from Piz Gloria.

Some violence has been trimmed along with a couple of risque lines about Besant's.

It's an interesting cut (which doesn't mean it's any good).

cheers.

Didn't it use to be a gift on your site?

[Turn]

I saw it when I was a kid and was really confused as I didn't remember it being that way when I saw it a couple of years before. Cubby Broccoli supposedly denounced it and it has gained an infamous reputation in fan circles. I think there is also a bootleg tape that circulates out there also.

[Blofelds Cat]

Didn't it use to be a gift on your site?

It still is.

[Mr. Somerset]

The film segues from the gunbarrel to Bond escaping from Piz Gloria on ski's. As he heads down the slopes, with Blofelds men in pursuit, the narration kicks in to explain how he came to be in his predicament.

The first half of the film goes backwards and forwards with the narration bridging the jumps in continuity. The second half plays as normal but of course repeats the bit where 007 escapes from Piz Gloria.

Some violence has been trimmed along with a couple of risque lines about Besant's.

It's an interesting cut (which doesn't mean it's any good).

cheers.

Thanks for the info. Sounds interesting. I remember an ABC cut of the film from 1987/88 that had the gunbarrel dot fade into the Universal Exports signs rather than open up. Some day I'd like to see the re-edit version.

[Qwerty]

Didn't it use to be a gift on your site?

It still is.

Aha, gotcha!

[Shaun Forever]

I've heard so much about this, how did United Artists react to this?

[stromberg]

Can't really say how United Artists reacted, but from what I hear, nobody of those responsible for the original movie liked the ABC edit (had they liked it that way, the could have edited like this themselves, of course). But before I start posting rubbish, maybe someone of the American people who are more "in the know" could give an answer as to why ABC was allowed to do it in the first place. That version is interesting to watch (and it's good that it didn't disappear into obscurity), but I prefer the original version.

But I do know that ABC continued doing this until the early 80's. It was our friends from Monty Python who took ABC to court for doing it to one of their movies, which brought this humbug to an end.

Sorry, but unthinkable on German TV, something like this (but then again, we only had three channels until mid 80's ). The only thing that comes close is the different versions of "Das Boot" which was a 5 hour mini-TV-series first, then was re-edited to a movie and finally got a director's cut treatment a few years later. But those were all done by Wolfgang Petersen himself, not messed up by some TV editors for whatever reasons*, and they can all be seen as different version and were all highly successful.

*not whatever reasons, they did it because it was a two-parter, shown on two consecutive Monday nights, and they thought that what would be the first but was lacking some suspense and excitment so they did the re-edit, in order to attract more viewers

[Taro Todoroki]

I remember seeing this version of OHMSS on ABC and being a bit confused. At the time I thought it was originally made this way. I can still remember the ABC previews of it. I think it was on consectutive Monday nights after the football season. This showing was only a few years after it was made, I think around 1975?

[Blofelds Cat]

The ABC cut was screened twice. The first screening, over two nights, was in 1976; the second in 1980, I think, in it's entirety.

Like it or hate it there's no denying that ABC did its very best to give the impression that their version was how the film had been originally presented. The transition points were done very professionally and some time was clearly spent on the writing of the linking narration.

Had ABC got Lazenby to provide the voice of Bond, this cut would be more sought after as a collectable.

Up until the aforementioned "Python v ABC" legal case, the ABC network believed it had full rights to alter any work to which they had paid broadcast rights as they saw fit. ABC never sought permission from United Artists or EON to reformat OHMSS in such a wholesale manner.

Anyone wishing to see this version should be able to find it via the internet if they apply a bit of effort on Google.

I myself am currently investigating the possibility of creating a restored version of the ABC cut, marrying the voice-over of the '76 cut with the visuals of the DVD release (desperately need a good quality, full resolution video file of the ABC "Monday Night Movie" ident, circa 1976).

cheers.

[Turn]

Here's what I know about the '76 ABC version: it was broadcast on consecutive Monday evenings (a strange day for such things) in February 1976. February in the U.S. is known as a "sweeps" month in which the networks pull out their biggest movies, mini series and event shows to gain ratings as it's when they determine how much they can charge advertising fees or something like that for the next few months.

Since the whole ratings sweeps was fairly new back then, I guess they wanted to milk OHMSS for all they could. Bond films drew big ratings at the time and they may have been afraid to devote a 3-hour slot to it, especially on a Monday, not the biggest night for viewership. So they decided to pad it and make it an event. A lot of it was flashing forward the first week then recapping the events of the first part the second week.

I read that the '76 version was never broadcast again and that Cubby was very unhappy with it. The version shown on March 7, 1980 was the regular theatrical version with the normal cuts for violence -- the beach fight and hotel fight, Draco's guy with the flamethrower, a shot of Campbell hanging upside down and the "he had plenty of guts" scene were all cut in one way or another. That same version was shown again several other times in the 1980s.



I remember that showing well because it was at a time I was just becoming a big Bond fan and it had been since the '76 showing that I'd seen OHMSS. After having just seen MR the previous summer, it surprised me a Bond film could be that down-to-earth and involving despite not having all the gadgetry and effects.

[Mr. Somerset]

The ABC cut was screened twice. The first screening, over two nights, was in 1976; the second in 1980, I think, in it's entirety.

Like it or hate it there's no denying that ABC did its very best to give the impression that their version was how the film had been originally presented. The transition points were done very professionally and some time was clearly spent on the writing of the linking narration.

Had ABC got Lazenby to provide the voice of Bond, this cut would be more sought after as a collectable.

Up until the aforementioned "Python v ABC" legal case, the ABC network believed it had full rights to alter any work to which they had paid broadcast rights as they saw fit. ABC never sought permission from United Artists or EON to reformat OHMSS in such a wholesale manner.

Anyone wishing to see this version should be able to find it via the internet if they apply a bit of effort on Google.

I myself am currently investigating the possibility of creating a restored version of the ABC cut, marrying the voice-over of the '76 cut with the visuals of the DVD release (desperately need a good quality, full resolution video file of the ABC "Monday Night Movie" ident, circa 1976).

cheers.

That's a great idea. I have nostalgia for those days when a Bond movie airing on ABC was a big event. I taped some films in the mid-80s when I was about 10. However, back then it didn't occur to me to keep them. Mistake.

[Lektor]

Ah, it would be really interesting to watch a copy of the broadcast! Sound absolutley crazy!

[Shaun Forever]

Two parts are on Youtube.

[Odd Jobbies]

It's pretty horrendous... Like a Philip Marlowe adaptation for toddlers.