TCM Print Cut?

It's a complicated story but here goes...

The TCM print is taken from the same one used for the most recent DVD release (2003). Problem is, it's from a PAL (British standard) master at 30 fps, and when played on NTSC equipment (24 fps) without proper conversion, runs 7% faster than it should, so the film (which should clock in at 87 minutes), now runs for 83 minutes (without actually losing any footage).

Second, there is actually a cut in this version. It's taken from Chaplin's 1972 re-release version, which omits the final verse of his nonsense song (it's hard to notice this, until you've seen the uncut version. After seeing that, it's easy to see where there's a pretty strong jump cut at the end of his song in the edited version).

If you want to see the uncut version, shown at proper speed, check out the excellent 2000 DVD version produced by David Shepard for Image Entertainment. That's a much better copy, but it's out of print and extremely hard to find now.

I hope I didn't just confuse you more than helping, but that's how it came to run 4 minutes shorter than its "official" running time.

Matt