MovieChat Forums > The Enchanted Cottage (1945) Discussion > Another version?

Another version?

posted 16 years ago by mitehim
3 replies | jump to latest

I saw this movie on TCM.It included the canteen scene, where Laura Pennington is confronted with soldiers, who wouldn't dance with her because of her looks. I just bought this in a VHS tape, which is clearly authentic by Turner Home Entertainment, the RKO Collection, and says it's the original studio version of the movie. This version doesn't have the canteen scene in it. Could it be possible that the studio put out different versions of the movie? Or could TCM have added it later, if they found this scene, after the movie was released? Just wondering if anyone knew anything about it.
I love this movie as much as all of you do. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and questions too.

[–] robertshort_3 15 years ago

This movie was re-released at some point after its original release (a practice which was not uncommon during the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's) and was shortened for that re-release, losing not only the canteen scene, but other bits and pieces as well. Shortening films for a re-release was also not an uncommon practice at the time. The VHS release from the RKO Classic Collection is indeed an authentic studio release, but it was unfortuantely this re-release print. I have the laserdisc, which, although it gives a running time on the cover of 78 minutes, actually contains the full 91-minute original release. I am hoping this film gets an official release at some point on DVD (maybe Warner Archives will release it.)

[–] bpollen 15 years ago

Wow. Very interesting. I didn't know about re-releases and cutting the running times and such. I'll be on the lookout for this, when I buy older films.

[–] bpollen 15 years ago

After unsuccessfully trying to find a DVD through a known source to buy it, I looked through my old VHS tapes, and guess what? There it was. I had taped it years ago. The picture isn't that great, as you would imagine, but there are no commercials, and it is the full 90 or so minutes with the canteen scene.

AND since I have a DVD recorder, I can transfer it and will keep that until I'm able to buy a mastered DVD new.

As for the length, another poster above explains different lengths of movies for releases and re-releases. I didn't know that, and that's good to know. But also, I've noticed over the years that TV networks will alter a movie to fit within a time slot. We've all seen that notice nowadays on TV where it tells viewer that the movie has been altered to fit in a time slot and for content, etc. But USED to be, they didn't give that notice. They just did it. So that's another explanation, when you see a shorter version on TV.