From what other posts I've seen, some do not remember the new start scene or ending at all. Maybe they were filmed in 1978 when the remake with Donald Sutherland was released, or taken out of the vaults and edited back into the film at that time. Once more, has anyone seen the current version anyplace before 1970?
shareYou're speaking of the opening and closing sequences with Whit Bissell and Richard Deacon, as doctors listening to Miles recount his story?
These scenes very definitely were in the film, right from its initial release in 1956. They were tacked on after principal photography had been completed, because studio executives thought the original ending, with Miles yelling helplessly in the road while everyone ignored him -- inferring that the pods would take over -- was too downbeat. So they rushed these additional scenes into production to allow for an optimistic ending: the pods will be stopped.
The film has been shown in its original form, without this opening and closing (and, I believe, no narration by Kevin McCarthy, as in this version he isn't recounting the story to anybody), but only in special theatrical screenings, and very rarely. But the original film has never been run on television or put on DVD.
Anyway, I've seen this film many times from the early 60s and those "doctor" scenes have always been there. They weren't "in the vaults" and taken out over two decades later (and what would have been the point of that?). As to your other theory, how (and again, why) do you think they could possibly have filmed these scenes as late as 1978 -- and using actors looking 22 years younger than their actual ages? That makes no sense.
Several posters recall seeing the cut version on PBS or British TV. I recall the first TV showing in 1972 did not have the opening/closing scenes. But it was late, I may have not stayed up for the end. It is common practice for home video to recut films like A Star is Born with Judy Garland and restore them using cut out scenes of unimportant details, or to "Original Theatrical Versions" as they call the film we're discussing. I was jesting that new footage could be inserted but Whit Bissell and Richard Deacon are not both in the title credits. There were also public preview screenings of this film where executives decided to put in the opening/closing scenes.
shareYes, I have no doubt the cut version (76 minutes), which is technically the original version, may have been specially broadcast a few times, and certainly received a preview showing in 1956 before having the new footage filmed and tacked on. The normal practice, though, has been to show the complete, 80-minute version, with the added opening and closing scenes with Whit Bissell, Richard Deacon and Robert Osterloh.
You're right that some DVDs have inserted (or restored) previously cut footage, but to my knowledge no DVD of IOTBS has ever been released other than the full 80-minute version. In this case, of course, a so-called "restored" version would have four minutes cut from it, to bring back the original version.
The reason the three actors in those added scenes -- Bissell, Deacon and Osterloh -- weren't in the credits is that the film, including the credits, was completed and previewed before their scenes were shot and added on. Obviously, the producer, Walter Wanger, wasn't about to go to the expense of redoing the credits just to add on those three names. Of course, back then it was common, really the norm, not to list many of the actors who played smaller parts in a film, so on that basis the failure to list these three guys wasn't at all unusual. They stand out only because, in the case of this particular film, virtually all the others were listed in this movie's credits, which itself was extremely unusual.