MovieChat Forums > Pit and the Pendulum (1961) Discussion > DVD: 'Original Trailer Prologue'

DVD: 'Original Trailer Prologue'

posted 19 years ago by ThrownMuse
9 replies | jump to latest

What the heck is this? Has anyone seen it? I found it in the "Special Feature" section of the singular Midnight Movies DVD (I'm not sure if it's included in the extras on the double feature.) I don't think it is a prologue to the trailer, because it's even longer than the trailer and is a scene that isn't in the film. So maybe it was a prologue that appeared before the film when it was theatrically released? It looks like it is a dream sequence or something. It runs about 5 minutes and the only character that appears is Catherine (Luana Anders) and possibly Elizabeth (Barbara Steele is in it for a second or two.) Catherine wakes up in the dungeon in a cell, looking all distraught and not put-together as she does in the film, with some creepy modern looking woman who keeps talking to her doll. Catherine leaves the cell and explores the dungeon and finds a room full of people who are obviously crazy (Barbara Steele is seen in a couple shots, sitting at a table calmly.) They all attack her and dangle mice in her face. The shot ends with everyone closing in on her until her body disappears.

What the heck is that?! I loved Pit and the Pendulum, but whatever that was creeped me out more than the actual film did!

"KIKI--Your powers are making me scared in the washroom!" Shaye St John

[–] beckeis 18 years ago

I have it as well and it really is an interesting piece. I think it was supposed to be her character trying to explain to doctors in an insane asylum what had happened to her in her brother's castle -- or something lik that. I have to rewatch it but the point is there wasn't a happily ever after when the movie ended. Poor girl.

[–] Sir_Cuauhtemoc 18 years ago

It was actually filmed when the movie was shown on television in 1968, not sure why they did the prologue, maybe to fill extra airtime?

[–] ttsinger 18 years ago

That's exactly what it was. Everyone thinks that's Luana Anders,but it's actually Randy Lynne Jensen. She's listed as an extra on the IMDB page of Pit and The Pendulum,but if you look at the picture of her and watch the prologue you'll notice it's the same actress. I don't remember Barbara Steele being in the prologue and I own the DVD now. ABC TV needed a two hour time slot filled. Since the movie would run less than 2 hours with commercials, they need to film some more footage. There's really no explanation as to why Catherine was put into the funny farm. Perhaps she was locked up when it was discovered that she locked up the torture chamber with Elizabeth still in there alive.

[–] stevenbyczek 17 years ago

Universal Pictures used to do the same thing with some of the Hammer horror films they imported from England. They filmed scenes to pad out the American TV presentations of: "The Phantom of the Opera" (1962), and "The Evil of Frankenstein" (1964).

This will explain the scene that confused you...it was taken from the Wikipedia:

MGM's "Midnite Movies" DVD included the 1968 "prologue" as a bonus feature. In 1968, when the film was sold to ABC-TV for television airings, the network noted that the film was too short to fill the desired two-hour time slot. They requested that AIP pad the film out. Approximately five minutes of additional footage were subsequently shot by Corman’s production assistant Tamara Asseyev.

Of the original cast members, only Luana Anders was available at the time, and the new sequence featured her character, Catherine Medina, confined to a lunatic asylum. After much screaming and hair pulling, Catherine reveals the details of her horrific story to her fellow inmates, at which point the film itself follows as a flashback. This shot-for-television footage has been made available as an extra on the MGM Midnite Movies DVD release of the film, but was erroneously advertised as being the "Original theatrical prologue."

Cheers!

Sincerely, Steve B.

[–] BauerPower13 17 years ago

In your summary you left out an important part. The entire time Katherine is walking around in the darkness in that asylum as we presume she is in, she is hearing Nicholas laughing. Katherine was put in an asylum because of the story she told of what we see in the movie, and there is obviously a reason for it because she is hearing her dead brother laughing.

Hey, look at that fruitcake!

[–] sundance7490 17 years ago

But that was Luana Anders it wasn't Randy Lynne Jensen as a previous poster had attested. I wonder if they had an epilogue to it too since she's supposed to be explaining her story. More appropriately I think Mr. Barnard would've been a better choice for the character instead of Catherine. Catherine was probably the most sane of the whole group...who was left alive.

I don't speak whatever.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jobla 11 years ago

No, there was no epilogue included in the network broadcast version, just the prologue. Also in the cast of the prologue are Sid Haig and Martine Bartlett.

[–] TheSolarSailor 11 years ago

There's really no explanation as to why Catherine was put into the funny farm. Perhaps she was locked up when it was discovered that she locked up the torture chamber with Elizabeth still in there alive.

There would be no reason for that. She has Maximillian (the servant) and Francis to testify on her behalf that she knew nothing of Elizabeth still being alive or locked up in the torture dungeon. More than likely, she closed off the castle and returned to Barcelona and most likely got together with Francis and lived a happy life. The prologue makes no sense and, while an interesting curiosity, doesn't fit with the film at all. It's an afterthought later attached to the film, and a poorly thought out one at that.

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