Considering Grayson and Sam didn't comment about NoDS in their San Francisco Examiner interview, I figured I'd share some comments they'd made elsewhere. First up, what Sam had to say in a 1983 interview he did with Ed Gross for the DS Files books (the same interview the excerpt in Reply #94 came from):
And Grayson is quoted in
The DS Companion as saying "If you could find the original script, it really was something quite wonderful."
Unfortunately, I've never come across whatever interview Grayson did where the quote was taken from. Obviously it's a remark that was made in hindsight so it could have even been said at one of the Grayson Gatherings of her fan club and possibly published in an account of that particular gathering in a Grayson or other fanzine.
As for Sam's remarks, well, we know the length of the version of NoDS that they showed MGM was 129 minutes and not 165. However, at one point there may have been a 165 minute version because it's common practice for a director to assemble a fairly long "rough cut" of a film and then to whittle it down to something much more manageable. And it is true that there is still at least one sequence in the film in which characters are seen while another character goes walking by them without any dialogue being spoken and that would be after Quentin tells Alex to leave the house and on his way to do so Alex is seen walking past Carlotta and Gerard on the stairs, and after we hear the front door close when Alex leaves, we then see Quentin descend the stairs past Carlotta and Gerard. However, that sequence is actually written in the script to take place that way so it's not simply due to any directorial style choices DC might have made. And speaking of Gerard, the subplot that made its way to the cutting room floor was many of the scenes involving Gerard and Tracy and his obsession with her (after he's replaced by Quentin in Angelique's, uh, affections). And the fact that MGM had so little time to come up with a final print for NoDS goes a long way in understanding how the R-rated print managed to slip out to theaters. And it's definitely true and confirmed elsewhere that MGM wanted to make a third film but DC didn't - but then, given the way he'd been treated by MGM with NoDS, can anyone blame him for not wanting to work with them again?