OT: Thayer David in Nero Wolfe

[Gothick]

For anyone who's interested, a penpal who caught the broadcast told me that this version of the film runs to 92 minutes.  It has the clearest color and best sound of any version seen to date and apparently has footage that was missing from some of the versions that have circulated on the grey market--some of the latter derive from a 16 mm copy from a collector.

I alas do not have it, though a friend is working on getting me a copy.

Beest, G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Most made-for-TV two hour movies clocked in at 100 minutes back in 1977 - and I just checked one of the Leonard Maltin books and it indicates that's the running time. If your friend is correct on the running time of the MeTV version, then that would mean that 8 minutes are still missing. However, while I was watching I was conscious of the possibility that MeTV may have cut scenes to add commercials, but I have to say that if they did cut anything, the plot didn't suffer because (unlike, say the butchering of The Sixth Sense, where half the content of each ep was sacrificed to fit into Night Gallery's running time, turning the eps into incoherent messes) everything made perfect sense and seemed to flow smoothly.

I once videotaped this movie back in the mid-80s and I still have that copy. Unfortunately, though, I don't have a VCR to play the tape to see if I could possibly catch anything that may have been extra and/or missing in that version and/or if it had a running time longer than 92 minutes. But then I may have only saved Thayer's scenes because I often did things like that back then - and if I did, even if I did own a VCR, it wouldn't matter...

As an aside, Maltin says that Thayer was "ideally cast" and described the film as "above average." I couldn't agree more on both counts.

[Darren Gross]

Pay no attention to the 100min running time listed in the Leonard Maltin guide.  That guide tended to just list most TV movies that were run in a 2hr slot (from that era) as a generic 100min running time, and often that doesn't prove to be the case. 

Having just watched it, I didn't get the feeling that any scenes were cut from it- nothing felt missing, story-wise.  ME-TV tends to time-compress (i.e.: speed-up) older TV episodes that run longer than the modern time-slot, (25 vs 21mins) rather than cut them. It sticks out like a sore-thumb, once you start to notice it.  It's not for all shows, and not for every scene, but there will be a few sequences in things like Get Smart, where it sounds sped-up and the motion looks odd and jerky.  Nero Wolfe didn't appear time-compressed at all to me- it probably would have played havoc with the harpsichord score- and that is most likely what they would have done to bring the running time down.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I didn't get the feeling that any scenes were cut from it- nothing felt missing, story-wise.

That's exactly the way I felt.

ME-TV tends to time-compress (i.e.: speed-up) older TV episodes that run longer than the modern time-slot, (25 vs 21mins) rather than cut them. It sticks out like a sore-thumb, once you start to notice it. It's not for all shows, and not for every scene, but there will be a few sequences in things like Get Smart, where it sounds sped-up and the motion looks odd and jerky.

Very interesting - I haven't noticed that. But then I don't watch MeTV too much. And Nero Wolfe was the first made-for-TV movie I've ever watched on the channel. But the next time I watch something I'll have to pay really close attention to see if I can catch any speeding up. And truthfully, so long as it doesn't completely ruin a scene, I think I'd rather see it sped up than cut...

[Gothick]

I saw the accelerated speed on some material a buddy DVD-R'ed for me from Me-TV.  I think it was episodes of PETER GUNN.  I remember a chase scene in particular that was very obviously speeded up.  Unfortunately the acceleration gave the whole thing a Keystone Kops look.

[dom]

Yes, while perhaps better than an edit it is still nonetheless distracting (not to mention annoying). I opted out altogether - it was Perry Mason which is available on DVD so I could afford to get grand about it.