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« on: April 30, 2002, 09:56:58 PM »
Hi Darren, Just a note to thank you again for alerting me to the restoration of Price's Over the Rainbow vocals on the Phibes Rises Again DVD. I wonder whether the scenes that were cut from the VHS release due to music rights issues were restored as well? I checked a couple of online DVD reviews but obviously none of the reviewers knew the films well enough to comment.
Good luck with your quest for the Japanese print of hoDS. I still feel doubtful whether the footage of the Barnabas/Julia walk scene will be recovered there, but perhaps the hanging David scene will be. I don't know that the Stokes/Willie scene was ever included in ANY print--ditto for the Barnabas/Julia one ... Obviously, though, you've researched this thoroughly!
I just lent VHS copies (taken from the LaserDisc, in my untutored opinion the best available versions) to a friend for viewing. He was quite complimentary about NoDS, believe it or not--in my opinion even in its current "trimmed" state it's head and shoulders above hoDS as a film and a theatrical artifact. There ARE characters, there ARE motives, which is more than one can say for hoDS. About the latter, my friend made a witty comment you might appreciate (or see as the unkindest "cut" of all???):
I have some old trees I'd like to clear off my property, and wonder where the editors of HODS got the *AXE* they edited the movie with! I guess that and a blindfold were all they needed. Dear, I've haven't seen editing that bad since Paul Morrissey made it an art form in the Warhol films. There are times when the soundtrack just DIES.
I did warn him that as it stands, the movie is something of a train wreck... It does remain one of my guilty pleasures, nonetheless!
Steve