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How Unbelievably Lame! [message #172939] Mon, 16 March 2009 23:17 Go to next message
Anonymous
Karma:
Originally posted by: Scorpio42

Monday evening, I was delighted to see they were showing "The Brain That
Wouldn't Die" on TCM.

"Great!" I thought. I'll get to see the uncut version, and maybe some
cool stuff that the MST version had to leave out.

How mistaken I was. The TCM version showed Dr Cortner going into the
strip club, but left out the part where the two cheap strippers were
trying to pick up the doctor, and their ensuing wrestling match.

Then, when the monster-mutant behind the door grabbed Curt's arm, they
cut the part where he staggers upstairs, smearing blood on the wall.

And to top it off, in the final scene where the monster-mutant finally
gets his mitts on Dr Cortner, TCM cuts out the part where he takes a
bite out of the doctor's neck and throws the morsel on the floor.

Holy neck juice! How squeamish can you get? Even MST, which tries to
edit some movie content down for acceptable viewing, left those scenes
in. I felt those particular scenes were ciritcal to the movie, to set
its tone and give it some real emotional punch.

Even MST's comedy rendering of the film displayed a ton more courage and
integrity than TCM. Maybe this fact is old news to most of you, but I
was shocked. Or maybe I should say "not shocked in the slightest," after
watching this old horror fave on TCM.

I'll know better next time.

William
Re: How Unbelievably Lame! [message #173051 is a reply to message #172939] Tue, 17 March 2009 00:08 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Jonah Falcon is currently offline  Jonah Falcon
Messages: 213
Registered: August 2003
Karma: 0
Senior Member
"We respect the rights of the artists - but we cut their movies anyway." -
Tom Servo on TCM.

"William" <Scorpio42@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:2793-49BF1639-3175@storefull-3173.bay.webtv.net...
> Monday evening, I was delighted to see they were showing "The Brain That
> Wouldn't Die" on TCM.
>
> "Great!" I thought. I'll get to see the uncut version, and maybe some
> cool stuff that the MST version had to leave out.
>
> How mistaken I was. The TCM version showed Dr Cortner going into the
> strip club, but left out the part where the two cheap strippers were
> trying to pick up the doctor, and their ensuing wrestling match.
>
> Then, when the monster-mutant behind the door grabbed Curt's arm, they
> cut the part where he staggers upstairs, smearing blood on the wall.
>
> And to top it off, in the final scene where the monster-mutant finally
> gets his mitts on Dr Cortner, TCM cuts out the part where he takes a
> bite out of the doctor's neck and throws the morsel on the floor.
>
> Holy neck juice! How squeamish can you get? Even MST, which tries to
> edit some movie content down for acceptable viewing, left those scenes
> in. I felt those particular scenes were ciritcal to the movie, to set
> its tone and give it some real emotional punch.
>
> Even MST's comedy rendering of the film displayed a ton more courage and
> integrity than TCM. Maybe this fact is old news to most of you, but I
> was shocked. Or maybe I should say "not shocked in the slightest," after
> watching this old horror fave on TCM.
>
> I'll know better next time.
>
> William
>
>
>
>
>
>
Re: How Unbelievably Lame! [message #173056 is a reply to message #172939] Tue, 17 March 2009 10:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
nebusj- is currently offline  nebusj-
Messages: 623
Registered: September 2012
Karma: 0
Senior Member
Scorpio42@webtv.net (William) writes:

> Monday evening, I was delighted to see they were showing "The Brain That
> Wouldn't Die" on TCM.

> "Great!" I thought. I'll get to see the uncut version, and maybe some
> cool stuff that the MST version had to leave out.

I was watching just the same thing. I wasn't expecting it even
though I know we were warned about it coming up soon; I'd figured it
would be part of the TCM Underground slot, I suppose, and didn't quite
internalize the airing date. But I ran into the midst of that Buster
Keaton movie at the end of WiiFit exercises and stuck around.

I *did* love how ... disquieted ... Robert Osborne looked as
whats-his-name explained why he considered this movie part of his set
of 'The Essentials'. Sleaze and creepiness, was the pitch, and yeah,
the movie delivers.


> How mistaken I was. The TCM version showed Dr Cortner going into the
> strip club, but left out the part where the two cheap strippers were
> trying to pick up the doctor, and their ensuing wrestling match.

> Then, when the monster-mutant behind the door grabbed Curt's arm, they
> cut the part where he staggers upstairs, smearing blood on the wall.

> And to top it off, in the final scene where the monster-mutant finally
> gets his mitts on Dr Cortner, TCM cuts out the part where he takes a
> bite out of the doctor's neck and throws the morsel on the floor.

Thank you for confirming this. I thought that I had somehow
managed to overlook these scenes, particularly the strippers having
their catfight over Doctor Idiot, and scanning forward and back on the
Tivo couldn't recover the scene.

It also made me notice just how *long* Jan-in-the-Pan spends
taunting Shrivelled Hand Man. The whole scene after what should have
been the stripper catfight drags on for something like eight minutes;
it's amazing Mike and the Bots weren't clawing at the walls to get to
*anything* else.


> Holy neck juice! How squeamish can you get? Even MST, which tries to
> edit some movie content down for acceptable viewing, left those scenes
> in. I felt those particular scenes were ciritcal to the movie, to set
> its tone and give it some real emotional punch.

> Even MST's comedy rendering of the film displayed a ton more courage and
> integrity than TCM. Maybe this fact is old news to most of you, but I
> was shocked. Or maybe I should say "not shocked in the slightest," after
> watching this old horror fave on TCM.

> I'll know better next time.

I'm very surprised since TCM has generally been respectful of
showing the whole movie, bad and good, from start to finish. It's just
out of character for them to show a trimmed movie even for something
running at 6:30 pm Pacific Time. Is it conceivable that the movie was
originally released in a couple different cuts and TCM had an expurgated
version maybe without realizing it? Does anyone remember what shape it
ran in as a TCM Underground feature?


Also was anyone besides me charmed by the closing title giving
a copyright date of, I believe, ``February 15, 1962'', as if 1962 was
somehow inadequate?

--
Joseph Nebus
------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------
Re: How Unbelievably Lame! [message #173167 is a reply to message #172939] Tue, 17 March 2009 11:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Anonymous
Karma:
Originally posted by: Tom Carberry

"William" <Scorpio42@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:2793-49BF1639-3175@storefull-3173.bay.webtv.net...
> Monday evening, I was delighted to see they were showing "The Brain That
> Wouldn't Die" on TCM.
>
> "Great!" I thought. I'll get to see the uncut version, and maybe some
> cool stuff that the MST version had to leave out.
>
> How mistaken I was. The TCM version showed Dr Cortner going into the
> strip club, but left out the part where the two cheap strippers were
> trying to pick up the doctor, and their ensuing wrestling match.
>
> Then, when the monster-mutant behind the door grabbed Curt's arm, they
> cut the part where he staggers upstairs, smearing blood on the wall.
>
> And to top it off, in the final scene where the monster-mutant finally
> gets his mitts on Dr Cortner, TCM cuts out the part where he takes a
> bite out of the doctor's neck and throws the morsel on the floor.
>
> Holy neck juice! How squeamish can you get? Even MST, which tries to
> edit some movie content down for acceptable viewing, left those scenes
> in. I felt those particular scenes were ciritcal to the movie, to set
> its tone and give it some real emotional punch.
>
> Even MST's comedy rendering of the film displayed a ton more courage and
> integrity than TCM. Maybe this fact is old news to most of you, but I
> was shocked. Or maybe I should say "not shocked in the slightest," after
> watching this old horror fave on TCM.
>
> I'll know better next time.
>
> William

I think I did mention on a post some while ago that TCM would be showing
this little gem, but that they would probably show the "edited" version,
since that was the copy they had. There are two versions (probably more) of
this little classic, and the longer more graphic (?!) version was the one
used by BBI. This is the second or third time TCM has shown this and
obviously they only have the short version. Caveat Emptor. If you look at
the description of the movie, they even get it wrong by describing the plot
as a "scientist keeping the head of his WIFE alive while looking for a body
for her". Enough said.

Tom Carberry (#45505, and "just another Tuesday for Cher".)
Re: How Unbelievably Lame! [message #173604 is a reply to message #173167] Thu, 19 March 2009 11:52 Go to previous message
nebusj- is currently offline  nebusj-
Messages: 623
Registered: September 2012
Karma: 0
Senior Member
"Tom Carberry" <jtj0012@134.139.2.10> writes:

> I think I did mention on a post some while ago that TCM would be showing
> this little gem, but that they would probably show the "edited" version,
> since that was the copy they had. There are two versions (probably more) of
> this little classic, and the longer more graphic (?!) version was the one
> used by BBI. This is the second or third time TCM has shown this and
> obviously they only have the short version. Caveat Emptor.

I'm glad to have my vague memories of there being something funny
about the various editions of the movie confirmed.

I could swear there was another MST3K experiment which had some
noteworthy scenes in other versions; I think that it may have been _Devil
Doll_, because I remember having it mentally tagged as somehow having a
``continental'' edition. I suppose you could fit a bit more nudity into
_Devil Doll_ if there were anyone we wanted to see naked in it, but as it
is the extra scenes are probably just taunting Hugo with the idea that he
too could have pants to not wear.


> If you look at
> the description of the movie, they even get it wrong by describing the plot
> as a "scientist keeping the head of his WIFE alive while looking for a body
> for her". Enough said.

> Tom Carberry (#45505, and "just another Tuesday for Cher".)

Well, that is silly. How could he have married her? Heck, how
could he even find a ring that fit her?

--
Joseph Nebus
------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------
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