Author:
Susan
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Date Posted: 01:55:51 09/10/06 Sun
Hi, Eva, welcome to the forum. Small world, I too first saw Jamaica Inn on TV just about a quarter century ago. Of course, my memory of that first viewing was vague, so I have no idea if I saw the complete version even then. (All I remember of it is searching in vain for the actor who had played Long John Silver, since Jem Trehearne could hardly look or behave more different--and finding myself entertained and beguiled by the slightly-over-the-top character of Harry, even though I never had any idea who the actor was until after I started researching RN for this site. And that seeing the movie prompted me to read the book, which is still one of my favorites to this day. Have you read the book, Eva? It's so different from the movie!) But my DVD says 99 minutes, and it definitely includes scenes that are missing from the cheap VHS version I bought. I didn't realize even *more* scenes were missing than that. It would be really interesting to find out what they were! (Have you ever clocked the version they show on TCM? If anybody'd have the complete version, I'd think it'd be them.)
I wonder what other RN stuff is in the public domain. I figured those 14 episodes of Long John Silver must be since at least four or five different companies have put them out on VHS ... Yet Platinum, who recently released them on DVD, have copyright notices all over them. Is it possible to copyright something that's already public domain? (And who's hoarding those other episodes--or are they lost forever?)
As for Treasure Island, I got to see it on the big screen back in '75 (the theatre I saw it in was since gutted and turned into a drug store!); again, I don't remember if all scenes were present then (I was too busy being beguiled by Robert Newton!), but I'm lucky enough to have taped the TV version, which included the deleted scenes. One of the deletions is the scene where Jim is stabbed and shoots Israel Hands, and I always felt they should never have taken that scene out ... but having watched it with my five-year-old nieces, I kind of wished I'd had a copy of the edited version! We watched that scene in FF mode, but even so they were a little scared (I was surprised, through watching it with kids that age, to realize for the first time how relentlessly violent it was) but they were too fascinated by Long John Silver to have me turn it off. In fact, we only watched the first half on the first day, and not only didn't they have any nightmares, but the next day it was their idea to watch the rest of it. (They didn't understand half the dialogue, but they got very excited every time LJS said the magic word "Arrr." By the end, they were both hopping around on one leg practicing their new pirate vocabulary: "Ahoy," "Belay," and ... what else? Which reminds me ... it's the time of year again for all of us to brush up--International Talk Like a Pirate Day is only nine days away!)
So what was it like discovering him the other way around--seeing him play the classic romantic hero and *then* seeing him as Long John Silver? And how long did it take you, Eva, through all that taping, to figure out it was Robert Newton who played the hero in JI?
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