What a great movie
TMC is showing a great lineup tonight..."The Incredible Shrinking Man" (excellent), and now this. Who would have thought in 1963 there would be 2-way distance education?
shareGreat and rare Losey film presented in Scope by TCM. Unfortunately, for those who are recording this on their DVRs in hopes of burning a DVD for posterity, they are in for a rude awakening, if you have Comcast as a provider.
Comcast alloted only 90 minutes of programming space for a 96 minute movie, so unless you were watching the film in "real" time, you are going to be shorn of the film's final critical 6 to 8 minutes wherein the gist of the mystery is explained. Absolutely horrendous technological *beep* on behalf of cable providers that a film as rare as this one, being presented widescreen and uncut in the United States has to be sabotaged by the ridiculous pseudo-utilitarian axiom of showing programming in blocks of 60 minutes, 90 minutes, 120 minutes et al.
Thankfully I was watching and recording at the same time, and when the 90 minutes of time ran out, and the recording automatically stopped, I was able to hit the record button immediately for the next scheduled film, "Invisible Invaders", allowing me to do a manual recording of the final 7 minutes of "The Damned." I am then going to be forced to stitch together the film on my Panasonic DVD recorder, though I will have lost about 4 seconds of dialogue because of the programming change-over.
Are we actually living in the 21st Century? You certainly can't tell if you subscribe to cable television, and the idiots that run it.
Sorry to vent, but it's frustrating as hell! By the way, the same thing happened last week while recording Orson Welles' "Immortal Story" off of TCM. The final minute of the film or so is completely lopped off as the DVR only recognizes programming time allowance, in this case 60 minutes, and will AUTOMATICALLY stop a recording at the end of that Cable Guide's programming block. Amazing!!!!
Two films not available on DVD in the states, and they won't even allow you to record a complete copy of it, or if you are working late at night and cannot even watch the film in real time, and must rely on your DVR to record it for the sake of WATCHING IT, you're basically screwed. Coincidence??
Movie science-fiction can't touch the incoherent reality of modernity.
You still did better then me. I didn't notice they were airing it until it was on for 30 min. I'm glad I got to see some of it. It doesn't look like TCM is going to show it again. If your going to show a classic film that hasn't been broadcast in 30 years you should show it more then once! I guess I'll have to get the region 2 dvd when ever it comes out. Man, they even showed the uncut version.
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You may be right about it being released here. Look what happened to Ace in the Hole a few months after it aired on TCM it gets a dvd release. I used to watch "These are the Damned" all the time on TV 30 years ago and then it vanished. Seeing this letterboxed for the first time was a real eye opener. I wonder why they aren't announcing a date about the U.K. release, usually when they announce a film they release a date.
shareI fear the worst for the R2 as the film was cut to 77 min for it's 1963 run.
About the run time issue, bear in mind that for months the TCM website listed the standard 87 minute US release edit. I only read on the site late last week that it had been updated to 95 minutes. Obviously they went the extra mile here and got the uncut version late in the game ( thank goodness, what a treat ). Checking the TCM website every now and then is a good thing to do. Granted, it's a shame TCM don't trumpet special finds like this when they snare them.
The running time for "The Damned" on the TCM website, which I frequent on a weekly basis, was indeed listed at 87 minutes (up until the day before the film's showing - July 1st). Ironically, the Comcast channel guide had the CORRECT time of 96 minutes listed for weeks (and as soon as I see a listing, I schedule a recording of it 2 weeks in advance). According to its OWN GUIDE, The running time for the July 2nd TCM presentation of the this film was exactly 96 minutes, and Comcast should have based the block of time required to accurately transmit this film to the public at longer than 90 minutes. It did not!!
As I've stated before, if you are recording the film to burn to DVD, or if you are not at home to watch the original airing, you will have missed the final 6 minutes of the film. And even if you have the foresight to see Comcast's train wreck ahead of time by recording the program that follows it, you still have to do patchwork in order to watch the entire version of the film simply because of the antiquated methodology of cable television's time allocation system: 60 minutes, 90 minutes, 120 minutes, and on occasion the 75 or 105 minute block of time. It's an outmoded system, that does not accommodate simple matters such as these, as evidenced by Comcast's botch job on this particular film.
TCM's listed time of 87 minutes on the website has nothing to do with Comcast carving out a block of time for its broadcast, especially if its own listed running time is CORRECT!! Comcast is seriously underestimating how many people heavily rely on DVRs for their viewing experience.
The pre-eminent example of why listing times having NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with Comcast's presentations is Orson Welles' "The Immortal Story." TCM lists the running time at 63 minutes, yet Comcast, which lists the same running time of 63 minutes, still only allocates 60 minutes of "block" time for the film. I am forced to record the program that follows Welles' film (which is not available on DVD in R1) for the purpose of trying to patch together the final 3 minutes that are not contained on the Comcast DVR recording of "Immortal Story."
Train schedules all over the world run at odd times: 5:43, 5:52, 6:01, 6:10, etc., why not cable television? Are the collective mathematical and deductive skills in this country so paltry that Comcast assumes that if a system were put into place with that type of exactitude, it may CONFUSE the AMERICAN public. Is this how it is all over the world??
Actually, now that I think about it, they probably have a point.
Luckily I use BeyondTV and had the movie following The Damned scheduled as
well, so I picked up the last few minutes on the following movie's recording.
For me, it is a fairly easy task to suck the files into Ulead and put the two
pieces back together, a hassle, but not impossible.
Also, I have BeyondTV setup to pad the beginning and end of a recording with
10 minutes on each unless I have a recording immediately following. So I would
have been covered for this movie, but have had several clipped in the past.
Another work around, if you know the times are goofed, is to start a manual
recording. With BeyondTV, and most of the PC based PVRs, you can start a
recording for a set length, or just start one and let it run until you stop it.
I am not sure whether Tivo or the cable DVRs allow these options, but they
might. Good luck. Great movie BTW, but I might have to pass on Invisible Invaders which followed. One thing I have to say is, I can't really fault TCM
with anything, in my opinion they are the best around and without them, there
are so many movies that I would never have seen.
I'm glad you cleared up that little mystery for me, Tom.
I recorded this when it was on, and only just watched it today, 9/7.
Fortunately for me, I decided to record "Invisible Invaders" as well, and using the times listed in the TCM guide, wound up missing the end of Invaders - but fortunately getting all of These Are The Damned in the process.
And as fun and cheesy as Invaders is, I'm gladly sacrificing that to have been able to have gotten the whole showing of "Damned."
Sorry you missed it, but hopefully they'll show it again - it really is a very cool movie.
Whoa Daddy-O! The cable provider is not to blame. TCM listed the run time as 87 minutes. Life's a bitch when you got a DVR but blame TCM not Comcast (there's plenty of other crap service to blame on them)
Myke
This is on BBC2 next week
shareJust a quick bump for anyone interested, as per the previous post it's on British terrestrial and digital TV tonight (BBC2), starts in 20 minutes. Apologies for the lateness, only just noticed it in the schedule.
shareyup am watching it right now :D
shareI set my VCR off recording this last night with every intention of going to bed but ended up watching it anyway despite having to get up for work at 6.am, the Teddy boy stuff at the start was daft (as was the song) but besides that I thought it was excellent, the plaintive cries of the children at the end were genuinely haunting. As a fan of Ollie Reed and sci-fi I was at a loss as to why I'd never heard of (never mind seen) this before until I came here and read that it inexplicably hasn't been shown for so long. Very strange...anyone know why?
shareI rely on my VCR because I can always schedule more time than a DVR obviously allows. I have never regretted not changing to a DVD/DVR; it's just more and more money for equipment. My good ol' VCR has never failed me, and I have tapes from as far back as the Seventies that play with no problem. Also, each tape will hold three or even four movies, depending on length of course.
If this machine ever goes out on me, I'll definitely search for another.
Meanwhile, I have a good copy of this film, which I'm so grateful to TCM for. I recall seeing it in the early Seventies, when I was in my 20s, and it remained impressed in my mind to such a degree that I was astonished how much I remembered, including dialogue. Now, if "Privilege" would ever show up, I'd be truly blissful.
~~MystMoonstruck~~
Yes it was on BBC 2 and what a find. Crazy and a curate's egg but fascinating concoction. Worth seeking out I'd say. Frank
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