MovieChat Forums > Shalako (1968) Discussion > Scene edited in more recent tv showings ...

Scene edited in more recent tv showings ??..

posted 10 years ago by paule-rooney
6 replies | jump to latest

I have a (possibly false ?) memory of seeing this film on tv in an evening as a child - in the 1970's. I recall a scene were Honor Blackman's character is playing dead after a stagecoach crash and an Indian is checking if she really is dead. He pours sand down her mouth (yuk!!)- which I recall being shown, and then (worse) being forced to swallow a necklace/piece of jewellery which chokes her to death.
I have seen this film on tv a couple of times in the last few years or so and this scene now seems edited somehow. ie the indian is shown with a handful of sand falling from his hand (though you don't see Blackman's face) then the next thing is a shot of her head falling in a she-has-just-died kind of way. It does feel as though something has been edited out.
I was just curious is anyone else aware of this ? Am I imagining it ?
I do also recall that this scene - or my recollection of the original version - really upset me as a kid watching it .....very sadistic!
Have the TV companies edited it to be a bit more friendly to an afternoon audience rather than a late evening one ?
Many thanks.

[–] vonhangman 10 years ago

The scene as you have described it is exactly how it appears in the DVD I watched last night. It may be that your local television station has shown an edited print, but your memory is not wrong.

[–] paule-rooney 10 years ago

Thank you for that confirmation, it is a query I had long been thinking about posting to IMDB. Even allowing for all the "nasty" stuff I have seen since the 1970's I really don't think I would want to see this scene again in full - funny how things stay with you from a young age ! :-)

[–] Carl-LaFong 10 years ago

I saw it shown on ITV4 in the UK between 3pm and 5pm a couple of weeks ago. They wouldn't have been able to screen anything as graphic as you described at that time, so it was edited out.

You`re my wife now.

[–] catrogainsbourg 10 years ago

It was the same edited version today.

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[–] Satantangoandcash 10 years ago

She is about to be killed by an Apache warrior who is angry that her hunting party is violating a treaty by trespassing in Apache territory, so Lady Daggett, a greedy, unfaithful, aristocratic foreigner, gives her precious diamond necklace to him, hoping he will be so pleased that he will spare her life. Instead, he chokes her to death on her own jewelry.
It's not sadistic, it's the message of the film.

There was an even more grisly scene - when Lady Daggett's husband shoots his hunting rifle at Bosky, the double-crossing hunting guide she ran off with who left everybody else for dead, we see a huge exit hole in his back. I'd say both she and Bosky got what they deserved.

[–] pete36 9 years ago

DVD version is the most complete and has the mentioned scene intact.

Violence and nudity in movies that are shown in the afternoon on TV gets frequently edited out.
Another Sean Connery movie "The Wind and the Lion" (1975) was recently shown on BBC 2 in the afternoon, with several scenes edited out or toned down.