Allan Bryce (editor of Darkside mag) confirmed that this is indeed precut by 5 seconds to the rape scene for the British dvd release in the RRP video trade magazine. A nice token cut by the films fearfull distributor, even though it would have been passed easily. Shame.
shareThe BBFC website usually states when a film has been pre cut by the distributor in advance. No such mention of this on their website.
In fact the version submitted on the 27th of May 2005 had a running time of 93m 56s - and was passed uncut.
The very first version submitted in the 80's (before the Video Recordings Act 1984) on the 22nd of January 1983 had a running time of 93m 51s.
Thus the older version is in fact 5 seconds shorter that the 2005 submission.
Surely a strange coincidence if the comment made in the Darkside magazine is to be believed?
apparently allan bryce has spoken to the director about it. there's more info on the anchor bay uk forums with quotes and stuff. i'll still get it and i'll check it against the french dvd and find out for certain.
shareI have checked and the primary difference in runtime is due to the company logos and the length of time the prologue text was on the screen for (the French version loses the English original in favour of a French translation) before the opening credits and additional seconds of “blank screen time” after the credits have finished rolling.
The length of time for the:
UGC logo followed by French prologue text is: 40 seconds
American World Pictures logo followed by the English prologue text is: 26 seconds.
The total runtime i.e. from the point it fades in after the prologue to the point where the credit roll fades out at the end of the film is:
French: 94 mins 11 seconds
UK: 93 mins 59 seconds
Remove the the logo and prologue text times from the total runtime and you get the actual film runtime which is:
French: 93mins 31 seconds
UK: 93mins 33 seconds - 2 seconds longer than the french version.
There is also 5 - 6 seconds of blank screen on the French DVD after the credits stop rolling. In contrast the UK version returns to the title screen immediately after the credits conclude.
Hopefully that clears everything up and here's some screen captures! French DVD at the top UK at the bottom: