John Huston's THE DEAD, 10 minutes missing from Lionsgate DVD

It seems that Lionsgate's disc of THE DEAD is missing 10 minutes of footage:

http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/thedead.php

Sounds like one to avoid.

Wow. Just...wow. I thought their fullscreen VHS transfer of IRONWEED would be hard to beat, but now they've sunk even lower. I'd expect this from Madacy or something. But Lionsgate should have some semblance of quality control. No excuses.

The news doesn't surprise me, as they're one of the industry's worst.

I am stunned. The thing was only 83 minutes to start with! Can anyone verify this before I open mine up (not calling you a liar, Brad, just...)? I thought there was no way anyone could top the ill-judged and misguiding feel-good cover art ("the magic of D.H. Lawrence"!), but it looks like they've already done it.

"Can anyone verify this before I open mine up (not calling you a liar, Brad, just...)?"

My only source of information was that review I linked to. The reviewer seems to know what he's talking about, though.

I wonder if this could be an authoring error, just like ol' Shriek Show used to make - one of those 'skip to the next chapter' fallen soufflés, where the footage is there, just not accessible on, you know, forward motion.

The fact that the packaging lists a running time of 73 minutes suggests that the footage is actually missing.

Thanks for redirecting me to your link, Brad. I must have been so flabbergasted I missed it. Looks like I'll be sending my disc back. And I'll be careful not to pre-order any more Lionsgate product, if this is the best they can do with the serious final work of an often great, um, productmaker.

Ah HA!!

So much for that theory!

UPDATE (from Dave Kehr's blog):

A brief interruption for a public service announcement. For those of you who may have purchased the new DVD of "The Dead" that apparently dropped a reel of the film, Lionsgate would like to make things right. Here's the release I just received:

"It has come to our attention that due to a technical malfunction, the initial DVD shipment of John Huston's THE DEAD contained an incomplete version of the film. We deeply apologize to all our consumers for this unfortunate error and want to offer them an opportunity to replace their current copies with the complete version as soon as it is available to ship the week of November 23rd. We regret this inconvenience, as Lionsgate is committed to providing our consumers the highest quality home entertainment experience.

All consumers who purchased a copy and wish to receive the new complete version should do one of the following:

• EMAIL lionsgatecs@orderassistance.com with their address and a scan/attachment of their receipt
• FAX (310) 222-5562 with their address and copy of their receipt
• MAIL their receipt along with a note including their address to: 20102 S Vermont Ave Torrance, CA 90502

Or please call (800) 650-7099 directly if you have any further questions."

. . . thanks, Bob, you are a river to your people . . .

I exist to serve. They were very quick to respond to my e-mail. Note that they also need a tel. number.

Okay, I'll calm down, now. I'm impressed with Lionsgate's speed in remedying the situation, feel slightly embarrassed about my speed in becoming Vengeful Internet Denouncer, but still wonder how things like this occur in the first place. At any rate, I'm excited that one of my favorite literary adaptations will soon be available to watch again, and thank Lionsgate for taking the financial risk of putting a niche-market title out there at all in a time not generally conducive to risktaking.

Well, now that Lionsgate is doing the right thing and fixing the situation, perhaps Best Buy can do their part and move this out of the Horror section.

Whew. I can't even imagine WHY there's a 73 minute version, to begin with.

Lionsgate is hit and miss. They do some good compression with their single layer DVD releases, but oddly, many of their lower budget horror items don't even list 5.1 surround. They've made some improvements in the past few years, good to see all of that SAW money being put to some use, but there's still room for improvement, no doubt.