Synopsis:

The longer 1996 cut of the 1971 Disney classic with the worst instances of redubbed dialogue removed, a little less "With a Flair" and a lot more translation.

Intentions:

Another childhood favourite of mine, I didn’t know until a few years ago that the theatrical cut (TC) of Robert Stephenson’s film had been drastically shortened before its original release to 117 minutes. I was therefore delighted to find that a 139-minute extended cut (EC) had been put together for its 25th anniversary, restoring nearly all of the missing footage. In my opinion this generally enriches the film, explaining why the children never mention their family; why Mr Jelk (the clergyman) turns up at Miss Price’s house (and why she has no patience with him) and giving significance to Mr Browne’s phrase “With a Flair”. Unfortunately, some of the reinstated scenes were missing audio, requiring new dubbing for which only Angela Lansbury and Roddy McDowell were able to re-perform their lost dialogue. The rest required new voice actors for Mr Browne, Mrs Hobday and the children, the latter especially being quite different to the originals, along with a few cuts for my own satisfaction this edit just trims away some of the more distracting dubbing.

Change List:

• Added back “Home Guard” deleted scene. • Added back “Ulterior Motives” deleted scene. • Added back “Aunt Bessie” deleted scene (only the part concerning Aunt Bessie). • Added back “Letter for Miss Price” deleted scene. • Added back “Extortion” deleted scene. • Added back “With a Flair” but recut to match the more energetic version from the soundtrack album, original EC version felt quite anaemic to me and stops dead in a couple of places. • Added back “Substitutiary Locomotion” deleted scene. • Added back full version of “Eglantine” from deleted scenes. • Added back full version of “Portobello Road” from deleted scenes. • Added back scene of Swinburne pushing the bed from EC iTunes download. • Added back “Matchmaker” deleted scene but trimmed out section with redubbed Charlie dialogue after Mr Browne exits Mrs Hobday’s shop, goes straight from Mr Jelk leaving to Mr Browne saying “Mrs Hobday is that most dangerous of species, a matchmaker!” • Added back “Nobody’s Problems” deleted song • Added subtitles for German dialogue that are not present on TC or EC HD sources o Derived from a TV broadcast of the TC, a German-speaking friend of mine looked over it for additions and corrections but said that a native speaker would (obviously) give the best possible translation, open to help from anybody who wishes to offer it! o Sized, positioned and styled (using Bell Gothic Std Heavy) as close as possible to the few original instances where subtitles are present in most versions (including blu-ray TC). • Added “A Step in the Right Direction” to play over 1996 restoration credits, a song originally meant to play before Miss Price tries out her first broom (there is an instrumental version while she flies) that only exists in stills and audio.

Additional Notes:

• Utilised blu-ray TC for most part, deleted scenes made up majority of EC-unique material but iTunes download was required (mainly) to transition into these scenes (which faded in and out of black with no bookending footage). Did best job I can to colour match so hopefully the transitions are not too distracting. • Not all German is translated, combination of the BBC TV broadcast subtitles not being comprehensive and my German-speaking friend saying that (for a range of reasons) some of what is spoken is harder to understand. I also think that some scenes work better without it, subtitling could incorrectly imply (if only unconsciously) that a character understands the German when they don’t (e.g. as Mr Browne wakes up to the soldiers cutting wires). • Exported Full HD H265 with 5.1 channel sound, 138-minute runtime.

Other Sources:

• 2014/15 blu-ray release for TC and deleted scenes. • 720p EC iTunes digital download. • 2017 BBC TV broadcast of TC. • “With a Flair” from original soundtrack album.

Special Thanks:

Massive thanks to my good friend XG for looking over sections with German dialogue and providing translations so more can be English-subtitled.