Blood & Roses, 1960 [77 minute version]

We did a post on Blood & Roses aka Et mourir de plaisir (1960) over a year ago. At the time we said

the only version of the film available today is a DVD rip of a 1990s VHS tape, a tape that is of the mutilated US version of the film. The original version was 87 minutes; but this was cut to 74 minutes by Paramount for the US market by chopping out all of the naughty lesbian scenes and adding a Blade Runner-esque voiceover at the start to explain the story. In the version we watched, the colours were washed out and the image and the sound were ‘soft’, but the film was still brilliant!

Well, last week we received an "upgrade" from VideoScreams: a 77 minute version, in French with English subtitles, in letterbox. It is a cleaner print, with a different start and finish, and includes scenes that are missing from the 74 minute version (it also cuts some scenes that are included at length in the 74 minute version). By my calculation it includes about 9 minutes of footage missing from the 74 minute cut and duplicates another 2 mins of footage using a different voice-over. If the two films were spliced together I think there would be a total between them of ca. 83 minutes. If I had the first idea about video-editing I'd do this immediately!

This new material is very exciting, especially for a film I still consider a "wonderful film, surely one of the best vampire films ever." But it does suggest that the 15 minutes of "naughty lesbian scenes" is a myth, as I'll explain.

As, I assume, I am not the only person interested in this film, I thought I'd give a summary of the differences between the two versions. I will refer to each version as A (74 min) & B (77 min).

Version A starts (after the credits) with a voiceover by Carmilla during which we see a plane take off (from inside the cockpit) and a plane cruising in the sky. The film cuts straight from these scenes (2.00–3.50 min) to a get-together at which a pyrotechnician elaborates on his plan for a fireworks display around some ruins (which turn out to contain the grave of Millarca).

Version B starts with the same cockpit footage, but we then see inside the plane and are introduced to the Doctor (who plays a minor role in the story). The doctor starts telling a story to a group of friends about Carmilla (2.00–3.45 min) and his voice-over fades away as we see four scenes missing from Version A. These are

[1] one of two girls strays into a graveyard to retrieve a ball and is warned by the other that she will get bitten by a vampire (3.45–4.20 min);

[2] the pyrotechnician taking sightings of the property in a car (4.20–4.45 min);

[3] Carmilla & Georgia riding a horse together, laughing (4.45–5.45 min);

[4] the two girls saying their prayers but, simultaneously, threatening each other. Vampires are again mentioned (5.45–6.45 min).

After the opening there are five more places where there is more footage or extra scenes. Some of the cuts of other scenes may be longer too, but I haven't done a side-by-side comparison of the two versions.* Anyway, these five extra scenes I noticed in Version B are:

[5] a thirty-second scene of Carmilla and the maid laughing together (32.00–32.30min);

[6] a minute of extra footage in the scene where Carmilla chases the maid (before killing her) (46.40–47.40 min);

[7] a minute of extra footage in the scene where Carmilla and Georgia are in the glasshouse, talking, during the storm;

[8] a thirty-second scene of Georgia's father arriving, prior to his conversation with Leopoldo about the timing and location of the wedding (65.30–66.00 min);

[9] at least thirty-seconds extra in short bits added to many cuts in the frantic scenes that follow Carmilla fleeing the house (and before her death) (71.30–72.30 min);

Missing from Version B is most of the scene in which Leopoldo and Georgia's father discuss the timing and location of the wedding; and most of the wacky Carmilla/Georgie dream-sequence.

Readers of this blog who are familiar with the film will realise, looking at the above, that the ca. 83 minutes now known to exist do not leave much space for the mythical "naughty lesbian scenes": none of the Carmilla/Georgie interactions really have much scope for grill-on-grill action, and new extra minute recovered of the glass-house scene increases the tension, not the eroticism of the only scene in which they kiss.

The extra scenes do make for a better film: the scene in which Carmilla chases down the maid is much more eerie and disturbing the more you see of it, and with more of their previous interactions.

But the biggest difference between the two versions is the result of one film being Carmilla's/Millarca's story and the other being the doctors. Carmilla's/Millarca's version (Version A) is definitely better; the extra exposition in Version B removes much of the mystery of the story, which is so much a part of the appeal of the film.

So, if I can get someone to edit a version for me, I'll be keeping the Version A intro!

*There is, for instance, about one extra second in the scene where Carmilla, having caught sight of blood over her heart in a mirror and having run from Leopoldo to her room, tears open her dress to see where the blood is coming from. In Version B the extra second allows the viewer to see one blood-smeared breast long enough to recognise it as such before Carmilla collapses in horror at what she has discovered. Version A cuts this second of footage: you see Carmilla tear at her dress and then collapse (and it is never really clear why). This is a particularly notable second of footage; there may be more that made less of an impact.