Fanstastic! I honestly can’t get over how pristine this print is, especially considering its age. I guess it helps that it wasn’t a popular film so it didn’t get shown over and over again.
Also: I can’t say 100%, but it does look like the US cut, but with no Buck Rodgers. The rabbit hole goes further…
It makes sense that they would remove Buck Rogers for the Italian release, the beginning of the film is already not the easiest thing to understand for a generic audience, Buck Rogers would have been even more confusing considering that in Italy we don’t (or didn’t) know who he was. It’s a pop culture moment that would have made no sense to us. They removed the track 29 joke from the train station sequence in Young Frankenstein for the same reason
I didn’t get that joke either and I’m American!
Right, so I played the LD along with the 16mm b/w sample up until THX leaves work at the beginning and they match up. So the 35mm print is yet another unique cut.
I’m trying to download the Italian TV broadcast to see how it and the 35 compare but there are only two seeders and it’s going to take a couple of days.
Well, if I’m not mistaken any home video release was altered in some way from the theatrical release (which until now was more or less a mystery open to speculation). Your head will explode once you see the Italian TV broadcast.