CL Movies made in double versions

[j.c. michel]

As you know, several Christopher Lee movies were made in two different, simultaneously shot "language" versions, as for the 1931 Universal "Draculas".
The classical example (in Lee's filmography) being Akos von Rathony's "Das Geheimnis del gelben Narzissen / The Devil's Daffodil", shot in 1961. Chris Lee plays in both versions, but Joachim Fuchsberger is replaced by William Lucas, Sabina Sesselman by Penelope Horner, and Klaus Kinski by Colin Jeavons. So in fact you have two different movies.
A little-known fact (I think) is that "Les mains d'Orlac / Hands of Orlac", directed in 1959 by French director Edmond T. Gréville, was also made this way. Although, in this case, the ENTIRE cast - including the second roles and extras - is exactly the same in both versions - BUT French and English versions are totally different films. In fact, even shots which didn't include actors (a car running in the streets for instance) were filmed TWICE, and the editing (by Jean Ravel for the French, by Oswald Hafenrichter for the English) is also different, even the director of photography is not the same (French version: Jacques Lemare; English version: Desmond Dickinson). I have both versions on video tapes, the French one is ten minutes longer, some shots of Dany Carrel are much "erotic", and so on. So, in fact, as the German/British film mentioned above, this French/British production could be mentioned TWICE in Chris Lee's filmography, as he really made it twice !!!

[Jonathan Craig]

Thank you for that, J.C. Michel. That's very interesting. Are those the only two done that way, or are there others maybe? It drives me nuts, trying to figure out if I've seen a certain movie of his when they have five or six different titles in different languages! :)

[j.c. michel]

Well, I have another example... but in reverse.
In most reference books, "Circus of Fear" and "Das Rätsel des silbernen Dreiecks" are generally mentioned as "alternate versions" of the same film, one in English directed by John Moxey, the other in German helmed by Werner Jacobs.
Moreover, the "British version" is in Eastmancolor, the German one in black & white!!!
I have the good luck to have both on VHS, the German one having been shown on the "Kabel" channel some months ago, and the English one is also from TV but much older.
This film is also considered as a British/German copro.
Well, in this case, we can call "these" movies "alternate versions", but in an artificial sense (like "Godzilla, King of the Monsters" was an alternate version of "Gojira" - but not an authentic one; the re-cutting and added sequences were not made by Toho during the shooting);
The fact is that "Circus of Fear" was a 100% British movie, produced by "Circus Film" and released in GB by Anglo-Amalgamated.
Perhaps the British producer (Harry Alan Towers) had an eye toward the German market, as some German actors (Heinz Drache, Eddi Arent, Klaus Kinski...) were included in the cast.
After that, the film was made, in color, and in English only. The British version runs for 83 mins.
Harry Alan Towers saw probably the interest of his movie for the German market, so another EDITING of "Circus of Fear" was made, with some shots deleted, others (absent in the English editing) were used, and as the Edgar Wallace movies were generally in black & white, a b&w print was made from the color negative!
The film was then post-synchronized in German. I suppose the German actors made their own dubbing. The cast is exactly the same in both version, NOTHING was "filmed twice". And Werner Jacobs was credited as director. Perhaps he was present on the set in England to direct the German actors, or perhaps he only "supervised" the German editing.
So, at the finale, both films are different (the German version has more shots of Kinski, etc.), but in this peculiar case, the word "alternate" must be taken with precaution, it's simply a case of different editing, dubbing, black & white print, etc. - it's not at all "filmed twice"....
Curiously, the version released in the USA was also in b&w, cut to ... 65 mins, called "Psycho-Circus", but was probably made from the English version, which was in color !
I'll check carefully CL filmography, and I'll tell you if other, but "legitimate" alternate versions were made with some of his other films...
Outside of Chris Lee, this practice to make several "language" versions of a film wasn't limited to the early Thirties as some people imagine. In the Fifties for instance, at least four French fantasy films were made this way: "Barbe-Bleue", by Christian-Jaque, with Pierre Brasseur, has a German version, "Blaubart", by the same director, but Hans Albers replaces Brasseur - and Cecile Aubry stars in both versions; "Marianne de ma jeunesse", by Duvivier, also has a German version, "Marianne", Pierre Vaneck and Gil Vidal in the French, Horst Buchholz and Udo Vioff in the German, and Marianne Hold and Isabelle Pia in both; Christian-Jaque's "Singoalla", shot in Sweden, in three versions - swedish, french, english - Viveca Lindfors stars in all three but with different actors; "Garou-Garou le passe-muraille", with Bourvil and Joan Greenwood, also an English version with the same duo, "Mr. Peek-a-Boo", with some actors replaced - and so on!!!

[Domenick Fraumeni]

And let us not forget the notorious Jesus Franco, who made a couple of films with Lee. The number of alternate versions for nearly every one of his movies is legendary in some circles.