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We want it scary...but not TOO scary!

Thought a thread about the random things removed from daybills to make them less shocking would be interesting (well, it is to me anyway!  =))

First...The Case of the Missing Knife:

9z027 PSYCHOPATH linen 3sh 66 Robert Bloch wild horror image Mother may I go out to kill 8c323 PSYCHOPATH Aust daybill 66 written by Robert Bloch bizarre horror artwork  6w012 PLAY MISTY FOR ME insert 71 classic Clint Eastwood Jessica Walter an invitation to terror 8t744 PLAY MISTY FOR ME Aust daybill 71 Clint Eastwood Jessica Walter an invitation to terror

Now things aren't scary anymore!

Next...the Case of the Edited Face:

4g203 BLUEBEARDS 10 HONEYMOONS insert 60 wild art of George Sanders with skeleton bride  b436 MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH insert movie poster 59 Hammer Lee 9p777 MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH Aust daybill 59 Hammer horror Richardson Studio artwork

4w177 FRANKENSTEIN MEETS SPACE MONSTERCURSE OF VOODOO insert 65 cool artwork of alien monsters 

What other cases are out there?
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Comments

  • Well, there you go. There's a few things missing I've never noticed before. Nice work Mark!
  • Excellent thread, nice finds too
  • The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb ( 1964 ).

    Top image. U.S. insert showing a choking scene.

    Middle image. Daybill produced by Robert Burton and printed for New Zealand release only. The mummy's hand  around woman along with choking scene ( you can just see black border of this ) all blacked out.

    Bottom scene. Australian daybill produced for first Australian release in 1973, after being originally banned has choking scene missing, a sexier girl's appearance than the U.S. original but for some reason is gagged. Who would and could have gagged her ?

  • Good pick-ups. I guess the most notorious editing may have been on the House on Haunted Hill with the skeleton removed.

  • Great idea this thread, enjoyed!
  • I wonder if the Tarantula  daybill can be considered censored with the woman removed from the fangs of the spider unlike the US insert? 
  • Does this one count?  Not really censoring scary...but censoring none the less.

  • Then there is this...no creature on the daybill


  • "Psychopath" is more scary in the second version. What's he doing with that thumb?
  • And it's good to see Bluebeard changed necrofilia for transsexuals.
  •                                                                                                                                                                                           An Australian daybill and as no U.S. insert available  a U.S. one shee of House Of Horrors ( 1946 ).

    Note the lame Australian daybill released in Australia as The Sinister Shadow has no mention of the creeper,  no decent image of Rondo Hatton or the attempted strangling scene. In its place we have the two romantic leads highlighted with a Rondo Hatton silhouette showing the back of Rondo Hatton only and mainly covered with the title of the film and the cast details. No a very convincing poster to sell a film stating in bold lettering ''A Horror Film Suitable Only For Adults. 

  • You say "lame" but I still think the Sinister Shadow (aka House of Horrors) is a great daybill!  Many of us have one too although I don't know if that equates to it being great or us just collectively having poor taste ;)
  • CSM said:
    You say "lame" but I still think the Sinister Shadow (aka House of Horrors) is a great daybill!  Many of us have one too although I don't know if that equates to it being great or us just collectively having poor taste ;)

    For a non horror daybill it is great. In the nineties in Australia there was a plentiful supply of them available in the marketplace. 
  • Those Kiwis are a dastardly lot!


  • edited September 2015

    There is a lot more history about this one sheet than probably some people think. I would be curious for a detailed run down on this poster and what has taken place here. My question is why was it used in New Zealand in the first place? I have what I believe to be the reason why but am keen to hear what other people think before I comment.

    This is an extreme case of censorship in New Zealand that didn't happen often to this extent but has clear explanation to explain as to why it happened.

  • Rick said:
    Good pick-ups. I guess the most notorious editing may have been on the House on Haunted Hill with the skeleton removed.

    Not just the skeleton also Price holding the woman's head by the hair, the man drowning in the cesspool...
  • Another face 'adjustment':

    9w827 WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE insert 69 creepy close up of woman buried up to her face 8t956 WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE Aust daybill 69 close up of woman buried up to her face
  • This is more of a subtle case of framing things to minimise the impact of the violence:





    They've carefully managed to edit out two heads on the RH border. No doubt they were concerned about the man about buried in the ground *SPOILER ALERT * about to get his head pulled off.
  • Well spotted!
  • Slightly less subtle...

    2o167 I BURY THE LIVING insert poster 58 out of a time-rotted tomb crawls an unspeakable horror 8r801 I BURY THE LIVING Aust daybill 58 out of a time-rotted tomb crawls an unspeakable horror

    Let's just remove the awesome ghoul and replace it with some not-so-awesome tombstones.
  • great topic guys
  • Another not so subtle change - this one nearly renders the poster useless!


  •                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               It can be as small as only a word substitution.
  • :rofl: 

    The Thing With Two Heads
  • David said:
    :rofl: 

    The Thing With Two Heads

    Exactly!
  • CSM said:
    Those Kiwis are a dastardly lot!


    HONDO said:

    There is a lot more history about this one sheet than probably some people think. I would be curious for a detailed run down on this poster and what has taken place here. My question is why was it used in New Zealand in the first place? I have what I believe to be the reason why but am keen to hear what other people think before I comment.

    This is an extreme case of censorship in New Zealand that didn't happen often to this extent but has clear explanation to explain as to why it happened.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Very quiet regarding this poster so I may as well have my say about it.

    The majority of Australian film  distributors around the time this film was released had branches in New Zealand and their product was released in both countries using the same poster designs that were printed in Australia for both countries with the New Zealand printed material on a whole having the Australian censorship ratings left off to allow for the N.Z. rating to be applied.

    The exceptions were for Allied Artists and British Lion whose product was released in New Zealand through the Robert James Kerridge group who controlled the Kerridge Odeon Cinema chain as well as International Film Distributors and Lion Film Distributors.

    Regarding the Allied Artists product, apart from sighting one Australian printed Paramount daybill King Of The Roaring 20's with the New Zealand Y censorship rating on it Allied Artists product had their own daybills printed most likely in N.Z. for International Film Distributors. Titles I have seen are The George Raft Story, Taffy and The Jungle Hunter ( released in Australia by Blake Films ), Operation Eichmann!, The Big Circus ( if you would like to revisit my earlier thread ''Certain Designs Of Different Daybills Could Have Been Different''  you will see the Australian and N.Z. daybill designs & Riot In Cell Block 11. I have never sighted a N.Z. one sheet printed for International Film Distributors which would lead me to believe they used imported U.S. and possibly U.K. one sheets for distribution in New Zealand.

    By using Australian designed daybills and one sheets in the majority of New Zealand releases major problems in censorship didn't appear to occur to the extent of the case of using the U.S. one sheet of House On Haunted Hill where three images were censored.




  •                                                                                                                                                                                               Here is a New Zealand International Film Distributors daybill design. I have never seen an Australian daybill design of this daybill whch was released in Australia by Uniited Atrtists.
  • Very interesting.  Thanks!
  • Have a look at the Riot In Cell Block 11 image above. Does something look out of place to you ?
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