Cutting to the past

Hammer Films, back in business following the success of The Woman in Black, the studio's first film for 35 years, now also has its famous past very much in mind.

The company has issued a public appeal to track down lost scenes that were cut from its films by censors - nine from six of its titles, in particular:



The Reptile - an extended "knife in neck/snakebite" scene
The Curse of Frankenstein - the "eyeball" and "head in acid bath" scenes
The Mummy - "under-dressed maidens", "tongue-cutting" and/or the "tongue wriggling" scenes
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell - extended "glass-in-throat" and "body falling into grave" scenes
Rasputin: The Mad Monk - extended fight scene
The Viking Queen  (pictured below) - extended, more explicit version

At the time, the censored scenes were deemed too gory or shocking for British audiences. However, uncut films often survive in film reels sent to other countries.

"We're fairly sure they exist in private collections, instead of official archives," Peter Naish, Hammer's senior vice-president of distribution, said.

"There's a network of Hammer fans and collectors who snap these things up, so we need to scour the whole world and appeal to the fans at large to see what we can come up with."

Mr Naish said Hammer was particularly keen to find the lost footage from Peter Cushing film, The Curse of Frankenstein, which features the "head in acid bath" scene.

"I think that one's iconic - that would be the one people would most want to see. But if we can find any others, that would be great," he added.

The film studio plans to restore all the cut versions as part of a wider restoration project.