Comparison between the US DVD by Blue Underground and the German DVD by Starlight as well as the Composite Cut on the Blu-ray by Koch Media
2 extensions
Additional material: 340,7 sec (= 5:41 min) (PAL)
The international versions of THE BLOODY JUDGE
The 1970 exploitation flick The Bloody Judge with Christopher Lee, directed by Jess Franco, exists in various versions, only some of which have survived today. Over the years, there have been several attempts at compositing, the most common of which is the one on the US DVD by Blue Underground with a duration of 98 minutes in PAL (NTSC/Blu-ray: 102 minutes). By the way, more than 5 minutes were inserted here with German sound. Those scenes were apparently missing in the original US version (they contain nude scenes). In Germany, there was also a DVD by Starlight with 108 minutes (in NTSC speed), which was the longest running DVD, but the additional scenes here have a very bad quality.
Koch Media now brings two HD scans on Blu-ray. On the one hand, the German theatrical version, which runs for about 76 minutes in PAL and is thus heavily cut. As mentioned, however, this version also contains more explicit nude scenes, which were then added to the US DVD. Koch Media was also able to prepare this 98 resp. 102 minute Composite Cut from Blue Underground in HD. As a bonus, you will find the two alternative scenes from the other European versions in the form of deleted scenes. At the same time, the two pure additional scenes from the Italian DVD have been added in for an additional "Integral-Fassung" (= Composite Cut) on the bonus DVD, which brings us to the reason for this report.
The Composite Cut with the additional Italian scenes
For the German DVD by Starlight, the long Italian scene at the lake was added to the Blue Underground master from a very badly preserved source. The Italian DVD and therefore also the Koch release contain this in much better quality. The second additional scene with Mary and Harry in the dungeon looked a bit better on Starlight, but the Italo DVD was better here too. Probably because these inserts exist only in SD, Koch unfortunately decided to include the new integral version only on DVD, not in HD /on Blu-ray.
As you know from the separate report for the Italian DVD, the second additional scene there was half a minute longer at the beginning than it's now added in the composite cut. As an alternative to the missing nude scene from the international cut, Mary is freed from her chains here for the first time. Since this wouldn't have fit for reasons of continuity, this part was also omitted from Koch. However this is also missing in the bonus featurette "additional scenes" on the Koch Blu-ray. Here it could have been included for the sake of completeness, but again you only see the shortened composite 1:1 like in the new integral version. In the "cut/alternative scenes" at the bonus on the Integral DVD you won't find the material either.
Quick overview of the versions
1. Restoration by Blue Underground (US DVD + Koch Media)
- Duration: 102 min NTSC or converted 98 min PAL
- Special features: The longest version, released for the first time in 2005, in consistently good quality. Several scenes have already been added to the presumably almost 90-minute US theatrical version, for which only German sound is available.
- Releases: In addition to the aforementioned US DVD, Koch Media is offering this version in HD on the German Blu-ray for the first time.
2. Composite Cut (Starlight + Koch Media)
- Duration: 108 min (the German Starlight DVD runs at NTSC speed) or 104 min PAL on the Koch bonus DVD
- Special features: First published in Germany in 2007. Based on the Blue Underground restoration, the two additional scenes of the Italian version were added.
- Releases: The 2007 DVD from Starlight has the additional material only in very poor quality and the second scene is only partially included. On the Blu-ray by Koch Media, released in 2020, the scenes are added from the better source which later appeared in Italy.
3. German theatrical version (Starlight + Koch Media)
- Duration: 79 min Blu-ray or 76 min PAL
- Special features: As you can already guess from the running time, the film is available here in a heavily cut version (However, it also contains scenes that were missing in other European versions at the time. During the Blue Underground restoration, as already mentioned, only scenes with German audio were inserted.
- Releases: Included on disc 2 of the 2007 DVD by Starlight. Koch Media's Blu-ray released in 2020 offers this version as a bonus in new, own HD scanning.
4. Italian version
- Duration: 90 min PAL or converted 94 min NTSC
- Special features: Shortened by about 15 minutes compared to the Blue Underground restoration, many censorship cuts. But you could discover two additional scenes, which were later partly added in the Composite Cut. Above that, two alternative scenes: A completely separate shot in which the actors are dressed instead of naked and altered violent scenes.
- Releases: At least included on the 2005 DVD released by Majestic Films / CVC. Later Italo-DVDs are listed with a runtime of 98 minutes, possibly the Blue Underground restoration was taken over here.
5. Spanish version
- Duration: 89 min (the Spanish DVD runs at NTSC speed) or the equivalent of 86 min PAL
- Special features: Shortened by almost 13 minutes. Many of the cuts correspond to those of the Italian version, but any additional material from there was not taken over. A scene with Sally (Diana Lorys) offers some unspectacular additional material.
- Releases: Included on the Spanish DVD from Divisa Home Entertainment.
Runtimes are ordered as follows: US DVD in NTSC / German DVD in NTSC speed
