LEGEND FILMS ain't legendary or legit!
Richard Masloski | New Windsor, New York USA | 12/17/2009
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I'd give the actual film - originally titled "Beyond Tomorrow" - 3-4 stars. It is a touching, sentimental, well-acted, well-directed, wonderfully scored little film about Life and Death and the bigger picture of both top priority topics. It even brought tears to my eyes. I highly recommend this film, although only the first fifth of it deals directly with the Christmas season. Despite, LEGEND's retitling it to "Beyond Christmas" it is still extremely worth watching - but NOT the version released by LEGEND.
Oh, the cover of the DVD is beautiful! The couple of "Vintage Holiday Film Rarities" are very brief appeals from Bob Hope and Bette Davis to buy Christmas seals to aid in the fight against TB and war bonds to aid in the World War Two war effort. That's about it. The trailers are for "A Christmas Wish" a.k.a. "The Great Rupert" and ....yes, "Beyond Christmas"! The inclusion of the "restored black and white version" of the main feature is totally pointless - and for this reason: LEGEND actually had the guts to clip out 5 minutes of the full "Beyond Tomorrow" and add those deleted scenes as extras and claim them as "Deleted Scenes." Yes - they were deleted from this print - by LEGEND itself! Why? Just so the buyer believes he/she is seeing things left on the cutting room floor in 1940. It just ain't so. And it is especially pitiful because the film looks good in color - but what a shame that LEGEND can colorize the film decently...yet then go and chop-cut it just to add extras.
Get the movie, but not this purposefully truncated version. I have the full film (84 minutes compared to LEGEND'S 79 minutes)as put out by Westlake Entertainment Group. Believe me, five minutes might not seem like much - but they are CRITICAL scenes to the flow of the story - and to have to watch them afterwards under the bogus claim that they are "Deleted Scenes" is a small crime. So before buying a version...make sure it runs 84 minutes.
LEGEND just ain't legendary...nor legit! They did the same thing with the Seymour Hick's version of "A Christmas Carol" which I have reviewed elsewhere. Shame on 'em!"