Got the same reply straight from the horse's mouth:
The Criterion Collection’s newest Blu-ray/DVD release of CARNIVAL OF
SOULS is the theatrical cut of the film, and the longest scenes from
the director’s cut will be presented on the release as deleted scenes.
The camera negative we used for our 4K transfer and 2K restoration is
the theatrical cut, and the other cut only exists in an analog
one-inch videotape.
Here is the intro text that will be presented on the disc explaining this:
A few brief scenes, along with a handful of individual shots, were
trimmed from Carnival of Souls before its theatrical and drive-in
release in 1962. The distributor, Herts-Lion International, made the
cuts so that the film’s run time would be short enough for it to play
on a double bill with The Devil’s Messenger. In 1989, director Herk
Harvey edited the material back in to create a new cut of the film for
home video release. As the best existing source for that material is
an analog one-inch videotape, we have not included it in the restored
2K master of the film presented in this release. The longest three of
the cut scenes are presented here, with head and tail from the new
restoration.
Well, there we have it. Unfortunately the (in my mind much better) director's cut is in the bin.
I am not quite sure what to make of their reply, though. It is a definite fact that Carnival of Souls had a limited theatrical re-release in 1989.
Here's a couple of old reviews/ articles:
NY Times
LA Times
My google-fu is weak and my old film magazines in storage, so I cannot find any hard confirmation of the runtime of that re-release.
This
article from Offscreen claims that "the re-release of Carnival of Souls [...] contained several minutes of extra footage". I cannot, however, access the source, The Weekend Australian.
IMDB and Wikipedia say the same, but their claims are unsourced.
Wiki also claims that uncut 16mm prints where shipped to TV stations:
The 35 mm theatrical prints were cut by Herz-Lion to 78 minutes which trimmed the camera original. However, the 16 mm television copies were printed complete and individually cut by each station to fit their time slot, which is why they vary in length. WOR in New York City used to broadcast the film intact in a late night timeslot in the sixties. The scenes cut by the theatrical distributor include a scene where Mary stops at a gas station and discusses the carnival building with the attendant, a longer dialogue sequence between the minister and carpenter and an extra scene where the doctor talks to the landlady. All of them were put back into the camera negative in 1989.
Criterion did not respond to my question about the length of the 1989 re-release, but only notes that the best existing source of the extra scenes are an old analogue one-inch videotape. It follows that whatever theatrical print was used back in 1989 no longer exists. This could certainly be the case, as it appears it only played few venues outside filmfestivals. Panorama Entertainment probably only had a couple or maybe even a single print made.
The question remains whether any of those 16mm prints survive?
If you check the title in WorldCat, you can find entries of what appears to be complete 16mm prints, like
this one, which is described as "2 film reels (84 min.)". Whether that means the print actually still exists and is accessible somewhere, some more knowledgeable member can hopefully tell.
