Will this ever ever ever be released? Who owns it? Columbia?

Yes, and once they finish the MGM merger, will also own A Child is Waiting, Love Streams and I'm Almost Not Crazy: The Life and Work of John Cassavetes (biopic he starred in). An MGM 2 disc of those last two would be nice, and Husbands is the last Columbia/Tri-Star Cassavetes title that remains unreleased. If we get all those films I mentioned, we'll only need Too Late Blues from Paramount to finish the collection. Alas, the wait continues...

Let's hope that if they ever release it, they'll both restore the missing ten-minute vomiting scene and add Tristam Powell's doc Making Husbands; great behind-the-scenes material, and lots of footage that is either alternate takes or outtakes.

Incidentally I'm Almost Not Crazy isn't a biopic, it's a making-of doc shot behind the scenes of Love Streams. A no-brainer to do that as a two-fer.

Awesome news. Well, Sony has gotten a lot better at restoring films and doing special editions lately. MGM, not so hopeful for....

Does anyone know the length of the different "cuts" by Cassavetes ?

Not sure if you mean for all his films or just Husbands, but there's an overview at (surprise!) Ray Carney's site. Some of the info there is out of date, and there are some inaccuracies (for instance Carney has claimed many times that the VHS release of Love Streams is missing about 20 minutes, but I've timed it myself and it's clocks in at a full 141m). But short of reading his book (which, as I've said elsewhere, I highly recommend) it's a place to start.

Basically though, the most problematic issues are about eleven minutes cut from all current release prints of Husbands (a scene of Harry, Gus and Archie vomiting in the men's room of the bar), and a missing morning-after scene with Seymour Cassell and Holly Near (as "Irish") near the beginning of Minnie & Moskowitz. Apart from that, there were lots of different work-in-progress versions over the years, most of which probably no longer exist.

I always found the story of how Cassavetes nixed the Columbia editor's original edit of HUSBANDS. Apparently it was too funny and it concentrated on Gazzarra too much. Cassavetes had right of way and edited it his way. Also, the missing reel is not down to Cassavetes. Columbia must have snuck that one in the shorten the film without permission. A snippet from this scene can be found on the Kisleyak doco. [Is the missing MINNIE & MOSCOWITZ scene another sneaky cut?]

With a lot of these stories, it depends on your source and their point of view. According to Carney, Cassavetes made a number of different cuts of his own, and the one that was most comedic was done mostly as a ruse to Columbia to buy more editing time, and was never intended for public view.

The missing scenes from Husbands and Minnie were exised after the films were in distribution; though accounts vary as to why, the one thing everyone agress on is that they were not John's own cuts. Oh and BTW, the snippet of Husbands you refer to is originally from the Making of Husbands doc.

The snippet I mentioned is of the craggy voiced man singing. This is a New York scene and is mentioned as being from the film. I thought the doco was made in London and therefore any deleted footage would be from the London section.

I'm sure I have read of the original HUSBANDS edit elsewhere than Carny's site. When I saw it on Carney's sight I considered it confirmation. I can't remember my other sources.

The bottom line is that many fans out there want this film - in its proper ratio, unlike the "modified" video version - released on DVD. All other extras would be welcome but not necessarily essential.

Having not seen Husbands in its first run, I can't say whether the scene of John "Red" Kullers singing "Brother Can You Spare A Dime" was in the original cut or not. All I'm saying is that the Husbands outtakes used in A Constant Forge were taken from the "Making of" doc, which you can easily determine from comparing the two side by side. One of the interesting things about that doc is that most of the footage taken from Husbands itself (i.e. not the behind-the-scenes footage) didn't end up in the final film, and moreover is clearly from a rough cut / work print (scratchy image, unmixed audio) which Cassavetes must have provided for the filmmaker.



No argument there!



Er... speak for yourself, mate.

Husbands is on right now on Starz. I was compelled to watch it again, but wish Columbia would just put it out.

I started a petition for Husbands to get released on DVD.

http://new.petitiononline.com/jch70/petition.html

Actually, doesn't Sony also own the rights to Love Streams and Minnie & Moskowitz? How about a Cassavetes box?

I think they do-but they put out Minnie and Moskowitz and its OOP and Love Streams is out in region 2.

I thought Anchor Bay released Minnie?

Anchor Bay briefly held the license to Minnie & Moskowitz, but it has since reverted. I was pretty sure it was licensed from Universal.

Either way, Sony/MGM not only holds the unreleased Husbands and Love Streams, but also A Child is Waiting and the documentary I'm Almost Not Crazy: John Cassavetes - The Man and His Work. Throw in the fact that they own the previously released Gloria and Big Trouble, and you have a crapload of Cassavetes that could easily be collected.

Your right, it was anchor bay. I realise that there are several different versions of Husbands, but I figure lets at least get the 131 minute cut on DVD and then we can go forward and have the footage that was cut out put back in. If only we could see that 225 minute version. I just cant stand watching that horrible pan and scan video anymore.

225???? Are you kidding me?

No-Im not-LOL-at one point he had a 225 minute cut of the film, but was forced to cut it way down because of his contract with Columbia.

I assume a lot of that would have been in the beginning and the ending.

Im not sure-I think the 225 minute version must have had cut scenes as well as scenes that were extended. Its briefly described in Cassavetes on Cassavetes.

Only 21 signatures? I shouldn't be surprised, but I was hoping to at least get to 100!

OK, signed. I was waiting to see if there would be a new petition urging them to release the other films as well.
Have you thought of sending a note to Ray Carney about this? Many dislike him but he also has a large crew of devotees -- colleagues, former students, etc. -- and the number of signatures would shoot up much more quickly if he put it on his site.

Thanks to everyone who have signed so far. Ray is more than welcome to sign, I don't want to bother him with it.

What if you were to tell everyone on the petition to vote for it at the turner classic movie site at tcmdb.