Strange VHS/DVD purchases?

[Trevor]

I bought a VHS copy of John Frankenheimer's Ronin at a library sale last year and I thought something looked a little funny, but thought nothing more of it until I brought it home. On closer inspection, the title and all the back cover info was in Russian! 

The film was in English, though and the running time had been slashed by 15 minutes. 

[FatFreddysCat]

I used to have a VHS of one of those "Hard N Heavy" video music magazines which had Japanese sub-titles running along the bottom of the screen for the entire program....that may not be so weird in and of itself, except that there was no indication whatsoever on the box cover, the label on the tape, or anywhere else that the tape was Japanese. 

[The Burgomaster]

I bought the Al Pacino movie AUTHOR! AUTHOR! when it was released on DVD a few years ago.  The release date was mysteriously announced and delayed a few times.  Anyway, I'm 99% sure they cut the final scene of the movie from the DVD.  I seem to remember a scene at the very end where Al Pacino is in bed and his kids come in, wake him up, throw a cake in his face, and (in a TV sitcom-style moment) everyone starts laughing and jumping around while the end theme plays.  This scene is missing from the DVD.  Nowhere on the DVD case does it say "home video version" or anything else that would inform you it was edited.

[tracy]

I remember when the made-for-tv mini series "Shogun" first came out on VHS and we rushed out to buy it....that's when one movie was $79-$89. We got it home and realized that they had condensed this many hours long film into two hours....I'd never seen anything so butchered in my life! If I hadn't already seen it I would have been completely lost.

[Jack]

I've got Prom Night 3 & 4 on DVD.  I think it's part 3 that's the edited-for-TV version.  Luckily I knew that before I bought it, it was only a buck or two anyway.

I got the He Man - Shera Christmas Special on a used VHS tape.  Unfortunately someone had recorded a Tom and Jerry cartoon over it.   

Then I got Shark Attack 3 and it was an ex-rental DVD.  The idiot I bought it from had removed the rental sticker but left all the glue behind.  The idiot over here put it in his DVD player.  Yeah, it glued itself in place inside there.  That was my old Magnavox DVD player, built like a tank.  I forced the tray open and removed the disk, and after a day or two it went back to operating normally.

Caged Heat 3000 deserves a mention too.  Another used VHS tape.  There's a rather sexy scene towards the beginning of the movie.  It was VERY obvious that the tape had been rewound about 1,000 times over that spot 

[claws]

A few years ago I bought "Terminal Island" (1973) on DVD from some shady company at the bin. Turns out it was a censored (TV?) version missing every bit of violence, language and sex. Since I only paid $4 I threw it in the trashcan.

[FatFreddysCat]

I've got Prom Night 3 & 4 on DVD.  I think it's part 3 that's the edited-for-TV version.  Luckily I knew that before I bought it, it was only a buck or two anyway.

I had that same DVD, unfortunately I wasn't aware that "3" was the edited version until I watched it. :(  Like you, I got it cheap so I wasn't too perturbed. I think I paid two bucks for it, and I later got $3.00 for it when I held a yard sale so I even made a profit on it. :)

[zombie no.one]

few years ago made a random purchase from my local 2nd hand place. I'm struggling to remember the name of the film, but on the back of the DVD case it described the entire plot of the film including the twist ending!

[The Burgomaster]

And, of course, back in 2003 I bought a copy of homemade movie THE CURSE OF COUNT CHOCULA from a guest who posted in this forum!

[joejoe]

a friend years ago gave me a copy of "The Humanoid" with Richard Kiel

the movie was dubbed in french and had spanish subtitles on the screen.

I just watched the movie with the volumn turned dow