Trimming, re-ordering, and in a few scenes adding new shots to the completed films - mainly close-ups of star Jones, but also a spoken prologue (performed by Selznick contract player Joseph Cotten) and other establishing devices throughout.
Somewhereīetween the completion of the film and its initial British release, Selznickīecame dissatisfied with the presentation of his wife Jennifer Jones in theĬentral role of Hazel Woodus and, after a court case and subsequent ruling,Įxercised his right to refashion the film for its eventual American release. Selznick’s Vanguard Films, who would own the American rights. Managed by Alexander Korda, who would control distribution in the U.K., and David Screen, the Archers initiated the project through British Lion films, then Adapting Mary Webb’s 1917 novel Gone to Earth to the Selznick, and the Britishįilmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, known (and credited)Īs the Archers. Jennifer Jones, her husband, producer David O. How there came to be two versions of the same film involvesĪ complication of business and personal relationships between the film’s star, Both versions are available in their entirety on this deluxe Blu-ray, however, complete with feature-length commentaries on both the Powell and Pressburger Gone to Earth (1950) and the David O.
Since the film’s rescue by the British Film Institute, the preferred Powell/Pressburger cut has been widely available on home video, including DVD, but KLSC makes the curious decision to advertise this new special edition Blu-ray under its Selznick-retitled title The Wild Heart, which became American audiences only exposure to the film until the original version Gone to Earth was restored for international appreciation in the mid-1980s. Selznick re-cut and (mildly) re-shot The Wild Heart. Kino Lorber Studio Classics headlines their late June Blu-ray release of the 1950 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger film Gone to Earth with its 1952 David O.