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Signal One Entertainment has just announced that they are releasing Alan Arkin's second film, Fire Sale (1977), on August 27th. All I can say is that I hated this film so much at the time of its release that it's one of the very few I've walked out on. Perhaps forty years will have changed my perspective on it, perhaps not.

CineOutsider:

Little Murders is remarkable and feels quite unique even among the wealth of great films that came out of seventies American cinema. This package from Indicator is more or less an embarrassment of riches, particularly for a film with such a low profile.

Does anyone know what the history with the MPAA rating on this film is? Difference sources list the film as "Rated R" or "Rated PG."
I can find posters on Google Images that carry an R-rating, but the DVD back-cover has a PG-rating.
The AFI catalog lists the running time of the film as "106 or 108 mins" (the Blu-Ray runs 108 minutes).
CARA's website states "PG: Edited for re-rating" but lists a date of 1973 instead of the film's release in 1971.

I can't tell for sure if the PG-rating/editing was something that came later (and corresponds to the 106 minute running time, not the 108 minute version on the Blu-Ray).
For instance I know MASH was originally rated R, then released in a version cut to PG at some point (and in trying to compare how CARA's website might display that information, I discovered that CARA only lists an R-rating with a date of 2001 and has no information about any previous release/rating).

I'm not sure whether something similar occurred with Little Murders (the PG-version is an alternate version that is not-in-circulation), or whether the PG-rating/editing is from the original release and what may have been "edited," whether the film was actually simply re-rated PG without anything actually being removed, or whether the DVD stating the film is rated "PG" is actually a mistake based on an alternate edit of the film that wasn't actually the one on the DVD.

Which also makes me wonder, why would MASH have been re-rated R in 2001? It already had an R-rating.

Worth keeping in mind that the early years of ratings are often inexplicable: Pretty Poison would be an easy PG-13 now (and PG then), but was R on release. Countless PG films feel like R-rated movies. Psycho and Baby Doll passed the production code but garnered an R rating on rerelease

PfR73 wrote: Thu Jun 28, 2018 11:30 pm Does anyone know what the history with the MPAA rating on this film is? Difference sources list the film as "Rated R" or "Rated PG."
I can find posters on Google Images that carry an R-rating, but the DVD back-cover has a PG-rating.
The AFI catalog lists the running time of the film as "106 or 108 mins" (the Blu-Ray runs 108 minutes).
CARA's website states "PG: Edited for re-rating" but lists a date of 1973 instead of the film's release in 1971.

I can't tell for sure if the PG-rating/editing was something that came later (and corresponds to the 106 minute running time, not the 108 minute version on the Blu-Ray).
For instance I know MASH was originally rated R, then released in a version cut to PG at some point (and in trying to compare how CARA's website might display that information, I discovered that CARA only lists an R-rating with a date of 2001 and has no information about any previous release/rating).

I'm not sure whether something similar occurred with Little Murders (the PG-version is an alternate version that is not-in-circulation), or whether the PG-rating/editing is from the original release and what may have been "edited," whether the film was actually simply re-rated PG without anything actually being removed, or whether the DVD stating the film is rated "PG" is actually a mistake based on an alternate edit of the film that wasn't actually the one on the DVD.

Which also makes me wonder, why would MASH have been re-rated R in 2001? It already had an R-rating.

](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) I just lost a big post about this, let me try again.

I'm not sure about the Little Murders case, but perhaps I can help light the way towards an answer by explaining the deal with MASH

Everybody knows that MASH was adapted as a TV series. What's forgotten is that the show was not an immediate hit, and in fact came close to cancellation during its first two seasons. To help drum up interest in the show, Fox re-released the film theatrically. In order to reach a broader audience, they recut the film, removing some nudity and shortening the operating room scenes, for a "PG" rating and also to make the film look a little more like the show. The ploy worked, and the third season of the TV show was a smash. This "PG" cut would also be the basis for the one aired on network TV and syndication.

The re-release poster

The problem now was that Fox had two separate cuts of the same film. When home video happened a few years later, Fox haphazardly issued both at different times on VHS (I believe only the "R" made it to LaserDisc). Also somewhere along the way they remixed the soundtrack for stereo, permanently damaging the original mono elements in the process.

The film received an extensive restoration of the "R" cut for its 30th anniversary (IIRC, this involved the creation of a new negative and mono track, in addition to a remastered stereo mix, a new 5.1 mix, and a commentary w/Altman). IIRC, it had a limited theatrical release prior to appearing on VHS and a loaded deluxe 2-disc DVD, and I assume this is where that latest certification comes from.

I would like to say that Little Murders was recut for similar reasons, but I don't have evidence as concrete as what I've just illustrated re:MASH

Sadly, the rights to this Fox (now Disney) title couldn't be renewed, and so Little Murders will be going OOP even in the standard edition on 30 June 2023.

But it's still available as of today - and it's included in Powerhouse's 3 for £20 bundle, along with the other four affected titles (Dragonwyck, The St Valentine's Day Massacre, The Snake Pit, The Third Secret).

More details here.