Footage Found From The 1967 Version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
In 1967 the Associated British Picture Corporation released a ten-part serial adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It has since been lost and only parts 1 and 8 have survived. We were just sent a tip about episode 8 which has been uploaded to YouTube. You can view it below:
Episode 8, Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIS0ALJAwbI
Episode 8, Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOLFCX_Cf_U
UPDATE: The videos have been removed.
According to our tipster, “At the time, the ABC did not have the budget to store old programs, nor any idea there would be home video, so after an initial airing and a few repeats, the recording would be trashed or erased for re-use.” You can read more about this mini-series at Wikipedia.
Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Thank you Jared for sending these in!
My point was that the technology that they had back then was nothing compared to what we have now. Simple as that. I don't know why people are so touchy about these things, let it go!
Wow… they made Aslan yell at Lucy… 🙁
Okay…so…other than a much better Aslan, a less girly Edmund and a really unnecessary narrative by the professor, this is very close in costumes and acting to the BBC versions. The Mrs. Beaver costume is practically the same 🙂
Judging from the comments, this forum is apparently filled with kids and teens. Well, you won't be able to appreciate what I'm going to say, but as far as I'm concerned, I'll take this version and the animated one over Adamson's any day. Of course there are no special effects; this was 1967 and done like a play for TV. And for all that — putting aside Aslan screaming at Lucy — it's great! It feels a lot closer to the book than the movie-version, which, unfortunately, was too light, too kiddie-friendly, and lacking in any sense of gravitas or depth, which, for all its cheesy costumes, this one has in spades. Disney's Aslan may look like a lion (and not a Bert Lahr knockoff), but he had no bite. And Lewis' dialogue was rarely to be found (e.g., why was the "Emperor over the Sea" not mentioned?) And while I love Tilda Swinton, she's NOT Lewis' White Witch. This one looks like Pauline Baynes' illustration walked off the page. Anyone notice the vocal similarities between her and the actress who played her in the animated version? Adamson and the producers took too many liberties and just didn't know how to craft a powerful film from a powerful book. What resulted was tepid and mediocre. It needed an experienced English director with English sensibilities. Adamson upped his game quite a bit with PC (which at least justified any changes), and the new film's great. But if you want to understand why only half of the audience turned up for PC, look no further than the weaknesses of the first film.
As well, it's what it is. Shame, though, that the rest of this version is lost. 🙁
I suspect these children are trained for stage, not film work.
Anna Popplewell is a talented and delightful actor, and you have picked the wrong place to be rude about her!
I have a 30-minute introductory documentary that BBC made in 1988 to screen the week before they screened the first of the 6 episodes of The Lion The Witch & The Wardrobe. Its content included looking at other productions and talking to Trevor Preston, and it had a couple of clips out of this tape. Seeing so much more of it made me cringe at the deliberate updating to the 1960s, although it's also quaint historically. It was originally going to be a Narrator with bits of acting, and seems to have had the acting extended.
That is just awsome to bad the rest has been lost.
Wow! I never knew this 1967 version existed, either. Perhaps in 1967 I wouldn't have been able to watch it, due to work commitments.
I enjoyed seeing this fourth reproduction of LWW, done with who I assume is the Professor. Except that today, you wouldn't have a narrator fiddling around with a pipe whilst he narrated.
And I wonder which ABC it was and why they stopped at LWW?
Yes, you are right. It seems that LWW has been produced multiple times, but none of the other books, as if nobody knew they existed. If it wasn't for BBC then Walden we wouldn't have anything on PC, let alone the present VDT. Like you, I want to see Horse and his boy made, and I fear it never will be.
You said you bet they looked "beyond their time" back then. Of course not. People laughed at the production values of this cheap TV show then just as much as you laugh at it now. Go watch something like Lawrence of Arabia or Dr Zhivago and you'll see how high production values were in the 60s for real films.
Now that you mention it, the slightly exaggerated manner of the girls and Peter would suit a stage production, where subtle gestures and tone are easily missed by audiences sitting at a distance. You're probably right about them. I still say Edmund's dreadful.
As for Anna Popplewell, she has no expression in her eyes. She attempts to convey emotion by waggling or knitting her eyebrows and it doesn't work.
it's like finding a piece of lost Narnian history, isn't it?!?! 😀
I *LOVED* the narrator (Professor) guy! That was a pretty clever touch to add and still 'follow' the book. I didn't get much farther than Mrs. Beaver telling the kids Ed was back. I might end up watching both vids now. Everyone seems to think they're kind of interesting! 🙂
More thankful than ever for the three GREAT films we have. I have seen Dawn Treader twice and will see it again. It is exciting and moving. I wept each time. I wonder if we are too picky and hard to please if we end up more like Eustace Clarence Scrubb before being "de-dragoned" instead of being true Narnians! While driving home from the theater I asked my daughters what they liked best. One said the transformation of Eustace into a good boy and the others said they liked it when Aslan said, “You must know me by another name in your world.” Needless to say I teared up. What a film! What an adventure!
and in makes the walden LWW look like a $100 Billion LOL!!!
Wow, I just looked this up on Youtube yesterday because I saw FK mention this version on the forums… =P
Figures it stops at the good part…
Ok I'll admit it, I miss the old black and white TV shows… (and I wasn't even born yet when they were airing!)
Having seen every version of "LWW," I am glad to have at least seen a piece of this. 😉
I would rank them like this, although I've only seen a couple minutes of this version, in fairness to it:
1. Disney/Walden– definitely the best version ever made.
2. BBC–Like others, this version introduced me to Narnia. So for that reason, I will always love it. The Stone Table scene still makes me cry.
3. The Cartoon: Not horrible, but still pretty strange. It has my least favorite version of The White Witch. She is very annoying. "Fastah!! Fastah! I can see them fool, get this sled going!!" Sigh.
4. This version here– I did not like the way Aslan yelled "Work against the Emperor's magic." But in fairness to it, I would watch the whole series if I could. 😉
They should have borrowed the Wizard of Oz Lion costume from MGM. HeHeHeHe.
Wow. That was some scream. No, he's not tame at all. He looked like he was going to bite Lucy's head off–literally!
Gem, of COURSE the technology has advanced. That's sort of a no-brainer. But you can't compare this Narnia to the new one in that way, because one was a cheap TV serial and the other is a big-budget theatrical franchise. A better comparison would be, say, the BBC's Merlin series. 😀
wow, cool find!
Okay, that's terrible. 😛 I stopped watching after three minutes. I liked the narrator, though.
How far filmmaking has come! No wonder C.S. Lewis didn't want film adaptions!
je trouve que c est moins bien que maintenant et c est grisoulli
AHAHA! Yes it has.
Couldn't bear to see it after the piano started bonking and the top-heavy minotaurs ran on-screen!
you wouldn't have known the difference. you would have been young, had never seen anything better and wouldn't have known a more realistic version existed, so you would have enjoyed it.
ha ha, kinda makes you grateful , doesn't it? !
I'd love to hear douglas gresham narrate the books!!
We fuss and argued about the changes made from the book in today's Narnia films, even then, they made changes so ridiculously so.
he yells at her in the books. who else thought it was harsh when he growled at her for staying too long with edmund and pushed her to go heal others at the end battles in LWW?
`
Take 2… Wow!!!! They are definitely sticking to the book with that one! And I agree – Aslan's voice does sound a lot like Aslan in LWW and PC – Disney and VoDT- Fox. How things have changed!
I feel that it needs a real christian director and writer, who will make no apologies for the christian subtext. Most english directors these days are atheists and choke on the christian message. The first movie succeeded because it was gentle and took more time for characterization. PC had a full audience, then dropped off because word of mouth killed it. It had no character development, unbalanced ratio of battles to personal interaction, and deadly slow development of the telemarines- chunks of time spent on muttering accents and dingy surroundings.. I couldnt decipher the plot till the second time i saw it, having never read the book. when it ended the first time i saw PC, I just sat there baffled for 10 mins. The whole thing was just a dreary mess. There's a way to depict a dingy situation without choking off the audience watching it. I think the box office speaks for itself as to which movie of the first two was better made.
These are better than VODT! ;))
I fully expected to weep and even brought a hankercheif, but it all blew by so fast it didn't even stir up any emotion in me. Let's hope they put out an extended version in the dvd release, cause this looks like they went out and chopped out a half hour just to crank out more showings at the theatre. I had zero time to get emotionally involved.
Wow. I didn't think there was a version of LWW before the BBC.
My Mom was 7 when that was made. Poor Lucy she got yelled at!
We now have proof of where the idea of "good" minotaurs originated from. . .
Aslan seemed a bit harsh, but for the most part it was a good adaption! 🙂 The narrator was funny. 🙂 I liked the music as well.
what?! with all due respect, liberty! those are old films of narnia, probably in my parents's parents days!
ROFL. 2:11 Is.. wow. XDDD
4:35- BIGFOOT SIGHTING!!! 😮 😮 😮 XDDDD am I the only person who finds this HILARIOUS?! I'm seriously cracking up here. XD
woh! Aslan just yelled at Lucy! what on earth that is messed up! i mean i know he gets after her in the books about once of twice but its never yelling he just lightly scolds her like a gentle parent correcting their child.
other than that these are making me laugh so much! old movies are so rediculous and hilarious its funny how that was considered talented acting and awesome effects and such back then XD
So this is where the BBC got their costume ideas from…lol, giant 6 feet beavers XD
(no offense to BBC version. They have a better script than the new films)
it mad me cringe the sound of it. I am bearly able to watch it because of the poor quality.
"How do I know your promises will be kept" "RARRRRRRRRRRRRR" HAHAHAHAHAHA.
My brothers came in while I was watching this and asked me what it was. I told them that aliens had landed some years back, read Narnia, and then made a film out of it. 😛 I can't believe that was made in the late 60s! I would have expected better quality and color from 1967. Weird. Anyway, it was pretty hilarious, very melodramatic, and nothing like the book, even though they practically quoted the book word for word. The WW looked like Cleopatra and Aslan looked like an alien. 😛 Oh, and when the dwarf was suppose to look like a stone, he just looked like a very bulking paper bag shuffling around. 😛
I actually really like the storytelling aspect… nice touch there! But the music sounds slightly psychedelic…
I actually really like the narrator element… nice touch there! But the music sounds slightly psychedelic…
Wow…that's all I can say, but it really is too bad they lost the other parts, however bad they may be, I would have loved to see them! I'm also wondering how they would have portreied (sorry for spelling)Aslan's death and the battle!
I can't believe there's still footage of this–I've wanted to see it for years! I really like the Professor. And Aslan and the Witch conferring looks just like Pauline Baynes's illustration! All things considered, it's an impressive attempt, but I can see why this hasn't become part of the Narnia film canon…
Gah, what a nightmare. I don't think I'll be getting any sleep tonight.
He's not a tame lion… he's a bi-polar one.
Sorry, I just don't see it. The Beaver costumes are for the most part much better in this version. At least they look like beavers rather than furry pine-cones from the BBC series.
wow movie-making has really improved over the years! That was made in the 60's? I thought they had better quality back then, wow. It looks more like a theatre play than a movie. But- I guess if I had as little good resources as they had back then I couldn't have done much better!. Though Aslan seems totally different than he is in the book, even though he says the same things he says them so differently- whereas the new Walden media movies did it just how it was in the book even though they changed thew ords a little.
I think this is totally charming , wish they had the rest
I can't believe the creatures are all standing up. And yet, and yet, I'm not so "terrorized" by this than the BBC version. The kids look a bit better (though Su is the same height as Ed and Lu's got that head of looooooong hair). And the White Witch isn't overly done-up. She actually looks something like Lewis' description: beautiful, but a cold beauty.
I agrre with you , I like the pevensie kids but i don´t like aslan
I don't think the music originally sounded like that. The film has clearly deteriorated, leaving the visual quality very blurred. The deterioration has probably effected the sound as well.
Same thing happened to dozens of old 60's episodes of Doctor Who… Shame, really, the BBC didn't expect it to be so popular – and look, here it is, still popular after almost 50 years. 🙂
It's a TV film, and TV wasn't in colour in those days, even though normal films were. 😉 And of course TVs had a much lower budget.