George A. Romero’s Martin director’s cut is now up for auction

Legendary director George A. Romero once said that the biggest tragedy of his career was that the film reels containing the director’s cut of his underseen classic Martin (there are expensive copies of the movie available HERE) had gone missing. Romero passed away in 2017, but last fall Martin cinematographer Michael Gornick shared the joyous news that the director’s cut film reels had finally been located! Gornick said this director’s cut “was always Romero’s preferred version. May it soon return safely to the custody of Richard Rubinstein and Braddock Associates for digital revitalization and distribution to the world.” Sadly, it’s still unclear whether or not this cut of Martin will ever be released for the world to see… but it is about to change hands, as the film reels are up for auction at Julien’s.

Written and directed by Romero, Martin has the following synopsis:

Young Martin is entirely convinced that he is an 84-year-old blood-sucking vampire. Without fangs or mystical powers, Martin injects women with sedatives and drinks their blood through wounds inflicted with razor blades. After moving to Braddock, Pennsylvania to live with his superstitious uncle, who also believes Martin is a vampire, Martin tries to prey exclusively on criminals and thugs but stumbles when he falls for a housewife.

The film stars John Amplas, Lincoln Maazel, Christine Forrest, Elayne Nadeau, and Tom Savini, with Romero himself making a cameo as a priest.

Here’s the information on the auction of the Martin director’s cut:

The only known print of the unreleased, black and white “Director’s Cut” version of the classic George A. Romero vampire film Martin (Laurel Productions, 1976) comprised of three reels of 16mm footage in cans hand-labeled by the film’s director of photography and post-production supervisor, Michael Gornick, at the time of production. The cut’s runtime is approximately 150 minutes.

The film (released internationally as Wampyr) was both written and directed by horror master Romero, creator of the classic Night of the Living Dead (Image Ten, 1968) and its sequels, and tells the disturbing and violent tale of a young man who may or may not be an 84-year-old vampire.

Romero often stated in interviews that of all of his films, Martin was his personal favorite. The film was made in Pennsylvania in 1976 with a small, steadfast crew, and featured many of the director’s repeat players in the leading roles, including John Amplas, Christine Forrest, Lincoln Maazel, and Tom Savini. When asked which film stands out as perhaps coming closest to [his] initial vision, Romero replied:

“Strangely, a little film I made called Martin, which was a $275,000 production, comes closest in terms of the finished product to what my conception was going in. That’s because all of us were working on that out of dedication. It was one of those little films that we went out with nine people and made a movie. It didn’t matter if we had to shoot at night, we shot at night. We were just there to get the movie done. I had the most freedom on that film that I’ve had on any of the other ones.”
-Stanley Wiater, Dark Visions: Conversations with the Masters of the Horror Film: Avon, 1992

In addition to being his personal favorite, Martin stands out among its peers in Romero’s body of work as, in his own words, the only movie of his where the central character “is a human being doing violent things to other human beings” (Wiater, 1992) as opposed to infusing the violence with an element of fantasy or humor. Here, the supposed vampirism of the protagonist is entirely demystified and used to explore a wide range of very human ills and evils, making it arguably Romero’s most nihilistic, desolate, and sad film.

However, in spite of the seriousness of the issues at play and the creative integrity of the project, audiences would never get a chance to see Romero’s original cut of the film, the one that so perfectly embodied his initial vision. Romero intended to release Martin in black and white, but after arguments with the producer he agreed to release the film in color. Furthermore, the cut that graced drive-in and theater screens upon its release featured a run-time over an hour shorter than Romero’s preferred version.

This black and white print of the film represents Romero’s complete, original vision: differing greatly from the released theatrical version and offering previously unavailable insight into the horror auteur’s creative aims and processes. Most notably, this print features alternate credit and title fonts, entirely unique scenes not included in the “official” release, numerous alternate edits and voiceovers, extended graphic violence and sexual content (including full frontal male nudity), and a dramatically restructured final act and closing sequence. The black and white cinematography displays drastically different lighting and striking composition choices that were obscured in the film’s color version.

This “Director’s Cut” presents a less choppy and more immersive narrative pace and flow that allows intimate access to characters and their relationships and sharpens the exploration of Romero’s favored themes: the connections between humans and the monsters they create, myth vs. reality, and the alienating aspects of modern life. The fully realized, black and white Martin, which feels somehow both documentary and dream-like, is even more stylistically and thematically resonant with Romero’s breakthrough Night of the Living Dead than the theatrical release.

FILM STOCK
Eastman

DATE CODES
No readily apparent markings

AUDIO
Variable Area Optical (Mono Dual-Bilateral)

REELS
Housed on three full 15-inch reels (approx. 150 minutes total runtime)

CONDITION
The film was viewed on an Elmo 16-CL projector. The image was sharp and exhibited no readily apparent significant scratches, damage, or splices. The presence of vinegar syndrome was not readily detected.

The starting bid was $500, and the Martin director’s cut was expected to go for a price somewhere in the range of $2000 to $3000. After eight bids, the auction is currently up to $25,000.

Are you a fan of Martin? Let us know by leaving a comment below.