Cinemagoers watching Martin Scorsese's epic Gangs of New York were left disappointed when a showing had to be cut short just before the movie's climax.

A fault with the film meant during Saturday night's showing of the historical tale the projector shut down a couple of times before it was finally decided to stop the show just 15 minutes from the end.

John Pakey, who was in the audience at the Odeon in Colchester, said: "Everything was building up to the final point and the gangs were all squaring up then we were told the showing wasn't going to continue."

Cinema manager Geoff Sale said the fault in the film meant the projector shut down automatically and because it was so late, it was decided to give everyone in the packed house free tickets to any movie of their choice.

Published Monday, January 13, 2003

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