Читать книгу The Book Of Lists - David Wallechinsky - Страница 25

1 FRANKENSTEIN (1931) In one scene, the monster (Boris Karloff) walks through a forest and comes upon a little girl, Maria, who is throwing flowers into a pond. The monster joins her in the activity but soon runs out of flowers. At a loss for something to throw into the water, he looks at Maria and moves towards her. In all American prints of the movie, the scene ends here. But as originally filmed, the action continues to show the monster grabbing Maria, hurling her into the lake, and then departing in confusion when Maria fails to float as the flowers did. This bit was deleted because Karloff, objecting to the director’s interpretation of the scene, felt that the monster should have gently put Maria into the lake. Though Karloff’s intentions were good, the scene’s omission suggests a crueller death for Maria, since a subsequent scene shows her bloodied corpse being carried through the village by her father.

2 KING KONG (1933) The original King Kong was released four times between 1933 and 1952, and each release saw the cutting of additional scenes. Though many of the outtakes – including the censored sequence in which Kong peels off Fay Wray’s clothes – were restored in 1971, one cut scene has never been found. It is the clip in which Kong shakes four sailors off a log bridge, causing them to fall into a ravine where they are eaten alive by giant spiders. When the movie – with spider sequence intact – was previewed in San Bernardino, California, in late January, 1933, members of the audience screamed and either left the theatre or talked about the grisly sequence throughout the remainder of the film. Said the film’s producer, Merian C. Cooper, ‘It stopped the picture cold, so the next day back at the studio, I took it out myself.’

3 TARZAN AND HIS MATE (1934) Considered by many to be the best of the Tarzan films, Tarzan and His Mate included a scene in which Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller), standing on a tree limb with Jane (Maureen O’Sullivan), pulls at Jane’s scanty outfit and persuades her to dive into a lake with him. The two swim for a while and eventually surface. When Jane rises out of the water, one of her breasts is fully exposed. Because various groups, including official censors of the Hays Office, criticised the scene for being too erotic, it was cut by MGM.

4 THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) The Wizard of Oz originally contained an elaborate production number called ‘The Jitter Bug’, which cost $80,000 and took five weeks to shoot. In the scene, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Woodsman are on their way to the witch’s castle when they are attacked by ‘jitter bugs’ – furry pink and blue mosquito-like ‘rascals’ that give one ‘the jitters’ as they buzz about in the air. When, after its first preview, the movie was judged too long, MGM officials decided to sacrifice the ‘Jitter Bug’ scene. They reasoned that it added little to the plot and, because a dance by the same name had just become popular, they feared it might date the picture. (Another number was also cut for previews because some felt it slowed the pacing, but it was eventually restored. It’s title was … ‘Over the Rainbow’.)

5 THE BIG SLEEP (1946) This movie is famed as a classic despite its notoriously difficult-to-follow plot. As originally filmed, it included an aid for the viewer: Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) and a DA meet and have a conversation that summarises the plot. The film was finished in 1945, but held back from release until the studio finished rolling out its backlog of World War II films. During the delay, the decision was made to re-shoot several scenes to play up the chemistry between Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Also, a scene was added in which Bogart and Bacall meet in a nightclub and flirt while ostensibly talking about horse racing. In order to keep the running-time of the film the same, the scene of Marlowe and the DA was cut.

6 SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) Billy Wilder’s film classic about an aging Hollywood film queen and a down-on-his-luck screenwriter originally incorporated a framing sequence which opened and closed the story at the Los Angeles County Morgue. In a scene described by Wilder as one of the best he’d ever shot, the body of Joe Gillis (William Holden) is rolled into the morgue to join three dozen other corpses, some of whom – in voice-over – tell Gillis how they died. Eventually Gillis tells his story, which takes us to a flashback of his affair with Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). The movie was previewed with this opening in Illinois and Long Island. Because both audiences inappropriately found the morgue scene hilarious, the film’s release was delayed six months so that a new beginning could be shot in which police find Gillis’s corpse floating in Norma’s pool while Gillis’s voice narrates the events leading to his death.

7 LIMELIGHT (1952) Charlie Chaplin’s film about a vaudeville comic on the decline features a scene in which Chaplin, as the elderly Calvero, makes his comeback in a music hall sketch. The routine, which originally ran to 10 minutes, has Calvero performing onstage with an old colleague, played by Buster Keaton. It has been said that while Chaplin was good, Keaton was sensational. Consequently, Chaplin allowed only a small portion of the scene to remain in release prints.

8 THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955) Originally, the movie included a scene of Marilyn Monroe in the bathtub, getting her toe stuck in the faucet. Although Monroe remained covered by bubbles, the scene ran afoul of the Hollywood censors, so director Billy Wilder cut it.

9 SPARTACUS (1960) Of the 167 days it took Stanley Kubrick to shoot Spartacus, six weeks were spent directing an elaborate battle sequence in which 8,500 extras dramatised the clash between Roman troops and Spartacus’s slave army. Several scenes in the battle drew the ire of the Legion of Decency and were therefore cut. These included shots of men being dismembered. (Dwarfs with false torsos and an armless man with a phony ‘breakaway’ limb were used to give authenticity.) Seven years later, when the Oscar-winning film was reissued, an additional 22 minutes were chopped out, including a scene in which Varinia (Jean Simmons) watches Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) writhe in agony on a cross. Her line ‘Oh, please die, my darling’ was excised, and the scene was cut to make it appear that Spartacus was already dead. These cuts were restored to the film in the early ’90s.

10 SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961) As filmed, Splendor in the Grass included a sequence in which Wilma Dean Loomis (Natalie Wood) takes a bath while arguing with her mother (Audrey Christie). The bickering finally becomes so intense that Wilma jumps out of the tub and runs nude down a hallway to her bedroom, where the camera cuts to a close-up of her bare legs kicking hysterically on the mattress. Both the Hollywood censors and the Catholic Legion of Decency objected to the hallway display. Consequently, director Elia Kazan dropped the piece, leaving an abrupt jump from tub to bed.

11 DR NO (1962) The first of the James Bond films ended with Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress) being attacked by crabs when Bond (Sean Connery) rescues her. The crabs moved too slowly to look truly menacing, so the ending was re-shot without them.

12 EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK (1972) ‘What Makes a Man a Homosexual?’ was one of the many vignettes filmed for the Woody Allen movie using the title of Dr David Reuben’s bestselling book. The sequence stars Allen as a common spider anxious to court a black widow (Louise Lasser). After doing a mating dance on Lasser’s web, Allen makes love to the widow, only to be devoured by her afterwards. The scene was finally cut out of the film because Allen couldn’t come up with a suitable way to end the piece.

13 BIG (1988) In this film, Tom Hanks plays Josh, a 12-year-old who becomes an adult literally overnight when he makes a wish on a machine at a carnival. While an adult, Josh falls in love with a woman named Susan (Elizabeth Perkins), but he has to leave her behind when he makes another wish to become 12 again. In the original version, there was an additional scene at the end, in which Josh is back at school and a new girl named Susan arrives. The implication is that Susan went back to the carnival machine to make herself Josh’s age. Due to negative audience feedback, the scene was cut from the movie.

14 JERRY MAGUIRE (1996) Jerry Maguire originally included a fictional Reebok advertisement starring Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), which was cut from the film by director Cameron Crowe. However, when the movie was broadcast on the Showtime cable network, the commercial was restored, playing under the closing credits. Reportedly, the scene was put back in because of a lawsuit filed by Reebok against Columbia Pictures over the terms of product placement in the film.

15 TITANIC (1997) The film ends with Rose (Gloria Stuart) going to the deck of the research ship investigating the Titanic wreck, leaning over the railing, and dropping a necklace with the valuable ‘Heart of the Ocean’ diamond into the ocean. As originally filmed, the crew members of the research ship see Rose, mistakenly believe that she is planning to jump overboard, and try to talk her out of committing suicide. When they realise what she is actually doing, they try to persuade her to preserve the necklace. Director James Cameron decided that he wanted the scene to focus on Rose, so he re-shot it with her alone.

– D.B. & C.F.