Celebrating Films of the 1960s & 1970s - Unseen Scenes

UNSEEN SCENES: DELETED SEQUENCE FROM "ANNIE HALL"

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 05:20:00 -0400

In years gone by, theaters would often exhibit actual 8x10 stills and 11x14 lobby cards to promote their current attractions. When the theaters went to mostly multi-plex formats in the 1980s and showed numerous films in the same facility, the art of movie marketing took a hit in terms of creativity. Now, you just get the theater poster and some over-sized standees in the lobby. During the glory days of theater marketing, collectors would often complain that not only were the scenes that were chosen to be in the publicity stills often the most boring or unrepresentative shots imaginable, but they would often contain sequences that never even appeared in the final cut. Thus, out of literally thousands of images to choose from, some bozo in marketing would manage to choose one that didn't even appear onscreen. This aggravation has provided grist for the Cinema Retro Library of Completely Useless Information as illustrated by this scene from Woody Allen's Oscar-winning 1977 film Annie Hall (which was shot under the title Anhedonia- meaning an inability to feel pleasure.) In one scene, Allen's character Alvy Singer bemoans his fading love affair with Annie Hall and seeks romantic advice from strangers on the street. In the scene illustrated, Allen approaches an imposing looking bald gentleman - but whatever dialogue occurred is lost to the ages as the scene was snipped from the final cut. We don't know the actor's name but we'll just say the photo satiates our long-standing fantasy about Woody Allen co-starring with Tor Johnson of Plan 9 From Outer Space fame!- Lee Pfeiffer

RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM THE CINEMA RETRO ARCHIVES: DELETED SCENE FROM "THE GREAT ESCAPE"

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:54:00 -0400

Cinema Retro's readership has grown by leaps and bounds with every month, so we'll occasionally delve into our archives to run articles that new readers may not have been aware. Here's a golden oldie from April 2007:

In this rare deleted scene from director John Sturges' 1963 classic The Great Escape, Steve McQueen has just strung trip wire across a rural road, causing a German soldier's motorcycle to spin out of control into a drainage ditch. This scene of McQueen sitting astride the soldier does not appear in the final cut. Curiously, it did appear on a 1970s Spanish reissue lobby card from which this image was taken. Incidentally, McQueen actually doubled for some of the Germans in the famed motorcycle chase, thus he was actually chasing himself! For a full article about the making of The Great Escape, see Cinema Retro issue #1 in our back issues section.

UNSEEN SCENES: DELETED SEQUENCE FROM JOHN WAYNE'S "MCQ"

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 20:28:00 -0400

One of our favorite tough cop movies is John Sturges' 1974 thriller, McQ with John Wayne in the title role as a maverick Seattle P.D. detective who is being framed for drug smuggling. The film is several notches above most of the Dirty Harry clones of the era, thanks to an excellent script and a solid supporting cast for Wayne to spar with. We were intrigued with this publicity still showing McQ rousting the pimp "Rosie", played by Roger. E. Mosley because it doesn't appear in the final cut. The fact that the scene ended up in the press kit photos indicates it must have been cut at the last minute. In the film, Wayne harrasses Rosie on a couple of occasions to get confidentail information about the corrupt cops who are framing him. In the cut sequence, unless Duke and Mosley are engaging in some unlikely male bonding, McQ appears to have infiltrated Rosie's apartment to lay some heat on him. As with all of our Unseen Scenes, one hopes that this footage still exists in a studio vault and that it may someday see the light of day on DVD.

UNSEEN SCENES: STEVE MCQUEEN & DAVID MCCALLUM IN "THE GREAT ESCAPE"

nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:58:00 -0400

Cinema Retro subscriber Bill O'Hara, who has a mega collection of rare movie stills sent this fascinating photo in with this notation:

"Just found your Unseen Scenes with the deleted Great Escape item. Here's another one of Ashley-Pitt (David McCallum) literally drunk under the table. Too bad Mr. McCallum couldn't have been shown this as a prompt, I'd like to hear if he remembered filming it. I understand that both McCallum and James Coburn suffered the most from editing. I remember a magazine picture of Ashley- Pitt being questioned by the Gestapo agents who dropped off Bartlett at the camp. It would re-enforce why he would have been recognized in the train station and jumped the agent."

David McCallum as Ashley-Pitt and Steve McQueen as Hilts get soused while celebrating the 4th of July with homemade moonshine. The scene was ultimately removed from the final release cut of The Great Escape.

Well, Bill, this photo really surprised us as it wasn't among other stills of cut sequences we had come across. So, Cinema Retro worked it's magic and we did send it on to David McCallum, but -alas- David could shed no light on the background of the scene. He wrote, "I've seen the still before but have no recollections of the scene or the moment. All I remember are the 'Wows' ..." Hmm..We have to remind ourselves to ask him what "the Wows" refers to - the success of the sequence, or was it real moonshine in the jugs?

Thanks for sharing the photo, Bill. If other collectors have rare stills they'd like to discuss, feel free to send them in.

(For major coverage of the making of The Great Escape, see Cinema Retro issue #1. For David McCallum's exclusive interview about the film, see Cinema Retro issue #8)