Evening star., 1939-02-12

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actors of Hollywood groan and shake
their heads as they tell what film
editors do to some Of their finest
scenes!
For one of dozen practical rea-
sons-running time, continuity OF
plot and censorship. among them
brilliantly executed episodes are
often ruthlessly scissored out OF
feature pictures. And there's moth
ing the actor victim can do but grin
and bear it.
Katharine Hepburn won the
academy statuette in 1881 for a
beautiful performance in Morning
Glory" But the actress best scene
in that memorable picture-a
Romeo and Juliet" balcony num-
Der with Doug Fairbanks, jr.-was
shipped out. Katharine almost
weeps to this day when she thinks
about it.
In Jesse James" Tyrone Power
gave everything he had to death
bed sequence, in which he hovered
between the light and the dark for
a full minutes Henry King pro-
nounced it one of the most moving
scenes he had ever directed. Ty
took great pride in 1t and confided
to friends he had never had such
great acting opportunity. Never
theless, when the film reached the
cutting room for final editing it was
decided the end should come at the
point where Ty fell to the floor, vic
tim of a traitors gunfire. His
lingering death histrionics had been
In vain.
In another current picture, idiots
Delight" Clark Gable was the vic
tim. His best scene was eliminated
in order to keep the film down to
specified running time. This was
an amusing and slightly dramatic
scene in which he offers sage advice
to the six girl members of his
dancing act. Gable cussed aloud
when he attended the pre-view and
discovered the scene he believed the
crownlng achievement of his screen
career was gone
II Bette Davis had the final say-so
on editing at Warner Bros, she'd
put back into her last picture, Dark
Victory" powerful recital in which
she tas the heroine slowly going
blind) describes her mental lapses
to a secretary Geraldine
Fitzgerald. Gripping though it was
when viewed in the rushes, no au-
dlence will see it. 1t was clipped be-
cause 1t seemed repetitious.
Dick Powell felt pretty foolish
when he saw Hard to Get" in its
flnal form. There was scene in this
picture In which Dick, in blackface.
sang Nanny in imitation of AL
Jolson. In the final editing the sing
Ing sequence was eliminated from
the picture, leaving Dick rather
ridiculously in blackface and for no
apparent reason. The song got the
knife because Warmers felt it might
offend AL Jolson.
You'll never know what a tragic
Job ours is,' said Jimmy Wilkinson,
who presides over shearing matters
at the R-K-O Studio. They all
think we're heartless gang, cutting
their best scenes out of pictures, but
tell you we can't help it. I don't
blame actors for feeling badly in
great many cases. After a tough
session getting a picture down to
proper length, I've felt like a mur-
derer, and unconsciously I duck
into doorway if I see my victim
coming down the street."
The fable Of the Face on the Cut
ting Room Floor" has made such a
deep impression that the average
fan believes these cuttings are
actually tossed away. But the clips
don't really drop to the floor for
heartless editors to trample. All the
studios keep loose-leaf catalogues
OF deletions, and they run back
many years. They're saved because
no one knows when they'll come in
very handy.
Many foreign exhibitions, for in
stance, like to get as much footage
as possible on a feature. Their au-