By Joshua Cornelius

A director has to be ruthless when it comes to editing their own film.  Some directors (Cimino, Coppola and Peckinpah come to mind) are intensely focused on every cut made, turning the editing process into a grueling showdown between editor and director as their films soar over budget and over schedule.  Walter Murch is fond of saying that they averaged just one cut a day during the intense, three-year long editing process for Apocalypse Now.  To put things into perspective, most films go from script to screen in that same amount of time.  Certainly Apocalypse Now isn’t the first troubled production in the history of cinema.  If stories of derailed productions are your thing, look no further than the making of Elaine May’s Ishtar.

Then there are directors like Alfred Hitchcock, who seem fine with the idea that film must function to serve both the artist and the audience to mutual benefit.  More to the point, Hitchcock was not above excising portions of his own films simply because he liked those scenes.  If bit didn’t work, or was redundant, it was excised.

Such was the case with a second attempted murder by Rusk that was shot and cut from the finished film.  The following excised piece of the script comes with commentary from “Writing with Hitchcock” and a photo, the only remaining evidence of that shot, by Arthur Schatz.  The one that gets away is actress Margaret Nolan.

The following scene was filmed, but cut out of Hitchcock’s Frenzy. In Anthony Shaffer’s screenplay, the scene comes between Richard Blaney and Babs in the “Cupid Room” at the Coburg Hotel and a brief scene where the hotel porter and receptionist read a newspaper story about Brenda Blaney’s murder.

 

52 EXT. HENRIETTA STREET OUTSIDE RUSKS APARTMENT – NIGHT

The front door of the building opens and a girl, fully dressed except for her blouse which she carries, rushes out and runs down the street. A young constable watches her go, speculatively. He turns as Rusk appears through the door. He is in shirt sleeves and his collar is open with his tie loose round his neck.

RUSK

I can’t understand it. I’d just undone my tie, when she bolted.

The policeman laughs sympathetically.

POLICEMAN

You can’t blame them sir, really, can you, with things being what they are?

RUSK

(good humouredly)

The bloody little fool.

POLICEMAN

I’d change to polo necked sweaters if I was you sir.

RUSK

(laughing)

I think you’re right. Goodnight.

POLICEMAN

Goodnight sir.

RUSK goes inside and closes the door.

The scene would have been doubly ironic because had Rusk actually killed this woman, Richard Blaney would have had an alibi.