MovieChat Forums > The Secret Garden (1949) Discussion > Stills of scenes that were not in the co...

Stills of scenes that were not in the completed film.

posted 13 years ago by DavidW1947
3 replies | jump to latest

The 1949 release of The Secret Garden had some odd publicity in the form of press stills of scenes that were never in the film. I have seen quite a few, including one of Dean Stockwell, Margaret O'Brien; Brian Roper and Herbert Marshall standing in front of the door to the garden and an odd one of Herbert Marshall helping Dean Stockwell out of his wheelchair in the garden, while Margaret O'Brien and Brian Roper are standing behind the wheelchair. Maybe such scenes were filmed, but changed later on, even though the publicity photos had already been taken of the dropped scenes.

[–] rchristiananderson 13 years ago

Hi David....

You may or may not know that many still photos up until the 1960s were taken to be displayed along with the poster in the showcases in the theater ourside the box office. Many of these stills were taken to give a taste of the film before the audience went into the theater, while others reminded the departing audience of the story. The stills you are speaking of were probably stills to be displayed in those showcases. They didn't give away the story or were just to show the characters in a photo all together. This was very common for decades. You're lucky to have seen them!

[–] DavidW1947 13 years ago

Thanks for the reply. I understand what you say about many stills being taken to give a taste of the film, but, as a collector, I have sets of stills from hundreds of films dating from the 1940s to the 1970s and the ones I mentioned from The Secret Garden are the only ones I've seen that show the characters in scenes that weren't seen in the release version of the film. I may be putting up one of them on my flickr photostream in the next few days. So look out for it here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35455749@N06/

[–] rchristiananderson 13 years ago

Well, I think you make a valid point. It would be very unusual to see a photo so dramatically different than what is in the film as the one you describe. I did once see an odd photo of 3 characters that interact with the leading star, but don't share a scene in the film on screen at the same time. Turned out it was a photo taken to show the costume designs. You never know what they were thinking. Hope to see your photo stream! Thank you!!