MovieChat Forums > The Fury (1978) Discussion > On The Cutting Room Floor. ..Help

On The Cutting Room Floor. ..Help

posted 19 years ago by lutherpons
3 replies | jump to latest

I read the original book in 1977 before the film was released. Recently I came across it. Old & yellowing, I read it again and was surprised how well it stood up.

In the book, there was an older couple who were neighbors of the Kirk Douglas character's girlfriend (Hester in the film). The couple was described as a right-wing song & dance team (ala Marge & Gower Champion). They are part of "the organization" and die violently after killing Hester.

I just read a profile of the late great Broadway actress Vivian Blaine (Guys and Dolls). Apparently, SHE played the part! According to Ms. Blaine, she and Donald O'Connor (of all people!!!), filmed their scenes as this malevolent pair, including the gruesome deaths. A rough cut of the film, however, ran too long. The Power That Be decided to totally cut Donald & Viv's characters out of the film completely and to change the circumstances of Hester's death.

Has anyone else ever heard this? Does anyone know if these sequences still exist? It would be great to see these 2 old pros in those parts.

At any rate, Vivian Blaine was not upset on winding up on the floor. The pay for a few weeks work, she said, was phenominal.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] NYCMatt 19 years ago

This movie deserves an extended director's cut, I never get tired of watching it and would love to see these missing scenes.

[–] ThreeSadTigers 11 years ago

The original screenplay also had a scene where Robin rapes the Fiona Lewis character. Lewis confirmed that they shot over twenty takes of a scene where Andrew Stevens throws her to the ground, naked, leaving the actress black and blue. The physical pain of the scene showed through in the performance and almost everyone involved felt the scene was far too disturbing and unsettling to work in context with the rest of the movie, so it was cut.

There were also more scenes with the Raymond Dunwoodie character (the psychic detective played by De Palma regular William Finley) but these were cut also.