The Movie Thread

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[stork100]

The Red Badge of Courage (1951) is my 2nd favourite film of all time. Brilliant script adapted from Stephen Crane's novel and great characterisations from all the cast. It has such a look and feel of documentary like realism in many parts, particularly the battle scenes, and a marvellous and engaging spirit throughout.

It's interesting to note that feedback from the initial screenings was extremely poor, and this forced MGM to heavily cut director John Huston's film down from 2 hours to a mere 69 minutes. Huston had no input into this as he was at that time heavily engaged in making his next picture, The African Queen. It was upsetting for him as he considered the original 2 hour version the best work of his career to date. Even in its heavily cut edition, the film was poorly received by audiences of the day who were generally confused by it, and the film recorded a substantial loss.

Much later, both Huston and the film's leading star, Audie Murphy, attempted to re-acquire the omitted footage to restore the original version, but were both unsuccessful. Eventually, MGM claimed that the footage had been lost, most likely destroyed in a fire. We can only imagine what the rest of the film would have been like.

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[tmccarthy]

Originally Posted by stork100

The Red Badge of Courage (1951) ... MGM to heavily cut director John Huston's film down from 2 hours to a mere 69 minutes. Huston had no input into this as he was at that time heavily engaged in making his next picture, The African Queen. It was upsetting for him as he considered the original 2 hour version the best work of his career to date.

Interesting info I didn't know that Houston's film had been cut down by the studio. That reminds me of the story from Taxi Driver.

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