An aside about movies

I don't know many instances where watching an editing version and an unedited version of a movie vary so much than the experience I had Saturday night. Because I love classic movies, I bought the Mill Creek Entertainment 100 Family Classics movie pack. I watched some of these movies previously on archive.org and wanted to have a copy for myself without putting my computer out of commission for a couple of hours to burn it. The versions of these movies didn't vary until I started watching Calendar Girl. From the beginning, I knew that there was something different with this version. The credits started too abruptly and they ended with a huge splice. I kept watching, then I realized what this version had done: it completely changed the story! The original story centers around Patricia and her Irish fireman father. She meets two young men at the boarding house next door and falls in love with one of them. I'll stop there so I won't give the rest of it away.

Anyway, the edited version included in this movie pack cut out almost every scene with Pat by herself, Pat and her father, and almost the first five minutes of the movie itself. While not containing vital information to understand the plot, it turned the movie's focus from Pat to the two boarders competing for her affection. Even though Jane Frazee is listed as the star, it turns the supporting cast into stars.

As a writer, I wonder what the screenwriter thought of this edited version, if they ever saw it at all. I also wonder what person thought that this movie needed to be reedited in this way and for what purpose.

A chance to relax

For the first time in two months, I took Saturday off from anything that would pay me any kind of money. It was really refreshing. I still didn't have much to do, but I did manage to put the finishing touches on my tax forms and watch a movie. The movie was Double Exposure, a movie living in the public domain (which you can watch from archive.org).



(You can also get more info on the movie from IMDB)

For a public domain movie, it's certainly one of the better ones. It stars Chester Morris and Nancy Kelly. It follows the editor of a photo magazine. His boss, a health nut name Turlock, decides to hire a new photographer. Little did anyone know that this photographer from Iowa is a woman. She comes to the big city to prove that she is as good as the boys. She left a boyfriend at home, but not for long. Bouts of drama and comedy ensue. It's only about an hour long, so it's a perfect escape from reality, if you happen to like movies from the 1940's.