The Cutting Room Floor: Lost, Censored & Deleted Bruce Lee Movie Scenes (Article)

[Markgway]

On 7/22/2018 at 1:41 PM, DragonClaws said:

 

I'd LOVE it if some day this unseen ENTER footage made it to disc... wish they'd kept the fight between Betty and the guard(s) in the movie though, her character gets short changed at the finale when we only see her unlocking the cage. Hong Kong cinema was famous for its fighting femmes and poor Betty doesn't even get to throw a punch! 

P.S. Sorry about the multiple posts. I don't know how to edit on this forum. 

[Markgway]

On 10/13/2018 at 2:01 PM, DragonClaws said:

 

Thanks for the feedback @Silver and Gold Dragon, I'd say your most likley right about this.

 

 

The following artilce, covers all the well known missing Big Boss footage, however, unlike many other artilcles on the subject. This peice claims, the shot was never actually completed, during the making of the film, due to unsatifactory results with the special effects being used?. The first paragraph, deals with this subject, if anyone is struggling to read txt in the article, I can do a transcription for them.

What are yours thoughts @Silver and Gold Dragon and @Fist of the Heavenly Sky

 

 

I disagree that the saw scene wasn't competed.

A. The effect looks convincing enough in stills (and its not like we're talking Hollywood effects work here anyways) and B. there's a clear jump cut at the point where the saw would have gone into the head. Something was REMOVED. 

[DragonClaws]

11 hours ago, Markgway said:

That much is true. But I'm sure the reason the scene with the monk was removed is because it would have been of no interest to moviegoers looking for action. Die hard fans may be interested in Bruce's martial philosophy. Most everyone else, not. 

 

Hi @Markgway, you posted some interesting comment's. True, the inclusion of the Monk sequence has a big effect on the films pacing too.

 

 

9 hours ago, Markgway said:

there's a clear jump cut at the point where the saw would have gone into the head. Something was REMOVED. 

 

It looks like they may have cut more than the reaction/FX shot feautring the saw. If they removed the footage becuase it looked poorly done, how would it look today?.

 

 

10 hours ago, Markgway said:

I'd LOVE it if some day this unseen ENTER footage made it to disc... wish they'd kept the fight between Betty and the guard(s) in the movie though, her character gets short changed at the finale when we only see her unlocking the cage. Hong Kong cinema was famous for its fighting femmes and poor Betty doesn't even get to throw a punch! 

 

Agreed, she may have fought other guard's?, though I cant see them giving her a big action fight sequence. It would be great to see some of these missing scenes at somepoint.

 

Has anyone interviewed the editors of Enter The Dragon?, Kurt Hirschler, George Watter's & Peter Cheung. I wonder what the film looked like when Bruce Lee first saw it, in a rough cut. Before WB started making changes to suit 1970's U.S audiences.

Robert Clouse directs Ahna Capri and John Saxon, in a sequence cut from the released prints.

 

Edited August 5, 2019 by DragonClaws

[Markgway]

7 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

Hi @Markgway, you posted some interesting comment's. True, the inclusion of the Monk sequence has a big effect on the films pacing too.

 

 

 

It looks like they may have cut more than the reaction/FX shot feautring the saw. If they removed the footage becuase it looked poorly done, how would it look today?.

 

 

 

Agreed, she may have fought other guard's?, though I cant see them giving her a big action fight sequence. It would be great to see some of these missing scenes at somepoint.

 

Has anyone interviewed the editors of Enter The Dragon?, Kurt Hirschler, George Watter's & Peter Cheung. I wonder what the film looked like when Bruce Lee first saw it, in a rough cut. Before WB started making changes to suit 1970's U.S audiences.

Robert Clouse directs Ahna Capri and John Saxon, in a sequence cut from the released prints.

 

--Like most Bruce Lee fans  - 29 years and counting... - I have always craved rare movie footage. 

An uncut version of The Big Boss is in my top ten all time wants. 

Sometimes, however, scenes are cut by the studio for a good reason. 

I believe this is the case with Enter's 'monk scene'. 

As a stand alone, it's fascinating. In the movie, it doesn't work. 

-- The splice lines where the 'saw-in-the-head' cut was made were visible on old prints. 

These violence cuts weren't made as part of the film's final edit, but after the fact by censors. 

Thus, the cuts were crudely implemented on the negative and very likely not performed by the original editor(s). 

Judging by the stills, I've no reason to believe the gore effect would've looked bad at all. 

The only unanswered question (for me) is at which point was the saw-in-the-head shot removed? 

Was it upon the first submission to the censors in 1971 - which would explain why it's apparently never been seen in any otherwise complete print - or when the re-issue was passed, circa 1972-3, during the censorial crackdown, and at the point the narrative scenes (second visit to the brothel, etc) were also removed. 

My guess is the former, but that's purely a guess. 

-- I suspect Betty's fight with the guard(s) was comparatively brief, but why they cut it I've no idea. Her character would benefit from even a small dose of action. 

What I've always wondered about is what happened to Han's most personal guards (i.e. his daughters)? They're introduced and then never seen again. How cool would it have been if Betty fought them?!

[DragonClaws]

16 hours ago, Markgway said:

-- The splice lines where the 'saw-in-the-head' cut was made were visible on old prints. 

These violence cuts weren't made as part of the film's final edit, but after the fact by censors.  

Thus, the cuts were crudely implemented on the negative and very likely not performed by the original editor(s). 

 

These line were even more evident on the old worn out prints used for the U.K VHS releases. The BBFC seemed to think that all of his H.K films had been pre-cut. For their international theatrical releases, before they made additional cut's themselves. At least this is what I read in a letter posted by Bruce Lee fan John Overall, some year's ago.

 

 

16 hours ago, Markgway said:

The only unanswered question (for me) is at which point was the saw-in-the-head shot removed? 

Was it upon the first submission to the censors in 1971 - which would explain why it's apparently never been seen in any otherwise complete print - or when the re-issue was passed, circa 1972-3, during the censorial crackdown, and at the point the narrative scenes (second visit to the brothel, etc) were also removed. 

My guess is the former, but that's purely a guess. 

 

I'd go with latter too, it's a shame we can't get the original Hong Kong theatrical runtimes for his movies. The only time I've found one, was for Fist of Fury. Featured on the films old Hong Kong promotional booklet.

 

 

16 hours ago, Markgway said:

What I've always wondered about is what happened to Han's most personal guards (i.e. his daughters)? They're introduced and then never seen again. How cool would it have been if Betty fought them?!

 

Yeah, they just had them sat around having tattoos done.

[DragonClaws]

 

Added some additional material to my original article, in the section on Way of The Dragon. The informatiom comes via BL historian David Tadman.

 

 

Edited November 29, 2019 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

I will be extending the original article in the first post, with some more possible cut sequences from Enter Dragon and The Big Boss. I planned to do this sooner, but kept finding further images/material to add. In regards to the Big Boss, there's one scene, I think may have been cut to remove dialogue. Which hasn't been talked about before, at least not in any article I've read regarding the lost scenes.

 

For now, here's two stills taken from the deleted room inspection scene, cut from the theatrical print of ETD.

 

 

Edited September 14, 2019 by DragonClaws

[Kevin Chan]

Hello all,

I stumbled accross this thread and this board recently and it's been an amazing read so far.

To add my contribution, here is a compilation of clips from the old German UFA VHS that I put together containing every little scene of The Big Boss (hopefully I caught them all..) that is exclusive to the old master and is now considered "lost" on the newer Media Asia / Fortune Star masters. See the video description for the reference I used to identify the exclusive scenes.

Turn on english subtitles to get indicators about what scenes exactly are the exclusive ones, because I embedded them in a little context. Just enough so you can see where in the movie they belong without the video getting banned because of copyright.

 

And here is the old German Opening Credits sequence:

 

Edited September 15, 2019 by Kevin Chan

[DragonClaws]

1 hour ago, Kevin Chan said:

Hello all,

I stumbled accross this thread and this board recently and it's been an amazing read so far.

 

Hello and welcome to the forums  @Kevin Chan, nice to hear you are enjoying reading through the content posted here.

 

 

1 hour ago, Kevin Chan said:

To add my contribution, here is a compilation of clips from the old German UFA VHS that I put together containing every little scene of The Big Boss (hopefully I caught them all..) that is exclusive to the old master and is now considered "lost" on the newer Media Asia / Fortune Star masters. See the video description for the reference I used to identify the exclusive scenes.

 

Thanks for creating and posting your videos here. Still amazed to find out how different versions of The Big Boss that are available to fan's. Before you even start with unreleased longer Asian prints.

 

1 hour ago, Kevin Chan said:

And here is the old German Opening Credits sequence:

 

That's the same opening featured on the old U.K Rank VHS releases, minus the German translation at the start.

[DragonClaws]

 

Alternative take from ETD?, from the scene featuring O'Hara(Bob Wall) tell Mr Lee to attend the morning ritual in uniform.

 

Edited October 23, 2019 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

(Link Expired)

 

Edited May 9, 2021 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

Quote

  I saw ETD at a neighbor's house on video shortly before his HK movies and then got my on video of it for my birthday that same year, 1983. Its been that same version on every other version or tv viewing since up until the 25th anniversary edition was released with the restored monk scene which I bought. Now if anything was cut prior to its original theatrical release in 73 besides the monk scene, then lve never heard about it. Of course there's the outtakes that where shown in Game of Death 2 but none of those are for violence. If anyone knows of any action that was deemed to graphic to be shown by the MPAA it would be interesting to know what it was.

 

Hi @CT KID, I was kind of derailing the WOTD thread so thought I'd quote you here instead.

 

Bolo's? death scene in the movie, I think might be one such casuality of the censors?. The special edition version even removes the sound of Roper delivering his final kick/blow. During the reaction shot of Han. Which you could hear in the older shorter VHS releases.

[CT KID]

5 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

 

Hi @CT KID, I was kind of derailing the WOTD thread so thought I'd quote you here instead.

 

Bolo's? death scene in the movie, I think might be one such casuality of the censors?. The special edition version even removes the sound of Roper delivering his final kick/blow. During the reaction shot of Han. Which you could hear in the older shorter VHS releases.

You might be right, but then again maybe the finishing blow was just a kick to the balls and bolo just fell to the ground and past out or died. I know the original versions had the sound effect of another blow when it quickly cut to Han's face after the groin kick,  then showed Bolo on the ground where he then went unconscious. Maybe that was supposed to be how he went out, but then the editors thought the blow sound effect needed to be added to make it seem another strike actually did him in when it cut to Han's face, because the groin strike didn't seem like enough? Of course it's all speculation too, but I've often wondered about why we heard that blow but they didn't show it on screen.

Edited November 1, 2019 by CT KID

[DragonClaws]

19 hours ago, CT KID said:

You might be right, but then again maybe the finishing blow was just a kick to the balls and bolo just fell to the ground and past out or died. I know the original versions had the sound effect of another blow when it quickly cut to Han's face after the groin kick,  then showed Bolo on the ground where he then went unconscious. Maybe that was supposed to be how he went out, but then the editors thought the blow sound effect needed to be added to make it seem another strike actually did him in when it cut to Han's face, because the groin strike didn't seem like enough?

 

Thats a possibilty, there's pictures of Bolo sticking the knife he cut Mr Lee free with. Into the wooden frame surrounding Han's throne. Did he have another one tucked away in his shoe?.

 

 

19 hours ago, CT KID said:

Of course it's all speculation too, but I've often wondered about why we heard that blow but they didn't show it on screen.

 

It is all speculation in regards to Bolo's extended death scene, I've yet to find any concrete proof to back it up.

[DragonClaws]

 

Quote

The Big Boss 

aka The Chinese Connection

Directed by Wei Lo / 1971 / Hong Kong / IMDb

In May 1973, a 2895.00-meter (105:31) print of THE BIG BOSS was banned because of 'excessive violence'.

MGM/BEF Film Distributors made a successful appeal to the Films Board of Review, and in July 1973, it was passed with an R-rating.

In April 1974, a 2874.57-meter (104:47) print, under the title THE CHINESE CONNECTION, was passed with an M-rating. The Film Censorship Board stated:

Formerly known in the longer version as THE BIG BOSS; reconstructed and reclassified at importer’s request.

Again, the applicant was MGM/BEF Film Distributors.

At the time, the Australian market for martial arts films favored an M-rating. Titles were often censored down to achieve such a classification.

 

Source- https://www.refused-classification.com/censorship/films/b-2.html

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

Some fans speculate that there was an extended print of The Big Boss released on video in Greece and Spain?. There's also rumours of some German and Greek trailers featuring further cut scenes?. Is this the reason why you just dont see any official Greek, French or Spanish trailers for the film?. The only German preview I've seen is on YouTube, and its indentical to the British Rank trailer. Fan's have awaited for some kind of release for so long, would they accept a full screen foriegn dubbed version of one of the longer prints?. If a private collector choose to release it. I personally think we would have seen more unseen footage, if such VHS releases even existed.

 

 

1970's Spanish Big Boss promotional posters.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2019 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

 

SPECIAL 20 UNCUT VERSIONS THAT NEVER SAW THE LIGHT OF DAY

Source- https://www.movie-censorship.com/special.php?ID=9&Page=9

 

Quote

Number 2: The Big Boss (Fists of Fury)

It seems as if every other movie fan hearing the movie title The Big Boss (or Fists of Fury) can only think of the scene with the saw. The hysteria and hype regarding that scene over the years can hardly be described. The thread about this one scene in our (German) forums is 31 pages long and consists of more than 450 posts. And there are more threads like ours out there... Movie zealots have been on a mission to find this scene for years, traveling all over the globe and buying exotic releases. So far to no avail, every lead dissolved after a while. Besides some archive pictures, no footage seems to exist. But what is this about, anyway?

It is known that Bruce Lee made movie history mostly with four (finished) Kung Fu movies. His breakthrough came with The Big Boss, instantly making him a star in Hongkong. However, the movie was already cut during the post production because of the – especially considering the time – sometimes extremely violent scenes. The most obvious of these cuts can be found during the fight in a barn in the industry complex. Bruce picks up a saw, raises his hand to strike against an opponents head, and – cut! This is made so obviously that even viewers not interested in cut versions and the like get confused, the atmosphere suffers immensely. This blatancy is certainly a main reason for the slightly exaggerated hype about the scene, such a cut just makes people curious. However, as mentioned already, this scene is not the only one that was cut, and even when excluding the scenes that were removed during post production, there is not a single release of the movie which includes every scene. Especially the final fight was cersored locally in many variations.

It seems highly unlike that a completely uncut version will ever be released. There are as many rumours that a collector somewhere still owns the complete version as there are statements that it is lost forever. A complete and remastered release in high definition would of course be a very nice treat, but movie fans should still get one of the many other acceptable releases. Even 15 years of discussions and research have not yielded anything so far. If the story does have a surprise positive ending, everybody will certainly know very quickly about it. However, until that happens it might be a good idea to just let it be for the moment...

 

Edited May 25, 2022 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

A still taken from the extended version of a scene featuring Mr Lee and his relative played by veteran actor Hao Li-Jen. This footage is currently missing from the Theatrical and Special Edition versions of the movie. Here the picture/rare footage has been used to promote, the Japanese release of Game of Death 2. Which made use of some un-used ETD outakes.

 

Edited November 29, 2019 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

Quote

Was always amusing to see them edit out Lee's sex scene with Betty Chung. Rumor had it that Peter Archer was supposed to have a sex scene with one of the Asian women as well that apparently got too physical (caveman mentality), and Lee intervened and put a stop to it. But apparently that was scrapped, so only Saxon and Kelly were shown being recruited by way of being pleasured...

- Little Saint

 

Quote

Have you seen the sex scene with Betty Chung? I know it was partially scripted in earlier drafts, but I'm not aware of it ever getting filmed - Horace21

Source- https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/bruceleelivestributeforum/etd-deleted-scenes-t4355.html

 

 

Can anyone confirm the above story regarding Peter Archer's abandoned Enter The Dragon scene?.

 

 

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

@fabhui, you posted the following content on the forum back in 2008. Do you know the original source of this Q&A?, or have a complete version you can post/share here?.

 

 

Quote

Here's part of a Q & A between Jason Hart and Steve Kerridge:

 

Q: Firstly, rumours have it you have an uncut Big Boss print with saw scene and you know the other scenes exist still with prositute etc. Is this true and please confirm that the "saw" scene exists?!

Secondly, when the hell can we fans see this if it does exist?

 

Steve Kerridge : Well.... i can assure you that YES the saw scene does exist, and cannot say anything else on the matter... believe me i've been approached by Hong Kong Legends and a few others who will pay good money, but because of my word, i will not bend.

 

Q: People must be sick of me still going on about this after all these years (sorry everybody!), but Carl Jones, David Rees and SK all told me years ago the 'saw in the head' scene wasn't in the 1979 print. This baffled me completely and still does. How could an original Mandarin print not contain the scene? Strangely, George Tan even told me the scene was never even filmed because they couldn't get it to work, and he interviewed people who worked on the film, so something must have been lost in the translation there I guess.

Anyway, when I wrote the Big Boss cuts article (which is now here at Nick's site in an amended form) I used the above info as a reference point, stating that the scene was not included in the 1979 print. However, when the piece was sent to Impact magazine, they checked with Will Johnston for accuracy and he said the scene WAS shown, and the text was altered accordingly.

Obviously it exists along with all the other missing footage, so will somebody please just release this thing or screen it at a convention so we can all relax?

 

Steve Kerridge: Whatever the so called bbla tell you, the saw scene WAS NOT in the print shown in 1979

 

Q: I still don't understand how an original Mandarin print that contained the cart and second prostitute scenes (among others) didn't contain the saw scene as well, but then again there are a lot of things that I still don't understand about The Big Boss... like the dubbing of the original trailer with missing scenes into English... the piece in the JKD Club HK poster magazine about a censored scene showing a couple spying on Cheng and the prostitute through a hole (what was that about!?)... the bizarre change in soundtrack on the HKL DVD's from 1973 English to the rejected 1971 English dub during the riverside mourning scene... why we still know nothing about the mysterious missing scene of Bruce and Nora (seen briefly in the trailer)...

If the 1979 didn't contain the 'saw' scene, what other footage might have been missing, which would presumably have been included in a complete Mandarin print (like the one DT saw at Fred's, for example)?

 

Steve Kerridge The version shown at the 1979 convention although the original print was the one that suffered the HK censors ... There was a perge on censoring violence at the time in HK ( i have many newspaper cuttings from the time ) ... hence the missing saw scene...

 

Q: Thanks for clearing that up. So if the 'saw' scene was missing from the 1979 print because it had been censored back in HK, were there any other offensive scenes missing which would have been in an original, fully uncut print? Like, for example that scene described in the 1976 HK poster mag where a couple are spying on Cheng and the prostitute? What do you know about this - did it exist or is the report just nonsense?

 

Steve Kerridge: This also was taken out by the HK censors office.

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

Here's an interesting video that show fan's some of the lost snippets of Big Boss dialogue. That have only appeared in some Official releases of the movie. I think they were later removed due to print damage?. Similar to how the beating of Tuco in The The Good The Bad & The Ugly(1966), has some footage missing due to the poor quality. With MGM releasing the footage as an DVD/Blu-Ray extra, rather than being included in the film itself.

 

(Video Link Expired)

 

 

Edited May 9, 2021 by DragonClaws

[fabhui]

5 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

@fabhui, you posted the following content on the forum back in 2008. Do you know the original source of this Q&A?, or have a complete version you can post/share here?.

 

 

 

 

The interview was originally on Nick Clarke's website but it doesn't seem to be available anymore. 

[DragonClaws]

30 minutes ago, fabhui said:

The interview was originally on Nick Clarke's website but it doesn't seem to be available anymore. 

 

Thanks @fabhui, I might have to ask Nick Clarke about this the next time he posts here. Hopefully he might have a copy of the transcript saved somewhere?.

[ShawAngela]

What a superb and interesting thread !!

I spent almost the whole afternoon reading it and watching the various clips and I discovered a lot of things that I wasn't aware of !!

 

Regarding  Shih Kien's daughters in Enter the dragon, it seemed to me that John Saxon fought with them, or am I mistaken ?

And I agree that it would have been good to see Mei Ling fight in the cave, as well as Han's  female bodyguards.

 

Regarding The big boss, I saw several clips showing Bruce Lee lying on Han Ying Chieh's body in the final fight, but I don't  remember this scene. I only remember that he slapped the body again and again until the police arrives.

I need to rewatch this one because it seems to me that I have seen some of the missing scenes shown in a member's clip in my release...

 

Actually, I should  watch ALL my movies twice or thrice or even more, just to be sure that I didn't miss any details!🤣

 

[Coliseum1972]

Who knows , there might be a full copy in perhaps Lebanon or Egypt , most people there cant speak english and might not know about any missing scenes (then again they prolly censored 2nd prostitute , arabic countries might not allow such scenes).......Its weird but i couldve sworn i saw BB with the key hole scene on vhs in the 80s , it sounds so familiar somehow ?