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

[DragonClaws]

On 9/19/2020 at 5:13 AM, PandaPawPaw said:

Yeah that always bothered me too as does the end of the Bolo/Roper fight. Bolo gets kicked in the balls and is hunched over in pain then a shot of Han watching it and then bam Bolo's on the floor.

 

On 9/19/2020 at 5:22 AM, Red Lion said:

See I would have just put it down to bad editing as well but there are literally no other parts in the film with editing that bad (that i can think of) and the fact we had interviews (think it may have been John Saxon) confirming that the Bolo/Roper fight was cut down and eliminated a second part of that fight. 

 

Here's a few more tidbit's about missing Enter the Dragon footage, from the Bruce Lee Live's forum.

 

Quote

Braithwaite's first conversation with Lee: “The dialogue scene itself was slightly shortened during editing. Originally, after Braithwaite has told Lee that he's come to discuss Han's tournament, the Shaolin monk replies – I gave up that sort of thing some time ago. And it's off this that Braithwaite says I know, I know... Braithwaite's pitch to Lee is interrupted by the arrival of Lau. - Posted by Hai_Tian

Quote

There was supposedly some other footage shot before the golf scene involving the three thugs killing people at a funeral to establish how nasty they were, but according to Bob Wall, it got lost or destroyed. - Posted by JKD54

Source- https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/bruceleelivestributeforum/bruce-lee-lives-tribute-forum-f256969/index-s50.html

[Red Lion]

Wow thanks for the info @DragonClaws. Had never heard of the thugs killing people scenes. I wonder if we'll ever get a vault discovery in the same league as richard donners footage for superman 2. I guess we can only dream.

Somewhere some tibetan monk has reached a zen like state and has seen every piece of footage filmed for all bruce lee movies. True enlightenment. Lol.

[DragonClaws]

On 9/20/2020 at 12:43 PM, Red Lion said:

Wow thanks for the info @DragonClaws.

 

Just up-dated the main article, with details about a sequence that was possibly removed from the double nunchaku yard fight?.

 

[jinjoe]

There's another scene cut from ETD, when Lee is in the cavern for the second time, he battles some of the guards before ripping his black top of, i know we see Lee fighting some of the guards with top on but i have a pic that shows something different from what we see in the final version

[DragonClaws]

On 10/28/2020 at 8:23 AM, jinjoe said:

There's another scene cut from ETD, when Lee is in the cavern for the second time, he battles some of the guards before ripping his black top of, i know we see Lee fighting some of the guards with top on but i have a pic that shows something different from what we see in the final version

 

Hi @jinjoe, any chance you can share the picture here on the forums?.

[Secret Executioner]

Agreed with @DragonClaws.

@jinjoeYou can post is as an attached file if you prefer. Maybe some Bruce Lee experts on here could help you (and us) understand what's the deal with that pic.

[DragonClaws]

 

How the room inspection scene would have looked, had it been used in final cut of Enter the Dragon(1973). Instead of being inserted into the 1981 Golden Harvest production Tower of Death.

 

 

[DragonClaws]

7 hours ago, Secret Executioner said:

Agreed with @DragonClaws.

 

Golden Harvest cameraman Henry Wong has talked about a missing sequence. Where Bruce Lee's character sets the female prisoner's free. I've posted a video about this in the main article. I'm not sure if @jinjoe is reffering to this lost sequence?.

[Josh Baker]

On 10/28/2020 at 3:23 PM, jinjoe said:

There's another scene cut from ETD, when Lee is in the cavern for the second time, he battles some of the guards before ripping his black top of, i know we see Lee fighting some of the guards with top on but i have a pic that shows something different from what we see in the final version

Wasnt this the unused Dungeon fight footage Golden Harvest were planning to insert into the finale of Game of Death 2,  when they were originally planning for Bruce to be in the entire movie?

[DragonClaws]

20 hours ago, Josh Baker said:

Wasnt this the unused Dungeon fight footage Golden Harvest were planning to insert into the finale of Game of Death 2,  when they were originally planning for Bruce to be in the entire movie?

 

Where did you hear about this?, the guard/stuntman in the deleted nunchaku scene was wearing a uniform similar to the one Han's foot soldiers wear in ETD. This scene was on YouTube for many year's.

Director Ng See-Yuen once stated in an interview, that Golden Harvest led him to believe there was going to be a lot more BL footage in Tower of Death(1981). I wonder if some legal issues with the Estate or Warner Brothers changed this?.

 

[Josh Baker]

8 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

Where did you hear about this?, the guard/stuntman in the deleted nunchaku scene was wearing a uniform similar to the one Han's foot soldiers wear in ETD. This scene was on YouTube for many year's.

Director Ng See-Yuen once stated in an interview, that Golden Harvest led him to believe there was going to be a lot more BL footage in Tower of Death(1981). I wonder if some legal issues with the Estate or Warner Brothers changed this?.

 

Yes, the footage was supposed to come directly before or after the deleted nunchaku scene, that's why the set looks like Han's Opium Dungeon from Enter the Dragon, the plan was to incorporate 'unused footage' from the dungeon fight.

That's also why Kim Tai Chung is dressed in a black jumpsuit in the middle of the movie, deleted moments from Enter the Dragon was supposed to be placed there.

It wouldve been interesting to see Game of Death 2 as a sort of Fan-gasm Outtake movie, where hardcore fans could just see unseen footage of their hero in action, regardless of whether it was coherent to the plot of the movie lol

If the deleted Enter the Dragon stuff ever gets released I would like to see a fan edit where Bruce is in all of Game of Death 2 and that footage is put where it was intended. It would be cool!

[DragonClaws]

21 hours ago, Josh Baker said:

Yes, the footage was supposed to come directly before or after the deleted nunchaku scene, that's why the set looks like Han's Opium Dungeon from Enter the Dragon, the plan was to incorporate 'unused footage' from the dungeon fight.

 

I wonder if the Manderin version of ETD featured any of the cavern scene outtakes?. Did Golden Harvest have access to more ETD outtakes for G.O.D 2?. Than what Warner Brother had access to, for their 1998 Special Edition release by John Little?.

 

 

[DragonClaws]

 

I don't recall this shot of Mr Lee side kicking one of Hans henchman, who's wearing a headhand in the images featured in the below video. Looking at the crates stacked in the background, this shot would have occured during the slo-motion sequence?.

 

(Video Content Removed from YouTube))

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

(Content Removed)

 

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

Was the below image taken from a rehearsal for the Staff/Kali sequence in Enter the Dragon, or is it from a cut sequence?. It looks like he's holding a kali stick in his left hand. Or might be the staff, looking shorter from a different camera angle?.

 

Edited April 15, 2021 by DragonClaws

[DragonClaws]

 

The following video features, many shots taken from the burning cart sequence, missing from current versions of the The Big Boss. Thanks to Jesus Bajo for sharing/putting these rarely seen photos together in one place.

 

 

[drees5761]

Some pictures here from Big Boss may be deleted scenes but it's difficult to say.

The last 3 from the Fist of Fury promo were definitely shot but not seen since.

[DragonClaws]

10 hours ago, drees5761 said:

Some pictures here from Big Boss may be deleted scenes but it's difficult to say.

 

They are all stills of deleted scenes from The Big Boss.

 

10 hours ago, drees5761 said:

The last 3 from the Fist of Fury promo were definitely shot but not seen since.

 

These pictures, are taken from the original unreleased Fist of Fury promotional trailer. They shot footage exclusively for the preview trialer. It was set to be apart of one of the Hong Kong Legend DVD releases, but it never happened. It's out there in the hands of Media Asia/Fortune Star or a private collector.

[sifu iron perm]

On 9/19/2020 at 12:27 PM, Red Lion said:

There is always one scene that bugs me in enter the dragon which i believe is missing footage and that is the scene where bruce is fighting the guards just before the nunchuka scene. He hits one of the guards into the prison cell bars and the prisoners grab him. You hear him struggling and then the scene cuts away to some generic prisoner shots and the next shot the guy is lying on the ground and the action starts up again. It just screams censored to me as the scene doesnt flow at all and I've never seen anyone else mention this scene when talking about missing footage. Anyone got any ideas?

followed by the "Ahoy there" voice?

 

 

[Cognoscente]

Lee ridicules Oharra.

 

[DragonClaws]

On 4/23/2021 at 9:31 PM, Cognoscente said:

Lee ridicules Oharra.

 

This shows a different sides to Bruce Lees screen character, playing to the crowd and being even more cocky with O'Hara(Bob Wall). There's a few pictures from this fights outtakes circulating online, thanks for sharing the image here @Cognoscente.

[Cognoscente]

It's fascinating to look at. Maybe the critics would not have regarded Bruce as a one-note actor had the scene not been shortened. He looks angry in the below still, which makes me think that they cut it out because it went against what Lee said about emotional content instead of anger.




In the below photo, it looks like he was wagging his finger to discourage O'Hara like he did with Hwang and Chuck in Way of the Dragon.

[DragonClaws]

On 4/25/2021 at 12:22 PM, Cognoscente said:

It's fascinating to look at. Maybe the critics would not have regarded Bruce as a one-note actor had the scene not been shortened. He looks angry in the below still, which makes me think that they cut it out because it went against what Lee said about emotional content instead of anger.

 

Agreed, it's a shame many of his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. He approved the rough cut, so he was clearly a fan of this version. I just wonder how much was changed by Warner, after the rough cut screening?.

 

On 4/25/2021 at 12:22 PM, Cognoscente said:

In the below photo, it looks like he was wagging his finger to discourage O'Hara like he did with Hwang and Chuck in Way of the Dragon.

 

That second picture features in Robert Clouses - Making of Enter The Dragon book. I don't think I've seen the first one before.

[Cognoscente]

In the August 1980 issue of Martial Arts Movies, Weintraub mentioned that he showed Bruce two rough cuts before the final cut was made. The first cut began with the U.S. scenes, the second cut began in the harbour, and the structure was then changed to what we know after Bruce's visit to California.

[DragonClaws]

On 4/26/2021 at 10:23 AM, Cognoscente said:

In the August 1980 issue of Martial Arts Movies, Weintraub mentioned that he showed Bruce two rough cuts before the final cut was made. The first cut began with the U.S. scenes, the second cut began in the harbour, and the structure was then changed to what we know after Bruce's visit to California.

 

I didnt know about him being shown two different versions, appreciate you sharing this here @Cognoscente. I have mentioned this before, but I wonder if Warner Brothers made any big changes to appease the MPAA?.