Did You Miss Me?: Lost Footage from "The Hen-Pecked Rooster"
All the copies that I've seen of this early Famous cartoon (historically important because marked the debut of Herman the Mouse) omits a sequence.
Here you have it, right from an uncensored restored copy.
The NTA prints show Henry the Rooster's wife as she have an idea about how get rid of Herman:
After this shot, the NTA prints all come to this scene.
We don't understand soon what is happening! That's because some footage was cut!
Here you have it for the first time!
The following shots show what we were not allowed to see!
The scene was probably censored due to the fact that it shows the main characters playing poker, drinking and smoking( look at the amazing number of cigarettes on the table!).
So, the NTA copies miss the boys having fun, Herman cheating and the first effects that the cheese has on Herman.
Enjoy the rest of the scene, that is also available in the common copies.
I wonder if the scene with Herman lured by the cheese could be the work of Jim Tyer. There's' some cartoony wackiness in it that I truly appreciate.
Try to imagine how many gags from our favorite classic cartoons we miss....and we don't even know about it!!
Yours,
Duck Dodgers
posted by Duck Dodgers at 6:01 pm
6 Comments:
Hi Andrea and mmm.donuts. Leviathan, again.
The fact that NTA (or whoever) would cut out this footage out of ALL of their prints, especially since it doesn't involve racial stereotypes or a reference to Paramount
8:38 pm
References to Paramount, in the cartoon and not in the titles, were not cut in the Harvey or NTA reissue prints.
For example, two "Harveytoons", actually two Famous Casper cartoons, take place in the Paramount studios: "Ghost Writers" and "Ghost of Honor".
I was amazed as you when I discovered this "lost" footage.
Too silly the reasons to justify such a cut!
9:56 pm
Boy, Paramount was really holding out on us showing these cartoons unedited oversea, but not showing them in the U.S. I wish someone in the company put these cartoons on an official DVD.
2:33 am
I didn't think I'd ever see this kind of cartoon again. My Dad, who grew up watching cartoons at the cinema used to laugh his head off at this and the Hungry Lion and a cartoon during which lots of little bottles came alive - accompanied with a sound track. I remember a song 'Spirits of Ammonia' I loved it. It's great to see that we can still enjoy these fantastic cartoons without trying to apply 2007 sensibilities to them. . . enjoy the humour, put the obviously racist comment where they belongs. Love the mouse on opium.
9:13 pm
That footage wasn't cut out of all the NTA prints. It may have been cut out by whatever local television station used the print that sourced the version floating around on a bunch of cheap DVDs and videos, but it was in at least some of the prints. It's right there in the 16mm print I've got.
5:17 am
Anonymous,
any chance to convert your copy on DVD and send it to me?
We could trade and I could give you lots of cartoons in return of that copy.....
2:10 pm
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