Attention Mystery Buffs! It's time for Charlie Chan and the Mystery of the 'Movie Jump Cut' (1931).
As we all know, The Black Camel (1931 Fox) was filmed, in part, in Hawaii. The opening scenes were shot at Kailua Beach. Then we move to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and the beaches at Waikiki. At the 20:38 VIDEO MARK something usual happens. There is a "jump cut" in the action and on the soundtrack.
THE VIDEO MARKS: "Na Lei O Hawaii" ("Song of the Island") by Charles E. King. Starting at the 20:05 VIDEO MARK, we hear the beginning instrumental cords of "Na Lei O Hawaii."
Between the 20:35 MARK and the 20:40 MARK, there is a noticeable "jump cut" in the visual action. The soundtrack jumps too.
ACTION IN THE SCENE: Inside a Waikiki Beach bungalow, Julie O'Neil (played by Sally Eilers) is leaning over the murdered body of Shelah Fane (played by Dorothy Revier). Robert Young (as Jimmy) is speaking to Sally. * THEN THE JUMP CUT OCCURS. The same shot continues, but now, Julie (Sally Eilers) is lower in the frame. She is laying on top of the dead body of Shelah Fane, sobbing. Jimmy pulls Julie from Shelah's body.
TEST YOUR SENSES: Cue up the scene to the 20:00 VIDEO MARK and play the scene. But turn your eyes away from the screen. When one listens to the soundtrack, before the jump cut, we hear a few cords of "Na Lei O Hawaii" played on a steel guitar. After the jump cut, we hear a chorus of female singers already singing the Hawaiian song.
QUESTIONS? Was dialogue removed from the scene? A possible explanation for the jump cut is that a "cut-away shot" was removed. Possibly a reaction shot from Robert Young was removed. Why would a reaction shot be removed? Could Sally Eilers have said some sacrilegious line? For example, could Sally have said, "Oh, my God. Shelah is dead!"?
FRANKENSTEIN (1931): For the 1938 re-release of "Frankenstein," Universal Pictures had some of Colin Clive's dialogue removed. When Dr. Frankenstein discovers that the creature is alive, he states: "Now I know what it's like to BE God!" At the time, the censors thought the line was blasphemy and it was remove. The removal of the line caused a jump cut in the action of the scene.
Do you have a clue? If so, please share your thoughts about this interesting puzzle related to the classic Chan film "The Black Camel" (1931).
Wow! Never noticed that before, Steve...good eye. You can easily spot the film cut (now that you've pointed it out :), but the music is hard for me. It almost sounds like they just started singing. They certainly timed the sound well. Thanks for that interesting catch.
As to why they cut out that portion, perhaps Julie's robe got a bit too revealing? Lou
Thank you for your analysis of the "jump cut"! I believe that you may be right in that a line, then deemed inappropriate was cut from that scene. If we could see the script for "The Black Camel," we could, perhaps, know with certainty what filled the missing space. I think that we could pretty safely say that the missing moment would not simply be contemplative moments of silence! We could determine the length of the missing portion of the film by noting the same gap in the music heard in the background if we could get a copy of the same music or a close alternate version.
Let's give credit where credit is due. It was you who pointed out a "jump-cut" in action within the 1931 film of "The Black Camel" to me. The 'cut' is during a scene, about 20 minutes into the film, featuring the discovery of the murdered body of Shelah Fane.
As part of the 2010 Biggers Birthday Bash, I hosted a screening of the film in Honolulu. Prior to the evening screening, on Monday, August 23, 2010, I ran a daytime screening of the film for you and I. It was at that time that you mentioned that there was a 'jump-cut' in action during the Shelah Fane scene. The 'cut" is included in the DVD home-video release of the film.
When we viewed the BC film, the scene featuring the 'jump-cut' was there too. The missing footage had not removed by a splice to the film print.
Conclusion: The removal of the footage occurred, on a 35mm 'master' print, sometime after the original release of the film (1931), but before the release of the 16mm TV prints (1953) for television syndication.
The Mystery: Who owned the rights to this film in 1953? Why was the footage removed? And by whom?
To quote Charlie Chan: "Secret of this case harder to determine than alley cat's grandfather."
