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Re: "The Black Camel" (1931) jump-cut

Wow I've never noticed that before as well and that's my favorite of the series I have to go check this out

Re: "The Black Camel" (1931) jump-cut

Dear Steve,

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.

Thank you, again, Steve...INTERESTING!

Sincerely,
Rush

Re: "The Black Camel" (1931) jump-cut

Dear Rush,

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."

Thank you so much.

Hawaii_Steve