Synopsis:

Nick Lassiter, an American jewel thief living in London on the brink of WWII, is forced into a job with no pleasant foreseeable outcome for himself. Can he and his allies succeed in their task and outwit everyone who wishes him imprisoned or dead?

Intentions:

Despite bombing upon its release and never escaping obscurity, I am rather fond of 1984's "Lassiter". However, it does drag a bit in a couple of places, and the less said about the bizarre end credits song the better! For its 40th anniversary I've tried to provide a more modern pace, and to polish what I think is an underappreciated gem. This was done with ten minutes of trims, some scene repositioning and a little extra music from the original soundtrack. I am not too fond of the original cinematography, but I think it works really well when desaturated to black and white then given a slight contrast boost, narrow the aspect ratio and I believe that (in this regard) it could pass for a film from the period it depicts!

Change List:

0:00:00 Added personal plate and fanedit disclaimer NEW PRE-TITLE SEQUENCE STARTS 0:00:33 Opened with footsteps (repurposed audio) over black screen. 0:00:34 CLIP 1 - Fade into shot of embassy guards. 0:00:36 First info card “London, June 1939”. 0:00:39 CLIP 2 - Wider shot of embassy guards taken from later on in the film (luckily very similar to preceding one) to allow the establishing scene to “breathe”. Second info card “German Embassy”. 0:00:42 CLIP 3 - Scene of Kari with Mueller. 0:01:33 CLIP 4 - Scene of Becker and Breeze finding Mueller. 0:03:19 Fadeout from scene of Becker and Breeze finding Mueller to a “blank” screen (not pure black) taken from just before the opening titles and looped to the sufficient length. NEW PRE-TITLES SEQUENCE ENDS 0:03:22 Opening titles 0:05:17 Repeated previous shot in reverse, to enable the removal of a shot with a burned-in info card without the scene playing too short. The info on the card in now in the new pre-title sequence. 0:05:18 Deleted shot of Lassiter looking in another room and walking towards the camera, brought forward the shot of him opening the door and going indoors. This is also to hide the burned-in info card, this also means that the music plays out until the scene ends. 0:05:20 Added audio of doorknob rattling, section of audio that originally contained this now deleted. 0:06:22 Cut remainder of scene with Lassiter in the house (where the owners come home) after he breaks the lock, found that this dragged a bit. 0:17:33 Faded in and out of a section of repeated audio to smoothly transition over where a scene (clips 1 and 3 used in the new pre-titles sequence) has been deleted. 0:17:34 Cut scene and reused for new pre-titles sequence (clips 1 and 3). 0:24:05 Cut scene and reused for new pre-titles sequence (clip 4). 0:24:40 Cut about 45 seconds of the boxing match, no longer a break between rounds and scuffle between spectators, felt that the energy dropped here. 0:25:14 Cut about another 15 seconds of the fight, again for pacing. 0:27:30 Trimmed start of shot looking down the stairs at Hofer, to not be overlong now that Kari’s dialogue over it has been removed. Kept end as it contained more movement. 0:27:31 Removed section of audio where Kari says “It’s alright, it’s just Max.” 0:36:30 Replaced original audio with identical music from the soundtrack and AI extracted ambient sounds, to enable a smoother transition over a deleted scene. 0:36:43 Deleted scene of Lassiter and Sara trying to escape by train, again felt that the energy dropped here. 0:45:19 Removed section where Lassiter says “Remember Peter Breeze darling?” and Sara replies “Yes, I know who he is.” as this references their escape attempt. 0:46:46 Removed Breeze saying “…again.” when talking about Lassiter trying to escape, cut shot short. 0:49:00 Added a reaction shot of two club patrons, a trim-town of a following original shot (occurring now at 0:49:04) played in reverse so the man looks towards Lassiter and Sara rather than away. This is to allow a cut in the middle of a single shot to remove some dialogue that I felt superfluous. 0:51:08 Faded from Lassiter and Kari in the taxi to him sat up in bed, not using the establishing shot outside the embassy that serves as clip 2 in the new pre-titles sequence. Also removed a shot looking down the staircase with a guard at the bottom, moved it later. 0:51:11 Extended shot of Lassiter sitting up in bed by playing it again in reverse. 0:51:15 New position of the shot looking down the stairs. While the rearrangement was originally to allow the outside establishing shot (clip 2) to be used in the pre-titles sequence, I prefer the new structure as it shows him sitting, listening to outside activity then making a move. 1:00:54 Cut short scene of Hofer breaking in, one may argue that it adds to the suspense but I think it breaks tension by making it too obvious what is happening next. Also required removing the bit with Breeze fumbling with the drinks at the start of the next scene. 1:02:44 Added piece from the original soundtrack “Fight with Nazi” to the fight scene. It fits the action perfectly but the final cut left the scene unscored, maybe because it is partially used towards the end of the film and they wanted to avoid repetition? 1:26:42 Removed Taco’s end credits song “Beware of the Winners”, I was rather shocked when it played on my first viewing! In its place is the unused piece “End Credits” from Ken Thorne’s original soundtrack, a great little swinging number. 1:28:22 The "End Credits" track runs a little short, so an excerpt of “Main Title – Alternate” (also from the soundtrack) filled in at the very end.

Additional Notes:

Two complete scenes have been removed, one at the start and another about a third of the way in, as I that they brought the plot to a standstill. A few more minor trims were made, both for pacing and continuity. The most significant change is to make a short pre-titles sequence from the two scenes concerning Breeze's contact, Mueller, which originally took place during Lassiter's first night on the job, alternating back and forth. In my view there were two problems with the original positioning. First was a loss of momentum as a result of running these two storylines simultaneously, but playing both the Mueller scenes together at some point here didn't work, if anything creating a bigger interruption. Also, it occurred to me that the way Becker and Breeze talked seemed to imply that the latter had no idea what to do next, despite having already tasked Lassiter with the job, so it would make much more sense for these scenes to take place before that happened. The obvious place was before the main titles, both so the film now kicks off with the events that rope Lassiter into the story and so the sequence after the title that establishes his character plays uninterrupted. Available in Full HD with stereo audio, optional full (and corrected) English subtitles provided.

Other Sources:

Lassiter (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Ken Thorne

Special Thanks:

Thanks to Wraith for encouraging me to release this project when I previously had no plans to.