Synopsis:

Hal Ashby's classic satire with a few of the more distracting elements removed. Several scenes were removed and two were shortened, one sequence was slightly reordered (to accommodate the removals) and the end credits were reformatted.

Intentions:

Roger Ebert gave the 1979 original a full four star rating, but pointed out two subplots that he thought could be completely removed. On rewatching the film I can completely understand why, so (following the examples of stomachworm and recordwrangler95 with their edits of Psycho) I went ahead and implemented his recommendations. It will be interesting to see what other people think of the result, given that one of the more "notorious" elements of the original is gone.

Change List:

• 0:03:56 – Added co-screenwriting credit for Robert C. Jones • 1:26:07 - Removed scene with the US president (and his performance issues) after Ben praises Chance on his cut instead to following scene (in original), removed beginning (where Eve says that Chance can wear one of Ben's tuxedos for the upcoming reception for the Soviet ambassador), the cut to dialogue almost immediately works in the original but felt too rapid here for me. • 1:30:50 - Cut remainder of scene of Eve visiting Chance in bed after Mr Rogers' song finishes and he says "Hello neighbour". • Rearranged scenes at the reception to facilitate removal of president's performance issues and Chance being lusted over, to maintain a similar structure it now plays as so: o 1:36:14 - Franklin and Allenby "...major financial level..." now followed by scene with Ambassador Gaufridi o 1:36:33 - Brought forward Franklin and Allenby discussion "...extremely confidential matters..." plus following talk with the senator, but cut away before the senator's wife declares Chance very attractive o 1:37:18 - Scene with Chance and the publisher, pulled back from earlier in the original so the dinner still ends on a scene with Chance o 1:38:07 - Cut to the president hearing the phone buzz and picking it up, cutting the earlier part of the scene • 1:42:52 - Cut from Ben in bed after selling his assets to Allenby hurrying to him the next morning • 1:43:48 - Cut scene where Chance is fetched to see Ben, • 1:53:02 - Screenshotted credits and extracted text blocks to a couple of still images. Keyframed their positions so they move at the same speed as before but over a black background instead of the infamous blooper reel, using Stephen Edwards' recording of Goodbye Louise to replace the audio (speeded up to better match the original's tempo). • 1:55:49 - Added a few additional credits, Roger Ebert for the idea, myself for fan-editing and special thanks to Dwight Fry.

Additional Notes:

Exported 1920x1036 H265 with mono audio, total runtime of 116 minutes with 3.44 Gb file size.

Other Sources:

“Goodbye Louise” from “Piano Music from the Movies”, played by Stephen Edwards.

Special Thanks:

Many thanks to Dwight Fry, for editing advice and reminding me to follow Ebert's words in spirit rather than to the letter.