Alternate "Journey Into Fear" Edit Discovered

[Terry]

Yup. I also dumped the narration.

[tonyw]

Let us hope it soon becomes available on Criterion. I saw a version on British TV years ago and can not remember if it had voice-over narration. Probably, it did not.

[Terry]

The EU version has no narration and quite a bit of extra footage in the first half hour. It would be nice to have a US release of any version. Fortunately TCM occasionally shows a very nice print.

[Ste]

Let us hope it soon becomes available on Criterion.

Nice thought, but highly unlikely. Journey into Fear is a Warner Bros. property, and Warners are known for not licencing their films to Criterion. Besides which, Warners have already stated that they will issue Journey into Fear on R1 DVD just as soon as the (much delayed) The Magnificent Ambersons R1 DVD is ready to go.

Meanwhile, the U.S. cut is available as a great quality French R2 release, and the European cut is available on a fair quality Spanish DVD. Splicing them together seems a little pointless to me; I am happy to enjoy the two cuts separately.

[Terry]

I don't know why I bother to post anything here.

[Glenn Anders]

Hadji: Hang in there. You still have lots of fans.

Glenn

[Le Chiffre]

I've seen Hadji's reconstruction of JOURNEY, and I think he did an excellent job with it. However, after studying the original script at Lilly, it seems to me that the film was severely bowdlerized, not only at the editing level, as the Josette/Howard kiss shows, but also at the screenplay level, either by RKO or the State Department, or both. Therefore, I'm glad to hear that Stefan Droesler and Munich are including stills from missing scenes. I'm not sure if the following scene went before the cameras or not (it's not in the cutting continuity), but I think it's a very interesting scene that could be included in a reconstruction of the original concept for the film. I've included another photo that suggests, to me anyway, that it may have been filmed and then dropped, possibly for political reasons (Turkey had just joined the Allies). It takes place at the beginning of the story, just after Kopeikin has met the Grahams and escorted them to their hotel room.

HOTEL ROOM IN ISTANBUL
Kopeikin (to the Grahams): 'How was Galipoli? Not the same as the Good-old U.S.? Miss the "Great White Way", Mrs. Graham? Broadway?'
Graham: 'Haven't you got any better accomodations?'
(Kopeikin screams at the Hotel Manager in Turkish- Graham says he wants a bath)
BATHROOM
Huge bathroom, and a huge tub with tromendous spigots. Kopeikin starts to say something to Graham,


but Stephanie walks in. They turn the spigot, and hear a huge pipe roar (like Uncle Jack's tub in Ambersons). Only a thin, dirty trickle comes out of the faucet.
DISSOLVE TO:
HOWARD IN BATH - KOPEIKIN WATCHING (Water has been brought in and is still being brought in)
Kopeikin: 'You like Turkish girls better then Ginger Rogers?'.
Stephanie (calling in to bathroom): 'Howard! The young man who brought the water wants a tip! Now a waiter's here! (implied that everybody in Turkey wants a tip)
Kopeikin: 'I'll find the chef!' (softly to Graham) 'I have lady friends'

[Tony]

Does anyone know how long the original version of Journey was, or would have been?

[Glenn Anders]

Welles told Bogdanovich that at least twenty minutes of interaction among the ship's passengers had been removed. This material established the philosophical conflicts the picture was really to be about.

Glenn

[Tony]

Are there only stills of the excised material, or is there film also?

I've been thinking that Welles, in his first Hollywood contract, made four films, and the first was almost destroyed, and the next two were butchered, and the last he was never allowed to complete. And that was at the BEGINNING of his career! So it's only logical that in his sixties, he wouldn't be allowed to make any films at all. In fact, it's a miracle we have anything!
:O

[Le Chiffre]

The shooting script at Lilly is filled with Red Ink comments concerning objections from various sources. Many bits that might be offensive to Turkey were eliminated, and the specific ethnicity of some of the characters was downplayed or obscured. In the script, Kopeikin is clearly a Russian, Gogo a Spaniard and the ship's captain a Greek. There were also some objections from Breen and the Catholic Church.

I wrote down some of the Red Ink comments verbatim, since I'm pretty sure the OW estate would not allow the JOURNEY script to be photocopied. It's amazing how concerned the consors were with suggestions of adultery. Not just eliminating Gogo and Josette's marriage, but also Josette's knowledge of Graham being married. As one red ink comment says, 'If Josette does not know Graham is married, the censorship problem is vastly reduced'.

[Terry]

Thanks for the encouraging words, Mike. I'd like to see a reconstruction using whatever stills remain of Foster's film and what of the Welles/Cotten screenplay is discernable through the red ink. I think it works better lumping all the released footage together, but that only gives us 75 minutes (plus a little, if someone has the EU version on 35mm,) far short of the original Welles/Cotten/Foster intention. Even with the extension, the film is still overly compressed and a bit fragmented.

How many stills are there to use? Hundreds, as was the case with GREED and which enabled Rick Schmidlin to do such an ambitious reconstruction? There were only a few for QUEEN KELLY, and that reconstruction really failed by comparison.

I'm still not sure why Gogo explodes about war being bad for business in response to Mueller talking about archaeology. Some cut dialogue there, I think. I've been watching Gogo, and he's pretty funny, though he has little screentime. He's usually doing something nonverbal in the background, smoothing his hair back while cavorting about in his Tarzan leotards, or glaring, grabbing a convenient woman or bottle, and stalking off every time he sees Howard. There's little made of his possessiveness about Josette, but it's there if you ignore Howard yelling "WHAT!?!" and look for it. Gogo mentions he plans to marry Josette, and at the end of the film he goes to "settle things" with Howard, probably in the manner of punting Howard's rump. Uh, where the hell did the rest of that plotline go? Oh, the RKO cutting room floor, next to the rest of Ambersons. Gogo was mad about what exactly? Howard in general? Howard kissing Josette? Did he know about that, when even the audience didn't? Is he angry to find that Howard was married? Shouldn't he be relieved? Is it just alpha-male macho puffery? There's a missing chunk of film there, missing character motivation. I'd like to know.

Howard's relationship with Stephanie is even more perplexing. She clearly hates Howard. Okay, not so clearly and not too strongly. She's much more interested in Colonel Haki, however. The scene with Howard and Josette 'seeing the sunrise together' (and kissing?) cuts to Stephanie looking out the window at the dawn and the scene of awkward sexual tension, embarassment, jealousy and pseudo seduction between Stephanie and Haki. There certainly seemed to be a bit about marital infidelity in there originally. When Howard is reunited with Stephanie at the end, look for the spliced-in retake of them embracing and kissing, with the original master on either side of it. That retake seems to be a rethink. In the master, Stephanie's tone towards Howard is rather aloof and cold, as she gets dolled-up for her date with Haki. I think the film could have ended up with Stephanie dumping Howard for Haki, Howard making a play for Josette and getting murdered by Gogo, giving Mueller and Banat a posthumous victory. Yet that surving still seems to imply that Haki gets Josette! Where did that come from? And what was Gogo's reaction?

And this business with Stephanie being jealous about Josette - there's no footage relating to any of that, though it seems to have been an original conception. In the Welles re-edit (I guess 68 minutes was all the time alloted for a run time) the jealousy of Stephanie exists only in the narration - there's certainly no shot of Stephanie watching Josette kiss Howard while Gogo stomps off with a potted plant. There is Stephanie's concern that Howard ran off with another woman in the EU version, but no more. Regarding Josette's feelings, she doesn't seem too taken aback to find that Howard was married. There is the shot of Howard and Josette walking about arm-in-arm. Is she just comforting a fearful friend or had they been necking already? Maybe the full screenplay sorted these things out, or maybe they became fuzzier.

Why does the first mate address Howard with "what is it THIS time?" What happened the first time? Or was the first time when Howard complained about his room?

Where is Mrs. Mueller? Is that her being escorted about the deck by her husband, is she another Nazi agent, or is that actually the Greek widow he's taking for a walk? In the split second her face is visible, it is hard to tell.

Why does Howard leave burnt matchsticks all over the floor of Banat's room? Some discreet spy he is.

Anyone else see Holly Martins as a very close cousin to Howard Graham?

Was there a scene with the characters going ashore? Was there a scene with Howard borrowing Mueller's razor?

Is that Kuvetli boarding the pilot boat to warn the authorities? That looks like the hat and coat he was wearing. Why then does he wind up dead on the floor of cabin 5 later that morning? Is this the dead character looking through a porthole to which Welles referred? It also looks as though that's Kuvetli spying on Howard before Howard boards the boat, but at the same moment it looks as though that's Kuvetli walking up the boarding ramp! That's editing!

In the EU version, there are medium shots of two spectators watching the magic show, a chef and a guy with a thin mustache. The guy with the stache is one of Haki's secret policemen, who followed Howard from the hotel, to protect him, I guess. Great job they did! Also, the Maitre'd from the club is the one who joins Koepekin to tell Howard the legend of Colonel Haki. And that porter on the ship - he's in an awful lot of shots. Poor guy should demand a pay raise. Just a few things I've noticed while watching recently.

Great cast. Wonderful characters. Sure would have been nice to see more of them.

[Tony]

What did Welles say about Journey?

[Roger Ryan]

Store Hadji - You got a lot of questions there!

Here's some answers:

There's not a huge amount of stills available for "Journey...", definitely less than "Ambersons", but then most of the cut footage comes from scenes already in the film. The key lost scenes involve Kopeikin visiting Stephanie (a still does exist for this scene) and Howard and Josette kissing (obviously, stills exist since they are posted previously on this thread - in fact, these could very well be actual frame enlargements). There was a bit more to the chase between Banat and Howard before Howard reaches the hotel at the end, but nothing too consequential (I'm surprised it was eliminated given that it was a sorely needed action sequence).

Gogo is more interested in profit than love. His anger towards Howard is due to Gogo's intent to turn Howard into a dupe. When he goes up to the hotel room to "settle things", he intends to ask Howard for a sum of money in exchange for which he will allow Howard to continue his affair with Josette. In fact, he intends on asking for a monthly retainer!

Welles definitely intended for Howard and Stephanie's relationship to be strained. In the previously-mentioned ending Welles scripted in Rio, Haki takes up with Josette (who's still looking for a sugar daddy) while Howard and Stephanie are last seen bickering about each other's indiscretions. It's important to point out that this scene was not actually filmed, but I believe there was a concluding scene shot in Howard and Stephanie's bedroom prior to Welles returning to the project - no idea of the content.

Josette is definitely coming on to Howard throughout with Gogo's approval - both are primarily interested in extorting him for money.

I believe the first time is indeed Howard complaining about his room. In the original preview cut, Howard had to suffer through a bickering session between Mr. & Mrs. Mathews that could be heard through the cabin wall.

"Mrs. Mueller" is simply a plant hired by Mueller to help with his cover. She was played by Welles' secretary Shifra Haran.

There was no scene showing the characters going ashore during the journey. Howard decides at the last moment not to go and continues his romance with Josette on board the ship instead.

I believe the scene in the European version which seems to suggest Kuvetli boarding the pilot boat is the shot Welles complained about as illogical since I believe he cut the scene himself. That portion of the existing American cut is still extremely sloppy. I tend to think that Kuvetli did alert Haki, but returned to the ship so he wouldn't be missed. It is at that point the next morning that he is killed, so it's not completely illogical.

Regarding other editing lapses: virtually every close-up of Kuvetli or Banat spying on the action is a pick-up shot used to cover an edit of dialogue or other screen action, so it's not surprising that these inserts introduce continuity problems. Note as well that Howard was not meant to run into Mr. Mathews dressed in his bathrobe until after Howard had secretly met with Kuvetli. In the preview version, Howard left the captain's quarters and went immediately to his own cabin to search for the gun Kopeikin gave him. After meeting with Kuvetli, Howard encountered Mathews who told him his Socialist story. The Mathews scene was placed earlier during re-editing and, in doing so, creates a real continuity gaffe.

Tony - to answer your original question, the running time of the preview version was 91 minutes, but I have no idea what the actual ending was to this version - the audio continuity for this cut (there isn't one that describes visual action) ends with Banat falling from the hotel ledge.

One last note: as Mteal notes, the original script was heavily censored before shooting even began, so this film was severely compromised from the beginning. Interestingly, although a number of the characters had their ethinicity changed or obscured, this was not the case of the French Mr. Mathews - Ambler himself refers to the character in his book as having a distinct British accent!

[Tony]

Thanks Roger!