MovieChat Forums > The General Died at Dawn (1936) Discussion > Is there a reel missing?

Is there a reel missing?

posted 19 years ago by john_stiefel
3 replies | jump to latest

I just saw this movie on DVD and there seems to be a reel missing. The DVD is 98 minutes long, as noted in the description. Should the movie be longer? Teh reason I ask this question is that O'Hara is told not to take the train, but to fly instead and the girl is told to meet him and lure him onto the train. Suddenly he is getting on the train, and hooking up with the girl, and he seems to already know her. So I ask, is part of the movie missing where he meets the girl and she convinces him to take the train, or was this just edited out of the original movie?

[–] willrolf62 18 years ago

There is definately a reel missing. One minute she is in the hotel room and here father is convincing her to entice him onto the train and the next scene they are getting on the train. It doesn't make any sense. Why the plot build up that he must go by plane and then no explanation of why he takes the train. There has to be a scene where she meets him in the hotel and convinces him to take the train with her? I rented the video version and it was missing from that format too. Where would one go to find the missing footage?

[–] tejonm 16 years ago

Hi willrolf62
I noticed that too. I thought-- what is that idiot doing on the train when he was told definately to fly! We can only guess that he had such a steamy encounter with Madeline Carroll that the censors "blinked" it! I never saw this film before---in 1936 , I only attended the movies with my parents.

Badger 37

[–] sleepybone 13 years ago

I just saw this movie and was wondering the same thing. If the scene was removed by the censors because it was too sexy, the filmmakers should have shot another scene to explain what was going on! But I hope it's actually the case that a reel is missing--and that somebody finds it!