S.Z. Sakall as Mr. Ara was left on the cutting room floor

Inimitable S.Z. Sakall was loaned from Warners to MGM to play the part of Mr. Ara. But shamefully his performance finally was left on the cutting room floor, as Sakall remembers in his autobiography:

"I must explain that I didn't appear in Saroyan's excellent "The Human Comedy". Or, rather, I did appear, but I was cut out of it. This is how it happened.

I was playing a butcher in the film. He was an ardent patriot and hated America's enemies. The picture was directed by Clarence Brown. "I could suggest a good silent gag", I told Brown. "Well, let me see it", Brown encouraged me.

I had devised a little business. It was in the morning and the butcher was cutting up meat in his shop. In the meantime he noticed the newsboy who hurried past with the papers. He rushed out, bought a paper and brought it back into the shop. He placed the paper on the slab and went on reading, still slicing the meat. He read the headlines greedily while he waved his huge cleaver about. The news was bad. The butcher stabbed the side of beef angrily. Then he pulled the knife out and stabbed the meat again and again. In his anger he maltreated the poor side of beef cruelly. He practically fought a battle with it - as if it represented the enemies of America. Finally, he used his knife as a skewer, splitting the lump of meat on it, and lifted it high, looking around triumphantly. He had won the desperate battle!

It was a silly, crazy piece of business, but Mr. Brown liked it. We shot the scene at once. He sent for new big sides of gory beef and had all the knives resharpened.

When the rushes were shown in the projection-room of the studio the scene was a great success. Mr. Brown showed it to all concerned and - everybody liked it.

But in spite of this someone cut it out of the finished picture. There is a typical Budapest saying to characterize such an event. They call it: "Someone spat into my soup", meaning, "Someone has queered my pitch". It is used when someone intervenes unexpectedly in our lives and wrecks something we have built with a great effort."

(Sakall, S.Z.; The Story of Cuddles; Cassel & Co. Ltd., London 1954; pages 206-207)