MovieChat Forums > On Our Merry Way Discussion > Charles Laughton's missing bits!

Charles Laughton's missing bits!

posted 19 years ago by trainsmash
9 replies | jump to latest

I bought this film on DVD in Spain a couple of years ago and it's got the part with Charles Laughton as a minister intact. This story is by far the best one and I wonder why it was removed at all?

[–] fporlock 18 years ago

- I agree. I have a copy edited in Spain and we have the complete and intact story with Charles Laughton, but in our edition we don't have the story with Dorothy Lamour. Maybe in Spain and in other countries of Europe preserved the story with Laughton because he was a famous great actor, more than Lamour. Who knows. I only know that the story with Laughton is the best of all the movie. Tender and magic!!!

- The Old Game is Still Afoot!

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] HarlowMGM 15 years ago

Don't know why Laughton was cut but the film is not very good and ironically the Dorothy Lamour segment IS the best of the vignettes. Can scarcely believe though ANY country would cut out her segment as she was a very internationally popular star in the late 1940's whereas Mr. Laughton was a very respected character actor but not a box office draw since the 1930's. (Of note, Laughton co-starred in Lamour's GIRL FROM MANHATTAN movie also released in 1948.)

[–] DwightFry 17 years ago

Part 1 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgdWqilDu7I

Part 2 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8rICGmBkfo

Part 3 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZzlqGeyL7M

SAY NO TO WINDOWS VISTA

[–] laxlon 15 years ago

This film was on Turner Classic Movies last night. It's a strange film and the host explained that after the film was put together, the Laughton sequence was out of balance with the more comedic sequences so it was scrapped and a new sequence filmed, the one with Dorothy Lamour. I'm glad the Laughton footage has survived and I look forward to seeing it.

[–] waltereckland 8 years ago

That segment was so much better than those others! They most certainly went in the wrong direction with this film. Thank you for posting that.

[–] pacoa 11 years ago

I have just seen the movie on tv in Spain with the Charles Laughton episode.

[–] korevette 9 years ago

This movie was awful..I only watched part of it because of all the top stars of that era were in it. They were boring and overacted...I got as far as the sarong girl and had to stop watching it with Miss Lamour a terrible actress, even in a comedy. I did not know until I read some reviews here that Chas. Laughton was in one of them...that I would love to have seen. In fact, I don't recall even seeing his name in the main credits. I rented it from Netflix. Another reason I watched it was seeing that Kind Vidor was one of the directors...I guess it had to be the one with Chas. Laughton. All I can say, in 1948, the actors must have been desperate.

[–] kerrison-philips 8 years ago

Note that the photos of Charles Laughton in the 'pictures section' come from the first version of this film ("A Miracle Can Happen") and not the revised version where his sequence was deleted and replaced by the Dorothy Lamour segment. This needs to be mentioned, as the Laughton captions state "On Our Merry Way," but of course he wasn't in that version!