In the deleted scene available on the DVD in the Special Features section, Ed Harrison, the TV showman (who apparently was in the same Army division as Wallace and Davis, judging by his remark about "the old man"), turns up for the big reunion/tribute already half crocked from sipping martinis on the train trip. Harrison was a nasty drunk (they were going to call him "Ed Mulligan" but Crosby thought it too much like ethnic stereotyping, plus Ed Sullivan's lawyers threatened to sue), and when Harrison heard about the mixup from Bob and Phil, Harrison said, "That chinless witch* was listening in on MY phone conversations??!!!" Wallace and Davis, who had treated the eavesdropping incident as a joke, told him to calm down, but he got together some of his old Army buddies who had also imbibed too much on the trip to Vermont, told them what happened and how she had almost derailed the reunion, and said, "C'mon, boys, I know what she needs--a little train action like we gave that girl in France!"** There was a scene in which they lure her into a backroom, and there are sounds of a scuffle for a few seconds, and Mary Wickes emerges, slightly rumpled, but otherwise none the worse for wear except for some bruised knuckles. The camera goes past her to the back room and you see Harrison and his buddies sprawled unconsious, with black eyes, split upper lips, etc., to the accompaniment of cartoonish cuckoo-bird sounds on the soundtrack. She looks back over her shoulder and says, "Someone shoulda told you boys I was in the WACS!"
*Obviously a euphemism, but remember this was the Fifties.
**Apparently one of the writers tried slipping in his reference to "train action" as a joke on Crosby, but Crosby happened to be temporarily off the set placing a bet on the phone with his bookie, and missed it. Amazingly, it slipped through.
reply
share