Has anyone who has seen the original 1955 three minute trailer for Moonfleet and seen the film itself noticed that the scene in the trailer where the entire congregation run out of the church screaming in terror wasn't actually in the finished film. How odd. I wonder what that was all about. Any ideas?
Good question, which I guess only the producers could answer. I only want to add here that I've on a few occasions noted that scenes appear in trailers that aren't used in the released film. I guess that sometimes the producers don't want to completely waste an excised scene, so instead of binning it, they use a dramatic clip for the trailer. Then, at least, all that work wasn't for nothing. I'm only speculating, of course.
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It could be that you're right about that, jacowium. I've often wondered what the reason was for them all running out of the church like that. No one to ask about it now though, as everyone who worked on the film sixty years ago is dead now, with the exception of child star Jon Whiteley, who was nine and a half years old at the time, but will be 70 in February, 2015.
shareDavid, I think I might know the answer to this query, remember in the six part 1984 BBC production of Moonfleet, there was a scene (in one episode) where the villagers were in Church, and they could hear noises coming from the crypt below, some of the villagers ran out of the church, convinced the noises were caused by the ghost of Blackbeard, the noises were probably caused by the activities of the smugglers, there had been a storm the night before, and later John Trenchard found a large sinkhole (which revealed a passage) had opened in the ground by a grave, John Trenchard followed the passage beneath the ground, found himself in the crypt, and realised the crypt was the smugglers hiding place, read about Moonfleet on Wikipedia, and you will see the following words in plot summary - While attending the Sunday service at church, John hears strange sounds from the crypt below.
shareYes, Ian, it does seem that the scene in the novel was filmed for the MGM version but was left out in post production, although included in the trailer. Director Fritz Lang was very disappointed that MGM cut so much out of his finished film and, after he had left the project, they filmed a different ending to the one he had filmed.
shareI wonder if the scenes that were filmed for the MGM version of Moonfleet, that didn't appear in the finished film, still exist, it would be good to see them as extras on a future DVD release of Moonfleet.
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