Missing scene...

In 1976 I encouraged the manager of a suburban cinema in Melbourne to present a festival of musical double features. FLOWER DRUM SONG was partnered with SWEET CHARITY and was seen on the big screen for the first time in many years in this city (and it has not been re-presented since). The double did very well, however I had seen the movie twice on TV and was surprised to view a short sequence I had not seen before and have never seen since. During his walk in the street in the early part of the movie (he is robbed when he gets back to his front door), Wang Ta's father passes the field where his younger son (played by Patrick Adiarte) is playing baseball with his team. They have a brief conversation as Adiarte is waiting to bat. The cast list on imdb mentions an uncredited performer who plays an "umpire". He is in this scene and no other. I can only assume that we in Australia received a 'Preview' print of the film which contained a scene later cut from the negative to lessen the film's running time.By the way, fans of movie scorer Alfred Newman justly rate his scoring and oversight of the orchestrations for this film as one of his fimest achievements. He also did CAROUSEL,THE KING AND I ,SOUTH PACIFIC and both STATE FAIRs- all brilliantly. One more point, Linda Low's character is softened down from the original novel. In the latter she is more of a schemer, takes Wang Ta's virginity and is run out of town at some point. She is still one of the less pleasant female characters in a R+H musical as she is dishonest with Wang Ta in many ways, only using him to pamper her ego and encourage Sammy Fong to be jealous. She is already involved with Ta before Mei Li appears on the scene, so her "toying" with this infatuated and naive college boy is not done as a reaction to learning that Sammy has a mail order bride.She becomes more likeable but is still an enigmatic leading character for a light-hearted musical. A stripper too, let's not forget!