I taped this scene off TV in 1979 or 1980 and it runs about six minutes. The scene as it ran on AMC is WAY shorter and has at least one shot that's an alternate take. Has the original shown up anywhere yet?
shareI havent seen that scene, i taped the movie off AMC. It's awsome. Plus who wouldve thought that ann margeret knew how to ride motorcycles.
shareDo you have the whole film on DVD or tape?
shareThe complete, original paint-dance sequence runs 7 minutes and 20 seconds. It was clearly meant to be the centerpiece of the movie (with advance publicity including a pictorial in Playboy magazine). Surely there must be a master print or internegative in a vault somewhere that includes the uncut scene. I'd hate to think that footage is lost forever. Although, to be honest, we're not exactly talking "The Magnificent Ambersons" here.
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Although the famous body painting sequence may have been edited for TV during various broadcasts over the years, it was almost certainly to trim running time rather than due to censorship concerns. Seems that a lot of confusion over this issue stems from a Playboy pictorial on the shooting of this scene that ran in 1966, suggesting it was a lot more wild than it actually was. During the mid-Sixties, Playboy frequently ran promotional lay-outs of new movies featuring stills of racy (for the time) topless shots that studios never had any intention of including in the US release version, if anywhere. Even in the over-blown Playboy pictorial, it was clear Ann-Margaret was wearing a bikini of some sort and was never nude. Even by standards of the day, The Swinger (entertaining as it is today) was nothing more than a slightly naughty romantic comedy for general audiences. . .and one that tanked at the box-office.
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I had never heard of this film during it's theatrical run in 1966. But at age 19 in 1972, discovering the scantily clad Ann-Margret was a young man's delight.
In the pre-cable days of the early 1970's, there were what was known as independent stations. Usually in the UHF band, with double digit channel numbers. Much of their programming consisted of B grade movies from the 1960's. Late night, they would often push the envelope with somewhat risque flicks. The Swinger was one of them. The "paint scene" and also the striptease at the burlesque house, were the most revealing and near naked scenes in the film. These were shown in full by the independent TV stations of the early '70's.
In the late 70's, when cable came around, WGN Chicago was a staple on many systems. It would frequently show the film, with the two scenes unedited.
The film seemed to disappear for about a decade. Sometime during the late 1980's, it reappeared on cable on TBS. VCR's had come along, and as I wanted a copy of the film, I was all set up to record the film. The version shown on TBS, had the paint and the later striptease scenes deleted. All subsequent presentations of the film in the following years on television, have been of the edited variety.
I did some research on the internet some years back to try and figure out why the unedited version disappeared from television. The best I can determine is that there were U S and European versions, with of course the European version having the more explicit, extended scenes. Why the early presentations on U S stations in the early 70's showed the unedited version, I don't know. I'm not sure the unedited version still exist. The closest I've found is some poor quality clips on YouTube that were recorded off of WGN. I think both the unedited paint and striptease scenes are there.
I would like to know the real story of why these two scenes were edited out of the TV version. The scenes are benign by today's standards. The film likely doesn't have enough of a following to make the endeavor worthwhile. Most of us who viewed the film unedited 40 or more years ago, are getting to the point, that the scenes don't bear much interest for us now anyway. If you know what I mean.