The Lost Scene

The scene in the movie theater is important not only because later it is clear that Nan probably did initiate the contact as a CEA agent, but also because of the way they got acquainted. Nan expresses frustration that this is one of those arty films she has a hard time understanding. Sidney responds by telling her what to look for, noting that the director is giving clues that he is playing with the audience's mind -- as the whole PA film then proceeds to do.

Does anyone have a source for a copy containing the experimental film scene? The continuity of the film suffers from it's deletion.

For the record, I saw this movie in the theater when it was first released (I was 12 or 13 at the time) and The Lost Scene was definitely *in* the movie.

Fast forward roughly a decade, when I saw the movie a second time at college -- and the scene was gone.

I've been wondering about its deletion ever since: about thirty years! (Unless I'm mistaken, the movie was shown sans The Lost Scene on AMC some years ago.)

The scene is lovely for a few reasons that have nothing to do with preserving continuity. First, the experimental movie at the art cinema deftly satirizes the kind of '60s underground films epitomized by the stuff Andy Warhol was turning out at The Factory. Second, the scene, which immediately follows the musical montage of Dr. Schaefer walking around New York City (and famously standing in the torch of the Statue of Liberty) in the wake of his learning of his prestigious appointment as the president's analyst, nicely italicizes what we already know: that Schafer's joyous mood is inviolable -- so much so that not even this idiotic visual drivel (at one point we cut to the art cinema movie screen and see that the underground moviemakers are expressing themselves by zooming meaninglessly in and out on a garbage can sitting in a city street) can put a dent in it. And third, as the art cinema audience leaves en masse in the middle of the movie (except for Dr. Schaefer, who's enjoying himself too much, and the girl, who's obviously been instructed to let him pick her up) we're treated to the effeminate, preening indignation of the underground moviemakers, who are incensed -- apparently believing that their mission was to outrage their audience -- that Dr. Schaefer stayed behind to watch the whole movie. As best as I remember the scene inside the theater concludes as follows:

INIGNANT UNDERGROUND MOVIEMAKER: Why didn't you leave with the others?!?
DR. SCHAEFER (patting the MOVIEMAKER affectionately on the cheek): Beautiful!

In toto the scene is very much in keeping with the movie's willingness to ridicule virtually every important '60s institution -- establishment and anti-establishment alike. And that to me is what makes the movie of such enduring interest, even if some of its humor, in retrospect, is a little juvenile. After all, what other mainstream filmmaker was poking fun at underground moviemakers and Mamas-and-the-Papas-like folk singer hippies (along with the FBI and the CIA) in 1967?

When something of this sort occurs and lacks any obvious explanation, the explanation often is due to legal issues. There was possibly a work of art shown at a crucial point in the scene, or possibly some person who had wandered onto the set and had not granted permission to be in the movie, or something along these lines.