Lost reels?


According to trivia I've read elsewhere, the rather weird plot pacing and non-sequitor cuts to scenes shot elsewhere with other actors was due to the fact that a substantial amount of film "in the can" was actually *lost* right after filming was done, and other footage was tacked on and edited in to get the run time up over an hour.

The two scenes with Franklin (at his house at the begining, at the hospital later) are some of the funniest sex scenes in *any* movie.

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According to a book on Russ Meyer he shot film and edited it down to the bone. It was too short so he came up with Ushi Digard to romp through the desert and tacked on melodramatic beginning and ending on the evil of drugs to pad out running time. It was rumor several reels were lost in fire at Deluxe Labs. Did u know the dramatic narration was by same guy who narrated The Outer Limits?

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Yep, his name is Vic Perrin. He's not credited on imdb for Cherry but its him alright. I saw him acting in an episode of The Twilight Zone once. Didn't have a clue who he was until he talked.

Also am I the only who thinks that the narrator for the tv show "Forensic Files" sounds very similar to Vic Perrin??

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Thanks for the trivia, guys. Very interesting!

1) Always loved that narrator ... and remember Outer Limits from when I was just a kid.
2) If those are "padded" scenes, ok. I think they "work." I like Russ' satire. My favorite line is the one about Apache. What was it? "First American to hold and then fritter away a proud heritage." Naw, it was better than that. Anybody remember?

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"The first American possessing and ignoring a proud heritage".

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Thanks! Beautiful...

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So did Meyer lose any film or what? It doesn't seem like the story had room for anything else. It began and ended very clearly and there could have been more in the middle but it just doesn't seem like it. The cutaways add and accentuate a surreal undercurrent, like the story split onto two planes. I think it only feels lacking if you know things were lost.

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Hi,one can never be too rich or have too many friends. One question,at beginning of Film Raquel is making it in the sand with a dark-haired guy big time,at end of film when it's revealed she's just writing story,guy comes out of other room revealing himself to be her brother and she gives him knowing smile. Were they making it or was she just fantasizing?

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In case anyone's still reading about this film, the main reason the film came up short is because Linda Ashton walked off the set, permanently, before the film was complete. She mistakenly thought Meyer was using telephoto lenses on his camera during the famous sex scene in the sand dune to shoot closeups of her crotch. He wasn't, of course. Anyone who knew him knew that that area wasn't overly important to him. But Ashton wasn't convinced and took a hike, leaving Russ to improvise the remainder of the film and pad out what he'd already shot with the surreal inserts of Uschii Digard.

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