According to a friend, there is a scene in which Nicholas visits Francesca in the hospital. There is also a photographic still on Ebay which shows this scene. However, I have never seen this scene on the DVD nor the VHS versions. Anybody else seen this missing scene? If so, where?
shareHi manderstoke,
Do you mean the scene where she is lying on a divan? Nicholas comes and sits with her. If so, I have seen this when the film was shown on Talking Pictures, a channel here in the UK.
If that is not the scene you mean, there is a scene where the man who was injured in the car crash with Francesca visits her in her hospital room. Perhaps your friend was mixing the scenes up?
Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .
Hi Maddy,
No, the scene in which Francesca is sitting on a divan takes place in Max's house. I agree with you that my friend has mixed up the scenes. However, there are two photographic stills from the movie that are regularly for sale on ebay which show Nicholas standing at Francesca's hospital bedside. So, they did shoot this scene, but for some reason deleted it from the final movie. (Unless the scene was left in, but somehow is missing from all the DVD or VHS versions.) My speculation is that they decided to leave it out. Perhaps they feared this would take away some of the suspense as to whom Francesca would choose at the end. Whatever their reason, I think it was a mistake, as the film would have benefited from more "tender" scenes with N. and F.
My speculation would be that whoever dictated the promotional stuff (the producers? studio bosses? advertising bods?) would have said that they wanted a visual distillation of the simplest points of the story which were: female patient+James Mason.
The fact that it's incorrect wouldn't bother them, since you often see promotional material and posters playing fast & loose with plot points.
You make a good point. Did you know that in the original ending, Francesca chose Peter. Mason suggested the different ending, arguing that Peter was a rather dull choice. Aren't we glad! Have you seen the restored print of THE NIGHT HAS EYES?
shareHi manderstoke,
How weird! Seems very odd to me that this scene was filmed and deleted.
I couldn't agree more about this film needing more tender moments between those two. I could accept her choice at the end, but only if we had seen Nicholas's character change more. The ending and his character change is much too rushed for my taste.
I think this missing scene could have helped the film. Maybe one day it will be found in some vault and restored to the film.
Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .
Hi Maddy,
Even the final cut of the ending was marred, hence the jerky, dark, rushed quality. There was some technical problem with the film and the Boxes wanted a reshoot, but Mason had already left for Hollywood. Which, in my opinion, was one of the biggest mistakes of his career (the other being his toxic marriage to Pamela Ostrer).