20 replies to this topic

[kas569]

Whilst looking in the archives under the heading The Blues Brothers Movie thread no.199 "I'm New", a Beacky278 lists a site with the BB movie script - but it seems to have a lot of extra bits to what I've seen! eg. after Jake gets out of prison they visit a whorehouse with a girl named Cecille - what's that all about????
Can anyone help?

[JacobSteinAFM]

I thought that part was interesting as well.

This was Dan's first experience of writing a screenplay for a film. His first draft, I believe was over 300 pages long. This is way over the average length of a first draft script. So, John Landis had to make a lot of cuts for time. (The extended version is almost 2 1/2 hours long!) There were a lot of other scenes filmed that are not on the extended version. These are, unfortunately, lost to this day. I don't know if this particular scene was filmed or not, but it's possible.

I've skimmed through that script, and there was one line that struck me as hilarious! It's after Elwood says "They're not gonna catch us. We're on a mission from God." And Jake's response is something like- "They better not catch us! I ain't going back to Joliet! The pepper steak they serve on Thursday nights is the worst!":lol:

[kas569]

Thank you - that explains a lot. I thought I was missing out on some fabulous extended version of the film. How I wish it had all the extra tidbits!!!

[Scott]

The whore house is where Jake spends the money he gets back when he is released from prison. I don't know for sure, but I have a sneaky suspicion that the scene might have been filmed, or at the very least actresses were cast for it, because at the end of BB Private (third-last page I think) there's a picture of Jake and Elwood, separately, with an African-American woman, and the tabloid suggests that she is some sort of secret Blues wife. That woman might be Cecille.

There is some more extra lost footage later in the script too:
- Murph and the Magictones play "Just the Way You Are" at the Armada Room
- The Band plays "Sink the Bismark" at Bob's Country Bunker.

[JacobSteinAFM]

I've heard of a deleted scene in which Elwood eats up a handful of shaving cream and rubs it on his stomach. Does anyone know which part this would've took place in?

[Belletrist]

I have the extended version - it's spunky.
I think the shaving cream part was in the factory, just before Elwood quits his job.

[kas569]

If you go to http://www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/script.txt you can see the whole 'strange' script - it seems to have a number of differences dotted throughout eg. man in the toy store asks for "three 'D' batteries, please" instead of "do you have a Miss Piggy?" before the mall chase/demolition scene.
There is also more dialogue in many places such as the Penguin scene, and words and phrases chopped out in other places!!
The shaving cream scene before Elwood quits his job is there.
It's fascinating to read but also a little disconcertng when you are so familiar with something already!
Any other comments on this

[bbcentral]

Something else you'll notice in that script is that Murph's lines are a lot crazier, in fact he sounds quite strange!
But it makes sense when you realize the role was originally meant for Paul Shaffer. In some parts of the script it still says 'Paul' instead of 'Murph'

The line about the 'D' batteries was changed to 'Miss Piggy' because both Grover and Miss Piggy were voiced by Frank Oz (Mr 'One unused prophylactic...one soiled' at the start of the movie). John Landis loves the Muppets (who doesn't!) :D

The Blues Brothers was originally meant to be a 'roadshow'. It's a movie that travels around the country playing in different venues. It was going to be quite a bit longer, and even have an intermission in the middle. This complete version (with intermission) was played at the Premiere at the Picwood Theatre (since demolished) in Hollywood, but after that the movie was heavily edited with scenes removed. That edited movie is the Theatrical Version you can see on TV, or on the Anniversary DVD. In the mid 1980's some ******* idiotic ******** at Universal Studios threw the extra footage out. When they decided to release an extended version in 1998, they found that the footage was lost, but luckily someone found an old preview reel of the movie. Because of this they managed to get an extra 9 minutes of footage back in, like where Elwood parks the Bluesmobile in the EL transformer room, and where Elwood quits his job.

As Scott mentioned, there were some scenes in that script that were cut out of the final shooting script and never filmed, and other scenes that were filmed but lost forever.
The song "Just the Way You Are" was recorded in the studio but never filmed. "Sink the Bismark" was recorded too, and filmed, but the footage is gone. That was the 3rd song they sang at Bob's, you can get it from the Downloads section.

The Whorehouse scene was apparently cut from the final shooting script, and never filmed.

Apparently Aretha Franklin was at the Palace Hotel gig, but I don't know if that was true.

I think only half of the car chase footage actually made it into the movie, gives you an indication of how much was lost. If only someone knew what happened to that original reel from the Picwood Theatre, that's like the Blues Brothers Holy Grail. Remember that episode of the Simpsons where the woman comes into the Comic Book shop with a box of 'junk' to get rid of, and there's a film reel marked "Star Wars alternate ending - Luke's father is Chewbacca". Well I'd react that way if I saw a film reel marked "Blues Brothers - Picwood"

[Dauber]

bbcentral said:

The line about the 'D' batteries was changed to 'Miss Piggy' because both Grover and Miss Piggy were voiced by Frank Oz (Mr 'One unused prophylactic...one soiled' at the start of the movie). John Landis loves the Muppets (who doesn't!) :D

And it was only recently -- like in the past year -- that I found yet ANOTHER Frank Oz reference in that scene! During the Miss Piggy dialogue, you can see a stuffed version of Animal on (or near?) the counter.

[bbcentral]

Frank Oz did Animal? I didn't know that
I know he did the Swedish Chef (not the voice, Frank Oz was the arms). The Swedish Chef was the only muppet with real human arms :D

[Odupianist]

Frank Oz did do Animal from 1976-1981 on the Muppet Show (which is classic and everyone should buy the first season, it's great!). He also did it when they tried bringing the Muppets back, and he still does it for movies and video games. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000568/

I like at the end of the script (no I haven't read it all yet) it says...

"The movie is now over. Everyone will immediately leave
the theatre and tell their family and friends about the
marvelous picture they just saw. Eighty percent of the
audience will see it at least twice.

FADE OUT"

[Belletrist]

Well, that's interesting. And apparantly, Animal was based on Keith Moon (drummer in The Who). Don't know where I heard that, but it certainly makes sense.

[caramal]

Why do people even edit movies if it's just going to tick people off.Why even write that long of a script if it's just going to be cut in half,wait more than half.

[bbcentral]

A lot of stuff gets cut and rearranged in movies while they are making them. Some of those scenes might have been good, but they would have seriously slowed down the movie. Also, the Blues Brothers was majorly over-budget, so that's another reason for possibly removing scenes.

[Odupianist]

Quote

Animal was based on Keith Moon (drummer in The Who)

This hasn't been confirmed, but everyone pretty much assumes Keith Moon is the main person. If you get a chance, either buy or check out from a local library Of Muppet and Men. It has a lot about all of the Muppet Show. It even says what/who the Muppets were based off of, ie Dr. Teeth is based off of Elton John and Dr. John.

[dbqer]

I did some research on the film in High School in the mid to late 80's and the school library had some old Rolling Stones magazines(when it was printed on newspaper) around the time the movie was being filmed and after its release and it gave some great insight with long articles, in fact it was originally going to be over three hours but the budget was so far gone that the studio was rushing them to get it over with and they didn't feel teenagers(there target audience for the movie) would go see a three hour movie. I may still have copies of the articles and will try and post parts of them.

[Odupianist]

If you read the little insert of the Director's Edition DVD, it says how they showed the movie with an intermission. It was over three hours long, and they nixed it cause of the people's opinion as well. I odn't have the leaflet with me, but if you have the Director's Edition DVD, read the little paper in there by Landis.

[George_Germany]

bbcentral said:

...The song "Just the Way You Are" was recorded in the studio but never filmed. "Sink the Bismark" was recorded too, and filmed, but the footage is gone. That was the 3rd song they sang at Bob's, you can get it from the Downloads section.

Excuse me, I'm new here, what Downloads Section, please? Can't find one... Thanks.

[Belletrist]

The downloads section of Blues Brothers Central. You can find it from the front page (http://www.bluesbrotherscentral.com/). On the menu at the left, click "Multimedia", then "MP3 Music". I think Sink the Bismark is on the second page of downloads :D

[George_Germany]

Thanks! :D