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Posted: |
Jan 14, 2017 - 5:19 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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I don't have the restored DVD any more but I can only remember there being one intermission (just after Twiggy sees Christopher Gable transferring his affections to another goyul). Where do the breaks appear in the version you have?
I don't have the DVD, but on the laserdisc, I see how there can be some confusion. The laserdisc has two separate chapters, which are titled "Finale, Act One" and "Finale, Act Two." At the Act One finale, Gable does indeed rush from Twiggy to a girl in the wings, and Twiggy storms off-stage. The curtain onstage comes down, Hollywood director Cecil B. De Thrill, who is up in a box, applauds, and an Intermission card comes on screen. The Intermission card remains on screen for about 2 and a half minutes, during which a music medley plays continuously. Then the film resumes.
At the Act Two finale, Gable and Twiggy have just completed a duet of "I Could Be Happy With You." Gable is chased offscreen by some arriving swells, and Twiggy sadly starts to reprise the song alone. Then Twiggy rushes off in tears, and the cast completes the song. The curtain on stage comes down, with the aging husband and wife team remaining in front of it, bowing to Cecil B. De Thrill up in the box. There is a fade-out, and the film proceeds, without intermission.
The chapters on the laserdisc are set in such a way that the Act One intermission occurs at the end of a chapter and cannot be skipped without also skipping the material that precedes it in the chapter. And there actually is no intermission with the Act Two finale.
As to whether Russell intended for there to be an intermission in the film, the liner notes to the laserdisc state that "fortunately MGM did retain the original negative to Russell's original cut. . . . For this laserdisc, MGM/UA has transferred the original version of THE BOY FRIEND in its original Panavision aspect ratio from the master interpositive." I don't know why the laserdisc producer would go through the trouble of inserting an intermission when none was on the film master.
Nevertheless, it's hard to tell how the actual intermission was intended to play, given its presentation on the laserdisc. Did Russell intend a "normal" 10-15 minute intermission, with the Intermission card up for a few moments, and then for the two-and-a-half minutes of music be a normal Entr'Acte? And did the producer of the laserdisc, George Feltenstein, just decide to keep the Intermission card onscreen during the full Entr'Acte? If so, that would have been a practice unlike anything Feltenstein had done before. Or did Russell actually expect the audience to remain in their seats for the two-and-a-half minute "Intermission," which just becomes a musical interlude? How would the audience know not to get up and walk out?
The fact that the theatrical showings apparently had no intermission add further mystery.
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