The only Stanley Kubrick scenes nobody will ever see: “Once we are dead, then maybe”
As one of cinema’s most famous perfectionists, Stanley Kubrick was never going to include a scene in any of his movies that he didn’t think deserved to be there. Every production leaves footage on the cutting room floor, but two abandoned sequences from the legendary director’s career have earned near-mythical status for the sole reason that unless something drastic changes, nobody’s ever going to see them again.
When Kubrick didn’t think something was worthy of being added to his filmography, he discarded it and focused on the footage that did. Or, in the case of Fear and Desire, he made a concerted effort to have his feature-length debut erased from the history books, which didn’t go according to plan.
It didn’t matter if one of his films had already been released, either. Kubrick recalled all prints of The Shining a week into its theatrical run to excise a two-minute scene that saw Shelley Duvall’s Wendy Torrance recovering from her Overlook Hotel ordeal and getting a visit from Barry Nelson’s Stuart Ullman.
It’s remained out of circulation ever since, and that wasn’t the first time Kubrick locked an excised scene away in his personal vault. The classic black comedy Dr Strangelove initially concluded with an 11-minute custard pie fight, which was removed after a test screening when the filmmaker decided it was “too farcical and not consistent with the satiric tone of the rest of the film.”
These days, it’s hardly uncommon for older movies to be re-released in cinemas or on home video with deleted scenes, extended sequences, and half-completed moments either spliced into the existing cut or added as bonus features, but don’t expect to see it happening with Kubrick’s two most famous cut moments.
The auteur may have passed away in 1999, but his longtime producer Jan Harlan and widow Christiane vowed that his wishes would be respected even in death. Speaking to IGN, Harlan explained that despite the clamour among Kubrick aficionados to release the footage, his word still carries more weight than any amount of fan pressure or expectation.
“Not while I’m around, or his wife,” Harlan answered when asked if The Shining‘s hospital scene of Dr Strangelove‘s pie fight will ever be screened for the public. “Once we are both dead, then maybe. It depends on what the children want to do. I have the cut pie scene in my office, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s where it’s going to stay.”
As one of Kubrick’s closest confidants and trusted collaborators, Harlan refuses to budge. “Stanley didn’t like it,” was his simple reasoning. “Stanley wouldn’t like me to show this or make it available. I’ve been loyal to him for 30 years: should I now break my loyalty? Of course not. So forget it. Not available. It’s very simple.”
Those two scenes have become the Holy Grail for Kubick connoisseurs, but as long as Harlan and Christiane Kubrick remain in control of the late director’s affairs, they’ll remain hidden from view.
