The Way We Were 1973 Previews, Edits, Cut Scenes

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The Way We Were

Previews, Edits, and Cut Scenes

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Editing “The Way We Were”

Like most movies, The Way We Were was sneak previewed before audiences in July 1973 in San Francisco. It’s the first chance the filmmakers have to see how an audience outside the bubble of making and editing the film responds to the choices they have made ....

Sydney Pollack in the editing room with a roll of film.

Sydney Pollack told biographers Zec and Fowles that “we scheduled two previews, one on a Friday night and one on a Saturday night. At the first the film was going very, very well until we hit a spot in the third act where we just lost the audience completely … you know these two characters are finished. And it's at the end of the projection room [scene].” Pollack and the editors made several major cuts. “When we cut this piece out and previewed it the next night the audience absolutely loved the picture.”


But screenwriter Arthur Laurents disagreed and said, “the climax is missing ... the audience doesn't care.”


“There weren't many movies made about this period of time in the blacklist,” Streisand said, “and that's why it killed me to have those scenes taken out. I was really heartbroken.”


Below, the cut and trimmed scenes from The Way We Were are detailed in the order they appeared in the film (this is based on an August 14, 1972 screenplay draft). It should be noted that after filming is completed and the director and editor look at the shots, sometimes scenes are cut out because they are redundant, or because they don’t advance the story – or, in some cases, they confuse the story. So, the scenes described on this page may have been trimmed simply for pace; or, as Laurents and Streisand have mentioned, they were lost at the expense of clarity, story and character motivation.


[NOTE:  The script descriptions are labeled INT. and EXT., which stands for “Interior” and ”Exterior.”]

INT. DR. SHORT’S OFFICE

This short dialogue between Katie and her professor followed the scene in which Dr. Short reads from Hubbell’s story, “The All-American Smile.”  In the scene, which takes place in Dr. Short’s office, he consoles Katie by saying “neither commitment nor a first class mind necessarily makes a first class writer.” Then he suggests that Katie become an editor like his wife.  Katie is upset by the conversation and leaves Dr. Short’s office almost in tears. 


The film cuts to Katie running down the sidewalk in tears, tearing up her story and throwing it in the trashcan, which is in the final film.


It’s entirely possible this short scene between Dr. Short and Katie merely delayed the emotions that Katie was feeling, which was illustrated better by her breakdown at the trashcan. It was probably a wise cut.

EXT. COLLEGE TOWN – NIGHT

.gif of Hubbell saying

Hubbell’s monologue in which he tells Katie a story about an incident that happened to him in third grade was trimmed from the movie. As Hubbell tells it, he was sent back and forth to various teachers at his school with a note. When they read the note, they smiled and kissed him.  Eventually, young Hubbell read the note, and it said: “Did you ever see such a smile!”

INT. KATIE’S BEDROOM — MORNING

This quick scene involved Hubbell waking up in bed and seeing Katie next to him, trying to mentally put together what happened the night before after all those drinks. Hubbell then walks into the living room and sees a pile of letters at the desk addressed to “Katie Morosky” – he has now remembered who he slept with and sinks into the chair.


Pollack admitted on the Blu-ray commentary track that the scene was cut for time, but also because “you’re telling too much with that scene. It’s much more ‘what’s going to happen now’ for an audience if they haven’t seen that scene, then they’re waiting to see what his attitude is when he gets up. And his discomfort with her is interesting.  But if you’ve already shown him saying ‘Oh my god, what have I done,’ then you’re ahead of all the information in this scene.”

INT. KATIE’S BEDROOM – DAY

In the film, we see that Hubbell calls Katie at the radio studio looking to sleep on her couch.  While Katie is out buying loads of groceries for him, Hubbell gets the key from the Super and lets himself into Katie’s apartment where he takes a shower. 


Trimmed from the film is a very short scene in which Hubbell, wearing a towel, uses Katie’s telephone to call his buddy J.J. … but his old girlfriend Carol Ann answers. Hubbell tells her he is staying with “an old school chum” and that he will see her later.

INT. KATIE’S BEDROOM – NIGHT

In an overly romantic scene in which Katie feeds Hubbell grapes in bed, she asks him “How am I for you?” 


Hubbell responds, “You surprised me, again.”


The only information this cut scene provided to the audience was that Hubbell and Katie’s relationship was progressing, especially since they slept together again. Otherwise, grape-feeding scenes between movie lovers tends to be a romantic trope. 

Katie and Hubbell in bed, cut scene.
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INT. KATIE’S BEDROOM — NIGHT

Hubbell and Katie, in bathrobes, talk about Hubbell's writing.

In case you’ve noticed a theme here …. There were several scenes set in “Katie’s Bedroom” in which the characters wore robes. 


This scene took place somewhere in the movie before Katie and Hubbell were married.  It begins with Katie admonishing Hubbell to finish writing one of his chapters when Hubbell wants to quit and go out for a walk.  It ends with Katie telling him, “Besides, I love being couped up with you.”

INT. KATIE’S BEDROOM — NIGHT

Katie, taking her earrings off, convinces Hubbell to be resilient.

This scene followed the one in which Hubbell handed Katie the first three chapters of his book in the restaurant.


Hubbell and Katie return to her apartment, where she changes into a robe. Katie encourages Hubbell about his book: “You have to be hopeful. You have to believe in yourself!” The subject turns to their parents.  Katie says Hubbell will love her father, then asks Hubbell if he loves his parents. Hubbell, as if trying it on for size for the first time, says out loud, “Mother … I love you. I love you, dad.”  Katie sees him struggle with admitting love out loud and says, “I love you, Hubbell.”  Then, when he looks at her a little blankly, she says, “It’s all right.”


Hubbell then tells Katie to read his chapters and goes out walking. In the final edit of the film we see scenes of him on the street picking up a newspaper; then Hubbell pays a short visit to Carol Ann’s apartment.

WEDDING MONTAGE

In Laurent’s script, he describes Katie and Hubbell coming out of a church after being married.  It’s uncertain whether this scene was actually filmed, though.


Streisand and Redford did pose in costume for “wedding photos” which were used in frames as set decoration later in the film.


Apparently, some type of wedding montage was filmed, though.  It looks as Pollack shot Katie and Hubbell dancing together at El Morocco nightclub, where they first met.


There are stills and a short film of Katie and Hubbell dancing together, which was used in the movie’s trailer.


There’s also a still of Katie and Hubbell snuggled together in the rain under an umbrella; it’s been said this short scene was from their wedding night — it’s unclear why they weren’t in a dry apartment.

The rest of the cut scenes in The Way We Were come after the half point of the movie and mostly involve shortening (or excising completely) the “Hollywood Witch Hunt” subplot revolving around the House Un-American Activities Committee.

INT. SOUNDSTAGE – DAY

Most of the Hollywood cast of The Way We Were appeared in this scene in which Hubbell’s screenplay, “A Country Made of Ice Cream,” is being filmed.  The scene begins with dancing girls in red-white-and-blue costumes. Director George Bissinger is on a camera crane; producer J.J. is making important phone calls; Hubbell is upset that his lines are being cut and is consoled by his agent Rhea.  Watching from the sidelines is Katie, whose only comment to Hubbell is to hold her nose with her fingers – it stinks!

The Hollywood Communists at a croquet party.

It should be noted:  One of Pollack’s eleven writers came up with an entirely new scene here which Laurents, as far as I know, did not write.  The new scene, which is in the film, has Katie and Hubbell arriving for an afternoon of tennis at Bissinger’s extravagant Hollywood home.  There, the entire cast of Hollywood characters is introduced to them:  Bissinger and his wife Vicki; Rhea, Hubbel’s agent; Paula Reisner (“our resident pessimist”); and Brooks Carpenter – the majority of his scenes seem to have been cut from the film.  The way the scene is edited, Brooks doesn’t even get an introduction by Bissinger, although he’s playing croquet with Paula Reisner.  When J.J. and Carol Ann arrive, the audience has been introduced to Katie and Hubbell’s Los Angeles friends.  Also in this scene, Carol Ann invites Katie and Hubbell to J.J.’s Marx Brothers-themed birthday party.


THE MARX BROTHERS PARTY SCENE


The costume party scene was not written by Laurents either. Pollack recalled, “We were looking for a light scene to have in Hollywood.  There was a writer’s strike – we didn’t have any writers; nobody could work. So, Ray started talking about could we somehow work out a Groucho party where everybody would do famous lines from Groucho. It was an attempt, really, to find some fun in Hollywood before things start to go bad.”


Pollack staged the actors with their props, funny mustaches and wigs; but they also worked in several of Laurents’ story points in quick cuts: “Thought control” and censorship is mentioned by Rhea; Katie and Hubbell argue with Bissinger about lines being cut from his movie why there were dancing girls; and, finally, Rhea and Paula try to convince Brooks to speak at a conference about censorship – he politely declines and says he’ll write something instead.

INT. GEORGE BISSINGER’S BEL AIR MANSION – FOYER – NIGHT

Hubbell and Katie dancing in the foyer.

Hubbell and Katie had a very short exchange which was trimmed from the film, and which builds on the subplot that Katie is learning French and wants to vacation in Europe.  As they dance slowly with each other, they talk warmly:


HUBBELL:

I don’t know … something unnatural about seeing movies in your living room.


KATIE:

Rich, it’s called. Not unnatural. But look at it this way; we’re saving fifty-five cents apiece. So that’s a buck-ten for Europe.  What’s our balance?


HUBBELL:
So far, with 3% interest compounded quarterly, we can’t make it to the boat.


They stop dancing and start toward the living room as the screening is beginning.  The tail-end of their conversation can be seen in the final film: “Don’t try that old trick with the sunglasses. I know when you’re sleeping.”

INT. BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL MEETING ROOM – NIGHT

Excised from the film, this scene has Brooks Carpenter (again, his part almost completely eliminated) speaking at the Thought Control Conference that Rhea and Paula mentioned at the Marx Brothers party. Brooks gives an impassioned speech, although he is a nervous speaker.  “No one,” he says, “no Congressman, no committee, no judge, not even the President – No one has the right to question me, and tell me what I can and cannot write, say and think. That right is mine, and I will fight for it no matter what the cost.”


Katie is moved to tears and Hubbell is shocked to see that his wife is still very much politically involved.  He leaves the table in anger.


Katie finds Hubbell at the Beverly Hills Hotel bar. “Well,” he says to her, “you’re back on the barricades.”  Katie asks, “And you?” Hubbell replies: “Sorry, not my style.”

INT. MALIBU HOUSE – NIGHT

Katie saying she is not afraid of trouble.

After confronting his wife about going to Washington, D.C., Hubbell and Katie trade a few words that were trimmed from the final film.


Katie’s monologue was cut after Hubbell says, “We’re back where we started, aren’t we?”


KATIE:

That’s not true, Hubbell. In college I stood under and maple tree selling Loyalist Spain and you wouldn’t let Jews into your fraternity house. And now you’ve married one and she’s going to have your baby. We live on the beach in Malibu, California and that is not where we started.


HUBBELL:

Why? Are you such a rare blood type they need you?


KATIE:

Hubbell, I’m going to Washington because it isn’t fair to let our friends Brooks and the Hollywood Ten take a beating for the rest of us and not do something.


HUBBELL:

It’s a gesture, Katie. A pointless, useless gesture that can cause a lot of trouble.


KATIE:

I’m not afraid of trouble.


HUBBELL:

Not even for us?

INT. UNION STATION – DAY

This scene is mostly intact in the final film, with “people are their principles” added to Katie and Hubbel’s argument.


What’s been cut came at the beginning of the scene, when Hubbell reveals to Katie that his agent, Rhea, informed on Brooks Carpenter and named eight other people to the Committee.  If you notice, Rhea does not make an appearance in the movie again (see below; her story had a finale, which was also cut).

INT. MARKET – DAY

This entire scene was cut.


Rhea’s storyline was wrapped up in this scene. Katie, more pregnant, is ordering steaks from the butcher when Rhea confronts her. “What I wanted to do was expose those hypocritical writers who are a disgrace,” Rhea says. “They scream like stuck pigs about the way we supposedly censor our writers, but do they ever utter one word against what the Russians do to theirs?”


Then Rhea admits, “Does that justify naming those hypocrites? I suppose it’ll be years before I know whether I did the right thing. And by then, it won’t matter.”


Katie replies: “Oh, well, I can tell you now. Rhea, you did the wrong thing. And if it matters, I think you’re a shit.”

EXT. UCLA CAMPUS – DAY

.gif of Katie crying when she sees a young student on campus.

After her run-in with Rhea, Katie drives by UCLA campus and sees a young girl giving a political speech. The girl reminds Katie of herself and of her college days. Katie cries, remembering the way she was ...

INT. MALIBU HOUSE – NIGHT

Hubbell and Katie discuss Frankie naming her as a subversive.

This is the climactic scene that Laurents and Streisand hated to lose in the final film.  Cut from the picture is the following dialogue:


HUBBELL:

Who’s Frank McVeigh?


KATIE:

Frank McVeigh? Old Frankie, huh? We went to college with him. Well, at least I did. We were in the YCL [Young Communist League] together. Why?


HUBBELL:

He informed on you.


KATIE:

The little rat. It’s so crazy. He was my date at the senior prom, and you cut in for ten seconds. What could he tell them anyway? I left the Party during the war, for god’s sake.


HUBBELL:

They don’t care about that.


KATIE:

But I’m a nobody. I haven’t been near the studio for months. Oh god … because I’m your wife?



Because Frankie has informed on Katie, the  couple faces two choices: either Katie must inform on others, or Hubbell loses his job writing for the studio.



KATIE:

Hubbell, there is no justification for informing. None. There’s something very wrong with any country that makes informers.


HUBBELL:

Christ, is that what you think I want you to do?


KATIE:

I don’t know any more. All I know is if I don’t name names you can’t get a job in this town. If we got a divorce, then you wouldn’t have a subversive wife. That would solve everything, wouldn’t it?


Sydney Pollack, in the bonus feature on the DVD, explained that the preview audience literally got up and left the theater to get popcorn after the projection room scene in which it was revealed that Hubbell had an affair with Carol Ann. 


“This story reaches a point where you know these two people are finished,” Pollack said. “And it’s at the end of the projection room. By going from ‘I want us to love each other’ and ending there as though it’s coming apart … and then going very quickly to the next beat which is ‘Will you stay with me till the baby comes,’ it was the first time the picture worked.”


Ray Stark, in the DVD commentary, says, “The film was too long, and it was clear to us that the audience was much too interested in our two stars than in any message. During the initial preview, we borrowed Francis Coppola’s editing room in San Francisco, worked all night with Sydney, overseeing the editing with John Burnett and Margaret Booth. We cut 15 minutes, losing some of the politics and screened it the next night, and the audience really loved this version.”


Arthur Laurents admitted that the audience didn’t know or care that those cuts were made.


Pollack summarized his editorial choices: “I feel that there is real value in a lot of these scenes. But I made a decision at the time that I was going to sacrifice some of those little moments both for an overall shape that felt righter to me, and a certain amount of pace to the picture. I don’t say to this day that I’m right. I thought I was right at the time. I think there’s a cleaner line, emotionally, with the way it is now.”

More Trimmed Scenes

Publicity Photos

BELOW: Click the photos to see them larger.  You'll find movie posters, publicity materials, and the publicity photos that Redford and Streisand posed for, both in and out of costume.

End / The Way We Were

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