Ballet dancer/actress Ludmilla Tchérina appeared in SIGN OF THE PAGAN as Princess Pulcheria. In the film she has a dance sequence which has been removed from circulation since the film's release.
These photos are the only proof of her dance number.
So what happened exactly? No one seems to know but I once read somewhere that Ludmilla copyrighted the dance moves and wanted Universal International to pay her extra for it. Needless to say this didn't go down well with studio heads who ordered all traces of the dance sequence to be removed from prints and trailers. Is this the real reason? I don't know. I have the German DVD of this and the dance number is cut.
Did anyone see this film when it came out? And do you remember the dance? If so, just reply to this post.
4 comments:
It is good that this scene (very uncharacteristic to the Princess in the film) was edited out.
The film was shown on UK TV that had this 'lost' dance sequence, many years ago around 1990. I had a poor VHS copy of it but that is long gone. So I am not sure about the copywright issues. Would love a full copy of this underrated movie! If anyone has a copy, please let me know.
Remember seeing the "infamous dance sequence" "way back in the day." Probably "disappeared" some time in the 1990's ."Sexy dance numbers" were cosidered "de riguer" in the era of the the swords and sandals epics of the 1950's -1960's. Since Ludmilla was a famous ballerina, I guess they thought it was a "no brainer" to have her do her thing under some dranmatic pretext. She was supposed to be a "passionate princess' and under no account was she going to do "Swan Lake" . So the reason for the cut remains a mystery. Anyway, I would rather have had Rita Gam do an alternative "pagan" dance number instead, but sadly that was not to be. Fortunately, neither Chandler nor Palance danced during the making of this motion picture -and no animals were harmed-that we know of!
I love this movie. It was shown on The Late Late Show channel 2 I saw this as a kid. I do remember the dance sequence my mother saw the film one evening and stated "she carries on like a nut. The first dance was simple but considered boring for barbarian taste and Lady Tcherina then removed her white gown and had on a green or dark slip like gown and her dancing was more rugged and appealing to the Barbarians someceven trying to grab at her only she fought them off and did a spin and dropped to the floor and was applauded and she left with Jeff Chandler looking on from this the Barbarians became unruly jumping on tables and the Emperor offered gifts of trinkets and jewels. The dance scene needs to be put back in the film though the cut to the Emperor offering gifts is follows if you seen this movie all your life you know that particular scene is missing. Please bring this scene back it is well missed.
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