Tweet Chaplin: City Lights & Modern Times deleted scenes

Re the 'Stick in the Grate' & 'Crossing a Busy Street' deleted scenes from City Lights & Modern Times:

Inexplicably, these are presented without music on DVD & Blu-ray releases. It can't be for budgetary reasons - even a simple piano accompaniment would suffice! Does anyone know exactly why they're always left truly silent?

Whenever screening either film for family or friends, I always precede it with these scenes, but it's a pain in the bum having their impact greatly diminished by having no sound. This is especially so when, as is often the case, it's their first-ever 'proper' viewing of silent film.
Does anyone have any suggestions for particular music, classical or otherwise, that would fit them well? Any source will do: vinyl, CD, online, etc.; though the latter would obviously be most convenient.

Alternatively - & best of all - how about one of our esteemed ivory bashers (Ben Model, Neil Brand?) knocking out a couple of short pieces & posting them online for everyone to use?! The CC estate wouldn't object to that, surely?

You know, I'd thought of doing that a couple years ago when I accompanied "How to Make Movies" at the Chaplin Conference in Ohio and discovered that it had been put out on the DVD completely mute. Ironically, I've just yesterday reinstated my "alternate scores" web-page and doing scores for H2MM and these two other scenes is something I could record and make available. I don't own these DVDs...but will get my hands on them one way or another.

Thanks.

Ben

Would the Carl Davis score from "Unknown Chaplin" match up?

That's a good suggestion Nick; my DVD of TUC is long overdue for rewatching, so the next time I pull it out, I'll listen to it with that in mind.

Ben, it'd be great if you could score them specifically! I'd forgotten about How to Make Movies & The Bond also being completely silent. The Warner/mk2 Revue also includes those silent deleted scenes from Shoulder Arms & Sunnyside, while The Circus has a silent 10 min deleted scene. There's also the 11 min Nice & Friendly & a whole Jackie Coogan film, My Boy, on The Kid DVD, that are in need of music... ;o)

I think that's it for significant silent CC footage, but rather than plough through all my CC DVDs, can anyone weigh in with any more?

A prime consideration is which DVD editions to actually score. The Warner/mk2 editions (& their more recent region 2 Park Circus replacements) are easily the most widely available. Unfortunately, they all run all run at PAL speed; the region 1 Warner/mk2s used an unconverted PAL-NTSC transfer, so are the same.

Presumably, the Modern Times outtake on Criterion DVD/Blu-ray runs at the correct NTSC speed, as will any others released on that label. However, these could take a while to be released & copies would never be nearly as abundant...
The only other quality NTSC DVDs currently available are the increasingly rare deleted, but still indispensible, Image Entertainment editions, though as far as I recall, none of them feature any completely silent extras.

Hope all that helps!

Lastly, I'd be more than happy for you to borrow any o0f my DVDs Ben, but as I live in the UK, I suppose someone a little nearer to you would be easier!

Wow, this sounds like a major project! I didn't realize there were so many mute extras on the Warner/mk2 discs. Surprised an entire feature (My Boy) is on the DVD with no music at all.

FYI, My Boy is available on DVD with my score on it already from ReelclassicDVD. I'd have to check its running time vs. the running time on the Kid dvd to see if my recorded score would synch up. Might just be easier to buy the RCDVD release. Here's an excerpt of the release that I got permission from Mark Roth/RCDVD to post on YouTube: http://youtu.be/G4fOJEMhoJ4

Ben