ALTERED STATES

Mark Kausler has made yet another discovery among his fabulous film collection…His nitrate print of Tex Avery’s 1945 cartoon THE SHOOTING OF DAN McGOO has several altered shots when compared to the common 1951 re-release version we are used to seeing on TV and home video. I’ve pictured several of these differences on my Cartoon Research.com MGM Original Titles page. Chief among the changes were the elimination of several gags relating to cigarettes – which in 1945 were rationed and considered valuable. Not so in 1951.MGM’s pre-1951 cartoon negatives were destroyed in a vault fire three decades ago. Thus the only master material available are dupe negs from the reissue versions – or rare one of a kind nitrate original release prints. Unfortunetly, not many of the volatile nitrate prints survive. Let’s hope more turn up before it’s too late.