Here's the latest, which I heard from someone who says he has seen the footage Arick has. According to this guy, it is NOT a complete print. He has alternate takes that were being thrown out. They are silent, and so they wouldn't synch up with the soundtrack. Much of the missing footage has no dialogue, so that would be no problem. But many of the missing scenes are dialogue scenes, so alternate takes would not work. Also, I would be surprised if the outtakes he salvaged happen to include all of the ten minutes of missing footage. Here's what he wrote me:
The people I spoke with from Warners knew the names of
the 2 people that have the footage and that it does exist.
One of the persons that has that footage is Arick, who
took alternate takes home...from the trash and when it was
discarded Warners didn't give a darn about the footage and considered it worthless
since it consisted of alternate takes and not the actual
footage in the final print. Arick has kept that footage
all these years....it has only become important since the
actual footage has proved to have been destroyed and a complete final print does not
exist. The 2nd person that has the footage obtained
most of what he has from Arick in trades for other lost
footage that he too took from Warners at a different period of time.
I saw the missing footage from this 2nd person. He
has it on VHS tape and thats the medium I saw it on....but
it had no sound. Which makes sense since the soundtrack
was on stereo tape and not on film when it was put in the
Warner archives..... Warners is aware of BOTH of these 2 people and their names and
their addresses but will not make an attempt to prosecute
because they prob wont be able to....and IF faced with
prosecution the 'collectors' have threatened to
destroy the film to eliminate any evidence.
It is also been confirmed by many people that Arick has
other alternate takes from many Warner films of the
1953-1956 era....Giant, Rebel Without A Cause, etc....that
were thrown away and instead of making their way to the
trash bin, Arick scarfed them and took them home. In a sense he did preserve them for
posterity, but his evil little mind wont share them, for
fear of prosecution and also because these weirdo collectors
dont like to 'share' what they feel is their stuff....it makes them feel special
if people want these clips and people like Arick are the
only ones that have ever seen them.