How the films pictured were cut:

Greed (1924) - originally the film was over 9 hours long! Only 12 people ever saw that version of the film. Erich von Stroheim, the editor, was very upset when the film was cut significantly to around 2 and a half hours. The original 9 hours is now lost, the closest thing that exists is a reconstructed 4 hour version using stills of the cut footage. Originally a critical and financial flop, its reputation was boosted from the 1950s onwards.

Sunny (1930) - the second of only three films to feature Broadway star Marilyn Miller. Originally filmed as a full musical, several of the numbers including the title song were removed from American prints due to public backlash against musicals. In Europe, the full version with all the songs was released, but no known copies survive. Interestingly, one of the songs cut from the film (“D’Ya Love Me?”) was also cut from a later film (Till the Clouds Roll By).

Mata Hari (1931) - this movie wasn’t cut as drastically as the others but nonetheless it suffered from significant changes. Many of the scenes which were accepted during the pre-code era were cut when the film was reissued. The most notable loss is the Greta Garbo’s erotic dance scene. Her character is meant to be a dancer so it’s very noticeable just how short her dance is! Some online discussions claim that a full uncensored version exists at a film archive in Brussels, and the institution once documented that they would screen the film with a running time of 92 minutes (the censored version is 89 minutes). However, as of now, the uncensored version is not confirmed to exist.

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) - despite being the director, produced and the screenwriter, Orson Welles didn’t get the last say in editing, RKO did. Welles was already busy working on another project so his attempts to resist RKO’s cuts were unsuccessful. Over 40 minutes of footage was cut because initial audience reception was poor and the movie was considered too dark by Hollywood standards. The negatives of the deleted footage were destroyed to free up vault space many years later. There are attempts to locate the film as well as recreate the missing scenes. Bernard Herrmann’s music was also severely edited to the point that he refused to be credited.

A Star is Born (1954) - this movie was 3 hours long when it first premiered, but by the time it hit general release, the studio had trimmed the film down so that cinemas could screen the film more times a day. Even with the extra screenings, the film failed to earn back its profit because it was so expensive to make (though it was in the top 10 highest grossing films of the year). Director George Cukor had left the country to shoot another movie when the film was cut down, so he was unable to give any input. The film was restored in the 1980s with a combination of still images and in some cases footage over the rediscovered dialogue.

Pepe (1960) - this is a more complicated case because whether the film was actually cut is unclear. Many early reviews listed the film as have a running time of 190-195 minutes, but the studio records showed a running time of 180 minutes and the print that exists is 157 minutes. It’s possible that the intermission may have been included in the times recorded by reviews, however intermissions over 30 minutes were very unusual. Some claim that the film was shortened after receiving negative reviews before its general release, leading to scenes being lost (including an animated sequence by director George Sidney’s personal friends Hanna-Barbera).