In the late '70's/early '80's, a group of folks (among them, authors Philip Jose Farmer and Jeff Rovin) calling themselves "The Save Savage Society" petitioned Warner Brothers to rescore and re-edit George Pal's final film, but they were turned down. As such, it was kind of the subject of one of the first attempted 'fan edits'...
The existing footage of this film does have some potential. (At least, more than in its current state...) I just got my hands on a nice DVD-R transfer of the LaserDisc of this film AND the CD, "The Fantasy Film Music of George Pal" (which contains the Main Title track of this film *without* the 'Doc Savage March' vocals). I tried my hand at cutting it back in, and it worked surprisingly well (though I lost some minor sound FX in the background). Unfortunately, the 'Main Title' track is the only one of the march tracks on this CD, so I can't really do the same with the other cues. I have found a rendition of Sousa's 'Thunderer March' (the musical basis for the 'Doc Savage March') with similar orchestration and feel, but I'd have to slow it down first to even see how it works, and some of the cues where it is used in the film have different "moods" which I might or might not be able to replicate...
Anyway, here's my vision for this flick:
* Replace all 'Doc Savage March' cues with their non-vocal 'Thunderer March' counterparts (retaining sound FX where possible)...
* Replace (by cropping and/or cutting) visual references to Don Rubio sleeping in a big crib(!) (and 'Rock-a-bye Baby' musical cues)
* Remove all musical/audio references to "La Cucaracha" (setting is supposed to be fictional "Hidalgo", not MEXICO!)
* Remove hard-coded subtitles showing fighting styles of Doc and Captain Seas (thankfully, they're very brief)
* Remove some of the cornier and/or more annoying dialogue
BTW - for those familiar with this film - any suggestions on lines to cut? I'm really torn on "Mona, you're a brick"... It's such an infamous line, it seems like it would almost be wrong to take it out, but the whole "Doc, I love you" thing is *so* premature (like, they met a few hours earlier and have hardly interacted) that I'm tempted to jettison the whole exchange...
Dunno when I could get around to this or what the finished product would be like (as I've never tackled such a project before) so if anyone experienced is interested in this one, I'd be only too glad to share the raw materials...