Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults

Hidden Hollywood II takes up where Hidden Hollywood left off, deleted musical numbers and some newly found scenes, including parts of W. C. Fields in "Tales of Manhattan" made into a small vignette.

What I missed in the first HH was what went on before the camera light went on, and when it went off. There was just a little of it.

We were able to see more of that here - Ginger Rogers doing jelly legs after a number from Roxie Hart that was cut, Alice Faye in a custard pie sketch, Margaret Dumont losing it while W. C. Fields adlibbed, Buster Keaton directing, and many others.

The documentary included film preservationists showing how nitrate film can turn into dust, and also showing some fading color in film followed by the same scene restored.

With computer techniques, they are now able to fix tears in film that hasn't completely disintegrated when they cannot work from the original negative. All fascinating and well worth seeing.

There was a "Sheik of Araby" number cut because of scantily dressed females. There were also some cut routines from a Sonja Henie film, and cut singing from an Alice Faye film, deleted because producers decided it didn't belong in a serious film; also cut sequences from "Four Jills and a Jeep."

The best for me was seeing the attempt by Fox to turn Victor Mature into a song and dance man, shown with Betty Grable.

One sad moment - seeing how stunning Carole Landis was in "Four Jills in a Jeep" and realizing that she committed suicide a few years later, before she was 30. Too sad.

I like this sequel better than the first, even though the first one had Tyrone Power in it.