Scenes Cut From the US Screening on PBS
Many thanks to Lynette for noting the cut scenes.
- A brief scene cut during the back-and-forth between the Jackson farm and Foyle and Milner on the trail of the missing German airmen. Joan and Rose are working in the farm’s courtyard; Hugh Jackson drives by on the newly delivered John Deere tractor.
Joan: Your son’s home day after tomorrow.
Jackson (spitefully): That’s of no interest to you. You think you’re gonna snare my boy.
Joan: Why shouldn’t I?
Jackson: You shan’t get my boy and you shan’t get the farm.
Joan (indignant): But I’ve worked hard –
Rose (interrupting): If you don’t like it you can always go back to London, Joan!
- A particularly daft, if brief, cut from the scene where they cut Lt. Weiser down from the tree. Foyle has just postulated the unlikely scenario of the German airman dropping in by parachute, going to the farmhouse and committing the murder and returning to hang from the tree.
Milner: So perhaps not our main suspect then.
Foyle. Maybe not.
Milner: Someone could have taken his pistol while he was hanging half-conscious from the tree and then used it to kill Jackson.
Foyle: Yup.
Milner: Miss Hicks, for instance?
Foyle: Yup … Get him into the car. I’ll have a word.
Why does this cut matter? Because in the denouement, Foyle says that Weiser overheard their exchange, observed Barbara’s appearance and then deliberately described her (falsely) as the woman who took his Luger. We pick up with Foyle’s conversation with Barbara in which she describes finding the airman and he asks her where she got her opinion of men.
- Another cut from the end of the same scene: Sam is bending over the barely conscious Weiser in the back seat of the car, holding a canteen to his lips. Milner stands nearby, watching closely. Weiser murmurs “Danke”. Foyle approaches.
Sam: He’s rallying. Quite shaken, though. May be a bit concussed. He must have fallen out of the tree with an almighty wallop.
Foyle: Get him to the farmhouse. See what he’s got to say when he comes round.
Milner: Should I let Cornwall know that we’ve landed another airman?
Foyle: Yeah, but … no rush. This is going to go into tomorrow, isn’t it? (to Sam) See if you can get us somewhere local for the night.
Sam: That would save petrol, sir.
Foyle: I’m going over to Curling. See what he’s got to say.
Sam: (smiling) That’d save even more.
Foyle: Wouldn’t it?
Milner: Should we give Miss Hicks a lift back to the farm?
Foyle: Yes, do … good luck.
- A speech giving useful backstory on the friction between Curling and Jackson is missing from Foyle’s interview with Curling.
Curling (butchering and skinning rabbits as he talks): Everything the Garden of Eden was tickety-boo until the women showed up. Them girls. Hugh Jackson was sitting there drunk, watching the weeds grow, and then in the autumn of ’39 he got the girls in. Well, I was offered ‘em an’ all, but I didn’t think they’d be much cock. I never fancied a woman could do it. But them two (gesturing to Rose and Joan toiling away in a field some distance away) – look at ‘em! – them’s a miracle, an’ that’s that.
- Early the next morning (just before the scene between Foyle and Barbara outside the bathroom), Tom, Rose and Joan are seen walking in the woods carrying shovels. They stop.
Joan: There! (pointing)
Rose: Joan, don’t you think we speak to that Mr Foyle –
Joan: Don’t make me laugh!
Rose: But –
Joan: Dig! Tom (indicating that he should join in. Then to Rose) Dig, or I’ll put you in there ‘n all.
They start digging a hole.
- Cut scene after Rose and Joan have left the milking parlour where Foyle questioned them about the blood in the floor and a possible affair between Hugh Jackson and Barbara. Joan spots Sam waiting by the car and immediately goes for her.
Joan: (heatedly) Lady Muck keeping her eye on the sod-busters, is she?
Sam (flustered) : Listen, I don’t know what I –
Joan: Why can’t the old man drive hisself?
Sam: He’s not an old man!
Joan: Don’t you know there’s a war on? Us breaking our backs and here’s you, all spick and span with your barnet done up like a Cornish pasty, hanging around …
Sam: Look, I was drafted in from the MTC to drive Mr Foyle ---
Joan: Is he givin’ you one? Is that it? (Sam looks blank.) Are you his fancy woman? Is that how it works?
Sam’s expression changes to one of outrage, but before she can respond, Rose says “Just leave it!” and bustles Joan away.
- Several little cuts were made from the scene where Sam asks permission to help on the farm for the day. Rather than try to fill in the blanks, I’ll just give the complete dialogue:
Sam: Do you think I do enough for the war effort, sir? I mean, shouldn’t I be doing more than just driving you around?
Foyle (looking taken aback): Is that all you do?
Sam: No. I also spend a lot of time hanging around while you’re working.
Foyle: What’s brought this on?
Sam: Well, I was thinking about the girls on the farm, sir, how hard they work. Right at the moment, with the potatoes … I think they could do with an extra pair of hands.
Foyle: Well, go ahead.
Sam: Really?
Foyle: You want to help them out today?
Sam: What will you do, sir?
Foyle: Well, we’re at the farm all day. If I’m really in trouble, I’ll let you know.
Sam: Thank you, sir.
Foyle: It’s a pleasure. (He casts a quick, searching glance over at her as she drives.)
- Later, Foyle decides to go over to the POW camp with the Luger Milner has just found. He and Milner leave the farmhouse and see Sam busy in the potato field.
Foyle: Listen, Sam wants to do her bit for the war effort. Get one of the chaps to drive me over to the camp, would you?
Milner: Yes, sir.
Up in the field, Rose suddenly retches into the dirt. At Sam’s question, she says she is okay. Straightening to ease her aching back, Sam is startled to see the Wolseley leaving the farmyard.
Sam: Hey! Hey! (then, realizing she can’t catch it, mutters) Blast it!
Joan: Lover boy run off without you?
Sam: Shut up, will you?
Joan: Make me!
Rose (trying to start the tractor) : Put a sock in it, Joan! (then in frustration at the spluttering tractor) Bleedin’ Yank Rubbish!
Sam: Here. (stepping over and adjusting the throttle) You’re flooding it. (the engine begins to run smoothly)
Joan: I suppose Daddy has a fleet of these on his estate.
Sam: No … my cousin does!
Rose grins.
- The final cut I spotted came just after Foyle has questioned Weiser at the POW hospital. It was the “reconciliation” between Sam and the two Land Girls. It came out of the scene where Sam is taking a break in the meadow and Joan walks up to her.
Joan: Oh.
Sam: It’s all right … I think there’s room for two.
Joan: Why are you always so nice? I was giving you a right slogging back there. Is that what they teach you in posh school – how to not show what you feel?
Sam: Yes, I suppose it is.
Joan: Well, I will sit down as it happens … this here’s my spot, see … she goes on to explain how it’s called Poppy Bank, how Hugh loved it, etc.
Note: These were all the cuts I could spot but there may have been more.