King Hippo broadcasting from Dream Tower. This week’s show:
” But though I had seen every take of the film, I was largely in the dark, for Stanley insisted I watch without sound, responding purely to the visuals.
The only time I violated his directive was after a week of hearing a buoyant Malcolm McDowell singing slices of “Singin’ in the Rain” from the editing room below my office. It finally became too frustrating — I had to know how the song was used (it wasn’t in the script, which I wasn’t allowed to read anyway) and forced the editors to show me the sequence with picture and sound. The scene — McDowell’s prancing rape of Adrienne Corri before an apoplectic Patrick Magee — was startling in its daring and ingenious in its conception. It confirmed everything I knew from Kubrick’s prior movies and from the Anthony Burgess novel upon which the film was adapted - A Clockwork Orange would be another Kubrick revelation.
Settling into the rhythm of Stanley’s questioning, Jan and I responded quickly — which wasn’t easy, as the film had twisted our emotions, seducing us into sympathizing with McDowell’s uniquely amoral yet dangerously appealing protagonist. Halfway through the conversation, we came to his seduction of “two young devotchicks” in a sped-up ménage a trois timed to the William Tell Overture. The sequence was sexy, funny and inventive — and the coupling was repeated twice.
I said that it was dazzling but that repeating the bedwork felt like milking the audience, though I didn’t know what effect he wanted. Stanley held that the second threesome would still get laughs.
The scene remained intact until six months after the film’s X-rated U.S. release, when he removed 11 seconds to secure an “R” rating. Three seconds from the second shagging were eliminated.”