The Conan Completist

SOURCES: David C. Smith.
AUDIO COMMENTARY: No.
NOVELIZATION: Yes.
COMIC BOOK: Yes.
FILMED?: Yes.
EXTRAS LAST UPDATE: ---

In his essay devoted to the Milius film, David C. Smith writes:

Quite a lot of material was clipped from Conan and Subotai’s exploration of Shadizar, including (...) a street procession of Thulsa Doom’s followers, including what would have been the first appearance of the princess.

When he makes the inventory (in a non-exhaustive way) of the cut scenes of the film, Smith bases himself mainly on the screenplay written by Milius (in fact, the second draft, dated from November 1980). Short extracts are used when needed to illustrate his remarks, such as this one, which relates to the procession scene:

[Conan] sees a creature of such beauty as he has never imagined... She smiles down, the wind blows her robe, revealing a golden thigh. She sees Conan and her mouth parts...
PRINCESS
You... warrior... Throw down your sword... come back to earth...

He drifts after the procession... Suddenly, Conan stops...

CHANT (o.s.)
Doom...Doom...Doom....

Conan turns, his face distorted with confusion, fear and anger. Subotai senses it....

CONAN
Who was that girl? The one of beauty with the snakes -- who spoke to me?

SUBOTAI
That girl--ha! That was no girl, that was the princess of Shadizar, you fool!
.

But Smith never specifies if the "cut scenes" that he mentions were filmed by Milius, or simply excized from the script before the beginning of principal photography. The nuance is however quite important.

In addition to the script, the procession scene also appears in the comic book adaptation of the movie (cf. extras), as well as in the novelization. However, I had always believed that it had never been filmed... until I discover, at the time of the release of the film on DVD in Special Edition, this astonishing photo (picture 1) used as a background (and almost identically reproduced by Buscema in one of the frames [picture 2] of the comic book!.

More recently, a second photo (picture 3), put online on the official site www.conan.com, came to put an end to my initial doubts: yes, the procession scene was indeed filmed!

ConanCompletist 2004