The Conan Completist

SOURCES: thearnoldfans, David C. Smith
AUDIO COMMENTARY: Not.
NOVELIZATION: Yes.
COMIC BOOK: Yes.
FILMED?: Partly.
EXTRAS LAST UPDATE: ---

In the final cut, the motivation which drives Conan and Subotai to sneak into the Tower of the Serpent is more than quickly dispatched. On a night shot of the two friends walking along a high wall (picture 3), one can simply hear the small thief saying to the Cimmerian: "You seek snakes? They live in the Tower of the Serpent. Where there are immense richnesses and the largest of the jewels: the Eye of the Serpent."

In the novelization, Conan and Subotai are short of money. Conan blames Subotai for having wasted the few coins they had when buying some Black Lotus. Subotai proposes him to sell his sword, which Conan refuses formally, of course. Having taken some pendant in the Wolf Witch hut, Conan decides to get rid of it to some merchant, but, not much accustomed to the trade, he is conned and only gets very little money out of it, to the great displeasure of Subotai: "Any idiot knows that the first offer never should be accepted!" At this point in time Subotai has the idea of a plan which could make them as rich "as lords." During a long moment, Conan, who is not a thief, remains reticent. Malignant, Subotai finally manages to convince him: "You seek snakes, I seek a treasure. Perhaps we will find both in this tapering tower?"

Did Milius envisage shooting a more explicative scene? And did he finally condense/replaced it by the shot of the wall, on which one can feel that some dialogue was artificially added? [1] Among the scenes actually filmed then cut during the editing process, CromIsGod precisely mentions a passage where:

Conan and Subotai sit on a mountaintop, with Shadizar in the distant background, and decide to break into the Tower of the Serpent to steal the jewels.

The comic book of film proposes such a scene (pictures 1 and 2), but it is not to be trusted, because it seems obvious that Buscema drew it without any reference other than the script.

To the shot of the wall, in the movie, follows a shot of (a model of) the Tower (picture 4), then a close-up of Subotai who is seen sniffing (picture 5). The next shot is that of the meeting with Valeria. There again, the scene was appreciably shortened, if CromIsGod is to be believed. The approach of the Tower was, according to him, originally more detailed:

Conan & Subotai sneak through a garden and jump over a wall to get to the base of the Tower of the Serpent [pictures 6 à 8].

It is perhaps not very obvious in the film but, at the time when Conan and Subotai find themselves face to face with Valeria (picture 9), they did not penetrate yet in the gardens which surround the Tower: they are in fact still outside the enclosing wall (covered with crawling vine).

Last cut suffered by the approach sequence (this one is infinitely more harmful, and its reason can't be explained well): the few lines of dialogue where Valeria presented herself to our two heroes.

GIRL
Ha! Two fools who laugh at death.

She sheathes her blade smoothly. They do likewise.

GIRL
I am Valeria.

Subotai is taken aback.

SUBOTAI
I’ve heard of you--they call you a queen of thieves! A master! Where are your brigands?

VALERIA
Cowards and lackeys.... Scared of Set--and--Thulsa Doom.

As astonishing as it can be, and as David C. Smith very adequately notes, with the disappearance of these three lines, the name of Valeria is never again pronounced in the current version of the film! Which Sandahl Bergman bitterly does regret, as she explains it in the August 1982 "Starlog" issue:

Not all the film pleases her. "Some of the cuts bothered me. That, too, can change your performance. Certain lines or parts if scenes can be trimmed so the character can seem different." She is disturbed that in the cuts she has seen, her character's name is never mentioned and her introductory scene is shorter. "I come in and plays lines off of Subotai and I spit at one point but it's all gone." The scene, as written, has Valeria announced herself and Subotai recognizes her as Queen of Thieves. He asks "Where are your brigands?" She spits and responds, "Cowards and lackeys... Scared of Set--and--Thulsa Doom." "The scene just doesn't work without that," she sighs.

ConanCompletist 2004