In the infinite wisdom of the Paramount Snake Pit, this scene was excised from the final version of LET IT RIDE. I love the characters in this scene. They were inspired by my trip to the dog tracks where the term flotsam and jetsam was coined. The scene was in the script but the characters were my invention, your worst nightmare when you think of where your blood may have come from.
Wally Nicita did a terrific job casting these minor parts through a local contact in Miami. I love these people. They are what I liked about the original book and script. The story is peppered with these asides that don’t really move any story along in a conventional manner. Dede Allen (editor) never liked this scene although she did a terrific job editing it. She never said why but I think a studio guy might’ve put some pressure on her. These guys came out of the woodwork and I never understood their purpose.
Destruction?
There are a handful of scenes like this, the tiny observations of track people that were eliminated from the film after first viewing. I never got a proper answer from anyone. I still have the cute VHS copy of the original edit but the negative of this missing material is in a vault somewhere (I hope) probably fading away like Kodak negative did, or was it the positive.