Cutting Room Floor

Early in the second week of filming Bill Murray was put on indefinite bed rest for a serious case of Lyme disease. Given the tight budget and production schedule director Emile Ardolino worked non-stop for three days with writer Eleanor Bergstein to find a replacement and rework the script eventually replacing Murray with Patrick Swayze. While the new film was a massive box office hit it is somewhat sad to learn details from the abandoned script.

Murray's character Raúl Kincade was written as a chain smoking Cuban-Irish refugee from Havana that had operated the top dance school in Cuba and invented the Cha-cha-chá. He was forced to leave the country in 1962 when his school was discovered to harbor Castro dissenters. Given his credentials Raúl lands a job teaching dance at Kellermans resort in the Catskills but is often treated with disrespect by ignorant staff and resort guests angry about the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Francis "Chica" Houseman develops a crush on the sad but graceful Raúl as he teaches her to dance and the pair enjoy a summer affair that changes both of their lives forever.