Trivia / Cruising

• Acting in the Dark: Karen Allen was never shown a complete script before she worked on this film. William Friedkin deliberately kept her in the dark, since her character Nancy wasn't supposed to be aware of what was happening to Steve as he explored the gay underworld.
• Actor-Shared Background: DiSimone mentions his wife leaving him and moving down to Florida with their young daughter to live with his wife's sister. In real life, Joe Spinell's wife, porn star Jean Jennings, divorced him several weeks before he filmed his scenes and moved to Florida—exactly as his character describes.
• Banned in China: The film was banned in Finland, Iran and South Africa.
• Deleted Scene/Missing Episode: William Friedkin's original cut was 140 minutes long. Friedkin claims he took the film before the MPAA board "50 times" at a cost of $50,000 and deleted 40 minutes of footage from the original cut before he secured an R rating. The deleted footage, according to Friedkin, consisted entirely of footage from the clubs in which portions of the film were shot and consisted of "[a]bsolutely graphic sexuality....that material showed the most graphic homosexuality with Pacino watching, and with the intimation that he may have been participating." In some discussions, Friedkin claims that the missing 40 minutes had no effect on the story or the characterizations, but in others he states that the footage created "mysterious twists and turns (which [the film] no longer takes)", that the suspicion that Pacino's character may have himself become a killer was made more clear and that the missing footage simultaneously made the film both more and less ambiguous. When Friedkin sought to restore the missing footage for the film's DVD release, he discovered that United Artists no longer had it. He believes that UA destroyed the footage.
• Looping Lines: Some scenes had to redubbed due to gay rights protesters disrupting filming by making lots of noise.
• Troubled Production: And how:
  • Friedkin and Pacino did not get along during production, with Friedkin viewing Pacino as unprofessional and disinterested. Years later, he would still vocally call Pacino out. This would have been bad enough by itself, if if it wasn't for the fact that...
  • The film was notoriously protested by the LGBTQ+ community, who perceived it to be homophobic and incendiary in a way that would provoke anti-gay violence, and the New York shoot was disrupted by action ranging from large-scale protests at filming locations to acts of sabotage; in particular, so much noise was made by protestors that huge amount of audio had to be overdubbed.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Brian De Palma really wanted to direct this film but his producers could not obtain the rights to the material, so he made Dressed to Kill.
  • William Friedkin originally wanted Richard Gere for Steve Burns, because he believed that Gere would bring an androgynous quality to the role. Robert De Niro and Roy Scheider were offered the role.
  • Producer Philip D'Antoni tried to attach Steven Spielberg, but they were not able to interest a studio.
  • Paul Morrissey was going to direct with Jeff Bridges as Steve Burns and Jan-Michael Vincent as Stuart Richards.
  • James A. Contner originally wanted to shoot the film in black and white, as he felt it would fit the look of the S/M world.

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