A sympathetic psychiatrist re-edited Rice’s film for its era

Evidence

There are no records of any further North Beach screenings although The Flower Thief was re-edited at least once more by Dr. Francis J. Rigney, a San Francisco psychiatrist sympathetic to the Beats and the co-author of The Real Bohemia (a “sociological and psychological study of the ‘Beats’”), written mainly in 1959 and published two years later. Rice stayed with Rigney for a time while Rigney recut the film, adding a signed introduction, dated 1961: The film you are about to see is a mixture of fact and fantasy. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1851

Categorization

• QUESTION: Who was Dr. Francis J. Rigney and what did his recut of The Flower Thief change? The co-author of a sociological study of the Beats re-editing the film is a strange professional convergence worth chasing.