Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) (Song)
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“Que Sera, Sera” redirects here. For other uses, see Que sera.
“Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” | |
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Single by Doris Day | |
B-side | “I’ve Gotta Sing Away These Blues” |
Released | May 21, 1956 |
Recorded | 1956 |
Genre | Popular music |
Length | 2:03 |
Label | Columbia |
Composer(s) | Jay Livingston |
Lyricist(s) | Ray Evans |
Doris Day singles chronology | |
“We’ll Love Again” (1956)”Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)“ (1956)”Julie“ (1956) |
“Que Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” is a song written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans and first published in 1955. Doris Day introduced it in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), singing it as a cue to their onscreen kidnapped son. The three verses of the song progress through the life of the narrator—from childhood, through young adulthood and falling in love, to parenthood—and each asks “What will I be?” or “What lies ahead?” The chorus repeats the answer: “What will be, will be.”
Day’s recording of the song for Columbia Records made it to number two on the Billboard Top 100 chart and number one in the UK Singles Chart. It came to be known as Day’s signature song. The song in The Man Who Knew Too Much received the 1956 Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was the third Oscar in this category for Livingston and Evans, who previously won in 1948 and 1950. In 2004 it finished at number 48 in AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. In 2012, the 1956 recording by Doris Day on Columbia Records was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
It was a number-one hit in Australia for pop singer Normie Rowe in September 1965.
The song popularized the title expression “que sera, sera” to express “cheerful fatalism”, though its use in English dates back to at least the 16th century. The phrase is evidently a word-for-word mistranslation of the English “What will be will be”, as in Spanish, it would be “lo que será, será”.
Title phrase
The phrase “qué será, será” in its Spanish spelling and in the Italian spelling “che sarà sarà” are first documented in the 16th century as an English heraldic motto. The Spanish form appears on a brass plaque in the Church of St. Nicholas, Thames Ditton, Surrey, dated 1559. The Italian form was first adopted as a family motto by either John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford, or his son, Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford. It may have been adopted by the elder Russell after his experience at the Battle of Pavia (1525), and to be engraved on his tomb (1555 N.S.). The 2nd Earl’s adoption of the motto is commemorated in a manuscript dated 1582. Their successors—the Earls and, later, Dukes of Bedford, sixth creation, as well as other aristocratic families—continued to use the motto. Soon afterwards, it appeared in Christopher Marlowe‘s play Doctor Faustus (1590), using the archaic Italian spelling “Che sera, sera”. Early in the 17th century the saying begins to appear in the speech and thoughts of fictional characters as a spontaneous expression of a fatalistic attitude. The English “what will be, will be” is used in Hard Times by Charles Dickens (1854).
The saying is always in an English-speaking context, and was evidently a word-for-word mistranslation of English “What will be will be”, using the free relative pronoun what. In Spanish, Italian, French, or Portuguese, “what” must be translated as “that which” (lo que, quel che, ce qui, o que). The composer Jay Livingston had seen the 1954 Hollywood film The Barefoot Contessa, in which a fictional Italian family has the motto “Che sarà sarà” carved in stone at their ancestral mansion. He immediately wrote it down as a possible song title, and he and the lyricist Ray Evans later gave it a Spanish spelling “because there are so many Spanish-speaking people in the world”.
In modern times, thanks to the popularity of the song and its many translations, the phrase has been adopted in countries around the world to name a variety of entities, including books, movies, restaurants, vacation rentals, airplanes, and race horses.
In film and television
The song originally appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much, where it serves an important role in the film’s plot. In the film, Day plays a retired popular singer, Jo Conway McKenna, who, along with her husband (played by Jimmy Stewart) and son, becomes embroiled in a plot to assassinate a foreign prime minister. After foiling the assassination attempt, Jo and her husband are invited by the prime minister to the embassy, where they believe their young son is being held by the conspirators. Jo sits at a piano and plays “Que Sera, Sera”, singing loudly in the hope of reaching her son. Upon hearing his mother play the familiar song, her son whistles along, allowing her husband to find and rescue him just before he was to be murdered by the conspirators to the assassination attempt.
“Que Sera Sera” came to be considered Doris Day’s signature song, and she went on to sing it in later films and TV appearances. In 1960’s Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, she sings a snippet of the song to her co-star, David Niven, who plays her husband. In the 1966 film The Glass Bottom Boat she sings a snippet accompanied by Arthur Godfrey on ukulele. From 1968 to 1973, she sang a rerecorded version as the theme song for her sitcom The Doris Day Show.
The 1999 Studio Ghibli film My Neighbors the Yamadas features a Japanese cover of the song toward the end of the film. Director Isao Takahata wrote the translation for the lyrics, with an arrangement by Neko Saitou.
Versions of the song have appeared on a number of film and television soundtracks, often juxtaposed with dark or disastrous events either to create an effect of black comedy or convey a poignant message. For example, in The Simpsons episode “Bart’s Comet“, the song is sung by the citizens of Springfield in anticipation of an impending comet strike that will wipe out the town and kill them all.
In an episode of The Muppet Show starring Vincent Price, Shakey Sanchez, a pink/purple red and purple haired Muppet sings the song after Behemoth eats him and sings “I’ve Got You Under My Skin“.
Previously, the song was featured over the opening and the ending credits of Heathers, a dark teen comedy dealing with murder and suicide. The version over the opening credits is performed by Syd Straw
and the version over the ending credits is performed by Sly and the Family Stone.
In Gilmore Girls, the song appeared in a Season 2 episode as a musical cue to juxtapose Lorelai falling through their termite-ridden porch.
In 2009, the song appeared in a climactic scene in Mary and Max as Mary is about to commit suicide.
A 2010 commercial for Thai Life Insurance also juxtaposes the song and its message with a choir of disabled children performing to it.
In 1956, the song was covered by The Lennon Sisters on The Lawrence Welk Show. Although it was just another number in the show at the time, during recent years, the song has since gained millions of views on YouTube and is now regarded as a very notable version of the song.
On December 21, 1996, it was covered by the Bina Vokalia Children’s Choir under the direction of Pranadjaja on Dendang Buah Hati concert. This song was mentioned in the 2008 Filipino movie My Only Ü.
The phrase, included in the song “Kay Sera Sera”, features in the 2000 Bollywood film, Pukar.
The song plays during the intro of the TV series From (2022–present). The song was used in several trailers and TV spots for Evil Dead Rise.
The phrase appears in an episode of the Netflix show The Umbrella Academy, used by the character The Handler while talking to Five Hargreeves.
As football chant
“Que Sera, Sera” has been adapted as a popular celebratory football chant, especially in England, typically with the lyrics:
Que sera sera,
Whatever will be will be,
We’re going to Wembley,
Que sera sera
This would be sung by fans following a victory that progresses their favoured team to the next round of a competition that will ultimately lead them to Wembley Stadium (typically the FA Cup, the finals of which have been held in Wembley since 1923). Manchester United fans sang it before and during the 1976 FA Cup Final.
Although the song became more commonly used to associate a good cup run, Everton fans used it in 1963 to hail their soon to be crowned League Champions, using the phrase win the League instead of Wembley.
“Wembley” may be sung with either melisma on the first syllable, or a schwa epenthesis (often respelled “Wemberley”). Other venues than Wembley may be substituted as appropriate, as when Republic of Ireland fans sang “We’re going to Italy” when qualifying for the 1990 World Cup, or when fans of Millwall, about to exit the 2016–17 FA Cup, self-deprecatingly sang “We’re going to Shrewsbury“, their unglamorous next League One fixture.
Normie Rowe version
“Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” | |
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Single by Normie Rowe and the Playboys | |
B-side | “Shakin’ All Over“ |
Released | September 1965 |
Genre | Pop |
Label | Sunshine |
Composer(s) | Ray Evans |
Lyricist(s) | Jay Livingston |
Producer(s) | Pat Aulton |
Normie Rowe and the Playboys singles chronology | |
“I Confess” (1965)”Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)“ (1965)”Tell Him I’m Not Home“ (1965) |
Australian pop singer Normie Rowe‘s 1965 recording of “Que Sera, Sera”, which was produced by Pat Aulton on the Sunshine Record label (Sunshine QK 1103), was the biggest hit of his career, “the biggest Australian rock ‘n roll hit of 1965”, and is reputed to be the biggest-selling Australian single of the 1960s.
The song was “done in the style of “Louie, Louie” and the manner of “Hang On Sloopy“, and given a “Merseybeat” treatment (in the manner of The Beatles’ “Twist & Shout“), and was backed by Rowe’s band The Playboys.
It was paired with a version of the Johnny Kidd & The Pirates‘ classic “Shakin’ All Over“, and the single became a double-sided No. 1 hit in most capitals (#1 Sydney, #1 Melbourne, #1 Brisbane, #1 Adelaide, and Perth). in September 1965, charting for 28 weeks and selling in unprecedented numbers, with Rock historian Ian McFarlane reporting sales of 80,000 copies, while 1970s encyclopedist Noel McGrath claimed sales of 100,000.
Rowe scored another first in October 1965 when “Que Sera Sera” became his third hit single in the Melbourne Top 40 simultaneously. In 1965 Rowe received a gold record for “Que Sera, Sera” at Sydney’s Chevron Hotel. In December 1965 the master of Rowe’s version was purchased by Jay-Gee Records for release in the United States.
In April 1966 Rowe received a second gold record for the sales of “Que Sera, Sera”. In August 1966 Rowe won Radio 5KA’s annual best male vocal award for “Que Sera, Sera”. In 2006 Rowe released a newly recorded version, which was released by ABC via iTunes, and later adding “the whole digital mix with a radio mix and a dance mix”.
Other notable versions
In the decades since the song’s original release, “Que Sera, Sera” has been covered by dozens of artists. A 1969 cover sung by Mary Hopkin and produced by Paul McCartney reached number 77 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 7 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
A live version by Shakin’ Stevens was featured on The Shakin’ Stevens EP which reached No. 2 in the UK Charts during the 1982 Christmas holidays. The studio version of the song is featured on his album Give Me Your Heart Tonight from the same year.
In 1989, a comedy version recorded by “Terence” (John Creedon) in aid of the RTÉ People in Need Telethon reached number 2 in the Irish Singles Chart.
As a result of the song’s immediate popularity following the release of The Man Who Knew Too Much, versions were soon written in other languages. An early example was a Dutch version by Jo Leemans which reached the Belgian charts in December 1956.
Versions of the song have also been recorded in Danish,
French,
Mandarin,
Spanish,
Japanese,
and Swedish, among other languages. These in turn have led some non-English speakers to adopt the saying “que sera, sera”.
In 1964, a young (~29) Nana Mouskouri performed a German version (Was sein soll, wird sein, though the “Spanish” phrase is also included), as part of a longer TV show nominally about the Oscars.
In 1965, Swedish rock band Lenne and the Lee Kings recorded the song. Upon release as a single during the summer of that year, record label Gazell coupled it with the Titus Turner song “Sticks and Stones” on the B-side. Although it failed to chart in native Sweden, it reached number 38 in Finland in August 1965. Both sides of the single were included on their 1966 album Stop The Music.
In India, the song was first adapted in the Tamil-language film Aaravalli (1957). Later in 1965, the original version was sung by Bhanumathi in the Telugu-language film Thodu Needa, with minor changes in the lyrics. In 2000, a version of the song was included in the Hindi-language movie Pukar.
A Japanese version is featured in the Ghibli Studio animation film My Neighbors the Yamadas, released in 1999.
In 2021, the Pixies recorded a new version of the song for the television horror series From. The song was played in a minor key, giving it a very different mood from other renditions.
Other Que Sera Sera Covers
- Daniel O’Donnell
- Pink Martini
- Connie Francis
- Karina
- Sophia Ng Min
- André Rieu
- Perry Como Live
Que sera or Que sera, sera may also refer to:
Film and television
- Que sera, sera (film), a 2002 Brazilian comedy
- Que Sera (film), a 2014 Sri Lankan comedy romance
- “Que Sera Sera” (House), a 2006 TV episode
- Que Sera, Sera (TV series), a 2007 South Korean TV series
Music
- Que Sera Sera (album), by Johnny Thunders, 1985
- “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)“, a 1955 Livingston and Evans popular song, recorded by Doris Day in 1956
- “Que Será”, a cha-cha-chá released by Tito Puente in 1956
- “Que Sera” (Medina song), 2024
- “Que Sera”, a song by Miley Cyrus on the 2010 soundtrack album Hannah Montana Forever
- “Que Sera”, a 1995 song by Ace of Base
- “Que Sera”, a 2009 song by O’Hooley & Tidow
- “Que sera”, a 2004 song by Wax Tailor
- “Que Sera Sera”, a 2020 song by Atarashii Gakko!
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956 Film)
The Man Who Knew Too Much | |
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Directed by | Alfred Hitchcock |
Screenplay by | John Michael Hayes |
Story by | Charles Bennett D. B. Wyndham-Lewis |
Produced by | Alfred Hitchcock |
Starring | James Stewart Doris Day |
Cinematography | Robert Burks |
Edited by | George Tomasini |
Music by | Bernard Herrmann |
Production companies | Filwite ProductionsSpinel Entertainment |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates | April 29, 1956 (Cannes) May 16, 1956 (New York City) |
Running time | 120 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.2 million |
Box office | $11.3 million |
The Man Who Knew Too Much is a 1956 American mystery thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart and Doris Day. It is Hitchcock’s second film using this title, following his own 1934 film of the same name but featuring a significantly altered plot and script.
In the book-length interview Hitchcock/Truffaut (1966), in response to fellow filmmaker François Truffaut‘s assertion that aspects of the remake were by far superior, Hitchcock replied, “Let’s say the first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional.”
The film won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)“, sung by Day. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on April 29, 1956.
Plot
An American family – Dr. Benjamin “Ben” McKenna, his wife, popular singer Josephine “Jo” Conway McKenna, and their son Henry “Hank” McKenna – are vacationing in French Morocco. Traveling from Casablanca to Marrakesh, they meet Frenchman Louis Bernard. He seems friendly, but Jo is suspicious of his many questions and evasive answers.
Bernard offers to take the McKennas to dinner, but cancels when a suspicious-looking man knocks at the McKennas’ hotel-room door. At a restaurant, the McKennas meet friendly English couple Lucy and Edward Drayton.
The McKennas are surprised to see Bernard arrive and sit elsewhere, apparently ignoring them.
The next day, visiting the local marketplace with the Draytons, the McKennas see a man chased by police. After being stabbed in the back, the man approaches Ben, who discovers he is Bernard in disguise. The dying Bernard whispers that a foreign statesman will be assassinated in London and that Ben must tell the authorities about “Ambrose Chappell”.
Lucy returns Hank to the hotel while Ben, Jo and Edward go to a police station for questioning about Bernard’s death. An officer explains that Bernard was a French Intelligence agent.
Ben receives a phone call at the police station; Hank has been kidnapped but will not be harmed if the McKennas say nothing to the police about Bernard’s warning. Knowing Hank was left in Lucy’s care, Ben dispatches Edward to locate him. When Ben and Jo return to the hotel, they discover Edward checked out. Ben realizes the Draytons are the couple Bernard was looking for and are involved in Hank’s abduction. When he learns the Draytons are from London, he decides he and Jo should go there and try to find them through Ambrose Chappell.

In London, Scotland Yard‘s Inspector Buchanan tells Jo and Ben that Bernard was in Morocco to uncover an assassination plot; they are instructed to contact him if they hear from the kidnappers. Leaving Jo’s friends in their hotel suite, the McKennas search for a person named Ambrose Chappell. Jo realizes that “Ambrose Chapel” is a place, and the McKennas arrive at the chapel to find Edward leading a service. Jo leaves the chapel to call the police. After Edward sends his congregation home, Ben confronts him and is knocked out and locked inside. Jo arrives with the police, but they cannot enter without a warrant.
Jo learns that Buchanan has gone to a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, and asks the police to take her there. Once the police and Jo leave, the Draytons take Hank to a foreign embassy. In the Royal Albert Hall lobby, Jo sees the man who came to her door in Marrakesh. When he threatens to harm Hank if she interferes, she realizes he is the assassin sent to kill the foreign prime minister.
Ben escapes the chapel through its bell tower and reaches the Royal Albert Hall, where Jo points out the assassin. Ben searches the balcony boxes for the killer, who is waiting for a cymbal crash to mask his gunshot. Just before the cymbals crash, Jo screams and the assassin misses his mark, only wounding his target. Ben struggles with the would-be killer, who falls to his death.
Concluding that Hank is likely to be at the embassy, but that it is sovereign and exempt from an investigation, the McKennas secure an invitation from the grateful prime minister. The ambassador organized the plot to kill the prime minister, and blames the failed attempt on the Draytons. Knowing that Hank can testify against them, he orders the Draytons to kill the boy.
The prime minister asks Jo to sing. She loudly performs “Que Sera, Sera“, so that Hank will hear her. Lucy, who is guarding Hank while Edward prepares to murder him, is distressed at the prospect of killing a child, so she encourages the boy to whistle along with the song. Ben finds Hank. Edward tries escaping with them at gunpoint, but when Ben hits him, he falls down the stairs to his death.
The McKennas return to their hotel suite. Ben explains to Jo’s now-sleeping friends, “I’m sorry we were gone so long, but we had to go over and pick up Hank.”
Cast
Original trailer of the film The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
- James Stewart as Dr. Benjamin “Ben” McKenna
- Doris Day as Josephine “Jo” Conway McKenna
- Brenda de Banzie as Lucy Drayton
- Bernard Miles as Edward Drayton
- Ralph Truman as Inspector Buchanan
- Daniel Gélin as Louis Bernard
- Mogens Wieth as ambassador
- Alan Mowbray as Val Parnell
- Hillary Brooke as Jan Peterson
- Christopher Olsen as Henry “Hank” McKenna
- Reggie Nalder as Rien
- Richard Wattis as assistant manager
- Noel Willman as Woburn
- Alix Talton as Helen Parnell
- Yves Brainville as police inspector in Marrakech
- Carolyn Jones as Cindy Fontaine
- Betty Baskcomb as Edna, the church organist
- John Barrard as taxidermist (uncredited)
Alfred Hitchcock’s cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In The Man Who Knew Too Much, he can be seen 25:42 into the film, in the lower left corner, watching acrobats in the Moroccan market, with his back to the camera, wearing a light gray suit, and putting his hands into his pockets, just before the spy is killed. Bernard Herrmann, who wrote the film score, cameos as the conductor at Royal Albert Hall, the only time Herrmann appeared on-camera in a film.
Production
Alfred Hitchcock first considered an American remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1941, but only brought back the idea in 1956 to make a film that would fulfill a contractual demand from Paramount Pictures. The studio agreed it was a picture that could be well-adapted to the new decade. The Royal Albert Hall sequence drew some inspiration from H. M. Bateman‘s comic “The One-Note Man”, which followed the daily life of a musician who plays only one note in a symphony, similar to the cymbal player in the film.
Writing
Screenwriter John Michael Hayes was hired on the condition that he would not watch the early version nor read its script, with all the plot details coming from a briefing with Hitchcock. Only the opening scenes of the script were ready when filming began, and Hayes had to send the subsequent script pages by airmail as he finished them.
Soundtrack
Hitchcock’s frequent composer Bernard Herrmann wrote the “background” film score; however, the performance of Arthur Benjamin‘s Storm Clouds Cantata, conducted by Herrmann, is used as source music for the climax of the film. Herrmann was given the option of composing a new cantata to be performed during the film’s climax.
However, he found Arthur Benjamin’s cantata Storm Clouds from the original 1934 film to be so well suited to the film that he declined, although he did expand the orchestration, and inserted several repeats to make the sequence longer.
Herrmann can be seen conducting the London Symphony Orchestra with mezzo-soprano Barbara Howitt and chorus during the Royal Albert Hall scenes. The sequence in the Royal Albert Hall runs for 12 minutes without any dialogue from the beginning of Storm Clouds Cantata until the climax when Doris Day’s character screams.
Doris Day’s character in the film is a well-known, now retired, professional singer, and at two points in the film she sings the Livingston and Evans song “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)“, a performance which won the 1956 Academy Award for Best Original Song. Day’s recording of the song reached number two on the US pop charts. and number one in the UK.
Reception
Reviews for the film were generally positive, although some critics expressed a preference for the 1934 original. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote: “James Stewart tops his job in Rear Window as the man who knows too much, and Doris Day is surprisingly effective as the mother who is frantic about her child … Even in mammoth VistaVision, the old Hitchcock thriller-stuff has punch.”
Variety wrote that, while Hitchcock draws “the footage out a bit long at 119 minutes, he still keeps suspense working at all times and gets strong performances from the two stars and other cast members.” Harrison’s Reports called the film a “highly exciting and entertaining suspense thriller” that “grips the audience from start to finish.”
Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post also liked the film, calling it “a dandy of its popular kind” if “a wee bit too leisurely.” John McCarten of The New Yorker wrote in a negative review saying that while the remake was “unquestionably bigger and shinier than the original, it doesn’t move along with anything like the agility of its predecessor. There can be no doubt, of course, that Mr. Hitchcock at one time was a master of celluloid suspense, but increasingly of late he has been turning out movies that are too overweight to indulge in the tricks of his salad days.”
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: “Although a quite entertaining thriller, with some characteristically shrewd and caustic Hitchcock touches, it is likely to disappoint devotees of the first film. It lacks the earlier pace and excitement; the peculiarly English charm of the original has been exchanged for a vague VistaVision and Technicolor cosmopolitanism; the dentist episode and the siege climax are unhappily missing.”
C. A. Lejeune of The Observer wrote that the plot had “a tendency to meander” with “jokes that may have looked more humorous in typescript,” concluding that the film was “strong” as long as it stuck to the main plot, “But the first Man Who Knew Too Much was stronger in every way.”
The film was a commercial success. Filmed on a budget of $1.2 million, it grossed $11,333,333 at the domestic box office, earning $4.1 million in US theatrical rentals.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval score of 88% based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website’s critics consensus reads: “Remaking his own 1934 film, Hitchcock imbues The Man Who Knew Too Much with picturesque locales and international intrigue, and is helped by a brilliantly befuddled performance from James Stewart.” At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on ten critics, indicating “generally favorable” reviews.
In 2004, American Film Institute included the song “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” as No. 48 in AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs.
Home media
The Man Who Knew Too Much was kept out of re-release by Hitchcock until 1983 when it was acquired by Universal Pictures. The film has been released on home video by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment in VHS, Betamax, Laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Blu-Ray formats.
A documentary on the making of the film was produced for the 2000 DVD, including interviews with Hitchcock’s daughter Patricia Hitchcock and members of the production crew. It has been included on the later Blu-Ray and 4K Blu-Ray releases as well.
For the 2023 4K Blu-Ray, the film was completely restored and the original theatrical Perspecta audio elements were discovered, allowing that early forerunner to stereo to be included with the film for the first time since its original release.
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