The Dark Horse, or So This Is America, Or Homespun - An Original Manuscript Treatment for Our Leading Citizen

[N.p.: S.i., 1934]. Holograph manuscript, composed in dark blue ink on 152 numbered leaves (rectos), and housed in a bespoke chemise and slipcase by Barrieri. With presentation inscription from Cobb to MGM film produced and screenwriter Samuel Marx (in pencil) at upper right corner of title leaf: "Original manuscript copy for Sam Marx Esq / with my compliments / Irvin S. Cobb." A heavily-revised draft, with extensive holograph additions and elisions (in pencil and in pen) throughout, marking substantial textual differences between this and the final draft of the screenplay. Mild wear and handling; preliminary leaves with faint creasing to extremities, with subtle toning to title leaf; Very Good+ or better. Slipcase with some light wear and minute board exposure to points around opening, else Near Fine. Early, unpublished manuscript treatment of the 1939 Paramount Studios film Our Leading Citizen, directed by Alfred Santell, with a screenplay by Jack Moffitt. A "Capital vs. Labor" story, set in a once-small town that has evolved into an industrial city, and centered around Lem Schofield, an attorney and homespun philosopher, and Clay Clinton, son of Schofield's deceased partner. Clinton, in love with Schofield's daughter and anxious for quick success, joins the employ of J.T. Tapley, the town's corrupt and influential industrialist. "When Tapley imposes a ten percent wage cut at his factory, the workers walk out on strike, precipitating a labor war. Lem immediately withdraws as Tapley's attorney, but Clay, ignorant of the nefarious tactics that Tapley is planning, stays on. To crush the strike, Tapley calls in a gang of strikebreakers led by Shep Muir. While pacifist union leader Jim Hanna struggles to end the strike peacefully, communist agitator Jerry Perkins arrives in town to advocate radicalism and violence. Riots break out, and amid an atmosphere of fear and suffering, Lem steps in to quell the unrest. After insuring the arrest of agitators Peters and Muir, Lem works to institute a labor settlement, and Clay, finally recognizing Lem's virtues, nominates him for the position of United States Senator" (TCM).

While the final script faulted greedy capitalists and violent revolutionaries alike, the film was blacklisted by V.J. Jerome, head of the communist cultural commission, who got an early look at the script and, together with film critic Howard Rushmore, deemed it potentially anti-communist.