Screenplays

[Np: London Film Productions for Selznick Releasing Organization], 19 July 1948.. 118 leaves. Quarto. Mimeographed typescript, printed on rectos only. Bradbound in typescript blue wrappers, with small script number stamp. Slight sunning at edges of wrappers, else about fine. A "second draft" of this original screenplay by Greene, with uncredited contributions by Orson Welles (who it is said wrote his own dialogue) and Carol Reed, the director. The English production premiered in the UK on 31 August 1949, and opened in the U.S. in February 1950, with distribution through Selznick Releasing Organization. This script is one of a small number of preproduction scripts prepared for use by the latter group. The cast included Joseph Cotton, Orson Welles, Trevor Howard and Allida Valli, and the film was appreciated in its own time via a number of nominations and awards, and appreciated even more considerably by posterity. Greene published an adaptation of the original treatment in 1950, and in 1968, a form of… Read More

1972. Original unpublished and unproduced screenplay about revolt on an American Slave ship [the Fair Angelica] navigating the middle pa ssage, circa 1835. A very unusual subject for Matthiessen. Fair Angelica is a first draft, typed carbon, 123 loose leaves -- an agency copy used to solicit producers and investors -- one of whom was the progressive filmmaker Martin Ritt. Black Cargoes is a revised and retitled draft, 112 pp. in black studio 2 -post covers. Mostly mimeographed, but with a dozen typed and corrected pages interleaved; numerous holographic additions or changes throughout by Matthiessen. The change in title may have been to capture investor interest; there was popular work of non-fiction several years prior [Black Cargoes - A History of the Atlantic Slave Trade by Daniel Mannix and Malcom Cowley.] However this treatment by PM is a work of fiction and unrelated to the earlier book. This screenplay is not mentioned in any bibliographic works about PM. The only other known copy is in… Read More

New York: Sunbeam Music Corporation , 1970. Director's book, musical staging, Harold Prince presents Zero Mostel in Fiddler on the Roof, copyright 1970 Jerome Robbin at title pages. Entire production Directed & Choreographed by Jerome Robbins. Contains all the songs in this classic Broadway musical with complete staging directions. . Bound in black ring binder, numerous pages with diagrams, 202 pages printed rectos only, Very Good, a few corners creased, a few small pencil marks in margins. Fiddler on the Roof won nine Tony Awards, including best musical, score, book, direction and choreography, spawning five Broadway revivals and the highly successful 1971 film adaptation. SCARCE. WorldCat locates 3 copies, at the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, and Baker & Taylor Inc. . Ring Bound. Very Good. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall.

Playland is an example of the many screenplays written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne that were never produced. In the wake of several cancelled contracts, they wrote this script about the gangster Bugsy Siegel for Lorimar Productions, Inc. Warner Bros. subsequently acquired Lorimar and axed most of the ongoing projects. Some of the material was incorporated into Dunne's 1994 novel of the same title. This rare copy of an unproduced screenplay is a wonderful example of Didion's style and thematic interests, as well as her creative relationship and artistic collaboration with her husband.
Unpublished, 1988. 144 pages. 29.5 x 22 x 2. Light blue card covers, bound with two brass metal brads as standard professional screenplay binding, title written on spine in black marker. Photocopied. Interior pages are clean, overall in very good condition. Unproduced screenplay, extremely scarce, no copies seen in WorldCat.

A rare copy of the screenplay for Play It As It Lays, Didion's adaptation of her 1970 novel of the same name. The relatively well-received film, starring Tuesday Weld (turning in a Golden Globe nominated performance) and Anthony Perkins, is an observation of Hollywood from the perspective of an actress in a state of crisis after a series of professional and personal setbacks. A close and careful study of alienation, efforts to hide the effects of alienation, and how hard it can be to recover from existential crises. The movie has fallen into a bit of obscurity, and it is not currently available on any streaming service, except for a middling quality YouTube upload, and the screenplay itself was never published, leading fans of Didion clamoring for insight into her writing process, from novel, to film adaptation, without access to either. In a 2015 article for The Los Angeles Times, writer David Ulin wrote about as short sample of the screenplay he'd come across in a book called "Works in Progress" and… Read More

A comic and camp original musical adaptation of Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbon's best known novel and one of the funniest ever written. Miller was best known as writer of "Dames at Sea" which helped launch Bernadette Peters's career. Faris was a distinguished conductor and composer of film and TV music (Georgy Girl, Upstairs Downstairs). Never known to be performed, no other known copies. Two act play with 17 musical numbers, lyrics only included here.
London, privately printed, no date, likely 1970s. 100 pages. 25.5 x 20.5 x 1.5 cm. Playscript, stapled, bound with black tape, sunned green card cover with typed label. Some fading, light mark to back cover, in very good condition.

Orange on boards with black print front and spine. Wrinkle on front board. some wear. Made into a movie.Wikipedia says this: West of the Water Tower is a 1923 American silent comedy drama film produced by Famous Players-Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Rollin S. Sturgeon and is based on the novel of the same name by Homer Croy. Glenn Hunter and May McAvoy are the stars of this film .

6/12/1978. Loose-leaf. Typed draft script of 1982 TV movie ""Sister, Sister,"" by Maya Angelou. Twentieth Century-Fox Television, June 12, 1978. Hole-punched, held together with two metal brads; covers lightly creased, corners bent; spine fore-edge has the title written in ink; one red crayon smudge on front cover; text clean and legible. Very scarce.

Dail, Hubert. THE SINGING FOOL AND THE STORY OF SUNNY BOY. 1928 copyright, Novel Magazine Corp., 1929 copyright Grosset & Dunlap. AL JOLSON COVER. Novelized from the 1928 Warner Bros. Motion Picture with this same title. A Lloyd Bacon Production. Illustrated with scenes from the Photoplay starring AL JOLSON, star of THE JAZZ SINGER, first talking film ever produced, this being a sequel. Please excuse our batch of books photos. The Singing Fool is the only title available here. USED. VG/Good Original RARE dust jacket. Protected in a mylar wrap. Red boards, black titling. 218 pages, 5 ¼ X 7 ¾. A nice find for motion picture buffs/historians.

Michael White Prod.. No binding. Fine. [London: 1974]. Vintage original film script, quarto, typescript on onion paper, 168 pp., fine.
The original typed manuscript of one of the most transgressive movies of its time. When the film had its initial release in 1975 it was genre-bending (and very definitely also gender-bending), and along with its mix of horror with musical comedy, was wildly off-putting to mainstream audiences. Of course, the road to its ultimate position as a cult classic followed.
This script bears a date of July 18, 1974, on its title page. There then follow three pages of typed notes reflecting numerous script revisions and changes in design choices, all of which had been made in the subsequent two months. There are over thirty changes notes, making this an especially interesting version to study.
Russo, pp. 52-53: "The 'gayest' film yet made by a major studio... Its most expert satire is of the age-old fear with which straight society encounters deviant sexuality."

Clune, Frank. Saga of Sydney. Sydney Halstead Press, 1961 Subscribers Edition with 118 illustrations and 17 maps. 508 pages. 5 3/4 X 8 3/4. Printed in Australia by Halstead Press, Sydney. Presented to beloved 20th Century American actor Edward Everett Horton at the Australia Hotel, Sydney (1891-1971) by his Australian friend Alexander Rentoul at the hotel March, 1962. Full page hand-written statement on the front end-paper. says: Mr. Horton is best-known for his unforgettable portrayal of Mr. Alexander P. Lovett "Lovey" in the timeless 1937 motion picture "Lost Horizon" directed by Frank Capra. VERY GOOD CONDITION/ NO DJ INCLUDED.

THIS IS A RARE SIGNED COPY OF MGM MOVIE SCRIPT WITH MORGAN FREEMAN'S ORIGINAL SIGNATURE, HIS COPY OF THE MANUSCRIPT HE USED FOR THE MOVIE BEN HUR

Boston: Faber & Faber, 1998. Signed by John Sayles. First edition / First printing. Illustrated wrappers. Very good, with darkening to the pages and wear to the cover. Uncommon Signed.