Beschreibung:

Typed Carbon Signed ("Preston Sturges"), Sequences A and B, 47 pages, on yellow paper, [Los Angeles], August 26, 1940, marked "legal" in pencil, staple bound, minor wear. WITH: Typescript with penciled annotations by Sturges and others (some typed carbon and mimeo pages bound in), a complete draft of "The Lady Eve," 149 pp, on yellow paper, [Los Angeles], September 23, 1940, staple bound, mild wear. Housed together in custom clamshell box. Provenance: Serendipity Books; the Richard Manney Collection. Two rare early drafts of one of Sturges' masterpieces. The Lady Eve is a sparkling romantic comedy starring Barbara Stanwyck as one of a trio of con artists who ensnare Henry Fonda's bookish heir to a brewing fortune, until Stanwyck, as Jean, complicates things by falling in love with him. The film features several of Sturges' favorite character actors, including Charles Coburn as Jean's father Col. Harrington, William Demarest as Fonda's faithful manservant Muggsy, and Eric Blore as fellow card-shark Sir Alfred McGlennan Keith. The full-length screenplay present in this lot is actually an amalgamation of typescript, typed carbon, and mimeo, as follows: Sequences A-B, typescript; Sequences C-E, mimeo with penciled annotations by Sturges and others; Sequence F-H (partial), typescript; Sequence H to end, typed carbons. The annotations in Sequences C-E include names corrected for characters and places, scenes tightened, and dialogue polished. Barbara Stanwyck's character, Jean Harrington, is called Jane in this draft. UCLA's Preston Sturges Collection has 2 complete scripts and discards from 1938, when the project was titled "Two Bad Hats," and 3 drafts under the final title, the earliest dating from October 7, 1940, two weeks after the latest draft present here.