The Loved One

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1964. Draft script for the 1965 film, based on the 1948 novel by Evelyn Waugh, legendarily co-written by Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood. Deluxe working script belonging to uncredited crew member William Todd Mason, with his name and phone number in manuscript ink on the title page, and some brief penciled annotations on three pages. Laid in is a corner stapled, three-page Staff and Crew list, with two name additions in manuscript red ink on the second page.

Included is a vintage studio still photograph from the film.

An early draft, issued nearly two years prior to the film's October 1965 release, with substantial differences from the finished film.

The sister film to "Dr. Strangelove," and in the eyes of many, just as much a masterpiece of exquisitely wrought black humor. Made in the US, but in a dense, British-American style. Ostensibly a satire on the funeral business, in which a young British poet winds up in a Hollywood cemetery as part of an inheritance arrangement—but in reality a satire of Hollywood itself, as well as the Western malaise of the mid 1960s.

Script: Self wrappers, presumably as this draft was issued. Title page present, rubber stamped copy No. 70, dated July 21, 1964, with credits for screenwriters Southern and Isherwood. 158 leaves, mimeograph duplication, with blue revision pages throughout, dated 7-22-64. Pages Fine, wrapper Fine, bound with two gold brads.

Staff and Crew listing: two leaves, slightly worn, with annotations on the second page.

[Book #131051]