The Devil and Miss Jones

Culver City, CA: RKO Radio Pictures, 1940. Final script for the 1941 screwball comedy film, with "286" in manuscript pencil to the top right of the front wrapper. Laid in is a ribbon copy typescript listing the five lead actors on RKO letterhead.

A cantankerous tycoon goes undercover as a shoe clerk at his own New York department store in order to identify labor agitators, but finds himself befriending the workers and becoming sympathetic to their needs. A key film in the American screwball comedy cycle, with proletarian elements deftly woven into a hilarious and whip-smart story. Nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Charles Coburn.

Pink titled wrappers, rubber-stamped FINAL SCRIPT on the front wrapper, rubber-stamped copy No. 60, dated November 26, 1940, with credits for screenwriter Norman Krasna. Distribution page integral with title page, with receipt removed, dated 11/26/40, noted as FINAL. 163 leaves, with last page of text numbered 158. Mimeograph duplication, rectos only. Pages Very Good plus, with a small amount of silverfish damage on the second and third leaves, with foxing to the top edge and faint foxing to the fore-edge, wrapper Very Good plus with light foxing and soiling, bound with three gold brads.

Byrge and Miller, The Screwball Comedy Films: A History and Filmography. Olive 53203.

[Book #155765]