Last Summer

N.p. Associated British Picture Corporation, 1968. Original ribbon copy typescript nine-page reader's summary and report for the 1968 screenplay by Eleanor Perry. Made for the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) by ABPC reader Robert Hall, dated "12th August, 1968," with a blue rubber stamp stating "RECEIVED / 13 Aug 1968," and a manuscript ink annotation on the first leaf underlining Perry's name. Unique.

One of the most powerful media conglomerates in British cinema history, the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) was founded in 1927 when John Maxwell acquired British National Pictures Studios and its Elstree Studios complex, first named British International Pictures (BIP).

The company was renamed ABPC in 1933 after acquiring British Pathé, enabling the company to become a fully vertically integrated studio capable of producing, distributing, and exhibiting its own pictures. Following Maxwell's death in 1940, Warner Bros. purchased a large stake in the company, allowing ABPC to distribute its films into the lucrative US market, as well as taking an active stake in television by launching the Associated British Corporation (ABC). Amid the downturn in the British film industry by the late 1960s, EMI staged an aggressive takeover of ABPC in 1969, and by 1970 the name was officially retired.

At the height of ABPC's success in the 1950s and 1960s, its readers reviewed nearly everything being published, from established authors to those with recent screen success, to emerging new authors, in search of material for film adaptation. The resulting reader's summary and reports are an extraordinary record of mid-twentieth century literature never intended for public consumption and unseen since their composition.

The nine-page reader's summary and report, written in the ABPC house style, includes a breakdown of the source material and publication information at the top of the first page, followed by a summary and a list of characters names and descriptions (here left blank), then a detailed synopsis on the second through the eighth pages, and finally the reader's comments on the material's quality and filmic possibilities on the ninth page. ABPC reader Hal's comments on Perry's screenplay is enthusiastic finding the material "beautifully written and a penetrating study of early youth," "authentic" and "intelligent" and "is whole-heartedly recommended as likely to prove both an artistic and commercial success."

Based on the 1968 novel by Evan Hunter writing as Ed McBain, Perry's script was made into the 1969 film directed by Frank Perry, starring Barbara Hershey and Richard Thomas, produced in the US by Alsid Productions. Three teens bond while spending a summer on Fire Island. When they're joined by a fourth, the dynamic between the trio is thrown, causing one to become increasingly jealous and unstable, with violent results.

8 x 13 inches, perforation binding. Near Fine.

[Book #172970]