UPDATED: No longer available. The Blake Snyder screenwriting messageboard has removed the link to the draft script.
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A very early draft of Orson Welles screenplay for The Lady From Shanghai is now available online.
Thanks to Wellesnet member Alan for posting the link at the Wellesnet messageboard so everyone can enjoy it, and to Kevan at the Blake Snyder screenwriting messageboard for finding it (along with several other other Orson Welles scripts), in the first place!
This early script is dated August 17, 1946, when the film was still titled Take This Woman. At that point, Welles was still basing all the action for the film in New York City and on nearby Long Island, which were the same settings used in the novel by Sherwood King, entitled If I Die Before I Wake.
That makes it clear this is a very early draft that Welles had submitted “for estimating purposes” to Columbia, long before the many subsequent changes were made to the story and the settings, which ended up being shot on locations in San Francisco and Acapulco.
According to film writer Bret Wood, in his fine article on The Lady From Shanghai in Video Watchdog #23, all the cut sequences quoted in his article came from a later draft at the Lilly Library, dated December 20, 1946. That means this script is quite a find, since it predates the Lilly Library version by five months!
It also seems obvious that in this early 164-page version of the script, Welles realized he would eventually have to cut whatever he shot down to a running time of under two hours. The early rough-cut Welles showed to Harry Cohn reportedly ran 155 minutes, and included a great deal of characterization and dialogue scenes that Cohn found easy to lose since they didn’t really advance the plot. On the other hand, many of the inconsistencies and loose ends that cause “bewilderment” in the release version are made clear in the script.
For anyone who knows the work of Orson Welles, this first draft also includes many wonderful references, such as this passage that begins on page 15, where Michael O’ Hara and the “notorious” Mrs.Bannister discuss Don Quixote, which naturally, was completely cut out of the film when it was finally released (at 87 minutes), by Columbia in 1948:
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CLOSE TWO SHOT – MICHAEL AND THE GIRL
THE GIRL
There’s a police car —
MICHAEL
We’re just comin’ out of the park, the horse and cart’ll make it too simple for the cops to be findin’ us —
He pulls up to a lamp-post.
MEDIUM SHOT – THE CARRIAGE
Michael gets out of the carriage and hitches the horse to the lamp.
THE GIRL
You don’t care for them very much, do you, Michael?
MICHAEL
The cops?
(somberly)
Faith, they can struggle along without our doin’ their work for ’em.
He helps the girl down out of the carriage, then bows to the horse.
MICHAEL
(continuing)
Farewell, Rosinante.
THE GIRL
That sounds like my name.
(smiles)
He takes her arm.
TRUCKING SHOT — MICHAEL AND THE GIRL
They start walking.
MICHAEL
Sure, Rosinante’s a horse in a book. You’re Rosaleen.
THE GIRL
Who’s she?
MICHAEL
A girl in a book.
THE GIRL
I remember — Rosinante was the old nag Don Quixote rode when he went out after those windmills. I think you’re a lot like Don Quixote, yourself Michael. You haven’t heard about the age of chivalry. It’s out of business.
MICHAEL
The tough boys that went after you in the park — they didn’t look like windmills to me —
THE GIRL
They weren’t. I’m sorry, Michael, I guess you’re really what you think you are.
MICHAEL
Whatever’s that now?
THE GIRL
A knight errant — a real live knight errant. When you were a boy, you read all about them, didn’t you, Michael? And you never got over it.
MICHAEL
(with a quizzical grin)
You mean I never grew up? And what, can you tell me, does a knight errant do for his livelihood?
THE GIRL
Oh, he doesn’t bother much about earning a living. He spends most of this time rescuing maidens in distress. He always slays the dragon and saves the princess, and he makes the prettiest speeches. But you’d better be careful. Things have changed, Sir Knight. Nowadays it’s usually the dragon that lives happily ever after.
MICHAEL
Don’t the princess and the knight ever make it?
THE GIRL
Sometimes she gives him a kiss.
Michael just looks at her, terribly embarrassed. A funny little spark comes into her eye.
THE GIRL
(continuing)
Michael… You know what’s wrong with being a knight errant?
MICHAEL
No.
THE GIRL
He’s brave and bold because his heart is pure. But he’s an awful fool — He doesn’t know anything about women.
She takes his hand and leads him to the street corner.
THE GIRL
(continuing)
If I hadn’t seen the way you can fight, I’d say you spend all your time reading.
MICHAEL
A sailor has nothin’ but time, Faith. So must a girl ridin’ all by herself in a carriage in the lonesome dark. You must have time, and to spare.
THE GIRL
(quietly)
No, I haven’t much time…
(after a minute — she’s been thinking)
You don’t like the police, Michael. Is there some reason why they don’t like you?
MICHAEL
(darkly)
They’ve never put me in jail — in American.
By now they have stopped at the street corner.
THE GIRL
My car’s a block down that way…
MICHAEL
The nicest jails are in Australia. The worst are in Spain.
THE GIRL
You must be a naughty boy, Michael.
MICHAEL
I’m careless.
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