Four More Screenplays by Preston Sturges

Four More Screenplays by Preston Sturges by Sturges, Preston. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780520203655.

Includes The Palm Beach Story, Triumph over Pain/The Great Moment, The Miracle at Morgans Creek, and Unfaithfully Yours. Humorous, sophisticated, and superbly crafted, the cinema of Preston Sturges maintains an enduring presence in the small canon of films that enjoy critical acclaim, scholarly attention, and popular admiration. Following the enthusiastic reception of Five Screenplays by Preston Sturges, the University of California Press returns with Four More. This volume contains three scripts widely regarded as among the filmmakers best: The Palm Beach Story, The Miracle of Morgans Creek, and Unfaithfully Yours. Based on the actual shooting scripts rather than the final screen versions, these screenplays contain scenes that were not filmed or that disappeared on the cutting room floor. In the fourth script, Triumph over Pain/The Great Moment, Sturges dramatizes the career of W.T.G. Morton, the doctor who first demonstrated the use of ether and thus revolutionized surgery. Arguably the most important biographical film project of the 1940s, this film was recut and rearranged by Paramount before it was released. By reprinting Sturgess original script and explaining its transformation, Brian Henderson has, in effect, discovered a new work by Sturges. In the introductions that precede each screenplay, Henderson examines every important aspect of the screenplays composition. He analyzes Sturgess process of constant revision, discusses variant drafts and fragments of drafts, and describes the writer/directors relations with Paramount executives, the Church, the Hayes Office, and Darryl Zanuck. Alone or as a companion to the earlier volume, this work will be welcomed by scholars, film buffs, screenplay writers, and admirers of Preston Sturges.