DRESS GRAY (1986) Set of 2 significantly variant draft film scripts

Vintage original Second Revision script by Gore Vidal, adapted from the novel by Lucian Truscott, USA. [Los Angeles]: Richard Roth Productions, 6 March 1981. [1],126,[1], quarto, brad bound in production wrappers. Paper filing label across spine, NEAR FINE.

Second revision draft script of this early form of an adaptation by Gore Vidal to television of Lucian Truscott’s novel. In its present state, the script would translate into a two-hour television film.

[offered with]:

Vintage original Final Draft script by Gore Vidal, adapted from the novel by Lucian Truscott, USA. Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Television, 25 September – 4 October 1985. [2],226,[1], plus lettered inserts, quarto, printed on blue and salmon stock (the latter dated revises), brad bound in studio wrappers. A call sheet for the 17th day of shooting is laid in. A few smudges to wrappers, else NEAR FINE.

Final draft script expanded and in 1986 aired as a two part made-for-television production.

Truscott’s novel, set at West Point at the time of the Vietnam War, reportedly based it on fact. The completed film, when screened on television, dealt with homophobia (both external and internalized) and it was very strong stuff in the mid-1980s, at the height of the Reagan era. The film was clearly troubling to some contemporary critics, but it nonetheless was nominated for three Emmy Awards.

This pair of scripts, which are very different from each other, are a very interesting example of Vidal’s work as a screenwriter, especially because of the film’s LGBTQ subject matter.