DEVIL AND MISS JONES, THE (Nov 26, 1940) Final Script by Norman Krasna

Culver City, CA: RKO Radio Pictures, November 26,1940. Vintage original film script, 11 x 8 1/2″ (28 x 22 cm.), pink titled wrappers. Holograph notations to the front and rear wrapper in pencil, red pencil, and black ink Distribution page present, with receipt intact. Title page integral with the first page of the text,. 182 leaves, mimeograph duplication, with blue revision pages dated 3/4/41 and 3/6/41. NEAR FINE, wrapper VERY GOOD, brad bound.

Final script for the 1941 screwball comedy film. A key film in the American screwball comedy cycle, with proletarian elements deftly woven into a hilarious, smart and blizzard-paced story. Nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Screenplay. 

Cantankerous tycoon John P. Merrick (Charles Coburn) goes undercover as a shoe clerk at his own New York department store to identify agitators trying to form a union, after seeing a newspaper picture of his employees hanging him in effigy. He befriends fellow clerk Mary Jones (Jean Arthur) and her recently fired boyfriend Joe O’Brien (Robert Cummings), a labor union organizer. Through his firsthand experiences, he grows more sympathetic to the needs of his workers, while finding unexpected love with sweet-natured clerk Elizabeth Ellis (Spring Byington).

Pagination:

[distribution page], [“ON THE MAIN TITLE CARD: / THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES / After a few feet Coburn’s face appears behind the lettering “The Devil.”… “], [“AS THE CREDITS FADE OUT, FADE INTO: FULL SCREEN: “Dear John D. Rockefeller, Jr… “], [1], 2-4, 5 (notation), 6, 7-9 (notation), 10-13, 14-15 (notation), 16, 17 (notation), 18-22, 23 (notation), 24-41, 42-43 (notation), 44-49, 50 (notation), 51-52, 53 (notation), 54-75, 76 (notation), 77-82, 82a, 83-84, 85 (notation), 86-109, 110-112 (notation), 113-117, 117a, 118-158, 1 (blue, 3/6/41), 1 (blue, 3/4/41), 2 (blue, 3/6/41), 2 (blue, 3/4/41), 3 (blue, 3/6/41), 3 (3/4/41), 4 (blue, 3/6/41), 4 (3/4/41), 5 (blue, 3/6/41), 5 (3/4/41), 5a (blue, 3/6/41), 5b (3/6/41), 6 (3/4/41), 7 (3/4/41), 8 (3/4/41), 9 (3/4/41), 10 (3/4/41), 11 (3/4/41), 12 (3/4/41).