Production SNAFU

[Los Angeles]: Paramount Pictures, Inc., October 20, 1938. 280 by 215mm (11 by 8½ inches). Side stapled without wrappers. Title noted as File Copy and Master File #812. 139 leaves, with the last page of text numbered G13. Mimeograph duplication, rectos only. In English. Title Very Good, remaining pages Near Fine, except last blank leaf pulled from staples. Pagination: [title], [cast], A1–A26, B1–B26, C1–C26, D1–D5, E2–E13, F1–F17, G1–G13, [blank, 1].

Revisions:
10/21/38: E2–G13.

Annotations: [title], in pencil ​“G. Gabriel” and ​“R. Thoeren”

Based on the 1917 play by Lajos Bíró and previously filmed in Hungary in 1917—a now lost film. The film had an especially complicated production history. Filming started in 1936 with super star Marlene Dietrich, but she clashed so much with the director that production stopped. Filming resumed with Margaret Sullavan, who broke her arm, which resulted in another cast change. And then, another actor had a near-fatal accident on the set. Production finally started up again in October 1938 (the date of our script) and ended in December 1938.
Plot: In the final campaigns of WWI, a polish actor, and an exhausted Austrian Lieutenant attempt to survive at the Hotel Imperial in the small war-torn Polish town of Sucha.

Shot on location at Paramount Studios, Los Angeles.

EXILE: Robert Thoeren (1903–1957) was a German screenwriter and film actor. See the preceding item for his exile story.

At the time of cataloguing, no other copies for sale. OCLC locates only one copy (with 136 leaves), at Dartmouth. AMPAS finds only holdings at the Academy and UCLA.