Sons and lovers : screenplay

Collection

Identifier: MSS 0099-F0964

Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

In 1959, British-born screenwriter Gavin Lambert (1924-2005) wrote the screenplay Son and Lovers based on the novel by D. H. Lawrence.

This copy of Lambert’s screenplay, dated April 10, 1959, is the final draft. The script is a mimeographed typescript, brad-bound in blue wrappers, with a Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation imprint on the cover.

Also printed on the cover are "Return to the Stenographic Department" and "Final" and stamped with the number 4018. Prior to the title page, exists the remaining portion of a tear-off form #913, used to record the borrower of the script. The remainder of the page notes that a $5.00 charge will be levied if the script is not returned in a timely manner. The title page bears the imprint of Jerry Wald Productions 815 and the typed information, "Final" and "April 10, 1959."

Jack Cardiff directed the 1960 film that starred Trevor Howard, Dean Stockwell, and Donald Pleasence.

Dates

Creation: 1959 April 10

Creator

Lambert, Gavin (Person)

Language of Materials

Materials entirely in English.

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, http://library.udel.edu/spec/askspec/

Gavin Lambert (1924-2005)

Screenwriter Gavin Lambert (1924-2005), who was born on July 23, 1924, in East Grinstead, Sussex England, spent most of his life in Hollywood, California, where he was hired as a screenwriter in 1958. Naturalized as a United States citizen in 1964, Lambert was known not only as a screenwriter, but as an observer and biographer of the film industry.

Lambert wrote candidly in his novels and nonfiction of the difficulties of stardom and the destructive effects a movie career can have upon actors, for example, the mental collapse of the teen star in his best-known novel, Inside Daisy Clover (1963). Natalie Wood, who played the title role in the film version of this novel, was later the subject of Lambert's biography, Natalie Wood: a Life (2004), which he based not only on his research but his experience of Wood as a personal friend.

Lambert wrote sixteen screenplays during his career, including adaptations of two of Tennessee Williams plays: first, in 1961, the film script for The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and in 1989, the television version of Sweet Bird of Youth.

Lambert also contributed articles to magazines, such as New Statesman, Observer, Harper’s Bazaar; and was the founder of the magazine Sequence. In 1966, he received the Thomas R. Coward Memorial Award for his novel, Norman's Letter.

"Gavin Lambert." Contemporary Authors Online (reproduced in Gale Biography in Context). http:/galenet.galegroup.com (accessed April 29, 2014)