Sunday, November 29, 2020

"Murder on the Moose Jaw Express" script, Scene M

We go to the baggage car, at night.


Since Shirley is still in her "Grandpa Earl" disguise, I'm not clear why Scene L was shot already and this wasn't, but I'm not complaining.

The first three pages are mostly intact, and then there's this:


They.  Are.  In.  Their.  Underwear!  Also, Squiggy's "last words" was supposed to be "Rosebud."  (Making this at least the second Citizen Kane reference on the series.)

When the girls say goodbye to the boys, Shirley calling them "Leonard" and "Andrew" was added, I'm going to guess by Cindy.  The line about MacGuffin's dress was supposed to be that it cost $100 at Bloomingdale's, not that it came off the rack at Bloomingdale's.  Shirley's line about the dress being a perfect color for MacGuffin's complexion seems to have been another ad-lib.

Lenny and Squiggy were supposed to "roll onto their sides and across the floor" to attack MacGuffin, rather than stand up, but it works either way.  And MacGuffin was supposed to ask "the ladies" to be smart, rather than sweet.

This part was left out, I think for the better, since it takes away from the girls teaming up:

SHIRLEY
Hey, wait, I don't have it.  She does.

LAVERNE
Here, here.  You're not playing by the rules.

Otherwise, the scene is the same in both versions, and it ends "Act Two."  I want to note that this episode has a weird thing about nudity and undress, like Shirley being "naked as a jay bird" inside the garment bag.  Why were the boys in their underwear?  Was MacGuffin trying to render them more helpless without clothes?  Or are we meant to assume he's a pervert because he's a killer and a cross-dresser?

5 comments:

  1. HAH! An amusingly horny touch for them to be suddenly half-naked out of nowhere.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not on the level of Laverne's "filthy thoughts" in "Dance Studio," but yeah.

      Delete
    2. Definitely not, but still! Why would he have stripped them?

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    3. For the same reason Shirley is naked as a jaybird?

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