Search Results: Asian Interest from Royal Books, Inc.

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1963. Draft script for the 1964 film. MGM File Copy, with two interoffice communications, a three page cast list, and a casting note bound in before the script, and a script department sleeve containing a check-out card affixed to the front wrapper verso. Based on the 1935 novel "The Circus of Dr. Lao" by Charles G. Finney. A small western town is transformed by the arrival of a mysterious traveling circus, led by the titular wise old Chinese gentleman. A campy, well-loved family classic, featuring stop-motion animation by noted animator and director George Pal, in his final directorial effort. Script by noted speculative fiction author (and screenwriter of many classic "Twilight Zone" episodes) Charles Beaumont. Winner of an Academy Award for outstanding makeup achievement, the first film awarded with an honorary Oscar for makeup. Set in turn-of-the-century Abalone, Arizona. Goldenrod titled wrappers, rubber-stamped copy No. 192 and production No.… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1975. Draft script for an unproduced musical. With manuscript ink and pencil annotations to the title page and cast leaf noting the names of prospective actors for each role, including Diana Ross and Jack Gilford. Loosely based on the ninth century Japanese folk tale "Taketori Monogatari" ("the tale of the bamboo cutter"), the story of a baby found inside the stalk of a bamboo plant who grows up to be a beautiful princess. Set in Japan. Green titled Studio Duplicating Service wrappers. Title page present, dated 1975, with book credits to Arnold Meyer and music and lyrics credits to David McHugh. 82 leaves, with last page of text numbered 2-8-31. Mimeograph duplication, rectos only. Pages Very Good plus, wrapper Very Good plus, bound with two gold brads.

Los Angeles: Twentieth Century-Fox, 1957. Final script for the 1958 film, also seen here under the working title "The Townsend Harris Story." A dramatization of the experiences of American diplomat Townsend Harris, sent to serve as the first US Consul General to Japan in 1856, during the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate. Set and shot on location in Kyoto and Nara, Japan. Tan titled wrappers, noted as FINAL on the front wrapper, rubber-stamped copy No. 704 and production No. 2, dated October 23, 1957. Title page missing, possibly as issued. Approximately 120 leaves, with last page of text numbered 108. Multilith duplication, rectos only, with blue and pink revision pages throughout. Pages Very Good plus, wrapper Very Good plus, bound internally with three gold brads. Pagination available upon request.

Universal City: Universal International Pictures, 1956. Continuity & Dialogue script for the 1957 film. The guilt a fighter pilot feels over accidentally dropping a bomb on a German orphanage during World War II leads him to become a minister upon returning to the US. When this proves insufficient in assuaging his bad conscience, he decides to volunteer his services as a missionary in Korea, opening a large home for orphans in Seoul. Based on the true story of Colonel Dean E. Hess, a US Air Force fighter pilot turned Ohio minister who returned to the Air Force during the Korean War. As depicted in the film, the 1950 Chinese Communist takeover of Seoul led Hess to facilitate an airlift of hundreds of children from the orphanage to the sanctuary island of Cheju. The twenty-five children who appear in the film, moreover, are Korean children from the real Orphan's Home of Korea that Hess founded, and the gold flying helmet sported by Rock Hudson is the actual helmet Hess wore. Set in South Korea,… Read More

N.p.: N.p., 1981. Three vintage studio still photographs from the 1981 film. Noted as 81-610 at the bottom right corner of the recto. Based on the detective novel series created in 1925 by author Earl Derr Biggers. The final Charlie Chan film made in the US, released eight years after Daryl Duke's "The Return of Charlie Chan" in 1973, and the first (and last) entry to feature actor Peter Ustinov as the eponymous Honolulu detective. The film faced extensive backlash by Asian-American protesters, who found Chan to be an offensive, outdated stereotype. Set and shot on location in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. 10 x 8 inches. Near Fine on half-weight stock as issued.

N.p.: N.p., 1970. Draft script for an unproduced film. An intended followup to the successful Charlie Chan film series. Not to be confused with "The Return of Charlie Chan," a 1973 television film directed by Daryl Duke and Leslie H. Martinson. Set in New York. Red titled Studio Duplicating Service wrappers. Title page present, undated, with credits for screenwriters Ed Spielman and Howard Friedlander. 122 leaves, with last page of text numbered 121. Xerographic duplication, rectos only. Pages about Fine, wrapper Near Fine, bound with two gold brads.

Los Angeles: Twentieth Century-Fox, 1957. Two vintage studio still photographs from the 1957 film. In 1954, during the Vietnam conflict, a smuggler named "Lucky Legs" and a group of French mercenaries infiltrate and destroy an arms depot near the Chinese border. 10 x 8 inches. Near Fine. Olive Films 566.

Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 1983. First Edition. First Edition. The first translation of the Tang Dynasty poet's complete works in English, with the original Chinese presented en face. Fine and unread in a Near Fine dust jacket, with a touch of rubbing to the extremities.

Los Angeles: Twentieth Century-Fox, 1989. Third Draft script for the 1990 film. A second-generation Japanese-American woman is forced into a prison camp after the Pearl Harbor attacks, threatening her new relationship with a young Irish-American projectionist. Shot on location in Portland and Astoria, Oregon, and in Cathlamet, Seattle, and Tacoma, Washington. Blue titled Twentieth Century-Fox wrappers, dated July, 1989. Title page present, dated July, 1989, noted as THIRD DRAFT, with credit for director and screenwriter Alan Parker. 121 leaves, with last page of text numbered 119. Xerographic duplication, rectos only. Pages Fine, wrapper Near Fine, with a few scuffs on the front wrapper, bound with two gold brads.

Unknown: Unknown, 1968. Draft script for the 1968 film. A pitch black comedy about a man sentenced to death who survives his hanging, leading to a two-hour debate among his executioners over how best to handle the situation. Loosely based on a 1958 crime and execution, and a rare (for its time) discussion of the discrimination faced by ethnic Koreans in Japanese society. Black titled wrappers. Title page present, rubber-stamped copy No. 035. Approximately 130 leaves, with last page of text numbered h-8. Mimeograph duplication, rectos and versos. Pages Near Fine, wrapper Near Fine, with perfect binding. Criterion Collection 798. Rosenbaum 1000. Vogel, Film as a Subversive Art.

New York: Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art / The New Museum of Contemporary Art / The Studio Museum in Harlem, 1990. First Edition. First Edition. Published in conjunction with an exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, and The Studio Museum in Harlem, from May 12 through August 19, 1990. A landmark exhibition from three then-new museums, highlighting the feminist, activist, ethnic, and racial concerns of 1980s art, featuring artists such as Cindy Sherman, Faith Ringgold, Jenny Holzer, Eric Fischl, Barbara Kruger, Bruce Nauman, and many, many others. Very Good plus in wrappers. Light diagonal crease to bottom front corner, a small bump to the heel, and light rubbing to the edges. Wrappers bright and unfaded.

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1944. Two vintage reference photographs from the 1944 film. With mimeo snipes on the versos. Based on the 1942 novel by Pearl S. Buck. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, a small Chinese village is invaded by the Japanese Imperial Army. One woman decides to stand up to the Japanese, and her defiance soon spreads to the other villagers. Set in China, shot on location in Calabasas and Los Angeles. 10 x 8 inches. Near Fine.

N.p.: N.p., 1954. Draft script for the 1954 film. With faint manuscript pencil annotations throughout. Set months before the beginning of the Korean War, an American Air Force instructor is assigned to a Kungju base where he is set with the formidable task of completely transforming the South Korean pilots into unstoppable fighting machines in 25 days. Originally intended for release as a 3D film, and filmed in dual 53mm Polaroid 3-D, by the time the film premiered in 1954 public interest in 3D had declined, and the film was shown as a flat print. Set in South Korea and shot on location in California. Blue titled wrappers, with credits for screenwriter John C. Champion. Title page present, with screenwriting and story credits for John C. Champion. 126 leaves, with last page of text numbered 119. Typescript on onionskin, rectos only. Pages Very Good plus, wrapper Very Good plus, bound internally with three gold brads.

Universal City, CA: Universal Pictures, 1961. Vintage oversize, double weight, borderless still photograph from the 1961 musical film, based on both the 1958 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, and the 1957 novel by C.Y. Lee. Nominated for five Academy Awards. Shot, struck, and mounted by the film's still photographer, Bob Willoughby, with his ASMP rubber stamp on the verso. Full provenance available. After studying with Saul Bass at the Kann Institute of Art in Los Angeles, photographer Robert Willoughby began working for magazines such as "Life," "Look," and "Harper's Bazaar" in the late 1940s. He spent the next 20-plus years as a set photographer for every major studio and magazine, with his images seen in print literally every week of his career. Willoughby's photographs are in the permanent collections of ten museums, including The National Portrait Galleries in Washington, DC and London, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Tate Modern. 13.5 x 9.5 inches.… Read More

Washington DC: Public Affairs Press, 1953. First Edition. First Edition. Association Copy, INSCRIBED by the author on the verso of the half-title page: "To my great friends who know how to write / George Middleton and Fola La Follette / my tribute to them / Mary R. Beard." Middleton's nephew David's ownership stamp on the front pastedown. New Jersey-born playwright, director, and producer George Middleton served as president of the Dramatists Guild of America from 1927 to 1929. He is perhaps best remembered today for his instrumental role in creating the Minimum Basic Agreement, a collective bargaining agreement that covers benefits, rights, and protections for Writers Guild of America members. Middleton was also known for his collaborations with Guy Bolton, including the successful 1917 stage comedy "Polly With a Past," basis for the 1920 film adaptation. The daughter of Senator Robert M. "Fighting Bob" La Follette and women's suffrage leader Belle Case, Flora Dodge "Fola" La Follette was a… Read More

Chapel Hill, NC: Duke University Press, 1996. First Edition. First Edition. Near Fine in wrappers.

Toronto: The Fugu Plan Film Production, 1980. Treatment script for an unproduced film. Single annotation in manuscript ink on the first page. Based on a 1979 newspaper article about Senpo Sugihara, a Japanese consulate in Lithuania who approved travel and departure visas for thousands of Jews during World War II, defying direct orders and saving many people's lives. Set in Kovno, Lithuania. Clear untitled front wrapper and red rear wrapper. Title page present, dated July 7, 1979, with credit for journalist Raymond A. Sokolov. 16 leaves, with last leaf of text numbered 12. Xerographic duplication, rectos only. Pages Near Fine, wrapper Near Fine, with a spiral binding.

N.p.: N.p., 1942. Three vintage reference photographs from the 1942 French film, all three showing noted Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa. Based on the 1938 novel by Maurice Dekobra, a melodrama set during the Sino-Japanese war, about a German arms dealer who runs afoul of a Chinese mobster. Originally shot with Erich von Stroheim in the lead, but released in 1942 with Stroheim's scenes re-shot with Pierre Renoir, the result of Stroheim's films and film appearances being banned in all German-occupied countries. Set in Macao. 10 x 8 inches. Near Fine.

N.p.: Raymond Chow, 1981. Vintage Spanish lobby card for the 1981 Hong Kong martial arts film. Marketed as a sequel to the never-completed martial arts film "Game of Death," after actor Bruce Lee's death in 1973. Lee's scenes were taken from his older films, including "Enter the Dragon" (1973). 12 x 16 inches. Good only, with moderate edgewear, a short closed tear on the center top edge, and pinholes at the corners.

Culver City, CA: The Selznick Company, 1962. Rough Draft Outline script for an unproduced film. Not related to the 1953 science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury. Rather, a story about culture clash in Japan toward the end of World War II, centering on a forward-thinking woman who ultimately ends her own life with a ceremonial knife, in an ironically traditional manner normally associated with men of her culture. An excerpt from the poem by Yeats, from which the title comes, is quoted on the second leaf, just after the title page. Goldenrod titled wrappers, noted as ROUGH DRAFT OUTLINE on the front wrapper. Title page present, dated August 3, 1962, noted as FIRST ROUGH DRAFT OUTLINE. 28 leaves, mimeograph duplication. Pages Near Fine, wrapper Near Fine bound with two gold brads.