Script To Screen: “Beetlejuice”
A memorable scene from the 1988 movie Beetlejuice with some significant changes from script to screen [screenplay by Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren, story by Michael McDowell & Larry Wilson]. Script excerpt dates from 2/3/87, revised 2nd draft.
Setup: A couple of recently deceased ghosts contract the services of a “bio-exorcist” in order to remove the obnoxious new owners of their house.
INT. DINING ROOM - NIGHT Lydia is looking around curiously. Delia and Charles
rush back in with sushi and good wine. Delia pours for
Bernard, the obvious connoisseur. He tastes the wine.
All wait. Is it Kerosene du Pape? He smiles. All
smile. Otho is more interested in Lydia's story. He leans
toward her... OTHO
Now, Lydia... Favor us about your
ghosts. DELIA
No! Do not encourage this
little... person. OTHO
Oh, Delia, lighten up! DELIA
She's been without therapy up here
and I will not allow her to
ruin... But then: DELIA Something comes over her -- she straightens, then
crouches a little, her hand sweeps across in front of
her, almost mechanically. And then our Delia Deetz,
unable to help herself, leaves the whitebread world
behind and possessed, sings in someone else's voice, a
rich, NEGRO TENOR. DELIA
"If I didn't care, More than
words could say." Lydia's eyes widen. MUSIC UP. All the guests are
spellbound. Charles, too, has the beat -- The Ink Spots in his eyes.
In a voice not his own. CHARLES
"If my every prayer, did not
begin and end with just your
name." Delia is shocked. She looks at Lydia. DELIA
For God's sake, stop me... She is cut short by her powerful inspiration. DELIA
"I could not be true to you
beyond compare." ALL THE GUESTS except Lydia, are possessed to become the chorus. They
stand by their chairs, they spin in perfect Motown
choreography. EVERYONE
(except Lydia)
"Shoo doo wop. Shoo doo wop." DELIA
"If I didn't care... for you..." EVERYONE
"Shoo doo wop. Shoo doo wop." A look of sheer delight comes across Lydia's face,
unlike anything we have previously seen. She dances
and claps her hands in time with the music. She is in
teen heaven. NOTE: Delia and the guests are fully aware of their
singing/actions, but helpless to stop themselves. While
it is funny, it is nevertheless just a little frighten-
ing. Lydia excitedly looks around the room to see if she can
see the ghosts. She can't. Now the song pauses... Everyone tries to recover for a
shocked second. Instead, the tempo changes. As the tempo quickens, the guest/chorus is syncopated
like alternating pistons as they are pushed and pulled
into their chairs. They sing throughout. THE SONG crashes to its end. Bernard looks down at his shrimp
cocktail. The shrimp draped over the rice roll
suddenly rears up like a hand and, making a tiny fist,
grabs his dangling tie and... smash -- WIDER -- All the guests are punched by the shrimp, back
over their chairs to the ground. They are stunned.
Suddenly everyone runs frightened into the next room.
The scene from the movie:
The song has been changed from the script: “If I Didn’t Care” by The Inkspots to “Banana Boat Song (Day O) by Harry Belafonte. Have to say it’s much better in the movie, the rhythm of the Belafonte song lending itself to a great deal more physical humor than the slow doo-wop Inkspots tune.
Interesting The Inkspots classic song is used as the opening tune in the movie The Shawshank Redemption.
One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
