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Vintage original Revised Final Script from the classic 1940's war-themed musical comedy/romance, A WAVE, A WAC AND A MARINE, released in 1944 by Monogram Pictures and directed by Phil Karlstein. Less the wartime comedy promised by the title than an inside-Hollywood story interrupted by musical numbers, Sally Eilers runs a talent agency and sets out to put a couple of Broadway stars under contract. Her bumbling employee (Henny Youngman) signs their understudies instead. The cast includes Elyse Knox, Ann Gillis, Sally Eilers, Richard Lane, Marjorie Woodworth, Ramsay Aames, Henny Youngman, Charles "Red" Marshall, and Alan Dinehart.
Written by Hal Fimberg, this vintage original Revised Draft Script is dated April 1, 1944 and has the number "23" handwritten in blue pencil (the number of this particular script from the film). This vintage original script belonged to cast member Marjorie Woodworth, who portrayed "Eileen," and her name is handwritten in blue pencil in the top right corner of the front cover. It consists of 118 pages on off-white stock which have been 2-hole punched and bound with two metal grommets between a buff-colored cardstock front and back cover. This script is complete in overall near-fine condition. There is a large water stain on the front cover with a similar stain on the back cover. While the water stain has affected many of the interior pages, they are only along the outer edges. Pages A-15 through A-22 are held together by the remnants of a vintage paperclip on the top right corner which has rusted and stained the following two pages in the top right corner. The remnants of a similar paperclip are on the top of page C-52 which has left a rust outline on the back of page C-51 and on the front of C-53. Some of the pages are lightly dog-earred on the top right corner. On page C38, there are handwritten notes that look like they pertain to a meeting at Griffith Park and also notes "Sunset & Vine" (which were most likely written by Marjorie Woodworth if this was her personal script).
The film's executive producer was comedian Lou Costello. Phil Karlson got to know Costello when he worked on the Abbott and Costello films at Universal as an assistant. Costello tracked down Karlson and told him he wanted to produce a film with Karlson directing. According to Karlson, Costello asked him what did he want to make, and replied, "I said I don't know. By this time, I'm so flabbergasted that I had no idea what I wanted to do. But he put up the money and we decided on the crazy story A Wave, a WAC and a Marine. As a gesture to his father, Costello – a diehard movie fan, who used the family's actual last name – Costello was credited as Sebastian Cristillo (his father's name), so the latter could see his own name onscreen. The other listed producer, Edward Sherman, was Costello's manager. Karlson later called the film "probably the worst picture ever made.... It was a nothing picture, but I was lucky because it was for Monogram and they didn't understand how bad it was because they had never made anything that was any good." However, it did launch Karlson's directing career.
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