Information
Sequence number: entire story
Date of document: November, 6 1936
The 3-page brief outline presents the story as it was agreed upon at this stage in the production. In it, Snow White is still called “SnowWhite”, and the Queen still makes two attempts to poison her. The dwarfs are not introduced in the mine, but as they are already marching home. Jumpy and Deafy are still among the cast and Sneezy and Dopey are still to come.
At the end of the outline, it is specified that “doves ring the wedding bells”. A phrase that is probably the reason why the lyrics of the song “Some Day My Prince Will Come” originally went “and the birds will ring the wedding bells and sing”, which was later replaced by “and the birds will sing and wedding bells will ring.”
After the ouline, Snow White and the dwarfs are again described and some of the sequences where they appear are listed, whith questions and suggestions for each.
An example of lyrics for the entertainment song “Einie, Mienie, Moe” is given.
SnowWhite and the Prince fall in love. This fact arouses the Queen’s fury. She throws the Prince into a dungeon and orders her Huntsman to take SnowWhite into the woods and bring back the girl’s heart. The Huntsman confesses the plot to SnowWhite and leaves her to wander in the forest. He will try to fool the Queen by substituting a swine’s heart for SnowWhite’s.
SnowWhite, lost in the woods, comes upon the dwarfs’ cottage near sundown. Nobody is home. She enters. The untidy confusion, the small garments on the floor, the seven-of-everything, lead her to the conclusion that seven orphans live there. She and the birds clean house, and, finally, SnowWhite falls asleep.
The dwarfs return through the woods, singing their marching song. They see the cottage door open and they are startled, indignant, frightened. Someone has been there! An unheard of happening! They enter. Everything is CLEAN! They search the house and find SnowWhite asleep. They decide to let her stay, in the face of Grumpy’s warnings about the Queen’s vengeance and women being bad luck.
SnowWhite makes the dwarfs go into the yard and wash up while she cooks dinner.
At dinner, SnowWhite says “grace” and the dwarfs go at the soup with a babel of soup-sucking-sounds that produces a soup symphony. She stops them and teaches them the proper way to eat.
We leave the dinner scene and find the Queen in her chambers waiting for the Huntsman to return with SnowWhite’s heart. He presents the swine’s heart, but the magic mirror tells the Queen that SnowWhite is safe with the dwarfs. The furious Queen concocts the poison comb and sets off for the dwarfs’ cottage to murder SnowWhite.
Returning to the cottage, we find dinner finished and the dwarfs putting on an entertainment for SnowWhite. They sing, dance, play homemade musical instruments, and so forth. SnowWhite tells them about her prince, in a wistful song, and teaches them a dance of the court.
Bedtime ends the entertainment. The dwarfs curtain off a corner for SnowWhite and put several of their beds together to make her one big one. The dwarfs curl up wherever they can. Before saying “Goodnight,” SnowWhite makes the dwarfs kneel while she says a prayer.
Next morning, the dwarfs leave for the mine, but in the woods they decide they will take a day off and make SnowWhite a bed. With the help of the birds and animals, they make the bed, mattress, and comforter from the materials at hand in the forest.
While the dwarfs are making the bed, the Queen, disguised as a plump, jolly peddler, arrives at the cottage. While combing the snarls out of SnowWhite’s hair, she sticks the poison comb into the girl’s scalp and runs off.
The dwarfs, having finished the bed, put it on their shoulders and march home to surprise SnowWhite. They find her apparently dead. One of them finally finds the comb in her head and she revives when it is removed. They warn her against admitting strangers in the future and suspect that the peddler was either the Queen in disguise or one of her agents.
The Queen returns to the palace and is furious when the magic mirror again tells her that her schemes have failed and that SnowWhite lives. She breaks the mirror and goes to her laboratory to concoct the poison apple. Her book of magic tells her that the poison apple never fails. It produces a sleeping-living-death so that its victims are buried alive. She taunts the Prince with the horrid details of her murderous scheme and, changing herself into a hag-like apple peddler, again sets out for the dwarfs’ cottage.
No sooner has she left, than the Prince escapes from his dungeon and sets out after the Queen. The escape is contrived by birds who lure the guard away from the cell door, pick the keys from his pocket, and open the cell door. The Prince fights his way out of the palace and, mounting his horse, dashes off in hopes of killing the Queen before she kills SnowWhite. He loses the Queen’s trail and, not knowing where SnowWhite is, will search the forest and countryside in vain, for months to come.
The dwarfs are at the mine when the Queen again arrives at the cottage of the dwarfs. The dwarfs don’t understand the warnings for some time, but, finally, one of them gets the idea, and they dash to the rescue, riding deer, swinging from tree to tree like monkeys, and so forth.
Meanwhile, SnowWhite has fallen for the Queen’s persuasive words concerning the magic qualities of the poison apple – one bite makes your wish come true. SnowWhite makes her wish (that her Prince takes her away), bites the apple, and swoons.
Just as the Queen scurries off, the dwarfs arrive. Most of them set off after the Queen. The chase ends when the Queen goes over a precipice and is killed. The dwarfs return. Doc meets them at the door. SnowWhite is dead. They kneel and pray.
At this point, sub-titles will tell us of the Prince’s long search for SnowWhite, and how, after many months, he hears of a Princess sleeping in a gold and crystal coffin, watched over by the seven dwarfs. The dwarfs and little animals are surrounding the coffin when the Prince comes into the scene. They refuse to let him approach the coffin, but when he breaks into a song of lamentation for his dead love, they fall back.
Earlier in the story, we have told the audience that only the kiss of one’s beloved can revive the victim of the poison apple. The Prince kisses SnowWhite. She opens her eyes and sits up in the coffin. He takes her in his arms and carries her to his horse, as the dwarfs, animals, and all nature unite in an ecstasy of joy. Followed by the dwarfs’ farewells, SnowWhite and her Prince ride off, and we see them going to a castle in the clouds, while the doves ring the wedding bells.
FOR THE TIME BEING, WE WILL CONCENTRATE ENTIRELY UPON SCENES IN WHICH ONLY SNOWWHITE, THE DWARFS, AND THEIR BIRD AND ANIMAL FRIENDS APPEAR. BRIEF SKETCHES OF THE DWARFS AND SNOWWHITE FOLLOW:
SNOWWHITE : Age, about fifteen. Cute, pretty, capable of harmless mischief. Loved by all the birds and animals; innocent, and with kindness in her heart for all.
THE SEVEN DWARFS
DOC : He is the pot-bellied, be-spectacled, pompous, wordy, patronizing, dignified leader of the gang. His words are broken up with “ahems,” coughs, sputterings.
GRUMPY : Chronic grouch, pessimist, skinny, pugnacious, but good-hearted. Speaks in nasal, clipped, assertive sentences.
BASHFUL : He’s very bashful, wiggling, giggling. He tries his best to keep his hat on so that SnowWhite won’t see his bald, pointed skull. He is a stooge for the others. He is always tripping, blushing, squirming; wistful at times.
SLEEPY : Visualize Sterling Holloway and you have Sleepy’s character and mannerisms. Falls asleep under any conditions. The dwarfs play tricks on him when he is asleep.
JUMPY : Joe Twerp type of character. Figgity, acts like he was always about to be goosed; and gets his words tangled up into amazing knots. “A fitty fate of affairs, a stitty fate of astairs, a pretty prate of a prayers, a stitty, fitty, pitty, pretty state of affairs – MOLY MACKEREL!”
HAPPY : Fat; high, chirpy voice; supreme optimist and practical joker.
DEAFY : Gay, old, deaf, thin fellow – with the twinkling eye and nodding head that indicates he’s hearing all that’s going on; whereas, in reality, he hears about every tenth word. You know the type of dialogue: “Going fishing?” NO! I’M GOING FISHING! Naturally, he always shouts.
ALL THESE CHARACTERS ARE OPEN TO CHANGE. CONSIDER THEM AS MERELY TENTATIVE. SUGGESTIONS REQUESTED FOR BETTER NAMES.
PLEASE CONCENTRATE ON THE SEQUENCES INDICATED BELOW. WE NEED ALL POSSIBLE SUGGESTIONS FOR ACTION AND DIALOGUE WHICH WILL BUILD COMEDY AND PERSONALITY INTO OUR PICTURE AT THE FOLLOWING POINTS: RUNNING GAGS: THOSE GROWING OUT OF PECULIARITIES OF CHARACTER ARE OF SPECIAL VALUE!
SNOWWHITE FINDS THE DWARFS’ COTTAGE
- What does SnowWhite find suggesting untidy bachelors, children, miners’ quarters? What kinds of dishes, kitchen utensils, eating tools, beds, fireplace, stuff on walls, mantle, in closets? What kind of organ, other musical instruments, clothing scattered about?
Note: The house and its equipment should suggest that clever hands have made the best of the crude, natural materials at hand.
- Suggestions for the exterior of the house and things about the yard. What kind of well, and so forth?
- The birds and little forest animals that watch or help SnowWhite. In her explorations, what questions does SnowWhite ask the birds in which their pantomime answer might be a laugh? Types of birds? Should they have personality? How do they help SnowWhite tidy up? What can we do for laughs with the squirrels, rabbits and little deer who may follow her into the house?
Note: Animals will not talk. They are intelligent, clever, but will do nothing that is not plausible for animals and birds to do.
THE DWARFS MARCH THROUGH THE WOODS
This is our first meeting with the dwarfs. They are singing. Bashful, because of his short legs, has a tough time keeping up with the others. They all carry pickaxes and shovels and probably march single file, with Doc leading.
- Action and gags which will begin establishing the dwarfs’ individual characters.
- Gags of Bashful trying to keep up with the others.
THE DWARFS DISCOVER SNOWWHITE ASLEEP
Finding the door open and fearing a rascal is hiding within, the scared dwarfs search the house and find SnowWhite:
- Think of business and punch dialogue which will bring out the dwarfs’ peculiarities, vividly. What would each do and say when:
A. They see the door open?
B. Find the house clean, the dishes washed, soup cooking on the fire?
C. When they see a WOMAN asleep in their bed?
D. When she proposes to stay? - Suggest business for quick laughs where the scared dwarfs search the house. Strange, scary noises. Shadows, places they look. Actions of the dwarfs diving under things when something scares them; how they get tangled up with each other, and so forth.
- Should the birds be mischievous on-lookers and do things to scare the dwarfs during the search for the intruder?
THE DWARFS WASH UP FOR DINNER
It is agreed that SnowWhite stay. First, she will get dinner for them. But she insists that they wash up. The dwarfs, in typical rural fashion, go out to the pump, or well, to wash.
- How do the dwarfs individually react to her request that they wash? Remember that washing, to them, is probably an unusual and unpopular pastime.
- Suggest gags about the dwarfs washing their hands, faces, beards. Do they have to wash rebellious Grumpy by force? What do they use for towels, combs, soap, and so on? Do the birds lend a hand, or do they wash themselves in preparation for grub?
THE DWARFS ENTERTAIN SNOWWHITE
The dwarfs entertain with music, songs, dances, and stunts of all sorts.
- Suggest business for the dwarfs: stuff we can imagine the little woodsmen skillful at. Comedy stuff.
- We need ideas for the “Einie, Mienie, Moe” number in which each dwarf sings a jingle, caricaturing another dwarf, as:
Now, Doc decided to be neat
He went and washed his hands and feet.
He washed till all the dirt was gone,
But he left his shoes and stockings on.
- What types of homemade instruments do you see them playing? What kind of dance forms would they dance?
DWARFS AND SNOWWHITE GO TO BED THE FIRST NIGHT
The entertainment over, the dwarfs prepare a place for SnowWhite to sleep by screening off a corner of the room and pushing their beds together to make a big one. A prayer ends the sequence.
- How do the dwarfs screen off a corner of the room for SnowWhite? Make her bed? What do they contribute for blankets, and so forth?
- Where do the dwarfs sleep, in what funny positions and places?
- What characteristic light comedy touches can we develop from the actions, and especially from the facial expressions of the serious, bewildered kneeling dwarfs? Remember that our smiles here must not jar against the background of an innocent girl praying.
- We need a gag to top the sequence. The prayer is over, the dwarfs crawl onto their shelves and try to make themselves comfortable. Only one light remains burning. Now, what happens that will end the scene with a laugh?
THE DWARFS MAKE SNOWWHITE A BED
In the woods, the dwarfs decide not to go to the mines, but to make SnowWhite a bed, for a surprise. They can use only the materials furnished by the birds, animals, the forest vegetation and the clothes they have on. The meeting at which they decide on the bed will be a burlesque of a typical American lodge meeting.
- What thing typical of his own character would each dwarf suggest for SnowWhite’s surprise? What screwy ideas for action and dialogue to build up the burlesque lodge meeting angle?
- Making the bed: there are bed posts, springs, mattress, pillows, head and foot boards, and comforter to be made. SnowWhite’s name will be on the bed in gold inlay. The wood will be carved. A. How do the birds and animals help? What work can they do and keep in character? What materials do they furnish? B. What materials and tools do the dwarfs find at hand for the making of each part of the surprise? How do they use them? Contrive to make the bed? C. What job does Doc assign to each dwarf? What action do you suggest here that will be typical of each dwarf?
PLEASE SKETCH UP YOUR IDEAS READY TO SUBMIT BY TUESDAY, NOVEMBER THIRTEENTH, 1934
RUNNING GAGS!
CHARACTER BUILDING GAGS!
ACTION AND DIALOGUE GAGS FOR QUICK LAUGHS!
