"A Tale of Two Sweeties"


 
Cut Scenes:

In the first draft script, dated 9th November 1992, the Ellroys were all called the Wilsons.

Josh was ten and Jessica six.

The hotel was called the Cinderella.

We learn that Al took Beth there in 1958 and then Ruthie later.

The bed massage cost a nickel, not a dime.

When Al considers bigamy, he said “I could have gotten rid of all five wives in half the time” rather than “I could have gotten through ten wives instead of five”.

Marty and Rachel were about to celebrate their 12th, not ninth, anniversary.

Vic told a story about his mother trying to encourage him to play the oboe, which would have earned him $2,000 a night (what Marty owes them).

Martin Jr didn’t mention Marty missing his Little League game.

We learnt that two years ago Ellen let Marty hock her engagement ring, and Rachel gave Marty hers last year (Sam says “oh boy” at this).

Six months ago Marty hocked Ellen’s TV and then he tried to hock Rachel’s silver candlestick (later in both the broadcast and final script, Rachel claims he was successful in this).

Ellen worked on Rachel’s nails (not her hair).

Al’s reaction to Rachel’s gossip about her friend’s husband becoming  gay (“yuck”) wasn’t in the script, suggesting this may have been an ad lib harking back to Al’s homophobic traits seen in Running for Honor.

Vic explained a little more about why he’s following up on Marty early – he’d heard about the reservations Sam’s been making for dinner and assumes he must have cash.

The scene where Al convinces Jessica not to run away was extended at the start, as he assured her that she doesn’t make her mommy sad.

The script ended as the first two wives walk away – the third wife does not feature.

There were also a lot of small differences in the characters’ speech patterns that don’t change the plot but don’t sound quite as natural as the finished version.

In the third draft script dated 13th November 1992, a number of familiar corrections were made: the family names were changed to the Ellroys and the hotel to the Pompano Palace, the reference to Marty’s Little League game has now been added, Jessica’s age is changed to five in one of the stage directions (but still six when quoted in the salon) and Ellen is a hairdresser. The other differences noted in the 9th November script above remained.

Sun Ray Airlines was originally scripted as Sun Belt Airlines, changed between versions 1 and 2. This was likely because a real airline had recently existed with that name.