I thought I'd put up the
link to the I Walked With A Zombie script that Kim Newman and Steve Jones talk about in the commentary.
Some of the things they specifically mention in the commentary is the way the script talks about the type of map that's required:
There is a trestle table with a straight chair behind it, typewriter on a stand, and a small wooden filing cabinet with an old-fashioned letter-press on top of it. There is a surveyor's map of the plantation on one wall, and on the other a Geodetic Survey chart of the island of St. Sebastian. (For 75c, we can purchase the U.S. Geodetic chart of Anacapa Island, engraved by Whistler, possibly the most beautiful map ever drawn. We can use this for the map of our fictitious island.) Holland is seated at the table with a ledger open before him. He has obviously been working. Betsy sits in a chair drawn up to one corner of the table. She is in her nurse's uniform.
or the size of the harp!:
There is one picture in the room. It is Boecklin's "The Isle of the Dead," framed in a narrow frame of dark wood. Near the open window stands a beautiful gilt parlour harp. (Size 22) Behind it, arranged conveniently for playing, is a small Empire chair. There is no other furniture near this arrangement, and the harp, the empty chair and wind-stirred glass curtains give a dual effect of elegance and loneliness.
or the scene of Jessica playing the piano:
INT. BETSY'S ROOM -- NIGHT
Betsy turns back into the room. She has crossed over to the bed and is removing her negligee when the sound of hesitant notes on the piano attract her attention. In her nightgown she goes back to the window and peers through the cracks between the laths.
INT. A CORNER OF THE LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT
From where she stands, Betsy can see the big, square, rosewood piano. A lamp had been lit beside it and the light from this lamp falls on the blonde hair and gleaming shoulders of the woman who had walked in the garden. Her face cannot be seen. Her fingers move strangely over the keyboard, now and again striking a hesitant note, but making no music, only an occasional dissonance.
INT. BETSY'S ROOM -- NIGHT
Betsy, still watching through the slit in the jalousie, endeavors to get a better view of the living room. She changes her position and looks out again through the blinds.
INT. ANOTHER CORNER OF THE LIVING ROOM -- NIGHT
As seen from Betsy's NEW ANGLE. Paul Holland is seated in a low armchair. His eyes are fixed on the woman at the piano. She continues to strike odd notes on the piano.
INT. BETSY'S ROOM -- NIGHT
Betsy leaves the window, crosses to the bed and lies down. Then, sighing, she makes herself comfortable on the pillow, settling herself for sleep. Outside the nightjars whistle softly, the cicadas twitter and the Hammer tree frogs make drowsy, somnolent little croaks: it is a tropic lullaby of bird, batrachian and insect sound. The faint, groping notes on the piano continue.
DISSOLVE
Should make good bedtime reading!
The
Val Lewton Screenplay Collection site has a lot of interesting stuff, including the short story
The Bagheeta, the typed script of Apache Drums and the script for The Fact of Murder!