Script review – “Rocky Horror Picture Show” by Jim Sharman and Richard O’Brien

As a teenager I went to screenings of this film many (too many) times, so I know it back to front. It was an odd experience reading the film script - which was a shooting script so it's broken down into shots. I was struck by how many songs there are in it - by the time we've hit page 30 there'd already been five: 'Science Fiction', 'Dammit Janet', 'There's a Light Over at the Frankenstein Place', 'Time Warp' and 'Sweet Transvestite'. And there's a whole bunch more in the film - indeed the last third is pretty much just songs.

The first half of this is the best - meeting Brad and Janet, arrival at the castle, the emergence of Rocky, Eddie going on a rampage, the seduction of Brad and Janet. The second half doesn't really have much to offer apart from songs - Dr Scott turns up, they do a long floor show, Frank is killed, there's a downer ending.

It was fascinating to read what had been cut. There's a whole song sequence, 'Once in a While', sung by Brad and Janet after they've been seduced by Frank - this felt like a dud. (I wish they'd cut 'Sword of Damocles' - such a lousy song. The only read dud in an otherwise excellent soundtrack.) There's some extra talk by Frank when Brad and Janet arrive. Some big print which says Rocky hates Frank but gets upset at his death because he's all Rocky has (I never got that Rocky hated Frank from the movie). A whole bit when Dr Scott sucked up to Riff Raff around the time Riff Raff kills Frank. A few extra lines here and there. All good cuts, I felt - the main problem was still there (i.e. trying to find out something to do with the third act.)