Letter from James Ivory, New York, New York, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1971 June 16 : carbon copy typescript.

Writing that they will wrap "Savages" in just two days; expressing disbelief that they managed to shoot a feature in such a short time, writing "we couldn't have done it more quickly even if we'd been better organized and had a better production manager and an assistant director (will we ever have these key people of quality to match the rest of the production? ... probably not)"; continuing to describe how they've proved it's possible to make a high quality film in America for very little money; adding that he's proven to Merchant that he is capable of filming quickly, so "he can't grumble (though of course he will) any more about my slowness"; writing that he is worried that first, the film is too short, and second, that the last ten minutes are "too thin"; saying that [regarding the latter worry] he never received a version of the script he was wholly happy with, so he ultimately had to go with whatever was most visually engaging; pivoting to discuss an incident where most of the cast was arrested for public indecency because they were all naked from the waist up en route to a shooting location on a particularly hot day; narrating that the cast were deposited at the location, the Swope's home, whereupon Mrs. Swope scolded the arresting officer by saying "Yes, these people are making a film in my garden!"; writing that the charges have been dropped, and the officer mainly wanted to ensure everyone was over the age of 25; writing that it wasn't unusual for the cast and crew to film topless, himself included, "though at first I did feel a bit shy [...] but after a day or two nobody felt shy anymore and neither did I. Perhaps it got everybody better acquianted, I don't know"; observing that "the film is going to be a comedy. But why should a film about the rise and fall of Civilization turn out to be a comedy? Please tell me."