Letter from James Ivory, New York, New York, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1975 January 6 : typescript signed.

Describing the accident on January 3rd that led to him spraining his ankle, but was still able to see "Wally's play"; letting her know he's going to California on Friday to "supervise the printing of the film" since Edgar Lansbury "reneged" and wouldn't pay the airfare for Walter Lassally; informing her that he finished the Europeans and that it is "108 pages and 42 scenes" having extracted the parts from the book that he likes but adding "new scenes and especially, a new ending"; asking her to "shape" the "long dialogue sequences" so they "don't exhaust the audience"; adding that there are some dialogue sequences he would like to remain "intact" and that he has marked where these are; describing the action being dialogue-driven which makes it feel like "people standing up on a stage"; informing her that "Alan Arkin" who is a "wonderful New York actor and director" wants to "do Spencer" so they are closer to producing "Vertical and Horizontal", although he would rather do "The Europeans" next, as he feels he has already made "V+H" and "it was a failure"; agreeing with Ruth that "Gayle Hunnicut is a strange choice" but "could be given the benefit of the doubt".