butter

INT. THE FOYER - LATE AFTERNOON

A general flurry of activity; Gussie and several workmen carrying furniture upstairs, unpacking barrels, etc. Muriel, list and samples in hand, is explaining her color scheme to Mr. PeDelford, a polite, cigar-smoking, noncommittal boss painter. In the b.g., casually leaning on the bannister is PeDelford's taciturn and somewhat skeptical-looking assistant.

MURIEL

Now I want the living room to be a soft green.
(PeDelford nods)
Not quite as bluish as a robin's egg, but yet not as yellow as daffodil buds.

PEDELFORD
Mm.

MURIEL

(handing him a sample)
The best sample I could get is a  little too yellow, but don't let  whoever mixes it go to the other  extreme and get it too blue. It should  just be sort of a grayish yellow  green.

PEDELFORD

(making a note)
Mm-hmm.

 They turn to the dining room.

MURIEL

Now the dining room I'd like yellow.  Not just yellow, a very gay yellow.

PEDELFORD

Mm-hmm.

MURIEL

Something bright and sunshiny.
(sudden inspiration)
I tell you, Mr. PeDelford, if you'll  just send one of your workmen to the A&P for a pound of their best butter  and match it exactly, you can't go wrong.

PEDELFORD

(making a note)
Mm.

MURIEL

This is the paper we're going to use here in the foyer.
(hands sample to him)
It's flowered but I don't want the  ceiling to match any of the colors  of the flowers. There are some little dots in the background, and it's these dots I want you to match. Not the little greenish dots near the hollyhock leaf, but the little bluish dot between the rosebud and the delphinium blossom. Is that clear?

PeDelford looks carefully at the sample, then:

PEDELFORD

(making note)
Mm-hmm.

MURIEL

The kitchen's to be white. Not a cold, antiseptic hospital white -- a little warmer but not to suggest any other color but white.

PEDELFORD

(note)
Mm.

MURIEL

Now for the powder room, I want you  to match this thread.
(hands him thread)
You can see it's practically an apple red. Somewhere between a healthy Winesap and an unripened Jonathan.

PEDELFORD

(making note)
Mm.

There is a crash from the kitchen.

MURIEL

Will you excuse me?

Muriel hastily exits toward the kitchen. PeDelford turns to his assistant.

PEDELFORD

Got it, Charlie?

CHARLIE

(deadpan; indicating rooms with his thumb)
Green, yellow, blue, white, red.

PEDELFORD

Check.

1948's Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House screenplay here.