Oh man, this is one of those scenes that stays with you for a long time. I remember seeing this when I was really young and it scared the bejeezus out of me. It's still frightening! The only real difference from script to screen is the "WOLTZ tries to scream; but cannot. No sound comes out." He starts screaming immediately after seeing the head. I think it might have been better as scripted. It would have been nice to see Woltz's reaction first and then hear the scream. Makes me wanna buy this.

A big difference seems to be on the level of detail of the dead horse...the actual scene doesn't show tendons, or frothy mouths or eyes covered with blood (at least not that we can see). It seemed more appropriate to make that choice, since the scene isn't about how gruesome the horse is -- it's about the fact that there is a bloody, dead prize horse head in his bed.

Teddy, that severed horse head pillow is a scream riot! That is DEFINITELY going into this week's Saturday Hot Link with a HT to you!

Lena, I've noticed in this Script To Screen series sometimes the scene description seems to be more about the mood and atmosphere of the scene than what actually gets translated onto film. It's as if the writer wants to make absolutely sure that they get the desired psychological and emotional response they want out of the scene and go deeply into the moment via description to convey that in the script.

In the book, and in later versions of the movie there's a scene where a young child actress is given a pony for her birthday, but it's implied that Woltz is sleeping with the young girl. The point is that Woltz was going to be difficult to intimidate or blackmail, and that the horse was the only thing that Woltz truly loved and valued, and the only way to get to him.