A Face in the Crowd Page #11

(Reporters shove and push to get close to Betty Lou)

68

Easy, fellas, I just got her.

(Lonesome searches the crowd, looking for Marcia? Marcia rushes without

a word past Mel, who briefly follows her, then stops.)

(Cut back to Betty Lou surrounded by reporters, Joey very close,

brushing back her hair from her face, very proprietary)

EARL WILSON:

Miss, miss, I'm Earl Wilson,

what are your measurements?

(Betty Lou giggles and ducks in embarrassment and delight.

A reporter pulls her skirt up over her knees and Lonesome jerks it back

down)

LONESOME:

Hey, what are you trying to do?

Are you out of your mind?

Get it up there.

That’s it.

BETTY LOU:
(about the Chihuahuas she is cradling)

Their names are Tiko and Pico.

JOEY:

Tiko and Pico, kids!

(DISSOLVE to TV studio, Lonesome and Betty Lou enter under an arch of

batons held by baton twirlers. Betty Lou looks very nervous, but warms

to it as Larry leads her out before an audience of mostly screaming

young girls Joey watches from side, arms crossed, very satisfied, smug)

(Cut to Marcia in darkened apartment, watching this on TV)

LONESOME:

Well, here she is.

My little Arkansas sweet potato,

Betty Lou.

I ain't been so happy since the day

I fell into Grandpa's corn liquor...

and just guzzled my way

down to dry land.

I don't reckon I'll be a free man

tomorrow morning.

But if this ain't freedom...

man, it’s the next best thing.

69

(Betty Lou lifts her long skirt, and hooks her white cowboy boot

around Lonesome’s leg. Cut to Marcia watching. Cut back to screaming,

weeping girls rushing the stage and grabbing Lonesome’s legs. He laughs

and pulls away.)

And now...

you want to see

what first caught my eye?

(Betty Lou flings off her cape )

And what second caught my eye?

(Betty Lou tears off the ruffled cover of her skimpy tip to reveal a

spangled top )

And what keeps on...

(Betty Lou tears off her long skirt, revealing very tiny spangled

shorts)

and on catching my eyes?

Ladies and gentlemen...

I give you

Mrs. Lonesome Rhodes doing her unbelievable...

double fire baton twirling dance...

to the scherzo

from the Seventh Symphony...

by Ludwig van Beethoven.

(Betty Lou runs out with fiery batons and starts her routine. Lonesome

goes off stage and fusses with the Chihuahuas in a basket. Macey is

standing nearby.)

MACEY:

Mr. Rhodes...

LONESOME:

(ignoring Macey)

Oh, Tico and Pico, I could just eat you up

MACEY:

Could I talk to you

for just a minute, please?

LONESOME:
(petting the chihuahas)

I told you I didn't want you agency jokers

nagging around me on the program.

70

MACEY:

Mr. Rhodes, this is desperately important.

I've been with Browning, Schlegal

and McNally for 17 years...

in charge of the

International Drug account.

And the General just told me

that he's taking his business away.

Your young Mr. De Palma

has wormed his way in...

LONESOME:

Look, Macey, Joe De Palma's

doing a heck of a job for me.

MACEY:

But, you know this business,

it’s cut-throat... (he sits down, sweating)

LONESOME:

Look, Macey...

MACEY:

If a rating nose-dives

or if you lose a client...

even if it isn't your fault,

the executive is the goat.

(He is gasping now, groping for his nitroglycerine. Lonesome stares

down at him coldly.)

Mr. Rhodes, if I lose this account,

I'll be fired.

I've got a son in Princeton...

Rhodes, you've seen my...

You've seen my office...

(He fumbles with the pills.)

A corner office

with four windows.

(Takes a pill, reaches out to the chihuahua in Lonesome’s hands)

Do you know how long it

takes to get a corner...?

(Macey collapses)

(CUT TO Betty Lou on stage finishing her routine. Fade to black)

(Fade in on Marcia’s apartment. Marcia on the left in her dark satin

bathrobe, across the room, Lonesome, sheepish, hat in hand)

LONESOME:

71

I was afraid to marry you,

that’s the truth.

The dirt root cotton-picking truth.

MARCIA:
(She is not looking at him)

Last time you said

you were afraid not to.

LONESOME:

Both were true,

you sort of overawe me.

You know more than I do... (he looks at her shelves of books)

And I can feel you being so doggone

critical all the time.

(Marcia slams the door closed.)

You and that smart aleck Mel.

And you don't really approve of me.

That’s so, ain't it?

MARCIA:

You're getting to be all the things

you used to harpoon.

LONESOME:

See what I mean?

The bigger I get,

the smaller you make me feel.

You take Betty Lou.

MARCIA:

Larry, don't try to explain.

Betty Lou is your public...

all wrapped up with yellow ribbons

into one cute little package.

She's the logical culmination

of the great love affair...

between Lonesome Rhodes

and his mass audience.

LONESOME:
(shrugs, goes to leave)

Well, I wish you wasn't

so bitter.

MARCIA:

I'm not bitter.

72

If I sound stridently female about

Miss Majorette, I don't mean to be.

I knew you'd married her

just as a way of not marrying me.

LONESOME:
(closes the door, walks up behind her, and

speaks gently -= she begins to respond)

Look, Marcia, I'm not forgetting

what I owe you.

I'll give you a healthy slice

of our operation.

say 10º/º of my end...

You won't have to lift your finger

with what I'm giving you.

MARCIA:
(furious)

Giving me? Giving me?

You're not giving me anything!

And you're not throwing me off

the train like poor Abe Steiner, either!

"Face in the Crowd"

was my idea.

The whole idea of Lonesome Rhodes

belongs to me!

I always should’ve been an equal

partner. Well, now I'm going to be!

I'm going to get

something I deserve.

LONESOME:

That don't sound like you.

MARCIA:

And I want it on paper!

LONESOME:

Okay. All right.

I'll tell Joey to draw up

the papers.

Look at yourself

in the mirror, Marcia.

You'll see a millionaire.

There's always Vanderbilt ‘44 .

MARCIA:

He's going back to Memphis.

He wants to forget us both.

73

LONESOME:

I thought he'd wait for you

till there was ice on the equator.

MARCIA:

That’s how long he did wait.

(Lonesome leaves. After a minute, Marcia sobs. Fade to black)

(Fade in on

WALTER WINCHELL:
(on the air)

When newspaper people ask me, Walter,

"Where do you get all that news?"

I invariably tell them I usually

get it from a lot of people...

who promised someone

they'd keep it a secret.

As, for example...

just what is Lonesome Rhodes going

to talk to General Haynesworth about?

Oh, General!

Oh, Lonesome Rhodes! Hmmmm….

CUT TO:

ANNOUNCER:

And now, Mike Wallace interviews

Senator Worthington Fuller.

Rate this script:3.5 / 2 votes