All About Eve Page #18

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KAREN:

The cynicism you refer to, I acquired

the day I discovered I was different

from little boys!

The phone has been ringing. Lloyd snarls into it.

LLOYD:

Hello!

(he quiets down)

...hi, Margo... no, not at all, Karen

and I were just chatting... hmm?...

why - why, yes, I'm sure we can and

I'm sure we'd love to... right...

11:
45ish. See you then...

He hangs up. He smiles - suddenly, there's peace.

LLOYD:

Margo - and Bill - want us to meet

them at the Cub Room tonight, after

theater. For a bottle of wine.

KAREN:

(smiles)

Margo in the Cub Room. I couldn't be

more surprised if she'd said Grant's

Tomb.

LLOYD:

I'm glad Bill's back.

KAREN:

They'd die without each other.

A pause.

LLOYD:

Darling, I didn't promise Eve

anything. Just said I thought she'd

be fine for the part, but there were

some practical difficulties...

KAREN:

Such as?

LLOYD:

(grins)

You - for one. I told her you were

set on Margo playing the part - and

I certainly wouldn't make a change

without your approval.

Karen smiles happily.

KAREN:

That's fine. Fine and dandy. I'd

enjoy nothing more. Just refer all

of Miss Harrington's future requests

to me...

INT. CUB ROOM - STORK CLUB - NIGHT

Margo, Karen, Bill and Lloyd are ensconced happily at a table

in the rear of the room. A bottle of fine wine is being

poured. Their mood is equally bubbly.

BILL:

The so-called art of acting is not

one for which I have a particularly

high regard...

MARGO:

Hear, hear...

BILL:

But you may quote me as follows.

Quote. Tonight Miss Margo Channing

gave a performance in your cockamamie

play, the like of which I have never

seen before and expect rarely to see

again. Unquote.

MARGO:

He does not exaggerate. I was good.

BILL:

You were great.

As they look at each other, they reflect the understanding

that has hit them both at last.

LLOYD:

It's been quite a night. I

understand that your understudy -

Miss Harrington - has given her

notice.

MARGO:

(eyes still on Bill)

Too bad.

BILL:

(eyes still on Margo)

I'm broken up about it...

The wine has been poured by now.

LLOYD:

For some reason you can't just pick

up champagne and drink it. Somebody's

got to be very witty about a toast.

(he lifts his glass)

For instance...

BILL:

(abruptly)

I'm going to propose the toast.

Without wit. With all my heart.

Lloyd lowers his glass. There's a little pause.

BILL:

To Margo. To my bride-to-be.

MARGO:

Glory Hallelujah.

LLOYD:

Well of all-

KAREN:

Margo!

BILL:

Drink.

They drink, then burst into a flurry of questions.

KAREN:

When? When are you going to do it?

BILL:

Tomorrow we meet at City Hall at

ten-

(to Margo)

and you're going to be on time.

MARGO:

Yes, sir.

LLOYD:

City Hall, that's for prize fighters,

and reporters - I see a cathedral, a

bishop, banks of flowers...

BILL:

It's only for the license. There's a

three-day wait - blood tests, things

like that...

MARGO:

I'll marry you if it turns out you

have no blood at all.

LLOYD:

Three days, that's for the bourgeois -

I see a midnight elopement, waking

up a village person...

KAREN:

(to Margo)

What are you going to wear?

MARGO:

Something simple. A fur coat over a

nightgown...

BILL:

The point is - in the cathedral, a

ball park or a penny arcade - we

want to have you two beside us our

nearest and dearest friends.

Lloyd fills all the glasses.

LLOYD:

There are very few moments in life

as good as this. Let's remember it.

(he lifts his glass)

To each of us and all of us... never

have we been more close - may we

never be farther apart.

They drink. A waiter approaches with a note.

WAITER:

Mrs. Richards?

KAREN:

Yes?

WAITER:

For you.

Karen stares at it curiously, then opens it.

LLOYD:

Very discreet. A note right out in

the open like that. Next time tell

your lover to blow smoke rings - or

tap a glass...

MARGO:

Lloyd, I want you to be big about

this... the world is full of love

tonight, no woman is safe...

KAREN:

(angrily)

This beats all world's records for

running, standing and jumping gall!

She whips the note to Margo, who reads it aloud.

MARGO:

(reading)

"Please forgive me for butting into

what seems such a happy occasion -

but it's most important that I speak

with you. Please" - it's underlined -

"meet me in the Ladies' Room. Eve."

BILL:

I understand she is now the understudy

in there.

MARGO:

(looking about)

Pass me the empty bottle. I may find

her... why, look. There's Rasputin.

Addison sits near the entrance, at a banquette table for

two.

A crumpled napkin and a wine glass indicate Eve's place. He

nibbles daintily at some blini.

Margo hails a passing captain.

MARGO:

Encore du champagne.

CAPTAIN:

More champagne, Miss Channing?

MARGO:

That's what I said, bub.

LLOYD:

(to Karen)

After all, maybe she just wants to

apologize...

KAREN:

I have no possible interest in

anything she'd have to say.

BILL:

But what could she say? That's what

fascinates me...

LLOYD:

Go on - find out...

MARGO:

Karen, in all the years of our

friendship, I have never let you go

to the Ladies' Room alone. But now I

must. I am busting to know what goes

on in that feverish little brain

waiting there...

KAREN:

Well... all right.

She gets up and goes. The CAMERA takes her past Addison's

table. He rises in polite surprise.

ADDISON:

Karen! How nice...

She walks past him without a word. He smiles, looks toward

the group. He raises his glass in a toast.

Margo responds to the toast by waving an onion with a grand

flourish, then eating it.

BILL:

Very effective. But why take it out

on me?

He eats one in self-defense.

INT. LADIES' ROOM - STORK CLUB - NIGHT

Never having been, I can't say what it looks like. It is to

be hoped that there is an outer and inner room. We are

concerned with the outer.

There is an attendant in charge, and a constantly changing

flow of ladies who pause to make various repairs. All cafe

society - including one young drunk stretched out under a

mink coat and a wet towel.

There are two chairs - or a banquette - in a corner. Eve

waits there. She rises as Karen approaches.

EVE:

I was wondering whether you'd come

at all..

KAREN:

Don't get up.

(she smiles grimly)

And don't act as if I were the queen

mother.

EVE:

I don't expect you to be pleasant.

KAREN:

I don't intend to be.

EVE:

Can't we sit down? Just for a

minute...

She sits down. Karen remains standing.

EVE:

I've got a lot to say. And none of

it is easy.

KAREN:

There can't be very much-

EVE:

Oh, but there is-

KAREN:

And easy or not, I won't believe a

word.

EVE:

Why shouldn't you?

(a pause)

Please sit down.

Karen sits, reluctantly and rigidly.

EVE:

You know, I've always considered

myself a very clever girl. Smart.

Good head on my shoulders, that sort

of thing, never the wrong word at

the wrong time... but then, I'd never

met Addison deWitt.

(another pause)

I remember once I had a tooth pulled.

They gave me some anesthetic - I

don't remember the name - and it

affected me in a strange way. I heard

myself saying things I wasn't even

thinking... as if my mind were

someplace outside of my body, and

couldn't control what I did or said-

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