Bonnie and Clyde Page #21

reverent tones)

It's Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.

102.

He stands there struck dumb, staring. Those of the others

who have heard him begin to come over. Without a word they

move quietly to the car and stare in.

INT. CAR.

BONNIE is out in the back seat; CLYDE is semi-conscious in

the front seat. He looks up through half-closed eyes.

EXT. CAR.

We see a woman pour a bowl of soup at the campfire and bring

it to C.W. He accepts it.

A man rolls a cigarette and lights it. Then, very gingerly,

as if afraid to really touch him, he reaches through the

window and places it in CLYDE's lips. It hangs there, CLYDE

unable to drag on it or remove it.

Children peer through the back window.

C.W. finishes his cup of soup. He hands it and the cup of

water back to a woman in the crowd.

Quietly, moving together, the Okies step back. C.W. walks

to the driver's seat, gets in and shuts the door. He starts

up the car.

The people push a bit closer for a last look. CLYDE, unable

to do more, nods his head in a barely perceptive gesture by

way of saying "thank you" t ot the people. The cigarette is

still dangling from his lips.

The car moves off. A YOUNG BOY pulls on his FATHER's shirt.

BOY:

Who was they, Pa?

MAN:

That was Bonnie and Clyde, the bank

robbers.

A woman, nearby, smiles sweetly.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. MOSS FARM. MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.

The car pulls up outside the slightly ramshackle farm of

MALCOLM MOSS, C.W.'s father, in Arcadia, Louisiana. It

sits, for a moment, in the dark. Then C.W. honks the horn.

A few seconds pass, and the porch light comes on. OLD MAN

MOSS comes out in his pajamas and peers into the darkness.

He is a fat man with gray hair.

103.

MALCOLM:

Who's there?

C.W.

(calling back)

Daddy?

MALCOLM:

Who's there? Who is it?

C.W.

It's C.W. It's Clarence.

MALCOLM:

Clarence!

He runs down the steps, down the path to his son. They

greet each other, hugging for a second, looking each other

over.

MALCOLM:

God, it's good to see you, boy!

He holds C.W. at arm's length to study him, and suddenly he

scowls at something he sees by the light of the porch.

MALCOLM:

What's that on your chest?

C.W.

(puzzled)

Huh?

(realizing what he means)

It's a tattoo...I'm in trouble.

I'll tell you about it later. My

friends are hurt. Help me get 'em

in.

MALCOLM goes to car and looks inside for a moment. He walks

back to C.W.

MALCOLM:

Jesus, what happened to them? You

in trouble, son?

C.W.

Yeah. That's Clyde Barrow and

Bonnie Parker.

(reaction from Malcolm)

We been shot. Help me get 'em

inside. We gotta help 'em.

They go to the car and drag the unconscious BONNIE out and

begin carrying her up to the house.

104.

MALCOLM:

Why'd you get yourself marked up?

A tattoo! What in hell made you do

a damn fool thing like that?

They reach the house.

C.W.

C'mon, Pa, open the door.

INT. SHERIFF'S OFFICE IN DEXTER. DAY.

Although the scene begins with a full-screen close-up of a

newspaper clipping with a photo, it is just a blurry-gray,

crowded scene of BLANCHE's capture. Really impossible to

make anybody out in the crowd. Camera stays on photo as we

hear voice over of two men talking: a sheriff and his deputy.

BILLY:

I was in the bunch that took 'er.

See here? Can you make me out?

Here I am, see here, right behind

Joe Boyd here.

PETE:

Sure enough, Billy, is that your

head there?

Camera pulls away, BILLY, a young deputy--cold, intense,

humorless and square, carefully folds up the clipping and

puts it in his wallet.

BILLY:

Still can't figure how we let them

other two get away.

PETE:

(an older, more

genial type)

Yeah, seems as how nobody can get

'em somehow.

BILLY:

(sullen)

Yeah...well, maybe this boy'll be

the one to do it, this Hamer guy.

Boy if he can't do it, Sheriff,

ain't nobody but the whole U.S.

Army can do it.

105.

PETE:

(with a new note of

enthusiasm, gets up

and walks to the

window--turning to Billy)

You hear he quit the Rangers on

account of Texas got that woman

governor. Said he wouldn't work

under no woman.

BILLY:

(respectfully)

Yeah, that's somethin' all right.

Say, how many they say he shot

anyway in his day?

PETE:

Sixty-five they say.

BILLY:

Son of a sea-cook!

The door opens. We see, full shot and then fast close-up

FRANK HAMER. It should be a complete shock to the audience-this

is the man kidnapped by the gang earlier and partially

destroyed by BONNIE.

HAMER is dressed in his Ranger outfit and hat, and again he

has that quality of sinister frenzy beneath his calm manner.

His attitude toward these lawmen is sheer condescension,

friendly only out of convention, really superior and

contemptuous of lesser workers in his field.

HAMER:

(with politeness

arising from condescension)

Excuse me, am I in the right place?

Is this Sheriff Smoot?

PETE and BILLY jump up from the chairs and walk over to

HAMER, hands extended. They are quite impressed by meeting

in the flesh.

PETE:

(mispronouncing his name)

Frank Hammer. I sure am pleased to

meet you!

(shakes his hand)

HAMER:

Hamer.

106.

EXT. MOSS FARM. CLOSE SHOT NEWSPAPER. DAY.

A coil of rope snaps into and through the paper, splitting

it and revealing C.W.'s startled face. CLYDE strides the

porch angrily, snapping the rope.

BONNIE and MALCOLM are seated along with C.W. Through

BONNIE has her arm supported by a sling and CLYDE has his

shoulder bandagedm it is evident by CLYDE's heady indignation

and BONNIE's attentiveness that both are well on the way to

recovery.

CLYDE:

(still snapping rope)

FLED? What do they mean, fled?

How in the nama God could I leave

my brother to die when he was

already dead when I left him?

(livid)

He was shot in too many pieces to

pick off the ground! Fled...what

do they know, the papers or the

police?...

Suddenly he moves upon MALCOLM with enormous intent, as if

by pounding the point home to the one relative stranger

among them, he will justify it all. MALCOLM momentarily

flinches, then listens with intense deference.

CLYDE:

Why, while we were all lyin' around

here, near dead, they had us

holdin' up the Grand Prairie

National Bank! They hung that one

on us just for luck, I guess.

CLYDE shakes his head, still thinking this over. Abruptly,

to BONNIE, with deadly seriousness:

CLYDE:

Tell you what. Soon's we get well,

we're gonna take that bank!

He breaks into a wicked grin, but then reels, catching

himself on the porch railing. He's obviously dizzy from

exertion and anger. BONNIE starts--then sees CLYDE is in

control.

CLYDE:

(remarking on his own dizziness)

Whooooooo, boy...

(kneeling, to Bonnie)

They don't know nothin'--do they,

sugar?

107.

BONNIE:

(assuring him)

You did all you could, hon'.

Nobody coulda done more.

C.W. has been studying hard on the torn paper, b.g. Suddenly:

C.W.

Hey. How come I'm always called

the "Un-identified sus-spect?"

Group shot. Porch. C.W. has trouble with this last phrase.

BONNIE laughs. This picks up CLYDE's spirits once more.

Rate this script:1.7 / 6 votes