Frankenstein Page #19

KITCHEN MAID:

I found her sobbing her eyes out.

Poor thing, I said, what's all this? And she spilled her

heart to me about Master Victor. How she'd always loved him,

and now he was coming home to marry mistress Elizabeth.

(CONTINUED)

84

A MURMUR sweeps the courtroom. Victor and Elizabeth share a

stunned glance.

KITCHEN MAID:

She cried and cried about the beautiful locket

held sent. How she wished it was hers. She swore

me never to tell a soul.

(peers at Justine)

That was before the boy went missing, a'course.

INT - COURTROOM - DAY

Victor is on the stand:

VICTOR:

I always viewed her with brotherly affection. I

had no idea of her feelings for me.

PROSECUTOR:

Rejection can be a powerful wound. People have

been known to do uncanny things.

VICTOR:

But to commit so ghastly and terrible a crime

against a child she loved?

Victor pauses, gnawed by some vague intuition. He looks to

Justine. She gazes back, her feelings hidden. Softly:

VICTOR:

It's hard to believe.

INT - COURTROOM - DAY

Elizabeth is on the stand:

ELIZABETH:

Justine and I grew up as sisters. I know her

better than anybody.

DEFENDING COUNSEL

Do you think it possible she committed this

crime?

ELIZABETH:

William was as much her child as mine. We were

both mother to him,

(beat)

I believe she would sooner have strangled the

life from her own body.

(CONTINUED)

85

DEFENDING COUNSEL

Then you consider the charge without merit.

ELIZABETH:

I consider the charge imbecilic.

INT - COURT ROOM - DAY

Justine is now on the stand:

JUSTINE:

Yes. I took refuge in the barn. Wouldn't you?

Lost in the storm? Freezing and wet? I was

exhausted and could search no longer.

PROSECUTOR:

And is it true, Miss Moritz, that you love Victor

Frankenstein? That your heart was broken?

(off her silence)

Answer the question. Do you love Victor

Frankenstein?

Her gaze wanders to Victor, eyes locking on his. stares

back, trapped.

JUSTINE:

I have always loved him.

PROSECUTOR:

Is it also not true that you murdered his brother

William in a misdirected crime of passion?

JUSTINE:

Murder Willie? In my heart, he was our child.

Victor's and mine. Such

a thing could never have entered my mind.

PROSECUTOR:

So you have claimed. Yet you have no explanation

for this.

(holds up the locket)

The locket last seen in the hands of the poor

murdered child was found hidden in your dress the

morning following the murder. The locket you so

coveted.

(leans close)

How did it come to be in your possession?

(CONTINUED)

86

JUSTINE:

I have no knowledge of that.

EXT - FIELD - DAY

A PAIR OF FEET drop heavily in frame. THUMP-CRACK! A shoe

flies off. The CROWD gasps. Mrs. Moritz collapses WAILING to

the ground. Elizabeth drops to her side to comfort her.

Victor just stands staring. ANGLE WIDENS to reveal Justine

dangling from the noose, neck broken, hands bound and feet

still twitching.

EXT - SAME FIELD - NIGHT

Another eerie echo of before: a storm is raging. The body

dangles from the scaffold, lashed by wind and rain. Victor

looms from the darkness, staring.

And then a massive white hand thrusts into frame and grabs

his shoulder. Victor whirls and finds himself staring up

into the last face he ever expected to see again, the

hideous necrotic features bathed in a purple/white GLARE OF

LIGHTNING. He SCREAMS as the Creature lashes out, grabs him

by the coat, draws him breathlessly closer, inch by inch,

eyeball-to-eyeball, grinning his awful rictus grin. Softly:

CREATURE:

Frankenstein.

Victor is speechless with horror. The Creature raises his

arm, pointing with an impossibly long and bony finger. Look

there. Victor does. LIGHTNING dances in the sky,

illuminating Mont Blanc with a crackling halo of electricity

... and then the Creature is gone, vanishing like a shadow

in the darkness. Victor falls gasping. The awful truth

dawning. He rises, gazing at the scaffold, horrified.

VICTOR:

Oh God. Oh God! No! NOOOOOOO!

Screaming now, rushing to the scaffold, throwing his arms

around the innocent girl dangling there, sliding down,

sinking to his knees, weeping helplessly:

VICTOR:

Oh God. Justine. Forgive me.

INT - MANSION - STUDY - DAWN

Victor pulls a carved box from a shelf. open.-, it. Lying

inside in their velvet cradle are a gorgeous pair of Model

1820 Collier flintlock revolvers.

(CONTINUED)

87

MANSION - DAWN

Victor is bundled in a rough coat, packing final supplies on

a horse held by Claude. Elizabeth is at his heels.

VICTOR:

My mind was not playing tricks. He was there in

the storm ... gloating over his crimes ...

challenging me to come.

ELIZABETH:

But why risk yourself? Hasn't this family

suffered enough?

VICTOR:

I've no choice

ELIZABETH:

If what you say is true, it is a matter for the

police!

VICTOR:

They've done a fine job. Hanging an innocent for

the crime of a fiend.

He rams the rifle into its scabbard, turns to her.

ELIZABETH:

(softly)

Do you know this man? Is there something between

you?

VICTOR:

I know only that he is a killer. And I shall

bring back his carcass.

Victor heaves himself into the saddle and rides off. TILT UP

to the mountain. Shrouded in snow. Waiting.

MONT BLANC - DAY

A lone horse and rider appear. on his mission of revenge ...

Victor ascends the mountain The mountain is brutal and

unforgiving. Victor dismounts, leading his horse onto the

glacier. A bitter wind blows ...

They plod on. Searching. magnificent rugged vistas unfolding

before our eyes. Primeval and vast ...

The horse suddenly spooks. Victor calms him. Staring. Is

that a figure down there? He shades his eyes against the

cutting sleet. Somebody in the distance. Down there on the

snow field. A tiny speck. Watching him.

(CONTINUED)

88

The figure starts running, leaping across the ice with great

bounds. Right toward Victor. Victor wrenches the carved box

from the saddle bag. The horse bolts. Victor drops to the

snow, throws open the box, frantically snatches up the pair

of revolvers.

He glances up. The figure is gone, vanished in drifts of

white. Victor rises with a revolver in each hand, c*cks the

flintlocks of both, turning slowly around. Gazing at the

rocks and crags. Searching.

VICTOR:

WHERE ARE YOU?

He hears nothing but his own voice echoing back ... and then

FEET CRUNCHING through the snow. He turns. The Creature is

running toward him across the glacier with inhuman speed,

greatcoat billowing like huge dark wings.

Victor raises the first pistol. Hesitates. As frightened and

angry as he is, a small part of him pauses to admire the

achievement of actually having created life.

He pulls the trigger. BOOM! A huge flash of powder, an

eruption of smoke. The Creature dodges the shot, still

coming. Victor raises the other gun. BOOM! Another flash of

smoke. Still the Creature comes.

Victor. Frantic. Manually spinning the cylinders, cocking,

firing. BOOM! A miss. BOOM! Another miss. Spinning. cocking.

Firing. BOOM! BOOM! Spinning. Cocking...

... And the Creature is on him, slapping the pistols clean

out of his hands. The guns sail through the air, spinning

off across the ice. Victor panics, turns to run ... And

slips over the edge of the precipice.

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