From Here to Eternity Page #19

MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT ALMA

looking through records for a new choice. She speaks quite

conversationally, as if offered a pleasant compliment.

ALMA:

That's nice. Because I love you,

too.

She puts on a record -- "It All Comes Back To Me Now." It

plays throughout the sequence.

98.

TWO SHOT:

as Alma comes over to Prew.

PREW:

I mean it. I need you.

ALMA:

(as before)

I'm glad. Because I need you, too.

PREW:

(recklessly)

A thirty-year man is movin all

over, goin all the time. Up to now

I never thought a thirty-year man

had any business to think of gettin

married.

She stares at him, amazed, a touch angry.

ALMA:

You're a funny one, little Prew

boy.

PREW:

(hurt)

Yeah. Must be the altitude.

ALMA:

A very funny one that I cannot

figure out.

PREW:

Why's it funny if a guy wants to

marry you?

ALMA:

Because I'm a girl you met at the

New Congress Club! And that's about

two steps up from the pavement.

PREW:

Okay -- I'm a private no class

dogface soljer. And the way most

civilians look at it, that's two

steps up from no thin.

There is a silence. Alma is honestly distraught.

ALMA:

Oh, Prew, Prew, I thought we were

happy:
Why do you want to spoil

things?

99.

PREW:

Lissen, I ain't think in of now.

But I got a plan cookin in my head.

You want to go back to the States

in a year. Well, you could stretch

it some, make it two years. And I

could swing a Sergeant's stripes --

If I were a non-com the Army’d let

me pick my duty when I re-enlist.

(lost in the picture of

it)

And there's some posts back in the

States -- like Jefferson Barracks --

The married noncoms rate solid

brick houses... with lawns with new-

cut grass and walks with big old

oak trees...

ALMA:

Now I know you've lost your mind!

How do you expect to become a

Sergeant under this Captain Holmes

of yours? It's all you can do to

keep out of the Stockade!

CLOSE SHOT PREW:

PREW:

I could fight.

TWO SHOT:

PREW:

It I go out for boxin he'd send me

to non-com school. The Regimental

Championship is next month. I bet I

could win the middleweight even

without training. I used to be

pretty good I could do it.

Alma is deeply moved. She speaks gravely, sincerely, not at

all immodestly.

.

ALMA:

No. I don't think you should give

in to The Treatment... even to

marry me.

PREW:

This’d be worth it.

100.

ALMA:

(almost desperately)

Prew -- it's true we love each

other now. But back in America, it

might be different... We might not

even want each other...

PREW:

Okay. But that ain't the real

reason.

ALMA:

All right. It's not.

PREW:

What's the real reason you won't

marry me?

ALMA:

I won't marry you because I don't

want to be the wife of a soldier.

PREW:

Well, that's the top I could ever

do for you -

ALMA:

Because nobody's going to stop

me from my plan. Nobody. Nothing.

Because want to be proper.

PREW:

Proper?

ALMA:

(impassioned)

Yes, proper. Respectable. Secure.

In a year I'll have enough money

saved. I'm going back to my home

town in Oregon and I'm going to

build a new home for my mother and

myself and join the country club

and take up golf. And then I'll

meet the proper, man with the

proper position. And I'll be a

proper wife who can keep a proper

home and raise proper children. And

I will be happy because when you

are proper you are safe.

PREW:

(bitterly disappointed but

admiring)

(MORE)

101.

PREW(cont'd)

You got guts, Alma. I hope you pull

it off.

The victrola record ends. Alma turns away from Prew and goes

to the victrola. Now that shots had her say with such

certainty, she deflates. Except for the fact that she looks

like a girl who never cries, she looks as if she might cry.

She lifts the record off the turntable.

ALMA:

But I do mean it when I say I need

you. Because I'm lonely. Sometimes

I'm dreadfully lonely... You think

I'm lying, don't you?

PREW:

No. Nobody ever lies about being

lonely...

Alma puts the same record on again. Prew looks out over the

beautiful view.

FADE OUT:

FADE IN:

INT. KITCHEN HOLMES HOUSE - DAY

CLOSE SHOT HOLMES

HOLMES:

-- I've known about it for a long

time! I've sensed it. And I'm not

going to ignore it any longer! I

want to know where you met him and

just who he is.

MEDIUM SHOT HOLMES AND KAREN

at breakfast in a nook off the kitchen. Holmes is a mixture

of petulance, anger and frustration. He doesn't touch his

food, but occasionally takes a sip of coffee.

KAREN:

I'm afraid I'm not going to tell

you.

HOLMES:

You can't keep a thing like this

hidden&

KAREN:

I'm not going to hide anything. I'm

just not going to tell you.

102.

She applies herself to her food, anxious to drop the matter.

HOLMES:

One thing I know. I know it's a

civilian. You'd be too discreet to

pick an Army man.

KAREN:

I don't think it's any of your

business who he is.

HOLMES:

It is my business! I'm your

husband! What do you think a

scandal would do to my chances for

a promotion? So if you're thinking

of a divorce, you can forget it!

Karen stiffens. She struggles to maintain her self-

possession. She manages it, keeps outwardly calm through the

scene.

HOLMES:

Now -- how does it feel to know

you'll have to live with a horror

like me the rest of your life?

KAREN:

Not very nice. But then there's the

compensation of knowing you'll have

to live with me the rest of your

life.

Her attitude makes Holmes progressively sorrier for himself.

CAMERA MOVES with him as during following he rises, goes to

stove, pours himself another cup of coffee. He spills a

little and the liquid sizzles on the burner.

HOLMES:

You don't know how a man feels

about a thing like this. It breaks

a man all up -- inside.

KAREN:

(dryly)

I gander why men feel so

differently about it than women.

HOLMES:

It's -- it's just not the same.

CAMERA MOVES with him as he returns to the table, decides to

try another tack.

103.

HOLMES:

Why do you think I've done all I

have...?

KAREN:

Done all what?

HOLMES:

Tried to be a Company Commander

when I hate it, worked my fool head

off with this miserable boxing

squad, tagged after the General

whenever I could.

KAREN:

I don't know. Why?

HOLMES:

Why, for you and for me. For our

home, that's why.

KAREN:

(dryly)

I always thought you did it because

you wanted to get ahead.

She finishes the last of her food, stands.

KAREN:

It's a lovely day out. I think I’ll

go for a walk.

Holmes catches her wrist, stops her.

HOLDS:

I’m willing to forgive you. Tell me

who he is. Make a clean breast of

it. And I'll forgive you.

KAREN:

I wonder which is hurt more -- your

pride or your curiosity?

She disengages her wrist.

KAREN:

(coolly)

When I'm ready to ask you for a

divorce we can discuss it again.

She goes to door to pantry, pauses there.

104.

KAREN:

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