Gangs of New York Page #10

JOHNNY:

But if your schemes have size, you need size to bring them off.

AMSTERDAM:

What are you thinking?

Johnny shrugs, grins: he doesn't want to give anything away. Amsterdam

understands, turns toward the Brewery.

AMSTERDAM:

Let me in if you ever get it figured.

Amsterdam starts toward the Old Brewery, Johnny keeping step.

AMSTERDAM:

I'll go on my own from here.

Johnny STOPS and Amsterdam continues on by himself.

CUT TO:

39 INT. MAIN ROOM/OLD BREWERY

Echoing. Dank. Amsterdam holds a candle high for light. RATS skitter. He

crosses the main floor, enters one of the side tunnels.

CUT TO:

40 INT. ROOM/OLD BREWERY

A tiny room we recognize from the first scene: this is the place where

Amsterdam lived with his father. He crouches and TEARS UP some

floorboards, then quickly LOWERS HIMSELF into the hole.

CUT TO:

41 INT. UNDER FLOOR/OLD BR.EWERY

A short tunnel under the Brewery floor, the kind a kid might make.

Amsterdam has trouble crawling through it. DIRT and ROCK sprinkle him

until he finds what he wants stuck in a shallow hole; a battered leather

MONEY PURSE; and a PAPER-WRAPPED PACKAGE.

Amsterdam snaps open the purse to make sure the little bit of MONEY is

still there, then turns his attention to the package. He TEARS it open.

Inside is the PIRATE KNIFE that Bill the Butcher used to kill Amsterdam's

father.

Amsterdam handles the knife carefully as he opens it. The candle light

makes the blade GLEAMS.

CUT TO:

42 EXT. ALLEY/OLD BREWERY DAY

A shock of summer SUNLIGHT as Amsterdam emerges from one of the back

entrances of the Brewery onto a fetid alley filled with rotted barrels,

broken glass and insensible drunks.

Amsterdam looks carefully up and down the alley, letting his eyes adjust

to the bright light. Ahead of him, he SEES ...

Shang Draper, in jovial conversation with a SECOND MAN we do not

recognize. The man is bareheaded, and has a deep scar running back to

front clear down the center of his bald head. Amsterdam waits, WATCHES.

Shang takes the RED SILK SCARF he got from Jenny's swag and hands it to

the Second Man. He and Shang SHAKE HANDS, as if they have concluded a

business deal, and the Second Man walks away.

Amsterdam PRESSES himself close to the door as Shang LOOKS AROUND...

doesn't see Amsterdam... and walks off in the opposite direction, across

Paradise Square.

CUT TO:

43 INT- RECEPTION ROOM AND TWEED'S OFFICE DAY

The main room is as loud and as prosperous as the stock exchange. Bill the

Butcher makes his way past Small GROUPS of men engaged in heated political

dealings of dubious virtue.

Bill knocks on the door to Tweed's private office while he's opening it.

Inside is Boss Tweed, seated in a large WOODEN BOX like a primitive sauna.

Around him are various PETITIONERS, and his assistant Daniel Killoran.

TWEED:

I dread city stimmers. They bring illness and beget vermin.

PETITIONER #l (GLEASON)

My plague box fends off all pestilence. Its elixir combats ill humors...

KILLORAN:

We can't have every citizen of the Five Points boxed up like cargo.

TWEED:

But the season is vicious, and I must take thought of our constituents.

Mr. Gleason, I'd like you to shake hands with Mr. Barnett Baff...

Gleason, dubious, shakes hands with PETITIONER #2 as Bill the Butcher

looks on with amusement.

TWEED:

A friend and owner of an estimable carting service. Work out an

arrangement whereby the citizenry can receive the benefit of Mr. Gleason's

wondrous elixir outside this excellent box. At a cost, Mr. Gleason, of how

much the barrel ...

GLEASON:

(figuring rapidly)

Oh, perhaps twenty-five dollars.

TWEED:

...and how much, Mr. Baff, for haulage and distribution...

BAFF:

The same again. At least.

TWEED:

At least. That's a price of fifty dollars. And greedy, low piracy at that

(Gleason and Baff splutter)

But a price that Tammany, in its generosity, will meet. Merely submit a

bill for a hundred. We'll each have half. And I'll retain this box for

further experiment. Hello, Bill.

Killoran LEADS the astonished Gleason and Baff away as Bill APPROACHES.

TWEED:

Bolt the door.

Bill complies. As Tweed speaks and the anti-plague VAPORS SWIRL around his

head, he keeps his eyes closed.

TWEED:

Scotchy Lavelle's gone wrong in his accounts.

BILL THE BUTCHER

I know. Scotchy's a good man.

TWEED:

Not good enough to rake thirty percent of our share from Sparrow's and use

it for his own.

(opens his eyes)

You got to give him over, Bill.

BILL THE BUTCHER

I can't do that. No matter what he steals, I still get more from him than

any two others. As do you.

TWEED:

Alright then. What about Charles McGloin? He's running a panel game off to

one side. Did you know that?

(Bill shrugs)

I can't get a day's work done for all the good citizens pouring in here

complaining about crime and corruption all over the Points. They accuse

Tammany of carelesoness. Some even suspect ... a few practically suggest.

(eying Bill significantly)

... our complicity with this rampant criminality. We must show them

Tammany stands behind the letter of the law. We need to set an example.

BILL THE BUTCHER

(beat)

Charles McGloin will do.

TWEED:

I'll set the trial for Friday.

CUT TO:

44 EXT- TOMBS DAY

CAMERA moves high along the outside wall, past small rectangular slits

that pass for jail windows. EYES peer out, as if a peep show is underway

directly below in the Tombs courtyard. A PRISONER is being readied for the

gallows by having a hood tied to his head.

The CROWD is in a carnival mood; HOT CORN GIRLS, STREET VENDORS,

"HOKEY-POKEY" (i.e., ice cream) MERCHANTS, even BUSKERS, all add to the

holiday spirit.

Jenny works through the crowd, pushing and smiling her way past groups of

raucous merrymakers. She stops once or twice to have a word with a

GENTLEMAN, flirts for a moment, then moves on.

Further back in the crowd, Amsterdam NOTICES her. He watches her go

through the crowd with an admiration that quickly turns to FASCINATION as

he realizes what she's doing: picking pockets. The best bludget in the

Five Points. He starts to FOLLOW her.

Jenny has worked her way close to the hanging platform, but she's so

intent on her job she has not noticed Amsterdam. The closer the platform,

the closer the spectacle and richer the pickings: Jenny's concentration is

absolute. On the platform, an ASSISTANT HANGMAN addresses the Crowd.

ASSISTANT HANGMAN

Those interested in the effects of the condemned please come forward.

44 CONTINUED:

Part of the Crowd PRESSES in toward the platform, temporarily blocking

Amsterdam's view of Jenny. He is right against the platform.

ASSISTANT HANGMAN

What am I bid for this coat? A coat of some wear but excellent cut...

containing a rather remarkable pocket silk...

MAN IN CROWD:

Bid a quarter!

HANGMAN:

A quarter, thank you. Do I hear fifty cents? Fifty cents?

The Hangman is holding up the condemned man's coat which contains the RED

SILK SCARF Amsterdam saw Shang give away. Amsterdam flips the HANGMAN a

quarter, reaches out and GRABS the handkerchief.

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