Gangs of New York Page #11

AMSTERDAM:

Here. Just for the silk.

He stuffs it into his pocket and starts to PUSH his way through the crowd.

On the platform, the WARDEN steps forward holding a primitive megaphone.

WARDEN:

Do you have any last remarks, Charles McGloin?

McGloin grunts from underneath the hood.

MCGLOIN:

Not from under this hood I don't.

Crowd near the platform begins to CHANT "No hood, no hood, no hood!" The

Warden puts his hand on the hood, starts to remove it...

... and the Crowd CHEERS. Amsterdam turns, SEES: Charles McGloin. Bald,

with a deep scar running front to back on his head. The very SAME MAN he

saw in the alley with Shang.

McGloin acknowledges the cheers of the crowd. The Warden holds to

megaphone close and McGloin bellows...

MCGLOIN:

I never struck a foul blow or turned a card and may God greet me as a

friend!

The Crowd ROAR approval at these words. Amsterdam PUSHES through the

crowd, looking for Jenny ... SPOTTING her finally...

... while up on the platform, the NOOSE is placed around McGLOIN's neck,

and he is HOISTED UP in no time. We hear his neck SNAP. His feet kick

after death. The Crowd raises a zighty cheer.

CUT TO:

45 EXT./INT. BROADWAY AND BROADWAY STAGE DAY

Amsterdam walks with a crowd toward a waiting Broadway stage, a vehicle

that looks like a horsedrawn train car. The stage will take spectators

back uptown from the hanging.

He is working his way toward Jenny, who is now BOARDING the stage.

Amsterdam DASHES through the crowd and SQUEEZES onto the stage, which

moves forward with a JOLT.

Once on board, Amsterdam looks through the jammed car, SEES: Jenny, about

to sit down - A MAN has offered her his seat. She smiles dazzlingly as she

sits...

... and arranges her hands genteelly on her lap. The Man looks down on her

and she smiles up at him again. He is bequiled.

Amsterdam manages to get a little closer.

MAN:

I hope you won't think me rude if I speak.

JENNY:

No, sir. You look a proper Gentleman down to the ground.

As this conversation continues, we watch-not only Jenny and The Man in

conversation, and Amsterdam watching them; but we begin to notice what

Amsterdam SEES. Although Jenny's hands apparently remain folded on her

lap, her RIGHT HAND moves SLOWLY out from her wrap... toward The Man...

MAN:

Well, I wouldn't want you to think me forward, you see.

... and BRUSHES past his jacket. He does not notice or feel a thing.

Jenny's hand GLIDES past his THIGH ... nearly brushing it ... moving up

across his pelvis and around his buttocks...

JENNY:

Does it matter to you what I think?

MAN:

Well, I might like it to.

JENNY:

Oh.

...toward his pocket. The Man is in Jenny's thrall. He feels nothing and

continues to have no idea what is going on. But Amsterdam KNOWS. Every

silken, surreptitious move of her HAND across The Man's body is like a

CARESS that Amsterdam can feel. Jenny's grace is balletic and EROTIC. As

she picks The Man's pocket, she is, without knowing it, also seducing

Amsterdam

MAN:

I mean, if you would like.

JENNY:

I might like, sir. But I can't say now.

Her hand HOVERS above his pocket, waiting for the SWAY of the stage to

match and mask her movement....

MAN:

Why?

... and she starts to get up as soon as the stage JOSTLES. The entire car

full of passengers LEANS into one another...

... and Jenny's hand SLIDES the Man's WALLET from his trousers as

he recovers his balance. Amsterdam watches her withdraw her HAND in a

flash and hide it beneath her wrap.

JENNY:

Because this is my stop.

MAN:

May I walk with you a little, then?

JENNY:

(firmly)

That would be too bold.

MAN:

But I'll never see you again.

JENNY:

I come every Thursday to the Tombs to see my father.

MAN:

I'll look for you.

Jenny fetches him another fine SMILE--it's almost demure--and takes her

way off the rear entrance of the stage.

lt PULLS AWAY up Broadway and Jenny walks briskly toward an alley.

CUT TO:

46 EXT. ALLEY/BROADWAY DAY

Jenny looks to make sure she has the alley to herself, then moves her body

a little...

... and her arms seem to come off. She has been wearing a set of

ARTIFICIAL ARMS, hollow inside, which she can leave folded on her lap

misleadingly while she goes about her pickpocketing.

She's folding up the appliance--cotton sewn over a soft form-when a VOICE

behind her makes her turn.

AMSTERDAM:

May I walk with you a little, then?

CUT TO:

47 EXT. BROADWAY DAY

As Jenny and Amsterdam walk through the noisy bustle of the city's main

thoroughfare.

JENNY:

Are you a spy, then?

AMSTERDAM:

Got no one to spy for. I'm an appreciator, you might say.

JENNY:

Appreciator of what?

AMSTERDAM:

A good touch.

She STOPS in the street, looks him straight in the eye.

JENNY:

Don't bother with the chat. If you want me, we come to a business

arrangement. lf the terms is right, then I decide how you suit me. Then I

do it or not.

AMSTERDAM:

Just take a minute, I was Just...

JENNY:

I know what you was just. I had years already of what you was just. You

know how I got so good at thieving? So's I wouldn't have to lay down for

everyone who had the ned. Now I do it when I want to for how much I want

to. Otherwise I don't do it, and don't have to do it, and to hell with

anyone's rules but my own.

AMSTERDAM:

What about Shang's rules? You pay a lot over to him. The better your day,

the better his. It don't seem gute right.

JENNY:

(a little curious now)

What's it to you?

AMSTERDAM:

Give him this.

He hands her the RED SILK SCARF. She recognizes it instantly as the same

one she gave Shang.

AMSTERDAM:

And you can keep a little more of what you earned.

JENNY:

How'd you come by this?

AMSTERDAM:

I got my own touch.

JENNY:

Are you making me a present, or making an Arrangement?

AMSTERDAM:

It's your rules, right? So you decide.

She looks at him for a moment, then starts to TIE the scarf around her

neck like a kerchief.

CUT TO:

48 INT. HIDEOUT

A gentlemen's WALLET skims across a pitted wooden table, straight into

Shang's hand. Jenny is giving him her CUT. He opens the wallet, looks up

at Jenny. No more goods are forthcoming. Amsterdam, hanging back, watches

them both.

Shang SEES the RED SILK SCARF, tied around her neck.

SHANG:

Pretty slim cut for a hanging day. Where'd you get that?

JENNY:

From Amsterdam.

SHANG:

(beat)

It don't suit you.

CUT TO:

49 EXT. STREET AND PARADISE SQUARE NIGHT

A SWELTERING evening. The streets are jammed with REVELERS and RESIDENTS.

Some people sleep in doorways in futile search for fresh air. Happy Jack

Mulraney leads a group of apprehensive UPTOWN CITIZENS past drunks and

whores.

JACK:

Commissioner Brunt said to spare you nothing concerning conditions.

CITIZEN:

Nothing but our safety, of course.

JACK:

All's snug around Paradise Square in my company, squire. See there.

He gestures toward the street, down which one oi Mr. Barnett Baff's CARTS

is being drawn by a team of WHEEZING NAGS.

The cart bears massive barrels of what a colorful banner advertises as "an

anti-pestilence influenza-thwarting solution... a service of Tammany

Hall." As the wagon draws abreast of a large group of languishing

RESIDENTS, HOSES spurt waves of solution all over the streets. Many people

are SOAKED. Jack and his Citizens jump back just in time.'

Rate this script:3.0 / 2 votes