Hail, Caesar! Page #13

SID:

This is new ground here.

Technically, she’d have to give up

the baby, in order to adopt it, to

a third... party——

74.

EDDIE:

Joe Silverman.

Natalie, with clipboard, approaches from the background.

SID:

Joe Silverman, exactly. He’s the

foster father for a few days. She

hands the kid to Joe, he hands it

back... I’ll do some research.

(taps his desktop)

This is exciting.

NATALIE:

Mr. Mannix, it’s five-thirty.

EXT. CAPITOL LOT / EDITING ROOM - DAY

It is a very late day. Eddie Mannix strides through the

campus with Natalie trailing.

NATALIE:

——and asked all the assistant

directors. One of them said that an

extra in the courtyard-of-Sestimus-

Amydias scene seemed jumpy.

EDDIE:

All right, get Walt the name of the

the extra so he can bring him in

and sweat him. Walt should tell him

we won’t press charges if he tells

us where Baird’s been taken.

NATALIE:

Check.

EDDIE:

If he plays dumb——or if the A.D.’s

wrong and he is dumb——check the

other extras.

NATALIE:

Check. Thessaly Thacker called,

said you promised her an interview

with Baird today. Check that, it

was Thora Thacker.

EDDIE:

No, it was Thessaly. Tell her he

was at the doctor longer than

expected, she can see him on the

set bright and early tomorrow.

75.

NATALIE:

Check. And is that last part true?

EDDIE:

Let’s hope so. That reminds me: I

need a list of everyone who worked

on “On Wings as Eagles” who’s still

at the studio.

NATALIE:

“On Wings as Eagles”——that’s a

while ago, now. Aside from Baird

and the director it won’t be a long

list.

EDDIE:

Uh-huh, get it for me. That it?

NATALIE:

One more thing:
a Mr. Cuddahy

called, said you know him.

EDDIE:

Yeah yeah.

They are mounting a set of steps leading to a long walkway

with many doors spaced at short and regular intervals.

NATALIE:

Said it’s urgent he see you one

last time. Suggested same place,

seven this evening.

EDDIE:

What?! Why? Never mind.

(checks watch)

Tell him I’ll be there.

INT. EDITING ROOM - DAY

He bangs through a door:

C. C. CALHOUN

EDITING:

INSIDE:

A stout middle-aged woman is at work at a clattering upright

moviola. A cigarette plumes in one hand. The room is layered

with stale smoke.

76.

EDDIE:

Hello, C.C.

The woman spins around in her castored chair and the chair

creaks as she tips her body back so as to aim her face at

Eddie. Her thinkc glasses make her eyes float hugely before

her face.

The eyes blink.

Her voice is emphysemic:

C.C.

Hello, Eddie.

EDDIE:

Wanna lace up what you have on

“Merrily We Dance”?

C.C.

Just working on it now. I’ll slap

on a little music.

C.C. brakes the picture, rolls to a trim bin, pulls track

from a pin, flanges it on the side of the moviola and then

lays it under a sound head. She snaps down the head and rolls

the movie forward.

Eddie leans in to look at the picture cube. Glow from the

moviola screen underlights Eddie’s face.

A fanfare. On the screen, a card:

LAURENCE LAURENTZ PRESENTS

Grease-marks on the print form a V that indicates a fade

down.

As waltz music comes up, an inverted V grease-mark indicates

a fade up on a shot of the dancing feet of many people, gowns

swirling, tuxedoed legs debonairly stepping.

Supered on the shot:

MERRILY WE DANCE!

Another fade-down mark.

Lateral track on the feet of a man and a woman, crossing a

city sidewalk. The man's feet hurry out of frame as we hear

him call “Taxi!”

77.

The woman's feet continue on to bring into frame, when she

reaches the curb, the bottom of a cab door being opened for

her by the man.

As she climbs into the cab we match cut into:

The back of the cab. The pretty young woman slides over so

that a caddish looking young man can sit in as well. The cab

starts into motion.

CAD:

Back to your place?

ALLEGRA:

Oh, what a bore. I rather thought

we might go to Lake Onondega for

the weekend, just the two of us.

CAD:

Don't have my valise——I left it in

your foyer.

ALLEGRA:

(sly)

You'll get by without a change.

CAD:

(wolf)

Suits me. If you don't mind

skipping out on your own party,

Allegra.

ALLEGRA:

Suits me.

CAD:

(meaningful)

And skipping out on Monty.

ALLEGRA:

(smile)

That suits me as well.

The man laughs.

CAD:

Poor Monty.

ALLEGRA:

What Monty doesn’t know...

CAD:

... won’t hurt Monty.

78.

SWELL APARTMENT INTERIOR

Lateral track on a pair of feet: a man walking down a

hallway. As he enters a foyer he comes up short, feet turned

halfway toward a valise that has been left under a table.

After a considering beat he proceeds on, and we pan his feet

to a door which he opens.

A match cut around the other side of the door onto the person

entering, who is now revealed to be——Hobie Doyle. We are now

in the scene we saw being shot.

DIERDRE:

Oh Monty! Come join me on the

divaaaaa...

As Dierdre beckons Monty her motion slows, and her slowing

speech becomes basso before lapsing to quiet and the

ratcheting noise of the machine also falls quiet and we are

looking at a frozen frame that slowly discolors at the

center.

The discoloration starts to spread outward as the frame

burns.

Eddie looks quizzically at the stalled picture.

A rasping voice:

C.C.

Reversh.

Eddie looks and reacts with a modest but definite take at:

C.C. bent double in her chair, the side of her face pressed

snugly to the moviola near the gearing for the sound roll.

The side of her face is squashed flat against the machine and

something cinches the folds of fat at her neck. She is being

strangled.

C.C. (CONT’D)

Reversh.

Eddie looks helplessly at the machine.

C.C. (CONT’D)

Reversh.

Eddie casts frantically about, locates the forward/reverse

switch, flips it.

The soundtrack grinds into motion, in reverse. The picture

plays likewise.

79.

As the sound relays feed out her scarf, C.C. has increasing

play such that she may slowly draw her head away from the

machine.

When she is completely free she hits the handbrake, stopping

the film.

C.C. (CONT’D)

Shouldn’t wear scarves.

She sucks greedily at a cigarette. She flips the reverse

switch and the film rolls forward again.

Hobie once again enters, looking very dashing in his tux.

DIERDRE:

Oh Monty! Come join me on the

divan.

The discolored frame flashes by and Monty sits into a

brooding close shot on the divan.

DIERDRE (CONT’D)

It seems Allegra's a no-show, which

is simply a bore, but I can partner

you in bridge.

(reacting to him)

Why the pout?

A hold on Hobie as he frames a haunted answer.

Finally:

HOBIE:

It’s... complicated.

INT. IMPERIAL GARDENS - DAY

A gong stings the cut to pushing in to Arthur Fung as he

gives a short bow.

ARTHUR FUNG:

How pleasant to see you again, Mr.

Manni——

SPLASH! A push through the curtain of beads to see Mr.

Cuddahy, looking up from his booth, a drink with an umbrella

in front of him.

CUDDAHY:

Thanks for coming back, Mannix.

80.

EDDIE:

Sure.

CUDDAHY:

(chuckling)

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