His Girl Friday Page #19

HILDY:

I won't, Earl.

(she goes)

INT. PRESS ROOM GROUP SHOT POKER GAME - NIGHT

The game is on. Bensinger, at his desk, is reading a book.

The electric lights have been switched on.

MURPHY:

(raking in a pot)

Well, a guy can win when Hildy ain't

around.

ENDICOTT:

Who's this guy she's gonna marry?

WILSON:

Baldwin -- his name is.

SCHWARTZ:

I give that marriage six months.

MCCUE:

Why?

SCHWARTZ:

Hildy won't be able to stay away

from a paper any longer than that.

Did you see her eyes light up when

she came in here? Like an old fire

horse.

MURPHY:

She says she's gonna write fiction.

ENDICOTT:

Well, if she's gonna write fiction,

there's nothing like being a reporter.

SCHWARTZ:

I'll give ten to five that marriage

won't last six months. Hildy's a

newspaper man. She's got headlines

in her veins -- the way we all have

or we'd be out of these lousy jobs.

Mollie Malloy appears in doorway. She moves slowly into the

room.

MCCUE:

Well, well -- Miss Mollie Malloy.

MURPHY:

Hello, Mollie.

WILSON:

How's tricks, Mollie?

CLOSE SHOT MOLLIE

MOLLIE:

I've been lookin' for you tramps.

MED. GROUP SHOT

ENDICOTT:

Kid, those were pretty roses you

sent Earl. What do you want done

with them tomorrow morning?

MOLLIE:

(tensely)

A lot of wise guys, ain't you?

SCHWARTZ:

(uncomfortably)

You're breaking up the game, Mollie.

What do you want?

MOLLIE:

I want to tell you what I think of

you -- all of you.

Hildy appears in the doorway and comes into the room.

MURPHY:

Keep your shirt on.

MOLLIE:

(to Murphy)

If you was worth breaking my fingers

on, I'd tear your face wide open.

Hildy goes to desk and begins typing away.

MURPHY:

What are you sore about, sweetheart?

Wasn't that a swell story we gave

you?

MOLLIE:

You crumbs have been making a fool

out of me long enough!

BENSINGER:

(rising and coming

over)

She oughtn't be allowed in here!

CLOSEUP MOLLIE:

MOLLIE:

(flaring)

I never said I loved Earl Williams

and was willing to marry him on the

gallows! You made that up! And about

my being his soul-mate and having a

love-nest with him.

CLOSE SHOT ENDICOTT

looking up at her.

ENDICOTT:

You've been sucking around that cuckoo

ever since he's been in the death-

house. Everybody knows you're his

sweetheart.

CLOSEUP MOLLIE:

She blows up.

MOLLIE:

That's a lie! I met Mr. Williams

just once in my life when he was

wandering around in the rain without

his hat and coat on, like a sick

dog, the day before the shooting. I

went up to him like any human being

would and I asked him what was the

matter, and he told me about being

fired after working at the same place

for fourteen years, and I brought

him up to my room because it was

warm there.

CLOSE SHOT HILDY

She is typing away, stops to look over at Mollie, then

resolutely turns away, studies her stuff, and begins typing

again.

MURPHY'S VOICE

Aw, put it on a phonograph!

MED. SHOT MOLLIE AND OTHERS

MOLLIE:

Just because you want to fill your

lying paper with a lot of dirty

scandal, you got to crucify him and

make a stooge out of me!

ENDICOTT:

(to Mollie)

Got a match?

MOLLIE:

(heedless)

I tell you he just sat there talking

to me -- all night. And never once

laid a hand on me. In the morning he

went away, and I never saw him again

till that day at the trial!

The boys laugh.

CLOSEUP MOLLIE:

She lashes out at them.

MOLLIE:

Go on, laugh! I'd like to know some

curses bad enough for your greasy

souls! Sure, I was his witness --

the only one he had. Yes -- me --

cheap little Mollie Malloy! I'm

everything the District Attorney

said I was. And still I was the only

one with guts enough to stand up for

him! I told the truth and the District

Attorney knows it! That's why you're

persecutin' me! Because Earl Williams

treated me decent and not like an

animal -- and I said so!

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