Hope and Glory Page #14

MAC:

Play something, Grace.

MOLLY:

We never used to sing much before

the war, did we? Not in daytime

anyway.

DAWN starts to sing 'Mareseatoats and Doeseaboats and

Littleambseativy' and GRACE picks it up on the piano. DAWN

dances around the room. There is something wild and

abandoned about her.

MRS. EVANS

Dawn's come on fast.

MOLLY:

That's the war for you. Quick,

quick, quick.

MRS. EVANS

Didn't I see you with a soldier,

Dawn?

It is just a teasing guess. She roars with laughter.

DAWN:

I'm just doing my bit for the war

effort.

GRACE stops playing.

GRACE:

I won't have this vulgar talk in

my house.

DAWN:

It's only a joke, Mummy. I'm

fifteen. I'm still at school. I

want to be a nun when I grow up.

MAC goes over to GRACE. He picks up some sheet music from a

pile scattered on the floor. He selects a piece and props

it on the music stand.

MAC:

Try and few bars of old Fred,

Grace.

GRACE is softened by his tone. Their eyes meet for a

moment. She turns the stool back to the keyboard and plays

Chopin, particularly poignant since the fall of Warsaw.

They listen with teary eyes. 'Mareseatoats and Doeseaboats

and Chopin. It is the spirit of the Blitz.

SUE:

(whispering to Bill)

Tell them about Pauline's mum.

BILL:

Not now. They wouldn't believe

me.

STOCK FILM:

BLACK AND WHITE:

The Chopin continues over a scenes of bomb-ruined London,

desolate and devastated.

EXT. BOMBED SITE - EVENING

COLOUR:

A surreal landscape: a flight of stairs leading nowhere, an

exposed bathroom; a house entirely destroyed but for one

fragment of wall jutting up, and on it still hangs a

picture. BILL wanders among these wonders, scavenging. A

marauding gang of boys approaches. They spread out and move

up on BILL from all sides, trapping him. ROGER, the boy who

told of Pauline's mother's death, is among them and appears

to be their leader.

ROGER:

What are you doing here? This is

our territory

BILL:

Looking for shrapnel.

A BOY:

What you got?

Two of them grab BILL and wrench his fist open, extracting

a piece of metal.

A BOY:

Look, a detonator.

The others gather round, scrapping and shoving for a better

look, BILL'S arms are twisted behind his back and his eyes

are covered with a very dirty handkerchief. They take him

to a ruined house.

INT. RUINED HOUSE - DAY

The room has a brazier, table and chairs. They remove the

blindfold and he sees a wondrous sight, a collection of

bullets, shells and bomb fragments. ROGER slaps the shell

proudly.

ROGER:

Unexploded.

BOY:

You were spying.

BILL:

I never was.

ROGER:

Yes, you was. Make him talk.

They twist his arm. Several of the boys are smoking. One

takes a .303 Bullet and tightens in into an old vice fixed

to the table. BILL is fighting back the tears. ROGER leans

over BILL.

BILL:

I know a secret.

ROGER:

What's that?

BILL:

The Germans are dropping men on

bomb sites.

ROGER:

Who told you that?

They loosen their grip on his arm.

BILL:

My uncle's in the War Office. He

said, Don't go on the bomb sites.

"Boys are going missing all the

time."

ROGER:

They're not.

BILL has captured their attention. They release him.

BILL:

If you find them hiding, they cut

your throat. They have to, or

they'd get found out.

The boys begin to get nervous, glancing about them. The BOY

on the vice aims a nail at the top of the bullet,

brandishing a hammer in the other hand.

BOY:

I wish one would come through the

door now.

He hammers the nail and the bullet EXPLODES, embedding

itself in the door. They jump out of their skins.

ROGER:

You want to join our gang?

BILL:

I don't mind.

ROGER:

Do you know any swear words?

BILL:

Yes.

ROGER:

Say them.

BILL is stubbornly silent.

ROGER:

Well go on then. You can't join

if you can't answer.

BILL:

I only know one.

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