Malcolm X Page #15

SHORTY:

What did you do, Homey, palm it?

MALCOLM:

Yeah.

He breaks open the gun -- the bullet is in the next slot to

be fired.

MALCOLM:

Palmed it right in the goddam chamber.

SHORTY:

Jesus Christ, Homey, you are nuts.

Malcolm starts laughing: a silent, hysterical laugh.

EXT/INT. A BEACON HILL HOUSE - NIGHT

THE ROBBERY, IN QUICK CUTS:

-- A door lock is picked by Sophia.

-- Pencil flashlight passes an upstairs window.

-- Rudy in the car.

-- Silver removed from a drawer by Shorty.

-- Peg walking down the street, as lookout.

-- Malcolm takes off his shoes.

-- The sleeping OLD MAN, OLD TALCUM POWDER, as Malcolm takes

a watch, a wallet from within inches of his pillow. Then,

more boldly, picks up the man's hand and removes a ring from

one of his fingers. Shorty watching with bated breath, he's

about to have a heart attack.

INT. MANSION - DAY

A Boston matron, MRS. CRAWFORD, is showing the girls her

collection of U.S. silver. In a fine New England home.

PEG:

Beacon Hill survey.

SOPHIA:

We're doing a survey for the Athenaeum

Society -- We wondered if you'd permit

us to include your collection in the

catalog of Great New England Antiques --

?

MRS. CRAWFORD

Now these are my prizes. My Paul

Revere silver coffee service.

SHOT -- AN ARRANGEMENT OF MUSEUM-QUALITY PIECES

PEG:

Lovely, just lovely.

Sophia is casing the room carefully as the matron continues.

MRS. CRAWFORD

And my husband's collection of

scrimshaw should be included.

SOPHIA:

May we see it?

MRS. CRAWFORD

Won't you step this way?

INT. A COURTROOM - DAY

The prisoners face the bench: Peg, Sophia, Shorty, Rudy and

Malcolm.

VOICE OF MALCOLM X

The average first offender gets two

years for burglary. We were all first

offenders. That's what Sophia and

Peg drew --

JUDGE:

Two years in the Women's Reformatory

at Framingham.

VOICE OF MALCOLM X

But our crime wasn't burglary. It

was balling white girls. They gave

us the book.

JUDGE:

Burglary, count one -- 8 to 10 years;

count two, 8 to 10 years; count three,

8 to 10 years...

He continues giving them 8 to 10 years, behind Malcolm's

comment:

VOICE OF MALCOLM X

Fourteen counts of 8 to 10 years.

JUDGE:

The sentences to run concurrently.

VOICE OF MALCOLM X

Shorty thought he hit us with 114

years till I explained what

concurrently meant. It meant a minimum

sentence of 10 years hard labor at

the Charlestown State Prison. The

date was February 1946. I wasn't

quite 21. I had not yet begun to

shave.

CAMERA HAS GONE IN for a TIGHT CLOSE SHOT of Malcolm's face:

a hardened hustler, pimp, dope peddler and now jailbird at

the ripe old age of 20.

FREEZE FRAME.

CUT TO BLACK.

FADE IN:

INT. THE CELL CORRIDOR - DAY

It is the afternoon lockup: about 3:30 P.M. The line of

PRISONERS stands in front of their cells, as two guards,

WILKINS and BARNES, one white, one black, slowly walk past

the P.M. check.

The procedure is routine, done without emotion, as it is

done three times a day: the black guard calls out the

prisoner's name, the prisoner answers with his number, then

steps into his cell. Whereupon the white guard slams the

door shut and locks it.

GUARD WILKINS:

Jackson.

PRISONER:

A 231549.

Door is slammed and gate locked.

CLOSE - MALCOLM

Each time a gate is locked his tension increases. His face

is a mask hiding his fury, violence and the hunger of an

advanced junkie who has not had a fix in over a week.

GUARD WILKINS:

Crichlow.

SECOND PRISONER:

A 5991301.

Same procedure.

ANGLE. SHOOTING PAST MALCOLM, FAVORING TWO OTHER PRISONERS.

The guards are approaching Malcolm's cell. Past Malcolm are

two experienced PRISONERS who have been watching Malcolm

during the scene. They whisper surreptitiously without moving

their bodies, and barely moving their

lips. One of the prisoners is PETE, a huge barrel of a man,

a lifer -- beaten by the system and a lifetime of

incarceration. The other is BEMBRY, a man of no great

physicality, but who possesses immediately the gift of

leadership. It is clear that Pete and others look up to him

with great respect.

PETE:

Looka Satan.

BEMBRY:

I see him.

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