Midnight Cowboy Page #17
INT. PHONE BOOTH - DAY
Joe strikes a match with his thumbnail and watches it curl
away while he waits, hearing a phone ring. Then the phone is
answered by a woman's voice.
JOE:
Hey, Shirley... Miss who? Oh, yeah,
well, when will Missus Gardner be
home? ... I'm a friend of hers, a
goddam good friend... Shee-it, I
can't wait till then...
Joe hangs up while the answering service's voice is still
talking. The match has burned out. Joe flips it away.
INSERT:
Headline -- WALTER P. BOX TAKES NEW YORK BY SURPRISE.
EXT. TIMES SQUARE - DUSK
Joe loiters outside a gag headline print shop, his eyes
following a man in homburg and chesterfield.
EXT./INT. METROPOLE - DUSK
Joe lingers momentarily, identifying with the violence in a
jazz drummer, his eyes searching for a pickup.
INT. ARCADE - DUSK
Joe tests his skills in a shoot-down with a large metal
cowboy and kills him, a recorded voice sneaks, "Got me!" as
the cowboy slumps. Joe glances off as he hears polite
applause...
TOWNY'S VOICE
Bravo...
... TOWNY -- a stout, round-faced man -- clasps Joe's hand
between both of his own, like an old friend.
TOWNY:
How are you?
(more quietly)
Townsend P. Locke, from Chicago.
Call me Towny. I'm here to attend a
paper manufacturers' convention
and, frankly, to have a little fun,
dammit...
Towny grips Joe's elbow, almost forcibly leading him away.
EXT. SIDE STREET WEST OF BROADWAY - DUSK
Towny's face appears huge at Joe's shoulder.
TOWNY:
This is my first night in town and
I'll consider it a ghastly omen
clouding my entire ten days, if you
don't consent to have dinner with
me. Anywhere you like...
Towny's mouth continues speaking at an incredible rate, but
his words are drowned out momentarily by the grinder of a
sanitation truck, chewing up a discarded Christmas tree with
tinsel clinging to it. Towny is still talking when they've
passed the truck.
TOWNY (CONT'D)
... never mind how you're dressed.
They know me. I'll say you're with
the rodeo. There's always a rodeo
in New York, dammit. Besides, you
look very elegant...
EXT. STREET CORNER - NIGHT
Joe hardly notices O'Daniel on a far cornet, his whining
scarcely audible.
"Ye are the salt of the earth, Jesus said, but if the salt
hath lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?"
TOWNY:
But, dammit all, I just remembered,
we'll have to eat in my room
because I have this phone call
coming at nine-thirty...
INT. TOWNY'S HOTEL ELEVATOR - NIGHT
An ancient open cage lift.
TOWNY:
What I like about you, you're such
a wonderful conversationalist. So
won't that be nice to have dinner
sent up?
INT. TOWNY'S HOTEL CORRIDOR - NIGHT
A threadbare, carpeted but spacious hallway.
TOWNY:
Fifty years ago this was the only
hotel in Manhattan. My mother
always calls me at her bedtime, so
I've got to be there.
INT. TOWNY'S BEDROOM-SITTING ROOM - NIGHT
The room has little to recommend it except its size and large
French window, through which -- ignored by Joe -- the Mutual
tower flashes MONY. Towny waves Joe toward the couch, quickly
slipping several physical culture magazines from the coffee
table onto a shelf beneath.
TOWNY:
A drink? I've got some nice gin. If
you'd prefer something else,
they'll send it up...
JOE:
Gin's okay.
TOWNY:
It's so exciting. New York. The mad
forward thrust of everything. My
sense of time here is completely
altered.
INT. TENEMENT STAIRS - DAY
Joe carries Ratso down the stairs, wrapped in a blanket.
INT. TOWNY'S BEDROOM-SITTING ROOM - NIGHT
The coffee table is littered with empty cartons of Chinese
food, soaked through with brown sauce. Joe finds the last egg
roll and eats it as Towny's voice drones on.
TOWNY:
Sometimes it seems to me time
stopped twenty years ago. There was
this war, there was this handsome
young man with quite black hair and
he was supposed to die. But he
didn't. Isn't that amusing?
JOE:
What?
Towny's dialogue moves out of sync. Towny's eyes seem to look
into camera -- from Joe's viewpoint -- but slightly past it.
The quality of the scene grows increasingly disjointed as Joe
glances around the room, looking for something to steal,
losing personal contact with Towny, viewing him as an object
to be used for a specific purpose.
TOWNY:
Enough about me. I'm through
talking for the evening. Now I want
to hear about conditions in the
West. The romance of the West holds
a tremendous power over me. Mother
was actually a pioneer woman, can
you believe it? When she calls,
I'll introduce you and she'll be so
thrilled.
EXT. TENEMENT NEIGHBORHOOD - DAY
Ratso sits an a stoop while Joe hails a cab.
INT. TOWNY'S BATHROOM - NIGHT
Towny's voice is only a shrill monotone from here, Joe
searches with increasing desperation for something of value.
An old electric razor is too bulky for Joe's pocket, probably
worthless anyhow. Towny's array of medicines merely recalls
Joe's purpose.
TOWNY'S VOICE
Mama, a coincidence. Guess who was
being discussed. Discussed. Not
disgusted. Discussed! Do you have
that thing turned up? Why aren't
you wearing it! This is impossible!
EXT. GREYHOUND BUS TERMINAL - DAY
Joe lifts Ratso from the taxi and carries him inside.
JOE'S VOICE
Listen, Towny, did I mention I got
a sick kid?
INT. TOWNY'S BATHROOM - NIGHT
Joe is rehearsing the speech in the bathroom mirror.
JOE:
Well, he is, he's sicker'n shee-it.
And I've gotta get him South quick
as I can...
INT. GREYHOUND BUS TERMINAL - DAY
Joe stands in a long line, glancing impatiently at the clock
while Ratso waits on a bench, wrapped in his blanket.
INT. TOWNY'S BEDROOM-SITTING ROOM - NIGHT
Towny is stretched out on the couch, staring morosely.
TOWNY:
I was so childish with her.
Joe moves into frame past camera, standing in front of him,
so that we can see the scene from behind Joe's waist.
JOE:
What d'you want?
TOWNY:
What?
JOE:
What you got me up here for?
TOWNY:
Oh, difficult, it's so difficult.
You're a nice person, Joe -- I
should never have asked you up -- a
lovely person. Oh, how I loathe
Please.
JOE:
You want me to leave?
TOWNY:
No, yes. No, I mean yes please go.
Help me to be good. Come back
tomorrow. Promise.
JOE:
I'm going to Florida.
TOWNY:
This is terrible. I meet someone
who -- then -- wait, I want to give
you a present. For your trip.
You'll let me please...
INT. GREYHOUND BUS TERMINAL - DAY
Joe's face is expectant, next in line at the ticket window.
He nods reassuringly toward Ratso.
INT. TOWNY'S BEDROOM-SITTING ROOM - NIGHT
Joe's face is puzzled then angry as Towny takes a Saint
Christopher medal from his sack and hands it to Joe. His eyes
are looking past Joe, his speech out of sync.
TOWNY:
Please take it. You don't have to
be Catholic. Saint Christopher is
the patron saint of all travelers.
I want you to have it. For helping
me be good.
INT. GREYHOUND BUS TERMINAL - DAY
It's Joe's turn. The clerk looks at him expectantly.
INT. TOWNY'S BEDROOM-SITTING ROOM - NIGHT
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"Midnight Cowboy" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 23 Jan. 2025. <https://www.scripts.com/script/midnight_cowboy_327>.
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