Mumford Page #37

ROBERT STACK:

...A drug rehabilitation center in

the lonely southwestern desert...

run by reclusive monks... becomes

the point of departure in a mysterious

vanishing...

A CLOSE-UP of an IRS identification card featuring a picture

of a younger Mumford, badly photographed in suit and tie.

His name is not visible.

ROBERT STACK:

...as an intrepid government

investigator disappears -- without a

trace.

In the kitchen, Mumford spins to look. DISSOLVE TO:

LATER IN THE PROGRAM. Documentary shots of IRS Headquarters,

etc., are INTERCUT with hokey-looking re-enactments from

Mumford's life -- with a YOUNG ACTOR who looks vaguely like

Mumford playing him.

IN MUMFORD'S APARTMENT the telephone is RINGING. Clearly,

it's not the first time. Mumford, watching the show intently,

lifts the headset an inch from the cradle and then hangs up.

When it immediately RINGS AGAIN, Mumford takes it off the

hook, cuts off the call, and buries the headset under a sofa

cushion.

ON THE SHOW:
scenes of tax investigation -- in the show's

version the IRS guys have drawn guns and are storming houses --

are interspersed with scenes of sordid drug-taking.

ROBERT STACK:

...despite brilliant promise as a

fearless investigator... found himself

on a downward spiral of drug abuse

and dissolution...

MUMFORD'S SISTER, the real thing, a plain, middle-aged West

Virginia woman, appears in a "dramatic", badly-lit interview.

(As with all the interviewees, she is identified by a supered

title.)

MUMFORD'S SISTER

...we didn't talk much after our

folks died, but I know he felt his

life had taken a wrong turn...

A snapshot of some IRS-era party, happy revelers posing for

a flash. Camera PUSHES IN on Mumford, smiling and high, his

neck encircled by Gregory's arm. Candy is on the other side

of Gregory.

A shot of the Pennsylvania Turnpike as a State Police Cruiser

zips by.

ROBERT STACK:

His former undercover partner at the

IRS... is now a trooper with the

Pennsylvania State Police...

GREGORY, in State Police uniform, with a sadistic glint in

his eye, is interviewed by the roadside, cars whipping by.

GREGORY:

The guy was obsessed... didn't always

know where to draw the line... but I

would have trusted him with my wife --

er, my life --

(looks off camera,

laughing)

-- What'd I say? Both, actually...

(gets serious again)

...I can't say I was surprised,

though, when he disappeared.

Ragged telephoto shots of the Drug Rehab Center in the desert,

low, innocuous adobe buildings.

ROBERT STACK:

Who was this enigma... a courageous

public servant or a debauched

addict?... Either way, his last known

stop was here... isolated in the

Arizona desert... taken in by an

order of devoted monks...

IN AN ARIZONA TOWN, a monk with a clerical collar, BROTHER

TIMOTHY, is loading groceries into the back of a pick-up.

He's being ambush interviewed. He's polite, but not

cooperative.

BROTHER TIMOTHY:

We don't talk about the people who've

been our guests... but I can tell

you this about our order -- we believe

everybody has the right to start

over... everybody deserves a second

chance.

Shots of wind-swept desert, cactus, and dust-blown highway.

ROBERT STACK:

And perhaps... that is exactly the

chance the now-sober pilgrim took...

on a blustery November day... walking

away from the rehab center... never

to be heard from again...

MUMFORD'S SISTER AGAIN:

MUMFORD'S SISTER

I'd like to know if he's alive. If

he is, I just hope he's happy and

his new life is...

(not sure how to put

it)

...well, I hope he's found what he

was looking for...

Mumford, in his apartment, watches with real emotion.

His sister's face DISSOLVES into a new snapshot of Mumford,

dressed in an Orkin Exterminator uniform, as the MUSIC on

the show comes up. A 1-800 telephone number appears across

the bottom of the frame.

ROBERT STACK:

If you have any information about

this man or know anything about his

whereabouts, contact the Sheriff's

Department in Cochise County, Arizona,

or call this number...

EXT. SECOND FLOOR PORCH, THE DUPLEX HOUSE - NIGHT

Mumford comes out to the rail and looks off over the town of

Mumford.

WHAT HE SEES (or imagines he sees): all across the nightscape,

one window in every house is glowing blue with flickering TV

light.

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