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'sversion 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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"Mumford" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 Oct. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/mumford_1104>.
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