On the Waterfront Page #2

TRUCK:

He thought he was gonna sing for the

Crime Commission. He won't.

Truck winks at Charley significantly. Terry catches the meaning and is

horrified.

TERRY:

(accusingly)

You said they was only going to talk to him.

CHARLEY:

That was the idea.

TERRY:

I thought they'd talk to him. Try to get

him to dummy up.

CHARLEY:

Maybe he gave them an argument.

TERRY:

I figured the worst they'd do is work him

over a little.

CHARLEY:

He probably gave 'em an argument.

TRUCK:

(almost primly)

He's been giving our boss a lot of trouble.

TERRY:

He wasn't a bad little fella, that Joey.

CHARLEY:

No he wasn't.

TRUCK:

Except for his mouth.

CHARLEY:

Talkative.

TERRY:

(muttering to himself)

Wasn't a bad little fella ...

TRUCK:

(chuckling)

Maybe he could sing, but he couldn't fly.

Terry looks at Truck, stricken.

CHARLEY:

(sympathetically, nodding toward bar)

Come on, kid. I'll buy you a drink.

TERRY:

(bewildered)

In a minute.

Charley looks at him, slightly concerned, and goes in with Truck. Terry

watches the longshoremen hurrying past him, in the direction of—

EXT—LANDING BELOW TENEMENT ROOF—NIGHT

Forming a circle around Joey are KAYO NOLAN, a hard little nut of a

man; TOMMY COLLINS, a young longshoreman friend of Joey's; LUKE, a

giant Negro; MOOSE, a good-natured, hulking longshoreman; and others.

The shot favors POP DOYLE, a short , stocky man with a small potbelly.

POP:

(to someone running up)

I kept tellin' him: don't say nothin',

keep quiet, you'll live longer.

POLICE SERGEANT:

(to another cop)

Tell the ambulance to hurry.

SHOT OF ONLOOKERS—ROOFTOP—NIGHT

Including a hard-faced longshoreman, a careworn woman in her middle

thirties (Mrs. Collins) and Mutt.

LONGSHOREMAN:

He ain't gonna need no ambulance.

FATHER BARRY, a lean, tough, West Side priest, climbs a wooden fence

and approaches the crowd.

FATHER BARRY:

(roughly)

One side. Le'me through!

MEDIUM SHOT—MRS. COLLINS, MUTT—ROOFTOP—NIGHT

MRS. COLLINS

(to Father Barry as he passes)

Same thing they did to my Andy five years ago.

CLOSE ON BODY OF JOEY—TENEMENT LANDING—NIGHT

Father Barry prays. A police sergeant turns to Pop.

SERGEANT:

You're Pop Doyle, aren't you, the boy's father?

POP:

(angrily)

That's right.

SERGEANT:

He fell over backward from the roof—

like he was pushed. Any ideas?

POP:

(aggressively)

None.

MRS. COLLINS

(coming forward)

He was the one longshoreman with guts

enough to talk to them crime investigators.

Everybody knows that.

POP:

(wheeling angrily and pushing her away)

Who asked you. Shut your trap.

If Joey'd taken that advice he wouldn't be—

(starts to crack up)

MRS. COLLINS

(protesting)

Everybody know that...?

POP:

I said shut up!

SERGEANT:

Look, I'm an honest cop. Give me

some leads and I'll...

Pop stands silently, choked with grief.

KAYO NOLAN:

Listen— don't bother him. Right, Moose?

MOOSE:

(nodding)

One thing I learned— all my life on the waterfront—

dont ask no questions— don't answer no questions.

Unless you... .

(looks at the body and stops)

LUKE:

(reverently)

He was all heart, that boy.

Enough guts for a regiment.

POP:

(in a bitter rage)

Guts— I'm sick of guts. He gets a book in the pistol

local and right away he's gonna be a hero. Gonna

push the mob off the dock singlehanded... .

FATHER BARRY:

(comfortingly)

Take it easy, Pop. I know it's rough

but time and faith are great healers... .

CLOSE—ON EDIE—TENEMENT LANDING—NIGHT

Joey's sister, a fresh-faced, sensitive young Irish girl who has been

kneeling over the body. She looks up and around at the Father in bitter

grief.

EDIE:

Time and faith... . My brother's dead and you

stand there talking drivel about time and faith.

FATHER BARRY:

(taken aback)

Why Edie, I—

EDIE:

(plunging on)

How could anyone do this to Joey. The best in the

neighborhood... . everybody said it, not only me.

Who'd want to harm Joey? Tell me— who? -- who?

FATHER BARRY:

(embarrassed)

I wish I knew, Edie,

But—

(starts to turn away as if appealing to the others)

EDIE:

Don't turn away! Look at it! You're in this too—

don't you see, don't you see? You're in this too, Father.

FATHER BARRY:

(defensively, sincerely)

Edie, I do what I can. I'm in the church when you need me.

EDIE:

(bitingly)

"In the church when you need me."

Was there ever a saint who hid in the Church?

She turns from him angrily, toward the covered form of Joey.

CLOSE SHOT—FATHER BARRY

Father Barry stands there jolted and troubled.

MRS. COLLINS

(moves in to him)

Forgive her, Father. Them two was as close as twins.

Father Barry nods. Thinking hard.

MRS. COLLINS

(continued)

Whoever was in on this'll burn in hell until

kingdom come... .

DISSOLVE:

INT—FRIENDLY BAR—NIGHT

The atmosphere is the sharpest possible contrast to the scene above. It

is a rough waterfront bar full of half-gassed longshoremen and pistol

boys. They are all watching a fight on TV above the bar, and there is

much hoarse laughter and ad lib jokes at the fight. The only one not

watching

is Terry, who sits at a table by himself staring at a half-finished

glass of beer. Mutt is wandering around in the B.G.

VOICE (O.S.)

Hey, Terry, Riley's makin' a bum outa that Solari—

Terry looks off and sees—

MEDIUM SHOT—BARNEY AND SPECS—AT BAR—NIGHT

Unconcernedly drinking and enjoying the fight. SPECS Come on over and

have a shot.

Still disturbed and preoccupied, Terry shakes his head and goes on

through the bar toward the

back room. Others call to him but he keeps going.

INT—BACK ROOM OF BAR—NIGHT

A partition separates this room from the main bar, and a small corner

of the bar extends through the partition. On the wall are old fight

posters and some pictures of fighters, ball players and horses. At a

table, flanked by Charley and a tall, muscular bodyguard, SONNY, is

JOHNNY FRIENDLY. He is not tough in a conventional way, but with a

sinister intent, a humorless sense of domination that is really

dangerous. The boxing match can be seen on a smaller TV set.

JOHNNY FRIENDLY:

Turn it off. Them clowns can't fight. There's nobody

tough anymore.

JOCKO, the bartender, pokes his head through the archway behind the

bar.

JOCKO:

Hey, boss, Packy wants another one on

the cuff?

JOHNNY:

(with a generous wave of his hand)

Give it to him!

As Johnny finishes off a bottle of beer, BIG MAC, the bullnecked hiring

boss, comes up to the table with a thick roll of bills.

BIG MAC:

Here's the cut from the shape-up. Eight hundred

and ninety-one men at three bucks a head makes—

puts on glasses, incongruous on his beefy face

--twenty-six seventy-three.

JOHNNY:

(to Charley)

Here, you count it. Countin' makes me sleepy.

Terry enters during the above and sits at the bar, brooding. Johnny is

glad to see him.

JOHNNY:

(continued)

H'ya, slugger, how they hangin'?

TERRY:

(subdued)

So-so, Johnny.

JOHNNY:

(pantomiming, defending against blows)

Don't hit me, now, don't hit me!

BIG MAC:

We got a banana boat at forty-six tomorra.

If we pull a walkout it might be a few bucks

from the shippers. Them bananas go bad

in a hurry.

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