Out of the Past

(JOE WHISTLES)

(HONKS)

JOE:
Where's Bailey?

Deaf and dumb, eh?

Can you read lips?

Where is Bailey?

Coming back today?

Come on.

- Hello, Marny.

- Well, look who is back.

- Did you dye your hair?

- Why?

I keep thinking of you as a blond.

For all the thinking you do about

me, I could be bald-headed.

Ham on rye. Did you miss me, honey?

If I didn't, I can't think

of anybody else who did.

- One thing's sure, Bailey don't miss nothing.

- Neither do you.

She's your girl, and

he ain't my man.

So it's no skin off my nose.

I just see what I see.

You sure you don't

see what you hear?

Nothing can happen in this town

that I don't hear about it.

I'm just saying what I see. Every

day they go fishing together.

Look, the sandwich.

Two things I can smell inside 100 feet:

burning hamburger and a romance.

You got a customer.

- What'll you have?

- Coffee.

- Nothing else?

- Cream.

- Where you been this time?

- L.A.

- Coffee?

- No, thanks.

First she's got you, now

she's got you and Bailey.

And the only thing I

seem to get is older.

Thanks a lot, Marny.

I'll see you later.

Hmm. I guess I must

have said something.

You talked enough.

Everything people ought to know

they just don't want to hear.

That's the trouble with the world.

Either that or you're on the

wrong side of the counter.

- Tell me something.

- You don't look as though I could.

That, uh, Bailey who burns you

up, he run the gas station?

- Do you know him?

- I might have once.

If he keeps mooning around

Jim's girl, nobody'll know him...

and that'd be too bad.

You, uh, see much of this Bailey?

Yeah, every day from here.

I often wondered what

happened to him...

then one day I'm breezing through here,

and there's his name up on a sign.

- It's a small world.

- Yeah, or a big sign.

- They're just not feeding today.

- They will later. It's clouding up.

They say the day you die,

your name is written on a cloud.

- Who says?

- They.

Never heard of them.

Nothing in that one but rain.

Think we ought to go home?

Yes.

- Do you want to?

- No.

Every time I look at the sky, I think

of all the places I've never been.

Yes, and every time you look

up, they're all the same.

- You've been a lot of places, haven't you?

- One too many.

- Which did you like best?

- This one right here.

- I bet you say that to all the places.

- You see that cove over there?

I'd like to build a

house right there...

marry you, live in it and

never go anywhere else.

I wish you would.

You were never married

before, were you?

Not that I can remember.

That's good.

You'd be amazed the way

people talk about you.

The mysterious Jeff Bailey.

My mother tells me that I've only

known you for such a short time.

And where'd you come from?

And what did you do?

My father was...

- We'd better go.

- Is something the matter?

Maybe not.

Here.

You sure are a secret man.

Thanks.

Oh, a man just wants to see me.

Oh.

(CAR DOOR OPENS)

- JOE:
A long time.

- Hello, Joe. I wish it was nicer to see you.

Everyone sure missed you, Jeff,

but not as much as I have.

- How's that?

- Whit used to look at me...

shake his head, and wish

I had brains like you.

- What's the other reason?

- I had to find you.

- I owe you something?

- Not me.

Who?

- How far can that kid read lips?

- I don't know. I'll ask him some time.

This far?

- You don't like to make mistakes, do you?

- They don't let me have many.

All right, come on inside.

- Funny racket to find you in, Jeff.

- Yeah, me and the kid laugh all the time.

Heh. I guess that's

because it's respectable.

That hash slinger across the

street says you are too.

- How did you happen to find me, Joe?

- I was driving down the road one day...

and who do I see pumping gasoline

but my old chum from the old times.

Of course, there's a

different name on the sign.

- So you just dropped in?

- Why not?

Okay, then I'm glad to

see an old pal too.

So I take you to dinner, buy you

drinks, it gets late chewing the fat...

you hop in your car and

you're gone. Right?

- Almost.

- What else?

I'm still working

for that guy, Jeff.

- Whit?

- He'd like to see you.

- As much as you did?

- Heh.

- Worse.

- I see.

No one ever thought

more of you than Whit.

Or more about me.

Well, that could be too.

- All right, what's he want, Joe?

- Maybe he's got something nice for you.

- Try once more.

- Heh.

Look, Whit never steered you

into anything bad, did he?

Why, he never even squawked when you

blew the best thing he ever gave you.

- Go on.

- The guy just wants to see you.

Well, you put it that

way, what can I do?

You know of any other

way to put it?

- Say tomorrow morning?

- Where?

Lake Tahoe. Turn right at Emerald Bay.

Big house on a hill. You won't miss it.

You can't.

(CAR HORN HONKING)

WOMAN:
Ann? John, are you

letting her out like this?

Are you gonna stand for it, with a

man who won't even come to the door?

Don't worry about them.

- Darling.

- It's no good, is it?

- It doesn't matter. It's just that they...

- Oh, honey, I know how they feel.

- Don't worry about it.

- I'm not.

- Then don't look so grim.

- No, it's something else.

- What?

- That guy that showed up today...

Yes?

You want to ride with

me up to Lake Tahoe?

- Now?

- Yes, now.

I want to tell you something.

All right, Jeff.

You told me once I'd have

to tell you sometime.

Well, this is it.

Now, the first thing I wanna get off my

chest:
My name isn't Bailey, it's Markham.

- Markham. Jeff Markham?

- I should have told you before.

I meant to, but I kept

putting it off...

because I didn't

like any part of it.

- Please tell me, Jeff.

- Some of it's gonna hurt you.

It doesn't matter.

Well, our friend Markham

lived in New York.

He worked with a sort of stupid,

oily gent by the name of Jack Fisher.

We called ourselves detectives.

That was about three

years ago, maybe more.

Wintertime. One of the coldest

days I remember in the town.

And we got a call to

come and see a big op.

- A what?

- An operator, gambler.

He didn't come to see us because he

was too high-powered a character.

Also, because some dame had taken

four shots at him with his own .38.

Made one of them good.

He was taking it in stride, but he

had a friend who was a ball of fire.

Newspaper guys, wise guys, who

do they think they're kidding?

So he shot himself

cleaning a cap pistol.

So I shot the ace of spades out

of a sleeve during a gin game.

A guy can't even get

shot by a dame...

without the whole town

starting to buzz like a...

Like you? Smoke a cigarette, Joe.

You just sit and stay inside yourself.

You wait for me to talk. I like that.

I never found out much

listening to myself.

(WHIT CHUCKLES)

Hmm.

- It amazes me how she missed so often.

- FISHER:
Maybe you were moving.

A dame with a rod is like a

guy with a knitting needle.

- What's he doing here? I called you.

- My partner.

- Should I ask why you didn't call the law?

- Should you?

Rate this script:5.0 / 2 votes