Rear Window Page #7

JEFF:

(Wincing)

I'm not ready for marriage.

STELLA:

Nonsense. A man is always ready for

marriage -- with the right girl. And

Lisa Fremont is the right girl for

any man with half a brain, who can

get one eye open.

JEFF:

(Indifferent)

She's all right.

She hits him with some more cold oil. He winces again.

STELLA:

Behind every ridiculous statement is

always hidden the true cause.

(Peers at him)

What is it? You have a fight?

JEFF:

No.

STELLA:

(After a pause)

Her father loading up the shotgun?

JEFF:

Stella!

STELLA:

It's happened before, you know! Some

of the world's happiest marriage

have started 'under the gun' you

might say.

JEFF:

She's just not the girl for me.

STELLA:

She's only perfect.

JEFF:

Too perfect. Too beautiful, too

talented, too sophisticated, too

everything -- but what I want.

STELLA:

(Cautiously)

Is what you want something you can

discuss?

Jeff gives an exasperated look.

JEFF:

It's very simple. She belongs in

that rarefied atmosphere of Park

Avenue, expensive restaurants, and

literary cocktail parties.

STELLA:

People with sense can belong wherever

they're put.

JEFF:

Can you see her tramping around the

world with a camera bum who never

has more than a week's salary in the

bank?

(Almost to himself)

If only she was ordinary.

Stella sprinkles powder on his back, spreads it around.

THE CAMERA PULLS BACK as she helps Jeff to a sitting position.

He buttons on his shirt.

STELLA:

You're never going to marry?

JEFF:

Probably. But when I do, it'll be to

someone who thinks of life as more

than a new dress, a lobster dinner,

and the latest scandal. I need a

woman who'll go anywhere, do anything,

and love it.

THE CAMERA MOVES IN as she helps him into the wheelchair,

listening to him with exaggerated attention. He, stops as he

notice her attitude. Then he goes on with less conviction:

JEFF:

The only honest thing to do is call

it off. Let her look for somebody

else.

STELLA:

I can just hear you now. "Get out of

here you perfect, wonderful woman!

You're too good for me!"

JEFF:

(After pause)

That's the hard part.

She swings him around in front of the window. He starts to

look out.

STELLA:

Look, Mr. Jefferies. I'm not educated.

I'm not even sophisticated. But I

can tell you this -- when a man and

a woman see each other, and like

each other -- they should come

together -- wham like two taxies on

Broadway. Not sit around studying

each other like specimens in at

bottle.

JEFF:

There's an intelligent way to approach

marriage.

STELLA:

(Scoffing)

Intelligence! Nothing has caused the

human race more trouble. Modern

marriage!

Jeff swings his chair back to look at her.

JEFF:

We've progressed emotionally in --

STELLA:

(Interrupting)

Baloney! Once it was see somebody,

get excited, get married -- Now,

it's read books, fence with four

syllable words, psychoanalyze each

other until you can't tell a petting

party from a civil service exam

JEFF:

People have different emotional levels

that --

STELLA:

(Interrupting again)

Ask for trouble and you get it. Why

there's a good boy in my neighborhood

who went with a nice girl across the

street for three years. Then he

refused to marry her. Why? -- Because

she only scored sixty-one on a Look

Magazine marriage quiz!

Jeff can't help smiling.

STELLA:

When I married Myles, we were both

maladjusted misfits. We still are.

And we've loved every minute of it.

JEFF:

That's fine, Stella. Now would you

make me a sandwich?

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