RKO 281 Page #6

Mank watches as Welles lets the tennis ball drop. It bounces and rolls

-- for a fleeting moment in Welles' mind it seems to become the rolling

snow globe from KANE -- we hear the sound of sleigh bells and a child's

happy voice -- in the snow globe we seem to see a boy laughing and

pelting his father with snowballs. . .

Then more images, mad and outlandish and sedate and solemn; in the

kitchen, in a car, around the pool, in a bar.

Welles and Mank act out scenes and argue. They leap from character to

character fearlessly. Emoting and laughing and writing. We see the twin

joy and terror of walking the tightrope, of sheer creation.

We see them having a ferocious argument. They scream back and forth

angrily and then Mank storms out and slams the door. Welles stands

alone in his living room, he catches a glimpse of his own reflection in

a mirror and we hear:

MANK'S VOICE

Men like Hearst don't love..

Welles' living room: Welles is slowly advancing on Mank.

Mank sits, watching Welles approach. The living room is now filthy.

Papers and sketches and gin bottles are discarded everywhere around

them, a thick cloud of cigar smoke. It is very late at night and the

room is in semi-darkness.

WELLES:

All men love. But men like Hearst -- they don't

bother with convention because--

MANK:

They don't have to.

WELLES:

He loves in his own way. On his conditions. Because

those are the only conditions he has ever known.

Welles is now standing over Mank, a dark figure in silhouette. Mank

soaks in this somewhat ominous image.

More music and images: eating and working; swimming and working;

playing and working simultaneously.

Then:
Beach:

Sunset. We see them walking along a deserted beach Welles is walking in

the surf, his trousers rolled.

WELLES:

(quietly)

Hearst looks down at the world at his feet

Everything has always been beneath him.

MANK:

And what does he see?

WELLES:

The people. When they pay him homage, he adores

them. But when they have the ... audacity to

question him. To doubt him. To embarrass him. Then

he despises them.

MANK:

And when he looks up? What does he dream about?

31

Welles stops and looks up. A thousand stars twinkle above him. They are

reflected in his eyes.

A long pause as he does not answer Mank Then

MANK:

I'm ready to write it, Orson

Welles turns to him. You're sure?

Yeah. Mank gazes at Welles.

WELLES:

MANK:

I know him The clatter of an old typewriter is heard. EXT/INT +

BUNGALOW. VICTORVILLE_DAY

Victorville is a rural desert community in San Bernadino County about

90 miles from LA.

Mank and John Houseman are ensconced in a bungalow at Campbell's Guest

Ranch, writing the movie.

Mank, smoking a cigar, paces around the cacti and shrubs in the

backyard reciting to their secretary. She pounds away on a typewriter

as he orates. A huge stack of papers lies neatly by her typewriter.

This is clearly the longest screenplay in the history of the world.

MANK:

Leiand:
"You talk about the people as if you owned

them. As though they belonged to you. But you don't

really care about anything except you." Craig: "A

toast then, Jedediah, to all those people who didn't

vote for me today and to love on my own terms. Those

are the only terms anybody ever knows. . . "

We float into the house as we continue to hear Mank's recitation...

Inside, John Houseman is busy rifling through Mank's room as he

listens:

MANK'S VOICE (CONT.)

"...because in the end a man looks into the mirror

and sees one face looking back not humanity -- not

"the people" -- one face. And he's got to be able to

look at that one face and know he was true. "

Houseman uncovers a bottle of vodka hidden under Mank's bed He pours

the bottle down a bathroom drain as he calls out the window:

JOHN HOUSEMAN:

That's too long. Tighten it up

Outside, Mank snarls and then revises:

MANK:

You're killin' me here, Housey. Okay, make that,

Craig:
"A toast, Jedediah, to love on my own terms.

Those are the only terms anybody ever knows, his

own."

Houseman emerges from the house.

JOHN HOUSEMAN:

Telegram from The Christ Child

He tears open the telegram and reads:

Beat.

JOHN HOUSEMAN:

"Schaefer loves the idea. Stop. Start writing.

Stop. Stop drinking. Stop. Did you work in the

jigsaw puzzles. Question mark. Don't stop. Stop.

Love you madly, Orson."

MANK:

That man makes my brain hurt

We fade to a beautiful drawing of a dark, cavernous room. Perhaps it is

a perfect matte painting from KANE. Real or illusion? The image turns

into...

INT SOUND STAGE, RKO LOT DAY

Welles is standing in the middle of an enormous sound stage, empty but

for a table with some elaborate set models. He is;' slowly walking

around the models, studying them, imagining' his movie.

The sound stage door opens and a man enters, carrying a small black

bag. He is cinematographer GREGG TOLAND.

Toland is a quiet, efficient and slim man of 36. He is brilliant and

fearless.

Toland walks to Welles and, without a word, pulls an Oscar statue out

of the bag and sets it down in the middle of one of the set models. He

looks up at Welles as we hear:

WELLES' VOICE

And Gregg Toland plunks down his Oscar for

WUTHERING HEIGHTS and says, "Mr. Welles, I want to

shoot your picture. . . "

INT. THE BROWN DERBY_DAY\NIGHT

The chic Brown Derby restaurant is the unquestioned palace of Hollywood

celebrities. The smug big-wigs and desperate hangers-on circulate and

score points in the Great Game of Movie Gossip.

In one corner booth sits Hedda Hopper, phoning in the latest salacious

gossip to her newspaper. In the other corner booth Louella Parsons does

the same. They occasionally glance back and forth at each other like

ravenous hyenas eyeing the last bit of carrion.

Welles circulates between them. In a scene reminiscent of the famous

CITIZEN KANE breakfast table scene with Kane and Emily, we shoot back

and forth as Welles applies his considerable charm to both women.

Welles is dressed differently with each of them; breakfast with Hedda

and dinner with Louella.

With Hedda, morning:

WELLES (CONT.)

... And I said, "Mr. Toland, you are the finest

cinematographer in Hollywood, why would you desire

to work with a stumbling neophyte?"

With Louella, night

WELLES:

And he replied, "Mr. Welles, the only way to learn

anything new is to work with someone who doesn't

know a damn thing."

Louella screeches

LOUELLA:

(scribbling on a pad)

Priceless!

With Hedda, morning:

WELLES:

Hedda, this movie is going to look like no other

picture ever made.

With Louella, night:

WELLES:

Tome it's a question of truth and illusion. Don't

you get tired of the errant falsity in motion

pictures?

LOUELLA:

Huh?

WELLES:

What we are going to do is shoot life -- in all

it's joyous complexity.

He takes out a coin and begins a magic trick

WELLES:

Consider this quarter, my dear. You can touch it

and feel it and were you to lean forward you could

even smell it. Why is it that in the movies a simple

bit of reality -- a quarter, a room, a man--

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