Sweet Smell of Success Page #5

SUSAN:

(pleading)

Steve, dear, please forget all of

this. What can it matter after

tomorrow?

Now Steve responds. He grins, holds her closer.

STEVE:

(softly)

I have a message for you; I love

you.

(kissing her lightly)

May I dedicate the next number to

you?...And the next, and the next.

Every Sunday I'll buy you a new

bonnet -

SUSAN:

(amused, but moved)

If the stores are open -

STEVE:

And on Monday, I'll take it off and

stroke your light brown hair and -

SUSAN:

And on Tuesday - Hasenpfeffer.

STEVE:

(abruptly grinning)

How do you think I realized I love

you?

SUSAN:

I made you write a beautiful song...

STEVE:

No, you had me eating that Chinese

food!...

They laugh and enjoyably; but then, as the CAMERA MOVES, we

realize that Sidney is there on the fire escape above them;

his manner is affable.

SIDNEY:

Can more than two enjoy this joke...

(to Susan)

Hello, Susie, I didn't expect to

find you here.

Steve says nothing. But he obviously resents the intrusion

and finds it difficult to conceal the fact. Sidney comes

down the fire escape towards them.

SIDNEY:

Where's those glossy prints you

promised? Tonight's the latest I

can place them -

STEVE:

(barely polite)

Well, thanks, anyway - let's forget

it.

(to Susan)

It's cold out here, Susie.

Steve makes a move to lead Susan back inside. It is a

gesture which appears to dismiss Sidney. Sidney chooses to

take umbrage:

SIDNEY:

(lightly sarcastic)

Let me apologize for getting you

that press spread. It's been an

honor to serve you gratis.

Steve turns to Sidney; his manner is quiet but challenging:

STEVE:

(levelly)

I get the feeling, Falco, that

you're always snooping around...

SUSAN:

(quickly intervening)

Steve, stop it please...

ANOTHER ANGLE:

Frank D'Angelo has followed Sidney out onto the fire escape;

other members of the Quintet have also appeared.

D'ANGELO

What are you boys fighting about?

Aggressively indignant, Sidney throws up his hands; he

knocks on the metal of the fire escape.

SIDNEY:

(sarcastic)

Kill me! Find me a door somewhere -

I walked in without knocking!

Sidney is trying to needle Steve; Steve's temper would

normally have exploded; but now he controls it.

STEVE:

I'm feeling too good to fight with

you, but that isn't what I said - I

said you snoop. For instance, what

were you doing around my hotel the

other night?

SIDNEY:

(needling)

Begging your pardon, I haven't been

down the bowery in years!

D'ANGELO

(soothingly)

Come on boys, break it up...

STEVE:

(overriding D'Angelo)

The next time you want information,

Falco, don't scratch for it like a

dog - ask for it like a man!

SIDNEY:

His face tightens; he appears to be mortally insulted and

controlling himself with difficulty. He turns his back

swiftly on Steve, addressing Susan in a voice that has a

sharp edge.

SIDNEY:

If you're going home, Susie, I'll

drop you off...

Sidney starts quickly up the fire escape. This makes Steve

angry and he steps forward to follow him. But Chico

contrives, without seeming to interfere to obstruct Steve.

CHICO:

(easily)

Time for the next set, Chief...

STEVE:

Just a minute, Chico.

CORRIDOR:

Sidney comes inside. When he is out of sight or the group

in the courtyard, his manner swiftly changes. It's obvious

now that his indignation was assumed; now he looks back

towards the courtyard and there is shrewdness in his eyes;

he is assessing Steve's temper. But, presently, seeing

D'Angelo and the boys returning, he moves back to the

curtains into the Club.

COURTYARD:

As D'Angelo and the other boys go inside, Steve turns back

to Susan.

STEVE:

(fondly)

Just so you don't leave me in a

minor key.

INT. CLUB

Rita has succeeded in recapturing Sidney near the entrance

to the club. Sidney, alert and interested, listens to her

while keeping his eye on the bandstand in b.g. where the

intermission pianist is finishing his performance and the

quintet are returning, ready to mount the bandstand again.

SIDNEY:

Don't tell me you started a polka

with Leo Bartha?

RITA:

(shaking her head)

No. That's what I mean - I'm being

fired for what I didn't do.

Sidney is amused. Rita continues in a confidential manner

which is heavily loaded with sex appeal and not-very-

convincing air of injury.

RITA:

(soto voce)

He came in last week on a very dull

rainy night. I know who he was,

but I didn't let on.

(emphatically)

He didn't take his eyes off me all

night. Listening...?

Rita has mistaken Sidney's shrewdly calculating expression

for inattention.

SIDNEY:

Avidly. He was staring.

RITA:

(continuing)

Staring. Consequently, when he

approached me on his way out I

wasn't surprised, but I didn't let

on.

SIDNEY:

(prompting)

He was writing a special Sunday

piece on...?

RITA:

(nodding)

...cigarette girls... And naturally -

SIDNEY:

You were thrilled to be interviewed.

(she nods)

Were you "interviewed"?

RITA:

In his apartment -

SIDNEY:

And where was his wife?

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