The Bad and the Beautiful Page #8

What's her story?

Gaucho a friend of his?

Was she gonna marry Gaucho?

Were they flying

for a Mexican divorce?

- How long did she love him?

- When did he last see her?

He was a close friend of the Bartlows.

They were flying to the lake.

- His flight plan said Acapulco.

- What flight plan?

Don't you wanna play with the press?

Gaucho was a friend of the Bartlows.

He was flying her to the lake...

- Let Mr. Bartlow identify the body.

- Just a minute...

- Will you shut up!

- You stay out of it...

I wish... I wish an awful lot.

Maybe if I'd been here...

You didn't know about them, did you?

Sorry, Jonathan.

Of course, you didn't know.

Look, Jim, I'm not gonna let you

brood about her.

She's dead, and you're alive.

You can't do anything about it.

Neither can I.

Let's get to work, you and I.

Without Jonathan, I don't know what

I'd have done those next few months.

He put me to work

and kept me working.

When the shooting script

was finished...

... he asked me to stay

for production meetings and casting.

You see Miss Ronley

as the star of The Proud Land.

But it was my impression

this was a woman of sex.

Miss Ronley has

the sex appeal of an angleworm.

- How about that, Jonathan?

- About what?

I like Linda Ronley.

- I wonder...

- Yes, Jim?

- It's not my department.

- Go ahead. You're among friends.

While writing the script,

I had one girl in mind.

She lives next to my bungalow.

I think she'd be fine.

Georgia Lorrison.

If you'd like me to give

her the script, I...

You have just broken a sacred taboo.

You've mentioned the unmentionable.

- That's enough.

- That's all right, Syd.

Georgia is the best.

The best actress. The best box office.

Her last three pictures

for Fred Amiel grossed to... Harry?

$ 7,600,000 domestic.

We try to get her, we'll be wasting

our time. She hates my guts.

Jim, if you wanna show her the script,

there's no way I can stop you.

What am I supposed to do?

Thank you for saying no?

What are you trying to do? Fight

Jonathan Shields' battles for him?

- It happens to be my book.

- It happens to be his picture.

You're the first one I know to begin

by hating him and end up liking him.

- Do you always work backwards?

- Do you still love him?

- Excuse me.

- Fred, do I still love Jonathan?

- No, you don't get me on that one.

- A stupid question for a writer.

Don't you know about first love?

You may grow out of it,

but you don't get over it.

I'm sorry, that was stupid of me.

No, no. I wouldn't want to get over

my first love either, quite.

Well, it's time you two met.

Fred Amiel, James Bartlow.

Guess who we were fighting about.

Jonathan's more than a man.

He's a habit-forming experience.

If they bottled him, he'd outsell ginger ale.

- Ready, Mr. Amiel?

- No, thanks, Timmy.

Georgia let me read your script,

it's a beautiful job.

I'd like to talk about your next one.

Goodbye, Georgia.

Nice to have met you.

Shooting started on The Proud Land

and everything went well...

... until the fourth day,

then something happened.

Cut!

Close-up of the girl.

About there.

Save all...

Mr. Von Ellstein!

Would you come here, please?

Am I to understand

you consider this scene complete?

- I do.

- I don't. You call that directing?

I have for 32 years.

I see values and dimensions

you haven't begun to hit!

Perhaps not the ones I wish to hit.

I could make this scene a climax.

I could make every scene a climax.

If I did, I would be a bad director.

I like to think of myself

as one of the best.

A picture all climaxes is a necklace

without a string, it falls apart.

You must build to your big moment.

Sometimes you must build slowly.

If I want a lecture on the aesthetics

of motion pictures, I'll ask.

It won't be a cover-up for a shallow,

inept interpretation of a great scene!

- To be a director you need imagination.

- Whose imagination?

Yours or mine?

There's only one answer. You see

this picture one way and I another.

It could be done your way,

but not by me...

...and not by any other director

who respects himself.

You know what you must do

to have it exactly as you want it?

You must direct this picture yourself.

To direct a picture,

a man needs humility.

Do you have humility, Mr. Shields?

Jonathan the director

was a new Jonathan.

He was patience personified.

He was tolerant, even-tempered,

considerate and indulgent...

... to his crew, his cast and his writer.

Six months after he started shooting...

... we saw the picture

for the first time.

- Nice job at cutting, Tom.

- Thank you, Mr. Shields.

- Nice work, Tom.

- Thanks.

- Beautiful production.

- Beautifully written, Jim.

- Beautifully produced.

- Chapman's photography was perfect.

Congratulate Walter on his sets,

Lucien on her costumes...

...and Boris on his score.

- I liked the music.

Tell the director to have

his head examined.

He should've shot himself,

not the picture.

- It's not as bad as all that...

- I butchered it.

Von Ellstein should have been here.

He would have enjoyed this.

I have no tension, no timing,

no pace, nothing.

I took a beautiful, sensitive story...

...and turned it

into a turgid, boring movie.

If it were anyone else,

I'd never release it.

- Who's got a cigarette?

- Here you are.

I've made pictures that lost money,

but they had something.

- This is nothing.

- You're being drastic.

All you've got to do is cut

the dead wood out...

Please.

- Harry, shelve the picture.

- Are you crazy? We can't do that.

We're in hock up to our necks.

We went way over budget.

- We've got to release it.

- There's your penny-pinching mind.

Shelve it.

We shelve it,

that's the end of Shields Productions.

Goodbye to 17 years' work.

Goodbye to every dime you've got.

- How about the money in the sock?

- There isn't any sock.

Your last two pictures

and this one took care of that.

And every dime of mine is gone

and every dime of Syd's.

That I didn't know.

The banks turned us down

on money for the last retakes.

Syd and I... Oh, well.

You were shooting,

and who could bother you then?

The hardheaded businessman.

The hardboiled press agent.

I won't release a picture

that I know is bad.

But other men do!

Their pictures don't say

"Jonathan Shields presents."

- Okay, what story shall I break?

- That's easy.

"Jonathan Shields Lays an Egg!"

- What you gonna do now?

- I'm tired, Jim.

- What are you gonna do now?

- You mind changing the subject?

I just played my big scene in there:

The Great Man Fails.

You want an encore?

- You sound like Sebastian.

- Who? Oh, your new book.

You told me to never let a leading

character feel sorry for himself.

- Not for long.

- I was wrong.

It's very comforting

to feel sorry for yourself.

- You're coming with me.

- What?

I've taken a cabin at Tahoe to finish

my new book. You're coming along.

- Why?

- Why not?

Besides, I work better

when you're around.

Can you wait a while?

- How long?

- Five minutes.

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