The Country Girl Page #2

They still are.

Dreiser, Balzac, Montaigne.

Who reads these books?

I do.

I'm afraid to ask if you enjoy them.

Montaigne's too polite for me.

- That doesn't surprise me.

- Frank's old recordings?

Some new. There's one on the machine

he did last week.

A man with his talent.

It's degrading.

So is not eating.

Why didn't you wait?

I figured the boat had sailed.

The producer didn't like me.

Since when does a producer

have to love an actor?

I can't go to battle unless

everybody is rooting for me.

- Cook thinks you're a drinker.

- Not on a show.

Not according to Maxwell.

You worked for him in '46.

After a couple of months,

he had to replace you.

While I was playing in that show,

our son died.

What about this show? I need an actor

who can stay sober and learn lines.

Are you that actor or not?

Make up your mind.

Give me time. Cook wasn't

the only reason I left the theatre.

I wouldn't take a part like this

without talking it over with Georgie.

- I'll be back in ten minutes.

- He's afraid of the responsibility.

But the gamble's all on my side!

It's not a question of being afraid

of the responsibility.

The part's the whole show.

You said so yourself.

You're opening in Boston the 28th.

I don't think I could learn

the lines. You need Walter Huston.

It's bad enough to go to Hollywood

to cast. You suggest I go to heaven?

- You can do it, Frank.

- Why are you so sure?

When I was a hat-check boy,

you, Lunt and Jolson were my heroes.

- I know everything you've done.

- You exaggerate to make your point.

- Are you for him or against him?

- I'm his wife.

I want honesty from both of you.

Flattery is cheap.

How about a little costly truth?

I'm not blind to Frank's condition.

This room tells me what he is.

I'm not one of those nice people

who buys you a drink and that's it.

I won't leave you on a limb. We'll

work together and worry together.

But if you do me dirt, just once,

no pity, not a drop of pity.

No pity. I like that.

Now he knows what to expect.

- What contract do you offer?

- Standard two-week contract.

- You could let Frank out any time?

- Exactly.

He won't have confidence with

a two-week clause. Would you?

I have nothing in my mind

except for Frank to play this part.

That's sentiment again.

I come here with the best intentions.

Suddenly I find I'm victimising you.

- Did I bring you a basket of snakes?

- It's not the two-weeks clause.

I don't want to bite off

more than I can chew.

We're in Boston for two weeks.

We can stay out until you're perfect.

- Would you do that?

- I'd insist on it.

Talk it over with your agent.

Call the office by 3 p.m., no later.

Need a $20 bill?

You need it.

Why did you make that crack

about responsibility?

Why didn't you tell me

about that audition?

Because I wasn't sure

whether I could make it.

I must have walked up and down

47th Street a dozen times.

- Don't keep things from me.

- I can't do it, can I?

Of course you can. You've got to try.

It's a perfect opportunity.

If I do take it, Georgie,

I'll need you every step of the way.

I don't have any appointments,

Frank, all winter.

- I wish it were a run-of-the-play...

- Why didn't you tell him?

I didn't want to antagonise him.

I have to work with him.

You'll never get a better deal,

so take it and do your level best.

Wait a minute. The two-weeks clause.

They can give me notice any time,

but I can give them notice, too.

- I can walk out any time I want.

- You mean you can quit, Frank.

Not the way you mean it.

If the show doesn't pan out, I don't

want to come to New York in a turkey.

Maybe this time, it will work out.

Bernie likes me.

Henry Johnson's pulling for me.

It's Cook I got to worry about.

We've been having trouble, Joe.

Instead of fields of wheat,

we got stubble rotting in the dust.

I've talked it over with Stella.

We're leaving.

What are we waiting for?

Let's push on.

- How about you, Joe?

- I'm staying.

They say when a man falls

from a great height,

his whole life flashes by.

In one split second,

he sees himself for what he is.

You don't have to plummet like a

hailstone to face that split second.

Mean it, Frank.

...plummet like a hailstone

to face that split second.

It can come to you as it did

to me today. As you stand...

- What is it?

- "...in a smouldering field."

As you stand in a smouldering field

and see your hopes go up in smoke.

This is the most important

decision in the man's life.

It sounds like he's deciding

what to have for breakfast!

That goes for the rest of you, too.

I'm sorry, but I'm still

fighting these words.

We've been in rehearsal ten days.

Let's take it from...

- Bernie.

- It can't be that late.

Where does it go? Knock off.

Same time tomorrow.

We'll start with this scene.

- See you tomorrow.

- Good night.

- Do you need me for anything?

- No.

- You want me to turn off the border?

- Yeah. Good night.

I'm sorry about the words.

I've had a lot of things on my mind.

I know you have.

Every time I give a direction,

you're off in space somewhere.

You can be great, but it demands

your concentration and energy.

I know. I keep telling myself that.

After rehearsal,

I go home to study and...

You've got headaches enough.

Good night.

- Frank? Having trouble at home?

- No, nothing like that.

- Don't you believe me?

- Everyone has trouble at home.

The ones who deny it

are those that have too much of it.

I denied it for five years

with the former Mrs Dodd.

I never had the impression

that you were married.

Neither did my wife.

That was my trouble. What's yours?

It's nothing important.

I'll see you in the morning.

- Does she want you to play the part?

- She's all for it.

The day I met her,

she seemed a little difficult

about terms, rather domineering.

- She wasn't always like that.

- I know.

They start out as Juliets

and wind up as Lady Macbeths.

When I first met her, she was as fine

a person as you've ever seen.

She had background and breeding.

She had a nobility about her that

made me feel proud to be with her.

I was a good deal older than she was,

but it didn't seem to matter.

She wasn't a flighty kid.

She had a poise and dignity

that was ageless.

Those first few years,

I never knew a better life.

A wife who was everything

I'd been looking for.

A son who was smart, healthy.

Then our son died.

I came home from the theatre

one night a couple of months later.

This kid, I don't think she ever

had a real drink in her life before.

There she is, stretched out

across the bed, dead drunk,

her wrists cut and bleeding.

She was jealous that I had my work,

something to live for.

She felt she had nothing.

Inside of a year,

she was a hopeless drunkard.

In an effort to give her

some purpose in life,

I made her feel that

I needed her in my work.

I let her pick the songs I should

record, the shows I ought to do.

She started taking over everything.

She became very possessive.

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