The French Connection Page #6

RUSSO:

I'm wounded. Oh, oh.

SAL up ahead in the Mercury.

DOYLE:

(at the wheel)

What?

EXT. WARD'S ISLAND - BRIDGE

The Mercury crossing the bridge to the Island.

RUSSO:

He's goin' to Ward's Island. We'll

get spotted. What the hell's he

goin' there?

DOYLE-RUSSO car B.G.

DOYLE:

Maybe he's goin' to see his brother.

DOYLE:

Or could be another drop. I guess

he gets a free ride.

EXT. BROOKLYN STREET - DAY

A Brooklyn slum street on a morning in November. It is

about 11 o'clock and relatively quiet. A scattering of

tenement URCHINS give the street some sound and life. There

are a couple of dark shops on the street and a bar, all

appearing to be closed. We look down the street and pick up

DOYLE and RUSSO coming down it, walking very quickly. They

are heading toward the bar. A young man is coming out -

they grab him and throw him back.

INT. BAR ROOM - DAY

The Young Man is thrown in, followed by DOYLE and RUSSO.

There are about 20 or 30 PUETRO RICAN and BLACK MEN in the

joint, a couple of BLACK WOMEN. They are in all manner of

dress. Half of them are wearing shades. The bar is noisy

with conversation, laughter and music.

23.

DOYLE and RUSSO standing in the doorway, DOYLE slightly to

the left, RUSSO a little behind him. DOYLE's arms are at

his sides. RUSSO's right hand is crossed over his belt,

under his jacket and on the butt of his .38, ready, waiting

to back his partner's play or respond to any move within the

bar.

DOYLE moving into the bar alone. He pulls the plug out of

the Juke Box, plunging the room to silence.

DOYLE:

Hands on your heads. Popeye's here!

Twenty men raise hands to their heads as one. The raggle-

taggle swarm plays a kind of human chicken, refusing to move

until the last moment then stepping out of his way. One of

the customers doesn't.

DOYLE:

What's my name?

1ST MAN

Doyle.

DOYLE:

What?

1ST MAN

Mr. Doyle.

DOYLE:

Ever pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?

1ST MAN

What?

DOYLE raises his left arm and pushes the MAN aside. The

MAN's eyes go to RUSSO, off-camera at the door, and back to

DOYLE. He doesn't resist; he gets in line with the rest of

them, a line formed about four or five feet from the bar,

running the length of it.

Close of DOYLE at the bar, holding an ashcan and skimming

the metal underrailing with one finger, knocking off the

magnetized key boxes into the ashcan. He isn't even looking

at them. His eyes are across the bar, staring down the

customers.

Close shot of the ashcan and the little metal boxes clinking

into it.

Close shot of DOYLE, the ashcan now on the bar, opening one

of the boxes, taking out the ten dollar bill, putting it on

the bar.

24.

Then, opening another, taking out the glassine deck of

heroin. Then another, containing a glassine deck. He

empties the glassine envelopes on the bar into a cocktail

mixer which he proceeds to shake. The shaker is half-filled

with tomato juice.

DOYLE leaning over the bar toward the glaring crowd, pours

the mixture into the ashcan.

DOYLE:

Milk shake anyone?

He wiggles his finger. It is a command for THREE MEN to

step forward. The MEN do not move at first.

DOYLE:

Move ass when I tell you.

They move, shuffling, hesitatingly. But they move -- TWO

BLACKS and A PUETRO RICAN.

DOYLE:

Put it on the bar.

Hands of the THREE MEN going into pockets.

Close of a miscellany of keys, coins, cigarettes going onto

the bar -- with two hypodermics, six or eight marijuana

cigarettes, a small plastic vial of barbiturates.

DOYLE:

(collecting the works)

All right, you three clowns step

into those phone booths, you're

goin' in. Go on. Stand in there

till I'm ready for you.

The three men turn and enter the individual phone booths.

They stand, waiting, like contestants in the $64 Question.

DOYLE:

Everybody goes when the whistle

blows.

RUSSO is with another man from whom he's just taken a set of

works.

RUSSO:

What's your story?

DANCER:

Gimme a break, Mr. Russo. I'm in

show business.

25.

RUSSO:

You're in show business.

DANCER:

S'right.

DOYLE:

What do you do in show business?

DANCER:

I'm a dancer.

RUSSO:

All right, get up on that bar and

dance.

DANCER:

What?

RUSSO:

Get up on the bar and show me how

you work. If I like it you don't

have to go in.

DANCER:

You're for real?

JERRY LEON:

Hey man, why don't you let the

fella alone.

RUSSO:

(a shout)

Am I talkin' to you -

JERRY LEON:

No, but I'm talkin' to you.

RUSSO:

I'm tellin' you to shut up and

stand over there.

RUSSO:

(to Dancer)

Get up there.

The man climbs up on the bar.

DANCER:

I got no music!

RUSSO:

Fake it.

26.

The man goes into a fast tap dance. But he only gets in a

few steps --

DOYLE:

All right, that's enough, you're

under arrest.

RUSSO pulls the man off the bar, sends him into one of the

phone booths.

DOYLE coming down the front of the bar. He stops before

another man, who has just come out of the toilet.

DOYLE:

What about you? Can you stand a

toss?

2ND MAN

I'm clean.

DOYLE:

You don't use sh*t?

2ND MAN

No.

(he goes for his wallet)

DOYLE:

Did I say you could move that

hand -- I'm not gonna get stuck am I?

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