The Hustler Page #11

SARAH:

I feel pretty.

Suddenly she breaks into laughter.

EDDIE:

Well, what's so funny?

SARAH:

Your tie. I never saw you wear one before.

EDDIE:

(touches the knot self-consciously)

First time for everything.

The waiter returns with the bottle of sherry and holds it out to Eddie

for his approval. There is a long pause as Eddie looks from the bottle

to the waiter. Finally, Eddie realizes he must respond.

EDDIE:

Oh. Yeah. That's great.

The waiter pours out the sherry as Eddie and Sarah stare at each other

over their glasses. Then Eddie looks away. Sarah proposes a toast.

SARAH:

To you, Eddie.

They touch glasses.

DISSOLVE TO:

62 INT. RESTAURANT - TIME LAPSE

The waiter brings the check.

WAITER:

Thank you, sir.

Eddie nods and drinks down the last of his brandy as the waiter leaves.

Sarah sees that Eddie seems somber, preoccupied.

SARAH:

What is it, Eddie?

EDDIE:

Nothin'.

(looks at the check)

Want another drink?

SARAH:

What do you want to tell me?

EDDIE:

Well, I, uh, I'll be leaving town for a little

while.

SARAH:

(stunned)

For how long?

EDDIE:

Oh, I don't know.

SARAH:

A week? A year?

EDDIE:

More like a week. Look, I'll be back.

SARAH:

Sure. Let's go home.

She picks up her purse and gloves and leaves.

CUT TO:

63 EXT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT

It is raining heavily. Sarah emerges from the building and leans

wearily against the awning. Eddie, having hurriedly paid the bill,

follows after her. He catches up with Sarah, taking her by the

arm, and stepping out into the street to hail a cab.

EDDIE:

Taxi.

She angrily breaks away from him and walks out into the rain.

SARAH:

No, I want to walk.

EDDIE:

(running after her)

Come here. Come on, now.

Eddie grabs Sarah and starts to pull her back under the awning.

DISSOLVE TO:

64 INT. SARAH'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

The door opens and the two of them enter, thoroughly drenched.

EDDIE:

You better get some dry things on.

She walks to a chair, limping noticeably.

EDDIE:

Don't you want to know where I'm going?

SARAH:

No.

(collapses into a chair)

Yes, I want to know what for. But I don't want

to ask.

EDDIE:

(sits)

I'm going to Kentucky. To Louisville. With a

friend. Try to make some money. I need it, the

money. I'll be leaving early in the morning.

SARAH:

Leave now.

EDDIE:

Oh, grow up.

SARAH:

Why should I?

EDDIE:

Sarah, I'm going to Kentucky to play pool, with

a guy by the name of Findley. Now, I need the

action and I need the money. I told you I'd be

back.

SARAH:

If you were going to come back you wouldn't

have taken me out tonight. You wouldn't have

bought this dress. You're hustling me, Eddie.

You've never stopped hustling me.

EDDIE:

Now, I never hustled you. Even when I thought I

was. You know it.

SARAH:

What do you want me to do? Just sit here and

wait? Faithful little Sarah. Pull the shades

down and sit. When you feel like coming back,

you'll come back. And you'll love me. And then

you'll go away again. Is that your idea of

love?

EDDIE:

I got no idea of love. And neither have you. I

mean, neither one of us would know what it was

if we saw it coming down the street.

SARAH:

I'd know it, Eddie. I'd know. For God's sakes,

what are you trying to do to me? I love you.

EDDIE:

Well, what's your idea of love? Chains?

SARAH:

No.

(long pause)

I made you up, didn't I, Eddie? You weren't

real. I made you up, like everything else.

There was no car crash, Eddie. When I was five,

I had polio. I was never an actress. The rich

old man is my father. He walked out on us when

I was seven. He sends me a check every month.

That's how he buys his way out of my life. The

men I've known ... after they left, I'd say

they weren't real, I made them up. But you,

Eddie. I wanted you to be real.

He reaches across and pulls her to him, burying his face in her head.

SARAH:

I'm so scared, Eddie ... I'm scared.

CUT TO:

65 EXT. STREET - MORNING

Bert Gordon leans on the hood of a cab. His face drops when he sees

Eddie and Sarah walking toward him. Eddie cares two suitcases and his

leather cue case. He sets the suitcases on the curb and the cab driver

moves to take them. Courteously, Bert opens the door of the taxi for

Eddie and Sarah.

EDDIE:

Sarah Packard ... Bert Gordon.

BERT:

Miss Packard. How do you do?

Sarah eyes Bert distrustfully and starts to get in the cab.

DISSOLVE TO:

66INT. TRAIN COMPARTMENT - DAY

Eddie, Sarah, and Bert squeeze through the door of the train

compartment.

BERT:

(to a redcap, off luggage)

That brown one's mine. It goes in drawing room

A, huh? Thanks.

The redcap exits, carrying the luggage.

EDDIE:

(to redcap, off compartment door)

I got it, I got it.

Eddie shuts the door. Bert and Sarah sit across from each other.

BERT:

You sure you going to be comfortable enough

there, Miss ... ah ... ?

SARAH:

(loudly)

Packard. Sarah Packard.

BERT:

It always takes me a little while to get a name

fixed in my mind. Are you sure you don't want

anything?

SARAH:

No, I'm fine.

BERT:

You, uh, you ever been to Louisville during

Derby week, Miss, ah, Packard?

SARAH:

I've never been to Louisville.

BERT:

Lots of action. Lots of money.

(to Eddie, seated beside him)

Lots of class. You'll see some of the

best-dressed and most beautiful women in the

world at the races. Knock your eye out.

DISSOLVE TO:

67 INT. TRAIN DINING ROOM - MORNING

The Kentucky-bound train rolls down the track. Bert and Eddie finish

their breakfast coffee in the dining room. Sarah is in the washroom.

BERT:

James Findley is a very rich man. Grandfather

left him twenty per cent of a tobacco company.

EDDIE:

What? And he -- he hustles pool?

BERT:

(chuckles)

He's a gentleman. Gentleman gambler. He gets

his kicks playing with hustlers. He's got an

old Southern mansion with a pool table in the

basement, drinks eight-year-old bourbon, smokes

cork-tipped cigarettes.

EDDIE:

How good is he?

BERT:

I don't know. Never saw him play. They say

he's one of the best.

Sarah makes her way down the aisle and joins them at the table.

SARAH:

(brightly)

I'm ready.

BERT:

Soon as I finish my coffee.

She stands there, lips pursed, absorbing the insult.

EDDIE:

(to Bert)

You must have a lot of confidence in me.

BERT:

I don't. But I got confidence in Findley.

EDDIE:

What's that supposed to mean?

BERT:

Means I got confidence that he's a loser. All

the way a loser. You happen to be about only

one-half loser -- the other half, winner.

(off his coffee)

I'm finished.

Bert gets up and reaches in his pocket for his billfold.

EDDIE:

Here, I got it.

BERT:

No, no. When you play for me, I pick up all the

tabs.

Eddie and Sarah just stare at him.

DISSOLVE TO:

68 INT. TRAIN CLUB CAR - NIGHT

They are at a table, sipping drinks. Bert shuffles a deck of cards as

he talks. Eddie, like a schoolboy, listens intently. Sarah sits apart,

watching them both.

BERT:

Fats knew the game was in the clutch, knew

he had to do something to stop ya. He played

it smart.

EDDIE:

I played that game, Bert. In my head I played

it a thousand times.

BERT:

Play it again. Learn something.

(laughs, to Sarah)

Fats went in the john, see? Washed his face,

cleaned his fingernails, made his mind a blank,

combed his hair, came back all ready to go.

(to Eddie)

You were through. You saw him, you saw how he

looked. Clean, all set to start all over again.

Hold tight and push hard. You know what you

were doing? You were waitin' to get beat.

Flattened out on your butt, swimmin' around in

glory. And whisky. Probably deciding how you

could lose.

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