The Man Who Wasn't There Page #19
ED:
Yeah.
RIEDENSCHNEIDER:
And now it turns out this dope spent
the war sitting on his ass in some
boatyard in San Diego. You asked for
blackmail, let me give you blackmail:
Mr Hale-Fellow-Well-Met, about to
open his own business here, has been
lying to everybody in this town for
the last four years, probably
including half the people sitting on
that jury. Well, it finally caught
up with him--these dopes, it always
does; someone threatened to spill
it. Somebody knew his dirty little
secret, just like your wife says.
They called, they demanded money...
He is looking at Doris.
RIEDENSCHNEIDER:
...Did Big Dave mention that it was
something about his war service? I
don't know, I wasn't there, *you'll*
have to tell *us*. Maybe he specified,
maybe he didn't; I'm not putting
words in your mouth; the point is
that this liar, this cynical
manipulator, this man who through
his lies sneered and belittled the
sacrifice and heroism of all our
boys who *did* serve and bleed and
puke and die on foreign shores, and
who made a fool out of this entire
town, turns to *you* to help him out
of his jam. Fat-assed sonofabitch!
ED:
So... who... who actually--
RIEDENSCHNEIDER:
Who? *Who?!* I don't know who! But
the point is that if Mr Prosecutor
over there had devoted half the time
he's spent persecuting *this* woman
to even the most cursory investigation
of this schmoe's past, then we might
*know* who! But we can't *know* what
really happened! Because of Fritz,
or Werner, or whatever the hell his
name is! And because Me Prosecutor
is *also* a lazy fat-assed sonofabitch
who decided it's easier to victimize
your wife! Because it's easier *not*
to look! Because the more you look,
the less you know! But the beauty of
it is, we don't *gotta* know! We
just gotta show that, goddamnit,
*they* don't know. Reasonable doubt.
Science. The atom. *You* explain it
to me. Go ahead. Try.
He chuckles as he heads for the door.
RIEDENSCHNEIDER:
...Yeah, Freddy Riedenschneider sees
daylight. We got a real shot at this,
folks. Let's not get cocky.
Doris stares down at the table, as at the head of the scene.
A silent beat; a smile starts to tug at the corners of her
mouth.
ED:
Honey...?
The smile twitches, and then stays. Doris starts to laugh.
Ed frowns.
ED:
...Honey?
Her laughter builds, almost to hysteria. Finally it subsides
and, still staring at the tabletop and smiling, she shakes
her head:
DORIS:
What a dope.
ABUNDAS LIVING ROOM
Ed sits listening as Birdy plays. She talks, after a moment,
her eyes on the sheet music:
BIRDY:
He was deaf when he wrote this.
ED:
Who?
BIRDY:
Beethoven. He created it, and yet he
never actually heard it. I suppose
he heard it all in his head, somehow.
Over her continued playing:
ED (V.O.)
So maybe Riedenschneider could get
Doris off. Maybe it would all work
out. And I thought--I hoped--that
maybe there was a way out for me as
well...
A SIGN:
The cardboard sign on an easel says "COME ONE, COME ALL /
PETALUMA HIGH SCHOOL TALENT SHOW / WEDNESDAY APRIL 29, 1949,
8:
00 P.M.ED (V.O.)
The girl had talent, anyone could
see that. And *she* wasn't some fly-
by-nighter, she was just a good clean
kid...
SCHOOL GYMNASIUM
A young man holding a saxophone is just leaving the makeshift
stage to a smattering of applause. Birdy walks out to the
baby grand that has been set out center stage.
ED (V.O.)
...If she was going to have a career
she'd need a responsible adult looking
out for her...
We track up the rows of folding chairs that have been set
out on the gym floor for the audience of students and parents,
many of whom fan themselves with programs. We come to rest
on Ed.
ED (V.O.)
...some kind of... manager. She'd
have contracts to look at, be going
on tours, playing on the radio maybe.
I could help her sort through all of
that, without charging her an arm
and a leg, just enough to get by...
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"The Man Who Wasn't There" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_man_who_wasn't_there_983>.
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