Titanic Page #6

See my man.

PORTER:

Yes, sir. My pleasure, sir.

Cal never tires of the effect of money on the unwashed masses.

LOVEJOY:

(to the porter)

These trunks here, and 12 more in the Daimler. We'll have all this lot up

in the rooms.

The White Star man looks stricken when he sees the enormous pile of steamer

trunks and suitcases loading down the second car, including wooden crates

and steel safe. He whistles frantically for some cargo-handlers nearby who

come running.

Cal breezes on, leaving the minions to scramble. He quickly checks his

pocket watch.

CAL:

We'd better hurry. This way, ladies.

He indicates the way toward the first class gangway. They move into the

crowd. TRUDY BOLT, Rose's maid, hustles behind them, laden with bags of her

mistress's most recent purchases... things too delicate for the baggage

handlers.

Cal leads, weaving between vehicles and handcarts, hurrying passengers

(mostly second class and steerage) and well-wishers. Most of the first

class passengers are avoiding the smelly press of the dockside crowd by

using an elevated boarding bridge, twenty feet above.

They pass a line of steerage passengers in their coarse wool and tweeds,

queued up inside movable barriers like cattle in a chute. A HEALTH OFFICER

examines their heads one by one, checking scalp and eyelashes for lice.

They pass a well-dressed young man cranking the handle of a wooden Biograph

"cinematograph" camera mounted on a tripod. NANIEL MARVIN (whose father

founded the Biograph Film Studio) is filming his young bride in front of

the Titanic. MARY MARVIN stands stiffly and smiles, self conscious.

DANIEL:

Look up at the ship, darling, that's it. You're amazed! You can't believe

how big it is! Like a mountain. That's great.

Mary Marvin, without an acting fiber in her body, does a bad Clara Bow

pantomime of awe, hands raised.

Cal is jostled by two yelling steerage boys who shove past him. And he is

bumped again a second later by the boys' father.

CAL:

Steady!!

MAN:

Sorry squire!

The Cockney father pushes on, after his kids, shouting.

CAL:

Steerage swine. Apparently missed his annual bath.

RUTH:

Honestly, Cal, if you weren't forever booking everything at the last

instant, we could have gone through the terminal instead of running along

the dock like some squalid immigrant family.

CAL:

All part of my charm, Ruth. At any rate, it was my darling fiancee's beauty

rituals which made us late.

ROSE:

You told me to change.

CAL:

I couldn't let you wear black on sailing day, sweetpea. It's bad luck.

ROSE:

I felt like black.

Cal guides them out of the path of a horse-drawn wagon loaded down with two

tons of OXFORD MARMALADE, in wooden cases, for Titanic's Victualling

Department.

CAL:

Here I've pulled every string I could to book us on the grandest ship in

history, in her most luxurious suites... and you act as if you're going to

your execution.

Rose looks up as the hull of Titanic looms over them...a great iron wall,

Bible black and sever. Cal motions her forward, and she enters the gangway

to the D Deck doors with a sense of overwhelming dread.

OLD ROSE (V.O.)

It was the ship of dreams... to everyone else. To me it was a slave ship,

taking me back to America in chains.

CLOSE ON CAL'S HAND IN SLOW-MOTION as it closes possessively over Rose's

arm. He escorts her up the gangway and the black hull of Titanic swallows

them.

OLD ROSE (V.O.)

Outwardly I was everything a well brought up girl should be. Inside, I was

screaming.

35 CUT TO a SCREAMING BLAST from the mighty triple steam horns on Titanic's

funnels, bellowing their departure warning.

CUT TO:

36 EXT. SOUTHAMPTON DOCKS / TITANIC - DAY

A VIEW OF TITANIC from several blocks away, towering above the terminal

buildings like the skyline of a city. The steamer's whistle echoes across

Southampton.

PULL BACK, revealing that we were looking through a window, and back

further to show the smoky inside of a pub. It is crowded with dockworkers

and ship;s crew.

Just inside the window, a poker game is in progress. FOUR MEN, in working

class clothes, play a very serious hand.

JACK DAWSON and FABRIZIO DE ROSSI, both about 20, exchange a glance as the

other two players argue in Swedish. Jack is American, a lanky drifter with

his hair a little long for the standards of the times. He is also unshaven,

and his clothes are rumpled from sleeping in them. He is an artist, and has

adopted the bohemian style of art scene in Paris. He is also very

self-possessed and sure-footed for 20, having lived on his own since 15.

The TWO SWEDES continue their sullen argument, in Swedish.

OLAF:

(subtitled)

You stupid fishhead. I can't believe you bet our tickets.

SVEN:

(subtitled)

You lost our money. I'm just trying to get it back. Now shutup and take a

card.

JACK:

(jaunty)

Hit me again, Sven.

Jack takes the card and slips it into his hand.

ECU JACK'S EYES. They betray nothing.

CLOSE ON FABRIZIO licking his lips nervously as he refuses a card.

ECU STACK in the middle of the table. Bills and coins from four counrties.

This has been going on for a while. Sitting on top of the money are two 3RD

CLASS TICKETS for RMS TITANIC.

The Titanic's whistle blows again. Final warning.

JACK:

The moment of truth boys. Somebody's life's about to change.

Fabrizio puts his cards down. So do the Swedes. Jack holds his close.

JACK:

Let's see... Fabrizio's got niente. Olaf, you've got squat. Sven, uh oh...

two pair... mmm.

(turns to his friend)

Sorry Fabrizio.

FABRIZIO:

What sorry? What you got? You lose my money?? Ma va fa'n culo testa di

cazzo--

JACK:

Sorry, you're not gonna see your mama again for a long time...

He slaps a full house down on the table.

JACK:

(grinning)

'Cause you're goin' to America!! Full house boys!

FABRIZIO:

Porca Madonna!! YEEAAAAA!!!

The table explodes into shouting in several languages. Jack rakes in the

money and the tickets.

JACK:

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