Trumbo Page #10

On a sunny morning, her three children eating breakfast

around her, Cleo finishes this letter.

DALTON TRUMBO (V.O.)

Yet in all this, I know I’m the

luckiest unlucky man ever to live...

because you and the children warm,

feed, clothe, pacify and rejuvenate

me, by never leaving my heart.

Love, Prisoner Number 7551.

She touches the paper tenderly, gets up and moves to

shoeboxes that overflow with Trumbo letters, adding this one.

INT. ASHLAND FEDERAL PRISON - MESS HALL - NIGHT

All chairs face a screen as Trumbo and SEVERAL HUNDRED

PRISONERS and GUARDS watch a war movie.

UP ON THE MOVIE SCREEN - JOHN WAYNE

Plays a gung-ho soldier, barking orders amid backlot GUNFIRE.

BACK DOWN IN THE AUDIENCE

Trumbo smokes and watches. Sitting next to him, Virgil

Brooks is totally caught up in the war drama.

TRUMBO - JOHN MCNAMARA 54.

INT. ASHLAND FEDERAL PRISON - CORRIDOR - NIGHT

Trumbo, Brooks, Prisoners and Guards walk back to the dorm.

BROOKS:

You know John Wayne?

DALTON TRUMBO:

I do.

BROOKS:

What’s he like?

DALTON TRUMBO:

You’d love each other.

EXT. THE BROWN DERBY - TO ESTABLISH - DAY

It was, in fact, an enormous, brown, stucco hat.

INT. THE BROWN DERBY - CONTINUOUS

Near the front door, the MAITRE D’ slides Hedda’s coat on.

A MAN (O.S.)

‘Scuse me? Are you Hedda Hopper?

She turns and sees a YOUNG ENLISTED MAN in an army uniform,

awkward, nervous, respectful, whose empty right sleeve is

pinned up. He’s lost an arm.

HEDDA HOPPER:

I -- yes, hello, how do you -- ?

She holds out her right hand, is instantly mortified, but the

Enlisted Man clasps her right with his left.

ENLISTED MAN:

I don’t mean to bother you, I’m

here with my cousin, he’s a gaffer

at Columbia? Thought he’d treat me

to the big time. I read you a lot,

all the guys do. Not just the

showbiz stuff. You get what’s

really going on, with Russia, the

Commies here, the investigations.

Thank you.

HEDDA HOPPER:

Where did you serve?

ENLISTED MAN:

Korea.

(CONTINUED)

TRUMBO - JOHN MCNAMARA 55.

CONTINUED:

HEDDA HOPPER:

And you’re how old...?

ENLISTED MAN:

(proudly)

Next month I’ll be twenty.

She has no words, just looks at this boy, struck to her core.

EXT. LAZY-T RANCH - LAKE - DAY

March, 1951. An Appaloosa horse stands against the mountain

range, lazily dipping its head to chew grass, then raising it

to scan the horizon.

Nearby, Cleo focuses her camera on the majestic animal. She

CLICKS off several shots. Chris is nearby, holding spare

film canisters and lenses.

CHRIS:

Mom.

CLEO:

Mm?

CHRIS:

I’ve got a new one.

She glances at Chris, who uses his hands to shove his cheeks

in toward each other -- then smiles, making his mouth kind of

a chubby vertical smile. Cleo chuckles and aims her camera

at him.

NIKI (O.S.)

Mom!

She turns. Her daughter is at the back door of the main

house.

NIKI (CONT’D)

You better come quick!

INT. LAZY-T RANCH - LIVING ROOM - DAY

Chris and Cleo enter, Niki crouched in front of the enormous

radio, dialing a clearer reception.

STRIPLING (ON RADIO)

...ever been a member of the

Communist Party?

(CONTINUED)

TRUMBO - JOHN MCNAMARA 56.

CONTINUED:

EDWARD G. ROBINSON (ON RADIO)

I am not now nor have I ever been a

member of that party, no...

INT. U.S. CAPITOL - CAUCUS ROOM - CONTINUOUS

EDWARD G. ROBINSON

...I have always been a liberal

Democrat.

Robinson is in the same seat Trumbo occupied. But no longer

a packed circus, it is now a rehearsed degradation ceremony.

Robinson speaks into radio microphones splayed before him as

he looks into the eyes of Investigator Robert Stripling.

STRIPLING:

But in your home, over the years,

there have been political meetings.

Attended by those we now know to be

Communists.

EDWARD G. ROBINSON

Yes sir, yes, that has now been

made clear to me... there were

tremendous activities that went on

in my house during the war...

EXT. TEXARKANA FEDERAL PRISON - DAY

A cinder-block Texas facility on a brown, scrubby flat.

EDWARD G. ROBINSON (ON RADIO)

...but I did not know then their

true affiliations... the work they

were up to...

INT. TEXARKANA FEDERAL PRISON - HOSPITAL WING - CONTINUOUS

Arlen Hird lies in a bed among A DOZEN other infirm

PRISONERS, hearing through an old oaken radio:

EDWARD G. ROBINSON (ON RADIO)

...the lies...

Most of these prisoners could not care less -- but Hird is

gravely riveted by Robinson’s testimony.

EDWARD G. ROBINSON (ON RADIO) (CONT’D)

...the deception.

TRUMBO - JOHN MCNAMARA 57.

INT. ASHLAND FEDERAL PRISON - MESS HALL - DAY

Most PRISONERS ignore the hearing CRACKLING on a small radio,

but a FEW, including Virgil Brooks and Trumbo, listen.

Congressman Thomas, wiping down tables, is far away... but

listens intently, glancing occasionally at --

Trumbo, stony, a flicker of sadness in his eyes -

INT. U.S. CAPITOL - CAUCUS ROOM - CONTINUOUS

-- as Robinson’s eyes harden, a man determined -

EDWARD G. ROBINSON

I was duped and used. I was lied

to.

INT. LAZY-T RANCH - LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS

-- Cleo’s eyes close. The kids are transfixed.

STRIPLING (ON RADIO)

Who used you?

INT. U.S. CAPITOL - CAUCUS ROOM - CONTINUOUS

EDWARD G. ROBINSON

Well, these... sinister forces who

ran these... organizations in which

I became a member, these.... uh, so-

called Communist fronts.

STRIPLING:

Tell us the names of individuals.

INT. ASHLAND FEDERAL PRISON - MESS - CONTINUOUS

Trumbo and Thomas, across the room from one another, both

wait.

STRIPLING (ON RADIO)

(after a beat)

Mr. Robinson?

INT. U.S. CAPITOL - CAUCUS ROOM - CONTINUOUS

EDWARD G. ROBINSON

Well, you had Albert Maltz, uh,

Ring Lardner, Jr., and that top

fellow who they say is the, uh,

commissar out there...

(CONTINUED)

TRUMBO - JOHN MCNAMARA 58.

CONTINUED:

STRIPLING:

Arlen Hird?

EDWARD G. ROBINSON

Yes...

INT. TEXARKANA FEDERAL PRISON - HOSPITAL WING - CONTINUOUS

Arlen Hird is unflinching as he hears --

EDWARD G. ROBINSON (ON RADIO)

...Arlen Hird. Waldo Salt, Ian

McLellan Hunter.

INT. ASHLAND FEDERAL PRISON - MESS - CONTINUOUS

EDWARD G. ROBINSON (ON RADIO)

And Dalton...

-- as is Trumbo --

INT. U.S. CAPITOL - CAUCUS ROOM - CONTINUOUS

EDWARD G. ROBINSON

...Trumbo.

-- Robinson feels relief, hoping this is all now behind him.

INT. ASHLAND FEDERAL PRISON - MESS - CONTINUOUS

Brooks looks at the radio, disgusted, as we hear -

EDWARD G. ROBINSON (ON RADIO)

But at the time, it never entered

my mind that any of these people

were Communists...

BROOKS:

(to Trumbo)

That guy’s a friend of yours?

(no response from Trumbo)

Lucky he’s out there.

And though he speaks to Trumbo, he speaks at Thomas:

BROOKS (CONT’D)

Snitch like that in here, you’re

f***in’ dead.

Trumbo leaves a terrified Thomas with a smiling Brooks.

TRUMBO - JOHN MCNAMARA 59.

INT. MOTION PICTURE ALLIANCE OFFICES - LOBBY - DAY

BUSTLING. CROWDED. Edward G. Robinson is seated. Waiting.

His eyes flick to a closed door. Stenciled on it: JOHN

WAYNE, PRESIDENT.

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