Twentieth Century Page #8
- Year:
- 1934
- 91 min
- 576 Views
He's part of something horrible in my life.
George, don't leave me with him.
What an exit. Not a word.
Thas what we should have had
in The Heart of Kentucky...
when Michael leaves Mary Jo in the first act.
Go and crawl back under your stone
or wherever you came from.
I'll be back in a few minutes
with a little surprise.
Something I've been promising you
for seven years.
Owen, I've just played a scene.
Sardou might have written it.
I have her in the perfect mood,
and we must strike at once.
Where's Oliver with that contract?
Let' s hurry. Come on. We've got to get at it.
- You're back all ready to forgive me.
- No.
I don't care to be forgiven by you.
You won't be. I came for my hat.
- Get it and get out.
- It happens that you're sitting on it.
Why do people keep hammering at me?
Hammering and hammering...
- You're hysterical.
- It happens I'm as calm as a fish.
Lying to me. Swearing on your love
and honor. You're a fake.
I'm a fake?
What are you laughing at?
- I'll tell you. I have lied to you.
- What?
All those opera tenors, acrobats,
that Italian bicycle rider I told you about.
They're all lies. The only man in my life...
- was that cavalier in there, Oscar Jaffe.
- What are you telling me?
- I was completely loyal to him.
- Loyal?
Of course. He watched me like a hawk.
And you wanted my respect.
Who cares about your respect?
I'm too big to be respected.
Men I've known have understood that.
- Men you've known? Jaffe, you mean.
- Yes, Jaffe.
He'll tell you what I am:
a first-class passenger entitled to privileges.
Oh, an artist.
You're darned tooting I am.
George, you bore me.
Don't worry. It won't be for long.
My last words to you are that I hate you.
I despise you.
Now get out of...
Why do they keep hammering at me?
Hammering and hammering...
- Sadie, I'm all...
- Come on.
Give me my makeup. Stop pushing me.
Come on, Owen. We've got to find that.
That eliminates the lover. Come on, Owen.
Get Oliver with that contract.
I'll do my best, sire, but we've
crossed the river and I've lost the scent.
Hello, Sadie.
I'm surprised
you haven't been around to see me.
Same old rosy cheeks.
Miss Garland is taking a nap.
Poor child. No one understands her.
Now listen, Sadie. Always take care of her.
Promise me that.
She's very delicate. I think I'll sit.
I'm sorry if I woke you up.
- Get out of here, Sadie.
- He sneaked in through that door.
I know. I'll call you if I need you.
What do you want, scorpion?
If it makes you any happier
to call me names, go ahead.
Oscar, you're complete.
The most horrible excuse for a human being
that ever walked on two legs.
You've always misunderstood me, Lily.
No matter what I said, if he'd been a lover...
a real man...
he'd have taken you in his arms,
he'd have been tender.
Instead of that, he stalked out of the room...
like a Reverend Henry Davidson in Rain.
Your philosophy of love doesn't interest me,
Mr. Jaffe.
I wish I could dismiss it like that, but I can't.
When I love a woman, I'm an Oriental.
Phooey.
Love blinded me. That was the trouble
between us as producer and artist.
So thas what it was, was it?
How about your name in electric lights
bigger than everybody's...
your delusion
that you were a Shakespeare...
and a Napoleon and a Grand Lama of Tibet
all rolled into one.
- You're absolutely right.
- What?
I'm big enough to admit it.
I never appreciated your real greatness
till I lost you.
How small, how cheap,
what egotism not to know...
that it was Lily Garland
instead of Oscar Jaffe that really mattered.
When you ran around telling people...
that you put chalk marks on the stage
so I'd know where to stand...
that you had to teach me to talk,
like a parrot.
It was despicable.
- I could cut my throat.
- If you did, greasepaint would run out of it.
That' s the trouble with you, Oscar,
with both of us.
We're not people. We're lithographs.
We don't know anything about love
unless is written and rehearsed.
We're only real in between curtains.
- Why, Lily, you're crying.
- Sure.
I turn on a faucet. It' s that sort of scene.
- That' s the devil of it.
- That' s the pity of it, you mean.
Those movies you were in, a sacrilege
throwing you away on things like that.
When I left that movie house...
I felt some magnificent ruby
had been thrown into a platter of lard.
You put yourself back 10 years,
but we can mend all that.
You'll be greater than ever, Lily Garland.
Listen, if all this adagio is...
by any chance preliminary to a contract,
you can save your breath.
- Contract?
- What are you talking about?
You'd give anything
to get my name on a contract.
I came in here with a dream
we both had long ago:
the last step of the golden stair.
The courtesan, the great courtesan role.
"Look out. Look out."
What is it this time...
the big drama about Hairpin Annie,
the pride of the gashouse?
No, Lily.
This happens to be
about the greatest woman of all time.
Just her memory...
has kept the world weeping for centuries.
- The Magdalene.
- You mean that play by Sudermann?
Sudermann? That German hack?
Listen to me. I'm going to put on
the Passion Play in New York...
with Lily Garland as the Magdalene.
I've had it up my sleeve all this time,
waiting for the right moment.
The wickedest woman of her age...
sensual, heartless...
but beautiful,
corrupting everything she touches...
running the gamut from the gutter to glory.
Can you see her, Lily?
This little wanton...
ending up in tears at the foot of the cross.
I'm going to have Judas
strangle himself with her hair.
No, wait.
Why not have Judas drink the poison
that was intended for me?
Lily, that' s an inspiration. Go on,
while you're in the creative mood.
I'll tell you how I can see the whole thing.
I can see the Magdalene...
as a woman who was an aristocrat
at the beginning...
and after being heartbroken
by some man she loved madly and trusted...
she went down...
down...
Into the depths.
Hating and despising all men.
Laughing at them, so cruel, so terrible.
Lily, if this play runs for five years,
I won't make a dollar.
You can have all the money.
All I want to do is to stagger New York.
A desert scene, with a hundred camels.
And real sand, brought from the Holy Land.
I'm going to have a Babylonian banquet
with your slaves around you.
You're covered in emeralds in that scene,
from head to foot, and nothing else.
Suddenly you catch sight
of your greatest menace...
the soothsayer.
$40 a week.
Nevertheless, you go directly into
your snake dance.
It' s terrific, but it' s nothing compared
to the finish, where you stand in rags...
and the Emperor Nero himself
offers you half his empire.
You answer him
with one of the greatest speeches...
ever written in the history of literature...
with all the lights pouring down on you...
transfigured by love and sacrifice.
And the last we see of you
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"Twentieth Century" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Dec. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/twentieth_century_22384>.
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