While the City Sleeps Page #4

Synopsis: Death of media magnat Amos Kyne is causing power struggle between his executives. In the meantime New York women become prey of a serial killer. Reporter Edward Mobley is in that circumstances faced with almost impossible missions: to catch the killer, to prevent the media empire from falling into the wrong hands and to save his romantic relationship from break-up.
Director(s): Fritz Lang
Production: RKO Radio Pictures
 
IMDB:
7.0
Rotten Tomatoes:
89%
NOT RATED
Year:
1956
100 min
251 Views


Promise.

Well, Pilsky's fingerprints

Are on the murder weapon.

Oh, thanks, Tim.

You won't regret it.

Aah!

Wait.

Wait till I'm out of the office.

Mark loving, sister, quick.

Mark? I've got the inside

dope on the Felton case.

What?

Great work, Gerald!

That's great. Hold the line.

Phone in to Walter Kyne

That I've cracked the lipstick case.

Joe, Gerald Meade's on my line, take it.

Give me the call on Mr. Loving's line.

Don't give it to the copy desk,

Feed it directly to the wire.

Tom!

Good morning.

'Morning, mark.

Want to make a bet?

On what?

On me.

Man:
hold it, Jim.

Cal, who sent it?

Washington.

Break them. Give this 4 bells.

Mark.

Can I believe this?

You cracked the lipstick case.

Ha ha! I certainly did!

We've got a scoop on the

biggest story in the country.

Did this go over the wire?

For god's sake!

Oh, I'll be-

Mark's killing it.

Killing it? What's the matter with him?

That idiot Meade.

What's the matter with you?

Wasn't he quoting a cop?

Nothing a cop says outside

a courtroom is privileged.

What do you mean by that?

Anything you repeat,

No matter from what source,

If it doesn't sit under oath,

You'd better stand on it yourself.

What do you mean?

He means if the old man didn't kill her,

It's libel.

Libel!

You could be sued.

Any newspaper that

uses your wire service

Could be sued.

Well, what kind of a wire

service are you running, anyway?

I killed it, didn't I?

You two don't have to

quote me the law of libel!

Of course not, Walter.

You missed something, ed.

Meade almost scuttled loving.

Look-

Read that copy, Jon.

Huh? Ha ha!

Sensational.

Can you substantiate?

Nope.

May be a pipe dream.

But if it is, Kaufman and

I are smoking together.

In any case, I'm going on

the air with it in 5 minutes.

Hold it for the paper, ed.

Let me hit the street with it by 7:00.

Use it in your night show.

Is that what you want?

I want to get the job, that's the idea.

And to get the job,

I'll stick a knife in anybody I have to.

Oh, I know, I know!

If I had any ethics left,

I'd give it to loving for his wire.

Ok, ok. I'll take it to him myself.

Don't call yourself my

boy, Meade! You're through!

Meade, you're through.

When you killed that bulletin,

You promised your clients a new lead.

I think that will do it.

Great scot!

You got one-Minute lead

On Mobley's telecast.

That boyfriend of yours

who set out to help me,

He just put your boss

a mile out in front.

Announcer:
Mr. Walter Kyne presents

The distinguished author, columnist,

And Pulitzer prize

- Winner Edward Mobley

In his perceptive

analysis of the day's news-

It's already on the

wire. Wait till you hear.

Ladies and gentlemen,

At approximately 3:00 a. m.

This morning, in our city,

One human being took

the life of another.

In our world, acts of

violence are not rare.

And so my excuse,

Or, I should say, my reason,

For giving importance

to this particular story,

Is my hope that the killer

may be listening to me.

For I believe that in

his progress to the chair

Or to the insane asylum

That he has reached a way station,

Where his sick and warped

ego demands to be fed

With the milk of self-Importance.

And so, with the consent of

a very good friend of mine,

Who is by way of being a

remarkable criminologist,

But who has also asked that

his name not be credited,

I'm going to say a few

things to the killer,

Face to face.

Item 1-

Mr. Unknown,

You will not for very

long remain unknown.

Item 2-

You're husky.

Strong enough to have

choked to death this morning

A poor schoolteacher by

the name of Laura Kelly.

Item 3-

You are the same killer

Who, last week, bludgeoned to death

A girl by the name of Judith Felton.

You are the lipstick killer.

Item 4-

You read the so-Called comic books.

Item 5-

You have dark-Brown hair.

A few strands of your hair were found

Beneath the fingernails

of your latest victim.

Item 6-

You're young.

A crime lab examination

of your hair reveals

That you're approximately

20 years of age.

Item 7-

You're a mama's boy.

Item 8-

The normal feeling of love

That you should have toward your mother

Has been twisted into hatred, for her-

And all of her sex.

Item 9-

Mother:
may I come in, dear?

I heard the television,

so I knew you were up.

It must have been about 4:00

When I heard you come in this morning.

I don't like working so late.

Oh, I know.

I know how it is with my boy-

Studying all day, working all night,

And I know how difficult

it has been for you

Ever since your father left us.

He's not my father!

And you're not my mother.

Robert, don't say that.

Why not? It's true, isn't it?

When you adopted me, you

wanted a girl, didn't you?

And he wanted a boy!

Neither one of you was

satisfied, were you?

I remember once when I was 8 years old-

8 years old!

I was helping you dust the house,

And that woman from across

the street came over and said,

"My, my. "

And you said, "yes, I know.

"He's exactly like a

little girl, isn't he?"

But, Robert, you are my son

And my daughter

And all the children I ever

wished I could have had.

Don't you love your mother?

Shall I show you how

much I love my mother?

Oh, I have such a good boy!

Now I'll bring your breakfast.

You must be awfully hungry.

Mobley:
and so, with

this most happy news

About my personal life,

I close until I visit with you again

At 11:
00 tonight.

In the meantime,

For any further developments in

the case of the lipstick killer,

Read the sentinel, which

hits your newsstands

With its first edition

at 7:
00 this evening.

Griffith:
did he really get

Nancy's ok on this thing?

He must have.

Kaufman:
here, he's bringing her.

Hi.

Burt, it's good to see you.

Hello, Burt.

Nancy. Jon.

Tonight, we celebrate.

Thanks, Jon. It's worth getting engaged.

That was a pretty flossy

Telecast your boy did.

Now we've got to get

ready for the next step.

What do you mean?

Haven't you talked this over with Nancy?

The next step is to the altar.

I'm talking it over with her now.

Nancy, you got the idea of my telecast,

To insult the killer.

Yes.

He'll get mad at me and anybody I like.

And if I know his maniacal mind,

Sooner or later, he'll come out,

After the bait.

Well...

what bait?

Ha! Some nice girl,

Like the other two.

Who?

Ha ha! A nice girl with

a button lock on her door.

You mean someone named "Nancy. "

Ahem! Nancy, you see

that man in the dark suit

Sitting over at the bar?

His name is Mike O'Leary.

He's a plainclothesman

from Burt's department.

From now on, he'll be your shadow.

He'll take you to the red cross tonight,

And then home to your room,

And make sure the door is locked.

Mornings, you won't leave

Until he's there to go

with you, wherever you go.

You'll be safer than you've

ever been in your life before.

That's the kind of guy

you're going to marry.

I like the kind of

guy I'm going to marry.

I told him last night

I'd do anything for him.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes

Casey Robinson

Kenneth Casey Robinson (October 17, 1903 – December 6, 1979) was an American producer and director of mostly B movies and a screenwriter responsible for some of Bette Davis' most revered films. Film critic Richard Corliss once described him as "the master of the art – or craft – of adaptation." more…

All Casey Robinson scripts | Casey Robinson Scripts

0 fans

Submitted on August 05, 2018

Discuss this script with the community:

0 Comments

    Translation

    Translate and read this script in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "While the City Sleeps" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/while_the_city_sleeps_23356>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest writers community and scripts collection on the web!

    The Studio:

    ScreenWriting Tool

    Write your screenplay and focus on the story with many helpful features.


    Quiz

    Are you a screenwriting master?

    »
    Who directed the movie "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"?
    A Peter Jackson
    B James Cameron
    C Steven Spielberg
    D George Lucas