Night for Day

by Patrick Flanery

  INT. ZAPATERO LIVING ROOM - DAY

  Rose Zapatero’s living room is full of shabby furniture and black wrought-iron fixtures. Rose is twenty-five if she’s a day but she’s already seen twice as much life.

  Orph and Faye stand under an arch in the threshold of the room, Faye in her neat white suit and Orph in his dark one. Next to each other, they look like bride and groom.

  Rose clears away newspapers and magazines before showing Orph to a chair, then seating Faye on the davenport. All the while the kid on her waist squawks demands.

  ROSE (CONT’D)

  If I’d known you was coming I’d have cleaned up a little. But where’s Ursula? There’s nothing wrong – but – oh my goodness there must be something wrong, just look at your faces! Oh my stars!

  Rose’s hand flies to her mouth as she glances back and forth between Faye and Orph. The child screams.

  ROSE (CONT’D)

  I swear, Maggie, one day I’ll kill you.

  Realizing what she’s said Rose looks embarrassed, puts her hand to the child’s head, smooths down the golden curls and kisses her on the brow.

  ROSE (CONT’D)

  (to Orph and Faye)

  Don’t think I’m a bad mother. It ain’t been easy since Lawrence died.

  FAYE

  I’m sorry, Rose. It must be difficult.

  ORPH

  Thing is, my wife, Ursula that is, she disappeared a couple days ago.

  ORPH (V.O.)

  Then I told Mrs. Zapatero what had happened, how strange Ursula had seemed, and how she’d vanished up in the Sierras.

  As Orph tells his story, Rose looks more and more concerned, her eyes locked on his, as if his voice is casting a spell. She’s mesmerized.

  ROSE

  You say there was a man at the lake? Didn’t you get a good look at him?

  ORPH

  It was too far away to be clear. But he was taller than me I’d guess, and built like the sharp end of a V-2.

  ROSE

  Course I don’t want to point you in the wrong direction, but I wonder –

  FAYE

  What is it, Rose?

  ORPH

  If you know anything, you gotta tell us.

  ROSE

  Just that Ursula mentioned some trouble with a fella who’d loaned her money. Now I don’t say I know what the money was for or nothing, but his name was Woody Montez and he helped out a few of the girls at Malavita, you know, when they couldn’t make it to payday.

  ORPH

  You don’t mean a loan shark?

  FAYE

  I have to say, Rose, that doesn’t sound like my sister.

  ROSE

  All I know is Ursula mentioned having to go see Woody. I coulda used a hand every now and again myself but I was worried, see, about what such a racket might lead to. I mean a girl’s gotta be careful when it’s just her and a kid – shut up now Maggie or I swear I’ll belt you one – and you don’t know what a fella like Woody Montez might do if you missed a payment.

  ORPH

  You know how to find him?

  ROSE

  Ursula always met him at Café Casino, that burlesque joint on South Main. Pretty pungent stuff. Woody’s across the street most days in his car, ‘doing business’. I bet you’ll find him there all right.

  EXT. ZAPATERO HOUSE - DAY

  As Faye and Orph leave the house Faye glances over her shoulder at Rose, pauses, and slips a couple twenties to her. Rose nods and gives Faye a wink. Orph is already halfway to the car.

  ROSE (CONT’D)

  Will you shut up, Maggie? I swear one day I’m gonna kill you!

  INT. FAYE’S CAR - DAY

  Faye pulls away from Rose’s house, checking the rearview mirror and watching as Eddie Majestic’s dark coupe begins to follow.

  ORPH

  Help me out, Faye, because this doesn’t make sense. Ursula said she was on good money at the club and I was sending home most of what I earned. Why would she need a loan shark?

  FAYE

  I admit it sounds strange, but people have secrets, Orph – Ursula especially. She was always mysterious, even with me. Maybe you never understood that about her.

  ORPH

  Mysterious how?

  FAYE

  Oh, just little things at first, when we were girls. If someone invited her to a party and didn’t ask me along she’d say she was going to the library to study, and I’d have to hear about it from somebody else.

  ORPH

  Maybe she didn’t want to upset you.

  Faye shakes her head and smiles, as if pained by the memory. In the mirror, Eddie Majestic’s coupe is a couple cars behind them.

  FAYE

  You’re sweet, Orph – too sweet for my sister, if you’ll forgive me saying so. I always knew I was the unpopular one. We might have looked the same but we couldn’t have been less alike. I was the studious girl. I was the one with my head in the books and my heart on my sleeve. I knew when Ursula said she was going to the library it had to be a lie. I learned fast not to ask for the truth. It was that way all through school. The only time we were ever together was during choir practice, and she was the one who shined, you know, the girl with all the solos, belting out her Ave Marias. Then, in the year after I graduated, I met Jack, and everything changed. I’m just lucky Ursula didn’t meet him first.

  FLASHBACK TO:

  INT. DINER - DAY

  A much younger-looking Faye reads a newspaper dated June 1, 1941. She’s drinking a milkshake, more like a kid than a young woman, perched at the counter.

  The door opens and a fresh-faced Jack ‘Shade’ Plutone rolls in, except his roll is punctuated by a limp and a cane that he handles as if it were an affectation instead of a necessity, swinging and pointing it to draw attention to its polished wooden shaft and intricate silver handle. It’s the first time we’ve seen him walking.

  Hanging on a stool at the other end of the counter, Jack can’t keep his eyes off Faye. She notices him watching and turns, swiveling on her stool. He picks up his cup of coffee and moves to the opposite end of the counter, closer to Faye, so he’s directly in her line of sight.

  Aware of his gaze, Faye sucks the straw and turns away from Jack once more. He moves again, returning to the side where he started, but a little closer this time. She turns, he moves, she turns again, and on the final move Jack sits right next to her. It’s chess by soda counter, and nothing but a queen and king left on the board.

  JACK

  You should watch out. You might get dizzy and fall down.

  Faye blushes and looks away from him.

  FAYE

  I’ve never fallen in my life.

  JACK

  What if someone was there to catch you?

  FAYE

  A fireman, maybe?

  JACK

  Oh no, firemen, you don’t want nothing to do with them. They’ve got hot hands.

  Jack holds up his palms, puts them together and draws them quickly apart, as though singed by flames. He shakes the right hand, blowing on it. Faye smiles.

  FAYE

  Maybe I’m chilly. A little warmth might do me good.

  JACK

  Where I’m sitting it’s about 500 degrees. Maybe you do need a fireman. Lemme give you a lift to the station.

  FAYE

  I imagine a girl who takes lifts from you needs rescuing. Whoever you are.

  JACK

  I’m Jack.

  FAYE

  Couldn’t you be more original? You might at least call yourself Walter or Monte or Wally.

  Jack produces a wallet and shows her his driver’s license. CLOSE UP on the license, and his face, which is a little too cocksure, menacing but seductive, and the name JACK PLUTONE in clear black letters. Faye smiles when she sees he isn’t lying and she finishes her milkshake.

  JACK

  I’m original in other ways. Let me show you.

  Faye hesitates, then notices Jack’s car key and the convertible in the parking l
ot.

  FLASHBACK MONTAGE

  The scene dissolves to a montage of the couple together, driving fast in Jack’s car along the coast, eating romantic dinners, going to horse races, playing blackjack at a casino, Jack always acting like the perfect gentleman, helping Faye out of his car and waiting while she takes his arm.

  FAYE (V.O.)

  I’d hardly attracted the attention of any boy in all my school years and I didn’t want Ursula to know about Jack. I guess I was just as secretive with her as she was with me, but I was so afraid that if she met Jack she’d want him for herself, and I’d be back where I always was, with my head in a book. Life started fast with Jack. Everything about him was fast. It was thrilling and I wanted to keep it all to myself for as long as I could.

  EXT. CIRO’S - EVENING

  Jack and Faye arrive at Ciro’s in his convertible and he leads her up the shallow steps to the entrance.

  His limp and cane look more than ever like the props of a man trying to make a mark.

  FAYE

  But isn’t this where all the movie stars come?

  JACK

  We’re not here for two-bit stars. There’s a horn player I want you to know.

  INT. CIRO’S - EVENING

  Ciro’s opulence is a little too sophisticated for Faye. She checks her dress against the gowns around the room.

  FAYE

  Do I look all right, Jack?

  JACK

  Mrs. Asterbilt in the flesh.

  On stage Orph is playing lead trumpet in a performance of ‘Song of the Volga Boatmen’. As Jack and Faye take a table at the edge of the dance floor the two brothers wave to each other. When the number is finished, Orph runs over to join them.

  ORPH

  Jackie! Shoulda told me you were coming!

  JACK

  What, and give you the chance to back out on me?

  Orph notices Faye.

  ORPH

  Wowza! Looks like you hit a gusher. Aren’t you going to introduce me?

  JACK

  Hey, wise guy, be polite around the lady. This is Faye, the girl keeping me up nights for the last month, and

  (to Faye)

  this is my oldest and dearest burden, I mean brother, Orph Patterson. Hippest horn south of San Francisco. Not bad on the keys, either. In fact, he can play just about anything.

  FAYE

  Pleased to meet you, Orph. But Jack, you never told me you had a brother.

  JACK

  (teasing)

  Believe me, I try to forget it.

  FAYE

  But I don’t understand, why the different last names?

  JACK

  Let’s just say our mother was unlucky in love the first time. My old man croaked before I knew him but I got stuck with the name.

  ORPH

  Listen, kids, I have to get back up there, but stick around afterwards and we’ll have a drink.

  JACK

  You hear this? Kids he calls us! Why I oughta...

  INT. CIRO’S - CONTINUOUS

  The scene dissolves through a brief interlude of Orph playing, although as the evening continues he can’t keep his eyes off Faye and more than once he almost misses his entrance until the BANDLEADER raps him on the head with his baton. Orph shakes himself out of the trance and struggles to focus on the music but remains spellbound by Faye.

  FAYE (V.O.)

  When I met you I knew I couldn’t keep Ursula a secret from Jack, or Jack a secret from Ursula, and that scared me more than anything, Orph.

  INT. CIRO’S - LATER

  Faye looks preoccupied, glancing between the two brothers. Jack may be in love with Faye but Orph has seen a vision of something he doesn’t know how to live without, and Faye seems to sense it.

  FAYE (V.O.) (CONT’D)

  So I decided I had to tell Ursula before she found out on her own.

  INT. FAYE AND URSULA’S BEDROOM - DAY

  Looking at each other’s reflections in their respective mirrors, the twin sisters sit at matching vanity tables on opposite sides of the bedroom.

  FAYE (V.O.) (CONT’D)

  Both of us were living at home, you remember, as if we hadn’t stopped being children. I guess in a way we hadn’t.

  Faye’s hands shake as she puts down her lipstick and turns to Ursula. As beautiful as Faye is, she doesn’t have the same gifts of style and poise as Ursula.

  URSULA

  What is it, dear? You look like you’re about to boil over.

  FAYE

  Can you keep a secret?

  URSULA

  You’re running away at last!

  FAYE

  No! Well, not quite. Oh, Ursula, I’ve met a boy.

  Ursula drops her lipstick and turns to face Faye.

  URSULA

  Just what kind of boy?

  FAYE

  His name’s Jack and he’s very handsome and I think I’m in love with him.

  FAYE (V.O.)

  Then I told her all about him, and everywhere he’d taken me, and meeting you, Orph, and then, all at once, I felt that fear again...

  FAYE

  I’m warning you, Ursula, if you ever try to take Jack away from me I’ll, I’ll... why I’ll kill you, I swear I will.

  Faye realizes what she’s said and looks shocked, but not as much as Ursula.

  URSULA

  Cool off, little sister, I won’t go near your sugar daddy.

  FAYE

  He’s not a sugar daddy! It’s nothing like that! This is why I was afraid to tell you. Oh but I wanted you to know, because I just can’t tell you how happy I am!

  URSULA

  You say he has a brother?

  Faye looks surprised, but then her face settles, as if a path out of trouble has presented itself.

  FAYE

  Yes, as a matter of fact.

  URSULA

  That’s fine then. One for you... And one for me.

  INT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT

  The two couples are out to dinner, Faye and Ursula in the middle of a crescent-shaped booth, Jack and Orph on the outside. Ursula, who seems to know she got the handsomer of the two brothers, looks as though she’s won a prize.

  BACK TO PRESENT:

  INT. FAYE’S CAR - DAY

  On the Arroyo Seco Parkway, Faye and Orph glide over the hill toward downtown Los Angeles, throwing their faces into shadow.

  FAYE

  It was like fate had written the story before we knew we were part of it. I have to admit I was relieved Jack had a brother. It meant Ursula could have what I did, or something like it, but when she started seeing you, a part of me still worried. You must have begun to realize she didn’t really care about me at all...

  ORPH

  But Faye, what do you mean?

  FAYE

  She knew when Jack and I were getting married and she went ahead and set your wedding for the same day, so it would have to be a double wedding, because she couldn’t stand for me to have my own moment. She had to prove to everyone that she was the most beautiful, and of course she was. She wouldn’t even tell me what her dress looked like until I saw it on the morning of the wedding, and I knew when I saw the train and veil that she’d done everything she could to make me look like the little sister who chose second best, the husband who walked with a limp. With a name like Plutone we were never going to be on the social register.

  The car slices into the shadowy city streets until they pull to a stop outside Café Casino. Across the road a dark sedan sulks, but there’s no one inside.

  ORPH

  What now?

  FAYE

  Let’s check inside the club. Someone’s bound to know where we can find Montez.

  INT. CAFÉ CASINO - DAY

  The club is mostly deserted, chairs upside down on the tables and a JANITOR punching time.

  Orph watches as Faye approaches and talks to the man, but she’s far enough away that he can’t hear what passes between them. She comes back shaking her head.

  FAYE
(CONT’D)

  Says he knows Woody Montez but that’s not his car. Thinks we might find him in Palm Springs. He gave me an address.

  ORPH

  Kinda hot for the desert.

  FAYE

  You wanna find him or don’t you? I’ll take you there but I should phone Jack first to let him know.

  ORPH

  Sure, sure. I’ll wait here.

  INT. CAFÉ CASINO BUSINESS OFFICE - DAY

  Faye picks up a phone in the cramped office. Turning over files and closing doors, she moves like she knows the place a little too well.

  FAYE

  (into the receiver)

  No, darling, he doesn’t expect a thing. I promise, this’ll be the end of it. If Woody can’t make him stop, I’ll end it myself.

  Internal Memo

  April 7, 1950

  To: John Marsh and Desmond Frank

  CC: Leo Krug, Nick Charles

  From: Porter Cherry

  Gentlemen –

  Further to Mr. Breen’s review of the most recent draft of She Turned Away, I have been asked to communicate the following points:

  1. Under no circumstances may there be any suggestion that the Rose Zapatero character is an unwed mother. It must be perfectly clear that she is a widow.

  2. Mr. Breen urges you to eliminate any criticism of the military widow pension plan. This plan is entirely adequate in the vast majority of cases.

  3. Mr. Breen requests that Mrs. Zapatero not threaten her young child with death. Undue crudeness in women and threats of violence against children are unacceptable and unnecessary in a picture of this kind, where they serve only to make a seedy atmosphere more distasteful. He trusts that you will address these concerns so that the portrayal of the Zapatero woman is firmly in the bounds of good taste.

  4. As is expected, Mr. Breen has cautioned us that we must review all costuming decisions for our actresses, and the way our women are being lit and photographed. Breasts, I need not remind you, must be entirely covered throughout the picture. Failure to clothe our actresses as modesty demands will result in the picture’s failure to secure approval for release.