Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald UK (Illustrated)
Page 397
Koster: No he won’t, the twerp. Our license was renewed yesterday. Breuer has withdrawn all opposition.
Pat: In the second place — I’m in no condition —
Lenz: No condition to be left alone. That’s what we thought.
(the music-box stops)
Pat: In the third place, Dr. Jaffé said — that I might have to go away — (she falters) — to the mountains — this Fall.
Bobby (with passion): All the more reason to marry me now — (their eyes meet with meaning) — while it’s still summer.
Pat covers her eyes with her hand — then looks up smiling mistily. There are tears in Lenz’s eyes as he winds the music-box noisily.
Koster: I’ll get them. (at the door) All right, Fraulein.
The music-box tinkles out a delicate waltz as if for the wedding of a marionette, as the Burgermeister, Fraulein Muller, two servants and the little boy and girl from the beach come into the room.
FADE OUT.
172 FADE IN ON:
A SMALL YARD OR AREA-WAY —
— in back of a rundown brick house. Afternoon. An old-fashioned cellar door opens, and four men, one of them Lenz, come out cautiously into the yard and proceed toward a gate. As they open the gate, two shots ring out — one of them splinters the gatepost, another knocks off Lenz’s hat. The men run — we follow Lenz over a high board fence, and then —
DISSOLVE TO:
173 BOBBY’S ROOM IN HIS BOARDING HOUSE
Koster and Jupp are engaged in putting into place some of the things from Pat’s apartment. Matilda, from the garage, is cleaning. As the following scene takes place, they set down a couch, put attractive drapes on tables and bureaus and a fine coverlet on the bed, set up a white lounging chair, hang curtains that are already on rods, transforming — within a short time — a notably bare room into a pleasant and cheerful one.
Koster (setting down his edge of the couch and looking at his watch): I wonder what’s keeping Lenz. The newlyweds will be rolling in any minute.
Matilda: Such a difference the lady’s furniture makes.
Koster (looking around) Yes. It’ll be nice here.
Lenz’s Voice (from the doorway): For a while, anyhow. (THE CAMERA PANS TO HIM) For a little while this room will be a little center of warmth and light — (he comes forward into the room) — in a world of hopelessness and despair.
Koster: What’s the matter with your hat?
Lenz removes it and regards the bullet hole.
Lenz: A peephole from here to eternity. (he sails it out the door) I oughtn’t to bring ill omens here. (he takes a bottle from his pocket) Cognac from Alfons.
Koster: Who shot at you?
Lenz: Oh, I’m fair game. What’s known as a dangerous man.
Jupp (at the window): By Golly, they’re here!
As he rushes toward the door —
CUT TO:
174 THE OLD TAXI —
— drawing up at the door. Bobby helps out Pat who has been reclining against a mass of pillows. Jupp rushes up, bows, smiles and begins taking out bags.
Bobby: Hello, Jupp. Now, darling, I’m going to carry you upstairs.
CUT TO:
175 BOBBY’S ROOM
Koster tying on an apron and putting the bottle on a tray. Lenz starting “Ubers Meer Gruess Ich Dich Heimatland” on the phonograph.
The door opens, and into the transformed room walks Bobby, carrying Pat in his arms. Koster starts forward clowning — but he can’t, and suddenly they are all silent and very moved.
Pat (bravely and with vitality): Hello — Comrades.
Koster (with feeling): Welcome home.
FADE OUT.
176 FADE IN:
A TAXI STAND
Bobby, in the old taxi, pulls up at the end of the row, gets out, lights a cigarette. A big driver gets out of the taxi in front and approaches Bobby.
Taxi Man: Hey, fella, you better get out of here.
Bobby (innocently): Why?
Taxi Man (truculent): You ain’t got no cap. We got too many guys already.
Some other taxi men come up.
Bobby (pleasantly): Friend, I haven’t taken in five marks all day. That’s why I came here. I’ll buy some drinks for an entrance fee.
Taxi Man (angrily): We don’t want no outsiders. Get going!
Another Driver: Ah, let him alone, Gustav.
Gustav (furious): I’ll count three. One —
(Bobby sizes him up)
Bobby (stalling): Wouldn’t a whiskey taste good?
Gustav (unbuttoning his coat): — two —
Bobby (losing his temper): Oh, shut your fat face!
Bobby slams him, connects; Gustav goes down and out.
The Other Driver (with admiration): It won’t hurt him. He’s always asking for it.
They put the man in the cab, and we
DISSOLVE TO:
177 THE INTERIOR OF A CAFE.
BOBBY AND THREE DRIVERS AT TABLE
Bobby: I’ve been driving in the factory district.
The Friendly Driver: This is a good stand. More money than anywhere else in this rotten city. I’m an actor. Pete here is an architect.
Bobby (smiling): I’m in distinguished company. Is there much work at night?
Architect: Sure — lots of drunks. A taxi-driver’s best friend is a drunk.
Gustav comes in, glowering.
Friendly Driver (to Bobby): It’s all right. Keep quiet.
Gustav approaches menacingly; suddenly sits down. Bobby pushes a glass toward him.
Bobby (smiling): Your drink.
Gustav gulps it, calls the waiter.
Gustav (gruffly): Same again all round. (to Bobby) Lucky punch.
Bobby: Cracked my thumb.
Gustav: Good.
The waiter appears.
Waiter: Two taxis at the hotel.
Two of the men get up and move out. The phone rings again.
Gustav (raising his glass to Bobby): Good luck, Maxey Schmelling.
Bobby (drinks — puts down his glass suddenly): Excuse me — I forgot something.
(he goes into the phone booth)
CUT TO:
178 DR. JAFFÉ’S EXAMINATION ROOM
Pat sitting up on the table buttoning her waist — Dr. Jaffé writing in a notebook as the phone rings.
Jaffé: I saw you four weeks ago.
Pat: That’s right.
Jaffé picks up the phone.
Jaffé (after a moment): Yes, Pat’s here now.
CUT TO:
179 BOBBY IN THE CAFE BOOTH
He hangs up, waves at Gustav and rushes out.
DISSOLVE TO:
180 JAFFÉ’S OFFICE
Jaffé and Bobby, standing in the foreground. Pat talking to the secretary by the far door and out of earshot.
Dr. Jaffé (gravely): There has been no change. She must go to a sanitarium in October. A year ago, she seemed so much better. Now —
(he gestures pessimistically)
Bobby (slowly): The world is full of healthy people who ought to be chloroformed. And this happens to her.
Jaffé: There’s no answer to that one. (he puts his hand on Bobby’s arm) I ask your pardon for being able to do — nothing.
(they turn toward the door)
Pat (grateful): Goodbye, Dr. Jaffé.
Jaffé (affectionate): Goodbye, my dear.
Pat and Bobby leave the office. CAMERA TRUCKS in front of them down the corridor toward the elevator.
Bobby (unnaturally earnest): You’re getting better.
Pat (quickly): Don’t. I don’t want to know anything — until Autumn. The elevator clangs open.
Elevator Boy (raucously): Down!
DISSOLVE TO:
181 CLOSE SHOT — A CHESTNUT BRANCH
It flutters in a sudden gust of wind — its leaves falling.
CUT TO:
182 A NEWSPAPER —
— blowing along a pavement. ANGLE WIDENS TO SHOW:
183 A SHOPPING STR
EET —
— on a cold Fall day. Show-windows with fur coats on exaggerated mincing dummies of rich women. Bobby and Pat strolling.
Bobby: If I were rich, I’d buy you a fur coat for Autumn.
Pat (smiling): Which one?
Bobby (pointing): That one.
Pat: You’ve got good taste. That’s Canadian Mink.
Bobby (lightly): Would you like it? I’ll give it to you tomorrow.
Pat (without covetousness): Do you know what it costs, darling?
Bobby: Money’s no object. I’ll sell my yacht.
Pat (alarmed): Our friends would talk.
Bobby: Not another word — you’ll have it tomorrow.
184 AT THE NEXT WINDOW — A HABERDASHER —
— exaggerated, comic dummy of a man in dress clothes. In the back of the window is a mechanical display — toy man and woman in evening dress on a circular track. They go in one door of a toy opera house and out the other.
Pat: You’ve got to have those tails to go with my coat.
Bobby (pulling her back to the first window): But you’re not dressed yourself yet. Two or three ball gowns.
Pat (pulling him to the man’s window): Shirts, cane, topper —
Bobby (enthusiastically): Where’s a jewelers? Where do they sell ship’s tickets?
Pat: Egypt — South America.
Bobby (suddenly sobered): There never was any South America.
Pat: I knew it. But darling — (they are walking arm in arm in the crowded street) — it’s all right here in our hearts. We can go to the most exciting place — home.
(they come to the taxi parked against the curb. He opens the door and bows. Pat gets in the back seat)
Bobby: Where to, please?
Pat looks at him, shaking her head fondly from side to side. He nods understandingly, gets in and drives off.
DISSOLVE TO:
185 THEIR ROOM
Rain outside. Pat broiling a chop on a gas burner. Bobby on the couch.
Pat (looking out the window): Winter’s coming outside.
Bobby (his voice a little frightened): No, not yet. You just think that because it’s raining.
Pat (as if to herself): It’s raining. It’s been raining too long. At night sometimes when I wake, I imagine we’re quite buried under all the rain.
Thunder outside. The lights lower — brighten again.
Bobby (with feeling): It seems to me we’re lucky. When I think of life as it was before — I thank God. I never thought I would be so lucky.
Pat: It’s lovely when you say that. Then I believe it, too. You must say it oftener.
Bobby: Don’t I say it often enough?
Pat: No.
Bobby (melting): From now on, I’ll tell you every time I feel it. Even though it makes me feel absurd.
A gust of rain against the window. A sudden knock at the door. Bobby answers it to find Frau Zalewska, the landlady.
Zalewska: The phone, Herr Lohkamp.
DISSOLVE TO:
186 DOWNSTAIRS. BOBBY AT THE PHONE.
Bobby: (repeating in amazement a question that has been asked him): “How did she stand the trip?” — What trip?
CUT TO:
186A DR. JAFFÉ’S OFFICE. LATE AFTERNOON
Jaffé: The trip to the sanitarium.
Bobby’s Voice (over phone): Why, she’s upstairs. I didn’t know —
Dr. Jaffé (impatiently): I told her a week ago she must leave. I told her this change of temperature could simply blow her away.
Bobby: She didn’t tell me.
Dr. Jaffé: If you want to keep that girl of yours alive you take her off tomorrow — and I mean tomorrow.: Bobby: We’ll go tomorrow.
(he hangs up in consternation)
DISSOLVE TO:
187 THEIR ROOM UPSTAIRS
Pat with her face in her hands. Bobby annoyed and tender.
188 FLASH OF CHOP —
— smoking in the pan.
189 THEIR ROOM
Bobby: You should have told me, darling.
Pat: Oh, I couldn’t. We’ve been so happy and it was such a little time. It didn’t seem that a week or two could make any difference.
Bobby: We’ll have other weeks later. (she looks at him sad-eyed — Bobby resists her firmly) We’ll get Frau Zalewska to help pack — (to cheer her) — and listen, Pat, we’ll find Lenz and Koster and have a farewell dinner at Alfons’. We’ll celebrate.
Pat: (half between tears and laughter): I stole a week anyhow. They can’t take that back. I stole a precious, lovely week — (sing-song) Pat stole a wee-eak. (crowing) Now you can put her in prison, but you can’t get the week. She’s got the loot buried deep in her heart.
DISSOLVE TO:
190 ALFONS’ CAFE
A nine o’clock crowd. At a heaping table are Pat, Koster and Bobby — a chair waits for Lenz who has not arrived. Alfons, unusually magnificent in collar, tie and coat, hovers over them.
Pat: It seems awful not to wait for Gottfried but it does look so good.
Koster (to Alfons, rather concerned): Do you know where he is?
Alfons (glancing around cautiously): I have an idea — there’s a political meeting.
Koster (to Pat): Anyhow I’ll bring him to the train — if he hasn’t got a couple of black eyes.
Pat (with feverish gaiety): Alfons, I’m all a dither about how grand you look.
Alfons: In honor of a very fine lady.
Pat: But how can you throw people out dressed like that?
Alfons: Oh, can’t I? I’m ready in two seconds. (like lightning he whips off his coat — the shirt front, tie and collar are in one piece and come off with a click. He is ready for action) You see? — if they get tough, I do this — and this —
He picks a little man off a seat at the bar and goes through the action of tossing him out the door. Then setting the little man back on his stool, he replaces his ceremonial front.
Pat: Alfons —
(she pulls his face down to hers and rubs her cheek against him)
Alfons (retiring to the phonograph in embarrassment): It is not done to kiss the maitre d’hotel.
Koster: In front of her husband, too. (he shakes his head) I was afraid it wouldn’t last.
Alfons starts the “Pilgrims’ Chorus” from Tannhauser.
DISSOLVE TO:
191 THE SAME SCENE. AN HOUR LATER —
— the food eaten. Pat at the bar having cognac with Alfons. Koster and Bobby at the table.
Bobby: We’ll have to go home — our train goes at noon.
Koster (low voice): I’m worried about Lenz. Somebody said there’s street fighting down in the Schmedgrasse Quarter. And he’s always in front of everything.
Bobby: You think we’d better go after him?
Koster: I think we ought to. I hate to drag you out tonight.
Bobby: That’s all right.
Koster: You take Pat home and I’ll be waiting for you in the street with Heinrich. No use frightening her.
Bobby: I won’t tell her.
DISSOLVE TO:
192 THE BEDROOM IN THE BOARDING HOUSE
Pat’s trunk and suitcases are in evidence. She is undressed, getting into bed.
Pat: I hope there won’t be a bad dream.
Bobby (tenderly): Let me come into your dreams.
Pat: You’d be very welcome there.
Bobby (hesitantly): Pat, I’ve got a little taxi job — I’ll have to go out for a while. A little more money for our trip.
(he bends over her): Pat: I hate it when you drive all night.
Bobby (cheerfully): But I remember you once said you didn’t like people watching you when you’re asleep.