Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald (Illustrated) (508 page)

Bobby
(
considering
): Then it can’t be so bad.

As the music starts again they turn from the compartment and look out the corridor window, elbows on the rail.

Bobby
: In the Spring you’ll be well enough to come back — all brown with the sun?

Pat
(
without belief
): Yes.

(
a strained pause
)

Bobby
(
making conversation
): Did you pack your silver dress? (
Pat nods
) It’s a beautiful dress — a dangerous dress. I hope it won’t make you unfaithful to me.

Pat
(
laughs sadly
): I love you too much.

Bobby
(
producing a little flask with a cup on it
): We deserve a drink. Pat, you’ve held up beautifully.

Pat
: Not inside.

Bobby
: That’s why we’ll have a drink. (
she drinks the cognac
) Good?

(
Pat nods, leans against his shoulder
)

Pat
: Oh, darling, what is the good?

Bobby
: Keep your chin up — I’ve been so proud of you all day. (
holds her close
) It’s just the day you leave. Then things get all right again.

Pat
: I haven’t been brave. You didn’t notice. That’s all.

Bobby
: That’s just it. As long as you don’t give in, you’re bigger than what happens to you. Lenz taught me that.

Pat
: Why did he miss the train? (
she doesn’t know the truth but anything is enough to accentuate her sadness
) Oh, Bobby, I’m afraid — afraid of the last great fear. You don’t know what fear is.

Bobby
: I certainly do.

Voice
(
off-scene
): Tickets, please.

The conductor (
a fat comedian
) is having difficulty squeezing along the corridor. Bobby hands him the ticket.

Conductor
: I’ve seen the lady’s ticket already.

Bobby
: Yes — in the sleeper.

Conductor
: She must go up there. It’s too crowded back here.

Voice
(
from the compartment — referring to the conductor’s girth
): It is now.

(
laughter within
)

Bobby
(
to the conductor
): She came to visit me.

Conductor
(
puffing, wedged in the doorway
): Can’t go anywhere without a ticket.

A Voice
(
within the compartment
): That must be your trouble.

Bobby takes Pat’s hand and starts down the jerky corridor.

DISSOLVE TO:

224 THE SLEEPER

They enter a compartment with lower and upper both made up. Pat looks at a little slip stuck on the door.

Pat
(
disappointed
): The upper is reserved from Frankfort.

Bobby shuts the door. She lies down in the berth.

Bobby
(
sitting beside her
): It’s a good half hour to Frankfort.

Pat
(
doubtfully
): Well, there’s that League for Fallen Girls.

Bobby
: They don’t have branches on trains.

Pat
: Are you sure?

Bobby
: Very sure.

(
he bends toward her
)

DISSOLVE TO:

225 THE SAME COMPARTMENT — MORNING

Pat and Helga Guttman, a plain, pleasant-faced girl, sit side by side. They have been chatting while outside the window snowy mountains glide by.

Helga
: You were asleep when I came in.

Bobby opens the door and enters.

Bobby
: Good morning.

Pat
(
very bright
): Bobby! (
indicating Helga
) Another old friend — Helga Guttman. She’s going back too.

Bobby
(
bows
): Fraulein. (
to Pat
) How did you sleep?

Pat
: Fine. I’m all right now, Bobby. It’s good to be going back — to be able to go back. There’s tomorrow and next week and next month — why think any farther ahead than that?

As she talks —

DISSOLVE TO:

226 A RAILROAD STATION IN THE MOUNTAINS

Sun, bright snow, a blue sky — happy, laughing people on the platform and the air of a winter resort. Two men in plus fours bear Helga away to a sleigh. Bobby is surprised by the contrast to what he expected.

Helga
(
waving
): So-long, Pat. See you at dinner.

Pat waves back. A porter approaches Bobby.

Porter
: What hotel, please?

Bobby
: Waldfrieden Sanitarium.

Porter
: Waldfrieden Hotel? Will you go by mountain railroad or sleigh?

Bobby
: Mountain railroad, eh, Pat?

DISSOLVE TO:

227 A MOUNTAIN RAILROAD OR FUNICULAR

Pat, Bobby and others, including a nurse and a stretcher-patient, are seated in the car which begins to rise slowly up the mountain.

At the top, looking small as a pin-point, is the sanitarium — at the bottom, gradually receding, is the station and the little village.

Bobby
: What works it?

Pat
: Another car takes on water at the top and pulls this one up. See it?

CUT TO:

228 LONG SHOT — THE OTHER CAR

 — beginning its descent of the mountain.

CUT TO:

229 THE ASCENDING CAR

Bobby
: Great idea. I wonder who thought of it. Is that the hotel?

CUT TO:

230 LONG SHOT OF THE SANITARIUM AT THE TOP

CUT TO:

231 THE ASCENDING CAR

Pat
(
looking up and nodding
): Hospitals look very beautiful — when you need them.

Bobby
(
looking down
): We’re between two worlds. That’s our train puffing away — it’s hard to believe that I’ve got to go back to that world this afternoon.

Pat
(
alarmed
): Not right away — you’ll stay a week.

Bobby
(
lightly
): Oh no. They’ll put you to bed for a while.

Pat
(
pleading
): Two or three days anyhow. (
excitedly
) Maybe they’ll let me stay up.

Bobby
(
as to a beloved child
): You’ve got fever now.

(
he lays his hand on her cheek
)

Pat
: Your hand is so cool — leave it there. So cool…

A bare branch moves slowly through the car, clicking against the seats. Pat reaches for it but it is gone.

Bobby
(
looking straight ahead
): Pat, I’ve got to tell you something now. Gottfried — left us — the other night.

Pat
: Left us? (
pause
) You mean he’s dead? (
as she realizes
) Oh, my God!

Bobby
: He was shot — instantly killed.

They stare at each other for a moment. Then slowly her face turns up toward the nearing sanitarium and the white sky behind it.

Pat
(
in a whisper
) Gottfried!

DISSOLVE TO:

232 THE SAME CAR

 — descending now, with its seat reversed and the sanitarium receding against a dark sky. Bobby is the only passenger and his face is set and grim. The sound of half-roguish, half martial music begins again as we —

DISSOLVE TO:

233 A LARGE OPEN-AIR CAFE IN THE CITY

Koster and Bobby at a table in a middle-class crowd.

234 IN THE STREET

 — a platoon is marching past the open-air cafe — half a dozen officers and non-coms with brutal bullying faces, and their followers — thin-shouldered, spectacled clerks; blank-faced country types; thin, pool-room youths and pimply boys in their early teens. The sinister aspect of the personnel is accentuated by the contrast between the tough, remorseless leaders and the sheep-like troops.

THE CAMERA IS HELD ON THEM five or ten seconds to suggest rather than dwell on this.

CUT TO:

235 CLOSEUP — Koster

Koster
: God help us if that represents the future.

CUT TO:

236 REVERSE ANGLE — BOBBY

His eyes narrow as he looks across the cafe and gets up quickly. From several angles we show him obstructed by tables or by people coming and going.

This is INTERCUT with LONG SHOTS of another table — a man, seen from behind only, rises and fades into the crowd. Reaching that table to find his quarry fled, Bobby stares about wildly; in a moment, Koster joins him. The music has faded into the distance.

Bobby
: It was him — I’d know those leggings anywhere — but he’s gone.

Koster
: There’s no use — we’ve got to get his name first. We’ll try it Alfons’ way.

DISSOLVE TO:

237 EXT. POLITICAL CLUBHOUSE

The same that Koster entered on the night of the shooting.

DISSOLVE TO:

238 AN INDOOR PISTOL RANGE

Four young men in semi-uniform are shooting at a line of new board targets. They are: (
1
) a short, fat, muscular man; (
2
) a heavy, dark brutish man; (
3
) a mean-faced “killer” type; (
4
) a big, fussy moron whose spectacles give him a false air of intellect.

As the fourth man shoots, one of the targets turns sideways with the impact. TRUCK UP TO a grey-haired man in civilian clothes standing near the targets. His expression is covertly interested.

Grey-haired Man
: Wait a minute — the target turned.

A flick of his eye shows that he is doing something secretive as he goes to straighten the board.

CUT TO:

239 THE FOUR PISTOL-MEN

Talking and laughing together.

CUT TO:

240 CLOSEUP OF A HAND

Scrawling an initial — “B”, “H”, “T”, and “L” — on each bullet hole.

DISSOLVE TO:

241 THE SAME HAND

Holding four twisted lead bullets in it, each with a tag tied to it. PULL BACK THE CAMERA to show the man with Alfons, Bobby and Koster at a table in Alfons’ Cafe. Koster has another spent bullet in his palm.

Koster
: This is the bullet that killed him.

Grey-haired Man
: An expert can tell which one of these matches your bullet. Then you’ve got your man.

DISSOLVE TO:

242 EXT. THE POLITICAL CLUB — JUST AFTER SUNSET

The martial-roguish music begins again as the four men who were at pistol practice come out and start down the street.

CUT TO:

243 “HEINRICH”

Half a block behind them and on the other side of the street, getting in motion

CUT TO:

244 THE FOUR MEN

Turning a corner, reaching a cafe. The first man drops out.

The Others
: Goodbye, Karl.

CUT TO:

245 “HEINRICH”

Coasting slowly along. Bobby and Koster are discernable in the front seat.

CUT TO:

246 THE THREE REMAINING MEN

Marching jauntily. They pass a couple of street women who make way for them admiringly.

The Women
(
ad lib
): Where to, big boys? Plug ‘em where it hurts!

One of the men makes an obscene crack in a low voice — the others laugh boisterously. We are now speculating as to which of the three is the murderer.

CUT TO:

247 CLOSE SHOT OF “HEINRICH”

Bobby and Koster watching intently.

Bobby
(
warningly
): No closer! Slow up! Slow up!

CUT TO:

248 LONG SHOT OF STREET AHEAD

The three men have stopped. They chat and look idly up and down — not noticing “Heinrich.” The second man waves and goes into a house. The music has now ceased.

249 TWO SHOT OF THE LAST COUPLE