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The Bachelor Party (1957)

by Paddy Chayefsky.

More info about this movie on IMDb.com


FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY


FADE IN.

EXTERIOR. STUYVESANT TOWN HOUSING PROJECT -- DAY.
Under the credits, the CAMERA PANS slowly across the project,
capturing the sober monotony, the endless straight apartment
houses. Seven o'clock in the morning.

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. CHARLIE'S BEDROOM
The bedroom of a two-and-a-half-room apartment in the housing
project. It is early morning, but the shades are drawn and
the room is dark. CAMERA moves slowly across the room, over
the large double bed on which Charlie and Helen Samson, a
young couple in their late twenties, are sleeping. They are
sleeping more or less on their sides, facing away from each
other. One of Helen's pajama-clad legs projects from under
the light covers. We close in on Charlie's sleeping face.

The alarm clock at a distant end of the room suddenly bursts
into a soft relentless buzz. Charlie's eyes open. There is a
muffled movement at his side, and Helen gets up on one elbow.
Then she sits up, rises, and pads barefooted -- a rather
pretty girl in rumpled pajamas -- to the alarm clock and
turns it off. Charlie's head turns on the pillow so that he
can watch her. She pads back to the bed now and stands at the
foot, looking down at her husband. She produces a smile, then
turns and shuffles into the bathroom where she turns on the
wall switch. A shaft of light now pours into the bedroom.

Charlie sits up in bed. His shoes and socks are on the floor
by his feet. He reaches down and starts to put them on.
Suddenly, from the recesses of the bathroom, Helen's rather
vague soprano lifts into the first lines of a popular song.
Then it stops as abruptly as it began. Charlie's head slowly
turns to look at the bathroom, back again to the business of
putting on his socks. His face is expressionless, but there
is no mistaking the sodden distaste he has for the world
today.

He just sits on the bed, a young man of twenty-nine, clad
only in his pajama trousers, one sock dangling from his hand,
his head hanging, his shoulders slumped. Behind him, the
sudden noise of rushing tap water, then off. Then his wife
comes back into the bedroom. She is carrying a bath towel
with which she is drying her face. Finished, she drops the
towel on the bed and begins to dress. A moment later, she
pads around the corner of the bed to Charlie's front. She
is still barefooted and wears her pajama top, but she has
exchanged the trousers for a half-slip. Charlie hasn't moved
a muscle since the effort required to lift one sock from the
floor.

			HELEN
	You think it's too early to call
	my mother?

			CHARLIE
	I don't know.

Charlie shrugs without looking up. Helen goes out of the
bedroom, into the little square of foyer where there is a
telephone table with a telephone on it. She dials, waits. In
the bedroom, Charlie rubs his eyes with two fingers.

			HELEN
		(on phone)
	Hello, Ma, did I wake you up? This
	is Helen.... Well, I'll be going to
	work, and I wanted to get ahold of
	you before I left. I called you last
	night. Where were you and Pop anyway?
	I kept calling you every half hour
	up till one o'clock.... Oh, yeah? Did
	you have a nice time? ...

CAMERA SLOWLY MOVES IN FOR CLOSEUP
of Charlie in bedroom.

			HELEN'S VOICE
	Well, listen, Ma, I got something to
	tell you. I'm pregnant.... Yeah,
	pregnant.... Of course I'm sure.
	I've got the report back from the
	laboratory.... No, you wouldn't know
	him, Doctor Axelrod.... Second month.
	He says I can expect the baby in
	February.... Well, Grandma, act a
	little excited, will you? ... You
	bet I'm excited....

CLOSEUP OF CHARLIE
He is not excited. If anything he is miserable. His bowed
head rises slowly. The eyes open. He stares abstractedly
ahead for a moment. Then he sighs a profound sigh of
resignation. Then his eyes close again, and his head slowly
sinks back to its previous abjection.

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. THE KITCHEN -- HALF HOUR LATER
Helen, dressed in skirt and blouse now, is preparing two
cups of instant coffee, pouring hot water from the saucepan
into the two cups. The toaster is ticking. A packaged loaf
of white bread is open on the cupboard shelf. Finished with
pouring the water, Helen sets the saucepan back on the stove
and comes out into the dining area. The dinette table is
covered from end to end by open textbooks, several very large
accounting worksheets on which are scrawled meticulous
numbers, a ruler, several pencils and a pen, an ash tray
glutted with cigarettes, a cup and saucer.

			HELEN
		(calling to the bedroom)
	Do you need any of this or can I
	take them off the table?

Charlie appears in the bedroom doorway, dressed and washed
now, a neat, clean young man in a white shirt and neatly
knotted tie.

			CHARLIE
	I'll clean that up in a minute.

He disappears back into the bedroom. Helen picks up the ash
tray and the cup and saucer.

			HELEN
	How late were you up last night?

			CHARLIE'S VOICE
	About two.

INTERIOR. THE BEDROOM
Charlie standing by the window, is picking up his keys, a
few dollar bills, a comb, etc., from a chair and putting
them into his trouser pockets. The blinds of the bedroom
window have been opened, and the high August sun streams in,
whitening Charlie's face. After he has pocketed his odds and
ends, he moves to the chest of drawers on which, among all
sorts of other things, there are several textbooks and an
opened notebook. He stands a moment looking down into the
open notebook, his lips moving ever so little, as he commits
some of his notes to memory. He turns a page of the notebook
back to check something and then goes back to the previous
page. Now he opens one of the smaller drawers in the chest
of drawers. The drawer contains wisps of his wife's stockings
and other feminine things. He finds a small roll of bills and
takes one of them, putting the bill in his pocket and closing
the dresser drawer.

			CHARLIE
	I'm taking five bucks from your
	drawer.

He pauses now to affix a less frowning expression onto his
face and goes out into the little foyer and into the dining
area.

INTERIOR. THE DINING AREA
Helen is seated at the dinette table, sipping coffee and
reading yesterday's newspaper. There are two cups of coffee
on the table.

			CHARLIE
	A guy in my office is getting
	married, and I got clipped four
	bucks for his wedding present.

He begins assembling the mass of papers and textbooks on the
table.

			HELEN
	Who's getting married?

			CHARLIE
	Arnold. I told you about him. The
	guy with the sick mother.

			HELEN
	Oh, yeah.

			CHARLIE
		(trying to decide
		whether he needs a
		certain worksheet)
	The rest of the guys are giving him
	a bachelor party tonight.

			HELEN
	Do you want to go, Charlie?

			CHARLIE
	I got class tonight.

			HELEN
	What have you got -- cost accounting?

			CHARLIE
	Yes.

			HELEN
	I think you ought to take off a
	night. You ought to go, have a little
	fun for yourself. I think you need
	that. You go to work all day, you go
	to school all night. You can miss one
	night, Charlie.

			CHARLIE
	No, these bachelor parties get kind
	of wild sometimes. The whole
	philosophy is: it's the groom's last
	night of freedom. So it gets kind of
	wild sometimes.

			HELEN
	That's a good philosophy to start a
	marriage with.

			CHARLIE
	Well, a bunch of guys get together,
	they like to tear up the town a
	little.

He has assembled his notes and notebooks and texts in a pile
on the table, ready to take with him. He sits down and
begins sipping his coffee. Helen looks back to her newspaper,
frowning a little, then looks up at Charlie again.

			HELEN
	I think you oughta go, Charlie. I
	know you're upset about the baby.

			CHARLIE
	I'm not upset about the baby.

			HELEN
	Come on, Charlie. I know how you
	feel. Listen, you don't have to
	pretend you're excited about the
	baby. We weren't exactly planning
	on a baby right now ...

			CHARLIE
	I'm not upset about the baby.

			HELEN
	It's a shock. I had some bad days
	before I told you. I said: "Oh, boy,
	that's all we need. A baby." Then I
	said to myself: "If I'm having a
	baby, I'm having a baby. That's all
	there is to it." And I like the idea.
	We're going to have a family,
	Charlie. I like the idea.

			CHARLIE
	Well, give me a couple of days to
	get used to the idea. I'll be all
	right.

			HELEN
	I know you will, Charlie. That's why
	I think you ought to go to this
	bachelor party tonight.

			CHARLIE
		(bursting out)
	I don't want to go to this bachelor
	party.

He looks down at his coffee, embarrassed at the outburst.

			CHARLIE
	I'm sorry I yelled.

			HELEN
	Don't be silly.

			CHARLIE
	I better get going. Kenny's probably
	waiting for me now. I'm sorry I
	yelled like that.

			HELEN
	What are you sorry about? Don't I
	yell at you all the time?

WE STAY ON HELEN, as she reads her newspaper, but there is
a faint frown on her face.

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. LOCAL PLATFORM EASTSIDE IRT SUBWAY
An express train hurtles southward. We see it flashing by
through the concrete pillars of the subway.

					DISSOLVE TO:


IRT EXPRESS HURTLING SOUTHWARD
Charlie and another young man, named Kenneth, are seated in
a crowded subway car. People are standing tightly in the
aisles. Kenneth is an amiable young man of thirty-odd. He
has his jacket off and his tie loosened as a concession to
the August heat. Charlie is neatly and coolly dressed. He
has two notebooks and a battered text in his lap. He is
reading the text. Two young white-collar workers on their
way to work. They ride along silently for a moment. Kenneth
is rather stealthily concerned with a full-busted young
woman who is standing directly in front of him, holding on
to a strap. It is summertime, and the girls all wear light
summer frocks. There is a feeling of wistful sensuality to
the scene.

			KENNETH
	You going to Arnold's bachelor party?

			CHARLIE
	I don't think so, Kennie.

			KENNETH
	What?

			CHARLIE
	I got two classes tonight.

			KENNETH
	Yeah, I was going to go, but I think
	I better not, because my kid, the
	young one, the girl, she's been
	acting up again lately. She's got
	some kind of allergy, the doctors
	don't know what.

			CHARLIE
	These bachelor parties get kind of
	wild sometimes. Eddie Watkins is
	making all the arrangements. He's
	probably got us lined up with a
	bunch of chorus girls.

			KENNETH
	Yeah, do you think so?

			CHARLIE
	You know Eddie.

			KENNETH
	Yeah, boy, he really lives it up,
	don't he? Did you see that blonde
	who picked him up for lunch last
	week? Boy, sometimes I wish I was a
	bachelor. Well, you know what I mean.
	I never seem to get out of the house
	any more, you know what I mean?
	About once a week, I go to the
	movies. We never even see the whole
	picture. My wife starts worrying
	about the kids. My youngest kid, the
	girl, she's got some kind of rash.
	We don't know what it is. I never
	seem to see anybody any more. Do you
	know how long it is since I've seen
	Willie Duff? I haven't seen Willie
	in about six months. My wife can't
	stand his wife. You ever seen her,
	Willie's wife?

			CHARLIE
	No, I didn't know Willie too well.

			KENNETH
	Boy, wait'll you have kids, boy.
	You'll never get out of the house.

			CHARLIE
	Helen's pregnant now.

			KENNETH
	No kidding.

			CHARLIE
	Yeah.

			KENNETH
	Oh, that's wonderful, Charlie,
	that's wonderful!

The two young husbands look down again at their hands and
ride along silently. Kenneth sneaks a quick look up at the
girl standing in front of him, and then lets his attention
drift down the length of the car.

			KENNETH
	Hey, there's a guy down there,
	trying to pick up a girl down there.

He is referring to a Young Fellow who elbowed his way down
through the crowded aisle but who stopped abruptly when he
noticed an attractive girl, seated about three seats down
from Kenneth. The Girl is reading a newspaper. The Young
Fellow stares at her. The Girl, aware of this sudden
attention, looks briefly up from her newspaper. The Young
Fellow smiles pleasantly. The Girl, with a show of
annoyance, looks back to her newspaper.

			KENNETH
	Were you with us about eight years
	ago when I picked up that chick in
	front of the bus stop in Paterson,
	New Jersey?

			CHARLIE
	When was this?

			KENNETH
	Yeah, you were there. You were with
	that girl from Brooklyn. We just
	came from Palisades Amusement Park,
	and we were driving Frankie Klein's
	girl home, and the car broke down
	right in the middle of Route One.

			CHARLIE
		(beginning to laugh)
	Oh, yeah.

			KENNETH
		(laughing)
	And Frankie opened up the hood and
	the water cap blew right up in the
	air.

			CHARLIE
	And the cop came over ...

			KENNETH
	That's right, the cop. He thought
	Frankie shot off a gun....

They are both laughing audibly now at the memory.

			KENNETH
	He was going to pull us all in. Oh,
	man!

			CHARLIE
	Frankie, he was funny.

			KENNETH
	Oh, that was a lot of fun, those
	days.

			CHARLIE
	Yeah, they were.

The little spasm of laughter is over. A sort of ruefulness
settles down on the two young husbands. Kenneth looks lazily
down the aisle to see how the Young Fellow is making out
with The Girl. He seems to be making out all right. They are
looking steadily at each other now. Kenneth turns back to
Charlie.

			KENNETH
	Hey, this guy's making out all right.
	She's giving him the eye now.

Charlie leans forward to see this progress.

			KENNETH
		(looking out the
		window at the passing
		local station)
	Where are we now, Prince Street? I
	bet you he picks her up before we
	hit Chambers Street.

Somehow this has a sobering effect on the two young husbands.
Again they sit silently as the train buckets along.

			CHARLIE
	Boy, I'm bushed today. I was up till
	two o'clock last night on this thing
	here. I'm getting to be a nervous
	wreck. I snarled at Helen this
	morning. I think this whole night
	school business is getting me down.

			KENNETH
	I don't see how you do it.

			CHARLIE
	Neither do I. I thought I was
	through with it. The plan was for me
	to quit work and go to college full
	time and cram through in a year or
	so. But now we got this kid coming,
	and Helen's going to have to quit
	her job, and that sets me back where
	I started from. Another five years
	of this, summers included.

			KENNETH
	I couldn't do it, man, I'll tell you
	that. I wish I could, but I couldn't.

			CHARLIE
	Oh, what am I griping about? This is
	the life I picked out for myself.
	But it's a grind, boy, I tell you.

They sit silently again. The train hurtles along and then
suddenly slows as it approaches a stop. There is a rustle of
movement among the passengers in the subway car. A few
people start edging toward the doors. The Girl reading the
newspaper now folds her newspaper and stands almost directly
in the Young Fellow's face. They regard each other.

			YOUNG FELLOW
		(to the girl)
	Excuse me, can you tell me how to
	get to the Nassau Street exit?

			GIRL
	Well ... well, at the top of the
	stairs, you'll see all the signs.

			YOUNG FELLOW
	Are you getting off here?

			GIRL
	Yes.

			YOUNG FELLOW
	Well, I'll follow you then. That'll
	be easier, if you don't mind.

			GIRL
	No, not at all.

They start to crowd down the aisle. The train is chugging
into the Chambers Street station, and we can see the
yellowed lights of the platform and the quick blur of faces.
The two young husbands, who had been following the byplay
between The Girl and the Young Fellow, now watch them slowly
exit. There is an expression of poignant wistfulness on both
their faces.

					DISSOLVE TO:


EXTERIOR. THE OFFICE
We look down on the bookkeeping department of a life
insurance company in downtown Manhattan area around Pine
Street. It is a fairly large room, large enough to hold
eleven desks. But you get the feeling that this is one of
the smaller offices on the floor. You get the feeling that
this company occupies three or four floors of this building.
Despite the size of the office, it has a cluttered look.
Each desk has piles of paper on it, and all the impedimenta
of the bookkeeper -- the pens and pencils, the adding
machine, the telephone. Some of the desks have typewriters.
Along the walls there are rows of filing cabinets and wall
bins stocked with large worksheets and thick ledgers. At
the far end of the room, there is a row of windows, but it
is still necessary to keep the overhead fluorescent lights
on all day. They are on now. There are two middle-aged
women standing, murmuring to each other, and a rather
heavy-set balding man in his late forties, sitting at a
desk in his shirt sleeves, already hard at work, although
it is still ten minutes shy of eight-thirty.

Kenneth and Charlie enter. Ad lib hellos between them and
the two middle-aged women. Charlie moves to the coat rack to
hang up his jacket, drops off his books on his desk, starts
for the coat rack. Behind Charlie, we see Kenneth, carrying
his jacket, moving to his desk, up where the middle-aged man
is working.

			KENNETH
	Hiya, Walter.

			CHARLIE
	Hiya, Walter.

Walter, the middle-aged man, nods his good mornings.

			KENNETH
		(poking in his desk
		drawer; amiably)
	Walter, what time do you come in in
	the mornings? You're making us all
	look lousy, you know that? I get
	the feeling sometimes, you stay here
	overnight.

Walter merely nods, doesn't bother to look up from the work.
Kenneth finds a stick of gum in his drawer, unwraps it. Two
more women, gray-haired and bespectacled, come into the
office. There is an ad lib mumble of hellos in background.
Charlie hangs up his jacket on the coat rack.

			CHARLIE
	Arnold in yet?

			WALTER
	He starts his vacation today. He's
	getting married Sunday, you know.

CLOSEUP of Charlie looking out the window into the bright
August morning. His face is just a little ruffled by a
frown, and there is a kind of pain in his eyes. Behind him,
Walter and Kenneth.

			WALTER
		(a nervous, anxious man)
	Well, the doctor was over last night.
	Brought over the X rays; brought
	over the allergy tests. Brought over
	a bill for sixty-eight dollars.  I
	said to him: "Doctor, you're a young
	man, professional, highly educated,
	four years of college, two years of
	premedical training, several years
	of interning, of residency. If
	you're so smart, how can you charge
	me sixty-eight dollars? One thing
	they apparently didn't teach you in
	medical school. You can't get blood
	from a stone."

			KENNETH
	So what's wrong with you, Walter?

			WALTER
	What's wrong? I have to go to
	Arizona, that's what's wrong. I have
	asthma. When I was a kid, they
	called it hay fever, and you carried
	a bag around your neck. Asafetida.
	Now, they call it asthma, and you
	have to go to Arizona. I said to him:
	"Doctor, you're a professional man,
	four years of college, premedical
	school, Bellevue, several diplomas.
	Answer me a question. Who's going to
	pay for Arizona?" I said to him:
	"Doctor," I said, "perhaps you have
	the illusion I am the Aga Khan. I
	have a bearing about me, perhaps,
	that misleads you to believe I have
	blood ties with the Whitneys and the
	Rockefellers. This isn't true."
	Arizona. Did you ever hear of such
	nonsense?

			KENNETH
	How serious is it, Walter?

			WALTER
	Serious. Nothing serious. I have hay
	fever, I sneeze a couple of times.
	The idiot told my wife I have to go
	to Arizona, and she wouldn't leave
	me alone all night. She's already
	packing the bags. I said: "For
	heaven's sakes, you listen to
	doctors, we'll all be dead." My son,
	Harold, believe me, he's going to be
	a doctor. That's some racket, boy.
	Sixty-eight dollars.

CLOSEUP of Charlie, still at the window, when a bell
suddenly clangs, indicating the start of the workday. The
sudden jangle makes him start, and he closes his eyes
briefly against the noise.  Walter, in background, who had
risen and was bent over Kenneth's desk, darts nervously back
to his own desk.

			WALTER
	You better get to work. Hey, Charlie,
	that was the bell. I think Flaherty
	is here this morning. We'll all be
	fired today. I have a feeling.

He hunches over his ledgers again, his anxious, harried face
drawn into intense wrinkles of concentration. Several other
women have come into the office by now, and there is a
general movement to the desks. There is the click of a
typewriter, and Walter runs his fingers glibly over the
adding machine on his desk. The day has started.

After a moment, Charlie turns from the window and comes back
to his desk, sinks down onto his chair.

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. THE OFFICE -- TWENTY MINUTES LATER
We look down on the bookkeeping department. All the desks
are occupied but two. There are six women and our three men.
The office is silent with industry, everybody's head bent
over his desk. There is the occasional punctuation of an
adding machine or a typewriter or a phone ringing.

Our three men are bent over their tally sheets, worksheets,
and ledgers, occasionally reaching up to quickly tabulate
something on the adding machine. After a moment, Walter says:

			WALTER
		(without looking
		up from his work)
	You fellows going to Arnold's party
	tonight?

			KENNETH
		(without looking up)
	No, I'm not going, are you?

			WALTER
	No. Eddie already hooked me for four
	bucks for Arnold's present. This
	dinner is going to cost another
	couple of good dollars.

			CHARLIE
	It looks like nobody's going to
	Arnold's bachelor party.

			WALTER
	You ain't going?

			CHARLIE
	No, I'm not going.

			WALTER
	Eddie's going to be mad.

			CHARLIE
	I told Eddie last week I couldn't
	make it. I've got school. Eddie's a
	bachelor. It's all right for him to
	go rooting around town, picking up
	girls.

			WALTER
	Yeah, you get married you give that
	kind of thing up.

			KENNETH
	Yeah, Charlie says Eddie has a whole
	bunch of chorus girls lined up for
	us tonight.

Walter's head comes up for the first time.

			WALTER
	No kidding.

			CHARLIE
	I didn't say that. I just said that
	if I knew Eddie, we'd probably wind
	up with some of his crazy girl
	friends.

Walter looks back down to his work again.

			KENNETH
	I don't know where he gets all these
	girls. He's a screwy looking jerk.

			WALTER
	Did you see that blonde who was up
	here looking for him last week?

			KENNETH
	Yeah. He told me she was a
	television actress. I think I saw
	her once on "Studio One." She was in
	a coal mine with some stir-crazy
	coalminer who was trying to strangle
	her with a necktie.

			WALTER
	I'd like to strangle her with a
	necktie.

			KENNETH
	Now, Walter, an old married man like
	you, with asthma and everything.

Walter looks up suddenly from his work, a strange sting of
pain crossing his face.

			WALTER
	I get real jealous of Eddie
	sometimes. He's as free as a bird.
	Did you see that convertible he's
	got?

			KENNETH
	Yeah, he really banged it up I hear.

			WALTER
	You ought to see the old heap I've
	got. He walks out of here on payday,
	he can spend the whole works on
	having himself a good time. I walk
	out of here, and I got three kids
	and a wife, all of them with their
	palms out. I lost two bucks playing
	poker at my house last week. It was
	an economic catastrophe. My wife
	didn't sleep all night.

			CHARLIE
	He's late again.

			WALTER
	He'll be twenty minutes late again.
	If Flaherty walked in now, he'd fire
	him. If that ever happened to me, I
	think I'd kill myself. What does
	Eddie care? So he scrambles around
	for another job. Flaherty told me
	last week I had too many days off.
	I told him I was sick in bed. What
	do you want me to do?

He turns back again to his work, his face creased with
anxiety. The three men work silently for a moment. Then the
office door opens, and a man of about thirty-five, a little
stout, but rather casual in his dress, wearing steel-rimmed
glasses, enters. This is Eddie Watkins, the office bachelor.
He seems to have had very little sleep the night before. His
eyes, behind the wire-rimmed glasses, are heavy-lidded. A
cigarette dangles listlessly, from his mouth. There is
something of the bacchanalian libertine about Eddie. There
is a perfunctory exchange of hellos and good mornings,
establishing that this is Eddie. He shuffles with ineffable
weariness to his desk.

			WALTER
	Hi, Eddie, you're early today, only
	twenty minutes late, what happened?

			EDDIE
		(muttering through
		reluctant lips)
	Flaherty come in yet?

			KENNETH
	No.

Eddie sits down at his desk, pulls his cigarette
automatically for a moment. Then he reaches over to a pile
of telephone directories on the floor beside his desk, pulls
up the Manhattan one, flips through the pages, finding the
number he wants. He picks up the phone.

			EDDIE
	Mary, give me an outside line....
		(he pauses, checks
		the number in the
		phone book again,
		dials, waits)
	Hello, is this Leathercraft on
	Madison Avenue? ... This is Mr.
	Watkins. I was in about a week ago.
	I ordered a military set and a
	wallet. They were supposed to be
	ready yesterday.... Yes, please,
	would you? ...
		(he is searching
		his pockets while
		he waits, finds a
		piece of paper,
		pulls it out)
	Yeah, a military set and a wallet....

			WALTER
	Is that what we bought poor Arnold?

			EDDIE
		(on phone)
	That's right. The following
	inscriptions should be on them:
		(reads from the paper)
	On the military set: "To Arnold:
	Best wishes on your marriage from
	Alice, Charlie, Eddie, Evelyn,
	Jeanette with two t's, Kenneth,
	Lucy, Mary, Olga, Walter, and
	Flaherty." Now on the wallet ...
	Yeah, what? .... Yeah, that's right
	-- Flaherty. Now, on the wallet,
	the following inscription: "To my
	Best Friend Arnold from his Best Man
	Eddie." ... No, to my best friend
	Arnold. ... That's right. "From his
	best man Eddie" ... Now, can I come
	in at lunch and pick them up? ...

A young woman comes into the office, goes to Walter's desk
and drops some papers before him.

			WALTER
	What's this, Jeanette?

			GIRL
	It's from finance, don't ask me.

This is the girl in the office who goes to the water cooler
three times a morning and all the men covertly watch her.
She is cute, but attractive more by comparison to the other
women in the office. Nevertheless, all the men, including
Eddie and Charlie, let their eyes cautiously watch her as
she leaves, her sheath dress tight on her hips.

Eddie, who has hung up, now rubs his eyes with two fingers to
clear his head and picks up the phone again.

			EDDIE
		(on phone)
	Mary, give me the Hotel Westmore.
	Circle 7-0598.

			CHARLIE
		(hands Kennie paper)
	This isn't for me -- it's for you.

			EDDIE
		(to the others)
	Now who owes me on the presents?
	Charlie, you owe me?

			CHARLIE
	I gave you four bucks yesterday....

			KENNETH
	I owe you, Eddie. I'll pay you
	tomorrow, payday.

			EDDIE
		(on phone)
	Miss Frances Kelley, please. I
	think it's room 417....

The three heads around him look slowly up from their
respective work, naked interest manifest on their faces.

			EDDIE
		(calling to one
		of the women in
		the office)
	Hey, Evelyn, you owe me four bucks.

			EVELYN
		(calling back)
	All right. I know.

			EDDIE
		(on phone)
	Hello, Frances, this is Eddie....
	All right, wait a minute. Give me a
	chance to explain.... I know I woke
	you up.... All right, let me tell
	you. You know I'm supposed to be the
	best man at this fellow Arnold's
	wedding. So I called him up last
	night because I didn't know whether
	I was supposed to wear tuxedo or
	tails. Well, he didn't know either,
	so he said: "Come on over to my
	girl's house with me tonight.
	They're making all the arrangements
	for the wedding now." So I called
	you and left a message at the desk
	saying I couldn't get over till
	about ten o'clock.... All right!
	That's what I'm going to explain!
	... Thank you.
		(holds receiver
		against his chest
		and looks at his
		colleagues with
		air of a man being
		tried just a little
		too much. Returns
		receiver to his ear,
		listens for a moment)
	All right, so I had to go over to
	Arnold's girl's house with Arnold
	last night. Well, there was about
	thirty people there, and, man, you
	never saw such a crazy mess. There
	was this little bald-headed guy
	there. He's the bride's uncle. He's
	come all the way down from Boston
	with his whole family to go to the
	wedding. The only trouble was, he
	wasn't invited. Well, this crazy
	uncle, he grabs ahold of me, he
	starts shaking me by the lapels. So
	I said: "What do you want from me?
	I ain't the groom! I'm just trying
	to find out whether I'm supposed to
	wear tuxedo or tails."
		(apparently this got
		a laugh. Eddie breaks
		into a smile)
	Funny, huh? ... Look, Frances. I
	have to go to work now. I'm calling
	you from the office. How about
	letting me make this up to you? I'll
	take you out to dinner Saturday
	night.... I can't make it tonight.
	The bachelor party's tonight....
	All right, Saturday night.... It's a
	date.... S'help me.... I swear, right
	on time. Eight-thirty, okay? ...
	Okay, we'll have a ball. Goodbye, go
	back to sleep.

He hangs up. The three married men look down again to their
ledgers and tap away again on their adding machines. Eddie
sits slumped in his seat for a moment.

			EDDIE
	What did I just tell that girl,
	Saturday night?

			KENNETH
	Yeah.

			EDDIE
		(picks up phone)
	Mary, give me Columbus 5-1098....
	What do you mean personal calls!
	These are business calls! Well, stop
	listening to other people's
	conversations.... What have you got,
	stock in the company? Columbus
	5-1098.
		(waits)

			KENNETH
	Listen, Eddie, I don't think I can
	go tonight. My father-in-law's in
	from Akron, Ohio, and----

			EDDIE
		(all sweetness)
	Hello, who is this, Mrs. Stebbins?
	... This is Eddie, Mrs. Stebbins. I
	wonder if I can talk to Muriel....
	Could I speak to her? ... Thank
	you....

The three married men each look up slowly again, naked envy
on each face.

			EDDIE
		(on phone)
	Muriel, baby, listen, sweetie, I
	can't make it Saturday night.... I'm
	all loused up with this wedding I'm
	supposed to be the best man at....
	We have to rehearse the ceremony.
	You'd think they were getting
	married on television.... Yes,
	sweetie, why don't I call you Monday.
	Maybe, we'll work out something
	before you go back to California....
	All right, sweetie, good-bye.

He hangs up, sits a moment, then finally removes the
cigarette from his mouth, crushes it in his ash tray, and
turns to the others.

			EDDIE
	Well, what do you say? I'm going to
	call Louie and make a reservation
	for a table for tonight. Who's
	coming and who isn't? Walter, you're
	coming, right? It won't cost you
	more than three-fifty for the whole
	meal. What do you say, Walter? You
	only live once.

			WALTER
		(strangely sad)
	That's right. You only live once.

			EDDIE
	Well, yes or no?

			WALTER
	All right, I'll come.

			EDDIE
	Kennie?

			KENNETH
	Yeah, I'll get out of the house for
	a change.

			EDDIE
	How about you, Charlie?

Charlie is frowning down at a sheaf of adding machine totals
in front of him.

			CHARLIE
	I don't think so, Eddie.

			KENNETH
	Ah, come on, Charlie, you got to
	bust loose every now and then. We'll
	have a couple of drinks.

			EDDIE
		(picks up phone)
	Mary, give me an outside line and
	don't give me no trouble....
	Chickering 4-5099.

			WALTER
	Come on, Charlie, it's a short life,
	believe me.

Move in for CLOSEUP of Charlie, frowning. Over this, Eddie's
voice.

			EDDIE'S VOICE
	Hello, hello, Louie? Is this Louie?
	... Louie, this is Eddie Watkins.
	I'd like to reserve a table for
	four for tonight.... For four ...

			CHARLIE
	Hey, Eddie ...

			EDDIE'S VOICE
	What?

			CHARLIE
	Count me in.

He immediately bends back to his work, takes his pencil up
again. CAMERA PULLS QUICKLY UP AND AWAY until we have an
ANGLE SHOT looking down at their desks in various positions
of work.

			EDDIE
		(on phone)
	Louie, make that five.... Five guys
	... Yeah, a bachelor party ...

					FADE OUT


FADE IN

EXTERIOR. DOWNTOWN NEW YORK CITY -- NIGHT

FADE IN with a big loud blare on Eighth Street in Greenwich
Village on a warm August night. Packed sidewalks, jammed
traffic, taxis, trucks, buses, honking of horns, etc.
Man-we're-going-to-have-a-ball type feeling.

					DISSOLVE TO:


EXTERIOR. STREET -- NIGHT
Thirteenth Street off Sixth Avenue not so blary and lit up
as the main drags, but traffic is heavy, and there are lots
of people on the sidewalks. There are a number of restaurants
dotting the street with their little striped awnings and
modest neons. If we are on our toes, we notice one neon that
reads: "LOUIE'S."

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. LOUIE'S RESTAURANT
The entire interior isn't too much to show, really. It's a
small restaurant, but it is packed. Waiters scurry here and
there. People jammer and jab. Hustle and bustle. In
background, we can pick out our bachelor party, five men now,
clustered around a table, yakking it up.

WIDE SHOT of our bachelor party, showing all five. They all
seem to be in the best of spirits. The new member of the cast
is Arnold, the groom, a towheaded, pleasant-looking young man
of thirty, shy to the point of being noticeable. Of all the
men at the party, he is the quietest. He sits, a smile nailed
onto his face, turning his head from one friend to another as
they talk, enjoying the rare privilege of being liked. The
dinner is over. During the ensuing scene, a bus boy continues
to remove the used dishes. Several large bottles of beer and
two fifths of Scotch are on the table. There is a welter of
variously assorted glasses. Eddie, Walter, and Kenneth are
smoking cigars, Charlie a cigarette. The Groom is not
smoking.  We have cut into the scene during a jumble of
conversation. Walter is talking to Charlie, whose head is
bent toward the older man. Kenneth is trying to tell the
Groom a joke, but the Groom's attention is being distracted
by Eddie, who is leaning across the table trying to get
Charlie's attention. Ad libs.

			KENNETH
		(finishing story)
	Three hundred pounds! Isn't she kind
	of fat? No, man, tall! Hey, waiter!
	Waiter!

			EDDIE
	Hey, Charlie ...

			WALTER
		(to Charlie)
	... so we were stationed right
	outside Paris, about eight miles, a
	town called Chatou ...

			EDDIE
	... hey, Charlie ...

			WALTER
		(to Charlie)
	... so the first night, a whole
	bunch of us swiped a jeep out of the
	motor court. We had a feller there
	who was a tech sergeant in the motor
	court. Oh, what a character he was!
	He used to get loaded every night on
	that vanilla extract.

			EDDIE
	Hey, Charlie ...

			CHARLIE
	What do you want, Eddie?

			EDDIE
	Hey, Charlie, did I ever tell you
	about the time I was stationed at
	Buckley Field in Denver, and I
	picked up this girl in Lakeside
	Amusement Park?

			WALTER
	Hey, Eddie, listen to this story
	I'm telling Charlie. Hey, Arnold,
	I'm telling Charlie about the time
	me and that crazy tech sergeant
	from the motor court got loaded on
	vanilla extract and went to Paris
	... Hey, Kenneth ...

			KENNETH
	When do the Giants come back from
	their road trip, does anybody know?

			EDDIE
	Hey, let's give out the presents now.

			WALTER
	Hey, Kenneth, listen to this story.
	I was stationed outside of Paris,
	about eight miles ...

			CHARLIE
	What?

			KENNETH
	Oh, that Paris! I was there for two
	days! Clubs! You had to beat the
	women off with clubs! ...

			CHARLIE
		(to people at
		another table)
	What ...? Oh, it's a bachelor party
	-- this guy's getting married.

			EDDIE
	Listen, I want to give the
	presents ...

			WALTER
	Well, let me tell you what
	happened ...

			EDDIE
	Hey, you know what was a great town
	for women, Hamburg!

			KENNETH
	Hamburg! Clubs! Clubs! You had to
	beat them off with clubs! Hey,
	waiter -- who's our waiter?

			CHARLIE
	Hey, Arnold, enjoying yourself?

			EDDIE
	The first night I was in Hamburg,
	two Frauleins come walking right in
	the barracks. So I said to the
	lieutenant ...

Walter, who is pretty lit, suddenly stands and bangs the
table mightily with his fist.

			WALTER
		(bellowing out)
	The best fighting outfit in the
	whole fighting army was the fighting
	Hundred and Fourth Infantry Division,
	General Terry Allen commanding!

This brings the jumbled conversation to a halt. Walter
surveys the other four, looking for possible challenges,
then sits heavily down.

			EDDIE
		(standing)
	Well, now that we got that settled....

			CHARLIE
	I'm with you, Walter.

			ARNOLD
	We believe you, Walter.

			EDDIE
	I'd like to make a little speech to
	our guest of honor and mutual friend,
	Arnold Craig. Arnold, a bunch of us
	down the office, the girls too, all
	chipped in, and we got you a couple
	of small gifts....

Eddie crosses to extra chair, picks up wrapped gifts, crosses
back to his place.

			WALTER
		(whispering to Kenneth)
	These are the gag gifts.

			EDDIE
	Let's see, what's this one? Oh, yeah.
	Arnold, we figured Louise might be
	very sleepy on your wedding night,
	so we thought you might want
	something to keep you warm.

Walter leans forward to see what the tissue-wrapped parcel
Arnold is now unwrapping is.

			WALTER
	What is it? What is it?

Arnold holds a hot-water bottle aloft. Walter is seized with
a paroxysm of laughter at this immensely Rabelaisian gift.

			WALTER
	It's a hot-water bottle!

			KENNETH
	Okay, Walter, okay.

			WALTER
	Hey, did you see that? Hey, he bought
	him a hot-water bottle for his
	wedding night. Hey, that's funny ...

			CHARLIE
	Hey, Eddie, you should have bought
	him an ice pack for after tonight.

			EDDIE
		(holding a
		second parcel)
	Walter, take it easy.... Now, this
	one, Arnold, this one is something
	to keep you busy on cold winter
	nights.

			WALTER
		(crosses to Arnold;
		to the others)
	This ought to be good.

			EDDIE
	Look at Walter.

Walter has come around behind Arnold's chair and can hardly
wait to see what the next joke is.

			WALTER
	Hey, these are funny. Who bought
	these? You buy these, Eddie? These
	are funny. You got a good sense of
	humor.

Arnold unwraps the parcel, holds out a miniature baby bottle.
This is too much for Walter; how funny can you get? He
clutches his sides.

			WALTER
	Hey, did you guys see that? Hey, did
	you guys see that?

			CHARLIE
	Come on, Walter, sit down.

Charlie and Kenneth are smiling appreciatively. Walter
crosses with bottle, sits, starts pouring whisky into baby
bottle.

			WALTER
	Eddie got a good sense of humor, you
	know?

			KENNETH
		(to Charlie)
	Boy, old Walter is crocked.

			ARNOLD
		(smiling, rising
		halfway in his chair)
	Listen, I want to thank you. Really.
	I really want to thank you fellows.

			EDDIE
	We haven't got to the serious
	presents yet, Arnold.

A hush falls over the assembled guests. Arnold composes his
face into a solemn expression and looks down at the
cluttered table.

			EDDIE
		(solemnly)
	Well, in all seriousness, Arnold,
	seriously, I don't know why you
	picked me to be your best man, but I
	am deeply honored. I guess it's
	because we're both Dodger fans, and
	I'm going to miss you at next
	Tuesday's night game when the
	Pittsburgh Pirates invade Ebbets
	Field. We always had a lot of fun
	together, and, seriously, Arnold,
	in all seriousness, good luck on
	your wedding, but see if you can't
	get out of the house occasionally,
	see a night game or even a Sunday
	doubleheader with your old buddy,
	Eddie.

This touching address has brought a note of sadness to the
gathering. Indeed, there are tears in Walter's and Arnold's
eyes.

			EDDIE
		(handing Arnold
		two neatly wrapped
		packages)
	Well, anyway, in all seriousness,
	here are a couple of presents from
	all of us in the office and good
	luck.

Arnold takes the presents, stands, head bowed. Eddie sits
and all faces turn to Arnold.

			ARNOLD
	Well, I just want to thank you
	fellows. I don't know what to say.
	I just want to thank you.

			KENNETH
	Open the presents, Arnold.

			ARNOLD
	I will. I just want to say, Eddie,
	that when the Pirates invade Ebbets
	Field next Tuesday night, I'm going
	to be sitting right there in Section
	37 there right with you.

			EDDIE
	You'll be on your honeymoon next
	Tuesday, Arnold.

This interesting information gives Arnold pause.

			ARNOLD
	Gee, that's right.

			CHARLIE
		(smiling)
	Arnold, you're getting married
	Sunday, did you forget?

			WALTER
	Look at him blush.

			ARNOLD
		(frowning fuzzily)
	No, I didn't forget. It's just that
	... Gee, that's right. Sunday.
	What's today, Thursday?

			KENNETH and EDDIE
	All day!

			ARNOLD
	Boy, it's here, isn't it? I guess
	I've been running around so much the
	last couple of weeks, I guess the
	wedding snuck up on me.

			KENNETH
	I think Arnold's having a little
	buck fever. Does anyone know what
	our waiter looks like?

			EDDIE
		(to Kenneth)
	You know who didn't want to chip in
	for Arnold's presents? ...

			CHARLIE
	Arnold'll be all right. Have a drink,
	Arnold.

			WALTER
	I had my basic training in Camp Croft,
	South Carolina, near Spartanburg.

			EDDIE
	I was at Maxwell Field, what a
	desert.

			CHARLIE
	Walter, what ever happened when you
	and that tech sergeant from the
	motor pool got loaded on vanilla
	extract?

			WALTER
	What tech sergeant?

			CHARLIE
	Walter, you're crocked.
		(to Arnold)
	Open up the presents -- see what you
	got.

			KENNETH
	Hey, are you our waiter? Bring us
	some ice. I got him -- I got our
	waiter!

			ARNOLD
	It was sure nice of you fellows.

The voices have risen again into the jumbled high spirits
that opened the scene.

			EDDIE
	Hey, man, we're having a ball!

					DISSOLVE TO:


EXTERIOR. EIGHTH STREET -- NIGHT
We look down on Eighth Street in Greenwich Village. It is
eight thirty at night. It is a fairly active and well-lit
street, bright with neons and movie marquees and lit-up
shops. Our five carousers are marching down the sidewalk,
that is four of them are on the sidewalk. Walter can't quite
decide whether he wants to walk on the sidewalk or in the
street. He keeps hopping in and out between the parked cars,
running to catch up when he falls behind. They are all
feeling pretty good. Arnold is singing in a wavering
baritone:

			ARNOLD
	De-Witt C-l-i-n-t-o-n
	Boom!
	Clinton!
	Oh, Cli-inton!
	Ever to theeeee!

CLOSER SHOT of the five carousers.

			ARNOLD
		(singing)
	Fairest of high schools ...

			EDDIE
	How did he ever get on this alma
	mater kick?

			ARNOLD
		(singing)
	... Give her three times three
	Oh, fellows ...
	Rah! Rah! Rah!

ANOTHER SHOT of the five carousers, Walter whistling at two
passing girls.

			ARNOLD
	Long may we cherish thee
	Faithful we'll be.
	Clinton, oh, Clinton
	For you and me ...
	Da-da-da-da-da ...
	Crash through that line of blue
	And send the backs around the end.

			EDDIE
	There he goes with those fullbacks
	again.

			ARNOLD
	Rah! Rah! Rah!

					DISSOLVE TO:


EXTERIOR. GREENWICH AVENUE AND TENTH STREET -- NIGHT

GROUP SHOT of our five carousers paused on the curb, waiting
for the lights to change in their favor. Greenwich Avenue
traffic is pretty heavy, going in both directions. The five
men are kind of strung out along the curb with Charlie being
the last in line. Standing beside him, also waiting for the
light to change, is a good-looking, well-dressed, chic young
woman of twenty-four or five.

			KENNETH
	Where we going? Eddie's place to
	see movies?

			ARNOLD
	What movies?

			EDDIE
	Boy, just wait till you see these
	movies! Hey, Charlie, hey Charlie ...

			CHARLIE
	What?

			EDDIE
		(indicating the
		young woman)
	Who's your beautiful friend, Charlie?

Charlie turns and regards the pretty young woman.

			CHARLIE
		(to the girl)
	Excuse me. My friend down there
	wants to know who you are.

The young woman, who for our own mysterious purposes we shall
refer to as The Existentialist, regards the five reasonably
tight young men all staring at her. Kenneth has already begun
to giggle.

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
		(with a Mona Lisa smile)
	Where are you all from, out-of-town?

			CHARLIE
	Indiana.
		(turning to
		the others)
	Isn't that right, fellers? We're
	from Indiana, right?

			EDDIE
	Indiana! Indiana, man!

Kenneth and Arnold, to whom this incident is already
unbearably funny, have turned away and are clutching their
sides, trying to suppress a fit of giggles.

			CHARLIE
		(to The Existentialist)
	We're from the Hoosier State, ma'am...

			WALTER
	Terre Haute! We're from Terre Haute!

			CHARLIE
		(to The Existentialist)
	We're from Terre Haute, and we've
	come to the big city looking for a
	good time, and we just don't know
	what to do with ourselves, ma'am.

			EDDIE
		(to Walter)
	Look at that Charlie operate.

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	Must be a convention in town.

			CHARLIE
	We've just come off the ranch there,
	honey, and we're just raring. Is
	that right, men? Are we raring?

			EDDIE
	We're raring, boy, we're raring!

			KENNETH
		(beside himself
		with laughter)
	Hey, Charlie, cut it out, will you?

The lights change and The Existentialist starts off across
Greenwich Avenue to the west side of the street. The five
carousers follow right along after her.  That is, Charlie
dogs along behind The Existentialist as they cross the
street. Walter and Eddie are close behind him, listening to
Charlie's pitch. Kenneth and Arnold, embarrassed and
giggling, stagger along behind.

			CHARLIE
		(chugging along behind
		The Existentialist)
	We're down here in Greenwich Village
	looking for some wild bohemians. Do
	you happen to know any wild
	bohemians?

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	All right, fellows, enough's enough,
	huh?

She steps up to the sidewalk on the west side of Greenwich
Avenue and hurries along down Tenth Street to a little house
about four doors down, the five carousers on her heels like
a pack of puppies.

			CHARLIE
		(hurrying along after
		The Existentialist)
	I'm something of a poet myself,
	ma'am. Many's the long night in the
	bunkhouse where I sat by myself and
	wrote by the flickering light of a
	kerosene lamp. Could I read you some
	of my poems, ma'am? I know they
	ain't much, but they're from the
	heart, ma'am.

The Existentialist pauses in her hurried walk down Tenth
Street to examine Charlie with some interest.

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	You have a sense of humor, don't you?

			EDDIE
		(to Charlie)
	You're going great, man, don't stop
	now.

The Existentialist goes up the two little steps to the front
door of the house and rings the bell.

			EDDIE
		(to The Existentialist)
	Where are you going, honey?

The Existentialist waits composed and patient for someone to
answer her ring. Charlie has wandered back to Arnold and
Kenneth, and the three of them are now suffused with
laughter. Kenneth has been laughing so much, tears are
coming out of his eyes. He walks around in little circles
clutching his sides. Several passersby hurry by, noting the
strange little group on the sidewalk.

			EDDIE
		(to The Existentialist)
	What's going on in there, honey?

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	 	(patiently bored)
	There's a party going on. I'm not sure
	I'm invited myself, so I can't really
	invite you.

			EDDIE
	Sure you can.

The door opens and a woman in a tea gown stands there
looking at The Existentialist and then at the five men on
the sidewalk. Behind her, there is evidence of a party going
on.

			THE HOSTESS
	How nice to see you, darling. Who
	are your friends?

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	I haven't the vaguest idea. I was
	ambushed crossing Greenwich Avenue
	by a tribe of the Terre Haute
	Kiwanis.

			THE HOSTESS
		(she waves a vague
		hand in a sort of
		shooing motion at
		the five men on
		the sidewalk)
	Go away, you men. Go back to the
	Biltmore Hotel and put on your red
	caps.

			EDDIE
	I always thought you city people
	were more hospitable to us poor
	farm boys.

The other four carousers are laughing too much to even talk.
Charlie has ambled up to The Existentialist, who is peering
over her hostess into the room behind her.

			CHARLIE
		(to The Existentialist,
		smiling amiably)
	I'm sorry, miss. A friend of ours is
	getting married here, and we're just
	horsing around.

The Existentialist looks into the young man's smiling,
rather winning face.

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	Why don't you come back after you
	get rid of your friends.

			EDDIE
	He'll be back!

She turns abruptly and disappears past the hostess into the
room.

			EDDIE
		(to Charlie)
	Man, she likes you, man!

			THE HOSTESS
	Now, you boys go away.

She backs into her house and closes the door. Eddie starts
up the steps to the door. The other four just roar with
laughter, clutch their sides, and giggle and snort.

			EDDIE
	Well, what do you say, men, are we
	going to this party, or aren't we?

			CHARLIE
		(laughing)
	Come on, Eddie. I thought you had
	some movies you want to show us.

			EDDIE
	What do you want to see movies for?
	You got the real thing right here.

			CHARLIE
		(laughing)
	Eddie, we're married men here.

			EDDIE
	Come on, let's crash this party.
	I've been to these Greenwich Village
	parties. Man, they're wild.

			KENNETH
	Come on, Eddie, let's go up to your
	place, see these movies.

			EDDIE
		(coming reluctantly
		back to the others,
		says to Charlie)
	Man, you were going strong with that
	girl. You could have scored. She's
	just waiting for you. Go in after
	her.

			KENNETH
	Come on, Eddie. Let's go see the
	movies.

			EDDIE
		(to the others)
	All right, I live about three blocks
	down. You guys want to see movies,
	all right, let's go see movies.

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. THE BACHELOR'S APARTMENT
Eddie is scowling over a home-style movie projector,
muttering over the intricacies of fitting a reel into the
ratchets. Arnold has suddenly become voluble and is gabbing
away at him. CAMERA DOLLIES AROUND THEM during the scene so
that we can see into the living room of the apartment,
appointed in simple but neat masculine taste, where the
other three men move in and out of view. Right now, we are
concerned only with Arnold and Eddie.

			ARNOLD
	... we're moving in with her mother
	and father. I don't know if that's
	such a good idea. What do you think?
	We haven't got an apartment yet, and
	we figure we'll live a year with her
	folks, save on the rent, see?

Kenneth comes back from the kitchen with three open bottles
of beer.

			KENNETH
	Anybody want a bottle of beer?

			ARNOLD
		(to Eddie)
	She's a widow, and that bothers me a
	little. I don't know why. She's two
	years older than me. I don't know if
	you know that. Her husband got killed
	in Korea. She's a cousin of mine, you
	know.

			KENNETH
		(moving into
		the living room)
	Who wants a bottle of beer?

			CHARLIE
	I'll take a bottle.

			WALTER
	Yeah, give me one.

			ARNOLD
	A third cousin, something like that.
	It's not good for cousins to marry,
	is it? What do you think of her? I
	know she's not terribly pretty, but
	I mean ...

			EDDIE
		(muttering imprecations
		at the projector)
	Arnold, leave me alone a minute,
	will you?

			ARNOLD
	Sure.
		(turns to the others in
		living room, plants a
		huge smile on his face)
	Well, I'm getting married Sunday.

			KENNETH
	Having fun, Walter?

			WALTER
	Fun. A bunch of grown men sitting
	around waiting to look at college
	boy pictures.

			ARNOLD
	I swear, I never thought two months
	ago I was ever going to get married.
	I still don't know how it happened....

			EDDIE
	Hey, somebody turn off the lights.

Walter is promptly up to turn off the lights.

			CHARLIE
	Hey, you know, you've got a nice
	place here.

The room is abruptly flooded in darkness. A beam of light
shoots out from the projector. It seems pointed at the
window. Arnold stands up directly in the shaft of light.

			ARNOLD
	I was just taking her out. I didn't
	know it was so serious.

			EDDIE
	Arnold, get out of the way, will
	you?

			ARNOLD
	Oh, sure.

Arnold moves a step, still in the shaft of light, his shadow
huge on the wall. Eddie, muttering, jockeys the projector
around trying to focus it on the screen. The square of light
and some flickering images wander up and down a wall.

			ARNOLD
	... We're sitting in the car, so she
	says: "Well, Arnold, we've been
	going together six months now. I
	think it's time we decided whether
	we were being serious."

			WALTER
	Hey, Eddie, you got it on the window.

			ARNOLD
	I didn't know it was so serious. I
	didn't even know we were going
	together. I just took her out every
	now and then.

			CHARLIE
	Arnold, you're funny.

			EDDIE
	Turn on the lights again, will you,
	Walter.

			WALTER
	What's the matter?

			EDDIE
	I forgot to loop it over this loop
	thing.

Walter crosses to light switch. The room is flooded in light
again.

			CHARLIE
	Oh, for crying out loud.

			ARNOLD
		(small panic)
	I can't even remember what she looks
	like! I just saw her this afternoon!

			KENNETH
	Arnold, have a bottle of beer. It's
	not so terrible.

			ARNOLD
	Boy, I tell you. It's for the rest
	of your life when you get married.
	This is a big decision to make.

			WALTER
	Does anybody seriously want to see
	these movies?

Eddie is furiously winding and unwinding spools. CAMERA HAS
DOLLIED AROUND so that we are looking back up the living
room toward the projector and the men.

			ARNOLD
	I could be making a serious mistake.

			EDDIE
	Arnold, you're in the way again.
	Come on now. All right, put off the
	lights.

The room is flooded in darkness again. Walter hurries to a
chair. The square of light is reasonably focused, just an
edge trailing off onto the drapes of the window. Numbers
flicker quickly on on the screen. The rest of the scene we
see looking into the whitened faces of the five men at their
various posts. Arnold crosses, stands back of Walter.

			KENNETH
	Here we go.

			EDDIE
	Hey, Arnold, if this is the one I
	think it is, there's one part here I
	want you to see.

			WALTER
		(a picture of determined
		boredom, but putting on
		his glasses)
	This is for kids.

			CHARLIE
	Says he -- putting on his glasses.

			KENNETH
	"The Baseball Game." That's a nice
	title, don't you think?

			EDDIE
	This is the one, Arnold. There's a
	guy in here who looks just like
	Arnold.

			KENNETH
	Hey, she's not bad. Usually, the
	girls in these things look like
	dinosaurs.

			WALTER
		(his eyes glued
		to the screen)
	A bunch of grown men ...

He breaks off as apparently some interesting action has
started on screen. An involuntary grunt of acknowledgment
escapes him.

			EDDIE
	I got these pictures off my dentist.
	I don't know where be got them.
	There you are, Arnold, that's you.

			CHARLIE
	Yeah, it does look like Arnold.

			EDDIE
	Doesn't that look like Arnold?

			KENNETH
	Who's looking at the guy?

			CHARLIE
	Arnold, you've got a great career
	ahead of you.

			KENNETH
	That girl looks like the girl
	Charlie picked up just before.

			EDDIE
	Probably is.

			WALTER
	That fellow there is not a bad actor.

			CHARLIE
	Actor. You could play that part
	pretty easy yourself.

			KENNETH
	I think the Daily News gave this one
	four stars.

			EDDIE
	I'd like to see this in Three-D.

The side comments drift off for a moment, and a sort of
frozen attention settles on the white faces. Each face is
sort of set in a mold of determined disinterest, but the
eyes are all watching.

			WALTER
	Well, I'll just watch one of them.
	Then, I think I'll just go home.

He wets his lips, lifts the bottle of beer to his mouth and
takes a swallow. His eyes never leave the screen.

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. KITCHEN  CHARLIE AND HELEN'S APARTMENT
Helen standing in front of the laundry part of the sink,
doing her private laundry. She has on a house smock and her
sleeves are rolled up. The doorbell rings. Helen takes a
towel off the doorknob behind her and, wiping her hands,
comes down across the dining area to the front door. She
opens the door to admit a young woman, about eight years
older than Helen.

			HELEN
	Hiya, Julie. I was beginning to
	think you weren't coming.

			JULIE
		(coming in)
	I was at my mother's house. Did they
	call you? They said they were going
	to call you.

			HELEN
	Yeah, your mother was very sweet.

			JULIE
	You should have seen my father. I
	said, "Pa, you have another
	grandchild coming." So he said,
	"Who?" So I said, "Charlie." So he
	said, "That little Helen?" So I said,
	"If it isn't that little Helen,
	Charlie better leave town." So out
	came the beer. Well, they've been
	after Charlie to have a baby for a
	long time now. I said, "Pa, leave
	him alone. Let him get established
	before he saddles himself with a
	baby." Anyway, I want you to know
	joy reigns supreme in your in-laws'
	house.
		(she moves into
		the kitchen)
	How's Charlie taking it?

			HELEN
		(following her
		into the kitchen)
	Listen, let me make you a cup of
	tea or something.

			JULIE
	No, no, I've been drinking beer for
	the last two hours, celebrating your
	baby.

			HELEN
	Soda, anything like that?

			JULIE
	No, honey, you go on with your wash.
	Is that what you're doing?
		(she sits)
	When I had my first baby, Mike was
	ashamed to be seen on the streets
	with me. Well, listen, he was
	interning at the time. We needed a
	baby like a hole in the head. That's
	why he's a general practitioner now,
	because of that baby. He was
	studying to be a surgeon. He
	absolutely refused to admit I was
	pregnant. Even in my ninth month,
	and I was as big as a house. He
	used to walk ten paces in front of
	me in the street like he didn't
	know who that woman with the belly
	was. Where is Charlie anyway?

			HELEN
	I told you he--

			JULIE
	Oh, yeah. I wouldn't let my Mike go
	on a bachelor party.

			HELEN
		(turning back
		to her wash)
	What are they going to do, get a
	little drunk?

			JULIE
	Are you kidding? What do you think
	these bachelor parties are for,
	bachelors? This is for the married
	men. It's a good excuse to get
	drunk and find some girls.

			HELEN
	Can you picture Charlie getting
	drunk and picking up a girl?
	Charlie's old sobersides. You
	should have seen what I went through
	to get him to make a pass at me.
	He's so sweet. Nobody knows how
	really sweet he is, he's so quiet
	all the time. My brother died in
	September, he used to stay up with
	me till three, four o'clock every
night. I used to cry all night, and
he used to sit on the bed and talk
with me. I used to look at him
talking there, and I used to think:
"What would I do without this sweet
man here? I'd go crazy." You know,
you like to be a little cynical
sometimes, Julie.

		JULIE
Wait'll you've been married eleven
years.

		HELEN
You like to talk about all the
affairs everybody's husband is
having. Do you know actually one
woman whose husband is actually
playing around?

An abrupt, sad expression, tinged with pain, has come over
Julie's face. She looks down at the table.

		JULIE
Wait'll you've been married eleven
years.

Helen, aware that she has perhaps touched on a sensitive
subject, frowns and turns back to her washing. A quick,
thick silence dips into the room.

		JULIE
	(looking down)
Wait'll Charlie gets to be forty-two.
My Mike's having an affair right now
with one of his patients right now.
We don't talk about it -- don't you,
either, not even to Charlie. But
Mike knows I know about it. I even
know the patient. A married woman
with a hyperthyroid problem. My
Mike's a good doctor with a pretty
good practice. The kids are crazy
about him. But every now and then
he has to go out and get involved
with a woman.

She looks down at her hands in her lap.

		JULIE
Listen, I will take a cup of tea if
you've got one.

She stands, opens the pantry, looks around among the cans
and packages for a box of tea bags.

		HELEN
	(quite shocked)
You're kidding, aren't you?

		JULIE
	(finds the box
	of tea bags)
Would I kid about something like
that?

She puts the box of tea bags an the workshelf, unhooks a
saucepan hanging over the stove, turns to the sink and fills
it with water. Helen regards her, not quite knowing what to
say. Julie sets the saucepan going on the stove, stares at
it.

		JULIE
I don't know why I told you. Don't
tell anybody, not even Charlie. I
don't want the family to know. But
this woman isn't the first one. I
know that much. About three years
ago, the doorbell rings. I open the
door. There's a man there. He says:
"Tell your husband to stay away from
my sister." How would you like to
open the door and have somebody say
that to you? I cried for two weeks.
I don't know what to do about it,
Helen. Should I bring it out in the
open with Mike or should I just keep
my mouth shut like the other time?
Because he's not going to leave me.
Even if he doesn't care about me,
he has his kids to think about. We
married too young. That was our big
mistake. We married too young.

Her face, her whole body suddenly tightens to forestall any
possibility of breaking into tears, and she sits down
abruptly on the kitchen stool, her eyes clenched tight and
her face rigidly impassive. Helen remains nervously silent.

		JULIE
	(her voice rising just
	a little from the
	suppressed emotion
	within her)
We should have waited till he
finished his internship. What kind
of married life is that? Twenty-two
dollars a month he was earning.
Every other day, he had to sleep in
the hospital. The first two years of
our marriage, we didn't even see
each other. And then I'm pregnant.
He had to quit, what do you think?
He wanted to be a surgeon, he wound
up being a G.P. From that day he
hated me. I had two other children
by him, but he hated me. He told me
in just so many words. Why do you
think I kept telling you, Helen, why
do you think I kept telling you:
"Don't have a baby till Charlie finds
himself."
	(suddenly cries out)
It hurts! Even after eleven years,
it hurts!

She stands abruptly and moves quickly past Helen out the
kitchen doorway into the dark living room, leaving Helen
standing troubled, concerned, in the kitchen. After a moment,
Helen moves to the kitchen doorway and a step out into the
dining area. She looks through the dark living room to the
gray silhouette of Julie standing by the living room window,
her form lightly outlined by a tracing of moonlight.

		HELEN
Are you all right, Julie?

		JULIE
	(muttering)
I'm all right. I'm all right.

				DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. BACHELOR'S APARTMENT (45 MINUTES LATER)
We are looking back up the living room as we were at the
close of the last scene in this apartment. The room is
absolutely dark now, but a light pours in from the foyer. In
this shaft of light, we can see Eddie moving from behind the
projector to the wall switch and turning on the lights. The
room is abruptly bright with light, and our five men squint
against the sudden glare. They have all changed their
positions and taken off their jackets and loosened their
ties. They are lolling about. CAMERA LOOKS DOWN TO THE FLOOR
to take particular note of eight empty beer bottles, an
opened fifth of bourbon, ash trays, crumpled packs of
cigarettes, a cup and saucer, somebody's shoes, somebody's
jacket that has fallen off the back of a chair. Over this
we hear Walter's voice:

		WALTER
Is that the last one?

			EDDIE
	Yeah.

A thick silence fills the room. There is a kind of sodden
feeling to this scene. After a long moment, Walter's voice
again:

			WALTER
	Ah, you've seen one, you've seen
	them all.

			KENNETH
	Yeah, they're all alike.

			CHARLIE
	I don't know -- I think the first
	one was all right.

			WALTER
	Yeah, I was so bored by the rest of
	them. I nearly fell asleep during
	the last one.

			KENNETH
	You in the habit of sleeping with
	your eyes open?

We look down on the room now, at all five of the men, Eddie
rewinding the last reel, the little motor of the projector
humming. The others loll about, their legs dangling over the
armrests of the soft chairs and sofas. There is a heavy,
dense mood that no one seems willing to break.

			CHARLIE
	What time's it about, anybody know?

			ARNOLD
		(glancing at his watch)
	I got a quarter to nine.

			EDDIE
	No, it's later than that, about a
	quarter after.

Again the silence falls upon the five men. Only the humming
little motor interrupts the thick silence. Nobody moves.

			WALTER
		(after a moment)
	Ah, you see one, you've seen them
	all.

Again the silence. Charlie stretches over for his bottle of
beer on the floor beside his chair. He pours what's left of
the bottle into the glass standing beside it. Otherwise
nobody moves.

			WALTER
		(after a moment)
	So that's the last one you've got to
	show us, Eddie?

			EDDIE
	Yeah. You want to run them backwards?

			KENNETH
	I wonder where they get the girls to
	make these movies?

			WALTER
	Might as well go home, I guess.

			KENNETH
	Yeah.

The idea doesn't seem to propel anybody to any decisive
movement. Walter shifts his position on the sofa, stretches
out his legs, regards his shoes with a sudden sadness.

			WALTER
		(after a moment)
	Life is short.

This gives everybody something to think about for a moment.

			EDDIE
		(hunched over
		the projector,
		dismantling it)
	You guys feel like going down to
	have a drink for Arnold?

This brings a reaction. Walter stands.

			WALTER
	Yeah! What do you say? One last
	drink for Arnold!

			CHARLIE
	Okay with me.

Suddenly life is back in the room, the men ad-lib: "Where's
my coat?" "Let's get out of here," etc.

			KENNETH
		(unwinding himself
		from his slouched
		position on a chair)
	You can say what you want to about
	these pictures -- they're really
	pretty bad -- but they get you.

			ARNOLD
	Don't you think we ought to clean up
	the place?

			EDDIE
	No, I got a woman comes in.

			WALTER
		(grabbing up
		his jacket)
	I almost fell asleep during the
	last one.
		(he looks at
		the others)
	Well, what do you say, huh? Let's
	go! One last drink!

Ad libs on exit.

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. LIVING ROOM CHARLIE AND HELEN'S APARTMENT
Helen and Julie. A corner lamp in the living room is lit,
lending a soft but not too effective light to the room. The
two young women are on the couch. Helen sits curled at one
end, head down listening to Julie, who has been talking and
probably crying a little since we last saw them forty-five
minutes ago. Julie is seated with her legs stretched out in
front of her, her head resting back on the back of the couch.
She is talking more freely and easily now, the first hard
outburst over with.

			JULIE
	... He's a boy, my Mike. Till the
	day he dies, he'll never be more
	than fifteen. Perpetual adolescence,
	that's the curse of the professional
	man. He spends his whole youth trying
	to be a doctor, a lawyer, an
	accountant. Then he spends the rest
	of his life looking for the fun he
	should have had when he was a boy.

			HELEN
	Oh, I know. Charlie and I hardly
	even see each other.

			JULIE
	It's very hard on the wife, Helen.
	These are the years when you should
	be building your marriage. Instead,
	you grow away from each other. I've
	seen it happen with my friends. In
	the end, they have nice homes in New
	Rochelle, and a maid, and their
	maids are happier than they are. But
	sometimes it does work. It can be
	done, Helen. Encourage Charlie to
	stay with his school because...

			HELEN
	Oh, I will, Julie ...

			JULIE
	... he's an ambitious boy ...

			HELEN
	... oh, it's not just he's
	ambitious ...

			JULIE
	... and if he doesn't fulfill
	himself, he'll resent you and your
	baby the rest of his life.

			HELEN
	Oh, I don't want him to quit. He
	loves accounting, Julie. I see him
	sometimes, sitting over his homework.
	He's got his ledgers out, and he's
	adding up columns of figures as long
	as his arm. And he's chuckling.
	You'd think he was reading the
	comics. He has a book there,
	Business Law. How he can read it I
	don't know. But I'll be watching
	television or something, and he'll
	come over, and he'll start telling
	me about some fine legal point. I
	don't know what he's talking about,
	but it's enough for me to see how
	excited it makes him. He loves it,
	Julie. You can't take something like
	that away from him. It's just --
	it's just I feel we're not really
	close any more. I mean, he comes
	home from school, lots of times I'm
	asleep already. And, when I do see
	him, he seems all involved with
	himself. He looks at me sometimes as
	if I were a stranger to him, and I
	feel sometimes I am. I'm afraid of
	that, Julie.

			JULIE
	Then get rid of the baby.

It is said simply, inevitably, even innocently. It brings
only a frown to Helen's face and a short silence.

			JULIE
	If I had it to do again, believe me,
	that's what I would do.

			HELEN
		(slowly becoming aware
		of the depth of what
		they are talking about)
	You don't mean that, Julie.

			JULIE
	Yes, I do. My children are the only
	things in my life now, but I would
	rather have a husband.

			HELEN
	I wouldn't even think about it.

			JULIE
	That's what I said, too.

			HELEN
	Let's not even think about it. If I
	even mentioned it, he'd -- he'd hit
	me, I think.

			JULIE
	All right.

Now, the thick, tense silence falls between them. They both
occupy themselves with their own troubled thoughts.

			HELEN
	I want this baby, Julie. I've wanted
	this baby for a long time. It's the
	only thing I've ever asked of
	Charlie. If I mentioned that to him
	-- I don't know what he'd do.

Again, they sink into silence. Then in the thick silence,
the telephone rings. The two young women are so deep within
their thoughts that neither of them moves. It rings again,
and Helen slides off the couch and goes to the phone. It
rings again. She picks it up.

			HELEN
		(on phone)
	Hello.... Hello, Charlie, where are
	you calling from? ... You sound like
	you're having a nice time.... Oh,
	you're having a ball, huh? ... Well,
	what time do you think you'll be
	coming home?

INTERIOR. PHONE BOOTH IN EIGHTH STREET BAR
Charlie in the phone booth, smiling broadly. He seems in
wonderful spirits. Through the glass of the phone booth we
can see part of the bar and some of the barflies.

			CHARLIE
		(on phone)
	Well, that's what I wanted to call
	you about, honey. I think a couple
	of the guys are cutting out now. I
	think Kennie's going home. But I was
	wondering if you wanted me home for
	any special reason.

INTERIOR. THE FOYER

			HELEN
		(on phone)
	Just a minute, Charlie....

She rises, goes to kitchen door, still holding the phone.

			HELEN
		(to Julie)
	Excuse me a minute, Julie. It's
	Charlie....

She goes into the kitchen. A little embarrassed, she closes
the kitchen door.

INTERIOR. THE KITCHEN

			HELEN
		(on phone)
	Charlie? ...
		(sits)
	Charlie, come on home now.... No, I
	feel all right. I just miss you.
	Julie's here, and we were talking
	about you, and I just miss you....
	Ah, come on....
		(frowns a little)
	Well, no, if you're having such a
	good time, stay out and enjoy
	yourself.... No, Charlie, I don't
	want you to come home if you're
	having a good time.... I'm not
	lonely. Julie's here. We're talking.
	I was washing some things.... I
	know, that's what I told you this
	morning. You've finally got a night
	off for yourself. I don't want you
	to feel guilty about it....
	Charlie, do you love me? ... You
	sound angry.... No, come home any
	time you want....
		(she wets her
		lips nervously)
	Charlie ...
		(she lets her head
		sink down onto the
		palm of her free hand)
	Charlie, there's no girls at this
	party, are there? ... I'm not
	checking up on you, Charlie. I just
	miss you, that's all.... All right,
	Charlie, please, I don't want to
	argue with you. Julie's in the
	living room. ... All right, have a
	good time, stay out as long as you
	want.... All right, Charlie, good-
	bye.

She slowly hangs up the receiver, sits slumped and abject.


INTERIOR. PHONE BOOTH IN EIGHTH STREET BAR
Charlie in booth. The broad grin has disappeared from his
face. As seen through the closed glass doors of the booth,
he is a very sullen and despondent young man. He stands now,
pushes the doors open, and comes out. CAMERA PULLS BACK so
that we can see the whole area of the bar near the phone
booths. Next to the phone booth are two doors marked GUYS
and DOLLS. Kenneth is coming in from the deeper recesses of
the bar where the other members of the bachelor party are
grouped in a booth. He is headed for the door marked GUYS.
Charlie regards Kenneth bleakly as he approaches.

			CHARLIE
	The party breaking up?

			KENNETH
		(pushing into
		the men's room)
	I don't know. I'm going home. You
	going home?

			CHARLIE
	Yeah, I think so.

He pushes into the men's room after Kenneth.

INTERIOR. THE MEN'S ROOM
A small, white-tiled, yet somehow not too clean, men's room,
two-urinal size. There is one washbowl with a small mirror
over it, and two water closets with doors, separated from
each other by a steel partition. Charlie perches on the edge
of the washbowl; he apparently came in just to talk. Kenneth
moves off camera for more practical use of the room. CAMERA
stays on Charlie who seems depressed, pensive, sad. Stay on
him for a long moment. Then ...

			CHARLIE
		(frowning)
	You love your wife, Kennie?

			KENNETH'S VOICE
		(off)
	Well, I've been married six years.
	I've got two kids that keep me awake
	all night long. Every Sunday, we go
	out driving in Long Island looking
	for a house that's going to take
	one, probably two mortgages. I better
	love my wife.

Kenneth appears now, edges Charlie away from the wash basin,
so he can wash his hands.

			CHARLIE
	I don't feel like going home. Are
	you going? Hang around, Kennie. It's
	only about nine thirty, ten.

			KENNETH
	It's after ten. It's about ten after
	ten.

Kenneth rips off a paper towel. The only noise for a moment
is the soft crumpling of paper as Kenneth dries his hands.

			KENNETH
	The party's getting a little wild in
	there anyway. Eddie and Walter got
	poor Arnold nailed in there, they're
	trying to talk him into getting a
	girl. This party's going to wind up
	in a joint, let me tell you. This is
	a good time to blow.

			CHARLIE
		(frowning)
	Yeah.... I should have gone to class
	tonight. I'm paying twenty bucks a
	credit. The least I can do is go to
	class.

He breaks off abruptly, turning away with a sudden frown.

			CHARLIE
	I take one night off, I can't even
	enjoy myself. Did you know Eddie
	went back to Europe?

			KENNETH
	No, I didn't know that.

			CHARLIE
	He was telling me he lived in Paris
	for three months. I'd like to do
	that!

He ambles around the men's room, studying himself with
unseeing eyes in the little mirror, poking the trash can
into which Kenneth is now dropping his wadded paper towel.
He suddenly turns to Kenneth, stares at him. Kenneth looks
at him in mirror.

			KENNETH
	What's the matter?

			CHARLIE
	I'm going to quit. What am I
	killing myself for?

			KENNETH
	Quit what?

			CHARLIE
	Quit night school. Tonight was the
	first laughs I've had in years. I
	can't remember the last time I had
	so much fun. Look what I'm missing.
	I'm making a pretty good living. I
	can support a wife and baby on what
	I make. I'm going to quit! I mean
	it. I'm going to quit. Boy, what a
	time to have a baby.

			KENNETH
	You don't have to quit school
	because you're having a baby,
	Charlie. There are lots of guys go
	to night school with two, three
	kids.

			CHARLIE
	You ought to meet some of these guys.
	They're just grinding their lives
	away. It's an obsession with some of
	these guys. I mean, what's the point?
	So I'll go five more years to night
	school. So I'll get my degree. So
	I'll get a job as a junior accountant
	for three years at seventy-five bucks
	a week. I'm making better than that
	now. And then it just starts. The
	CPA exams. By the time I'm fifty, I
	can start living. At this point, I
	get a heart attack and an ulcer, and
	they bury me in the ground, and they
	say: "That was Charlie Samson, the
	man who didn't see a movie in fifty
	years." Why go through all that?
	I'll quit. I feel so mad right now,
	you better keep an eye on me, Kennie,
	because I'm going to wind up punching
	somebody.

The door opens. Man enters to clean a spot off his tie.

			KENNETH
	Come on, let's go home.

			CHARLIE
	What do I want to go home for?

			KENNETH
	You're in a lousy mood.

The man, finished with his tie, exits.

			KENNETH
		(after a moment)
	Charlie, go home. I can see you're
	going to get fried tonight and wind
	up picking up a tramp and you're
	going to wake up in the morning
	feeling like two-bits.

			CHARLIE
	It'd be a profit.

			KENNETH
	Charlie, about five years ago, I
	went without a job for seven months.
	Alice was carrying our first baby.
	We were living on money I borrowed
	from my brother. I don't know if you
	remember me in those days, but it
	was rough. I used to go out every
	night, put a load on, and make a
	pass at any girl who looked at me.
	And I mean any. Big, tall, short,
	fat, anything. Well, one night I
	picked up some tomato somewheres,
	and we were sitting in a bar or
	somewheres, and I kept calling her
	Alice all night. So she says to me:
	"My name ain't Alice. Who's Alice?"
	So I said: "Alice is my wife," and
	I got up and I went home.

Charlie waits a moment for Kenneth to continue, but
apparently this is all Kenneth has to offer at the moment.

			CHARLIE
	What does that mean?

			KENNETH
	I don't know. I had a point when I
	started telling that story.

			CHARLIE
	I'm not looking for another woman.

			KENNETH
	Yes, you are, Charlie. You may not
	know it, but you are. So go on home,
	Charlie, before you get any drunker
	than you are. Charlie, you start
	messing with other women, something
	goes. It'll kill your marriage.
	It'll kill your wife. It'll just
	kill her. What my wife went through
	-- well, I don't even want to
	remember it. It's never the same
	with your wife again, Charlie.

			CHARLIE
	I'm not looking for any woman.

			KENNETH
	I think what I was trying to say
	was you stick with your night school.
	Some guys have to make peace with
	themselves that they're never going
	to amount to too much. A guy like me.
	Once I made that peace with myself,
	I found out it doesn't really matter
	what you amount to. I got a nice
	wife and two children I complain
	about all the time, but if anything
	ever happened to either one of them,
	I think I'd die. But you don't have
	to make that kind of peace, and
	you'd be crazy to settle for less
	than what you want. You want
	something, Charlie. I think that's
	wonderful.
		(Charlie's eyes go
		toward Kenneth)
	You're a little drunk now, and
	you're fed up to the teeth.
	Everybody gets fed up, Charlie. You
	stick with it. You're going to be all
	right.

			CHARLIE
		(touched)
	You're a nice guy, Kennie.

			KENNETH
	Sure. You're a nice guy too.

The door to the men's room opens, and a Young Man comes in,
looks around quickly at Kenneth and Charlie -- bumps into
Kennie.

			YOUNG MAN
	Watch it -- will you, Mac?

Charlie regards this statement a moment. Then advances to
the Young Man.

			CHARLIE
	Wait a minute.... What are you, a
	wise guy?

He is all set to bust the Young Man one in the nose, but
Kenneth takes him by the arm.

			KENNETH
	Come on, Charlie, let's go home.

Charlie allows himself to be led to the door.

			CHARLIE
	I'm just about drunk enough right
	now to bust somebody right in the
	nose.

Kenneth reaches for the knob of the door, opens it, and the
two men go out. They find themselves in the crowded, noisy
bar. A jagged kind of intensity to the atmosphere as if some
of the men at the bar might be gangsters. Booths filled with
men and women and some mixed-up types. Kenneth and Charlie
make their way through the bodies down to one of the booths
where Eddie and Arnold are sitting and Walter is standing,
heavily drunk. Eddie is expostulating to Walter:

			EDDIE
		(to Walter)
	... Come on, will you? Look Walter,
	it's just the shank of the evening!
	What's so special in your home? You
	got a floor show every night? Who
	are you married to, Jayne Mansfield?
	Come on, it's not even half past
	ten!

Walter sits heavily down.

			KENNETH
		(smiling amiably)
	We got to get up tomorrow, go to
	work, Eddie.

			EDDIE
	We're just starting! We got to get
	Arnold a girl yet!

			ARNOLD
	Eddie, please ...

			EDDIE
	That's the whole point to a bachelor
	party! You got to get the guy a girl!

			ARNOLD
	Look, fellows, it's been a nice
	clean party ...

			KENNETH
	Well, Arnold, since I'm not going to
	see you again before the wedding,
	congratulations and best wishes in
	the coming future to both you and
	the bride.

			ARNOLD
	Thanks a lot, Kennie....

Eddie turns to Charlie, who is still glowering.

			EDDIE
	You're not going, are you, Charlie?
	We're just starting! We got to get
	Arnold a girl yet!

			ARNOLD
		(to Kenneth)
	I want to thank you for the
	presents, Kennie....

			CHARLIE
	...No, I'll stick around another
	hour or so....

			EDDIE
	... That's my boy....

			ARNOLD
		(to Kenneth, who is
		looking at Charlie)
	... Honestly, I never expected any
	presents....

			KENNETH
		(to Charlie)
	... Aren't you coming home? ...

			CHARLIE
	... What for? Sit around talking to
	my sister Julie? ...

			ARNOLD
		(standing)
	... I want to thank all you
	fellows ...

			EDDIE
	All right, stop thanking them,
	Arnold. They just gave you a party,
	they didn't elect you President.

			ARNOLD
	... This has been one of the nicest
	nights of my life....

			CHARLIE
	Let's go someplace ... let's go to
	a nightclub.

			EDDIE
	That's great with me.

			CHARLIE
	Come on, Ken.

			ARNOLD
	Thanks a lot.

			KENNETH
	... Well, listen, fellows, I'm
	cutting out.... Good night, Walter,
	Eddie.
		(to Charlie)
	... You coming, Charlie? ...

			CHARLIE
	... No, I'll kill another hour....
	Come on, Kennie....

			KENNETH
	No, you go ahead. I'll see you in
	the morning, Charlie.

			CHARLIE
	Okay, I'll see you.

					DISSOLVE TO:


EXTERIOR. THIRD STREET
The little stretch of strip-joints on Third Street. Bright
little cluster of honky-tonks.

EXTERIOR. THIRD STREET
Our bachelor party, now down to four carousers, ambles along
the rather filled sidewalk, looking at the cardboard cutouts
of the strippers in the windows of the night clubs.

The four men pause before one of the strip-joints, examining
the cardboard cutout and billboard which promises first-rate
entertainment inside.

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. THIRD STREET NIGHT CLUB
We look down on the whole night club, showing the dark,
dingy, crowded, smallness of it. There is a strip going on.
It doesn't look very interesting.

Our four men are huddled over a very small table in one of
those Third Street clip-joints. It is a dark little hovel,
but a blue stage light drifts across the table, vaguely
illuminating our four celebrators. Behind them, a strip
tease is in progress. Every now and then, an almost stout
woman in her forties, garish in the blue spotlight, dressed
in a white satin ill-fitting gown, moves in and out of our
view. Half the tables and wall booths are occupied. There is
a horseshoe bar off in the recesses of the club. A three-
piece band is playing spiritlessly.

Walter is gone, deep in some painful, drunken world of his
own. Charlie rubs his eyes as if to keep his senses awake.
Arnold, who is soggy, is leaning toward Eddie, who alone of
the four men is giving any attention to the show.

			ARNOLD
	So what do you think of my girl,
	Eddie? You met her. Be honest with
	me. Tell me the truth. I had the
	feeling you didn't like her.

			EDDIE
	Come on, come on, Arnold. What do
	you want from me.

Arnold turns to Charlie.

			ARNOLD
	Listen, Charlie, I'd like to ask you
	a little advice. I mean, you're a
	married man. This girl, I'm supposed
	to marry, she's all right, but I'm
	not really attracted to her, you
	know what I mean? That's important,
	isn't it? I kissed her a couple of
	times, but I ... I don't know why
	I'm getting married, Charlie.

			CHARLIE
	What did you say, Arnold?

			ARNOLD
	I said, I don't know why I'm getting
	married. I did pretty good for
	thirty-two years without getting
	married. I get along fine at home.
	My mother's a good cook. I have a
	nice life. What do I want to break
	it all up for?

			CHARLIE
	Well, Arnold, everybody feels that
	way before they get married.

			ARNOLD
	Yeah? Did I ever show you a picture
	of my girl?

			CHARLIE
	No, you didn't, Arnold.

			ARNOLD
	Do you want to see a picture?

			CHARLIE
	Sure.

Arnold clumsily hauls out his wallet and extracts a picture.
He gives it to Charlie who twists at an angle in order to
get some light on it.

			ARNOLD
	I want you to give me your honest
	impression, Charlie. She isn't much,
	is she?

			CHARLIE
	I can't see much in this light, but
	she looks like a nice pretty girl.

			ARNOLD
	Well, I wouldn't say that. We were
	matched up, you know. The families
	kind of agreed on it. I was brought
	over to her by my mother and father.
	That's how I met her. She's some
	kind of tenth cousin. She's all
	right. She's quiet. I kissed her a
	couple of times. She just sat there
	and I kissed her. I think she
	expected more. She even asked me
	that. She said to me: "Are you
	afraid of me?" I really don't go out
	with women much. You know. Don't
	tell nobody this, Charlie, but you
	aren't going to believe this, but I
	never ... I mean, you wouldn't
	believe that a guy of my age, I
	never ... Don't tell anybody I ever
	told you this, but I never-- I mean,
	Charlie, she's a widow. She's been
	married already -- she's going to
	expect a lot -- and I never ----
	What do you think I ought to do?

			CHARLIE
	What do you mean, Arnold?

			ARNOLD
	I mean, you think I ought to marry
	her?

			CHARLIE
	Well, Arnold, even if I knew the
	girl, I wouldn't answer that
	question. I may not like her, but
	she may be fine for you.

			ARNOLD
	Because I'm thinking of calling the
	whole thing off.

			CHARLIE
	It's kind of late for that, isn't
	it?

			ARNOLD
	I'm scared stiff, Charlie.

			CHARLIE
	What are you scared about?

			ARNOLD
	I'm not much of a talker, and she's
	one of those quiet ones. What are
	you supposed to do with your wife?
	I mean, most of the time.

			CHARLIE
		(has to think)
	Most of the time, Arnold, you don't
	even see her. You're away working.
	You come home, she fixes you supper.
	Then one of you washes the dishes.
	Then if you're not tired, you can go
	to the movies or visit somebody. Or
	you watch teevee.

			ARNOLD
	I do that now with my mother.

This gives Charlie pause.

			CHARLIE
		(scowling)
	I don't know what there is to
	marriage. I suppose it's to have
	kids.

			ARNOLD
	So what do you think I ought to do?
	You think I ought to go through with
	this marriage?

			CHARLIE
		(angry)
	Arnold, I can't answer that!

He stands abruptly.

					DISSOLVE TO:


EXTERIOR. STREET -- NIGHT
Our four amble along Washington Square North, headed west.
In the background, the high apartment houses. It is about
midnight now, and there are a number of people around, and
there are lots of lights in the windows. There is still the
feeling of life. However, some of the wind has gone out of
our bachelor party since we last saw them carousing on
Lexington Avenue. Now, of course, there are only four of
them, and there is somewhat a feeling of straggling about
them.

EXTERIOR. STREET -- NIGHT
The four men straggle along Tenth Street east of Seventh
Avenue. This is a dark little street. Off at the
intersection, you can see Seventh Avenue and an occasional
car moving downtown, but West Tenth Street right now seems
an empty, sleeping street of dark and old little apartment
houses. The houses sometimes have little stoops. On one of
the stoops, there is a woman sitting. She is in her thirties,
not attractive nor unattractive. She wears a light summer
frock, and she has one shoe off, and she is toying with the
idea of pushing the other one off too. As the four men
approach her, she looks up, half quizzically, half
questioningly. The four men note her in passing and seem to
continue on, but then come to a dragging halt about ten
paces down.

CLOSE GROUP SHOT OF THE FOUR MEN.

			EDDIE
	I think we've got one for you,
	Arnold.

			ARNOLD
	One what?

Eddie looks back to the woman on the stoop. They all turn to
look. Actually, Charlie has ambled a few paces even further
down and doesn't know quite why they've stopped. They look
at the woman; the woman looks at them a little warily. Rest
of the scene from her point of view.

			ARNOLD
	Ah, come on, Eddie.

			EDDIE
	She ain't bad.

			CHARLIE
		(calling from a
		few paces down)
	What's the matter?

			EDDIE
	We've got a live one.

			ARNOLD
		(starting to walk)
	Come on, let's go.

			EDDIE
	Arnold, for Pete's sake.

			CHARLIE
	Ah, leave him alone! He doesn't want
	to.

			EDDIE
	Come on. We've been walking around
	all night here -- are you a man, or
	ain't you?

Arnold frowns.

			ARNOLD
	All right, all right.

With a scowl, he assumes the responsibility of being a man.
The four men, Charlie bringing up the rear, move down toward
The Woman, who now looks down at her feet and begins wiggling
her bare foot back into the unused shoe.

			THE WOMAN
		(not looking up)
	I don't know who you fellows think
	I am, but you fellows have the
	wrong idea about me.

			EDDIE
	Yeah, I know. Arnold, see that bar
	down the corner. That's where we'll
	be.

			THE WOMAN
	I'm afraid you fellows have the
	wrong idea about me.

			ARNOLD
	She says we have the wrong idea.

			CHARLIE
	Ah, leave him alone.

			THE WOMAN
	You fellows are working under a
	misconception.

Eddie and Walter have already started down the street to
the bar.

			EDDIE
	We'll be in the bar, Arnold.

			CHARLIE
	You all right, Arnold?

			ARNOLD
	Yeah, I'm all right, it's just ...

			THE WOMAN
	Look, I'm just sitting here, fellows.
	Did I say anything? I was just
	sitting here.

			ARNOLD
	You want to come with me, Charlie?

			CHARLIE
	No, Arnold.

Charlie scowls at the suggestion, but there is something
pleading in Arnold's face.

			CHARLIE
	You want me to? All right. I'll go
	up with you.

			EDDIE
		(from halfway down
		the street)
	Where you going, Charlie?

			CHARLIE
	I'll go up with him. Moral support.

			EDDIE
	What the---- we'll all go with you.

Charlie waves him away.

			EDDIE
		(walks back to fellows)
	We'll be down at the bar.

Charlie nods. Arnold looks briefly at The Woman and then
away again.

She turns and goes up the steps into the building, her
leather heels clicking on the stone steps. Arnold, head
down, and Charlie, a little sheepishly, follow her.

INTERIOR. THE HOUSE
A dark, ill-lit hallway. A flight of stairs going up, wooden
railings, worn carpeting. The Woman starts up the stairs,
the two men following her.

			THE WOMAN
		(as she goes)
	Ssshhh....

Arnold, wetting his lips, nods. The Woman reaches the first
landing.

INTERIOR. LANDING
The Woman has come around to one of the three doors on the
landing and is inserting a key into a lock. Arnold and
Charlie appear now at the head of the stairway. The Woman
goes into her room, leaving the door open. A moment later,
a shaft of light streams out into the landing. For a moment,
nothing happens. Then Arnold and Charlie amble slowly down
the landing to the open doorway and shaft of light.

			CHARLIE
	Hey, Arnold, you don't have to go
	through with this.

			ARNOLD
	I think I should.

			CHARLIE
	I'll wait out here for you, okay?

Arnold nods and goes into the room. He closes the door.
Charlie takes out a cigarette and lights it and inhales
deeply. He feels a little sordid. There is the sound of
steps, muffled by the carpeting, coming down the stairs. A
man appears coming down from the floor above. He gives
Charlie a quick look and continues on down the landing to
the stairs and down again. Charlie scowls at the floor. He
smokes his cigarette.

INTERIOR. THE WOMAN'S ROOM
It is a furnished room for which the woman pays eleven
dollars a week. It is not particularly unkempt or tarty.
There is a print slipcover on the soft chair and flowers on
an end table. There is a studio couch with a neat spread and
throw pillows on it. The Woman stands expressionlessly in
front of the old chest of drawers. She has kicked off one
shoe and she is now kicking off the other. She starts to say
something:

			THE WOMAN
	Listen, I don't want you to think I
	don't have a job. I got a job. I
	work.

She stops abruptly as Arnold, who is sitting, eyes averted,
on a straight-back wooden chair, suddenly stands up and
moves toward the door.

			THE WOMAN
	What's the matter?

Arnold's lips open to form words, but nothing comes out, and
he clamps his mouth tight and just stands, miserable and
wretched. His hand makes a nervous, spasmodic, involuntary
gesture, and he quickly clenches his fist. Beads of sweat
are on his forehead.

			THE WOMAN
	Are you afraid of me?

Arnold's head has started to shake nervously, and he opens
the door and steps out into the landing. The Woman,
beginning to get angry, follows him.

INTERIOR. LANDING
Charlie looks up at the opening of the door and Arnold's
entrance. The Woman stands in the doorway. Arnold moves
quickly past Charlie about halfway down the landing, white-
faced and trembling.

			THE WOMAN
		(getting a
		little shrill)
	What's the matter? Hey. Hey, you.
	Hey, you, what's the matter?

			CHARLIE
	Let's go.
		(to The Woman)
	What's the trouble?

			THE WOMAN
	I don't know. Ask him. What's the
	matter? Hey, you. You, what's the
	matter?

			CHARLIE
	Go back inside.... All right, all
	right.

			THE WOMAN
	How about that, huh?

She turns angrily, goes back into her room (ad libbing as
she crosses) and slams the door. Charlie moves down the
landing to Arnold, who looks at him wide-eyed, almost in
terror.

			CHARLIE
	What happened, Arnold?

			ARNOLD
	I don't know. I'm just scared.

			CHARLIE
	Yeah, I don't blame you, I'd be
	scared too like this. I don't know
	why we dragged you up here in the
	first place. It's a barbaric custom.
	Come on.

He has taken Arnold's arm and would lead him down the
stairs, but Arnold pauses again at the first step.

			ARNOLD
	Don't tell Eddie.

			CHARLIE
	No I won't, Arnold.

			ARNOLD
	Why don't we just sit here for ten
	minutes or so?

Charlie frowns, then shrugs.

			CHARLIE
	All right, Arnold.

They both sit slowly on the steps. Arnold is still trembling
from the whole terrifying experience.

			ARNOLD
	Don't ever tell anybody.

			CHARLIE
	It's nothing to be ashamed of.

			ARNOLD
	Please, Charlie.

			CHARLIE
	I won't tell anybody.

A man's voice suddenly calls down from an upper floor.

			MAN'S VOICE
	Anything wrong down there?

			CHARLIE
		(calling back)
	No. No. Nothing wrong.

Charlie sits. CAMERA MOVES UP CLOSER to both men. The whole
experience has depressed Charlie, and it shows on his face.

CAMERA PULLS SLOWLY BACK so that we get the small, sordid
feeling of the two men, somewhat tight, sitting on a dirty
ill-lit staircase outside a whore's bedroom.


INTERIOR. CORNER BAR
Neighborhood bar with about ten people in it. Eddie and
Walter are two of them. Eddie is playing on one of those
bowling machines. He seems surly, ill-tempered, restless.

			EDDIE
	Hey Walter -- you know what we
	ought to do, don't you? We ought to
	go to that party. Remember that girl
	Charlie picked up on Tenth Street?

Walter, who is so drunk he is sober, looks up at Eddie with
blurred eyes.

			WALTER
	I'm going to die, do you know that?

			EDDIE
	Not tonight, Walter. Tonight you're
	going to live. Ah, these things are
	fixed.
		(crosses to bar)
	I'm down to my last buck. Got any
	money on you?

He turns as the door to the bar opens and Charlie and Arnold
come in.

			EDDIE
		(to Charlie)
	Hey!
		(to Arnold)
	How'd it go, lover?
		(Arnold smiles a
		mysterious smile,
		pregnant with
		sensual meaning)
	Hey, Charlie, let's go to this party.
	It's only twelve o'clock. Oh, these
	parties are mad, man. All the women
	wear pajamas, and all the men wear
	beards. Everybody sits on the floor.
	Arnold, you got any money? I spent
	my last buck on those drinks. How
	about you, Charlie?

			ARNOLD
		(assessing his assets)
	I got a little over a buck.

			EDDIE
	What are we, all out? So let's go to
	this party then.
		(punches Charlie's arm)
	Hey, Charlie, come on.

			CHARLIE
		(himself sullen and angry)
	Cut it out.

			EDDIE
	You can have that girl you picked up
	on Tenth Street. Come on.... All
	right, you married men want to be so
	married that's all right with me.
	But I'd like to see some women
	tonight.
		(punching Charlie's
		arm with more hostility
		than he knows)
	Come on.

			CHARLIE
	Lay off.

			EDDIE
	I'd like to see some women tonight,
	you know. Do you mind?

			CHARLIE
	Cut it out, Eddie. You keep punching
	me, I swear I'm going to belt you
	one.

			EDDIE
	What's the matter with you?

Charlie is off his seat and ready to belt Eddie one right on
the spot. There is abruptly the imminent reality of a fist
fight. The two men are just sullen enough. Arnold hurriedly
intercedes.

			ARNOLD
	All right, all right, fellows.

			EDDIE
	Look, don't get so tough with me,
	Charlie.

			ARNOLD
	All right, all right, come on.

			CHARLIE
		(angry)
	I don't want to see any other women!

			EDDIE
		(just as angry)
	All right! Go on home! Who's holding
	you?! You want to call it a night?
	Because I'm tired of grousing from
	one bar to another. You guys go home,
	and I'll go about my merry way. All
	right? And don't get so tough with
	me.

			CHARLIE
	Well, don't poke me.

			ARNOLD
		(turning Charlie
		back to his seat)
	Come on, let's go ... gee ...

For a moment, the sudden, thick hostility fills the silence
in the room. Nobody says anything. Walter is soddenly
preoccupied with his own thoughts. Arnold is shaken from his
recent experience with The Woman and from the flaring of
tempers. Charlie just sits bleakly examining a book of
matches he is toying with, trying to bring his temper down.
After a moment, he mutters:

			CHARLIE
		(mutters)
	You mess around with other women, it
	kills your wife and it kills your
	marriage.

Eddie suddenly, sulkily strides for the door of the bar.

			EDDIE
	All right, you guys go home, and
	I'll go on my merry way.
		(gets to the door,
		pauses, then turns,
		his sudden hot temper
		gone as quickly as
		it had come)
	Hey, you guys, you guys want to go
	to a nutty night club, look at the
	nuts? There's a nutty night club
	over on Second Avenue. You know
	what we can do? Charlie, you live in
	Stuyvesant Town, don't you?

			CHARLIE
	Yeah.

			EDDIE
	You know what we can do? We'll take
	the crosstown. We'll go over to
	Charlie's house, he'll get some
	money, and we'll go to this nutty
	night club. It's right down on
	Second Avenue. You got any money
	home, Charlie?

			CHARLIE
	What do you say, Arnold? You want to
	go?

Arnold shrugs. Eddie has started for the door already.
Charlie wearily gets off his stool, starts to follow Eddie
out. Walter takes his arm.

			EDDIE
	Charlie, get Walter.

			CHARLIE
	Come on, Walter....

CLOSEUP of Walter

			WALTER
	I'm going to die, you know what I
	mean?

The sad little party files wearily out of the bar, Arnold
pausing at the bar to pay for the drinks.

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. FOURTEENTH STREET CROSSTOWN SUBWAY

LONG SHOT looking down through the length of one almost
empty car, through the open door at the end of the car,
down into the next almost empty car. Just a few people
riding the subway at this hour, half past eleven on a
week-day. But down in the second car, we can see our four
cavaliers. Eddie, Arnold, and Charlie are sitting. Our
attention is most caught by Walter, who is heavily drunk and
weaves and lurches up and down the central aisle of the car.
We cannot hear if he is saying anything.

CLOSE SHOT Walter weaving up and down the aisle of the car.
He stumbles on the toes of a man in a windbreaker, sitting
in the car.

			WALTER
		(mumbling)
	Excuse me ... excuse me ...
		(turns his blurred
		attention to Charlie,
		who, alone of the
		three, seems painfully
		interested in what
		Walter is talking
		about)
	So what'll I do? I mean, he says,
	I'm going to die. I mean, the man's
	a specialist. He says: "Go to
	Arizona, go to Colorado," he says.
	"You got to get out of New York or
	you're going to die." He tells my
	wife, the stupid idiot. My wife
	cried all night. I'm going to die,
	you know that? You understand that?
	I'm going to die? You know what an
	asthma attack is like? Your heart
	starts beating like a drum! I passed
	out the last time!

			CHARLIE
		(deeply compassionate)
	Walter, why don't you just quit the
	job and pack your bags and get out
	of here?

Walter stands in front of Charlie, his lips moving, but no
words coming out for a moment. There are tears in his eyes,
and all the pain and anguish of the man's forty-eight years
are clear on his face.

			WALTER
		(getting the words out)
	I can't quit. Don't you understand?
	You don't understand. I can't quit!
	I got a fourteen-year-old girl, I
	don't know what time she comes in at
	night any more. She's so wild, these
	kids. I got a nineteen-year-old boy
	in college; he's going to be a
	doctor if I have to die. He's not
	going to quit school. You hear me!
	I worked hard to put that kid in
	school! I don't care if I die! I
	don't care! What am I going to do
	in Arizona? Who wants me? Who's
	going to give me a job? What kind
	of a job am I going to get? I'm
	forty-eight years old. They don't
	want no forty-eight-year-old
	bookkeeper. They got machines from
	IBM. You ever been up on the ninth
	floor? You ever see all those IBM
	machines? What am I going to do out
	in Arizona? You look in the Help
	Wanted lately? You see any jobs
	listed for Bookkeeper, Male? What
	are you talking about? Do you know
	what you're talking about?

Charlie reaches up to steady Walter, who has worked himself
up into a lurching fury.

			CHARLIE
	Easy, Walter.

			WALTER
		(flinging Charlie's
		hand aside)
	Take your hand off me. You don't
	know nothing! You're just a kid!
	You don't know! I've seen death,
	kid. I've seen it, boy. I know what
	it looks like.
		(he staggers away a
		few paces down the
		aisle, stumbles over
		the man's toe again)
	Excuse me.... Forty-eight years old
	and so what? What does it mean? What
	happened? What have I got? What did
	I make? Who needs me? So this is it.
	A man's life, nothing. Worry about
	being sick, worry about making money,
	worry about your wife, worry about
	your kids, and you're on your way to
	the grave from the day you're born.
	The days drag on, and the years fly
	by, and so what?
		(cries out to
		the whole world)
	What is it all about? Will you tell
	me?

The train is slowing up for a station now.

			WALTER
	Life is nothing! It's a gag! It's a
	joke! It's a mortgage! It's a
	bankrupt! It's a lot of noise over
	nothing! Sound and fury! Isn't that
	what the man said? What do you
	think, I never read a book? I read a
	book! Don't worry! I was a bright
	kid! Everybody thought I was going
	to be the first Catholic to be
	President! Where did it all go?!

He turns to look at the station they are edging into, the
yellow lights, the dark shadows, the few blurred faces. His
face is wet with the tiny rivulets left by tears.

			WALTER
		(mumbling)
	Where did it all go?

The train stops, the green doors slide open.

			EDDIE
		(looking out,
		in a low voice)
	Where are we, Third Avenue?

			ARNOLD
		(low voice)
	Where are we getting off? Next stop?

			CHARLIE
		(low voice)
	Yeah.

A few people come into the car. Walter stands, shoulders
hunched and sagging, in front of the open doors.

			WALTER
		(muttering)
	I'm going home.

			CHARLIE
		(looking up)
	What did you say, Walter?

			WALTER
	I'm going home.

Walter steps out onto the platform. Just in time, because
the doors are beginning to slide closed again.

			CHARLIE
		(standing)
	Walter, where are you going? Come
	here ...

On the platform, Walter has started to weave slowly up the
platform toward the stairway.

			EDDIE
		(standing)
	What, did Walter get out?

			CHARLIE
		(calling through
		the open window)
	Walter, stay there, we'll come back
	on the next train. Stay there.

But Walter has already reached the stairway and, clinging to
the handrail, has started slowly climbing the steps. The
train starts slowly up. Arnold has stood now too. He is
pretty soggy himself.

			ARNOLD
	Poor Walter, huh?

			CHARLIE
		(bellowing through
		the window)
	Walter! ...

			EDDIE
		(standing)
	He'll be all right, Charlie. God
	protects drunks and fools.

The train is sweeping by the stairway now. Charlie bellows
out:

			CHARLIE
	Walter! Grab a cab if you're going
	home!

The train has swept by, and in a moment they have been
plunged into the tunnel of the subway, the bleak dirty white
walls, and the small yellow lights flashing by. Charlie sits
down, somehow greatly shaken and disturbed.

			EDDIE
		(sits)
	Poor Walter, I didn't know he was so
	sick. I thought there was something
	wrong with him, though. He's been
	out so much.

			ARNOLD
		(sitting drunkenly down)
	I didn't know he was so sick.

CLOSE IN on Charlie.

			CHARLIE
	That's me in fifteen years.

CLOSEUP of Charlie. Hold for a moment.

					DISSOLVE TO:


EXTERIOR. FOURTEENTH STREET AND FIRST AVENUE
We look down at the subway kiosk as our sad little party of
three comes up the stairs to the sidewalk. It is midnight,
and the street is occasionally patrolled by a taxicab. The
sidewalks are pretty empty, just a few people walking.
Perhaps a drugstore is still open, and its lonely lit store
front catches the eye.

Our three men stand at the head of the stairs at the subway
kiosk, drained, tired, a little despondent. Charlie looks up
at the dim silhouettes of the endless apartment houses of
Stuyvesant Town.

			CHARLIE
	That's where I live.

			EDDIE
	Which one?

			CHARLIE
	In the back there. You can't see it
	from here.

LONG SHOT of Stuyvesant Town as seen from their point of
view. PAN SLOWLY ACROSS, capturing the silent monotony of
the dark buildings. Only a few of the windows are still lit.

			EDDIE
	It looks like a state hospital.

			CHARLIE
	It looks like a prison.

			EDDIE
	Yeah, it does look a little like a
	prison.

The three men just stand, worn out, tired.

			CHARLIE
		(suddenly)
	I'm going home.

He starts to walk to the buildings, across the little street
that separates the corner of Fourteenth Street and First
Avenue from the parallel corner of the housing project.

			EDDIE
		(calling after him)
	Hey, Charlie ...

Charlie turns.

			EDDIE
	Hey, Charlie! What about the money?
	Have you got ten bucks?

			CHARLIE
		(after a moment)
	All right, if you want to walk me to
	the house, I'll get you ten bucks.

Eddie has to take a moment to consider this. Then he
shuffles across the little street toward Charlie. Charlie
doesn't quite wait for him to catch up when he turns and
leads the way between two cars and up the sidewalk toward
the promenade that leads to the heart of the project.
Arnold, after a moment, follows Eddie. The three men
disappear single-file into the darkness of Stuyvesant Town.

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. LANDING OUTSIDE CHARLIE'S APARTMENT
We are looking at the twin elevator doors. The light of an
elevator climbs into the little square window of one of the
elevator doors. The door opens, and Charlie, Eddie, and
Arnold shuffle out into the landing. They are all a little
soggy.

			CHARLIE
		(mutters)
	I'll be right out.

He moves around the turn of the wall, fishes in his pocket
for the key to his apartment. He finds it, brings it out,
opens the door carefully, goes into his apartment.

INTERIOR. CHARLIE AND HELEN'S APARTMENT
Charlie comes in. The dining area is lit, and there is the
lamp lit in the living room. As Charlie moves to the living
room, we can see that Helen is seated on the couch,
watching television. The gray-white light of the television
set drifts out into the room. Helen is in her pajamas and
she has washed for bed; her face is devoid of make-up. She
is half-watching television; the rest of her attention is
devoted to cutting her fingernails and other aspects of
manicure. She looks up as Charlie comes into the living
room, smiles.

			HELEN
	Hiya, have a nice time?

Charlie shrugs. He is depressed and can't conceal it.

			CHARLIE
	I'm taking ten bucks. A couple of
	the guys are waiting outside. I
	promised them I'd loan them ten
	bucks.

			HELEN
	Sure.

He stands by the couch now, without interest, automatically
watching the television set.

			CHARLIE
		(looking at the set)
	Tomorrow's payday. I'll get it back
	tomorrow.

			HELEN
	It's in the drawer.

A kind of ennui has engulfed him. He stands, watching the
television set out of which is now pouring the end of an
animated cartoon commercial. Then the familiar tinkling
music sets in, the inscription, "The Late Show" appears on
the screen, and the announcer's voice informs us that we are
now going back to the late show, starring Rex Harrison in
"Strictly Dishonorable." The whole thing brings a wince of
pain to Charlie's face, and he turns and moves wearily
through the little foyer into the darkened bedroom. Enough
light flows in from the other rooms to show Charlie going to
the drawer in the chest of drawers and taking out a
ten-dollar bill. He returns the other bills, closes the
drawer and just stands there, suddenly so weak and exhausted
that he has to steady himself with one hand on the chest of
drawers.

Back in the living room, Helen still sits, a slight frown
now indicating she is sensitive to the deeply depressed mood
her husband is in. She continues with her nails for a moment.
Then, wondering what is keeping her husband, she stands and
goes to the bedroom doorway and looks in.

INTERIOR. THE BEDROOM
Charlie is seated on the bed, hunched, in deep depression.
He is holding the ten-dollar bill. His eyes are open, but
there is a feeling of hurt and pain on his face. Helen moves
quietly into the bedroom and sits down on the bed beside him.

			HELEN
	What's the matter, Charlie?

He shrugs, even smiles briefly.

			CHARLIE
	I don't know.

She puts out her hand as if to take his head and press it
against her, but he takes her in his arms almost desperately,
and they lie back on the bed, clutching each other, their
faces pressed against each other, seeking some kind of
strength just from the sheer physical closeness of each
other.

			HELEN
	It's not so bad, Charlie.

			CHARLIE
	I know. I know.

They lie quietly, even stiffly, holding each other.

			CHARLIE
		(eyes wide open
		but unseeing)
	I don't know what's the matter with
	me, I keep getting so depressed. I'm
	going to quit night school, Helen.
	My nerves are shot.

He releases himself from his wife's embrace and sits up.

			CHARLIE
	Those guys are waiting outside. I
	better give them their money.

He stands and starts out the bedroom.

			HELEN
	Charlie ... Maybe I shouldn't have
	the baby?

			CHARLIE
	What do you mean? ...

She doesn't answer. She doesn't have to. They both know what
she means.

			CHARLIE
	Isn't that dangerous? ... Well, I
	don't know ... maybe ... Well, you
	brought it up.

			HELEN
		(shocked -- after
		a moment)
	You really don't want this baby....

She turns away on the bed to hide the sudden flush of tears.

			HELEN
	You're my husband, Charlie. This is
	your baby too. That doesn't mean
	anything to you. For the first time
	in our marriage I feel I can't
	depend on you, Charlie -- I'm not
	important to you.
		(she has to stop
		because she can no
		longer trust her
		voice. After a
		moment she continues)
	I could make my life sound hard, too,
	Charlie. I work all day, I rush home,
	I make you dinner. I sit home alone
	four nights a week, I'm even alone
	when you're here because when do I
	see you? But it was easy for me
	because I loved you. Do you think I
	care whether you're an accountant or
	a ditch digger, or even out of work?
	All I ever wanted was you. And this
	baby because it's you, too.

She closes her eyes again to hide the warm flow of tears in
her eyes and stops talking rather than cry. Charlie sits,
unmoved and wretched, his shoulders hunched, his head
slumped forward. After a moment, he turns and reaches
forward, quite frightened, to touch her arm.

			HELEN
		(dully)
	Leave me alone, Charlie.

He stands and goes to the bedroom window and looks out.
Helen turns on her side so that her back is to him. At the
sound of her moving, Charlie turns his head, but sensing the
rejection in her back, he turns back and looks out the
window again. The silence is thick between them.

			CHARLIE
		(looking out
		the window)
	I decided I'd quit school and ...

			HELEN
	I don't care ...

			CHARLIE
	I decided I'd quit school and come
	home in the evenings like everybody
	else and live a normal life.

			HELEN
		(staring at the
		wall ahead of her)
	I don't care what you do, Charlie.

He stands another moment.

			CHARLIE
	I don't care what I do either.

Helen neither moves nor makes a response. Charlie goes on
into the living room and shuffles to the front door, his
long body heavy with pain and guilt and dense, unknown
terrors. He opens the door and goes out onto the landing.

INTERIOR. LANDING
Eddie and Arnold, looking up as the door opens and Charlie
comes out.

			EDDIE
	What took you so long? What did you
	do, blow open the safe?

			CHARLIE
		(giving Eddie the
		ten-dollar bill)
	Here.

			EDDIE
		(taking it)
	I'll give it to you tomorrow. I'll
	see you in the morning, Charlie.

			CHARLIE
	I'll see you.

Eddie takes Arnold's arm and guides him back around the turn
of the wall to the elevators. Charlie follows a few paces
behind. Eddie pushes both elevator buttons. Charlie nods,
looks down at the tiling at his feet, fairly sick within
himself, oppressed and guilty. The light in the elevator
window shows, and Eddie opens the door.

			CHARLIE
	Wait a minute. I'll go with you.

			EDDIE
	Let's go to that party -- we'll
	have a ball!

Charlie shuffles the few paces forward and follows Eddie and
Arnold into the elevator. The door closes, and, a moment
later, the light of the elevator cage disappears downward.

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. GREENWICH VILLAGE DUPLEX APARTMENT
This is one of those duplex apartments on West Tenth Street
which consists of one huge living room that is two stories
high and you need a little rolling stepladder to reach the
books on the upper shelves of the built-in bookcases. There
is a little wrought-iron stairway that leads to the second
floor, which consists of two tiny little bedrooms.

Apartments like these, as is the case in this one, are
usually lived in by two girls, one of whom is a secretary in
an advertising agency and the other a model for a garment
manufacturing firm. Both girls are in their early thirties
and are milling about somewhere in the mass of people in the
living room, carrying drinks, laughing up a storm, pausing
at the little knots of discussion groups with an apt phrase.
They rather think of themselves as Madame de Staëls with
their own salon of bright young people, for most of the men
and women at the party are in some way connected with the
arts, probably in an avant garde way. It is a little
difficult to tell this by looking at them because avant
garde artists have become obsessed with dressing like
businessmen, but if you can hear the talk as we can, you get
the point fast enough. We pick up phrases like: "I really
find it difficult to think of Tennessee Williams as a
serious artist," or "My teacher thinks all tenors are frogs
except Gigli," or "I don't see how you can say that; his
designs fairly throb with sex." There are, as Eddie
predicted, a number of people sitting on the floor, mostly
girls, circled in the swirl of their Ann Fogarty dresses,
and there is one obvious ballerina, with her black hair
pulled tightly back into a severe pony tail, using the
wrought-iron railing that separates the dropped living room
from the small entrance foyer to demonstrate something about
positions at the dancing bar. There is someone at the piano
banging away, shouting his songs, but he is completely
inaudible five feet away. A few people lean over the piano,
apparently exhilarated by the songs. Thin blankets of smoke
wreathe their way up to the two-story-high ceiling. We catch
some more phrases: "I thought Truman Capote was supposed to
be here." -- "Truman's in Russia, I think." -- "Good
heavens, what can the Russians want with Truman Capote?" --
"Oh, I never read anything published in this country." "Oh,
I mean, the paper-bound Paris edition." In short, this is a
real chi-chi wingding where all the furniture is too low,
and the hostess is very proud of the fact that her end table
is made out of an orange crate.

Somewhere, through the jumble of the party, we can hear the
doorbell chime. A young woman, at one of the little knots of
people, perks her ears and says:

			HOSTESS
	I'm sure that's the police again.

She's very proud of this. She turns and weaves her way
through the crowded room, carrying her drink. She goes up
the step to the entrance foyer, turns to her left, picks her
way over two middle-aged men who are both throwing a pitch
at a fairly tight girl of eighteen, past the kitchen, which
is a bedlam of ice cubes and kitchen towels and which is
occupied at the moment by two intense women in their late
thirties wrapped in deep discussion, up past two young men
who have no immediate use for girls, to the front door of
the apartment. She opens the door.

GROUP SHOT of Eddie, Arnold, and Charlie from the Hostess's
point of view. Not exactly a heartening sight to most
hostesses, three fairly loaded young men with their collars
unbuttoned and their ties limp and dangling.

			HOSTESS
		(beaming)
	Are you coming to complain about the
	noise?

			EDDIE
	Do we look like complainers?

			HOSTESS
	I don't know who you are, but come
	in, come in. I don't know half the
	people who are here tonight.

They enter a little warily and ill-at-ease, peering into the
jammed room.

			HOSTESS
	The police have been here twice. The
	first fellow was just adorable. We
	gave him a drink, and he's upstairs
	in a bedroom now, for all I know.

			EDDIE
	Is that right?

			HOSTESS
	If you want something to drink,
	you'll just have to go into the
	kitchen and get it yourself. The
	place is just mad. Do you write,
	paint or sing?

Eddie spreads his arms in all-inclusive expansiveness.

			EDDIE
	Everything.

But the hostess has already bent to chat with two women, one
old, one young, sitting on the floor. Our three cavaliers
look at each other and then look out over the wild, jumbled
room.

			CHARLIE
	Boy, do you get invited to a party
	like this or do you get committed?

A passing young man who overhears this, pokes his head into
the group and says to Charlie with a flashing smile:

			YOUNG CHAP
	I heard that. It's awfully funny.

Charlie regards the smiling young chap.

			EDDIE
	Beat it.

The chap's smile flashes off and he scurries away. Eddie
rubs his palms and surveys the women in the crowded room
with a measuring eye.

			EDDIE
	This is going to be like shooting
	ducks. Pick out your duck, men.

Wetting his lips, he starts out for some girl he has decided
on across the room.

INTERIOR. GREENWICH VILLAGE APARTMENT -- HALF HOUR LATER

HIGH SHOT showing progress of party, still crowded, still
high. If we look sharp we can see Charlie seated on the
floor in the rear of the shot, his back against the wall.

CLOSER SHOT of Charlie sitting morosely, back against the
wall, regarding his drink with sodden eyes. The chatter of
the party, an occasional shrill laugh.

FULL SHOT of Eddie coming out of the kitchen, carrying two
drinks. He picks his way through the people to the living
room with the general intention of getting to the
arrangement of divans around the coffee table, when he spots
Charlie and moves across to him.

			EDDIE
	Hey, what's the matter, Charlie?
		(squats down
		beside Charlie)

			CHARLIE
		(without looking up)
	Let's get out of here, Eddie.

			EDDIE
	The last time I saw you, you was
	with that girl you picked up. What
	happened?

			CHARLIE
	She's over there talking to that
	old guy with the glasses.

Their point of view, The Existentialist on steps with
landlord.

			CHARLIE
	I didn't like her. She's one of
	these real Greenwich Village phonies.
	If I added up all the guys she told
	me about, she must have had her
	first boy friend when she was two
	years old. Where are you going,
	Eddie. Stick around a minute.

			EDDIE
		(who has stood)
	I'm with that one over there -- not
	bad, huh? I think she's a Communist.
	I think she's trying to talk me into
	joining the Party.

			CHARLIE
	How are you making out?

			EDDIE
	Not so hot. I may have to join.

			CHARLIE
	Hang around. Let's talk a bit.

			EDDIE
	I better get back. She's liable to
	recruit somebody else.

			CHARLIE
	Where's Arnold?

			EDDIE
	He's in the kitchen. I think he's
	out cold. I'll see you.

Charlie nods as Eddie moves off. He returns his morose
attention back to his glass of liquor. Then his eyes close,
and his face, though impassive, shows pain. After a moment,
he opens his eyes and slowly clambers to his feet and makes
his way, a little unsteadily, through the living room in the
direction of the kitchen. In the background we can hear the
piano and somebody singing indistinguishable lyrics. Charlie
gets to the kitchen door and looks in. Arnold is at the tiny
kitchen table, head on the table, out cold. The kitchen is
in a state of havoc.

			CHARLIE
	Hey Arnold-- You okay, Arnold?

Arnold makes no answer. Charlie regards his prostrated
friend expressionlessly for a moment. Then turns and
shuffles aimlessly back to the group around the piano in the
living room. He looks over to the stairway again. The
Existentialist is alone now, The Landlord having gone for
the moment. She is looking at Charlie, and he drops his eyes.
He turns away from the piano and moves out a few steps into
the middle of the living room. He moves to the stairway.
The Existentialist looks up at him as he approaches, Charlie
kind of nods to her, and, for a moment, she just sits and he
just stands. Then ...

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	That old man I was talking to before?
	That's my landlord. About ten thirty
	last night, someone began pounding on
	my door. So I got up and opened the
	door, and there was this white-haired
	man with  a pince-nez standing there.
	I said: "What do you want?" So he
	said: "I'm the landlord, and I want
	the rent." Well, I just looked at him
	because the landlord I knew was a
	Hungarian man named Frank, who was
	crazy about me, and the issue of rent
	never came up, you see. Well, it
	turned out that this man with the
	pince-nez had just bought the
	building the day before and he kept
	grabbing my arm and saying he wanted
	the rent. Well, then I got the point,
	of course. Well, meanwhile, a boy
	named Bob I knew had come over. He's
	engaged to a Javanese girl with
	wonderful planes in her face who
	lives at the International House.
	But he's crazy about me and he drops
	in about twice a week. Well,
	meanwhile, my new landlord was
	grabbing my arm and kept quoting
	poetry to me which he was trying to
	pass off as his own. He was an
	absolute fraud. He scotched the
	whole thing from Baudelaire. "Tu
	mettrais." You know that one. Well,
	he kept screaming about the rent --
	I didn't like him, you know -- and I
	called this boy named George who
	used to live in Poughkeepsie when I
	was going to Vassar, and he's crazy
	about me. He lives in St. Luke's
	place now, but he goes to
	Poughkeepsie every Wednesday to see
	his mother, he's got an Oedipus, so
	that was out. Well, my new landlord
	kept telling me how much he was in
	love with me. I said: "How
	existentialist can you get? You just
	met me five minutes ago." He was
	absolutely crazy about me.

Charlie has been sort of half-listening to all this. His
attention, if any at all, has been vaguely given to the
girl's bare arms, the lines of her body.

			CHARLIE
		(resigned)
	You have an apartment around here
	somewheres?
		(looks up to
		second floor)
	What's up there? What kind of rooms
	are up there?

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	So, I finally got to sleep around
	six thirty....

Charlie bends down to her, takes her arm.

			CHARLIE
	Come on, let's go.

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
		(wrenching her
		arm away)
	No! Oh, stop trying to be so
	primitive.

Charlie straightens with an irritated sigh.

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	I find you very unpleasant.

He stands, she sits in sullen silence.

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	There's nothing upstairs.
		(suddenly rises,
		mumbles)
	Oh, I don't care.

She starts up the stairs, Charlie following close behind her.
They pick their way past the other people sitting on the
stairs to the second-floor landing. They walk in hostile
silence down the landing to the bedroom door, which she
opens.

INTERIOR. THE BEDROOM
It is a tiny bedroom. The bed is covered with purses and
summer stoles and other guest things. An uncovered,
improvised closet, really a rack of hanging dresses and
things, gives the room an overburdened look. Charlie comes
into the room after her, closes the door, looks for the
latch. She pushes some of the things on the bed aside and
sits down and waits while Charlie latches the door, a matter
of turning a bent nail into locking position. She begins to
prattle again.

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	So I finally got to sleep around six
	thirty this morning. At nine thirty,
	someone began pounding on my door
	again. I got out of bed and opened
	the door, and there was my landlord
	with the pince-nez wearing a blue
	silk kimono. "Oh, for heaven's
	sakes," I said, "what do you want
	now?" He said: "I'm the landlord,
	and I want the rent." I said:
	"You're an old man, go to sleep."
	Then the phone rang. It was a boy
	named Andrew I know who teaches
	physics at Columbia University, and
	he's insanely jealous. He's married
	and has four children, but he keeps
	badgering me to run away with him to
	Nicaragua, throw up his professorship
	and all that. Well, my landlord began
	shouting some garbled Baudelaire at
	the top of his lungs, and a little
	Verlaine, and a little Huysmans. He
	apparently has some kind of fetish
	about French decadents. And
	naturally, Andrew heard him, and he
	got furious, and he said: "Who's that
	I hear?" I said, "That's the
	landlord." He said: "What does he
	want?" I said: "He wants the rent."
	Well, at this point, I felt like
	chucking the whole business and
	going back to Bessemer City and
	going to work in my father's
	hardware store.

Charlie has stood a moment, listening to this bizarre story.
Then he has busied himself cleaning a place beside The
Existentialist on the bed. He brings an end to the rococo
narration by putting his arms around The Existentialist and
in a moment, she responds hungrily.

CLOSEUP of Charlie and The Existentialist in a desperate
embrace.

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
		(muttering)
	Just say you love me.

			CHARLIE
	What?

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	Just say you love me. You don't have
	to mean it.

He tries to kiss her again, himself charged high at the
moment, but she turns her face away from him. The dialogue
is intense, whispered, hungry.

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	No, don't. ...

			CHARLIE
	What's the matter?

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	Say you love me....

			CHARLIE
	Come on.

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	Say you love me....

			CHARLIE
	Come on....

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	No ...

			CHARLIE
	I love you! I love you!

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
		(content)
	Look, maybe we ought to go someplace
	else? I'm having a very tricky thing
	going with my landlord and I don't
	want him to see us leaving together.
	So you know what you do? There's a
	bar down the street. You go out the
	door and turn to your right. You
	know the one I mean?

			CHARLIE
	Yes, I know.

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	Well, you go there and I'll be there
	as fast as I can. Now, wait for me
	now, because I can't stand being
	alone at night. You'll like me. I'm
	supposed to be very amusing. All
	right?

She turns abruptly and goes out the door. He stands for a
moment and then follows. He stands on the upper landing,
watching her pick her way down the stairs into the living
room.

She looks quickly around the room, apparently finds whom she
is looking for, and moves quickly to a little group of men,
one of whom is about sixty years old with a thin elegance
and a cruel face, the landlord. He has several young men
around him, all rather frail, Ivy-Leagueish. She joins the
group, to the distaste of the young men, and is immediately
voluble and gesticulatory. After a moment, Charlie lets his
eyes wander over the room, apparently sees Eddie.

			CHARLIE
		(calling down)
	Hey, Eddie ...

Apparently, Eddie doesn't hear him. Charlie frowns and
begins making his own way down the stairs to the living room.

INTERIOR. LIVING ROOM -- GREENWICH VILLAGE APARTMENT
Charlie moves down the stairs into the living room proper.
He makes his way to Eddie, who is still sitting in the back
of the room, throwing an intense pitch at his girl, talking
quickly, smiling, gesturing.

			CHARLIE
		(muttering)
	Eddie, I'm cutting out.

			EDDIE
		(standing, low voice)
	Wait a minute, I'll go with you.

			CHARLIE
	I don't want to take you away from
	your girl, Eddie.

			EDDIE
	Aah, this one lives out in Long
	Island with her mother. What kind of
	Communist is that? It'll take me a
	half hour on the subway there and a
	half hour back.

			CHARLIE
		(shrugs)
	Where's Arnold? Still in the kitchen?

			EDDIE
	I guess so.
		(to the girl)
	I'll see you, next time I get to
	Long Island.

He starts off after Charlie who is already wandering through
the living room in the general direction of the kitchen,
looking about for Arnold. They pass The Existentialist en
route. She is saying: "... this boy named Charlie, I never
saw him before in my life, has been clutching at me all
evening. He's absolutely insane about me." Charlie leans
into the kitchen where Arnold is awake now, seated at the
small kitchen table, staring gauntly, unseeingly at his
fingers on the white porcelain-topped table. There are two
men, one middle-aged, one young, having a whispered chat
over the sink.

			EDDIE
		(over Charlie's
		shoulder)
	Hey, Arnold, come on.

Arnold stands obediently, almost dumbly. He squeezes around
the table, his face soddenly expressionless, to join Eddie
and Charlie in the kitchen doorway. Eddie is saying to
Charlie:

			EDDIE
	Well, it wasn't a bad party. We
	killed a couple of hours anyway.

The three men push their way past three women in their
thirties, who are standing in the little hallway before the
front door, in earnest brow-furrowed conversation with each
other. Charlie opens the door, and the three morose
carousers go out into the dark street.

					DISSOLVE TO:


EXTERIOR. GREENWICH VILLAGE APARTMENT -- NIGHT
The three carousers come out into the street. The door
closes behind them. The night air is hot and muggy. They
walk down the street toward the corner where only the light
of the corner bar gives any indication of life. There is a
newspaper on the sidewalk which Eddie bends down to pick up,
and the three men straggle to a halt. Eddie opens the paper
to the sports pages and starts to read by the light of the
street lamp. Arnold moves a step to the lamp and leans
against it. Charlie stands in the middle of the sidewalk, a
melancholy, pondering young man. The evening seems to have
come to a dead halt. After a moment, Eddie starts walking
again, reading the paper as he does. The others slowly
gather themselves and follow him.

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. THE CORNER BAR
A wall clock reading twenty-five minutes to three. CAMERA
PANS DOWN the wall. We are in the bar on the corner of Tenth
and Sixth, almost entirely empty except for Charlie, Eddie,
Arnold, and the bartender. The three carousers are leaning
wearily on the bar over their beers; the only other person
in the bar is a worn, battered old veteran of the streets, a
woman in her forties, bespectacled, who is perched on a bar
stool at the far end of the bar, gloomily reading a
newspaper. CAMERA MOVES DOWN and IN on Charlie, Eddie, and
Arnold.

			EDDIE
	... I mean, you can't compare the
	two. This kid the Yankees have in
	centerfield. Are you trying to tell
	me he's a natural .368 hitter? What's
	he normally hit, .310, .315? Musial
	led the National League in hitting
	six times. He's only having a fair
	year, this year -- and he's still
	hitting .320. Musial is an all-time
	great!

			CHARLIE
	Yeah. I guess so.

			ARNOLD
		(stiff with liquor)
	Eddie -- Eddie. So what do you think,
	Eddie? You think I ought to go
	through with this marriage?

			EDDIE
	I don't know about you, Arnold, but
	if it was me, boy, I'd be in China
	by now.
		(back to Charlie)
	Who have the Yankees got on first?
	Skowron. Boy, how they touted
	Skowron. All right, he's having a
	lucky year.

			CHARLIE
	Yeah....

			EDDIE
		(continuing)
	... Well, I mean, is there any
	argument? Hodges is the best first
	baseman in both leagues....

			ARNOLD
	So, Eddie, what do you think? You
	think I ought to marry her, go to
	China, or what?

			EDDIE
	Arnold, if it bothers you so much,
	call her up and tell her to forget
	the whole deal.
		(back to Charlie)
	All right Hodges is having a bad
	year -- but how about last year? He
	hit over .300. He only hit thirty-
	five homers and he drove in over a
	hundred runs----

			ARNOLD
	So, Eddie...

			EDDIE
	Arnold! Get rid of her! You're
	driving me crazy!

Arnold lowers his head, and he rises, loses his precarious
balance and moves backward a few lurching steps.

			EDDIE
		(continuing)
	All right, who's on second? We got
	Charlie Neal or Gilliam, for that
	matter, and this isn't even counting
	Jackie Robinson, head and shoulders,
	even with a trick knee, the best
	second baseman in both leagues if
	they'd let him play there. We got
	three guys, for Pete's sake, who can
	outplay anybody the Yankees put on
	second.

Arnold weaves slowly up the bar to the two phone booths at
the far end of the counter. Then walks out of shot.

			EDDIE
		(continuing)
	Ever see Charlie Neal go to his
	right? That Yankee guy, what's his
	name -- he can't go to his right.
	And don't forget Neal gets a lot of
	bases on balls, and once he's on the
	bases, man, it unnerves the pitcher ...

The bartender decides to take issue.

			BARTENDER
	What's Brooklyn going to do for
	pitching?

			EDDIE
	Never heard of Newcombe? Never heard
	of Erskine?

			BARTENDER
	What have you got to compare with
	Ford, Kucks, McDermott, Turley---

			EDDIE
	McDermott -- McDermott hasn't
	pitched a full game since last year.

			BARTENDER
	The best relief pitcher in both
	leagues.

			EDDIE
	What's the matter with Eddie Roebuck?

			BARTENDER
	How do you compare Eddie Roebuck
	with McDermott?

			EDDIE
	What are you, a Yankee fan?

			BARTENDER
	Yeah.

			EDDIE
	Well, drop dead.
		(turns angrily
		back to Charlie)
	A Yankee fan.

There is a sudden bellow off.

			ARNOLD'S VOICE
	Hey!

Eddie and Charlie slowly turn to look in Arnold's direction.
CAMERA PANS to see Arnold from their point of view, a
wavering, drunken young man standing in front of the phone
booths.

			ARNOLD
	I did it.

			EDDIE
	You did what?

Arnold staggers a few paces into the center of the empty bar.

			ARNOLD
	I just woke her up! I called her! I
	said: "I'm not going to marry you.
	What do I want to marry you for? I'm
	having a ball. What am I going to
	marry you for?"

			EDDIE
	What is he talking about?

Then, suddenly, effortlessly, Arnold sinks down onto the
floor -- out cold. For a moment, Eddie and Charlie regard
the prostrate form.

			BARTENDER
	Boy, he's gone.

Eddie and Charlie move to Arnold, lying curled stiffly on
the floor.

			CHARLIE
	I think he's just called his girl,
	broke his engagement.

			EDDIE
	Is that what he was yelling about?

			CHARLIE
		(trying to raise
		Arnold's head)
	Wake up, kid. Help me get him up,
	Eddie.

			EDDIE
	You think he did it because I was
	needling him there before? I was
	just needling him.

The two men contrive to lift Arnold and get him onto a stool.

			BARTENDER
	You better get him out of here
	because I'm closing up now.

			CHARLIE
	We better get him home.

			EDDIE
	Ah, let's not break it up yet. I
	thought you were waiting for this
	girl.

			CHARLIE
	It's three o'clock in the morning,
	for Pete's sake.

			BARTENDER
	Take him out in the air. He'll be
	all right.

			CHARLIE
	What a bachelor party. We start out
	celebrating the guy's wedding; we
	wind up breaking his engagement.
		(moves to bar)
	What do we owe you here?
		(he puts some change
		on the counter)
	Eddie, pay it, will you? I gave you
	the ten bucks.

			EDDIE
		(following him
		to the bar)
	What do you want to go home for?

			CHARLIE
	It's going to take us an hour to get
	him home. He lives in Queens
	somewheres. By the time I get back
	to Fourteenth Street, it'll be
	daybreak. What are you going to do,
	stay up all night? Don't you want to
	go home sometimes?

			EDDIE
	What am I going to do home? I read
	all the papers.

			CHARLIE
		(crosses to Arnold)
	Well, go to sleep then.

			EDDIE
	Ah, don't go home, Charlie. I feel
	like doing something.

Charlie turns to him, a cold fury in him.

			CHARLIE
	What? Stand around this bar and
	argue about the Yankees and the
	Dodgers? Wind up with some miserable,
	lonely girl who begs you to say, "I
	love you"? Go home, Eddie. Go to bed.
	You got to go home sometimes. I'll
	take Arnold home. Come on, Arnold,
	kid. I'm going to take you home.

Arnold manages, with Charlie's arm, to get out of the booth
and stand. Charlie's firm arm holds him, and they start for
the exit. Eddie watches the two figures making their way
down the length of the bar to the door. They exit. The door
shuts behind them. For a moment, Eddie regards the closed
door. Then he shuffles to the bar, back to his schooner of
beer and looks at it without taking it up. He is profoundly
weary. His shoulders slump, his face sags. He runs his hand
down his face and shakes his head as if to clear it. He
turns and looks down to the other end of the bar where the
Bar Hag sits engrossed in her newspaper. He watches her for
a moment.

			EDDIE
		(spiritlessly)
	Hey, honey, what are you, a Yankee
	fan or a Dodger fan?

The Bar Hag slowly turns to regard him over the rim of her
glasses.

			BAR HAG
	Hiya.

Bleakly, Eddie shuffles slowly down the long length of the
bar to where the battered old woman sits.

					DISSOLVE TO:


EXTERIOR. THE BAR -- NIGHT

HIGH ANGLE SHOT looking down on the sidewalk immediately
outside the bar Arnold and Charlie have just come out of.
There is a house with a small stoop, and Arnold is standing
slumped by the stoop, holding himself up by the iron railing.
He is being sick, quietly retching. Charlie is standing a few
paces away from him in the middle of the sidewalk, a deeply
unhappy figure in his own right. From our angle, we may or
may not be able to tell that Charlie is crying.

CLOSE SHOT of Charlie standing in the middle of the sidewalk
of Sixth Avenue and Tenth Street, the whole dark world around
him, silent and empty. He is crying quietly, unashamedly, his
shoulders shaking ever so little.  Behind him, Arnold is bent
over the railing of the stoop, weak and spent.

ANOTHER SHOT of the two men. Charlie stops crying, sighs, and
starts toward Arnold.

			CHARLIE
		(gently)
	Are you all right, Arnold?

Arnold nods weakly. Charlie gets out a handkerchief and
gives it to Arnold who begins to weakly clean his chin and
spots on his suit.

			CHARLIE
	Would you like to go back in and
	sit down?

Arnold shakes his head weakly "no."

			CHARLIE
	What subway do you take, Arnold,
	the BMT? Can you make it?

Arnold nods weakly. Charlie puts his arm supportively around
his friend's back, but Arnold makes no move yet, being
thoroughly drained.

			CHARLIE
	Come on, Arnold, I'll take you home.

There is a clicking of high heels on concrete pavement, and
Charlie looks up. The Existentialist has just come out of
the party several houses down and has come up a few steps
and is standing watching them. She has her bag and her light
summer stole. She nods to Charlie, sort of smiles, moves a
few steps closer to them.

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
	Is he all right?

			CHARLIE
		(nods)
	Yeah, he's all right. Look, I've got
	to take my friend home...

The two men start slowly down the street to the corner.
Arnold leaning heavily on his friend. The Existentialist
stands, watching them a moment.

			THE EXISTENTIALIST
		(calling lightly)
	Are you coming back? Where does he
	live? How long will you be?

REVERSE SHOT Charlie and Arnold just about getting to the
corner. Charlie hasn't heard her.

FULL SHOT of The Existentialist watching them disappear
around the corner. Then she turns, and, wetting her lips,
she hurries back to the house where the party is.

INTERIOR. BMT SUBWAY -- HURTLING NORTHWARD
Half past three, and the car is absolutely empty except for
Charlie and Arnold. Arnold is sprawled across the straw seat,
one leg buckled beneath him, the other on the floor. He is
sleeping heavily. Charlie sits expressionlessly, obviously
involved in deep introspection. The car buckets along into
the night.

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. QUEENS APARTMENT HOUSE
Arnold and Charlie coming up to a landing. It is the third
floor; we can see enough of the corridor to see two
apartment doors, lettered "3D" and "3C." A small overhead
bulb provides a thin sketchy light. Charlie and Arnold
shuffle down the landing to apartment 3D. They pause outside
the door. The scene is played in low mutters and whispers.

			ARNOLD
	Well, thanks a lot, Charlie.

			CHARLIE
	You all right?

			ARNOLD
	Yeah, I'm all right. I'm a little
	groggy, but I'm awake anyway. You
	don't want to come in, do you?

			CHARLIE
	No, I don't think so.

			ARNOLD
	I think my father and mother are up.
	I hear voices. My girl must have
	called them because they wouldn't
	be up at this hour.

			CHARLIE
	Well, you just go in and explain to
	them that you were drunk, and you're
	sorry, and you'll call your girl the
	first thing in the morning because
	she must really be upset about this.

			ARNOLD
		(who has been
		listening at
		his door)
	I think she's here.

			CHARLIE
	Who?

			ARNOLD
	My girl. I think I hear her voice in
	there.

			CHARLIE
	Well, be nice to her, Arnold.
	Remember, you woke her up in the
	middle of the night and probably
	scared her to death.

			ARNOLD
	What'll I say to her, Charlie?

			CHARLIE
	I don't know, Arnold. What do you
	feel like saying to her? Do you
	really love this girl? Do you want
	to marry her? Are you marrying this
	girl because your family wants you
	to marry her, or why?

			ARNOLD
	I think I like her, Charlie. It's
	just that I'm afraid I won't make a
	good husband.

			CHARLIE
	Well, tell her what you told me,
	Arnold. Tell her you're scared, and
	that you don't think you'll make a
	good husband. If she's a halfway
	decent girl, she'll try to understand
	how you feel, and, if she loves you,
	she's going to make it her job to
	make you happy. That's what love is,
	Arnold, when you have somebody else
	in the world you want to be happy.
	My wife, Arnold, I don't know what
	I'd do without her. Arnold, I've got
	a tough grind ahead of me. Work all
	day, I'll go to night school at night.
	But my wife knows that I need this to
	be happy, and she does everything she
	knows to help me. And we've got a
	baby coming. But if you love that
	baby and you love your wife, then
	it's easy. Everything seems so easy
	to me now -- I don't know why I even
	thought of quitting.
		(tears have welled
		in his eyes, and he
		hurriedly puts his
		hand to his face
		shading his reddening
		eyes)
	Arnold, I want my wife so much right
	now. I want her to be happy. I want
	to just go home and hold her and tell
	her how much she means to me. I mean,
	even Walter, he's going to die, but
	don't you think he'll be in tomorrow
	morning, same old Walter, jokes and
	laughs? He's got somebody to live
	for. He's even got somebody to die
	for. I mean, how rich can a man be?
	And poor Eddie -- I used to be so
	jealous of him. I used to think he
	was so free. Free from what? From
	loving a woman, from really wanting
	a woman. Arnold, what I'm trying to
	tell you is life is nothing if you
	don't love somebody but life is
	wonderful if you do love somebody.
	Arnold, I want my wife so much right
	now ...

Arnold is a little embarrassed by his friend's display of
emotion and, frankly, hasn't understood a word Charlie was
talking about.

			ARNOLD
	I'm going to tell her about that
	woman tonight and everything. I'll
	tell her about that woman.

			CHARLIE
	Arnold, I want to get home so much
	to my wife right now I'm going to
	bust.

			ARNOLD
	I'll see you, Charlie.

			CHARLIE
	Good-bye, Arnold, have a nice
	honeymoon. I'll see you when you get
	back.

			ARNOLD
	I'll see you, Charlie.

But he is talking to an empty staircase. Charlie has plunged
down into the darkness of the floor below. Arnold turns and
sighs and shuffles back to the door of his apartment. He
rings the bell lightly, takes a deep breath. A moment, and
the door opens. A girl of about thirty-five, bespectacled,
rather plain, with a sensitive face, stands in the doorway.
Arnold stands, his head down in shame.

			ARNOLD
	Hello, Louise. I'm very sorry,
	honest.

			LOUISE
	Sure, Arnold, I know.

She looks anxiously over Arnold's shoulder to see if anyone
else is there. Arnold lumbers past her into the apartment.
Voices, both male and female, pop out at him. "What's the
matter with you, are you crazy?" "What's the matter with
you?" "For heaven's sakes, where have you been?" ... The
door closes.

					DISSOLVE TO:


EXTERIOR. STUYVESANT TOWN HOUSING PROJECT

LONG SHOT looking down the wide courtyard of Stuyvesant Town,
its endless little pathways winding from the various
apartment house doors to the central pathway which leads to
a stairway to the street. It is half past five in the morning.
The sky is gray and desolate. The courtyard and any other
street we see is absolutely empty. THE CAMERA PANS OVER this
empty expanse to the stairway where Charlie appears now,
coming quickly up the steps. He moves down the central
sidewalk, a little faster than he would usually walk; you have
the feeling he is exerting an effort to keep from running.
CAMERA PANS with him as he hurries to one of the winding side
lanes leading to a particular apartment house.

					DISSOLVE TO:


INTERIOR. CHARLIE AND HELEN'S APARTMENT

MEDIUM SHOT looking from the foyer of the apartment across
the dining area to the front door. The apartment is dark.
The door opens and Charlie comes in. He closes the door
quietly after himself and moves a few steps into the
apartment. He stops when he sees Helen seated on the couch,
wearing a kimono over her pajamas. She stands; she has been
crying.

			CHARLIE
	I love you, Helen.

She moves slowly to him and puts her head on his chest and
cries quietly. He holds her tightly.

			HELEN
		(crying softly)
	I love you so much, Charlie. I love
	you so much....

			CHARLIE
	I love you....

			HELEN
	I love you, Charlie, I love you,
	Charlie. I love you, Charlie ...

CAMERA MOVES SLOWLY UP AND AWAY from the young couple,
holding each other closely and tightly, murmuring to each
other in the dark living room of a two-and-a-half-room
apartment in a housing project.

					FADE OUT
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