The Essential Ellison Part 65

We both knew there would be an occasional tv bit, and enough money to keep living, but here, in this f.u.c.king ugly town that wasn't living. It was crawling like a wounded thing through the years, till one day the end came, and that was the only release you could pray for.

I knew Julie would not be coming back to me.

Julie knew. She was on the road because she couldn't stand the town, because she knew it would tear open and throw her insides on the street. She had always said she wasn't going to go the way all the others had gone, and now I knew why I hadn't been able to reach her on the road. It was Good-bye, Dolly.

And the Dragon Lady would get the house; and I would stay in Hollywood, G.o.d help me.

Until the birds came to pick out my eyes, and I wasn't Handy the fair-haired boy any longer, or even Handy the old pro, but something they called Fred Handy? oh, yeah, I remember him, he was good in his day. Because after all, what the h.e.l.l did I have to offer but a fast mouth and a few ideas, and once the one was slowed and the other had run out like sand from an hourgla.s.s, I was no better off than Valerie Lone or her poor miserable Emery Romito.

She left me standing there, in my apartment that always looked as though I was moving. But we both knew: I wasn't going anywhere.

10.

In a very nice little restaurant-bar on Sunset Boulevard, as evening came in to Hollywood across the rim of the bowl, Valerie Lone sat high on a barstool, eating a hot roast beef sandwich with gravy covering the very crisp french fries. She sipped slowly from a gla.s.s of dark ale. At the far end of the bar a television set was mumbling softly. It was an old movie, circa 1942.

None of the players in the movie had been Valerie Lone. The Universe loved her, but was totally devoid of a sense of irony. It was simply an old movie.

Three seats down from where Valerie Lone sat, a hippie wearing wraparound shades and seven strings of beads looked up at the bartender. "Hey, friend," he said softly.

The bartender came to him, obviously disliking the hairy trade these people represented, but unable to ignore the enormous amounts of money they somehow spent in his establishment. "Uh-huh?"

"Howzabout turning something else on ... or maybe even better turn that d.a.m.n thing off, I'll put a quarter in the jukebox." The bartender gave him a surly look, then sauntered to the set and turned it off. Valerie Lone continued to eat as the world was turned off.

The hippie put the quarter in the jukebox and pressed out three rock numbers. He returned to his barstool and the music inundated the room.

Outside, night had come, and with it, the night lights. One of the lights illuminated a twenty-three-foot-high billboard for the film Subterfuge starring Robert Mitchum and Gina Lollobrigida; produced by Arthur Crewes; directed by James Kencannon; written by John D. F. Black; music by Lalo Schifrin.

At the end of the supplementary credits there was a boxed line that was very difficult to read: it had been whited-out.

The line had once read: ALSO FEATURING MISS VALERIE LONE as Angela.

Angela had become a walk-on. She no longer existed.

Valerie Lone existed only as a woman in a very nice little restaurant and bar on the Sunset Strip. She was eating. And the long shadow had also begun to feed.

FLINTLOCK:.

An Unproduced Teleplay TEASER.

FADE IN:.

1 EXTREME CLOSEUP-FRAME BLOOD-RED-FACETED.

As though looking into the heart of a ruby (which, in fact, we are,though we shouldn't spill it at this point). The coruscating lightdancing off the facets of a jewel seen in extreme magnification,flickering, glowing, hypnotic.

CAMERA PULLS BACK and FOCUSES to show us the red glow is the eye ofDeath, the dead-red crimson of a circle of eye in the skeletonreaper on the XIIIth card of the tarot deck. CAMERA CONTINUES UP AND BACK to show the card in its entirety, lying on a black velvet cloth.

FLINT'S VOICE O.S.

Don't be alarmed, Miss Griffen. Death in the tarot deckusually means transformation or change.

We HEAR FLINT OVER as the CAMERA CONTINUES to PULL BACK and UP. Thetable is now revealed in full, covered with the black velvet cloth,the tarot cards laid out in the standard divination pattern.

CALISTA'S VOICE O.S.I donated one hundred dollars to have you tell my fortune, Mr.Flint: the least you can do is call me Calista.

(beat)As for change, having you as a fortune teller is changeenough.

CAMERA CONTINUES BACK now showing DEREK FLINT, smartly dressed intuxedo, laying out the cards for CALISTA GRIFFEN, a remarkablyattractive young woman in her late twenties. VOICES OVER CONTINUE.

FLINT'S VOICE OVEREven charitable good works have their benefits, Calista. Howelse would we have met.

CALISTA'S VOICE OVERYou silver-tongued devil, you.

FLINT'S VOICE OVERYou find me ill-cast in the role of a soothsayer? What wouldyou have me be, then? Name it.

CALISTA'S VOICE OVER.

(mulling it)Well, I see you as a man of dark and swirling mysteries. Butyou 're more than likely a playboy, Mr. Flint- (she pauses)-aren't you going to ask me to call you by your first name?

(no response)Mm. A playboy, Mr. Flint. Scion of a wealthy family.

(no response)What.do you do when you aren't telling fortunes, Mr. Flint?

FLINT'S VOICE OVER(amused)Call me Ishmael.

CALISTA'S VOICE OVEROh, come on, now!

FLINT'S VOICE OVERTry Derek. And when I'm not working fund-raising parties, Iply my humble trade as an ax murderer and s.e.x deviate. Alsostudent of human nature.

While the above dialogue is HEARD OVER the CAMERA CONTINUES its PULLBACK and UP in a smooth BOOM SHOT. Pulling back from CLOSE on Flintand Calista, the F.G. is momentarily dominated by a HAND REACHINGACROSS FRAME from LEFT, holding an engraved invitation. The handemerges from a tailored sleeve with a flashy cuff and expensivecufflink showing. A SECOND HAND reaches in from RIGHT to take theinvitation. It is a hand in a white glove, obviously a butler's. Theinvitation reads: GALA TO RAISE DISASTER FUNDS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL RELIEF ORGANIZATION.

DIALOGUE CONTINUES OVER as the hands withdraw from the FRAME andCAMERA has continued PULL BACK AND UP in BOOM SHOT to show us nowFlint and Calista at a small table, with Flint surrounded bygorgeous WOMEN, all watching him tell Calista's fortune, and in theenormous ballroom around them a high society fund-raising soireeswirls IN B.G. The room is packed with extremely beautiful and wealthy people, Hindu dignitaries, Barons, captains of industry, theusual crowd one draws at this sort of bash.

CAMERA BACK AND UP giving us the scene in expanded LONG SHOT as theDIALOGUE between Flint and Calista is HEARD OVER. Till finally, theCAMERA COMES ALL THE WAY BACK UP ON BOOM and we are looking down atthe entire sprawl of the party with a blazing crystal chandelier inthe F.G.

THIS HAS ALL BEEN ONE CONTINUOUS SHOT (BOOM) FROM EXT. CU ON THE REDEYE OF THE DEATH CARD TO THE FULL SHOT OF THE ROOM AS SHOT THROUGHTHE CHANDELIER.

HOLD FOR A BEAT then CAMERA UNFOCUSES on the sparkling lights of thechandelier till all the FRAME holds are scintillas of brilliance,and we MATCH-CUT TO:.

2 EXT. CLOSEUP ON CALISTA.

MATCH CHANDELIER BRILLIANCE with MOTES OF LIGHT in Calista's eye.CAMERA PULLS BACK from EXT. CU of Calista to show us the scintillasof light were dancing in her eyes, as Flint speaks his line "studentof human nature." BACK to CLOSEUP of Calista's extraordinary face.

The kind of face that can cause men to fight duels. A look of sensuality crosses her face.

CALISTA.

How fascinating, Derek. Can we discuss this further?

3 REVERSE ANGLE-SAME CLOSEUP ON FLINT.

He's obviously interested, but still cool.

FLINTI see no reason why not, Calista. This evening the veils ofthe future seem to be parted. There are probably severalhours' worth of material in the subject.

As Flint speaks, CAMERA CHANGES FOCUS to pick up the crowd behindhim-HOLDING FLINT UNFOCUSED IN F.G.-and we see, among the fatdowagers, bejeweled debutantes and that velvet-sashed Hindudignitary, a WEASEL-FACED LITTLE MAN who is clearly watching Flintsurrept.i.tiously, from a near corner, wholly unnoticed by Flint orthe crowd. CAMERA REFOCUSES.

CALISTA O.S.It's becoming rather stuffy in here, isn't it?

FLINT(smiles)Yes, we certainly can take a walk in the gardens.

4 TWO-SHOT-FLINT & CALISTA.

as they rise. The crowd of beautiful women look bemused and saddenedthat they missed their chance at Flint, and they drift away.

CALISTA.

(coquettishly)You see through my every subterfuge. I have no secrets from asoothsayer, it seems.

Flint stacks the tarot deck, the Death card prominently on top. Hetaps the card with a finger.

FLINTWe can leave the Grim Reaper behind. Three's a crowd.

5 TRAVELING SHOT-WITH FLINT & CALISTA.

as the party swirls around them, they pa.s.s away from the table, headfor the French doors and start to exit onto the veranda.

6 LONG SHOT.

from table in F.G. to French doors in B.G. as Flint & Calista startto exit, we HOLD LARGE IN F.G. the Weasel-Faced Little Man as he moves in to the table, but we don't see what he does there becausejust as he reaches the table we QUICK CUT TO:.

7 EXT. VERANDA-OVERLOOKING GARDENS.

with Flint and Calista as they stare out over the very elaborate gardens of the estate where the party has been thrown. Calista haspulled a cigarette from a gold case (suggest a Balkan Sobranie,black tube with gold mouthpiece) and Flint is lighting it for herwith his famous lighter.

CALISTAWould you like one?

FLINT(light)I thought we were going to leave the Grim Reaper behind?

CALISTASuch disdain.