Pat (smiling): I’ll have a cocktail.
Alfons (he likes Pat): We have Bavarian sausage and sauerkraut, milady.
Bobby (to Pat): All right?
(Pat nods)
Bobby (to Alfons): Fine.
(Alfons goes)
Pat (looking around): I love this place. Do you come here often?
Bobby: It’s our headquarters. The only trouble is the (lowers his voice) — choir singing.
Alfons reappears and puts down the drinks.
Alfons (to Pat): Do you like choir singing?
Bobby: We love choir singing.
Bobby downs his drink as Alfons puts a record on the phonograph and a male choir wheezes out “Silence in the Forest.”
Bobby: Another double.
Alfons, helped by a waiter, serves two steaming plates of sausages.
Alfons (to Pat): You look as if you loved good singing.
Pat (playing up): Only choirs.
Alfons (interested): Now that’s funny. I do too.
66 EXTERIOR OF ALFONS’ CAFE
Lenz and Koster.
Lenz (to newsboy): Seen Mr. Lohkamp tonight?
Newsboy: Yes, sir. He’s inside.
Lenz: Oh he is — is he?
Newsboy: He asked if you were inside and when I said no, he went in.
Koster and Lenz exchange a surprised glance and go in.
CUT TO:
67 INTERIOR OF ALFONS’ CAFE — BOBBY AND PAT
Bobby (with feeling): I never realized before what a fine place this is.
Pat: It is cozy.
Bobby (lowering his voice): We’re in a sort of dugout — shells are screaming overhead but they can’t touch us.
Pat (falling into the play): Are you sure?
Bobby: Yes — (he looks at her gravely) I don’t know exactly why, but for some reason you and I are safe.
Pat: For the present.
Bobby: That’s all you can ever ask in a war.
Pat (curious): Are we in a war?
Bobby: My friends and I have found life to be a war.
Pat (thoughtfully): You are very fond of each other, aren’t you?
The voices of Lenz and Koster from out of sight:
Lenz & Koster (o.s.): Why, you two-faced liar, you hypocrite, you low heel! You snake in the grass, you fresh punk, you baby-faced double-crosser!
PAN TO LENZ AND KOSTER, drawing up chairs.
Pat (laughing): Why, hello. Do sit down.
Lenz (icily): We wondered if you got home safely last week, but our friend — : (ironic emphasis on the word): — lost the address.
Bobby: I only had the phone number.
Roster (ignoring him): You got home safely?
Pat (laughs): Herr Breuer knocked over a lamppost but it didn’t matter. There are lots more.
Koster: Waiter, some — . What are you drinking? Let’s have the same. You see, Pat, we three share everything.
Pat: I hope that includes me — (she looks at her watch) — but only till nine o’clock. I don’t want to keep Herr Breuer waiting.
Bobby (suddenly blue): Oh, waiter — another double whiskey. (he looks at his plate and says ruefully) Some delicacies come in very thin slices.
DISSOLVE TO:
68 EXTERIOR PAT’S DOOR
The elevator waits — the boy looks at Pat and Bobby from the cage.
Bobby (rather stiffly): I can’t help hoping you won’t combine business — with pleasure.
Momentarily surprised, Pat stares at him. Then getting his meaning, she suddenly laughs.
Pat: You baby. Good heavens, what a baby you are!
Bobby (blunderingly): Well, if you — anyway — you think I’m a halfwit.
Pat (gently): No, I don’t. (she looks at the elevator boy and points for him to go down) The gentleman can walk.
The elevator boy nods. As he goes down, Pat suddenly comes into Bobby’s arms — a kiss, complete but only one, and she is gone.
DISSOLVE TO:
69 EXTERIOR BOBBY’S BOARDING HOUSE
— a three-story house that has seen better days. Bobby enters.
70 BOBBY ON A FLIGHT OF DREARY, UNCARPETED STAIRS
Near the top he suddenly starts back as if at an apparition.
CUT TO:
71 THE STAIR LANDING
Hasse, a poor accountant, a drooping, beaten little man, has run out of his room onto the landing. He is followed by a stream of feminine abuse.
Woman’s Voice: — and stay out, you little rat. Us move to a cheaper room! Never! Not on your life! What could be worse than this one? Ach! What a husband!
The door bangs.
Hasse (explaining desolately to Bobby): I want to move only because I’m afraid — I’m afraid. Two more men were fired from the office today — I’ll be next, see if I’m not.
Bobby (a little tight): Cheer up, Herr Hasse.
Hasse: I work overtime every night and always these reproaches.
Bobby: You ought to beat her — or else take her to the movies. Take her to a loving movie. Let her dream.
Hasse (bitterly): You’re lucky to be alone.
Bobby (seriously): Do you think it’s fun to be alone? That’s no good either — take it from me.
The sound of a glass breaking within the room. Bobby has an impulse and goes back downstairs.
CUT TO:
72 CORRIDOR BELOW
Several doors are opened suspiciously. From one peeks the head of Frau Zalewska, the landlady.
Frau Zalewska: Good evening, Mr. Lohkamp.
The heads of other boarders peer out as Bobby goes along the lower corridor toward the phone. He takes up the receiver.
Bobby: Western two seven nine six.
The heads regard him. When he looks at one, it disappears, but another pops out across from it, so that his own head jerks from side to side spotting them. There are some coats hanging beside the phone. He makes a sort of tent of them and puts the phone inside.
Bobby: Hello.
Pat’s Voice: Oh, hello.
Bobby: Having the business interview?
Pat’s Voice: It’s all over. I’m on my way to bed — a bit feverish.
Bobby: I’m sorry. (he pushes aside the coats and takes a breath of cool air) You never heard the name Robert before, did you?
Pat’s Voice (sleepily): Yes.
Bobby: Let’s hear you pronounce it. Say “Robert is terrific”.
Pat’s Voice (laughing): Robert is a baby. And I like him that way.
Bobby: Now try “Bob”. “Bob is a — “
Pat’s Voice (softly, slowly): Bob drinks too much. Now, I’ve got to hang up — I’ve taken a sleeping pill.
Bobby: Goodnight — sleep well.
CUT TO:
73 INTERIOR PAT’S APARTMENT
Pat, full dressed and wide awake, hangs up the phone and stretches out on the couch, smoking. Herr Breuer is lounging familiarly in a chair.
Herr Breuer (irritated): He has his nerve.
Pat: He’s just a boy.
(Breuer looks at her narrowly)
Breuer: Your taste seems to be deteriorating.
Pat (pointedly): When one has left one’s own world, people are much the same.
(Breuer takes this hard)
Breuer: You haven’t answered about the phonograph shop.
Pat: I’d like it. (smiling to herself) I could sell records of choirs.
Breuer (puzzled): What do you mean?
Pat: I was just thinking of something. (her expression changes) But I won’t take that ridiculous salary. I’ll take a commission, that’s all.
Breuer (earnestly): Pat, I want to help you. It’d be a year before a shop would pay you enough to live on.
Pat (carelessly): Then let it go. I’m sorry. I’ve thought it over, and I don’t want anything that way. Pour me some more champagne.
DISSOLVE TO:
74 THE COURTYARD OF THE REPAIR SHOP NEXT MORNING
Seated in the repaired Ford are Puppi, the baker, and his girlf
riend. Puppi is counting out money to Koster who stands in overalls beside the car.
Koster: You’ll find it’s better than ever.
Puppi’s Woman (sullenly): That’s not saying much. (she nudges Puppi) Ask him about that other car.
Puppi (unwillingly): My fiancee thinks she likes that other car you had — that Cadillac.
Koster: I told you, it’s sold and delivered.
Puppi’s Woman (very disappointed): That was really a refined car.
Koster (calculating the strength of her desire): Maybe the man who bought it will sell it. We could call him up. (raising his voice) Hey, Bobby! (he looks around) He was here a minute ago.
THE CAMERA MOVES TO SHOW BOBBY, unseen by the others, asleep in the back seat of the Ford. He has a hangover and his hands press a piece of dirty waste against one side of his head, an oil can against the other.
Puppi (wanting to drop the subject of the Cadillac): Never mind. I’m sure it would be too expensive.
He starts the engine, violently awakening Bobby who, in a nightmare, jumps up and raises the oil can as if to bean Puppi. He recovers himself.
Koster: Bobby, you’re a persuasive fellow.
Bobby (yelling — still dazed): What?
Koster: Do you think we could buy back that Cadillac? (he winks) The lady has taken a fancy to it.
Puppi: No she hasn’t, really.
Bobby (perking up): Let me try to get back the Cadillac. (to the woman) It certainly would become you better than this.
The woman, beaming, throws her arms around Puppi’s neck.
The Woman: Oh, sweetheart.
Koster (thoughtfully): He might sell for seven thousand marks —
Puppi (starts his car rolling slowly): Ach, that would be suicide!
Bobby (running along beside): We’d take this off your hands.
Puppi: Never.
Bobby (sprinting): A car fit for a queen — I’ll find out.
As the car passes through the gate, Bobby is stopped sharply by the fence, but his excitement remains.
DISSOLVE TO:
75 INTERIOR OF THE OFFICE
Bobby is hanging up the phone. Koster listening.
Bobby (excitedly to Koster): He’ll sell — for six thousand marks. Five hundred more profit for us.
Koster (jubilant): We’ve got the landlord stopped this month. Rags to riches in a week.
Bobby starts to dance — then groans and sinks down in a chair with his hand on his head. Koster pours himself a drink and offers the bottle to Bobby.
Bobby (shaking his head): I’m fed up with this damned boozing.
Koster: Just as well.
Bobby (after a pause): Say, Otto, you’ve been all over the world — South America and everything — (he indicates a picture of a beautiful dancing Senorita on the phone table) — tell me this. Does a man in love always behave like a sucker?
Koster: Always. (pause) The whole thing is a racket — mother nature’s favorite racket. (points out the window) It’s like that plum tree — making itself more beautiful than it ever will be again. Love is a swindle — it couldn’t be put over on the square.
Bobby: Do people in love always make fools of themselves?
Koster: A man can’t make a fool of himself in a woman’s eyes by anything he does for her sake. Do anything you like — turn cartwheels for her, dress up like Santa Claus, write her a poem in Chinese, pass out on her doorstep — only one thing to avoid —
Lent (his voice only): Don’t — ever — make — sense.
They jump, and the CAMERA MOVES to show Lenz looking in a window.
Bobby (to Lenz): Did you ever take a girl out and get drunk?
Lenz: Often. (looks knowingly at Bobby) Did you act very cute last night? Well, don’t apologize. Send flowers. Only flowers. They cover up everything. (with his usual touch of cynicism) Even graves.
DISSOLVE TO:
76 A STREET — BOBBY
standing beside “Heinrich”, looking covetously over a wall at a lilac tree — then stealthily helping himself.
DISSOLVE TO:
77 THE LILAC BRANCH
held in Pat’s arm as they roll along the streets of the city. Evening. The lights shining.
Pat (dreamily): Wonderful air. It smells of spring.
Bobby: We can go out into the country. (Pat shivers) Are you cold? (she turns up her collar and tucks her hands in her coat pockets) Your dress is too light.
Pat (shakes her head): I don’t like heavy things. It’ll be nice when it’s really warm this Summer. (he spreads a robe over her lap) Cold makes you miserable.
Bobby (solicitously): Would it make you warm to drive?
Pat: I don’t know how.
Bobby (surprised): You can’t drive?
Pat (shakes her head): And once we had three cars.
Bobby (looking straight ahead): Herr Breuer might have taught you.
Pat: He likes girls to be helpless.
Bobby (critical): He would.
Pat (dreaming): If I had a car, I’d drive about the streets every evening — half awake, half dreaming. Then one wouldn’t need anyone else.
Bobby (thoughtful): You do need someone — in the evening.
Pat: Yes. It’s odd — when it turns dark you need someone.
Bobby (moved): Let me teach you to drive.
DISSOLVE TO:
78 THE COUNTRYSIDE —
— white with moonlight. The engine off. The shrilling of frogs.
Bobby (practical): — Now, we’ll start from the beginning again. First the ignition — a sort of spark —
Pat (with meaning): Everything starts with a spark.
(she starts the car running)
Bobby (indicating the directions): Remember — first speed — second speed — third speed. She goes into first speed. The car moves.
Pat (frightened): Heavens! It’s actually going!
Bobby: First speed is the strongest.
Pat: And the safest?
Bobby: Not always. Now, second speed. (a screech as he leans forward; his arm has gone around her) No, always the clutch.
Pat (laughing as his arm presses her): Always the clutch — for all speed.
Bobby: Now third — the fastest.
The car slows up.
Pat (appalled): What have I done?
Bobby: It’s in neutral.
Pat: How uninteresting. (with meaning) I don’t like neutral.
Bobby (getting it): Neither do I. (he leans toward her but at that moment, before the car quite stops, she gets it in third and they go forward. He cautions her) Not too fast.
Pat: What happens if you’re caught?
Bobby: No license. You’d go to jail.
Pat (laughing): The woman pays. Even in a car.
Bobby (sentimental): But even in a car — there’s always some place where it’s light and warm.
CUT TO:
79 CLOSE SHOT. THE LITTLE AREA AROUND THE DASHBOARD.
Their hands just touching.
DISSOLVE TO:
80 THEIR HANDS OVER A TABLE —
— in Alfons’ Cafe, later in the night. Another gay night, with music and a friendly crowd at the tables. Alfons behind the bar and superintending supper.
Bobby (romancing): — then I batted around the world on freighters — especially South America.
Pat: I’ve always wanted to go to South America.
Bobby (thinking hard): Well, there’s Rio de Janiero — and Buenos Aires.
Pat (expectantly): Yes?
Bobby (inventing): You roll down to Rio. It’s wonderful. Then — then you roll down to Buenos Aires. They have monkeys — no, they have coffee. Monkeys and coffee.
Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald UK (Illustrated) Page 392