Pat: I haven’t been brave. You didn’t notice. That’s all.
Bobby: That’s just it. As long as you don’t give in, you’re bigger than what happens to you. Lenz taught me that.
Pat: Why did he miss the train? (she doesn’t know the truth but anything is enough to accentuate her sadness) Oh, Bobby, I’m afraid — afraid of the last great fear. You don’t know what fear is.
Bobby: I certainly do.
Voice (off-scene): Tickets, please.
The conductor (a fat comedian) is having difficulty squeezing along the corridor. Bobby hands him the ticket.
Conductor: I’ve seen the lady’s ticket already.
Bobby: Yes — in the sleeper.
Conductor: She must go up there. It’s too crowded back here.
Voice (from the compartment — referring to the conductor’s girth): It is now.
(laughter within)
Bobby (to the conductor): She came to visit me.
Conductor (puffing, wedged in the doorway): Can’t go anywhere without a ticket.
A Voice (within the compartment): That must be your trouble.
Bobby takes Pat’s hand and starts down the jerky corridor.
DISSOLVE TO:
224 THE SLEEPER
They enter a compartment with lower and upper both made up. Pat looks at a little slip stuck on the door.
Pat (disappointed): The upper is reserved from Frankfort.
Bobby shuts the door. She lies down in the berth.
Bobby (sitting beside her): It’s a good half hour to Frankfort.
Pat (doubtfully): Well, there’s that League for Fallen Girls.
Bobby: They don’t have branches on trains.
Pat: Are you sure?
Bobby: Very sure.
(he bends toward her)
DISSOLVE TO:
225 THE SAME COMPARTMENT — MORNING
Pat and Helga Guttman, a plain, pleasant-faced girl, sit side by side. They have been chatting while outside the window snowy mountains glide by.
Helga: You were asleep when I came in.
Bobby opens the door and enters.
Bobby: Good morning.
Pat (very bright): Bobby! (indicating Helga) Another old friend — Helga Guttman. She’s going back too.
Bobby (bows): Fraulein. (to Pat) How did you sleep?
Pat: Fine. I’m all right now, Bobby. It’s good to be going back — to be able to go back. There’s tomorrow and next week and next month — why think any farther ahead than that?
As she talks —
DISSOLVE TO:
226 A RAILROAD STATION IN THE MOUNTAINS
Sun, bright snow, a blue sky — happy, laughing people on the platform and the air of a winter resort. Two men in plus fours bear Helga away to a sleigh. Bobby is surprised by the contrast to what he expected.
Helga (waving): So-long, Pat. See you at dinner.
Pat waves back. A porter approaches Bobby.
Porter: What hotel, please?
Bobby: Waldfrieden Sanitarium.
Porter: Waldfrieden Hotel? Will you go by mountain railroad or sleigh?
Bobby: Mountain railroad, eh, Pat?
DISSOLVE TO:
227 A MOUNTAIN RAILROAD OR FUNICULAR
Pat, Bobby and others, including a nurse and a stretcher-patient, are seated in the car which begins to rise slowly up the mountain.
At the top, looking small as a pin-point, is the sanitarium — at the bottom, gradually receding, is the station and the little village.
Bobby: What works it?
Pat: Another car takes on water at the top and pulls this one up. See it?
CUT TO:
228 LONG SHOT — THE OTHER CAR
— beginning its descent of the mountain.
CUT TO:
229 THE ASCENDING CAR
Bobby: Great idea. I wonder who thought of it. Is that the hotel?
CUT TO:
230 LONG SHOT OF THE SANITARIUM AT THE TOP
CUT TO:
231 THE ASCENDING CAR
Pat (looking up and nodding): Hospitals look very beautiful — when you need them.
Bobby (looking down): We’re between two worlds. That’s our train puffing away — it’s hard to believe that I’ve got to go back to that world this afternoon.
Pat (alarmed): Not right away — you’ll stay a week.
Bobby (lightly): Oh no. They’ll put you to bed for a while.
Pat (pleading): Two or three days anyhow. (excitedly) Maybe they’ll let me stay up.
Bobby (as to a beloved child): You’ve got fever now.
(he lays his hand on her cheek)
Pat: Your hand is so cool — leave it there. So cool…
A bare branch moves slowly through the car, clicking against the seats. Pat reaches for it but it is gone.
Bobby (looking straight ahead): Pat, I’ve got to tell you something now. Gottfried — left us — the other night.
Pat: Left us? (pause) You mean he’s dead? (as she realizes) Oh, my God!
Bobby: He was shot — instantly killed.
They stare at each other for a moment. Then slowly her face turns up toward the nearing sanitarium and the white sky behind it.
Pat (in a whisper) Gottfried!
DISSOLVE TO:
232 THE SAME CAR
— descending now, with its seat reversed and the sanitarium receding against a dark sky. Bobby is the only passenger and his face is set and grim. The sound of half-roguish, half martial music begins again as we —
DISSOLVE TO:
233 A LARGE OPEN-AIR CAFE IN THE CITY
Koster and Bobby at a table in a middle-class crowd.
234 IN THE STREET
— a platoon is marching past the open-air cafe — half a dozen officers and non-coms with brutal bullying faces, and their followers — thin-shouldered, spectacled clerks; blank-faced country types; thin, pool-room youths and pimply boys in their early teens. The sinister aspect of the personnel is accentuated by the contrast between the tough, remorseless leaders and the sheep-like troops.
THE CAMERA IS HELD ON THEM five or ten seconds to suggest rather than dwell on this.
CUT TO:
235 CLOSEUP — Koster
Koster: God help us if that represents the future.
CUT TO:
236 REVERSE ANGLE — BOBBY
His eyes narrow as he looks across the cafe and gets up quickly. From several angles we show him obstructed by tables or by people coming and going.
This is INTERCUT with LONG SHOTS of another table — a man, seen from behind only, rises and fades into the crowd. Reaching that table to find his quarry fled, Bobby stares about wildly; in a moment, Koster joins him. The music has faded into the distance.
Bobby: It was him — I’d know those leggings anywhere — but he’s gone.
Koster: There’s no use — we’ve got to get his name first. We’ll try it Alfons’ way.
DISSOLVE TO:
237 EXT. POLITICAL CLUBHOUSE
The same that Koster entered on the night of the shooting.
DISSOLVE TO:
238 AN INDOOR PISTOL RANGE
Four young men in semi-uniform are shooting at a line of new board targets. They are: (1) a short, fat, muscular man; (2) a heavy, dark brutish man; (3) a mean-faced “killer” type; (4) a big, fussy moron whose spectacles give him a false air of intellect.
As the fourth man shoots, one of the targets turns sideways with the impact. TRUCK UP TO a grey-haired man in civilian clothes standing near the targets. His expression is covertly interested.
Grey-haired Man: Wait a minute — the target turned.
A flick of his eye shows that he is doing something secretive as he goes to straighten the board.
CUT TO:
239 THE FOUR PISTOL-MEN
Talking and laughing together.
CUT TO:
240 CLOSEUP OF A HAND
Scrawling an initial — “B”, “H”, “T”, and “L” — on each bullet hole.
&n
bsp; DISSOLVE TO:
241 THE SAME HAND
Holding four twisted lead bullets in it, each with a tag tied to it. PULL BACK THE CAMERA to show the man with Alfons, Bobby and Koster at a table in Alfons’ Cafe. Koster has another spent bullet in his palm.
Koster: This is the bullet that killed him.
Grey-haired Man: An expert can tell which one of these matches your bullet. Then you’ve got your man.
DISSOLVE TO:
242 EXT. THE POLITICAL CLUB — JUST AFTER SUNSET
The martial-roguish music begins again as the four men who were at pistol practice come out and start down the street.
CUT TO:
243 “HEINRICH”
Half a block behind them and on the other side of the street, getting in motion
CUT TO:
244 THE FOUR MEN
Turning a corner, reaching a cafe. The first man drops out.
The Others: Goodbye, Karl.
CUT TO:
245 “HEINRICH”
Coasting slowly along. Bobby and Koster are discernable in the front seat.
CUT TO:
246 THE THREE REMAINING MEN
Marching jauntily. They pass a couple of street women who make way for them admiringly.
The Women (ad lib): Where to, big boys? Plug ‘em where it hurts!
One of the men makes an obscene crack in a low voice — the others laugh boisterously. We are now speculating as to which of the three is the murderer.
CUT TO:
247 CLOSE SHOT OF “HEINRICH”
Bobby and Koster watching intently.
Bobby (warningly): No closer! Slow up! Slow up!
CUT TO:
248 LONG SHOT OF STREET AHEAD
The three men have stopped. They chat and look idly up and down — not noticing “Heinrich.” The second man waves and goes into a house. The music has now ceased.
249 TWO SHOT OF THE LAST COUPLE
— CAMERA TRUCKING AHEAD OF THEM. The choice is now between the “Killer Type” and “Spectacles.” The Killer feels his hip pocket. The other man cleans his ear sketchily with his little finger and looks at it. They do not talk.
CUT TO:
250 “HEINRICH” —
— moving along with only a faint ticking sound through the gathering dusk.
CUT TO:
251 A CORNER
The two men stop. They shake hands and part. We TRUCK AHEAD of the “Killer” type down the street, see him begin to whistle. But it is not he, for we —
CUT TO:
252 THE OTHER STREET
The face of “Spectacles” as he walks along, wearing a faint frown like a premonition. “Heinrich” is just behind him. From a window a radio gives a sudden squawk and the man turns his head as it begins to play “Crazy Rhythm.”
CUT TO:
253 CLOSEUP OF BOBBY AND KOSTER IN “HEINRICH.”
Bobby (grimly to himself): All right, Mister.
Koster: All right, let’s go. Let him fire first.
CUT TO:
254 CLOSEUP OF KOSTER’S FOOT
— going down on the accelerator.
CUT TO:
255 “SPECTACLES”
— walking. He reaches the open end of an alley just as —
256 “HEINRICH” —
— rushes up beside the curb.
257 “SPECTACLES”
— starts as Bobby and Koster get out. Then he turns and flees up the alley reaching for his gun.
258 KOSTER AND BOBBY —
Start down the dusky alley, each hugging a wall.
CUT TO:
259 A TRASH BARREL AT THE DEAD END OF THE ALLEY —
From behind which come two crackling flashes.
CUT TO:
260 KOSTER AND BOBBY —
Untouched, continuing on. Two more shots ring out. Then Koster raises his pistol slowly and fires.
CUT TO:
261 THE MURDERER —
Crouched behind a barrel, dropping his pistol and clutching his shoulder. He tries to pick up the revolver with his other hand, but — Koster and Bobby bear down on him.
Koster (fiercely): You killed Gottfried Lenz. Death and hate — that’s what you and your kind are peddling through the nation — that’s all you know, so here it is —
The murderer leaps to his feet to dodge around the trash barrel. Roster’s shots catch him in the heart and stomach, and, clutching himself, he dives head first into the trash barrel.
CUT TO:
262 THE STREET
A policeman approaching hurriedly.
263 THE ALLEY
Windows going up in the gathering darkness.
Voices (ad lib): What’s that? Who’s there?
CUT TO:
264 THE POLICEMAN —
At the mouth of the alley.
CUT TO:
265 THE MURDERER’S BODY
Half in the trash barrel, legs hanging out. The sound of a loud whistle.
FADE OUT:
FADE IN:
266 A CITY STREET ON A BLEAK WINTRY AFTERNOON
Bobby’s taxi rolling along.
DISSOLVE TO:
267-268 ANOTHER WINTRY STREET WITH THE TAXI — THEN ANOTHER.
DISSOLVE TO:
269 A TAXI STAND —
Bobby swings his arms against the cold, holds his hand up to a prospective customer who doesn’t respond — gives up and drives off.
DISSOLVE TO:
270 THE COURT OF THE REPAIR SHOP —
— blear and desolate. No cars except “Heinrich” in the work shop. The taxi rides in, passing the gasoline pump, snow-covered as if it hadn’t been used all day.
Bobby gets out at the office door and reads the meter.
CUT TO:
271 CLOSEUP OF THE METER —
— showing one-mark-fifty for the day.
CUT TO:
272 INT. THE OFFICE —
Koster, adding figures at the table, looks up as Bobby comes in the door, but seeing his gloomy face, asks no questions except —
Koster: Cold out?
Bobby (discarding muffler and old leather jacket): Plenty. But nobody rides.
Koster (cheerful): The Christmas rush ought to start about tomorrow.
Bobby: Maybe I’ll get Santa Claus for a fare.
Koster pushes a letter over to Bobby.
273 INSERT: PART OF A LETTER:
“…found it advisable to put all our repair work in the hands of several large jobbers, and so are giving up our policy of shopping it around.
Very truly yours,
WIES AUTO-ACCIDENT INSURANCE
Per K.S.R.”
274 INT. OFFICE OF REPAIR SHOP —
Bobby (in a hushed voice): Will we have to go out of business?
Koster (rising and opening a wall locker): Oh no. After Christmas there’ll be jobs. Right now everybody’s trying to make the old bus last through the holidays. (a knock at the door. Koster, who has just taken out a bottle, puts it back hastily) Come in. (Matilda comes in. She is wrapped in shawls, wears a Queen Mary hat and carries a net bag) Oh — Matilda!
(he takes out the bottle)
Matilda: Good evening, gentlemen.
Koster inverts the bottle over a glass.
Bobby (to Matilda): Got another job?
Matilda: I have several jobs now, thank you, Herr Lohkamp.
(but her eyes are fixed on the more important matter of the bottle — which won’t pour)
Koster (rather dismally): Well, that’s that. And it’s our last drop.
Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald UK (Illustrated) Page 399