29 INT. JAIL – DAY Lennie is playing solitaire at a table on one side of the room. Davy and Mike are sitting glumly behind the bars of a cell. The door opens and Jojo enters, pushing the Girl in front of him. They are both carrying the money valises. JOJO (roughly, to Girl) You stay in here, where we can keep an eye on you. LENNIE You find anybody, Jojo? JOJO (irritable) Just her. (to boys) You sure you kids didn’t bring nobody with you? MIKE Cross my heart and hope to – uh – (he trails off) LENNIE (to Girl) I’m starving. Make with the food. The Girl goes over to the money satchels, rummages in one of them and extracts a salami. As she holds it up, Lennie casually picks up his tommy-gun and, in one quick BURST, slices the salami into two even pieces. The Girl is startled; the salami falls to the floor. JOJO Cut it out, Lennie. Lennie takes both halves of the salami, munches on one half, holds the other half out for his partner. LENNIE You hungry, Jojo? JOJO Nah. I ate before the robbery. He paces nervously back and forth a few times. A fly BUZZES around his head. He swats viciously at it a few times, and misses. The fly comes back and he whips out his automatic in a lightning draw and SHOOTS the fly. JOJO (continuing) The Big Man should be here soon. What time is it? LENNIE (looking at wristwatch) The little hand is on the “three” … JOJO (disgusted) Can’t you even tell time? LENNIE (hurt) How is a person supposed to learn anything if you humiliate them in front of others? 30 SHOT – DAVY watching the Girl sitting passively on floor. She looks vulnerable. Davy looks sympathetic. JOJO Ah, I’m sorry, Lennie. I’m just jumpy. LENNIE Me, too. I wish the Big Man would get here so we could split up the dough, take our cut, and blow this dump. JOJO (significantly) What about the kids? LENNIE Why should they get a cut? They didn’t do nothin’. JOJO (impatiently) I mean about knocking ‘em off. LENNIE Oh yeah. I think I’ll make ‘em a nice pair of concrete overshoes and dump ‘em in the river. JOJO Dump ‘em in the river?! Dummy! We’re in the middle of the desert! LENNIE Oh yeah. Where am I gonna find any concrete out here? Jojo takes a deep breath, says nothing. LENNIE (continuing) Then what do we do with ‘em? JOJO Let the Big Man worry about that. It’s his caper. LENNIE I ain’t never seen him, Jojo. JOJO (correcting him) “Ever”. I ain’t ever seen him. LENNIE You neither? Then how come he picked us for the job? JOJO (smug) Don’t forget, I happen to be on the “Ten Most Wanted” list. Number eight this week, and climbing to the top of the charts! LENNIE (sad) The biggest I ever made it was “Wanted for Questioning. Fifty Dollar Reward”. JOJO (paternally) It’s like I tell you, kid. In this business you got to have a good agent. CUT TO: 31 MICKY AND PETER – OUTSIDE THE CELL listening through the window. JOJO (o.s.) Nobody ever seen the Big Man. We’re gonna be the first guys to meet him face to face. LENNIE (o.s.) (impressed) Gee… maybe I ought to put on a tie. A lightbulb “Idea!” suddenly appears above Peter’s head. He motions Micky away from the window, and the two of them tiptoe down the street, Peter whispering excitedly in Micky’s ear. CUT TO: ******** Yeah, yeah. I know. I promised you Davy chat-up lines. But those two thugs just wouldn’t stop talking. Talk talk talk talk talk. I had to stop while I still had the will to live. Besides which…. did you see it? Did you? DID YOU???
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 01:59:40 +0000