hello, mr. sheldrake. on that bases loaded. i covered it with a 2-page synopsis. but i wouldn't bother.
it's from hunger.
just a rehash of something that wasn't very good to begin with.
schaefer. betty schaefer. and right now i wish i could crawl into a hole and pull it in after me.
i'm sorry, mr. gillis, but i just don't think it's any good. i found it flat and banal.
i just think pictures should say a little something.
perhaps the reason i hated bases loaded is that i knew your name. i'd always heard you had some talent.
so you take plot 27-a, make it glossy, make it slick --
goodbye, mr. gillis.
hello, mr. gillis.
let me help you. betty schaeter, sheldrake's office.
hurt feelings department.
you forgot this.
i've been hoping to run into you.
i felt a little guilty, so i got out some of your old stories.
there's one called. window.  something with a window.
i didn't.
except for about six pages. you've got a flashback there .
is there someplace we can talk?
this is shop talk.
the flashback in the courtroom, when she tells about being a school teacher.
maybe that's why it's good. it's true, it's moving. now why don't you use that character.
drop that attitude. here's some- thing really worth while.
i'm serious. i've got a few ideas.
as for instance?
we could make some paper boats and have a regatta. or should we just turn on the shower?
are you hungry?
phillip, you're mad!
no, phillip, no. we must be strong. you're still wearing the uniform of the coldstream guards! furthermore, you can have the phone now.
you won't. i'll get us a refill of this awful stuff.
with a wildly beating heart.
i just got the recipe: take two packages of cough drops, dissolve in one gallon of lukewarm grape juice --
is this crestview 5-1733? .  i'm sorry to bother you again, but i've confirmed the number. i must speak to mr. gillis.
where can i reach him? maybe somebody else in the house could tell me.
you don't know how glad i am to see youl
stop it, artie, will you? where have you been keeping your- self? i've got the most wonderful news for you.
i called your agent. i called the screen writers guild. finally your old apartment gave me some crestview number. there was always somebody with an accent growling at me. you were not there. you were not to be spoken to. they never heard of you.
sheldrake likes that angle about the teacher.
dark windows. i got him all hopped up about it.
he thinks it could be made into something.
into something for barbara stan- wyck. they have a commitment with barbara stanwyck.
this is on the level. sheldrake really went for it.
where's the story? i bluffed it out with a few notions of my own. it's really just a springboard. it needs work.
i've got twenty pages of notes. i've got a pretty good character for the man.
shut up, artie. now if we could sit down for two weeks and get a story.
i tell you this is half sold.
it's not your career -- it's mine. i kind of hoped to get in on this deal. i don't want to be a reader all my life. i want to write.
you sure have.
well, for heaven's sake!
have a chair.
why should you do that?
you know, i'd take you up on that in a minute. i'm just not good enough to do it all by myself.
see if they make sense. to begin with, i think you should throw out all that psychological stuff -- exploring a killer's sick mind.
this story is about teachers -- their threadbare lives, their struggles. here are people doing the most important job in the world, and they have to wprry about getting enough money to re-sole their shoes. to me it can be as exciting as any chase, any gunplay.
now i see her teaching day classes while he teaches night school. the first time they meet .
i'll make it short.
i'm not good enough to write it alone. we'll have to do it together.
couldn't we work in the evenings? six o'clock in the morning? this next month i'm completely at your disposal. artie is out of town.
we're engaged.
i think so. they're on location in arizona, shooting a western. i'm free every evening, every week- end. if you want, we could work at your place.
nobody can be that busy.
you're tough, all right.
honest to goodness, i hate you.
are you kidding? because i think it's good.
came on back. let me show you where it fits in.
oh, you --
i got the funniest letter from artie. it's rained every day since they got to arizona. they re-wrote the whole picture for rain and shot half of it. now the sun is out. nobody knows when they'll get back.
what's good about it? i miss him something fierce.
it will?
don't you sometimes hate yourself?
who's norma?
i'm sorry. i don't usually read private cigarette cases.
i'll say. this is solid gold.
it's that old familiar story, you help a timid little soul across a crowded street. she turns out to be a multimillionaire and leaves you all her money.
look at this street. all card- board, all hollow, all phoney. all done with mirrors. i like it better than any street in the world. maybe because i used to play here when i was a kid.
i was born just two blocks from this studio. right on lemon grove avenue. father was head elec- trician here till he died. mother still works in wardrobe.
third. grandma did stunt work for pearl white. i come from a picture family. naturally they took it for granted i was to become a great star. so i had ten years of dramatic lessons, diction, dancing. then the studio made a test. well, they didn't like my nose -- it slanted this way a little. i went to a doctor and had it fixed. they made more tests, and they were crazy about my nose -- only they didn't like my acting.
should be. it cost three hundred dollars.
not at all. it taught me a little sense. i got me a job in the mail room, worked up to the stenographic. now i'm a reader.
not once. what's wrong with being on the other side of the cameras? it's really more fun.
if you please.
it must be my new shampoo.
twenty-two.
was i? i'm sorry.
something came up. i don't want to talk about it.
i just don't.
it's nothing. i got a telegram from artie.
he wants me to come on to arizona. he says it only oosts two dollars to get married there. it would kind of save us a honeymoon.
i don't want it now.
of course i love him. i always will. i'm just not in love with him any more.
you did.
what is this anyway? this is betty schaefer.
who are you? what do you want? what business is it of yours anyway?
joe, where are you? what's this all about?
no, i'll be all right.
i don't know why i'm so scared, joe. is it something awful?
this is where you live?
whose house is it?
whose?
that was norma desmond on the phone?
why did she call me?
i didn't come here to see a house. what about norma desmond?
no.
no, no! i haven't heard any of this. i never got those telephone calls. i've never been in this house .  get your things together. let's get out of here.
come on, joe.
if you love me, joe.
joe, i can't look at you any more.