Theme Song

SUNSET BOULEVARD Charles Brackett Billy Wilder D.M. Marshman, Jr. March 21,1949 SEQUENCE "A" A-l-4 START the picture with the actual street sign: SUNSET BOULEVARD, stencilled on a curbstope. In the gutter lie dead leaves, scraps of paper, burnt matches and cigarette butts. It is early morning. Now the CAMERA leaves the sign and MOVES EAST, the grey asphalt of the street filling the screen. As speed accelerates to around 40 m.p.h., traffic de- marcations, white arrows, speed-limit warnings, man- hole covers, etc., flash by. SUPERIMPOSED on all this are the CREDIT TITLES, in the stencilled style of the street sign. Over the scene we now hear MAN'S VOICE sirens. Police squad cars Yes, this is Sunset hurtle toward the camera, Boulevard, Los Angeles, turn off the road into a California. It's about driveway with squealing five o'clock in the brakes. Dismounted motor- morning. That's the cycle cops stand directing Homicide Squad, com- the cars in. plete with detectives and newspaper men. A-5 PATIO AND POOL OF A murder has been re- MANSION ported from one of those great big houses in the The policemen and news- ten thousand block. paper reporters and You'll read all about photographers have it in the late editions, jumped out of the cars I'm sure. You'll get and are running up to it over your radio, the pool, in which a and see it on tele- body is seen floating. vision -- because an Photographers' bulbs old-time star is in- flash in rapid suc- volved. one of the big- cession. gest. But before you hear it all distorted and blown out of proportion, before those Hollywood columnists get their hands on it, maybe you'd like to hear the facts, the whole truth... A-6 FLASH OF THE BODY MAN'S VOICE Angle up through the If so, you've come to the water from the bottom right party... You see, of the pool, as the the body of a young man body floats face down- was found floating in the ward. It is a well- pool of her mansion, with dressed young man. two shots in his back and one in his stomach. No- body important, really. Just a movie writer with a couple of "B" pictures to his credit. The poor dope. He always wanted a pool Well, in the end he got himself a pool -- SLOW DISSOLVE TO: only the price turned out to be a little high... Let's go back about six A-7 HOLLYWOOD, SEEN FROM months and find the day THE HILLTOP AT IVAR when it all started. & FRANKLIN STREETS It is a crisp sunny I was living in an day. The voice con- apartment house above tinues speaking as Franklin and Ivar. CAMERA PANS toward Things were tough the ALTO NIDO APART- at the moment. I hadn't MENT HOUSE, an ugly worked in a studio for Moorish structure ofsat a long time. So I stucco, about four there grinding stories high. CAMERA out original stories, MOVES TOWARD AN OPEN two a week. Only I WINDOW on the third seemed to have lost floor, where we look my touch. Maybe they in on JOE GILLIS' APART- weren't original MENT. Joe Gillis, bare- enough. Maybe they footed and wearing no- were too original. thing but an old bath- All I know is they robe. is sitting on didn't sell. the bed. In front of him. on a straight chair, is a portable typewriter. Beside him, on the bed, is a dirty ashtray and a scattering of type written and pencil- marked pages. Gillis is typing. with a pencil clenched bet- ween his teeth. A-8 JOE GILLIS' APARTMENT It is a one-room affair with an unmade Murphy bed pulled out of the wall at which Gillis sits typing. There are a couple of worn-out plush chairs and a Spanish-style, wrought-iron standing lamp. Also a small desk littered with books and letters, and a chest of drawers with a portable phonograph and some records on top. On the walls are a couple of repro- ductions of characterless paintings, with laundry bills and snapshots stuck in the frames. Through an archway can he seen a tiny kitchenette, complete with unwashed coffee pot and cup, empty tin cans, orange peels, etc. The effect is dingy and cheerless -- just another furnished apartment. The buzzer SOUNDS. GILLIS Yeah. The buzzer SOUNDS again. Gillis gets up and opens the door. Two men wearing hats stand outside one of them carrying a briefcase. NO. 1 Joseph C. Gillis? GILLIS That's right. The men ease into the room. No. 1 hands Gillis a business card. NO. 1 We've come for the car. GILLIS What car? NO. 2 (Consulting a paper) 1946 Plymouth convertible. Calif- ornia license 97 N 567. NO. 1 Where are the keys? GILLIS Why should I give you the keys? NO. 1 Because the company's played ball with you long enough. Because you're three payments behind. And because we've got a Court order. Come on -- the keys. NO. 2 Or do you want us to jack it up and haul it away? GILLIS Relax, fans. The car isn't here. NO. 1 Is that So? GILLIS I lent it to a friend of mine. He took it up to Palm Springs. NO. 1 Had to get away for his health, I suppose. GILLIS You don't believe me? Look in the garage. NO. 1 Sure we believe you, only now we want you to believe us. That car better be back here by noon tomorrow, or there's going to be fireworks. GILLIS You say the cutest things. The men leave. Gillis GILLIS' VOICE stands pondering beside Well, I needed about two the door for a moment. hundred and ninety dollars Then he walks to the and I needed it real center of the room and, quick, or I'd lose my car. with his back to the It wasn't in Palm Springs CAMERA, slips into a and it wasn't in the pair of gray slacks. garage. I was way ahead There is a metallic of the finance company. noise as some loose change and keys drop from the trouser pockets. As Gillis bends over to pick them up, we see that he has dropped the car keys, identifiable be- cause of a rabbit's foot and a miniature license plate attached to the key-ring. Gillis pockets the keys and as he starts to put on a shirt DISSOLVE TO: A-9 EXTERIOR OF RUDY'S GILLIS' VOICE SHOESHINE PARLOR (DAY) I knew they'd be coming A small shack-like build- around and I wasn't tak- ing, it stands in the ing any chances, so I corner of a public park- kept it a couple of ing lot. Rudy, a blocks away in a parking colored boy, is giving lot behind Rudy's Shoe- a customer a shine. shine Parlor. Rudy never asked any quest- ions. He'd just look at your heels and know the score. PAN BEHIND the shack to GILLIS' CAR, a yellow 1946 Plymouth convertible with the top down. Gillis enters the SHOT. He is wearing a tweed sport jacket, a tan polo shirt, and moooasins. He steps into the car and drives it off. Rudy winks after him. A-10 THE ALLEY NEXT TO SIDNEY'S MEN'S SHOP ON BRONSON AVE. GILLIS' VOICE I had an original story Gillis drives into the kicking around Paranount. alley and parks his car My agent told me it was right behind a delivery dead as a doornail. but truck. PAN AND FOLLOW I knew a big shot over HIM as he gets out, walks there who'd always liked around the corner into me, and the time had Bronson and then toward come to take a little the towering main gate of advantage of it. His Paramount. A few loafers, name was Sheldrake. He studio cops and extras are was a smart producer, lounging there. with a set of ulcers to prove it. DISSOLVE TO: A-11 SHELDRAKE'S OFFICE It is in the style of a Paramount executive's office -- mahogany, leather, and a little chintz. On the walls are some large framed photographs of Paramount stars, with dedications to Mr. Sheldrake. Also a couple of framed critics' awards certificates, and an Oscar on a bookshelf. A shooting schedule chart is thumb-tacked into a large bulletin board. There are piles or scripts, a few pipes and, somewhere in the background, some set models. Start on Sheldrake. He is about 45. Behind his wor- ried face there hides a coated tongue. He is en- gaged in changing the stained rilter cigarette in his Zeus holder. SHELDRAKE All right, Gillis. You've got five minutes. What's your story about? GILLIS It's about a ball player, a rookie shortstop that's batting 347. The poor kid was once mixed up in a hold- up. But he's trying to go straight -- except there's a bunch of gamblers who won't let him. SHELDRAKE So they tell the kid to throw the World Series, or else, huh? GILLIS More or less. Only for the end I've got a gimmick that's real good. A secretary enters, carrying a glass or milk. She opens a drawer and takes out a bottle of pills for Sheldrake. SHELDRAKE Got a title? GILLIS Bases Loaded. There's a 4O-page outline. SHELDRAKE (To the secretary) Get the Readers' Department and see what they have on Bases Loaded. The secretary exits. Sheldrake takes a pill and washes it down with some milk. GILLIS They're pretty hot about it over at Twentieth, but I think Zanuck's all wet. Can you see Ty Power as a GILLIS (cont'd) shortstop? You've got the best man for it right here on this lot. Alan Ladd. Good change of pace for Alan Ladd. There's another thing: it's pretty simple to shoot. Lot of outdoor stuff. Bet you could make the whole thing for under a million. And there's a great little part for Bill Demarest. One of the trainers, an oldtime player who got beaned and goes out of his head sometimes. The door opens and Betty Schaefer enters -- a clean- cut, nice looking girl of 21, with a bright, alert manner. Dressed in tweed skirt, Brooks sweater and pearls, and carrying a folder of papers. She puts them on Sheldrake's desk, not noticing Gillis, who stands near the door. BETTY Hello, Mr. Sheldrake. On that Bases Loaded. I covered it with a 2-page synopsis. (She holds it out) But I wouldn't bother. SHELDRAKE What's wrong with it? BETTY It's from hunger. SHELDRAKE Nothing for Ladd? BETTY Just a rehash of something that wasn't very good to begin with. SHELDRAKE I'm sure you'll be glad to meet Mr. Gillis. He wrote it. Betty turns towards Gillis, embarrassed. SHELDRAKE This is Miss Kramer. BETTY Schaefer. Betty Schaefer. And right now I wish I could crawl into a hole and pull it in after me. GILLIS If I could be of any help... BETTY I'm sorry, Mr. Gillis, but I just don't think it's any good. I found it flat and banal. GILLIS Exactly what kind of material do you recommend? James Joyce? Dostoosvsky? SHELDRAKE Name dropper. BETTY I just think pictures should say a little something. GILLIS Oh, you're one of the message kids. Just a story won't do. You'd have turned down Gone With the Wind. SHELDRAKE No, that was me. I said, Who wants to see a Civil War picture? BETTY Perhaps the reason I hated Bases Loaded is that I knew your name. I'd always heard you had some talent. GILLIS That was last year. This year I'm trying to earn a living. BETTY So you take Plot 27-A, make it glossy, make it slick -- SHELDRAKE Carefull Those are dirty words! You sound like a bunch of New York critics. Thank you, Miss Schaefer. BETTY Goodbye, Mr. Gillis. GILLIS Goodbye. Next time I'll write The Naked and the Dead. Betty leaves. SHELDRAKE Well, seems like Zanuck's got himself a baseball picture. GILLIS Mr. Sheldrake, I don't want you to think I thought this was going to win any Academy Award. SHELDRAKE (His mind free-wheeling) Of course, we're always looking for a Betty Hutton. Do you see it as a Betty Hutton? GILLIS Frankly, no. SHELDRAKE (Amusing himself) Now wait a minute. If we made it a girls' softball team, put in a few numbers. Might make a cute musical: It Happened in the Bull Pen -- the story of a Woman. GILLIS You trying to be funny? -- because I'm all out of laughs. I'm over a barrel and I need a job. SHELDRAKE Sure, Gillis. If something should come along - GILLIS Along is no good. I need it now. SHELDRAKE Haven't got a thing. GILLIS Any kind of assignment. Additional Dialogue. SHELDRAKE There's nothing, Gillis. Not even if you were a relative. GILLIS (Hating it) Look, Mr. Sheldrake, could you let me have three hundred bucks yourself, as a personal loan? SHELDRAKE Could I? Gillis, last year some- body talked me into buying a ranch in the valley. So I borrowed money from the bank so I could pay for the ranch. This year I had to mortgage the ranch so I could keep up my life insurance so I could borrow on the insurance so I could pay my income tax. Now if Dewey had been elected - GILLIS Goodbye, Mr. Sheldrake. DISSOLVE TO: A-12 EXT. SCHWAB'S DRUG STORE (EARLY AFTERNOON ACTIVITY) GILLIS' VOICE After that I drove down MOVE IN toward drug store to headquarters. That's and the way a lot of us think about Schwab's Drug Store. DISSOLVE TO: Actors and stock girls and waiters. Kind of a combination office,Kaffee- A-13 INT. SCHWAB'S DRUG STORE Klatsch and waiting room. Waiting, waiting for the The usual Schwabadero gravy train. crowd sits at the fount- ain, gossips at the cigar-stand, loiters by the magazine display. MOVE IN towards the TWO TELEPHONE BOOTHS. In I got myself ten nickels one of them sits Gillis, and started sending out a stack of nickels in a general S.O.S. Couldn't front of him. He's get hold of my agent, doing a lot of talking naturally. So then I into the telephone, called a pal of mine,name hanging up, dropping of Artie Green -- an awful another nickel, dialing, nice guy, an assistant talking again. director. He cquld let me have twenty, but twenty wouldn't do. GILLIS' VOICE (Cont.) Then I talked to a couple of yes men at Twentieth. To me they said no. Finally I located that agent of mine, the big faker. Was he out digging up a job for poor Joe Gillis? Hmph! He was hard at work in Bel Air, making with the golf clubs. Gillis hangs up with a curse, opens the door of the booth, emerges, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He walks toward the exit. He is stopped by the voice of SKOLSKY Hello, Gillis. Gillis looks around. At the fountain sits Skolsky, drinking a cup of coffee. GILLIS Hello, Mr. Skolsky. SKOLSKY Got anything for the column? GILLIS Sure. Just sold an original for a hundred grand. The Life of the Warner Brothers. Starring the Ritz Brothers. Playing opposite the Andrew Sisters. SKOLSKY (With a sour smile) But don't get me wrong -- I love Hollywood. Gillis walks out. DISSOLVE TO: A-14 THE BEL AIR GOLF LINKS On a sun-dappled green edged with tall sycamores, stands Morino, the agent, a caddy and a nondescript opponent in the background. Gillis has evidently stated his problem already. MORINO So you need three hundred dollars? Of course, I could give you three hundred dollars. Only I'm not going to. GILLIS No? MORINO Gillis, get this through your head. I'm not just your agent. It's not the ten per cent. I'm your friend. He sinks his putt and walks toward the next tee, Gillis following him. GILLIS How's that about your being my friend? MORINO Don't you know the finest things in the world have been written on an empty stomach? Once a talent like yours gets into that Mocambo- Romanoff rut, you're through. GILLIS Forget Romanoff's. It's the car I'm talking about. If I lose my car it's like having my legs out off. MORINO Greatest thing that could happen to you. Now you'll have to sit behind that typewriter. Now you'll have to write. GILLIS What do you think I've been doing? I need three hundred dollars. MORINO (Icily) Maybe what you need is another agent. He bends down to tee up his ball. Gillis turns away. DISSOLVE TO: A-15 GILLIS IN HIS OPEN CAR GILLIS' VOICE driving down Sunset As I drove back towards town towards Hollywood. He I took inventory of my pros- drives slowly. His pects. They now added up to mind is working. exactly zero. Apparently I just didn't have what it takes, and the time had come to wrap up the whole Hollywood deal and go home. Maybe if I hocked all my junk there'd be enough for a bus ticket back to Ohio, back to that thirty-five- dollar-a-week job behind the copy desk of the Dayton Evening Post, if it was still open. Back to the smirking delight of the whole office. All Gillis stops his car at right you wise guys. why don't a red light by the main you go out and take a crack at entrance to Bel Air. Hollywood? Maybe you think Suddenly his eyes fall you could -- Oh-oh! on: A-16 ANOTHER CAR It is a dark-green Dodge business coupe, also waiting for the light to change. but headed in the opposite direction. In it are the two finance company men. They spot Gillis in his car and exchange looks. From across the intersection Gillis recognizes them and pulls down the leather sunshade to screen his face. As the light changes. Gillis gives his car the gun and shoots away. The men narrowly avoid hitting another car as they make a U-turn into oncoming traffic and start after him. A-17 THE CHASE to A-21 Very short, very sharp, told in FLASHES. (Use locations on Sunset between Bel Air and Holmby Hills). The men lose Gillis around a bend, catch sight of him and then -- while they are trapped behind a slow- moving truck. he disappears again. A-22 GILLIS He is driving as fast as he dares, keeping an eye out for pursuit in his rear-view mirror. Suddenly his right front tire blows out. Gillis clutches desperately at the steering wheel and manages to turn the careening car into A-23 A DRIVEWAY It is overgrown with weeds and screened from the street by bushes and trees. Gillis stops his car about thirty feet from the street and looks back. GILLIS' VOICE Was I far enough ahead? A-24 THE OTHER CAR shoots past the driveway, still looking for Gillis. A-25 GILLIS He watches his pursuers GILLIS' VOICE shoot past and out of Yeah... sight. He opens the door and looks down at I had landed myself in the the flat tire. Then he driveway of some big mansion looks around to see that looked run-down and where he is. deserted. At the end of the drive was a lovely sight A-26 DRIVEWAY WITH GARAGE indeed -- a great big empty garage, just standing there An enormous, five-car going to waste. If ever there affair. neglected and was a place to stash away a empty-looking. limping car with a hot license number... A-27 GILLIS He gets back into his There was another occupant in car and carefully pilots that garage: an enormous the limping vehicle into foreign-built automobile. It one of the stalls. In must have burned up ten gallons the adjoining one is a to a mile. It had a 1932 large, dust-covered license. I figured that's Isotta-Fraschini propped when the owners moved out... up on blocks. He closes I also figured I couldn't go the garage door and walks back to my apartment now that up the driveway. In idle those bloodhounds were on to curiosity he mounts a me. The idea was to get Artie stone staircase which Green's and stay there till I leads to the garden. could make that bus for Ohio. CAMERA IN BACK OF HIM. Once back in Dayton I'd drop At the top of the steps the credit boys a picturepost- he sees the somber pile card telling them where to of pick up the jallopy. NORMA DESMOND'S HOUSE GILLIS' VOICE It is a grandiose -- It was a great big white Italianate structure, elephant of a place. The kind mottled by the years, crazy movie people built in the gloomy, forsaken, crazy Twenties. A neglected little formal garden house gets an unhappy look. completely gone to This one had it in spades. It seed. was like that old woman in Great Expectations -- that Miss From somewhere above Haversham in her rotting wed- comes ding dress and her torn veil, taking it out on the world be- cause she'd been given the go- by. A WOMAN'S VOICE You there! Gillls turns and looks. A-28 UPSTAIRS LOGGIA Behind a bamboo blind there is a movement of a dark figure. WOMAN'S VOICE Wlly are you so late? Why have you kept me waitlng so long? A-29 GILLIS He stands flabbergasted. A new noise attracts his attention -- the creak of a heavy metal-and-glass door being opened. He turns and sees A-3O THE ENTRANCE DOOR OF THE HOUSE Max von Mayerling stands there. He is sixty, and all in black, except for immaculate white cotton gloves, shirt, high, stiff collar and a white bow tie. His coat is shiny black alpaca, his trousers ledger-atriped. He is semi-paralyzed. The left side of his mouth is pulled down, and he leans on a rubber-ferruled stick. MAX In here! Gillis enters the shot. GILLIS I just put my car in the garage. I had a blow-out. I thought -- MAX Go on in. There is authority in the gesture of his white- gloved hand as he motions Gillis inside. GILLIS Look, maybe I'd better take my car -- MAX Wipe your feet! Automatically, Gillis wipes his feet on an enormous shabby cocoanut mat. MAX You are not dressed properly. GILLIS Dressed for what? THE WOMAN'S VOICE Max! Have him come up, Max! MAX (Gesturing) Up the stairs! GILLIS Suppose you listen just for a minute - MAX Madame is waiting. GILLIS For me? Okay. Gillis enters. A-31 INT. NORMA DESMOND'S ENTRANCE HALL It is grandiose and grim. The whole place is one of those abortions of silent-picture days, with bowling alleys in the cellar and a built-in pipe organ, and beams imported from Italy, with California termites at work on them. Portieres are drawn before all the windows, and only thin slits or sunlight find their way in to fight the few electric bulbs which are always burning. Gillis starts up the curve of the black marble staircase. It has a wrought-iron rail and a worn velvet rope along the wall. MAX (From below) If you need help with the coffin call me. The oddity of the situation has caught Gillis' imagination. He climbs the stairs with a kind of morbid fascination. At the top he stops, undecided, then turns to the right and is stopped by WOMAN'S VOICE This way! Gillis swings around. Norma Desmond stands down the corridor next to a doorway from which emerges a flickering light. She is a little woman. There is a curious style, a great sense of high voltage about her. She is dress- ed in black house pyjamas and black high-heeled pumps. Around her throat there is a leopard-pat- terned scarf, and wound around her head a turban of the same material. Her skin is very pale, and she is wearing dark glasses. NORMA In here. I put him on my massage table in front of the fire. He always liked fires and poking at them with a stick. Gillis enters the SHOT and she leads him into A-32 NORMA DESMOND'S BEDROOM It is a huge, gloomy room hung in white brocade which has beconle dirty over the years and even slightly torn in a few places. There's a great, unmade gilded bed in the shape of a swan, from which the gold had begun to peel. There is a disorder of clothes and negligees and faded photographs of old-time stars about. In an imitation baroque fireplace some logs are burn- ing. On the massage table before it lies a small form shrouded under a Spanish shawl. At each end on a baroque pedestal stands a three-branched cande- labrum, the candles lighted. NORMA I've made up my mind we'll bury him in the garden. Any city laws against that? GILLIS I wouldn't know. NORMA I don't care anyway. I want the coffin to be white. And I want it specially lined with satin. White, or deep pink. She picks up the shawl to make up her mind about the color. From under the shawl flops down a dead arm. Gillis stares and recoils a little. It is like a child's arm, only black and hairy. NORMA Maybe red. bright flaming red. Gay. Let's make it gay. Gillis edges closer and glances down. Under the shawl he sees the sad, bearded face of a dead chimpanzee. Norma drops back the shawl. NORMA How much will it be? I warn you - don't give me a fancy price just because I'm rich. GILLIS Lady. you've got the wrong man. For the first time. Norma really looks at him through her dark glasses. GILLIS I had some trouble with my car. Flat tire. I pulled into your garage till I could get a spare. I thought this was an empty house. NORMA It is not. Get out. GILLIS I'm sorry, and I'm sorry you lost your friend, and I don't think red is the right color. NORMA Get out. GILLIS Sure. Wait a minute -- haven't I seen you -- ? NORMA Or shall I call my servant? GILLIS I know your face. You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in pictures. You used to be big. NORMA I am big. It's the pictures that got small. GILLIS I knew there was something wrong with them. NORMA They're dead. They're finished. There was a time when this busi- ness had the eyes of the whole wide world. But that wasn't good enough. Oh, nol They wanted the ears of the world, too. So they opened their big mouths, and out came talk, talk, talk... GILLIS That's where the popcorn business comes in. You buy yourself a bag and plug up your ears. NORMA Look at them in the front offices -- the master minds! They took the idols and smashed them. The Fairbankses and the Chaplins and the Gilberts and the Valentinos. And who have they got now? Some nobodies -- a lot of pale little frogs croaking pish-poshl GILLIS Don't get sore at me. I'm not an executive. I'm just a writer. NORMA You are! Writing words, words! You've made a rope of words and strangled this businessl But there is a microphone right there to catch the last gurgles, and Technicolor to photograph the red, swollen tongue! GILLIS Ssh! You'll wake up that monkey. NORMA Get out! Gillis starts down the stairs. GILLIS Next time I'll bring my autograph album along, or maybe a hunk of cement and ask for your footprints. He is halfway down the staircase when he is stopped by NORMA Just a minute, you! GILLIS Yeah? NORMA You're a writer, you said. GILLIS Why? Norma starts down the stairs. NORMA Are you or aren't you? GILLIS I think that's what it says on my driver's license. NORMA And you have written pictures, haven't you? GILLIS Sure have. The last one I wrote was about cattle rustlers. Before they were through with it, the whole thing played on a torpedo boat. Norma has reached him at the bottom of the staircase. NORMA I want to ask you something. Come in here. She leads him into A-33 THE HUGE LIVING ROOM It is dark and damp and filled with black oak and red velvet furniture which looks like crappy props from the Mark of Zorro set. Along the main wall, a gigantic fireplace has been freezing for years. On the gold piano is a galaxy of photographs of Norma Desmond in her various roles. On one wall is a painting -- a California Gold Rush scene, Carthay Circle school. (We will learn later that it hides a motion picture screen.) One corner is filled with a large pipe organ, and as Norma and Gillis enter, there is a grizzly moaning sound. Gillis looks around. NORMA The wind gets in that blasted pipe organ. I ought to have it taken out. GILLIS Or teach it a better tune. Norma has led him to the card tables which stand side by side near a window. They are piled high with papers scrawled in a large, uncertain hand. NORMA How long is a movie script these days? I mean, how many pages? GILLIS Depends on what it is -- a Donald Duck or Joan or Arc. NORMA This is to be a very important picture. I have written it myself. Took me years. GILLIS (Looking at the piles of script) Looks like enough for six impor- tant pictures. NORMA It's the story or Salome. I think I'll have DeMille direct it. GILLIS Uh-huh. NORMA We've made a lot of pictures together. GILLIS And you'll play Salome? NORMA Who else ? GILLIS Only asking. I did't know you were planning a comeback. NORMA I hate that word. It is a return. A return to the millions of people who have never forgiven me for deserting the screen. GILLIS Fair enough. NORMA Salome -- what a woman! What a part! The Princess in love with a Holy man. She dances the Dance of the Seven Veils. He rejects her, so she demands his head on a golden tray, kissing his cold, dead lips. GILLIS They'll love it in Pomona. NORMA (Taking it straight) They will love it every place. (She reaches for a batch of pages from the heap) Read it. Read the scene just before she has him killed! GILLIS Right now? Never let another writer read your stuff. He may steal it. NORMA I am not afraid. Read it! NORMA (Cont'd) (Calling) Max! Max! (To Gillis) Sit down. Is there enough light? GILLIS I've got twenty-twenty vision. Max has entered. NORMA Bring something to drink. MAX Yes. Madame. He leaves. Norma turns to Gillis again. NORMA I said sit down. There is compulsion in her voice. Gillis looks at her GILLIS' VOICE and starts slowly Well. I had no pressing reading. engagement, and she'd men- tioned something to drink.. Max comes in, wheeling Sometimes it's interesting a wicker tea wagon on to see just how bad bad which are two bottles o writing can be. This prom- f champagne and two ised to go the limit. I red Venetian glasses, wondered what a handwriting a box of zwieback and expert would make of that a jar of caviar. Norma childish scrawl of hers. sits on her feet. deep Max wheeled in some champagne in a chair, a gold ring and some caviar. Later, I on her forefinger with found out that Max was the a clip which holds a only other person in that cigarette. She gets up grim Sunset castle, and I and forces on Gillis found out a few other things another batch of script, about him... As for her, she goes back to her chair. sat coiled up like a watch spring, her cigarette clamped in a curious holder... I could sense her eyes on me from behind those dark glasses, defying me not to like what I read, or maybe begging me in her own proud way to like it. It meant so much to her... A-34 SHOT OF THE GILLIS' VOICE CEILING It sure was a cozy set-up. That bundle of raw nerves,and PAN DOWN to the moan- Max, and a dead monkey upstair ing organ. PAN OVER and the wind wheezing through TO THE ENTRANCE DOOR. that organ once in a while. Max opens it, and a Later on, just for comedy solemn-faced man in relief, the real guy arrived undertaker's clothes with a baby coffin. It was brings in a small all done with great dignity. white coffin. (Thru He must have been a very these shots the room important chimp. The great has been growing grandson of King Kong, maybe. duskier.) DISSOLVE TO: A-35 GILLIS It got to be eleven. I was feeling a little sick at my reading. The lamp stomach, what with that sweet beside him is now champagne and that tripe I'd really paying its been reading -- that silly way in the dark room. hodgepodge of melodramatic A lot of the manu- plots. However, by then I'd script pages are started concocting a little piled on the floor plot of my own... around his feet. A half-empty champagne glass stands on the arm of his chair. THE CAMERA SLOWLY DRAWS BACK to include Norma Desmond sitting in the dusk, just as she was before. Gillis puts down a batch of script. There is a little pause. NORMA (Impatiently) Well? GILLIS This is fascinating. NORMA Of course it is. GILLIS Maybe it's a little long and maybe there are some repetitions... but you're not a professional writer. NORMA I wrote that with my heart. GILLIS Sure you did. That's what makes it great. What it needs is a little more dialogue. NORMA What for? I can say anything I want with my eyes. GILLIS It certainly could use a pair of shears and a blue pencil. NORMA I will not have it butchered. GILLIS Of course not. But it ought to be organized. Just an editing job. You can find somebody. NORMA Who? I'd have to have somebody I can trust. When were you born -- I mean, what sign of the zodiac? GILLIS I don't know. NORMA What month? GILLIS December twenty-first. NORMA Sagittarius. I like Sagittarians. You can trust them. GILLIS Thank you. NORMA I want you to do this work. GILLIS Me? I'm busy. Just finished one script. I'm due on another assignment. NORMA I don't care. GILLIS You know, I'm pretty expensive. I get five hundred a week. NORMA I wouldn't worry about money. I'll make it worth your while. GILLIS Maybe I'd better take the rest of the script home and read it - NORMA Oh no. I couldn't let it out of my house. You'll have to finish it here. GILLIS It's getting kind of late -- NORMA Are you married, Mr. -- ? GILLIS The name is Gillis. I'm single. NORMA Where do you live? GILLIS Hollywood. The Alto Nido Apart- ments. NORMA There's something wrong with your car, you said. GILLIS There sure is. NORMA You can stay here. GILLIS I'll come early tomorrow. Norma takes off her glasses. NORMA Nonsense. There's room over the garage. Max will take you there...Max! THE CAMERA MOVES GILLIS' VOICE TOWARD NORMA'S FACE, She sure could say a lot of right up to her things with those pale eyes of eyes. hers. They'd been her trade mark. They'd made her the Num- ber One Vamp of another era. I remember a rather florid des- cription in an old fan magazine which said: "Her eyes are like two moonlit waterholes, where strange animals come to drink." DISSOLVE TO: A-36 SMALL STAIRCASE, LEAD- GILLIS'VOICE ING TO ROOM OVER GARAGE I felt kind of pleased with the way I'd handled the sit- Max, an electric light uation. I'd dropped the hook, bulb in his hand, is and she'd snapped at it. Now leading Gillis up. my car would be safe down Gillis carries a batch below, while I did a patch- of the manuscript. up job on the script. And there should be plenty of money in it... Max pushes open a door at the top of the stairs. MAX (Opening the door) I made your bed this afternoon. GILLIS Thanks. (On second thought) How did you know I was going to stay, this afternoon? Max doesn't answer. He walks across to the bed, screws a bulb in the open socket above it. The light goes on, revealing: A-37 A GABLED BEDROOM There are dirty windows on two sides, and dingy wall- paper on the cracked plaster walls. For furniture there is a neatly made bed, a table and a few chairs which might have been discarded from the main house. MAX This room has not been used for a long time. GILLIS It will never make house Beautiful. I guess it's O.K. for one night. Max gives him an enigmatic look. MAX (Pointing) There is the bathroom. I put in soap and a toothbrush. GILLIS Thanks. (He starts taking off his coat) Say, she's quite a character, that Norma Desmond. MAX She was the greatest. You wouldn't know. You are too young. In one week she got seventeen thousand fan letters. Men would bribe her mani- curist to get clippings from her fingernails. There was a Maharajah who came all the way from Hyderabad to get one of her stockings. Later, he strangled himself with it. GILLIS I sure turned into an interesting driveway. MAX You did, sir. GILLIS' VOICE He goes out. Gillis I pegged him as slightly looks after him, hangs cuckoo, too. A stroke maybe. his coat over a chair, Come to think of it, the walks over to the win- whole place seemed to have dow, pulls down the been stricken with a kind of rickety Venetian blind. creeping paralysis, out of As he does so, he looks beat with the rest of the down at: world, crumbling apart in slow motion ... A-38 THE TENNIS COURT OF GILLIS' VOICE THE DESMOND HOUSE There was a tennis court, or (MOONLIGHT) rather the ghost of a tennis court, with faded markings The cement surface is and sagging net ... cracked in many places, and weeds are growing high. A-39 GILLIS - IN THE WINDOW He looks away from the court to: A-40 THE DESMOND SWIMMING POOL GILLIS' VOICE There is no water in And of course she had a pool. it, and hunks of Who didn't then? Mabel Norm- mosaic which lines its and and John Gilbert must enormous basin are have swum in it ten thousand broken away. midnights ago, and Vilma Banky and Rod La Roque. It was empty now....or was it? A-41 GILLIS - IN THE WINDOW He stares down, his stomach slowly turning. A-42 THE SWIMMING POOL At the bottom of the basin a great rat is eating a decaying or,ange. From the inlet pipe crawl two other rats, who join battle with the first rat over the orange. A-43 GILLIS -IN THE WINDOW He starts away, but some- GILLIS' VOICE thing attracts his atten- There was something tion. He turns back and else going on below: looks down again. the last rites for that hairy old chimp, performed with the A-44 THE LAWN BELOW utmost seriousness -- as if she were laying Norma Desmond and Max are to rest an only child. carrying the white coffin Was her life really towards a small grave as as empty as that? which has been dug in the dead turf. Norma carries one of the candelabra, all of its candles flickering in the wind. They reach the grave and lower the coffin into it. Then, Norma lighting his task with the candelabrum, Max takes a spade from the loose earth and starts filling in the grave. A-45 GILLIS - IN THE WINDOW He watches the scene be- GILLIS' VOICE low, then turns into the It was all very queer, room, goes to the door but queerer things to lock it. There is no were yet to come. key, and only a hole where the lock has been gouged out. Gillis moves a heavy overstuffed chair in front of the door, then walks towards the bed, throws himself on it, picking up some of the manuscript pages to read. DISSOLVE END OF SEQUENCE "A" SEQUENCE "B" DISSOLVE IN ON: B-1 LONG SHOT THE DESMOND HOUSE - (MORNING) The day is overcast. The SOUND: (Distant organ house is shrouded in low music - improvisations fog. on an odd, mournful theme - not too loud, continuing throughout B-2 THE TENNIS COURT, blurred the scene.) over with fog. B-3 THE EMPTY SWIMMING POOL Its dark outline even more melancholy under the misty blanket. B-4 THE ROOM OVER THE GARAGE Muted daylight seeps GILLIS' VOICE through the blinds. Gillis That night I'd had a lies on the bed, under a mixed-up dream. In it shabby quilt. The manu- was an organ grinder. script is beside him, some I couldn't see his of the pages scattered on face, but the organ the floor. He is just was all draped in opening his eyes. It takes black, and a chimp was him a moment to adjust him- dancing for pennies. self to the strange sur- When I opened my eyes, roundings. His eyes, wander- the music was still ing about the room. suddenly there... Where was stop, startled. He lifts I? himself on one elbow and stares at - B-5 THE DOOR The heavy chair he had set Oh yes, in that empty against it the night before room over her garage. has been pushed back. The Only it wasn't empty door is wide ajar. any more. Somebody had brought in all my belongings - my B-6 GILLIS books, my typewriter, my clothes... He jumps out of bed. He wears, shirt, trousers and socks. Suddenly he realizes that all his possessions have GILLIS' VOICE been brought in. In What was going on? the closet hang his shirts. His books and typewriter are neatly arranged on the table. His phonograph-radio combination is all installed. Gillis looks around startled, then sits down and starts putting on his moccasins hastily. DISSOLVE TO: B-7 A PAIR OF HANDS IN WHITE GLOVES, PLAYING THE ORGAN PULL BACK: They belong to Max von Mayerling. He is sitting erect, his bull neck taut as a wrestler's as he rights out somber chord after somber chord. He sits in a shaft of gray light coming from an open French window. Through the far archway, Gillis storms into the big room. GILLIS Hey, you -- Max -- whatever -your- name-is -- what are my things doing here? No answer. GILLIS I'm talking to you. My clothes and things are up in the room. MAX Naturally. I brought them myself. GILLIS (Furiously) Is that so! MAX Why are you so upset? Is there anything missing? GILLIS Who said you could? Who asked you to? Norma Desmond's shadow moves into the shaft of light. NORMA'S VOICE I did. Gillis looks around. On the couch by the fireplace reclines Norma Desmond, dressed in a negligee. She rises. NORMA I don't know why you should be so upset. Stop that playing, Max. (To Gillis again) It seemed like a good idea -- if we are to work together. GILLIS Look, I'm supposed to fix up your script. There's nothing in the deal about my staying here. NORMA You'll like it here. GILLIS Thanks for the invitation, but I have my own apartment. NORMA You can't work in an apartment where you owe three months' rent. GILLIS I'll take care of that. NORMA It's all taken care of. It's all paid for. GILLIS I'm used to paying my own bills. NORMA You proud boy, why didn't you tell me you were having difficulties. GILLIS Okay. We'll deduct it from my salary. NORMA Now, now, don't let's be small about such matters. We won't keep books. (To Max) Go on, unpack Mr. Gillis' things. GILLIS Unpack nothing. I didn't say I was staying. NORMA (Her glasses off again) Suppose you make up your mind. Do you want this job or don't you? DISSOLVE TO: B-8 BIG ROOM, NORMA DESMOND'S HOUSE - (DAY) GILLIS' VOICE Gillis sits at an impro- So I let him unpack my vised table, his typewriter things. I wanted the in front of him, working dough, and I wanted to hard at the manuscript. get out of there as Pencils, shears and a quickly as possible. paste-pot at hand. I thought if I really got going I could toss Facing him at some dis- it off in a couple or tance sits Norma,dressed weeks. But it wasn't in another version of her so simple, getting some favorite lounging pajamas, coherence into that wild, the cigaette contraption scrambled melodrama on her finger. She is she'd concocted. What autographing large photo- made it tougher was that graphs of herself and put- she was around all the ting them in envelopes. time -- hovering over me, afraid I'd do injury to that precious brain- child of hers. Gillis takes two or three pages from Norma's hand- written script, crosses them out and puts them to one side. Norma rises, crosses towards Gillis, looks over his shoulder. NORMA What's that? GILLIS Just a scene I cut out. NORMA What scene? GILLIS The one where you go to the slave market. You can cut right to the scene where John the Baptist - NORMA Cut away from me? GILLIS Honestly, it's a little old hat. They don't want that any more. NORMA They don't? Then why do they still write me fan letters every day. Why do they beg me for my photo- graphs? Because they want to see me, me, me! Norma Desmond. GILLIS (Resigned) Okay. He pulls the page from his typewriter. As he does so he glances over towards Norma. GILLIS' VOICE On the table in front I didn't argue with her. of her are the photo- You don't yell at a graphs which she is sign- sleepwalker-- he may fall ing. On the long table and break his neck.That's in the living room is a it -- she was still gallery of photographs sleepwalking along the in various frames -- all giddy heights of a lost Norma Desmond. On the career --plain crazy piano more photographs. when it came to that one Above the piano an oil subject: her celluloid portrait of her. On the self, the great Norma highboy beside him still Desmond. How could She more photographs. breathe in that house, so crowded with Norma DISSOLVE TO: Desmonds? More Norma Desmond and still more Norma Desmond. B-9 THE BIG ROOM - (NIGHT) GILLIS' VOICE Shooting towards the big It wasn't all work - of Gold Rush painting. Max, course. Two or three white gloves and all, times a week Max would steps into the shot, shoves haul up that enormous oil the painting up towards painting that had been the ceiling,revealing a presented to her by some motion picture screen. Nevada Chamber of Com- Max exits. merce, and we'd see a movie,right in her living room. B-1O NORMA AND GILLIS GILLIS' VOICE They sit on a couch,facing "So much nicer than going the screen. On a table in out," she'd say. The front of them are champagne, plain fact was that she cigarettes and coffee. was afraid of that world Above their heads are the outside. Afraid it typical openings for a pro- would remind her that jector. The lights go off. time had passed. From the opening above their heads shoots the wide beam of light. B-11 MAX, IN THE PROJECTION They were silent movies, BOOTH BEHIND THE ROOM and Max would run the projection machine, which The light of the machine was just as well -- it flickering over his face, kept him from giving us which is frozen, a somber an accompaniment on enigma. that wheezing organ. B-12 NORMA AND GILLIS She'd sit very close to watching the screen. me, and she'd smell of Gillis looks down and sees tuberoses, which is not that Norma's hand is clasp- my favorite perfume, not ing his ann tight. He by a long shot. Sometines doesn't like it much but as we watched, she'd c he can't do anything about lutch my arm or my hand it. However. when she for forgetting she was my a second lets go his arm employer becoming just a to pick up a glass of fan, excited about that champagne, he gently with- actress up there on the draws his arm, leans away screen....I guess I don't from her and crosses his have to tell you who the arms to discourage any star was. They were resumption of her approach. always her pictures -- Norma puts the glass down that's all she wanted doesn't find his arn, but to see. is not aware of any signifi- cance in his maneuver. They both watch the screen. B-13 THE OTHER END OF THE BIG ROOM. WITH THE SCREEN On it flickers a famous scene from one of Norma's old silent pictures. It is not to be a funny scene. It is old-fashioned, but shows her incredible beauty and the screen presence which made her the great star of her day. B-14 NORMA AND GILLIS ON THE COUCH NORMA Still wonderful, isn't it? And no dialogue. We didn't need dialogue. We had faces. There just aren't any faces like that any more. Well, maybe one -- Garbo. In a sudden flareup she jumps to her feet and stands in the flickering beam of light. NORMA Those idiot producers! Those imbeciles! Haven't they got any eyes? Have they forgotten what a star looks like? I'll show them. I'll be up there again. So help me! DISSOLVE TO: B-15 THE BIG ROOM - (NIGHT) It is apparently empty. GILLIS' VOICE The elaborate lamps Sometimes there'd be a make pools of light. little bridge game in the house, at a twentieth-of- THE CAMERA PULLS BACK a cent a point. I'd get AND PANS to reveal a half her winnings. Once card table around they ran up to seventy which sit Norma and cents, which was about three friends - three the only cash money I actors of her period. ever got. The others They sit erect and play around the table would with grim seriousness. be actor friends - dim figures you may still Beside Norma sits remember from the silent Gillis, kibitzing on a days. I used to think of game which bores him them as her Wax Works. extremely. An ashtray on the card table is full and Norma holds it out for Gillis to take away. He crosses the room to the fire- place. but his eyes fall on the entrance door and he stops. B-16 THE ENTRANCE HALL - (FROM GILLIS' POINT OF VIEW) Max stands in the open door. Outside are the two men who came to the apartment for Gillis' car. B-17 GILLIS He steps back so that he cannot be seen from the door. A second later Max appears, looking for him. MAX (Quietly) Some men are here. They asked for you. GILLIS I'm not here. MAX That's what I told them. GILLIS Good. MAX They found your car in the garage. They are going to tow it away. Gillis doesn't know what to do. From offstage comes: NORMA'S VOICE The ashtray, Joe dear! Can we have the ashtray? Gillis dumps the cigarette butts into the cold fire- place, crosses to the bridge table, puts the ashtray down, leans over and speaks into Norma's ear. GILLIS I want to talk to you for a minute. NORMA Not now, my dear. I'm playing three no trump. GILLIS They've come for my car. NORMA Please. Now I've forgotten how many spades are out. GILLIS I need some money right now. NORMA Can't you wait till I'm dummy? 3.22.49 GILLIS No. NORMA (Angry by now) Please! Gillis stands frustrated, hideously embarrassed by the stares of the waxworks. He turns away and hurries to the door. B-18 ENTRANCE DOOR TO THE HOUSE It is half open. Gillis comes into the shot and, taking cover, looks out. B-19 COURTYARD (FROM GILLIS' ANGLE) The men from the finance company are cranking up the car. Max stands watching silently. When they finish the cranking job, the men climb into the front seat of the truck. B-2O GILLIS - AT THE DOOR Over the shot the SOUND of the truck being started and the cars moving away. Gillis moves out into the courtyard and stands staring after the car. From the house comes Norma. NORMA Now what is it? Where's the fire? GILLIS I've lost my car. NORMA Oh...and I thought it was a matter of life and death. GILLIS It is to me. That's why I came to this house. That's why I took this job -- ghost writing! NORMA Now you're being silly. We don't need two cars. We have a car. And not one of thuse cheap new things made of chromium and spit. An Isotta-Fraschini. Have you ever heard of Isotta-Fraschinis? All hand-made. Cost me twenty-eight thousand dollars. THE CAMERA HAS PANNED over to the garage and FOCUSES on the dirty Isotta-Fraschini on its blocks. DISSOLVE TO: B-21 NORMA'S ISOTTA-FRASCHINI DRIVING IN THE HILLS ABOVE SUNSET (DAY) Max is at the wheel, GILLIS' VOICE dressed as usual except So Max got that old bus for a chauffeurfs cap. down off its blocks and polished it up. She'd take me for rides in the B-22 INSIDE THE CAR hills above Sunset. Gillis sits beside Norma, The whole thing was up- who is wearing a smart holstered in leopard tailleur and her eternal skin, and had one of sun glasses. Gillis those car phones, all wears his sport jacket- gold-plated. flannel trousers-moccasin combinatIon. He sits uncomfortably. Norma is studying him. NORMA That's a dreadful shirt you're wearing. GILLIS What's wrong with It? NORMA Nothing, if you work in a fill- ing station. And I'm getting rather bored with that sport jacket, and those same baggy pants. (She picks up the car phone) Max, what's a good men's shop in town? The very best... Well, go there ! GILLIS I don't need any clothes, and I certainly don't want you buy- ing them for -- NORMA Why begrudge me a little fun? I just want you to look nice, my stray little boy. By this time Max has made a U-turn. QUICK DISSOLVE TO: B-23 INT. MEN'S DEPARTMENT, AN ELEGANT WILSHIRE STORE Gillis stands in front of a full-length triple mirror, surrounded by a couple of salesmen and the tailor, who is busily working out alterations. Gillis wears a double-breasted gray flannel coat with chalk stripes. His trousers belong to another suit of glen plaid. Norma is running the show. NORMA There's nothing like gray flannel with a chalk stripe. (she points at the trousers) This one single-breasted, of course. (to another salesman) Now we need a topcoat. Let's see what you have in camel's hair. The salesman leaves. NORMA How about some evening clothes? GILLIS I don't need a tuxedo. NORMA Of course you do. A tuxedo and tails. GILLIS Tails. That's ridiculous. NORMA You'll need them for parties. You'll need them for New Year's Eve. (to a salesman) Where are your evening clothes? SALESMAN This way, Madame. He leads her off. The other salesman arrives with a selection of topcoats. SALESMAN Here are some camel hairs, but I'd like you just to feel this one. It's Vicuna. Of course, it's a little more expensive. GILLIS A camel's hair will do. SALESMAN (With an insulting inflection) As long as the lady is paying for it, why not take the Vicuna? DISSOLVE: END OF SEQUENCE "B" SEQUENCE "C" DISSOLVE IN: C-1 LONG SHOT DESMOND HOUSE A day in December. Rain. QUICK DISSOLVE TO: C-2 INT. ROOM OVER GARAGE Water is drizzling from GILLIS' VOICE two or three spots in the The last week in December ceiling into pans and the rains came -- a great bowls set to catch it, big package of rain. one bowl right on the Over-sized, like every- bed. The room is almost thing else in California. emptied of Gillis' be- longings by now. Max It came right through is carrying out a hand- the old roof of my room full of new suits on above the garage. She hangers. He has a had Max move me to the dressing gown over his main house. I didn't shoulder. Gillis holds much like the idea -- the a stack of shirts, his only time I could have typewriter, and some to myself was in that manuscript. He surveys room -- but it was better the room for the last than sleeping in a rain- time, to see whether coat and galoshes. he's forgotten any- thing. He has. He puts down the typewriter and picks up from under the bed a pair of very smart red leather bedroom slippers. He tucks them under his arm, picks up the typewriter and leaves. QUICK DISSOLVE TO: C-3 A BEDROOM IN TIiE MAIN HOUSE It is obviously a man's room -- heavy Spanish furniture -- one wall nothing but a closet with shelves and drawers for shirts and shoes. Max is hanging up the suits. Gillis throws the shirts on a big chair, tosses the slippers at the foot of the bed, places the typewriter and manuscript on a desk at the window. GILLIS Whose room was this? MAX It was the room of the husband. Or of the husbands, I should say. Madame has been married three times. Slightly embarrassed, Gillis picks up his toilet kit with razor, toothbrushes, soap, etc., and starts towards the bathroom, pausing en route at a rain- splattered window. GILLIS I guess this is the one you can see Catalina from. Only this isn't the day. He proceeds towards the half-opened door leading to the bathroom. Something strikes his attention and he stops. As in the door to the room above the garage, this lock, too, has been gouged out. GILLIS Hey, what's this with the door? There isn't any lock. MAX There are no locks anywhere in this house. He points to the entrance door of the room, and to another door. GILLIS How come? MAX The doctor suggested it. GILLIS What doctor? MAX Madame's doctor. She has moments of melancholy. There have been some suicide attempts. GILLIS Uh-huh? MAX We have to be very careful. No sleeping pills, no razor blades. We shut off the gas in her bed- room. GILLIS Why? Her career? She got enough out of it. She's not forgotten. She still gets those fan letters. MAX I wouldn't look too closely at the postmarks. GILLIS You send them. Is that it, Max? MAX I'd better press your evening clothes, sir. You have not for- gotten Madame's New Year's party. GILLIS No, I haven't. I suppose all the waxworks are coming? MAX I don't know, sir. Madame made the arrangements. Max leaves. Gillis comes out of the bathroom, picks up his shirts, goes over to a closet, opens it. As he does so one of the doors without a lock swings slightly open. Gillis looks through the half-open door and sees. C-4 NORMA DESMOND'S ROOM It is empty. The rainy GILLIS' VOICE day does nothing to There it was again - that help its gloom. room of hers, all satin and ruffles, and that bed like a gilded rowboat. The per- fect setting for a silent movie queen. Poor devil, still waving proudly to a parade which had long since passed her by. He pushes the door shut and walks back into the room. DISSOLVE TO: C-5 STAIRCASE OF DESMOND HOUSE (NIGHT) Gillis is coming down the GILLIS' VOICE stairs in his tailcoat It was at her New Year's adjusting the handkerchief party that I found out in his pocket. He obviously how she felt about me. feels a little uneasy in Maybe I'd been an idiot this outfit. From below not to have sensed it comes a tango of the Twen- was coming - that sad, ties. played by a small embarrassing revelation. orchestra. Gillis stops in the archway leading to the big room and looks around. C-6 THE BIG ROOM has been deco- rated for the occasion with laurel garlands. Dozens of candles in all the sconces and candelabra are ablaze. Their flickering flames are reflected in the waxed sur= face of the tile floor. There is a buffet, with buckets of champagne and caviar on ice. In one corner on a little platform banked with palms. a four-piece orchestra is playing. At the buffet are Max and Norma. She is drinking a glass of champagne. She is wearing a diamonte evening dress. very high style. with long black gloves and a headdress of paradise feathers. Her eyes fall on Gillis. She puts down the glass of champagne. picks up a gardenia boutonniere and moves toward him. NORMA Joe, you look absolutely divine. Turn around! GILLIS (Embarrassed} Please. NORMA Come on! Gillis makes a slow 36O-degree turn. NORMA Perfect. Wonderful shoulders. And I love that line. She indicates the V from his shoulders to his hips. GILLIS All padding. Don't let it fool you. NORMA Come here! She puts the gardenia on his lapel. GILLIS You know, to me dressing up was always just putting on my dark blue suit. NORMA I don't like those studs they've sent. I want you to have pearls. Nice big pearls. GILLIS Now, I'm not going to wear ear- rings, I can tell you that. NORMA Cute. Let's have some drinks. She leads him over to the buffet. GILLIS Shouldn't we wait for the others? NORMA (Pointing at the floor) Careful, it's slippery. I had it waxed. They reach the buffet. Max is ready with two glasses of champagne. Norma hands Gillis a glass. NORMA Here's to us. They drink. NORMA You know, this floor used to be wood but I had it changed. Valentino said there is nothing like tiles for a tango. She opens her arms. GILLIS Not on the same floor with Valentino! NORMA Just follow me. They start to tango. After a moment -- NORMA Don't bend back like that. GILLIS It's those feathers. They tickle. Norma pulls the paradise feathers from her hair and tosses them away. C-7 THE ORCHESTRA As they play the tango, the musicians eye the danc- ing couple, take in the situation, exchange glances and turn away with professional discretion. C-8 NORMA AND GILLIS, TANGOING Gillis glances at his wrist watch. GILLIS It's a quarter past ten. What time are they supposed to get here? NORMA Who? GILLIS The other guests? NORMA There are no other guests. We don't want to share this night with other people. This is for you and me. GILLIS I understand some rich guy bought up all the tickets for a perfor- mance at the Metropolitan and sat there listening to La Traviata, all by himself. He was afraid of catching cold. NORMA Hold me tighter. GILLIS Come midnight, how about blind- folding the orchestra and smash- ing champagne glasses on Max's head? NORMA You think this is all very funny. GILLIS A little. NORMA Is it funny that I'm in love with you? GILLIS What's that? NORMA I'm in love with you. Don't you know that? I've been in love with you all along. They dance on. Gillis is acutely embarrassed. THE CAMERA SLOWLY PULLS BACK, PANS past the faces of the musicians, who play on with a rather overe- mphasized lack of interest. Finally it winds up on Max, behind the buffet. He stands watching Gillis, a faint trace of pity in his eyes. DISSOLVE TO: C-9 NORMA'S FINGER, WITH THE CIGARETTE GADGET, as she GILLIS' VOICE inserts a cigarette. I'm sure a lot of you will laugh about this. Ridicu- lous situation, wasn't it? -- a woman almost twice my age ... It got to be about a quarter of eleven. I felt caught, like a cig- arette in the prongs of that contraption on her finger. PULL BACK TO: NORMA AND GILLIS sitting on a couch in front of the cavernous fireplace. Norma holds out her cigarette to Gillis, who lights it. NORMA. What a wonderful next year it's going to be. What fun we're going to have. I'II fill the pool for you. Or I'll open my house in Malibu, and you can have the whole ocean. Or I'll buy you a boat and we'll sail to Hawaii. GILLIS Stop it. You aren't going to buy me anything more. NORMA Don't be silly. (She reaches under a pillow of the couch and brings out a leather box) Here. I was going to give it to you at midniglht. Gillis opens the box. It contains a matched gold cigarette case and lighter. NORMA Read what's inside. Gillis snaps open the case. Engraved inside the cover is: TO JOE FROM NORMA, and two bars of music. GILLIS What are the notes? NORMA "Mad about the boy." GILLIS Norma, I can't take it. You've bought me enough. NORMA Shut up. I'm rich. I'm richer than all this new Hollywood trash. I've got a million dollars. GILLIS Keep it. NORMA I own three blocks downtown. I have oil in Bakersfield -- pumping, pumping, pumping. What's it for but to buy us anything we want. GILLIS Cut out that us business. He rises. NORMA What's the matter with you? GILLIS What right do you have to take me for granted? NORMA What right? Do you want me to tell you? GILLIS Has it ever occurred that I may have a life of my own? That there may be some girl I'm crazy about? NORMA Who? Some car hop, or a dress extra? GILLIS Why not? What I'm trying to say is that I'm all wrong for you. You want a Valentino -- somebody with polo ponies -- a big shot -- NORMA (Getting up slowly) What you're trying to say is that you don't want me to love you. Is that it? Gillis doesn't answer. Norma slaps his face and rushes from the room and upstairs. Gillis stands paralyzed, the slap burning his cheek. C-1O THE TOP OF THE STAIRCASE AND CORRIDOR Norma rushes up the last few steps, down the corridor and into her bedroom, banging the door. MOVE THE CAMERA toward the closed door, centering on the gouged-out lock. C-11 GILLIS, IN THE BIG ROOM He still stands motionless. He glances around fur- tively, to see if his humiliation has been observed. C-12 THE ORCHESTRA The musicians are playing away. They have turned their eyes away from Gillis rather too ostentatious- ly for comfort. C-13 GILLIS His eyes move over toward C-14 MAX He is subtler than the musicians. He appears very busy at the buffet, putting empty bottles and used glasses on a tray. He walks across the room with them. C-15 GILLIS He starts slowly out. As he does so his long gold key chain catches on a carved ornament of the sofa and holds him for a second of additional embarrass- ment. He yanks it loose and walks with as much nonchalance as he can muster to C-16 THE HALL Crossing towards the coat closet, Gillis throws a look upstairs. Then he pulls the Vicuna coat from its hangar and slips into it as he crosses to the entrance door. He opens the door on the darkness of the courtyard. C-17 EXT. DESMOND HOUSE (NIGHT - RAIN) Gillis shuts the door. GILLIS'VOICE He takes a few steps I didn't know where I was forward, then stands going. I just had to get for a while breathing out of there. I had to be deep. The rain is with people my own age. I balm to that cheek had to hear somebody laugh where the slap still a again. I thought of Artie burns. He walks for- Green. There was bound to ward with a great be a New Year's shindig sense of relief. going on in his apartment down on Las Palmas -- the hock shop set -- not a job C-18 DRIVEWAY LEADING TO in the room. but lots of fun on the cuff. Gillis walks to the street, which is dark and empty. He starts down Sunset in an Easterly direction. A car passes. He tries to thumb a ride, without success. However, the second car, a florist's delivery wagon, stops. Gillis jumps in and the car drives off. DISSOLVE TO: C-19 ARTIE GREEN'S APARTMENT It is the most modest one-room affair, jam packed with young people flowing over into the miniature bathroom and the microscopic kitchenette. The only drink being served is punch from a pressed-glass bowl -- but everybody is having a hell of a time. Most of the men are in slacks and sweaters, and only a few of the girls in something that vaguely suggests party dress. Abe Burroughs sits at a small, guest-festooned piano and sings Tokio Rose. By the door, a group of young men and girls respond to the song by sing1ng Rinso White or Dentyne Chewing Gum or something similar, in the manner of a Bach choral. Artie Green, a dark haired, pleasant-looking guy in his late twenties, is conducting with the ladle from the punch bowl. The door behind some of the singers is pushed open, jostling them out of their places. In comes Gillis, his hair and face wet, the collar of his Vicuna coat turned up. Artie stops conducting, but the commer- cial goes right on. ARTIE Well, what do you know ! Joe Gillis ! GILLIS Hi, Artie. ARTIE Where have you been keeping that gorgeous face of yours? GILLIS In a deep freeze. ARTIE I almost reported you to the Bureau of Missing Persons. (To the company) Fans, you all know Joe Gillis, the well-known screen writer, opium smuggler and Black Dahlia suspect. Gillis greets some of the kids by name as he and Artie push their way into the room. ARTIE Give me your coat. GILLIS Let it ride for a while. ARTIE You're going to stay, aren't you? GILLIS That was the general idea. ARTIE Come on. Artie starts peeling the coat off Gillis. Its texture takes his breath away. ARTIE What is this - mink? He has taken the coat. He looks at Gillis standing there in tails. ARTIE Judas E. Priest, who did you borrow that from? Adolphe Menjou? GILLIS Close, but no cigar. Gillis stands embarrassed While Artie rolls up the Vicuna coat and tucks it above the books on a book- shelf. ARTIE Say, you're not really smuggling opium these days, are you? GILLIS Where's the bar? The two make their way toward the punch bowl. It's a little like running the gauntlet for Gillis. There are whistles and 'stares of astonishlnent at his tails. When they reach the punch bowl, Artie picks up a half-filled glass and fills it. GILLIS Good party. ARTIE The greatest. They call me the Elsa Maxwell of the assistant directors. (To some guests who are dipping their empty cups into the punch bowl) Hey, easy on the punch bowl. Budget only calls for three drinks per extra. Fake the rest. GILLIS Listen, Artie, can I stick around here for a while? ARTIE Sure, this'll go on all night. GILLIS I mean, could you put me up for a couple of weeks? ARTIE It just so happens we have a vacancy on the couch. GILLIS I'll take it. ARTIE I'll have the bell-hop take care of your luggage. He runs his finger across the decollete back of a girl standing in a group next them. ARTIE Just register here. The girl turns around. She is Betty Schaefer. BETTY Hello, Mr. Gillis. ARTIE You know each other? Gillis looks at her a little puzzled. BETTY Let me help you. Betty Schaeter, Sheldrake's office. GILLIS Sure. Bases Loaded. ARTIE Wait a minute. This is the woman I love. What's going on? Who was loaded? GILLIS Don't worry. She's just a fan for my literary output. BETTY (to Artie) Hurt feelings department. GILLIS About that luggage. Where's the phone? ARTIE Over by the Rainbow Room. Gillis squeezes his way through groups of people to the telephone, which is next to an open door leading to the bathroom. The phone is busy. A girl sits listening to it, giggling wildly. Another girl beside her is laughing too. They are apparently sharing a conversation with some man on the other end of the wire. The telephone passes from hand to hand. Gillis watches impatiently, then GILLIS When youlre through with that thing, can I have it? The girl just nods, going on with her chattering. Gillis stands waiting, and Betty Schaefer comes up with his glass. BETTY You forgot this. GILLIS Thanks. BETTY I've been hoping to run into you. GILLIS What for? To recover that knife you stuck in my back? BETTY I felt a little guilty, so I got out some of your old stories. GILLIS Why, you sweet kid. BETTY There's one called....Window... something with a window. GILLIS Dark Windows. How did you like it? BETTY I didn't. GILLIS Thank you. BETTY Except for about six pages. You've got a flashback there ... There is too much racket for her. BETTY Is there someplace we can talk? GILLIS How about the Rainbow Room? They squeeze their way towards the bathroom, past Artie. ARTIE I said you could have my couch. I didn't say you could have my girl. BETTY This is shop talk. She and Gillis go through the open door into C-20 ARTIE'S BATHROOM It's a little less noisy, although there are some guests there, chatting and having fun. Betty and Gillis sit down on the edge of the tub. GILLIS Now if I got you correctly, there was a short stretch of my fiction you found worthy of notice. BETTY The flashback in the courtroom, when she tells about being a school teacher. GILLIS I had a teacher like that once. BETTY Maybe that's why it's good. It's true, it's moving. Now why don't you use that character... GILLIS Who wants true? Who wants moving? BETTY Drop that attitude. Here's some- thing really worth while. GILLIS Want me to start right now? Maybe there's some paper around. BETTY I'm serious. I've got a few ideas. GILLIS I've got some ideas myself. One of them being this is New Year's Eve. How about living it up a little? BETTY As for instance? GILLIS Well.... BETTY We could make some paper boats and have a regatta. Or should we just turn on the shower? GILLIS How about capturing the kitchen and barricading the door? BETTY Are you hungry? GILLIS Hungry? After twelve years in the Burmese jungle. I am starving, Lady Agatha -- starving for a white shoulder -- BETTY Phillip, you're mad! One of the girls who was on the phone comes to the door. GIRL You can have the phone now. GILLIS (Paying no attention) Thirsting for the coolness of your lips - BETTY No, Phillip, no. We must be strong. You're still wearing the uniform of the Coldstream Guards! Furthermore, you can have the phone now. GILLIS O.K. (He gets up, starts out, turns) I find I'm terribly afraid of losing you. BETTY You won't. (She takes the glass out of his hand) I'll get us a refill of this awful stuff. GILLIS You'll be waiting for me? BETTY With a wildly beating heart. GILLIS Life can be beautiful! He leaves. C-21 THE MAIN ROOM Gillis squeezes himself through some guests to the phone. He has to stand in a cramped position, holding the instrument close to him as he dials a number. GILLIS Max? This is Mr. Gillis. I want you to do me a favor. C-22 NORMA DESMOND HOUSE Max is at the phone, in the lower hall. MAX I am sorry, Mr. Gillis. I cannot talk now. C-23 GILLIS ON THE PHONE GILLIS Yes you can. I want you to get my old suitcase and I want you to throw in my old clothes -- the ones I came with, and my typewriter. I'll have somebody pick them up. C-24 MAX AT THE PHONE MAX I have no time to talk. The doctor is here. C-25 GILLIS ON THE PHONE GILLIS What doctor? What's going on? C-26 MAX AT THE PHONE MAX She got the razor from your room. She cut her wrists. Max hangs up, moves toward the staircase. C-27 GILLIS AT THE PHONE GILLIS Max ! Max ! He hangs up the dead receiver, stands numb with shock. Betty elbows her way up to him, carrying the two punch glasses filled again. BETTY I just got the recipe: take two packages of cough drops, dissolve in one gallon of lukewarm grape juice -- Gillis looks up at her. Without a word he pushes her aside so that she spills the drink. He makes his way through the guests to the Vicuna coat, pulls it from the shelf, some books tumbling with it, and rushes towards the door and out. Betty stands look- ing after him, completely bewildered. DISSOLVE TO: C-28 EXT. DESMOND HOUSE - (NIGHT, RAIN) The doctor's car is parked in the driveway. A taxi pulls up. Gillis, in his Vicuna coat now, jumps out, throws a couple of dollars to the rdriver and runs toward the house. C-28a DOORWAY, NORMA DESMOND HOUSE> Max is opening the door to let out the doctor, a professional looking man carrying a black bag. Gillis runs into the SHOT. GILLIS How is she? MAX She is upstairs. Gillis starts to push past Max. Max grabs his arm. MAX Be careful. Do not race up the stairs. The musicians must not know what has happened. Gillis goes into the house. C-29 ENRANCE HALL AND STAIRCASE Gillis crosses the hall and starts up the stairs. C-3O INT. NORMA DESMOND'S ROOM Only one alabaster lamp lights the big, cold room. On the bed lies Norma in her evening dress. She is white as a sheet. Her wrists are bandaged. Her eyes are wide open, staring at the ceiling. One of her shoes has halt slipped off her foot. The other is on. Gillis opens the door and stands there tor a second. Then he slowly moves to the toot of the bed. He takes the shoes from her feet and puts them on the floor. NORMA Go away. GILLIS What kind of a silly thing was that to do? NORMA To fall in love with you -- that was the idiotic thing. GILLIS It sure would have made attractive headlines: Great Star Kills Her- self for Unknown Writer. NORMA Great stars have great pride. She puts one bandaged forearm over her eyes, sobbing. Gillis walks slowly over to the mantelpiece, stands there for awhile. NORMA Go away. Go to that girl of yours. GILLIS Look, I was making that up because I thought the whole thing was a mistake. I didn't want to hurt you. You've been good to me. You're the only person in this stinking town that has been good to me. NORMA Why don't you just say thank you and go, go, go -- GILLIS Not until you promise to act like a sensible human being. NORMA I'll do it again, I'll do it again, I'll do it again! Gillis stands looking at her helplessly. C-31 LIVING ROOM, THE DESMOND HOUSE The candles burned down, the orchestra playing to the emptiness. The orchestra leader looks at his watch, rises, silences the orchestra, then starts them in on Auld Lang Syne. C-32 INT. NORMA'S ROOM Gillis still stands. Norma lies on the bed, arms over her eyes, sobbing. GILLIS Happy New Year. Norma continues to sob. Gillis goes to the bed, puts his arms on her shoulders and turns her around. GILLIS Happy New Year. Norma looks at him, tears in her eyes. Slowly she enfolds him in her bandaged arms. NORMA Happy New Year. darling. She kisses him. DISSOLVE END OF SEQUENCE "C" SEQUENCE "D" DISSOLVE IN ON: D-1 INT. HALLWAY, NORMA GILLIS' VOICE DESMOND'S HOUSE (DAY) Around the middle of May some incidents happened The telephone is heard which I think I should tell ringing. Max comes from you about. living room to the phone, picks it up. MAX Hello ... Yes? D-1a BETTY SCHAEFER, AT THE PHONE ON HER DESK IN THE READERS' DEPARTMENT BETTY Is this Crestview 5-1733? ... I'm sorry to bother you again, but I've confirmed the number. I must speak to Mr. Gillis. D-1b MAX, AT THE PHONE MAX He is not here. D-1c BETTY ON THE PHONE BETTY Where can I reach him? Maybe somebody else in the house could tell me. D-1d MAX ON THE PHONE MAX Nobody here can give you any information. You will please not call again. He hangs up. From off comes: NORMA'S VOICE Who was it, Max? What is it? D-1e PATIO, NORMA'S HOUSE It is a sunny day. The garden is in somewhat better shape. The old house looks less unkept. The pool is filled. Norma sits on a wicker chaise longue, her face shielded by an enormous straw hat, her eyes by dark glasses. Gillis, in bathing trunks, is on a rubber mattress in the pool. Max comes to the entrance door. MAX Nothing, Madame. Somebody Inqu- iring about a stray dog. We must have a number very similar to the pound. He starts to turn back. NORMA Wait a minute. I want you to get out the car. You're going to take the script over to Paramount and deliver it to Mr. De Mille in person. MAX Yes, Madame. He goes into the house. GILLIS (climbing out of the water) You're really going to send it to De Mille? NORMA This is the right day. She indicates a typewritten letter she is holding. NORMA (Cont'd) The chart from my astrologer. She read deMille's horoscope. She read mine. GILLIS Did she read the script? NORMA DeMille is Leo. I'm Scorpio. Mars has been transmitting Jupiter for weeks. Today is the day of greatest conjuction. Now turn around. Let me dry you. She puts the towel around his sholders and starts drying him. GILLIS I hope you realize, Norma, that scripts don't sell on astrologers' charts. NORMA I'm not just selling the script. I'm selling me. DeMille always said I was his greatest star. GILLIS When did he say it, Norma? NORMA So he said it quite a few years ago. So what? I never looked better in my life. Do you know why? Because I've never been as happy in my life. She kisses him. DISSOLVE TO: D-2 INT. THE ISOTTA, DRIVING DOWN SUNSET ABOUT 8:30 IN THE EVENING GILLIS' VOICE A few evenings later we Max is driving. In the were going to the house of tonneau sit Norma, in a one of the waxworks for chinchilla wrap, and some bridge. She'd taught Gillis in his tuxedo. me how to play bridge by Norma is rummaging then, just as she'd taught through her evening me some fancy tango steps, bag. She finds a and what wine to drink cigarette case, opens with what fish. it. It is empty. NORMA That idiot. He forgot to fill my cigarette case. GILLIS (Proffering his case) Have one of mine. NORMA They're awful. They make me cough. GILLIS (Pushing open the glass partition, to Max) Pull up at the drugstore, will you, Max. (To Norma) I'll get you some. NORMA You're a darling. She takes a dollar bill from her purse and gives it to him. D-3 EXT. SCHWAB'S DRUGSTORE The car drives up and Gillis hurries into the store. D-4 INT. SCHWAB'S DRUGSTORE Business is still rather lively. There are about a dozen shoppers, and the soda counter is half filled. Gillis enters and steps to the tobacco counter. GILLIS (To the salesgirl) Give me a pack of those Turkish cigarettes -- Melachrinos. The girl opens the glass showcase to locate the fancy brand. From OFF comes ARTIE'S VOICE Stick 'em up, Gillis, or I'll let you have it! Gillis turns. D-5 AT THE SODA FOUNTAIN Artie Green and Betty Schaefer sit having a sandwich and a milk shake. With his forefinger and a sound effect, Artie riddles Gillis' body. Gillis walks INTO THE SHOT. GILLIS Hello, Artie. Good evening, Miss Schaefer. BETTY (Excitedly) You don't know how glad I am to see youl ARTIE Walking out on the mob. What's the big idea? GILLIS I'm sorry about New Year's. Would you believe me if I said I had to be with a sick friend? ARTIE Someone in the formal set, no doubt, with a ten-carat kidney stone. BETTY Stop it, Artie, will you? (To Gillis) Where have you been keeping your- self? I've got the most wonderful news for you. GILLIS I haven't been keeping myself at all. Not lately. BETTY 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. GILLIS Is that so? What's the wonderful news? BETTY Sheldrake likes that angle about the teacher. GILLIS What teacher? BETTY Dark Windows. I got him all hopped up about it. GILLIS You did? BETTY He thinks it could be made into something. GILLIS Into what? A lampshade? BETTY Into something for Barbara Stan- wyck. They have a commitment with Barbara Stanwyck. ARTIE Unless you'd rather have Sarah Bernhardt. BETTY This is on the level. Sheldrake really went for it. GILLIS O.K. Where's the cash? BETTY Where's the story? I bluffed it out with a few notions of my own. It's really just a springboard. It needs work. GILLIS I was afraid of that. BETTY I've got twenty pages of notes. I've got a pretty good character for the man. ARTIE Could you write in plenty of back- ground action, so they'll need an extra assistant director? BETTY Shut up, Artie. (To Gillis) Now if we could sit down for two weeks and get a story. GILLIS Sorry, Miss Schaefer, but I've given up writing on spec. BETTY I tell you this is half sold. GILLIS As a matter of fact. I've given up writing altogether. Max has appeared in the door. MAX Mr. Gillis, if you please. GILLIS Right with you. Max leaves. ARTIE The accent! I've got it: this guy is in the pay of a foreign government. Get those studs. Get those cuff-links. GILLIS I've got to run along. Thanks any- way for your interest in my career. BETTY 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. GILLIS Sorry if I crossed you up. BETTY You sure have. GILLIS So long. He leaves. ARTIE (Patting her hand) Babe, it's like that producer says: In life, you've got to take the bitter with the sour. D-6 THE ISOTTA, PARKED OUTSIDE Gillis comes from Schwab's, gets into the car. Max takes off. NORMA What on earth, darling? It took you hours. GILLIS I ran into some people I knew. NORMA Where are my cigarettes? GILLIS Where are your...? He realizes he's forgotten them, takes the dollar and hands it back to her. GILLIS Norma, you're smoking too much. DISSOLVE TO: D-7 LIVING ROOM, NORMA DESMOND'S HOUSE (EARLY AFTERNOON) Start on a tiny GILLIS' VOICE parasol being Whenever she suspected I twirled...Norma was getting bored, she peeks out from one would put on a live show side of the parasol, for me: the Norma Desmond a bandanna tied Follies. Her first number around her head with was always the Mack Sennett a rabbit's-ear bow. Bathing Beauty. She bats her eyes, winks roguishly. THE CAMERA PULLS BACK to reveal that Norma's black pyjama trousers are rolled up over her knees and her black stockings rolled down below them. The whole effect approximates a Mack Sennett bathing costume pretty effectively. She points at a leather pour. NORMA This is a rock. She climbs on it, pantomimes timidity, an attempted dive, then jumps off. Gillis lolls on a couch, watching the performance, very bored. NORMA I can still see myself in the line: Bebe Daniels, Marie Prevost, Mabel Normand ... Mabel was always stepping on my feet ...What's the matter with you, darling? Why are you so glum? GILLIS (Lighting a cigarette with a match) Nothing is the matter. I'm having a great time. Show me some more. NORMA (Taking the match) All right. Give me this. I need it for a moustache. Now close your eyes. She runs out of the GILLIS' VOICE picture. Gillis has Something was the matter, closed his eyes. all right. I was thinking THE CAMERA MOVES to about that girl of Artie's, his face. that Miss Schaefer. She was so like all us writers when we first hit Holly- wood -- itching with am- bition, panting to get your names up there: Screenplay by. Original Story by. Hmph! Audiences don't know somebody sits down and writes a picture. They think the actors make it up as they go along. NORMA'S VOICE Open your eyes. Gillis opens his eyes. Norma has equipped herselr with a derby hat, a cane, and blacked in a small moustache. She goes into a little Chaplin routine. While she is doing it, the telephone rings. After a moment Max comes to the living room door. MAX Madame is wanted on the telephone. NORMA You know better than to interrupt me. MAX Paramount is calling. NORMA Who? MAX Paramount studios. NORMA (To Gillis) Now, now do you belive me? I told you deMille would jump at it. MAX It is not Mr. deMille in person. It is someone by the name or Gordon Cole. He says it's very important. NORMA Certainly it's important. It's important enough for Mr. deMille to call me personally. The idea of having an assistant call me! MAX I myself was surprised at Mr. de Mille's manners. NORMA Say that I'm busy, and hang up. MAX Very good, Madam. He bows and exits. NORMA How do you like that? We've made twelve pictures together. His greatest successes. GILLIS Maybe deMille is shooting. NORMA I know that trick! He wants to belittle me. He's trying to get my price down. I've waited twenty years for this call. Now Mr. deMille can wait till I'm good and ready. DISSOLVE TO: D-8 NORMA, IN THE TONNEAU OF THE LIMOUSINE, DRIVING DOWN MELROSE She is in full makeup, GILLIS' VOICE with a veil, a daring About three days later she hat, a suit so stunning was good and ready. In- only she would venture credible as it may seem, to wear it. THE CAMERA there had been some more PULLS BACK. Beside her of those calls from sits Gillis in the glen Paramount. So she put on plaid suit. Max is about half a pound of driving. makeup, fixed it up with a veil, and set forth to see deMille in person. Norma is examining her face in the mirror of her vanity. Max, while driving, sees her in the rear view mirror. MAX If you will pardon me, Madame. The shadow over the left eye is not quite balanced. NORMA Thank you, Max. With a handkerchief, she corrects it. D-9 MAIN GATE, EXT. PARAMOUNT STUDIO The car drives down Bronson and stops smack in front of the iron gate. A young policeman is talking to an extra; an old policeman sits reading a newspaper. Max sounds the horn impatiently. YOUNG POLICEMAN Hold that noise! MAX To see Mr. de Mille. Open the gate. YOUNG POLICEMAN Mr. deMille is shooting. You got an appointment? MAX No appointment is necessary. I am bringing Norma Desmond. YOUNG POLICEMAN Norma Who? Norma has rolled down the window on her side. She calls to the old policeman. NORMA Jonesy! Come here, Jonesy! OLD POLICEMAN Yeah? (He comes forward slowly) Why, if it isn't Miss Desmond! How have you been, Miss Desmond? NORMA Fine, Jonesy. Now open that gate. OLD POLICEMAN Sure, Miss Desmond. (To the young policeman} Come on, Mac. YOUNG POLICEMAN They can't drive on the lot without a pass. OLD POLICEMAN Miss Desmond can. Come on. They fling open the gate. OLD POLICEMAN (As the car drives through) Stage eighteen, Miss Desmond. NORMA Thank you, Jonesy. And teach your friend some manners. Tell him without me he wouldn't have any job, because without me there wouldn't be any Paramount Studio. (To Max) Go on. They drive through the gates. The old policeman goes to wall phone beside the gate, dials a number. OLD POLICEMAN (Into phone) Norma Desmond coming in to see Mr. deMille. D-10 STAGE 18 A scene from SAMPSON AND DELILAH is being rehearsed in the background. The usual turbulent activity surrounds it: extras. makeup men, grips, assistants, etc., etc. In the dim foreground a stage hand is answering a stand telephone. He puts down the phone and moves (CAMERA WITH HIM) to a second assistant. STAGE HAND Norma Desmond is coming to see Mr. deMille. The second assistant walks (CAMERA WITH HIM) to the first assistant. 2nd ASSISTANT Norma Desmond coming in to see Mr. deMille. The first assistant (CAMERA WITH HIM) hurries to the set. Sitting with his back toward us is C.B. himself. He is rehearsing a scene with Hedy Lamarr. 1ST ASSISTANT Norma Desmond is coming in to see you, Mr. deMille. C. B. turns his head. DEMILLE Norma Desmond? lst ASSISTANT She must be a million years old. DEMILLE I hate to think where that puts me. I could be her father. 1ST ASSISTANT I'm terribly sorry, Mr. de Mille. By this time de Mille is on his feet. DEMILLE It must be about that appalling script of hers. What can I say to her? What can I say? 1ST ASSISTANT I can tell her you're all tied up in the projection room. I can give her the brush ... DEMILLE Listen, thirty million fans have given her the brush. Isn't that enough? 1ST ASSISTANT I didn't mean to -- DEMILLE Of course you didn't. You didn't know Norma Desmond as a plucky little girl of seventeen, with more courage and wit and heart than ever came together in one youngster. 1ST ASSISTANT I hear she was a terror to work with. DEMILLE She got to be. A dozen press agents working overtime can do terrible things to the human spirit. (to the set) Hold everything. He leaves, accompanied by his entourage. D-11 EXT. STAGE 18 Norma's limousine drives up. Max dismounts and opens the door. NORMA (taking Gillis's hand) Don't you want to come along, darling? GILLIS I don't think so. It's your script. It's your show. Good luck. NORMA Thank you, darling. She presses his hand against her cheek, descends from the car and walks toward - D-12 THE DOOR OF STAGE 18 The first assistant is holding it open. In the door- way stands Mr. deMille. Seeing Norma, he stretches out his arms. DE MILLE Hello, young fellow. NORMA Hello, Mr. deMille. She has reached him. They embrace. NORMA Last time I saw you was someplace very gay. I remember waving to you. I was dancing on a table. DE MILLE Lots of people were. Lindbergh had just landed in Paris. Come on in. He leads her into D-13 STAGE 18 During the ensuing dialogue, Mr. deMille walks Norma towards the set. DE MILLE Norma, I want to apologize for not calling you. NORMA You'd better. I'm very angry. DE MILLE I'm pretty busy, as you can see... NORMA That's no excuse. You read the script, didn't you? DE MILLE Yes, I did. NORMA Then you could have picked up the phone yourself instead of leaving it to one of your assistants. DE MILLE What assistant? NORMA Don't play innocent. Somebody named Gordon Cole. DE MILLE Gordon Cole? NORMA And if you hadn't been pretty darned interested in that script, he wouldn't have tried to get me on the phone ten times. DE MILLE Gordon Cole... Look, Norma, I'm in the middle of a rehearsal. (Indicating his own chair) Make yourself comfortable. He walks onto the set, accompanied by his assistants. DE MILLE (Sotto voce, to his first assistant) Get me Gordon Cole on the phone. Meanwhile, Norma starts to sit, sees the name MISS LAMARR on the chair and with a look of distaste changes and sits on the one marked C.B. DE MILLE. From somewhere comes A VOICE Hey, Miss Desmond! Miss Desmond! She looks around her. VOICE Up here! Norma looks up at the scaffolding. On the scaffold stands one of the electricians, next to his light. ELECTRICIAN It's met It's Hog-eyel Norma waves at him. NORMA Hello. Hog-eye points his light at her. HOG-EYE Let's get a look at you. The beam of the lamp moves toward Norma. It hits her. She sits bathed in light. A couple of old costume extras recognize her. EXTRAS Say, it's Norma! Norma Desmond! They rush over and start wringing her hand. Into the shot comes a middle-aged hairdresser. HAIRDRESSER Hello, Miss Desmond. It's Bessie. Some elderly electricians and stagehands move in. D-14 ANOTHER PART OF THE STAGE The first assistant brings the portable phone to deMille. DeMille lifts the receiver. DE MILLE Hello. D-15 GORDON COLE'S OFFICE IN THE PROPERTY DEPARTMENT, GORDON COLE ON THE PHONE. COLE Prop Department. Gordon Cole speaking. D-16 DE MILLE ON THE PHONE DE MILLE Cole, this is C. B. deMille. Have you been calling Norma Desmond?... What's it about? D-17 GORDON COLE, ON THE PHONE COLE It's that car of hers -- an old Isotta-Fraschini. Her chauffeur drove it on the lot the other day. It looks just right for the Crosby picture. We want to rent it for a couple of weeks. D-18 DE MILLE ON THE PHONE DE MILLE (Troubled) Oh. Well, thank you. He hangs up, walks back towards Norma. (CAMERA WITH HIM). Norma stills sits in the shaft of light, surrounded by about a dozen people who have come up to pay court. DeMille gestures up to Hog-eye and the light shifts away. The people about Norma disperse slowly with various ad-libs. DE MILLE Well, Norma ... (He sits down next to her) I got hold of Gordon Cole. Norma hasn't heard a word. NORMA Did you see them? Did you see how they came? DE MILLE You know, crazy things happen in this business. I hope you haven't lost your sense of humor ... Suddenly he realizes that she is crying. She takes the handkerchief from his pocket and puts it over her eyes. DEMILLE What's the matter, Norma? NORMA Nothing. I just didn't realize what it would be like to come back to the old studio. I had no idea how I'd missed it. DEMILLE We've missed you too, dear. NORMA We'll be working again, won't we, Chief? We'll make our greatest picture. DEMILLE That's what I want to talk to you about. NORMA It's a good script, isn't it? DEMILLE It's got a lot of good things. Of course, it would be an expensive picture... NORMA I don't care about the money. I just want to work again. You don't know what it means to know that you want me. DEMILLE Nothing would thrill me more -- if it were possible. NORMA But remember, darling -- I don't work before ten in the morning, and never after 4:30 in the afternoon. The first assistant comes up. 1ST ASSISTANT We're ready with the shot, Mr. deMille. DEMILLE You'll pardon me, Norma? Why don't you just sit and watch? (He steps onto the set) O.K. Here we go. 1ST ASSISTANT Roll 'em. DEMILLE Action! The scene starts. D-19 THE ISOTTA, PARKED OUTSIDE STAGE 18 Max stands talking to Gillis, who is seated in the car. MAX (Pointing to the row of offices in the building opposite) You see those offices there, Mr. Gillis? They used to be her dressing room, The whole row. GILLIS That didn't leave much for Wallace Reid. MAX He had a great big bungalow on wheels. I had the upstairs. See where it says 'Readers' Department'? I remember my walls were covered with black patent leather... The words "Readers' Department" have registered on Gillis' mind. He gets out of the car. GILLIS I'll be with you in a minute. He crosses the street towards the green staircase leading to the second floor. Meanwhile, two prop men walking down the street come into the SHOT. 1ST PROP MAN Hey, that's the comic car Cole was talking about! (To Max) Do you mind if we look inside? MAX Go away. Go away. D-2O CUBICLE IN THE READERS' DEPARTMENT Behind the desk sits Betty, typing the synopsis of a novel, a half-eaten apple marking her place. The door behind her opens and Gillis enters. GILLIS Just so you don't think I'm a complete swine -- if there's anything in Dark Windows you can use, take it. It's all yours. BETTY Well, for heaven's sake! She moves the book and the apple aside and points at the free space on the desk. BETTY Have a chair. Gillis sits on the desk. GILLIS I mean it. It's no good to me anyway. Help yourself. BETTY Why should you do that? GILLIS If you get a hundred thousand for it, you buy me a box of chocolate creams. If you get an Oscar, I get the left foot. BETTY You know, I'd take you up on that in a minute. I'm just not good enough to do it all by myself. GILLIS What about all those ideas you had? BETTY See if they make sense. To begin with, I think you should throw out all that psychological stuff -- exploring a killer's sick mind. GILLIS Psychopaths sell like hotcakes. BETTY 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. GILLIS Check. BETTY Now I see her teaching day classes while he teaches night school. The first time they meet ... From below comes the SOUND of the Isotta's horn. GILLIS Look, if you don't mind, I haven't got time to listen to the whole plot ... BETTY I'll make it short. GILLIS Sorry. It's your baby now. BETTY I'm not good enough to write it alone. We'll have to do it together. GILLIS I'm all tied up. I can't. BETTY 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. GILLIS What has Artie to do with it. BETTY We're engaged. GILLIS Good for you. You've got yourself the best guy in town. BETTY 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. GILLIS It's just impossible. BETTY Nobody can be that busy. There is another honk: from down below. GILLIS Look, Betty, It can't be done. It's out. BETTY You're tough, all right. GILLIS You're on your own. Stop being chicken-hearted and write that story. BETTY Honest to goodness, I hate you. GILLIS (Turning 1n the open door) And don't make it too dreary. How about this for a situation: she teaches daytimes. He teaches at night. Right? They don't even know each other, but they share the same room. It's cheaper that way. As a matter of fact, they sleep in the same bed -- in shifts, of oourse. BETTY Are you kidding? Because I think it's good. GILLIS So do I. BETTY Came on back. Let me show you where it fits in. She reaches in a drawer for her notes on Dark Windows. GILLIS (At the door) So long. Betty picks up the apple and is about to throw it after him. BETTY Oh, you -- GILLIS And here's a title: AN APPLE FOR THE TEACHER. He ducks out quiokly, slamming the door behind him. Betty looks after him, then angrlly hurls the apple into the wastebasket. D-21 STAIRCASE OUTSIDE READERS' DEPARTMENT Max is rush1ng up the stairs toward the descending Gillis. GILLIS What's the matter, Max? MAX I just found out why all those tele- phone calls. It is not Miss Desmond they want. It is the car they want to rent. GILLIS What? Max has seen something off. MAX Ssh... With his head he indicates D-22 ENTRANCE TO STAGE 18 The first assistant has opened the door. DeMille is showing Norma out. DE MILLE Goodbye, young fellow. We'll see what we can do. NORMA (embracing him) I'm not worried. Everything will be fine. The old team together. Nothing can stop us. She turns and walks out of the shot. De Mille stands for a second watching her, then turns to his assistant. DE MILLE Get Gordon Cole. Tell him to forget about her car. He can find another old car. I'll buy him five old cars, if necessary. 1ST ASSISTANT Yes, Mr. De Mille. They turn back into Stage 18. D-23 THE ISOTTA Gillis seated in the rear. Max is helping Norma in and putting the robe over her. GILLIS (Apprehensively) How did it go? NORMA It couldn't have gone better. It's practically set. Of course, he has to finish this picture first, but mine will be his next. There is an exchange of looks between Max and Gillis. GILLIS He must be quite a guy. NORMA He'a a shrewd old fox. He can smell box office. Only I'm going to outfox him a litt1e. This isn't going to be C. B. deMille's Salome. It's going to be Norma Desmond's Salome, a Norma Desmond Production, starring Norma Desmond...Home, Max. MAX Yes, Miss Desmond. As he says the words, he and Gillis exchange a glance in the rear view mirror. SLOW DISSOLVE: END OF SEQUENCE "D" SEQUENCE "E" DISSOLVE IN ON: E-1 CLOSEUP OF NORMA'S FACE GILLIS' VOICE Absolutely no makeup. A After that, an army of hand with a strong small beauty experts invaded flashlight comes into the her house on Sunset picture. The beam of the Boulevard. She went flashlight travels over the through a merciless face, exploring it merci- series of treatments, lessly. While the light is massages, sweat cabinets, still on it, two pairs of mud baths, ice compres- creamed hands come into the ses, electric devices. shot and start to massage it. She lived on vegetable juices and went to bed DISSOLVE TO: at nine. She was deter- mined to be ready -- ready for those cameras E-2 A SHORT MONTAGE of various that would never turn. beauty treatments applied to Norma. DISSOLVE TO: E-3 NORMA BEFORE THE MIRROR IN HER BEDROOM It is nine o'clock in the evening. She is in night gown and negligee and has put triangular patches on the saddle of her nose and at the outer corner of each eye. She is rubbing lotion on her hands. She gets up and crosses to the door of Gillis' room and opens it a crack. NORMA Joe darling, are you there? E-4 GILLIS' ROOM It is dark except for a lamp over the chaise longue. Gillis lies on it, fully clothed, reading a book. GILLIS Yes, Norma. Through the slit in the door there is a suggestion of Norma. NORMA Don't turn around. Keep your eyes on the book. GILLIS Yes, Norma. Norma pushes the door open and comes in. NORMA I just came to say good night. I don't want you to see me -- I'm not very attractive. GILLIS Good night. NORMA I've lost half a pound since Tuesday. GILLIS Good. NORMA I was a little worried about the line of my throat. This woman has done wonders with it. GILLIS Good. NORMA You'd better get to bed yourself. GILLIS I think I'll read a little. NORMA You went out last night, didn't you, Joe? GILLIS Why do you say that? NORMA I just happen to know it. I had a nightmare and I screamed for you. You weren't here. Where were you? GILLIS I went for a walk. NORMA No you didn't. You took the car. GILLIS All right, I drove to the beach. Norma, you don't want me to feel I'm locked up in this house? NORMA Of course not, Joe. It's just that I don't want to be left alone. Not now, while I'm under this terrible strain. My nerves are being torn apart. All I ask is for you to be a little patient and a little kind. GILLIS I haven't done anything, Norma. NORMA Of course you haven't. I wouldn't let you. She bends and kisses the top of his head. NORMA Good night, my darling. She goes into her room, shutting the door behind her. Gillis puts his book down and looks at her door. E-5 THE DOOR TO NORMA'S ROOM The light can be seen through the gouged-out keyhole. It goes out. DISSOLVE TO: E-6 UPPER LANDING STAIRWAY AND HALL BELOW (NIGHT) GILLIS' VOICE Gillis, with his coat on by Yes, I was playing hooky now, comes cautiously to the upper railing and looks every evening along in down into the lighted hall below. there. It made me think I Max is just extinguishing of when I was twelve and the lights. Max exits in, the direction of the liv- used to sneak out on the ing room. folks to see a gangster After a moment Gillis starts silently down the stairs. picture. This time it wasn't to see a picture, E-7 LIVING ROOM it was to try and write (Lighted only by the last flicker of a fire on the one. That story of mine hearth). Max is putting a fire screen in front of Betty Schaerer had dug the fire. He hears some steps and the creak or the up kept going through main door being opened. He looks out and sees my head like a dozen locomotives... E-7a THE MAIN DOOR Gillis, in the moonlit porch, is closing the main door behind him. E-8 LIVING ROOM Max looks after Gillis, his face enigmatic as ever. DISSOLVE TO: E-9 GARAGE AND DRIVEWAY (MOONLIGHT) Gillis comes into the shot, gets into the Isotta, drives it out or the garage and down the driveway to Sunset, as quietly as possible. DISSOLVE TO: E-10 READERS' OFFICE BUILDING PARAMOUNT (NIGHT) Start on a LONG SHOT. THE GILLIS' VOICE BOOM MOVES FORWARD to the only So we'd started two lights. They are the door working on it, the and window of Betty Schaefer's two of us. Nights, cubicle. Betty sits at the when the studio was desk, typing. Gillis, his deserted, up in her coat off, his shirt-sleeves little cubby-hole rolled up, j.s pacing the floor, of an office. discussing the construction of a sentence. The discussion at a stalemate, Betty suggests some coffee. Gillis agrees. From the electric plate on the shelf beside her, Betty takes a glass coffee machine. Gillis seats himself in her chair and starts typing. Betty opens the door and comes out on the balcony to fill the coffee machine from the water cooler stand- ing beside the door. BETTY 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. She moves back into the room. GILLIS Good. BETTY What's good about it? I miss him something fierce. GILLIS I mean this is good dialogue along in here. It'll play. BETTY It will? GILLIS Sure. Especially with lots of music underneath, drowning it out. BETTY Don't you sometimes hate yourself? GILLIS Constantly. No, in all serious- ness, it's really good. It's fun writing again. I'm happy here, honest I am. He resumes typing. Betty puts the water on. She picks up a pack of cigarettes on the desk, finds it's empty and throws it away, sees Gillis' open gold cigarette case and lighter on the table by the couch. Betty reaches for a cigarette. The inscription en- graved inside the case catches her eye. It reads: MAD ABOUT THE BOY -- Norma BETTY Who's Norma? GILLIS Who's who? BETTY I'm sorry. I don't usually read private cigarette cases. GILLIS Oh, that. It's from a friend of mine. A middle-aged lady, very foolish and very generous. BETTY I'll say. This is solid gold. GILLIS I gave her some advice on an idiotic script. BETTY 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. GILLIS That's the trouble with you readers. You know all the plots. Now suppose you proof-read page ten while the water boils. DISSILVE TO: E-11 AN EMPTY STREET AT THE GILLIS' VOICE PARAMOUNT STUDIO (NIGHT) Sometimes when we got stuck we'd make a Gillis and Betty are walking litte tour of the down it. From a stage where drowsing lot, not talk- they are erecting a new set ing much, just wandering comes a great shaft of light. down alleys between the They stop at an apple-vending sound stages, or through machine in the foreground,buy the sets they were get- themselves a couple of apples ting ready for the next and walk on. day's shooting. As a matter of fact, it was DISSOLVE TO: on one of those walks when she first told me about her nose ... E-12 PARAMOUNT'S NEW YORK STREET (NIGHT) Betty and Gillis are walking down it, THE CAMERA AHEAD OF THEM. BETTY 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. GILLIS What were you -- a child actress? BETTY 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. GILLIS Second generation, huh? BETTY 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. GILLIS (Examining her nose by the flame of his lighter) Nice job. BETTY Should be. It cost three hundred dollars. GILLIS Saddest thing I ever heard. BETTY 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... GILLIS Come clean, Betty. At night you weep for those lost closeups, those gala openings... BETTY Not once. What's wrong with being on the other side of the cameras? It's really more fun. GILLIS Three cheers for Betty Schaefer! I will now kiss that nose of yours. BETTY If you please. Gillis kisses her nose. As he stands there, his face close to hers - GILLIS May I say you smell real special. BETTY It must be my new shampoo. GILLIS That's no shampoo. It'smore like a pile of freehly laundred hand- kerchiefs, like a brand new auto- mobile. How old are you anyway? BETTY Twenty-two. GILLIS That's it -- there's nothing like being twenty-two. Now may I suggest that if we're ever to finish this story you keep at least two feet away from me ... Now back to the typewriter. They start walking in the direction of the office. DISSOLVE TO: E-13 THE GARAGE Gillis gets out. From the seat next him he takes a batch of script, folds it and puts it in his pocket. He suddenly becomes aware that he is watched, turns. Max stands in the moonlight, evidently waiting for him. GILLIS What is it, Max? Want to wash the car, or are you doing a little spying in your off hours? MAX You must be very careful as you cross the patio. Madame may be watching. GILLIS How about my going up the kitchen stairs and undressing in the dark. Will that do it? MAX I'm not inquiring where Mr. Gillis goes every night... GILLIS Why don't you? I'm writing a script and I'm dying to finish it, no matter what. MAX It's just that I'm very worried about Madame. GILLIS Sure you are. And we're not help- ing her any, feeding her lies and more lies. Getting herself ready for a pioture ... What happens when she finds out? MAX She never will. That is my job. It has been for a long time. You must understand I discovered her when she was eighteen. I made her a star. I cannot let her be destroyed. GILLIS You made her a star? MAX I directed all her early pictures. There were three young directors who showed promise in those days: D.W. Grirrith, C.B. deMille, and Max von Mayerling. GILLIS And she's turned you into a servant. MAX It was I who asked to come back, humiliating as it may seem. I could have gone on witn my career, only I found everything unendur- able arter she divorced me. You see, I was her rirst husband. DISSOLVE TO: E-14 NORMA DESMOND'S BEDROOM One lamp lit. Norma, in a white negligee, with the patches on her face, is pacing up and down -- a small, tormented, pitiable woman. Finally she opens the door to: E-15 GILLIS' ROOM (MOONLIGHT) Gillis lies in bed asleep, Norma in the doorway. NORMA You're here, Joe ... When did you come home? Where were you? Is it a woman? I know it's a woman ... Who is she? Oh Joe, why can't I ask you? I must know, I must! Her eyes fall on Gillis' coat, which hangs over a chair. In a pocket is part of the script. Norma takes it out, looks at it. She can't see it in the moonlight. She hurries with it into: E-16 NORMA'S BEDROOM Carrying the script Norma goes to the lamp and looks at it. On the first page she sees something which confirms all her suspicionso It reads: UNTITLED LOVE STORY by Joseph C. Gilliss and Betty Schaefer DISSOLVE: E-17 BETTY'S CUBICLE (NIGHT) Betty is typing. Gillis sits on the couch, proof- reading a scene. Betty stops typing and Gillis becomes aware of her eyes fixed on him. GILLIS Hey, what's the matter... Betty, wake up! (He whistles and catches her attention) Why are you staring at me like that? BETTY Was I? I'm sorry. GILLIS What's wrong with you tonight? What is it, Betty? BETTY Something came up. I don't want to talk about it. GILLIS Why not? BETTY I just don't. GILLIS What is it you've heard. Come on, let's have it. Betty gets up. GILLIS Is it about me? Betty doesn't answer, walks out on E-18 THE BALCONY She leans against a post, crying. Gillis comes out after her. GILLIS Betty, there's no use running out on it. Let's face it, what- ever it is. BETTY It's nothing. I got a telegram from Artie. GILLIS From Artie. What's wrong? BETTY 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. GILLIS Why don't you? We can finish the script by Thursday. Betty stands crying silently. GILLIS Stop crying. You're getting married. That's what you've always wanted. BETTY I don't want it now. GILLIS Why not? Don't you love Artie? BETTY Of course I love him. I always will. I'm just not in love with him any more. GILLIS What happened? BETTY You did. There is a moment's pause before he takes her in his arms. THE CAMERA MOVES AWAY. DISSOLVE TO: E-19 HALL AND STAIRCASE GILLIS' VOICE DESMOND HOME- (NIGHT) It wasn' t until I got back to that peculiar Gillis enters, closes prison of mine that I the door as quietly as started facing the facts. he can, and goes up There it was -- Betty the stairs. Schaefer's future right in the palm of my hand. E-20 GILLIS' ROOM Betty Schaefer engaged to Artie Green, as nice He enters and turns on the a guy as ever lived. light. He sinks down on And she was in love with the chaise longue,thinking. me. Me ! She was a fool His eyes wander to the not to sense that there door of Norma's room. was something phony in Through the gouged-out key- my set-up. And I was a hole he sees the light. heel not to have told her. But you just can't say those things to somebody you're crazy about. Maybe I'd never have to. Maybe I could get away with it, get away from Norma. Maybe I could wipe the whole nasty mess right out of my life... From Norma's room comes the sound of a telephone being dialled. Gillis enters the shot and stands listening. NORMA'S VOICE Is this Gladstone 0858? E-21 NORMA'S BEDROOM Norma lies in bed, dialing a number. She has the beauty patches at the corners of her eyes and over her nose. NORMA Can I speak to Miss Betty Schaefer? She must be home by now. E-22 A BEDROOM IN BETTY'S FLAT Connie, a girl of Betty's age with whom she shares the flat, is on the phone. Betty, in a dressing- gown, comes from the bathroom, toothbrush in hand. CONNIE (Hand over mouthpiece) Betty, here's that weird-sounding woman again. BETTY What is this anyway? (Taking the phone) This is Betty Schaefer. E-23 NORMA AT IHE PHONE NORMA Miss Schaefer, you must forgive me for calling you so late, but I really feel it's my duty. It's about Mr. Gillis. You do know Mr. Gillis? ...Exactly how much do you know about him? Do you know where he lives? Do you know how he lives? Do you know what he lives on? E-24 BETTY AT THE PHONE BETTY Who are you? What do you want? What business is it of yours anyway? E-25 NORMA ON THE PHONE NORMA Miss Schaefer, I'm trying to do you a favor. I'm trying to spare you a great deal of misery. Of course you may be too young to even suspect there are men of his sort... NORMA (Cont'd) I don't know what he's told you, but he does not live with relatives, nor with friends, in the usual sense of the word. Ask him ... Ask him again. During the latter part of her call, the doors from Gillis' room have been pushed open and Gillis has walked towards her. Suddenly Norma senses his pre- sence and turns around. The telephone freezes in her hand. She tries to hang it up. Very calmly Gillis takes the receiver from her hand. GILLIS (Into phone) That's right, Betty, ask me again. This is Joe. E-26 BETTY ON THE PHONE BETTY Joe, where are you? What's this all about? E-27 GILLIS ON THE PHONE Norma beside him. GILLIS Or maybe it would be a better idea if you came over and saw it for yourself. The address is 10086 . He hangs up. Norma looks up at him as he crosses to the other end of the room and stands staring at her. The silence becomes unbearable. NORMA Don't hate me, Joe. I did it because I need you. I need you as I never needed you. Look at me. Look at my hands, look at my face, look under my eyes. How can I go back to work if I'm wasting away under this torment? You don't know what I've been through these last weeks. I got myself a revolver. You don't believe me, but I did, I did! I stood in front of that mirror, only I couldn't make myself. It wouldn't be NORMA (Cont'd) fair to all those people who are waiting to see me back on the screen. I can't disappoint them. Only, if I'm to work, I need sleep, I need quiet, I need you! Don't just stand there hating me! Shout at me, strike me! But don't hate me, Joe. Don't you hear me, Joe? GILLIS Yes, I hear you. And I wish you'd keep still so I can hear the doorbell when she rings it. E-28 BETTY AND CONNIE, DRIVING IN A SMALL COUPE DOWN (NIGHT) E-29 INT. COUPE Connie is looking at the house numbers. CONNIE Here's ten thousand seventy-nine, Betty. It must be over there. Betty turns the car into the driveway of Norma's place, stops at the entrance steps. Betty gets out. CONNIE Betty, let me come along with you. Please. BETTY No, I'll be all right. She shuts the door of the car and goes up the steps. E-30 NORMA'S BEDROOM Norma lies on the bed. Gillis sits in a far corner of the room, motionless. NORMA (In a whimpering monotone) I love you, Joe. I love you, Joe. I love you, Joe. I love you, Joe. There is the sound of footsteps below and the ringing of a doorbell. Gillis rises. NORMA What are you going to do, Joe? Without a word, he leaves the room. Norma raises herself on the bed, reaching for a black negligee lying at the foot of it. As she does so, she dis- lodges her pillow a little, revealing a revolver hidden beneath it. E-31 DOWNSTAIRS HALL, THE DESMOND HOUSE (DARK) Max crosses the hall, putting on his alpaca jacket. He turns on the lights. Outside stands Betty. From the staircase comes - GILLIS' VOICE It's all right, Max. I'll take it. MAX Yes, sir. He stands back as Gillis opens the door. GILLIS Hello, Betty. BETTY (On the threshold) I don't know why I'm so scared, Joe. Is it something awful? GILLIS Come on in, Betty, Betty enters. As he leads her into the living room, Gillis puts his arm around her shoulders. GILLIS Ever been in one of these old Hollywood palazzos? That's from when they were making eighteen thou- sand a week, and no taxes. Careful of these tiles, they're slippery. Valentino used to dance here. BETTY This is where you live? GILLIS You bet. BETTY Whose house is it? They have reached E-32 THE LIVING ROOM Gillis leads Betty in. GILLIS Hers. BETTY Whose? GILLIS Just look around. There's a lot of her spread about. If you don't remember the face, you must have heard the name of Norma Desmond. BETTY That was Norma Desmond on the phone? GILLIS Want something to drink? There's always champagne on ice, and plenty of caviar. BETTY Why did she call me? GILLIS Jealous. Ever see so much junk? She had the ceiling brought from Portugal. Look at this. He pulls the rope, showing the projection screen under the picture. GILLIS Her own movie theatre. BETTY I didn't come here to see a house. What about Norma Desmond? GILLIS I'm trying to tell you. This is an enormous place. Eight master bedrooms. A sunken tub in every bathroom. There's a bowling alley in the cellar. It's lonely here, so she got herself a companion. A very simple set-up: An older woman who is well-to-do. A younger man who is not doing too well ... Can you figure it out yourself? BETTY No. GILLIS All right. I'll give you a few more clues. BETTY 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. GILLIS All my things? All the eighteen suits, all the custom-made shoes and the eighteen dozen shirts, and the cuff-links and the platinum key- chains, and the cigarette cases? BETTY Come on, Joe. GILLIS Come on where? Back to a one-room apartment that I can't pay for? Back to a story that may sell and very possibly will not? BETTY If you love me, Joe. GILLIS Look, sweetie -- be practical. l've got a good thing here. A long-term contract with no options. I like it that way. Maybe it's not very admirable. Well, you and Artie can be admirable. BETTY Joe, I can't look at you any more. GILLIS Nobody asked you to. Betty turns from him, to hide the fact that she is crying. GILLIS All right, baby. This way out. He leads her in the direction of the door. E-33 UPPER LANDING, DESMOND HOUSE Sitting crouched behind the balustrade is Norma, peering down into E-34 THE LOWER HALL Betty and Gillis have reached the entrance door. Gillis opens it. GILLIS Good luck to you, Betty. You can finish that story on the way to Arizona. When you and Artie get back, if the two of you ever feel like a swim, here's the pool ... He switches on the light. E-35 THE PATIO The lights go on in the pool, which shines brilliant- ly in the dark garden. E-36 BETTY She doesn't even look. Her eyes filled with tears, she runs down the entrance porch toward her car. E-37 THE ENTRANCE HALL Gillis looks after her, closes the door. From the upper landing comes the sound of soft sobbing. He looks up. E-38 NORMA, ON THE UPPER LANDING Gillis ascends the stairs. NORMA Thank you, Joe -- thank you, Joe. She tries to take his hand to kiss it as he passes. He doesn't stop. Norma catches his coat. Gillis moves right on into his room. Norma lies on the floor looking after him. She crawls toward a con- sole, pulls herself up by it, starts towards Gillis' door, passes a mirror, realizes how she looks, moves back to the mirror and takes the patches off her face and does a hasty job of removing the cream with her handkerchief, readjusts her expression to a poor travesty of a smile and goes to the door of Gillis' room. NORMA May I come in? I've stopped cry- ing. I'm all right again. Joe, tell me you're not cross -- tell me everything is just as it was, Joe. She opens the door. E-39 GILLIS' ROOM In the foreground, open on the bed, is a half-packed suitcase, Gillis just putting some of his old shirts in. Norma stands staring, speechless, for a second. Gillis moves out of the shot towards the closets. NORMA What are you doing, Joe? What are you doing? You're not leaving me? GILLIS Yes, I am, Norma. NORMA No, you're not. (Calling) Max! Max! GILLIS Max is a good idea. He can help with my luggage. (He gestures in the direction of the closet) Thanks for letting me wear the handsome wardrobe. And thanks for the use of all the trinkets. He takes the cigarette case and throws it on the chaise longue. Then he throws the lighter, the wrist watch, the platinum key-chain and the tie clip. GILLIS (Indicating the bureau) The rest of the jewelry is in the top drawer. NORMA It's yours, Joe. I gave it to you. GILLIS And I'd take it in a second, Norma -- only it's a little too dressy for sitting behind the copy desk in Dayton, Ohio. NORMA These are nothing. You can have anything you want if you'll only stay. What is it you want -- money? GILLIS Norma, you'd be throwing it away. I don't qualify for the job, not any more. NORMA You can't do this! Max! Max! ... I can't face life without you, and I'm not afraid to die, you know. GILLIS That's between you and yourself, Norma. NORMA You think I made that up about the gun... She rushes into her room. Gillis closes the suitcase calmly, notices that he is still wearing some cuff- links Norma gave him, takes them off. Norma reappears in the door, carrying the revolver. NORMA See, you didn't believe me!.. Now I suppose you don't think I have the courage! GILLIS Oh. sure -- if it would make a good scene. NORMA You don't care. do you? But hundreds of thousands of people will carel GILLIS Wake up, Norma. You'd be killing yourself to an empty house. The audience left twenty years ago. Now face it. During the preceding. Max has entered. He stands listening, paralyzed. NORMA That's a lie! They still want me! GILLIS No, they don't. NORMA What about the studio? What about De Mille? GILLIS He was trying to spare your feelings. The studio wanted to rent your car. NORMA Wanted what? GILLIS De Mille didn't have the heart to tell you. None of us has had the heart. NORMA That's a lie! They want me, they want me! I get letters every day! GILLIS You tell her, Max. Come on, do her that favor. Tell her there isn't going to be any picture -- there aren't any fan letters, except the ones you write yourself. NORMA That isn't true! Max? MAX Madame is the greatest star of them all... I will take Mr. Gillis' bags. He leaves. NORMA You heard him. I'm a star! GILLIS Norma, grow up. You're a woman of fifty. There's nothing tragic about being fifty - not unless you try to be twenty-five. NORMA I'm the greatest star of them all. GILLIS Goodbye. Norma. NORMA No one leaves a star. That makes one a star. Gillis picks up the typewriter and leaves. NORMA You're not leaving me! E-40 STAIRCASE Gillis descending with the typewriter. NORMA'S VOICE Joe! ...Joe! There is the SOUND OF A SHOT. The glass of the front door is shattered. Gillis at the door opens it and walks out, without looking back. Down the staircase rushes Norma. a disordered wild- ness in the way she moves. NORMA You're not leaving me! She hurries after Gillis. E-41 PATIO (NIGHT) Dark except for lights from the house and the luminousness of the lit pool. Gillis is crossing the patio towards the garage. He is carrying the typewriter. He doesn't accelerate his step, although he has heard the shot. Behind him Norma comes from the lighted house. NORMA You're not leaving me! She shoots twice in rapid succession. Gillis drops the typewriter. The shots have swung him around. He is now facing Norma. She shoots him. This shot hits him in the belly. He doubles up, instinctively backs away from her, plummets into the lit pool. Up the stone steps from the garage rushes Max. He sees the situation, hurries towards Norma, who stands exultant in the strange light from the pool. NORMA Stars are ageless, aren't they? DISSOLVE TO: E-42 THE PATIO Dawn is breaking. At the edge of the pool stand policemen, detectives and police photographers. Motorcycle policemen are holding off the mob which is trying to storm the house. A lietuenant from the Homicide Bureau leaves the crowd around the pool and goes into E-43 THE LOWER HALL, DESMOND HOUSE It is filled with a pandemonium of police officers, newspaper people, etc. who are kept from the upper floor by two policemen at the head of the stairs. The lieutenant from the Homicide Bureau goes through the crowd to the telephone at the foot of the stairs, picks up the phone and dials. LIEUTENANT Coroner's office? ... I want to speak to the Coroner ... Who's on this phone? E-44 THE WHITE TELEPHONE IN NORMA'S BEDROOM Standing talking into it is Hedda Hopper. MISS HOPPER I am! Now get off, this is more important ... Times City Desk? Hedda Hopper speaking. I'm talking from the bedroom of Norma Desmond. Don't bother with a rewrite man, take this direct. Ready? -- As day breaks over the murder house, Norma Desmond, famed star of yesteryear, is in a state of complete mental shock ... THE CAMERA PANS TO ANOTHER PART OF THE BEDROOM, where Norma sits at a mirror, staring at herself blankly. Firing questions at her are the Captain of the Holmby Hills Division and the L.A. Homicide Squad. Max stands by faithfully. HOLMBY HILLS CAPTAIN You do not deny having killed this man, Miss Desmond? HEAD OF HOMICIDE Did you intend to kill him? Just answer me that. HOLMBY HILLS CAPTAIN Was it a sudden quarrel? Had there been any trouble between you before? HEAD OF HOMICIDE If it was a quarrel, how come you had the gun right there? HOLMBY HILLS CAPTAIN This guy -- where did you meet him for the first time? Where did he come from? Who is he? HEAD OF HOMICIDE Did he have a wife? Did he had a girl friend? Did you know them? HOLMBY HILLS CAPTAIN Had he been trying to blackmail you? E-45 PATIO - (DAWN) GILLIS' VOICE The body of Gillis Well, this is where you came. being fished from Here's that pool again,the one the pool, put on a I always wanted. They must have stretcher, covered photographed me a hundred times. with an army blanket.Then they got a couple of prun- Two men from the ing hooks from the garden and Coroner's office fished me out ever so gently. carry it towards Funny how gentle people get with the Coroner's you once you're dead. They hearse, CAMERA beached me, like a harpooned PANNING with them. baby whale, and started to check the damage, just for the record ... By this time the whole joint was jumping -- cops,reporters, neighbors, passersby -- as much hoopdedoo as we get in Los Angeles when they open a Super Market. Even the newsreel guys came roaring in. Here was an item everybody could have some fun with, the heartless so-and- so's. What would they do to her? Even if she got away with it in court- crime of passion - tempo- rary insanity - those headlines would kill her: Forgotten Star a Slayer--Aging Actress-- Yesterday's Glamour Queen... E-46 NORMA'S BEDROOM The interrogators are still firing questions at Norma who sits lifeless, staring at herself. Max watches. HEAD OF HOMICIDE Did the deceased ever threaten you? Were you in fear of bodily injury? HOLMBY HILLS CAPTAIN Did you hate him? Had you ever thought of doing something like this before? HEAD OF HOMICIDE Was theft involved? Did you catch him trying to steal something, or find he had stolen something? A police lieutenant has entered, goes to the Head of Homicide. LIEUTENANT The newsreel guys have arrived with the cameras. HEAD OF HOMICIDE Tell them to go fly a kite. This is no time for cameras. A word has pierced the mists that surround Norma. NORMA Cameras? ...What is it, Max? MAX The cameras have arrived, Madame. NORMA They have? Thank you, Max. Tell Mr. DeMille I will be on the set at once. Max flashes a look at the Head of Homicide. HEAD OF HOMICIDE What is this? MAX Please ... HOLMBY HILLS CAPTAIN (sotto voce, to Head of Homicide) Well, it's one way to get her down stairs. HEAD OF HOMICIDE Okay. And let's have the car right outside. 7-1 NORMA You will pardon me, gentlemen. I have to get ready for my scene. She takes a comb and runs it through her hair, then starts applying some wild makeup. E-47 STAIRCASE AND LOWER HALL Max makes his way down the stairs through the crowd of newsmen to the newsreel cameras, which are being set up in the hall below. MAX Is everything set up, gentlemen? Are the lights ready? From the stairway comes a murnur. They look up. Norma has emerged from the bedroom and comes to the head of the stairs. There are golden spangles in her hair and in her hand she carries a golden scarf. The police clear a path for her to descend. Press cameras flash at her every step. Max stands at the cameras. MAX Is everything set up, gentlemen? CAMERAMAN Just about. The portable lights flare up and illuminate the staircase. MAX Are the lights ready? 2ND CAMERA MAN All set. MAX Quiet, everybody! Lights! Are you ready, Norma? NORMA (From the top of the stairs) What is the scene? Where am I? MAX This is the staircase of the palace. NORMA Oh, yes, yes. They're below, waiting for the Princess ... I'm ready. MAX All right. (To cameramen) Camera! (To Norma) Action! Norma arranges the golden GILLIS' VOICE scarf ebout her and proudy So they were grinding starts to descend the stair- after all, those cam- case. The cameras grind. eras. Life, which can Everyone watches in awe. be strangely merciful, had taken pity on Norma Desmond. The dream she had clung to so des- perately had enfolded her... At the foot of the stairs Norma stops, moved. NORMA I can't go on with the scene. I'm too happy. Do you mind, Mr. DeMille, if I say a few words? Thank you. I just want to tell you how happy I am to be back in the studio making a picture again. You don't know how much I've missed all of you. And I promise you I'll never desert you again, because after "Salome" we'll make another picture, and another and another. You see, this is my life. It always will be. There's nothing else - just us and the cameras and those wonderful people out there in the dark... All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup. FADE OUT. THE END