[Quick Summary: In 1932, after the Lindbergh baby was ransomed (and then killed), the police pinpoint a carpenter with the money, but was he the kidnapper?]
GOOD SIGN #1: I lost track of time when I read this script.
GOOD SIGN #2: It upended my expectations - it begins with the police officer cleaning out his desk ("I was right"), but then we're shown why he was wrong.
Playwright, novelist, documentarian, screenwriter William Nicholson understands character.* He also understands structure, which is why the script is so good.
For example, the scene below:
- This is not only exposition and confrontation, but it is all done IN CHARACTER.
- Dr. Condon is a boaster, who is convinced Hauptmann is guilty.
- Parker, a detective, confronts him with contrary testimony.
- Now caught in a lie, Dr. Condon blusters his way through a response.
- Note Dr. Condon begins with exposition of what happened that night. It is interesting because it's true to his boasting character (contradicted few lines later).
INT. BAR - NIGHT
Dr. John Condon, orange blossom in hand, is telling his tale a fascinated audience of FELLOW DRINKERS. After many a telling, he has honed his story into quite a performance.
Parker enters while he speaks, and gets himself a drink, and listens.
CONDON: The cemetery's dark. Hauptmann is nervous, I can tell. I lead him to a bench. "Don't be afraid", I tell him. "We're alone." He gets calmer. "Have you got the money?", he says. I way, "Wait, wait. Tell me your name." I'm playing for time, I want to get him talking, you understand. Give himself away somehow. He says, "Call me John." "Well John", I say, "Did you ever think of your own mother?" He's silent for a moment. Then, very low, "Yes", he says, and a tear comes into his eye. "Would I burn", he says, "if the baby's dead?"
This is greeted with a satisfying gasp from his appreciative audience.
LATER -
Dr. Condon is seated at a corner table with Parker, having accepted his offer of a drink.
CONDON: It's a tragic tale, a tragic tale, but perhaps some good can come out of it. I want no more children snatched from their cribs.
PARKER: Would you like to take a look at this, Dr. Condon?
CONDON: What is it?
PARKER: It's a copy of your interview with the police in the Bronx, shortly after Hauptmann's arrest.
Condon waves it away.
CONDON: So much heartbreak. We must look forward, not back.
PARKER: Perhaps you've forgotten what you said back then. You were unable to identify Hauptmann as the man you met in the cemetery. You were then warned that you yourself were under suspicion, as a possible accessory to the crime.
CONDON: I don't recall.
PARKER: Later you changed your evidence and identified Hauptmann, in court, as the man you met in the cemetery. Was that new testimony given under pressure, Dr. Condon?
CONDON: You mean, did I lie?
PARKER: I'm just trying to establish why you changed your evidence.
Condon's reply builds up into a spectacular display of outraged innocence. As his voice grows ever louder, all eyes in the bar are drawn to the little group in the corner.
CONDON: No sir, I did not lie. Who are you to walk in here and call me a liar? I offered my services to Colonel Lindbergh with no hope of reward. I have given thousands of hours of my life, and I am an old man, sir, there is little enough of my life left, thousands of hours, for the sake of justice, and my country, and yes, for that little murdered angel, and you come in here and accuse me of lying?
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: The structure of this scene (exposition, then confrontation) is wonderful.
However, I noticed it was not really the dialogue, but the character (Condon's reaction) that was so riveting.
Crime of the Century (1996; TV movie)(10/4/95, revised)
by William Nicholson
Based on the book, "The Airman and the Carpenter," by Ludovic Kennedy
*According to IMDB, actress Debra Winger won an Oscar nomination for Shadowlands (1993). She praised Nicholson's script to New York Times by calling it "the most literate script I've ever read. I was sad every day that I wouldn't ever say those lines again."
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