[Quick Summary: After an intern witnesses death in the pregnancy ward, he goes to a clinic in the slums to learn more about preventing maternal morbidity.]
Why was this respected documentary* included as the last script in a book of feature films? I found the script rather dry, with a long, dry preface/memo.
The latter was the writer/director's instructions to the composer regarding what music he needed written.
The key was in re-reading the memo. The film is silent for about 2/3. The writer/director cut the remaining 1/3 to unwritten music, which was only in his head.
Aha! So this script and memo are rare glimpses into the working relationship between writer/director and composer!
Here is the director's comments about this memo:
This memorandum never was intended for publication, but I asked the authors [of this book] to include it because The Fight For Life was so much a musical picture the bare text seems meaningless without at least some mention of the score and how it was created, and because I felt it might help explain the technical construction of the picture.
...reading it now I find it not only an awkward bit of writing, but is such a shorthand description of the intent of the whole story I can understand why, when he first read it, Louis [Gruenberg, the composer] went reeling home talking to himself.**
THIS IS WHAT THE DIRECTOR'S MEMO SAID:
LIFE: ...The minute the child is born, the baby's fluttering heart dominates the beat, so for this transition, except for any passage you may like: a trumpet cry; a crescendo- any device you may wish to use for the birth pain -- is merely a cue for a different beat.
Within half a minute the doctor discovers the woman is dying; -- again the film is directed and cut to a specific time -- the heart is pounding to hang on -- the dramatic change in the score is that suddenly the mother's heart again takes over -- the slower heart surges under the baby's heart beat, and instead of growing weaker, musically, the heart grows in volume, if slowing in tempo -- it goes -- Bang -- BANG -- BANG ----the baby's counterpoint sound to hold our intern until he walks into the corridor and starts for the street.
DEATH -- Approximate time -- three minutes.
THIS IS THE PART OF THE SCRIPT THE MEMO APPLIES TO:
- Dr. Leetons is the attending physician. Mr. O'Donnell is the intern.
In the DELIVERY ROOM...And lifting the edge of the drape covering the patient, [the intern Mr. O'Donnell] takes the fetal heart tones, the Writing Nurse timing him, looking up at the clock on the wall, as the second hand of the clock is seen revolving.
Now the nurse taps O'Donnell on the back to stop him, and he straightens up.
WRITING NURSE (removing O'Donnell's ear pieces): Baby's heart beat a hundred and fifty.
Leetons is in a waiting position while the patient's face is again seen to be distorted with pain. He looks up, spreads his hands, and nods to the Anesthetist, who then puts a mask over the patient's face. The Scrub Nurse now hands him a clamp for the baby's cord, and Leetons puts the used instrument into a pan at his right. He is also given scissors and a belly band. (The baby's heart tones start up at 150, in counterpoint to the mother's at 100.)
And now the Floating Nurse is wheeling in the baby's table, and Leetons puts the baby in. The nurse covers it with a towel and wheels the table around. We see the baby being placed in the crib, a heat crib, and being straightened by the nurse's hands.
Now the Anesthetist takes the mother's pulse. The Scrub Nurse and the Floating Nurse push the table extension in place, lift the patient's drapes, and straighten her out. While the Scrub Nurse walks to the sink with the instrument tray, the Floating Nurse carries a basin to the sink, and returns for a second pan, stepping around O'Donnell, who is looking toward the baby. Then Dr. Leetons walks to the patient's side and putting a hand under the sheet, feels her abdomen. (The baby's heart tones fade, while the heat beat of the mother starts to speed up.)
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I liked how the writer/director was very specific about his intentions for the tempo, thoughts on cues, time limits, etc.
It sheds light on what is more, or less important to the director.
The Fight For Life (1940)
by Pare Lorentz
Adapted from the Maternal Welfare Chapters of The Fight For Life by Paul deKruif
*A bit of random trivia: Apparently, the author of the book refused to sell it to the studios, and offered it free to the U.S. Government. It was the last sponsored government film.
**This film gave composer Louis Gruenberg his first Oscar nomination for Best Original Score.
