Daily Dialogue — June 14, 2017

BERNSTEIN talking softly from a relatively private phone in the newsroom. The voice of the lawyer is also whispered and scared to death.

LAWYER’S VOICE (O.S.): …You shouldn’t ever call me like this, Carl…
BERNSTEIN: Will you confirm that Haldeman was mentioned by Sloan to the Grand Jury?
LAWYER’S VOICE (O.S.): …I won’t say anything about Haldeman… not ever…
BERNSTEIN: (desperate) All right — listen — it’s against the law if you walk about the Grand Jury, right? But you don’t have to say a thing — I’ll count to ten — if the story’s wrong, hang up before I get there — it it’s OK stay on the line till after, go it?
LAWYER’S VOICE (O.S.): Hang up, right?
BERNSTEIN: Right, right — OK, counting: one, two — (he inhales deeply) — three, four, five, six — (now he’s starting to get excited) — seven, eight — (inhales deeply) — nine, ten, thank you.
LAWYER’S VOICE (O.S.): You’ve got it straight now? Everything OK?
BERNSTEIN: (on a note of triumph) Yeah!

— All the President’s Men (1976), screenplay by William Goldman, book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Telephone.

Trivia: Neither director Alan J. Pakula nor Robert Redford were happy with screenwriter William Goldman’s first draft. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were not keen on it either; in fact Bernstein penned a draft himself with his then girlfriend Nora Ephron. Redford rejected this effort too, so he and Pakula held all-day sessions working on the script, interviewing editors and reporters throughout.

Dialogue On Dialogue: This is a great moment in the movie in which— quite literally — silence is golden.