Daily Dialogue — November 4, 2015
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 worried face there hides a coated tongue. He is engaged in changing the stained filter 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 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.
— Sunset Blvd. (1950), written by Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder & D.M. Marshman Jr.
The Daily Dialogue theme for the month: Writers and Writing. Today’s suggestion by Rob Peterson.
Trivia: Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett’s 17th and final screenplay collaboration. After the completion of “Sunset Boulevard,” Wilder shocked his longtime collaborator by announcing that he wished to dissolve their partnership. this was the result of a fierce quarrel over a montage scene in the film. The two men never worked together again.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Rob: “Why do we write? For art? For money? Are the movies entertainment or should they ‘say’ something? All I know is most of us would love to set foot in a producer’s office.”