this we didn't need

(Information / perspective to have, for the 1965 part:  in England they call public school private school and vice versa.  [I don't even want to know why.]  So when Keith Richards refers to the guy as "some wonky public schoolboy" -- he isn't putting the guy down for having been educated in public school not private -- he's referring to the idea that the gun-guy had what they consider a "better" education--that he's from a social-and-economic level higher than his own....)

1968
The Stones recorded the songs for Beggars Banquet in 1968; the album was released in December of that year.

1967
-------------- [excerpts - Life, Keith Richards' autobiography] -------------------- Nineteen sixty-seven was the watershed year, the year the seams gave way.  There was that feeling that trouble was coming, which it did later, with all the riots, street fighting and all of that.  There was a tension in the air.  It's like negative and positive ions before a storm, you get that breathlessness that something's got to break.  In fact, all it did was crack.

We'd finished touring the previous summer, a grueling American tour, and wouldn't tour there again for two years.  In all that time, the first four years of the band, I don't think we ever had more than two days' rest between playing, traveling and recording.  We were always on the road.

1966
By the end of 1966, we were all exhausted.  We'd been on the road without a break for almost four years.  The crack-ups were coming.

1965
We'd already had a wobbler with the formidable but brittle Andrew Oldham in Chicago in 1965, when we were recording at Chess.  Andrew was a lover of speed, but this time he was drunk too and very distressed about his relationship with Sheila....He started waving a shooter around in my hotel room.

This we didn't need.  I hadn't come all the way to Chicago to get shot by some wonky public schoolboy whose gun barrel I was staring down.  Which looks very ominous at the time, that little black hole.  Mick and I got the gun away from him, slapped him around a bit, put him to bed and forgot about it.

I don't even know what happened to the shooter, an automatic.  Tossed it out the window, probably.  We're just getting going.  Let's make this a forget-it.

1962
I don't think the Stones would have actually coagulated without Ian Stewart pulling it together.  He was the one that rented the first rehearsal rooms, told people to get there at a certain time; otherwise it was so nebulous.  We didn't know shit from Shinola.

============
{Life, by Keith Richards and James Fox.  Copyright 2010 (paperback)}

-30-

space to be explored

[Life, Keith Richards' autobiography - excerpt]----------------...We didn't care what they wanted out there.  That was one of the charms of the Stones.  And the rock-and-roll stuff that we did come out with on Beggars Banquet was enough.  You can't say apart from "Sympathy" or "Street Fighting Man" that there's rock and roll on Beggars Banquet at all.  "Stray Cat" is a bit of funk, but the rest of them are folk songs.

We were incapable to writing to order -- to say, We need a rock-and-roll track. ...It was not the interesting thing about the Stones, just sheer rock and roll.

A lot of rock and roll on stage, but it was not something we particularly recorded a lot of....And also it kind of made the up-tempo numbers stand out even more, against a lovely bedrock of really great little songs like "No Expectations."

...We had barely explored the stuff where we'd come from or that had turned us on.  The "Dear Doctor"s and "Country Honk"s and "Love In Vain" were, in a way, catch-up, things we had to do.  The mixture of black and white American music had plenty of space in it to be explored.

We also knew that the Stones fans were digging it....Without thinking about it, we knew that they'd love it. 

...By then we were thinking, hey, give us a good song, we can do it.  We've got the sound and we know we can find it one way or another if we've got the song -- we'll chase the damn thing all around the room, up to the ceiling.  We know we've got it and we'll lock on to it and find it.

...That's the freedom recording gives you, to [play] around with the sound.  And it's not a matter of sheer force; it's always a matter of experiment and playing around.  Hey, this is a nice mike, but if we put it a little closer to the amp, and then take a smaller amp instead of the big one and shove the mike right in front of it, cover the mike with a towel, let's see what we get.--------------------[end excerpt]

-------------------------
{Life -- Copyright 2010, Mindless Records LLC.  Back Bay Books / Little, Brown and Company.  Hachette Book Group.  237 Park Ave.  New York, New York.  10017.}

-30-

parachute woman, street fighting man

Having blogged my way through an entire movie (Body Heat), I feel a little lost.  Don't know what to write about.  I didn't know it would take that long, to "blog a movie."  It took me over two months.

Could a person "blog" a record album?
------------------------ Beggars Banquet.  The Rolling Stones.

1.  Sympathy for The Devil
2.  No Expectations
3.  Dear Doctor
4.  Parachute Woman
5.  Jigsaw Puzzle
6.  Street Fighting Man
7.  Prodigal Son
8.  Stray Cat Blues
9.  Factory Girl
10.  Salt Of The Earth

All of these songs on the album written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, except for #7, "Prodigal Son," which was written by Rev. Robert Wilkins.

The online Free Encyclopedia assigns each song on Beggars Banquet to a genre.  And assigns the album in its entirety to a genre it calls "roots rock."

Genres:
Sympathy For The Devil:  rock
No Expectations:  blues rock, country rock
Dear Doctor:  country blues
Parachute Woman:  rock, blues
Jigsaw Puzzle:  rock, blues
Street Fighting Man:  folk rock, raga rock
Prodigal Son:  blues
Stray Cat Blues:  blues rock, rock and roll, hard rock
Factory girl:  country rock, folk rock, blues rock
Salt Of The Earth:  rock

I like that.  (Feel like asking, in the softest whisper, "Who decides this stuff?"  But I won't.)  I love it when the song belongs to more than one genre.  Folk rock.  Rock.  Blues rock.  Blues, country rock, country blues, blues country rock.  With anchovies but hold the mustard.

Free Encyclopedia:
>> Producer Jimmy Miller described guitarist Keith Richards as "a real workhorse" while recording the album, mostly due to the infrequent presence of Brian Jones.  When he did show up at the sessions, Jones behaved erratically due to his drug use and emotional problems.  Miller said that Jones would "show up occasionally when he was in the mood to play, and he could never really be relied on.... <<

-------------- Some fans consider four albums to be the most important core of the Stones' work:
Beggars Banquet  (1968)
Let It Bleed  (1969)
Sticky Fingers  (1971)
Exile On Main Street  (1972)

But -- they have such an extensive body of work -- how can we even pick?  What about Some Girls?  What about Shattered?  But maybe if it was a case of -- you have to start somewhere, start with those four records.  Or a desert-island situation:  you're being sent to a desert island and you're only allowed four Rolling Stones CDs....

-------------------
I always really liked the title "Exile on Main Street" even before I'd heard the album.  Just the way the words went...Exile on Main Street....

-30-

mercy

[Strong, rhythmic acoustic guitar]:

Well a poor boy took his father's bread
and started down the road
Started down the road
Took all he had and started down the road
Going out in this world -- where, God only knows
And that'll be the way to get along

Well poor boy spent all he had,
famine come in the land
Famine come in the land
Spent all he had and famine come in the land
Said, "I believe I'll go and hire me to some man"
And that'll be the way I'll get along

Well, man said, "I'll give you a job, for to feed my swine
for to feed my swine
I'll give you a job for to feed my swine"
Boy stood there and hung his head and cried
'Cause that is no way to get along

Said, "I believe I'll ride, believe I'll go back home
Believe I'll go back home
Believe I'll ride, believe I'll go back home
Or down the road as far as I can go"
And that'll be the way to get along

Well, father said, "See my son,
coming home to me
Coming home to me"
Father ran and fell down on his knees
Said, "Sing and praise, Lord have mercy on me"
Mercy

Oh poor boy stood there, hung his head and cried
Hung his head and cried
Poor boy stood and hung his head and cried
Said, "Father will you look on me as a child?"
Yeah

Well father said, "Eldest son, kill the fatted calf,
Call the family 'round
Kill that calf and call the family around
My son was lost but now he is found
'Cause that's the way for us to get along"
Hey

-------------------
"Prodigal Son" - written and recorded 1964 by Rev. Robert Wilkins, an American.
Recorded 1968 by British rock band, The Rolling Stones, for the Beggar's Banquet album.

-30-

rich in an exotic land

Do you hear what you're saying?  It's crazy!  This Matty would've have to been one quick smart broad.

NED:  Oh -- Oscar, don't you understand?  That was her special gift.  She was relentless.  Matty was the kind of person who could do what was necessary.  Whatever was necessary.

INT.  FLORIDA PRISON CELL BLOCK - DAY

A man concentratedly pushes a wheely thing -- a cart -- down an aisle, past bars and bars.  The cart contains mail.  The wheels turn gently.  The  mail dispenser takes a package and hands it to Ned Racine through an opening in the bars, asking, "Is that what you've been waitin' for?"

In the cell, Ned quickly has the packet open; there's a letter from Wheaton High School in Wheaton, Illinois; beneath the letter is a 1968 yearbook.

He flicks through the book, forward, back, searching.  He comes to pages of individual photos -- the name Matty Tyler.  Tight Shot on the words...We read it with him.  Under the name, the student's nickname:  "Smoocher."  Then it reads, Home Ec.; Chorus; Y-Teens; Ambition -- "To graduate."

Camera then pans gently upwards to settle in and focus on the head-shot.  The laughing teen does not have Matty's face -- it's the face of the girl in the gazebo whom Ned met rather raucously, by accident.  ("Hey lady, you wanna [have intimate physical relations]?"  "Gee I don't know.  Maybe."  And this mischievous, flirtatious female -- that friend of Matty's -- capped it off with, "This sure is a friendly town.")

He turns some pages, fast, impatient, looking for the other one.  
Camera gazes in a tight shot at another student synopsis:  Mary Ann Simpson.  Nickname, "The Vamp."  English; Y-Teens; Homecoming Princess; Swimming.  Ambition -- "To be rich and live in an exotic land."

PAN up, creeping, climbing, until we see the face, and the Music comes up, and it is Matty's face, above the Mary Ann-name; her head is tilted back, she's looking across one shoulder at the photographer (a favorite pose in high school pictures of the Sixties).  Dimples in her cheeks; her eyes bright; her smile could not be any bigger.  

The Camera / Audience view then goes closer and closer to the face we're familiar with by now -- then we see right through the picture, to Matty Walker's present-day face.  She is reclining gracefully on a deck chair on a beach somewhere.  Mountains in the background, ocean.

Camera View pans -- moves in a circle -- around her, and around -- smoothly, smoothly, smoothly:  we see tropical vegetation -- green leaves and pink flowers all around.  A black dog on the beach lifts his head.

Matty (Mary Ann...) is wearing a black swimsuit -- you only see the side of one strap next to her left arm.  You see the arm, and her face in profile.  

Next to her a man -- barely ostensible at bottom of Camera's shot -- says something in French, in a very low-key, out-in-the-sun sort of way.  Sounds like "we - beh -- senchy"...

She barely answers him, with no interest, just laconic civility:  "What?"

He translates into English:  "It is hot."

("You can stand here with me if you want, but you'll have to agree not to talk about the heat"...)

Her countenance is beautiful, calm, relaxed, unsmiling, distant.  Gazing out toward the sea, she answers him -- "Yes."

And puts on sunglasses.  The Body Heat MUSIC UP -- beguiling, inviting, wheedling, seducing -- saxophone, sexophone -- Camera comes IN to CLOSE shot of Matty-Mary Ann's face, her profile, then PANS up, up, to the sky, Music soars and the credits appear at the bottom of the screen, rolling upward -- and that, my friend, is Film Noir!

------------------------
When my roommate and I saw that, when it was new, at the Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline, Mass., we could not believe that was the end.  "No!"  "What?!"  "That's IT??!!"  We thought something else had to -- there had to be -- isn't it -- won't they -- WHAT????...lol  We'd had no experience with Noir.  

Body Heat
screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan
1981

-30-

you can't find the money, can you?

NED RACINE:  But then Matty sees a way -- to get rid of both of us at once -- at the boathouse.  A way to solve all her problems and get clear, with no one looking for her.  And Oscar she was right too, because I would have never stopped looking for her.  Matty killed this other girl and put her body in the boathouse.  It was so perfect, so clean.  You find two bodies, me and this girl.  Two killers dead.  Case closed.

Oscar's just staring at him.

RACINE:  You can't find the money, can you Oscar?  Doesn't that tell you something?

OSCAR GRACE:  It tells me she moved it and we can't find it.  And that doesn't mean shit.  (his tone becomes more intense -- he wants to guide Ned away from "talking crazy"...) -- It could be sittin' -- in a bank, anywhere in the world -- waiting.  For some dead lady to come for it.

Racine, calmer now, with a minuscule movement shakes his head "no."

OSCAR:  Do you hear what you're saying?  It's crazy.  This Matty would've have to been one quick smart broad.

^^ Ooh--Oscar, don't you understand?  That was her special gift!  She was relentless.
(quieter, with a low, chagrined chuckle)
Matty was the kind of person who could do what was necessary.  Whatever was necessary.

-------------------------
Body Heat, screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan.

-30-

the plot thickens

...the leaping, ROARING flames in the night sky.

SLOW DISSOLVE TO:

INT.  CELL BLOCK, FLORIDA STATE PENITENTIARY - NIGHT

Absolute quiet.  The Camera-view moves over one barred space after another.  These people are, like, warehoused.

Ned Racine is asleep, lying on his back.

Suddenly he wakes with a start!  His eyes snap open wide; he is totally and instantly awake.  He speaks aloud, with true amazement.

"She's alive!"

INT.  VISITING AREA -- Fla. State pen. - DAY

Oscar Grace, the detective, sits across from Ned Racine at a table with a divider running down the center.  Grace listens, slumped back in his chair, still shellshocked with the whole thing.

OSCAR
(in a low voice, but with strong emphasis)
We found the body in the boathouse!

NED
But what if that was someone else's body in the boathouse?  What if it was already there -- when I got there -- dead, and waiting for me.  Maybe her friend...Mary Ann.

OSCAR
Her teeth were left, man.  We sent them back to Illinois.  The identification was positive.  That was her, that was Matty Tyler Walker.  That was her, and she is dead.

NED
You're -- not -- listening to me.  Maybe she was using this other girl's name...Since she first met Walker three years ago, since she first spotted him and decided to take him . . . one way or another.  Maybe Walker -- or any of us -- never knew her real name!

^^ Why would she want to hide her identity?

^^ I don't know.  (thoughtful) Maybe because there was something in her past, something so bad that she thought it would queer it with Walker if he found out -- that he'd never marry her.

("Mary Ann and I left Wheaton together....I got into bad trouble with drugs....I did things -- worse than you can imagine.")

Oscar Grace is profoundly skeptical.  But Racine is subtly energized.

NED:  Let's say (pause) that she's living as this other girl, this person from her past.  And there's only one person in the world who knows who she really is.

(The Camera-view goes smoothly, silkily in a circle around Grace and Racine  -- moving, panning, circling -- it is a Film Noir shooting style -- "the baroque freedom of the camera," as Lawrence Kasdan said -- the style heightens and tightens the mood and tenseness of the scene...)

"And then [Ned, continuing] just when she's got me on the line, she's finally going to collect, that person shows up.  That girl.  Finds her.  And threatens to expose her.  So Matty starts paying her off.  Maybe she even promises to cut her in on Edmund's money.  Now she's got to share it with two people."

--------------------
Body Heat -- screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan

-30-

sudden heat

EXT.  STREET NEAR WALKER PLACE -  NIGHT

Detective Oscar Grace's car moves up the street past the drives to the grand houses.

EXT.  WALKER BACK LAWN - NIGHT

Racine is at the bottom of the gazebo steps now.  Matty has backed away, toward the waterway.

MATTY:  I did arrange to meet you, Ned.  But that all changed.  You changed it.  I fell in love with you.  I didn't plan that.

RACINE:
(a short, bitter laugh)
You never quit, do you?  You just keep on coming.

MATTY:  How can I prove it to you?  What can I say?

NED:  The glasses, Matty.  Why don't you go down there -- and get them?

MATTY
(fear in her eyes for a moment but her facial expression is firm)
You said they weren't there.

NED:  I said I didn't see them.

Oscar Grace has parked in the Walker driveway; he gets out of the car.  Looks around and sees Ned and Matty out on the dark green lawn, standing several feet apart, facing each other.

MATTY:  I'll go, Ned. I'll go and look for them.

She turns and starts walking toward the boathouse.  She stops and turns back to look at him.

"Ned . . . no matter what you think, I do love you."

A breeze ripples the hem of her white dress.
Then she turns away, walks, and disappears in the darkness.

FOREGROUND - AUDIENCE'S RIGHT:  Ned Racine, staring after her.
BACKGROUND - AUDIENCE'S LEFT:  Oscar Grace.
FURTHER BACKGROUND - the Walker house.
[This is a classic Film-Noir-style shot.]

Racine stands with the revolver in his hand, his hand down at his side, the gun barrel pointing at the ground.  He gazes into the darkness in the direction of the boathouse.

CLOSE on Racine's face.  It's changing now.  It's not just that he's very tired.  The hardness is going out of his look.  As the seconds tick by, and Matty does not reappear, he begins to lose faith in his view of the world.  He begins to be afraid.  Afraid for Matty.  Even now.

A sudden breeze starts the wind chimes TINKLING loudly.

NED
(a dull, low groan)
No.
(a commanding shout)
Matty!

Drops gun, runs forward.

There is a sound like the ROAR of a dragon, and the roof of the boathouse lifts and then disappears in a huge BALL OF FLAME.  The air is sucked around Racine's body, whipping at his clothes, as he falls to the ground and rolls.

Racine knows horror.  He struggles to his feet and stumbles toward the fire.  His body is silhouetted against the leaping, ROARING flames in the night sky.

-------------------------
Body Heat.  Script by Lawrence Kasdan.

-30-

try me

EXT.  WALKER GAZEBO - NIGHT

After Matty sees Ned Racine at the gazebo and speaks with him, she comes up the steps and embraces him, her arms up across his soulders.  She closes her eyes -- the two of them are like one figure melded in the gloom.

She speaks and her hands begin to glide slowly down his arms, lightly.

MATTY:  It's all ours now, Ned.  We could leave tonight if we wanted.  It's all over.

RACINE:  Yes it is.

She touches something in Ned's hand -- she's startled.  She backs away from him.

MATTY:  Ned what's that?

NED:  It's Edmund's gun.  You remember it, don't you?

He has the 38 in his hand now.  He looks it over casually, but the barrel is toward her.

MATTY:  What is it, Ned?  What's happened?

NED:  I think you know.

MATTY:  No.  I swear to you, I don't!

NED:  It's the glasses, Matty.

MATTY:  Weren't they there?  Didn't she bring them?

NED:  I didn't see them.

MATTY:  She promised me she'd bring them.

^^ Maybe I missed them.  The way you missed them that night.

^^ Ned, I don't know what you think, but you're wrong.  I could never do anything to hurt you.  I love you.  You've got to believe me.

^^ Keep talking Matty.  Experience shows I can be convinced of anything.

-------------------------
{Body Heat.  Screenplay written by Lawrence Kasdan.}

-30-

a cocktail of suspense

EXT.  WALKER PLACE - NIGHT

The wind chimes on the gazebo TINKLE.  Racine sits smoking in the shadows.  He takes another drink from a glass of liquor.  All the lights on the lawn, gazebo, and boathouse are off.  Racine hears something and peers toward the driveway.  Headlights move very slowly up the drive toward the house.  It is Edmund's Cadillac, glowing in the moonlight.

(MUSIC is low and slow.)

The Cadillac stops in front of the house and for several moments nothing happens.  Then Matty gets out of the car.

She has on the same white dress she was wearing when Racine first saw her.

Racine watches from the blackness of the gazebo.  Silently.

Matty -- slim, strong, calm, bold in her dignity -- walks twenty feet past the gazebo and stops when she can make out the boathouse in the dark.

Racine steps to the edge of the gazebo. 
Matty turns her head, sees him.
She seems startled for only a split second.

MATTY
Hello darling.

^^ Hello, Matty.

"Where's your car?" she asks.
"In the back.  With yours," he replies.

^^ Why haven't you turned on the lights?
^^ I could see.

---------------------------
Body Heat script -- Lawrence Kasdan.

-30-

there by seven-thirty

INT.  DETECTIVE GRACE'S OFFICE, POLICE STATION - NIGHT

Lowenstein is slouched in a chair.  Oscar Grace is turned away,looking out the window at the dark street.  They both look dejected.  After a silence --

GRACE:
(the quality of his voice is rich, rounded, and resonant; his attitude is that of personal defeat and resignation)
I better go get him.

EXT.  REAR OF WALKER HOUSE - NIGHT

The house looms darkly.  Racine has parked the Stingray in the black shadows of the big tree behind the house, hiding it.  He starts to walk back around the driveway-side of the house when something catches his eye at the other end of the house.  He walks over there.

Close to that far wall, in shadow as deep as the one he has just used is -- to Racine's surprise -- Matty's Mercedes.  Racine stares at the car.

[[ Until I read the script I never knew what that was -- looked like a table knife, to me...in Noir, the darkness and smoky, foggy, cloudy camera style can make different shapes look like different things....in the gloom....Nothing is certain.... ]]

INT.  EDMUND WALKER'S CLOSET IN BEDROOM - NIGHT

Racine pushes aside some clothes and reaches up to a high shelf.  He feels around until he's got what he wants.  He pulls down the wooden case and opens it.  Inside is Edmund's .38 revolver.

EXT.  RACINE'S APARTMENT BUILDING - NIGHT

Det. Oscar Grace exits the building and heads toward his car.

EXT.  WALKER PLACE, GAZEBO - NIGHT

Ned Racine, sitting quietly.  A cigarette held between his fingers; on the table next to him:  a bottle of hard liquor; a glass containing a little of the maple-hued liquid; the gun.

EXT.  DRAWBRIDGE ACROSS CANAL - NIGHT

Grace's car is among a dozen others held up by the raised drawbridge.  A sailboat is gliding slowly through.  Detective Grace is outside his car, leaning against it.

EXT.  WALKER GAZEBO - NIGHT

Chimes ding and tingle.

CLOSE SHOT on Racine's watch -- 10 after 10.

("I should be there by seven-thirty.  I can't wait to see you, darling.")

----------------------------
Body Heat -- screenplay, written / Lawrence Kasdan.

-30-

Good-bye, sweetheart

{Ned Racine, on the phone, in a conversation with Matty Walker down in Miami.  We don't see her; the Camera's POV is on Ned, sitting in his law office.}

NED:  In -- the boathouse.

MATTY:  That's right.  The top drawer of the dresser.  Oh Ned, we're going to be all right!  I'll leave here as soon as I can.  I should be there by seven-thirty.  I can't wait to see you, darling.  We've made it!

He's silent.

MATTY:  Are you all right?

NED:  Yeah.

MATTY:  Good-bye sweetheart.

EXT.  BOAT HOUSE - WALKER PLACE -- NIGHT.

Racine, walking across the emerald expanse of lawn.  Toward the boathouse.  Around to the front, & he steps onto its wooden porch. 

Night sounds:  frogs; crickets; bird-calls.  Chirp, twitter, a creaky background chorus -- the sounds you hear only if it's a quiet night....

Racine's focus is on the doorknob of the closed door.  But he moves past it to the window.  The curtains have been carefully drawn across it; it is impossible to see beyond them into the boathouse.  Except ... except for one little slice at the bottom of the window where the curtains are held apart a fraction of an inch by something.  Racine bends down to look through the crack.

WHAT RACINE SEES.  The curtains are being held apart this little bit by a wire.  A wire which is attached to the window and runs tautly back into the gloom of the boathouse.  Racine shifts his head an inch and he can see another wire.  It originates from that same spot back in the dark, and runs toward the door, though with this limited view he cannot actually see where the wire is attached.  But he is not really trying to see any more --

The expression on his face is that of a stricken man.

("This broad came to me.  She said that you wanted another one.")
(..."Goodbye Sweetheart"...)

-----------------------
Body Heat screenplay, Lawrence Kasdan, screenwriter.

-30-

I don't trust her

INT.  RACINE'S OFFICE - DAY

He has tried calling Matty; sitting at his desk, he's holding the telephone receiver, listening to repetitive ""mmrrr"-ing as it rings at the Walker residence, with no one picking up.

Phone rings at reception desk.
BEVERLY:  Ned.  It's Mrs. Walker.  Do you want her?

RACINE (with grim, defeated irony) -- "Yeah."

CAMERA P-O-V moves around the office gently, from the door, passing by shelves of big law books, coming around to Ned Racine in his chair behind the desk, smoke rising from his cigarette, the receiver held to his ear.  (This exemplifies Film Noir style.)

MATTY's voice ("filtered" -- coming over the telephone line):
Hello Ned.  Can we talk?

(He speaks like an extremely tired person in quicksand.)

RACINE:  Okay.  (pause)  Where are you?

^^ I'm in Miami....I've got the money.  I've taken it and sent it somewhere safe.  It's all ours now.  (Racine says nothing)  But that's not the best part.

RACINE
(his voice is only a low murmur, dripping with some unnamed feeling)
What's the best part?

MATTY:  The glasses.  I got them back.  That is, they should be ours by now.  Betty had them.  She wanted money.  That's why I had to come down here.  She made it all very difficult, but I think it worked out.

RACINE
(a tone of hopeful hopelessness and something else...)
Do you have them?

^^ No.  She wouldn't do that.  She's putting them in the boathouse.  In the top drawer of the dresser in the boathouse.  They should be there now, if she's kept the bargain.
^^ Yeh?
^^ I think you'd better get them right away.  I don't trust her.

----------------------
{Body Heat screenplay, written by Lawrence Kasdan}

-30-

a real looker

EXT.  THE WALKER MANSION - NIGHT
Ned Racine's Stingray drives determinedly into the parking area in the front.  Hovers a few seconds; can see no one's home.  He spins a "U-ee" and zooms away, skidding some gravel.

INT.  NED'S OFFICE - DAY

The secretary asks him, "Is there something wrong with your phone?

^^ It's just off the hook.  What?
^^ Teddy Lewis is in County.  He's very anxious to talk to you.

INT.  COUNTY JAIL VISIT. AREA - DAY

The guy who built the incendiary device for Ned ("Mr. I-Feel-Like-A-Number" portrayed by Mickey Rourke) speaks to Racine sitting across a little table from him.  Lewis beckons Racine to lean across and listen; Lewis's voice drops almost to a whisper.

TEDDY LEWIS:  This broad came to me last week.  A real looker.  She said that you told her how she could reach me, and I figured that you must've, because she knew all about it.  She said that you wanted another one.
(he drops his voice to a level that is even quieter)
She had me show her how to rig it to a door, with a little delay.  Does any of this mean anything to you?

Racine's face is a study.

TEDDY LEWIS:  Then I'm glad I told you.  You better watch your step.

RACINE:  Thanks Teddy.

---------------
{Body Heat, screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan.}

-30-

very hot number

EXT.  HIGHWAY - DAY
Ned Racine, driving the Stingray down to Miami.

INT.  Office Building - DAY
Elevator doors open, people in business attire pour out.  Ned comes out, crosses the lobby to a lounge-y type restaurant.
He sits at the bar with cigarette and drink.

A man wearing a three-piece suit glances over at Racine, several times -- finally he approaches and sits.

GLENN
We know each other, don't we?  I'm Michael Glenn.  With Bashford, Hillerman.

RACINE
(his smile fading)
Ned Racine.

It comes back to Glenn in a flash; he wishes he hadn't initiated the contact.

GLENN:  Christ, I've done it again.  
(embarrassed, indicates the entrance)
I'm just -- meeting some people.

He looks at Ned; feels like of bad.  Smiles tentatively.

GLENN:  Hey this is silly.  You're not still mad about that Gorson business?
(Racine shrugs, takes a drink, Glenn continues) -- We had to do it.  Costanza practically insisted we sue you.  Nobody at our place likes malpractice against other lawyers.

Racine flinches at the word "malpractice" and mutters tersely, "Forget it."

Glenn remembers something.  He smiles confidentially.

GLENN:  Hey, I tried to make it up to you.

Racine looks at him blankly.

GLENN:  Ever meet a lady named Matty Walker?  You'd remember her.  Very hot number.
-- NED:  Matty Walker?
-- Yeah.  I met her at a party.  She said she was going up there and she wanted to know about lawyers.  I gave her your name.
-- When was this?
-- I don't know -- long time...maybe September.

Racine stares at him.
[[ "I never would have used that if I'd known about your case."
"I don't blame you for thinking I'm bad.  I am -- I know it!"
"I love you and I need you"]]
Glenn sees the people he's waiting for, at the entrance.

GLENN:  Gotta go.
RACINE:  Did you tell her -- about Gorson?
-- Hey pal, I was trying to get you work!

He starts to move away.  Racine grabs him abruptly, roughly, and drags him back.

GLENN:  Jesus are you nuts?
-- Did you tell her -- about Gorson?
-- Maybe...I told her how we met.  Yeah-maybe...
Racine lets him go.

----------------------
{Body Heat screenplay; written by Lawrence Kasdan}

-30-

someone's got the glasses

EXT.  OCEAN PIER - NIGHT

The night is quiet.  Foghorns, distant.  Water softly lapping, tapping, aginst the wooden pier. 

Ned Racine and Peter Lowenstein stand side by side, looking out on the dark water.

LOWENSTEIN
Someone's putting you in deep trouble, my friend.  From three thirty to 5 a.m. on the night Walker was killed, someone called your hotel room repeatedly.  The hotel didn't want to put them through, but whoever was calling convinced them it was an emergency.  Your phone rang and rang, but you didn't answer.

(Ned looks at him)

LOWENSTEIN:  Unh--don't say anything.  Save it for some other time.  It gets worse.  Now someone's trying to give us Edmund's glasses.  We don't know who.  And we don't know what the glasses will tell us.  But our negotiations are continuing.  (pause)  I wish I knew what to tell you, Ned. ...

=================
{The screenplay for Body Heat, written by Lawrence Kasdan.}

-30-

any story she could tell

EXT.  OCEAN PIER - NIGHT

Finishing his evening run down the beach, Ned Racine takes out pack of cigarettes -- one for himself, one for Lowenstein.

LOWENSTEIN
You're some kind of health nut.
(Racine smiles)
Matty Walker smokes that same brand.

RACINE
Is this gonna be one of those conversations?  'Cause if it is, maybe I should have my lawyer present.

-- Buddy, your lawyer is present.

They look out at the ocean.

LOWENSTEIN
You know, that Edmund Walker was a bad guy.  The more I find out about him, the happier I am he's dead.  I figure it's a positive thing for the world.

-- You're not known for being a hardliner.

-- "Mm-I have my own standards.  I try to keep them private.  As far as I'm concerned, I don't care who killed him.  And I don't care who gets rich because of it.   But Oscar -- Oscar's not like that.

His whole life is based on

doing the right thing.

He's the only person I know like that.

Sometimes it's a real pain in the ass.

Even for him."

----------- He glances at Racine, but only for a moment.

LOWENSTEIN
Oscar's unhappy right now.  He's in pain.
-- Why is that?
-- Because he likes you.  He likes you even better than I do.  That's why he's been busting his butt trying to find this Mary Ann Simpson [one of the "witnesses" to the "new will"].  They finally found her place in Miami yesterday, but the woman herself was gone...looked like she left in a hurry.
(a beat)
Oscar thought any story she could tell might help you.  He thinks you need help.

============= Ned leans on the rail above the dark sea-water.  More tired than anyone, ever.

_____________
{Body Heat, screenplay written by Lawrence Kasdan}

-30-

soon it will be all ours

("Seems Walker always wore glasses...But there were none on the scene.  The coroner says they should have been there...")

BAM!
INT.  WALKER HOUSE ENTRANCE AREA - DAY
Ned Racine's fist strikes the wall "BAM!!" above Matty Walker's head.

RACINE:  Don't say that!  Don't say you don't have them.

MATTY:  I swear to you, I don't.  What's wrong with you?

-- They had to be here when you cleaned up that night.  Think about it, think hard!  They've probably got my prints on them!
-- I must have missed them.  I wasn't looking for them. I thought they were on Edmund!
-- Where could they have gone?

(His voice is fairly a roar, there.  Gotta have those glasses....)

MATTY:  I don't know.
(suddenly, a look) -- Betty!

NED:  The housekeeper?

(...always blame the help...)

MATTY:  She might have taken them....Maybe she knew about us.  Maybe she wants something. ...I'm worried, Ned.  But it's not about the glasses or your friends.  It's us.  Your first reaction is to accuse me.  What's happening to you?

RACINE
(the energy of is panic has subsided -- he speaks with contrition, emotion)
I'm sorry.

MATTY:  Hardin called today.  He said everything should be cleared up by next week.  I'll get the money....
-- They've been stalling.  They're dragging it out, hoping they'll find some way to implicate you.
-- (with her old calm composure and smoky voice):  But they haven't been able to.  Soon it will be all ours....

------------- And she points out to him, "All we have is each other."  And "We've got to stay together, Ned!"

He walks slowly over to where she's standing, in the big entry-area of the house, and takes her in his arms, gently.

================
_____________

A series of scenes:  Detective Grace in Miami investigating the places Racine visited while there, day of the murder.  Real estate thing; parking garage with the valet; hotel.  (...That's his alibi.  He was "in Miami" when Walker was killed. ...)

EXT.  THE MOON AND THE OCEAN - NIGHT

On a pier, Peter Lowenstein practices a dance step. 

Ned Racine jogs onto the pier, winding up his run.

--------------
{Body Heat -- script by Lawrence Kasdan}

-30-