a lonely feeling

The woman gets into the cab.

EXT.  A New York street - Day

LONG SHOT of a street covered with a metal structure.  We could be under a commuter train bridge.  The yellow cab is driving toward us.  It stops at a corner; the woman gets out and walks away.

CAMERA PANS back to the first street and we see Ted's car coming toward us.  When the car stops, Carol exits and hurries toward Helen, waving for Ted to join her.

PAN to end of the street, which is a dead end with the back door of a movie house.  The woman enters that door.

INT.  Paul's movie house - Day

MED. SHOT of a door leading to an emergency stairway.  Helen, the woman from the yellow cab, is walking down the stairs.

PAUL
(voice over)
Watch your step.  It's very steep.  Be careful.

Behind Helen, Paul is coming out of the stairway.  Helen has stopped to look around her.


HELEN
Oh, this is beautiful.

PAUL
Isn't it?

HELEN
Yeah.

CAMERA PANS away from the couple toward the main hall of the movie house.  It is old-fashioned, with red velvet seats and a carved balcony.

PAUL
(voice over)
Well, we only show revivals now.  This week we have Fred Astaire.  Next week we have an Orson Welles festival.

HELEN
Oh, yeah?

PAUL
Yeah, it'll be about the last thing we do before we start renovating.

                              CAMERA keeps on panning around the room.

HELEN
(voice over)
Mm.  Oh, Paul, I...

PAUL
(voice over)
Oh, come on, there's nobody around.

                                     [Can hear faint sound of a kiss.]

                   FULL SHOT of backstage area behind the movie screen.  In a corner there's a stairway -- half hidden on the stairway are Carol and Ted.

HELEN
(voice over)
I've never been behind a movie screen before like this.

PAUL
(voice over)
Strange, isn't it?

HELEN
Yeah.

PAUL
Used to be a first-run house when the neighborhood was better.

                            The CAMERA PANS to the back of the screen, in front of which Paul and Helen are standing.

HELEN
Oh.

PAUL
Beautiful, huh?  Look around.

HELEN
All these mirrors.

                                    CAMERA PANS around the room to a wall where a lot of huge mirrors are stacked.

PAUL
Well, it used to be all mirrors, and it was quite beautiful.

                         The CAMERA tilts down to give us a closer shot of the mirrors.

PAUL
I'm having all this broken glass replaced as we go along with this renovation.  You know, they used to have stage shows here.  Now, of course, we only show old movies.

                                 The CAMERA TILTS back up on Paul and Helen.

HELEN
It has such a lonely feeling.

______________________________________
____________________________________

     Not as lonely as she thinks, right?  They're being listened-in on, by Alan Alda and Diane Keaton (Ted and Carol)...  Except when I've seen the movie I didn't see Ted and Carol in that scene.  Maybe the part with them in it was cut in the editing room but it still exists in the script.

     I don't know if that theory fits, though, because what I think this script I found is, is not the original script, but rather it's what someone typed when they saw the film after it was already made. 

 Otherwise, I think all those "uhs" and "I-I-I-Yeah -- yeah -- um -- ifs ands and buts would not be in there.  I don't think they would type that in when writing the original script -- I think the casual, realistic way of speaking is ad-libbed during filming.

     So if the script we've got for this is from the finished film & it says Alda and Keaton are in that scene, then I have to watch that part and see where in the heck they are....


Movie Detective

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{Manhattan Murder Mystery, 1993.  Written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman}

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