Excerpt: William Goldman's
Adventures
in the Screen Trade.
p.184
The SERVANT presses a button. The gate opens.
CUT TO
A LONG TREE-LINED PRIVATE DRIVEWAY. Maybe hair a mile
or more in length. At the end of It is the SAMPSON mansion.
As it starts to come INTO VIEW-
CREDITS COME TO AN END.
The first time I saw Harper in a Broadway theatre was
when my education began. (I had already seen it once,
at a screening, which I'll get to shortly.) I sat there
with my popcorn, waiting for the picture to get going--which
was when he gets his assignment from Mrs. Sampson. At
least that's what I thought.
The credits came on. Paul Newman lies there, the alarm
clock goes off, he knocks it away, gets up, turns off
the tube, lets the shade fly up, goes to the kitchen,
picks up the coffee can. Nothing unusual so far.
Then, when he tipped the coffee can and found it empty,
this sound began in the theatre. It was laughter and
it built when he opened the wastebasket and saw the
used grounds. And built more as he hesitated, making
up his mind. Now when he reached down, plopped it into
the Chemex, the theatre was really loud. This was not
one of those wonderful sudden shrieks of laughter, such
as when Woody Allen sneezes on the cocaine in Annie
Hall.
If you're in the movie business, you try to pay as
much attention as you can to audience reaction; you
try to read it. And as I sat there, surprised at what
was going on around me-I'd seen the picture, remember,
with a few people, and the credits were just that, credits
- I wondered what it was the audience was reacting to.
It sure wasn't any zippy dialog of mine, because there
was no talk at all.
Then, when he looked at the filled coffee cup, the
sound seemed to be peaking. But it wasn't. For when
he finally took that first swallow and practically gagged,
the theatre exploded.
I still just sat, listening to the people. The appreciative
laughter continued practically till he drove up to the
mansion. And once the plot began, everything played
at a much higher level than I'd imagined possible when
I first saw the movie at the screening. |
