TOSOTW opening scene


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Posted by Boardhog on August 22, 2000 at 09:00:11:

Perhaps "?" would care to comment on this. Anyone else's comments are welcome too, for that matter, particularly on casting details. I found this in a university, so I guess it's public domain. It is apparently the first scene of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND. The film opens with Jake Hannaford's cronies loading up a bus to take to his birthday party. Page 1 is missing so let's pick it up on Page 2 -

FRESH ANGLE: (THE BARON AND THE MIDGETS)
THE BARON: Nobody gets the job, but you're all invited to the party.
A MIDGET: What party?
THE BARON: Mister Hannaford's birthday party--out at Mister Hannaford's ranch...The small bus ought to be fine for you gentlemen. You can squeeze in with the nudes...Maggie, you can be chaparone.
REVERSE ANGLE:
MAGGIE (Mercedes McCambridge): The nudes are mostly driving their own cars. They want to be sure they can get home.
CUT TO: INTERIOR BUS (MATT, at the bus door, registers all the dummies)
MATT (Paul Stewart): Isn't that trying kind of hard to be funny?
ZIMMER (Cameron Mitchell): Me? I don't try to be funny. Ask the boss.
MATT: He thinks they're lousy. ZIMMER: I know.
MATT (to CAMERAMEN as they pass him going into the bus): Who let you in?
FIRST CAMERAMAN: We're the "Close-up on Hannaford" people.
As MATT climbs down out of the bus--CUT TO: EXT. SOUND STAGE
MAGGIE (entering shot): And this gentleman's from "Life"--
STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: I'm "Paris-Match"... MATT (indicating another group): And the beards?
MAGGIE: They're doing a TV Special for BBC. A CAMERMAN: No, ma'am--CBC...
ANOTHER CAMERAMAN: I'M Independent. HIGGAM: I'm HIGGAM.
MAGGIE (turns to PAT as he enters shot): This is Marlene's fault.
PAT (Edmond O'Brien): Well, it's her party.
MATT (entering shot): Marlene's just making the oyster stew or something.
HIGGAM (intercut shot): CHARLES Higgam--from the Film Institute.
PAT: According to Jake, she's the world's greatest cook. Jeanne Moreau's the one who's throwing the party.
MAGGIE: Is she the one who talked Jake into letting all the media get at him at once?
HIGGAM (as though this explained everything): HIGGAM. PISTER: Pister PAT: Who?
HIGGAM (calling off-scene): Mr. Hannaford!...(He starts hurrying off-scene, a camera following him as he goes) I was promised a place in his car. I'm the one who's doing the book on him...
FRESH ANGLE: JULIETTE RICHE: Well,so am I.
THE BARON: So you are. But I think I know somebody, somewhere, who isn't.
JULIETTE RICHE: Mine is the authorized biography--
THE BARON: So it is. (making introductions) Madeloiselle Riche, may I present Mister...er...
PISTER (opens his mouth to speak)....
MATT (cutting in) Mr. Pister. The first name is Marvin. PISTER: Oh? MATT: Well,--isn't it?
MAGGIE: This is Matt Costello, Mr. Hannaford's personal assistant.
MATT: Yeah; I do all the dirty jobs...which reminds me...(looks grimly to ZIMMER)
ZIMMER (to MATT): You got to give me hell...so go ahead. I'm sitting down for it.
PAT: You're a brave man, Zimmie. ZIMMER: Brave? I got flat feet.
MATT: Go get in the bus--you and your dummies.
MAGGIE: Right, Zimmie; you can all be brave together at the ranch.
PAT (to PISTER): You want to ride out with the boss? You might just catch him at the gate.
(PISTER hurries away)
MATT (to MAGGIE): Where's Darryl Zanuck?
MAGGIE: In the projection room--with Billy PAT: Yeah. Billy's a friend of his...
CUT TO PROJECTION ROOM:
BILLY (quickly as DARRYL ZANUCK glances at his watch): We can see the rest at the party...
DARRYL ZANUCK: I'm here now.
BILLY: Jake's birthday, you know. Jeanne Moreau's giving it for him out at his ranch...You're coming, aren't you?
DARRYL ZANUCK: Let's get started. BILLY: Okay,Darryl...right away...
He turns to signal the projection booth. CUT TO: INTERIOR, THE WAITING BUS. ZIMMER is fixing the wig on the best of his dummies, which sits on the seat beside him.
THE BARON (to ZIMMER): ...over-budget? A picture's a success--who remembers what it cost?
MATT (glaring down at the make-up man): Zimmer....I got to give you a message.
ZIMMER (after a beat): From Jake? I got that message. Everybody heard. (slight pause) POST-mortems! On a dummy.
MATT (his eyes haven't left ZIMMER's): Not this message. (Pause..Not a move, not a blink from MATT COSTELLO)
ZIMMER: I'm fired. That's the message. (Matt's continued immobility supplies the answer)
In the background we can see JULIETTE RICHE getting into the bus with her tape-recorder, and attended by a couple of lesser fish in the world of European journalism.
ZIMMER: So what am I doing going to his party? PAT: You're invited.
ZIMMER(looking away, mumbling): ...with all these stupid dummies... PAT: They're invited.
ZIMMER: Jokes... MAGGIE: You know how he is sometimes. ZIMMER: I know how he's GETTING...
JULIETTE RICHE, pricking up her ears at this, signals to her young female assistant who carries a tape-recorder. Noticing this, MATT (who misses almost nothing) turns to MISS RICHE:
MATT (with a kind of hearty menace): Life was never like this in Hicksville, huh, Julie?
JULIETTE (totally bewildered--she has never been called "Julie" in her life): Hicksville?
MATT: That little town you were born in... JULIETTE: Oh?
MATT: Yeah; I just remembered. You're supposed to be French, but you're Polack extraction...
JULIETTE: You seem to know quite a lot about me, Mr. Costello. MATT: Call me Matt.
ZIMMER (in a tone of weary bitterness): He knows about everybody. He's on that committee--
MATT (taking the phone): Pipe down, Zimmie.
ZIMMER (overlapping) The one that decides if you're American. JULIETTE: I am NOT American..
ZIMMER (to JULIETTE): Maybe you didn't know those people are still in business.
MATT (a whiff of quiet menace): We're in business, Zimmie.
JULIETTE: Mr. Hannaford investigated ME?
MATT (the phone to his ear): Well, no--he isn't on our COMMITTEE--
The bus starts with a jerk, shaking everybody--the girls, the midgets and the dummies. It starts to move out of the studio...The bus rolls on along the freeway...Aboard there is yet another DOCUMENTARY CAMERA CREW, but most of the passengers are DWARVES and ZIMMER'S SUPERNUMERARY DUMMIES. One of these last is propped up in a seat beside ZIMMER himself. MATT and MAGGIE are nearby. Elsewhere some of the girls (the nudes from the steambath) are grouped around old MANOLITO (JAKE'S pet gypsy musician).
MATT (harshly, as he notices the clouds on JULIETTE'S face): We gotta be a LITTLE careful, don't we? You were born on the wrong side of the iron curtain, Julie. And---
PAT: Look honey---the whole goddam media's scratching away at him. Everybody and his fag comic brother is doing a book, or something.
MATT: But you--You got this special deal: You're getting all this extra time with him...
ZIMMER (to MAGGIE): Once it was different...nicer-- MAGGIE: Hollywood?
PAT: We were young, Zimmie, and there weren't any unions. JULIE: Or committees?
MATT (suddenly benevolent): That's all right Julie...You don't have to worry. You're clean.




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