ERNEST LEHMAN : Adapted Clifford Odets
for The Film " Sweet Smell of Success "
ERNEST LEHMAN: ON BEING AN ARTIST
“Honestly I don’t think of it as art. When it works
it’s skill and craft and some unconscious ability.”
ERNEST LEHMAN: ON WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A SCREENWRITER
“You have to understand that people feel threatened by a writer.
It’s very curious. He knows something that they don’t know. He
knows how to write, and that’s a subtle, disturbing quality that he
has. Some directors, without even knowing it, resent the writer in
the same way that Bob Hope might resent the fact that he ain’t
funny without twelve guys writing the jokes. The director knows
that the script he is carrying around on the set every day was
written by someone, and that’s just not something that all
directors easily digest.
ERNEST LEHMAN: ON THE PROCESS
“Movie writing is all about one thing … despair. You’re alone in an
office with a problem—how to write a particular scene. You know
where it starts and where it needs to go but you have no idea how
to get there. Absolutely no idea. I’d lie on the sofa and hours would
go by and I’d have nothing to show at the end of the day. I drive
home and I’m feeling lousy because all I’ve written that day is ‘fade in’
and two lines describing the location of the scene. Believe me, the first
few lines of my scripts are always great because I’ve spent hours just
stuck on those. Writing is solving problems; that’s all it is. How do you
do it so you think it’s right? In North By Northwest I was always painting
myself into corners. The problem is how do you get out of that corner.
Well, you try every possible option until the right one hits.”
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/sweetsmell.html
View His work;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Lehman
Hello, Dolly!
The King and I
North by Northwest
Sabrina
The Sound of Music
Sweet Smell of Success
West Side Story
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
by
Clifford Odets
Ernest Lehman
Working Script For
THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
FADE IN:
EXT. INT. GLOBE NEWSPAPER BUILDING - DUSK - N.Y.
A row of newspaper delivery trucks is lined up against the
long loading bay, waiting for the edition. In the foreground
a large clock establishes the time as 8:10 PM. A rumbling
noise warns the men to take their positions; a few seconds
later the bales of newspapers come sliding the spiral chutes
onto the moving belts from which they are manhandled onto
the trucks. Much noise and shouting.
The front truck moves out to the city street. As it does
CAMERA EMPHASIZES the big poster on its side. The design
features a large pair of spectacles with heavy rims - a
trademark of Hunsecker's. (It will later be seen as the
masthead of the gossip column.)
"GO WITH THE GLOBE"
Read
J.J. HUNSECKER
"They eyes of Broadway"
EXT. BROADWAY - DUSK - N.Y.
The truck starts on its journey along Broadway. Some shots
are of the vehicle moving through very heavy traffic (taken
from a camera car). Others are from the inside of the
truck; as it slows down, the delivery man tosses the heavy
bundle of papers onto the sidewalk. CAMERA following the
truck, holds it in foreground against the blazing electric
signs of Broadway and Times Square.
EXT. BROADWAY - NIGHT
The southeast corner of the intersection of Broadway and
46th Street, CAMERA, fairly high, shoots north towards the
impressive vista of electric signs, silhouetted against the
darkening sky. Very heavy traffic and crowded sidewalks.
CAMERA descends towards the Orange Juice stand on the
corner, passing the booth which sells souvenir hats. It
moves through the congestion of chattering passersby,
steadily approaching a smartly dressed young man, who stands
at the counter of the Orange Juice stand. Oblivious of the
hub-bub around him, SIDNEY FALCO is concerned only with his
private problems.
He turns sharply as a newspaper truck pulls up at the curb
behind him; this is what he has been waiting for...
CLOSER ANGLE - NIGHT
The news truck delivery man tosses a bundle out onto the
sidewalk besides a newsstand.
DETAIL
The bundle of newspapers. It hits the sidewalk with a smack.
CAMERA PULLS BACK as Sidney Falco crosses the sidewalk. The
owner of the newsstand, IGGY, comes to pick up the bundle;
he is a grizzled gnome with a philosophical sense of humor;
Sidney snaps his fingers with impatience. Iggy wears
spectacles and is clearly more or less blind, he has to
grope for the cord that binds the papers.
IGGY
Aw Lady, if I looked like you, I'd--
SIDNEY
C'mon...C'mon...
IGGY
(recognizing Sidney's voice)
Keep ya sweatshirt on, Sidney.
Majestically taking his time, Iggy lifts the bundle to his
stand and cuts the cord.
IGGY
Hey, Fresh, the Globe just came
in -- Hey, Sidney, want an item for
Hunsecker's column? Two rolls get
fresh with a baker! Hey, hot, hot,
hot -- etc.
Annoyed, Sidney throws him a dime, seizes a paper and
returns briskly to the orange juice stand.
ORANGE JUICE STAND - NIGHT
Sidney's place at the crowded counter has been taken by
newcomers. Rudely, he recovers his half-consumed glass of
orange juice and sandwich. He takes them further down the
counter to a quieter corner at which he can examine the
paper. CAMERA MOVING WITH HIM, picks up further snatches of
overheard dialogue. (See dialogue attached at the end of the
scene) We move close enough to see Sidney's hands open the
paper expertly at HUNSECKER'S column - identifiable by the
picture of the spectacled eyes. Over scene there is a
babble of offstage dialogue.
CLOSE UP OF SIDNEY
His face is sullen as his eyes run rapidly down the column.
He is reacting to a not unexpected disappointment.
EXT. SIDNEY'S APARTMENT - BROADWAY - NIGHT
CAMERA SHOOTS WEST on 46th Street, as Sidney comes down the
side street from the newsstand in background. Irritably, he
jerks open the door of a shabby entrance. As the glass door
closes, Sidney is seen striding up the stairs.
FIRST FLOOR - OUTSIDE SIDNEY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
Beside the top of the stairs is the door to Sidney's office.
On it there is a cheaply printed cardboard sign which reads:
SIDNEY FALCO
Publicity
From inside comes the sound of desultory typing. Sidney
comes up the stairs two at a time and turns into the door.
INT. SIDNEY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
SALLY is on the phone as Sidney strides in.
SALLY
Just a minute, Mr. Weldon. I
think...
Sidney vigorously indicates that he doesn't want to take the
call.
SALLY
(to phone)
I'm sorry. I thought that was Mr.
Falco returning. Yes, I'll tell
him when he comes in. I know he's
been trying to reach you.
She hangs up.
SALLY
That's the third time he's called
today.
SIDNEY
He wants me to break a leg?
SALLY
(literally)
No, an arm, he said.
(then)
I told him you were sure the item
would be in Mr. Hunsecker's column
in tomorrow's...
SIDNEY
(interrupting, sharply)
It isn't. I've just seen the early
edition.
SALLY
But...
SIDNEY
But what?
SALLY
That makes five days in a row that
Mr. Hunsecker's cut you out of his
column.
SIDNEY
May I rent you out as an adding
machine.
He has begun to change his clothes.
SIDNEY
Get me Joe Robard.
Sally goes back into the outer room.
SIDNEY
Who else phoned?
SALLY
The renting agent and the tailor.
SIDNEY
Pay the rent. Let the tailor wait.
SALLY
It won't leave much of a balance in
the bank...
(to phone)
Mr. Robard? Could you locate him?
Sidney, in a state of semi-undress, comes to take the phone
from her.
SIDNEY
(gloomily)
Watch me run a fifty yard dash with
my legs cut off!
Very abruptly, he comes alive on the phone. A real laughing
boy.
SIDNEY
(effusively)
Sidney, Joe. How do you like it?
I'm running out of alibis! No, I
asked Hunsecker to withhold the
item, until he could give it a
fine, fat paragraph. The column
was running over and I didn't want
you kissed off with just a line...
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