The Script

Script: The Lover Who Lied

INTERNAL MONOLOGUE - JIM:

It was one of those fall nights. The kinda night you can light a cigarette and even the flame of the match don’t know if it should be around in these sorts of climes. I’d finished my work at the office, so I took my car out for a run around the East side of town. I wasn’t driving anywhere or looking for anything in particular. Least at that point I didn’t figure I was. Guess I was just feeling restless. Guess I just had something playing on my mind. The work had been heavy, most the cases unsolved and the whole city seemed crooked from where I was standing. Like it was being eaten up by some black cloud. Course, that wasn’t the thing that was bugging me. It had to be a dame. When else does a man drive and drive when he hardly knows he’s driving? It was her. I was meeting her tonight.

She was the type of woman you don’t ever know inside and out. But she was the type you wanna give things a try with, settle down with. I could imagine her with a ring on her finger, Mrs. Melrose. I could see her as a housewife I could come home to. But she was mysterious. Elusive, even. I’d take her back to my place and I’d never even seen hers. Somedays I wanted to see her and I’d be damned if I found her within 24 hours. I don’t know the kinda things unmarried women did nowadays. Tell the truth, I didn’t care to know. That stuff didn’t interest me. I wanted to try it with her, get on one knee, do things properly. Thinking maybe she and I could get outta this city together, right down the line. There was just one thing standing in our way.

1:20

INT. CITY RESTAURANT – NIGHT

JIM is sitting very still at a table for two in a private corner, smoking and waiting for somebody to arrive. He appears impatient but serious. He checks his watch and searches the restaurant with his eyes. RITA walks through the door in a confident fluster. She sees Jim, and makes her way seductively towards the table.

Jim: (Unreadable expression) So you came.

Rita: (Smiling coyly) Of course.

Rita is removing her gloves. A WAITER approaches to take her coat as she stands, and she flashes him a flirtatious glance over her shoulder while shrugging out of the coat, which the waiter duly takes it and holds draped over his arm.

Waiter: (Foreign accent) Would you like a drink, Madam?

Rita: I’d kill a martini.

Rita maintains eye contact with the waiter. Jim narrows his eyes.

Waiter: Certainly.

Waiter nods politely and leaves the table.

Rita: What was it you wanted to talk to me about darling? (She sits)

Jim:  You’re looking good Rita. Has anyone else been telling you that lately?

Rita: I get told I look better dancing. Why don’t we go dancing sometime? I could teach you to Savoy swing.

Jim: (Tersely, suspiciously) - - I didn’t even know you could dance.

Rita: There’s this place on George Street – they got amazing bands there, every Friday night… you know how I love jazz.

Jim: (Slightly short) I know how you love to talk instead of answering a question. If you wanna dance, we’ll dance. I aint seen ya so much lately. (Jim leans into the table in his fervour, resting on his elbows keenly.) Whaddya doing this Friday? 

Rita: Oh I… (Avoiding eye contact, before hesitating as if making a decision, looking him in the eye. She forces a smile) I’m sure I could do that. I like the sound of that.

Jim: We’ll getcha a new dress too. And some of those fancy heels if ya like.

Rita: (With sudden enthusiasm) You would? My sister owns the new dress store just opened up down by the Casino. Those dresses are so gorgeous, all the silk and the drapes and the furs. I’d look a million dollars.

Jim: You always do. With or without the new dress. (Rita arches an eyebrow. Jim leans back in his chair, regaining his calm and his suspicious detachment. His tone becomes slightly more intense) I haven’t seen you lately you’ve been so busy. What do you women do all the time?

Rita: Well you know… we figure out ways to spend the time. I’ve had some errands to run. How’s work?

Jim: A few murder cases I’m working on. (Jim glances around the restaurant uneasily) Things are looking like they’re gonna be a bit trickier that we first thought. Can’t seem to figure out where all the morals have gone in this city. I hope wherever you go you’re watching yourself.

Rita: (Rolls eyes) Oh Jim, stop. I can take care of myself.

Jim: Sure ya can. I bet everyone of those damn suckers thought they could take care of themselves too. But look where they end up. Then you get these hot potato detectives trying to untangle the mess these crazies leave behind.

Rita: Oh please. You’re getting so goddamn paranoid you’ll wind up a loony yourself. Some cold-blooded killer’s not gonna drag me out of the drugstore or hair salon at four in the afternoon.

Jim: (Picks up brandy glass and mutters into it in a deep, quiet voice) Not there maybe.

Rita: (Looking at Jim searchingly, posture stiffening) Well they’re the only darn places I’ve been all day.

Jim: I gotta another case on the side too. (Swirls the brandy glass, still looking around the restaurant)

Rita: (Warily) How d’ya mean?

Jim: You know. Just a little something I’m working on outside of the office. Tryna get to the bottom of it. (Still avoiding Rita’s eyes, he swigs the brandy)

Rita: (Sternly, seriously) Jim – what’s the big idea?

Jim: (Looking at Rita, he begins conversationally, gesturing with brandy glass) Say, who would usually take a girl to the theatre? Two tickets for the boxes to see some fancy show. The kind of thing some schmuck would wanna impress a classy gal like you with. (Graver tone) ‘Cept I aint seen no show. And the tickets were on the backseat of your car. Say a girl’s been betting both ways on fixed odds.

Rita: (Calmly) Say she doesn’t know the table’s rigged.

Jim: Say you can’t bet on two horses.

Rita: Say she lets the best horse win.

Jim: (Forcefully) Who is it you’re messing around with, Rita?

Rita: Jim, I don’t what you take me for, but I would never–

Jim: (Interrupts, speaking quickly in the style of a detective) Hudson street then the third turning on the left to the salon. Shortcut or none, you’d take the alleyway through to Mason’s Drugstore or across the square to Joe’s Pharmaceuticals, if they’re the only places you’ve been all day. Then back to your apartment on Grand avenue four blocks away. Which incidentally I’ve never seen. That side of town is all grey buildings and concrete. What are you hiding Rita? You’ve got mud on your heels.

Rita: (Dismissively) Are you hearing yourself? You sound cracked. Your work is turning you into a maniac –

Jim: That’s an awful nice getup you got there. I happen to know the designer. He’s a French millionaire. How the hell does a girl like you get a hold of a new Parisian bespoke dress? I know you take care of yourself, but how can a girl like you afford couture?

Rita: (Speaking over him, coolly but indignant) Why, I ought to stand right up and walk right outta here! If you must know, those tickets for boxes at the Belasco weren’t mine. I gave a friend and her husband a ride home after the show as a favour. Well, they must’ve left the remains of the tickets in the backseat. I also happened to take a walk through Queens Park this morning. You know how I love the fall. And my sister’s just got in an order from Pierre Balmain in Paris for the store – the designer you say you are acquainted with. She gave me a good deal. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to freshen up. (Rita stands abruptly. She turns to leave, then checks herself and returns) (Softer, deeper voice) I love you Jim. If you can get ahold of yourself and talk sense instead of this baloney, we can be in this thing together. You an’ me. Straight down the line.

Rita stands and walks briskly to the ladies toilets.

INT. LADIES TOILETS – NIGHT

RITA stands and rests her arms on the sink, staring at her reflection in the mirror. She is breathing quickly. She opens her bag, retrieves a lipstick and begins to apply it.

INT. DOUBLE BEDROOM – NIGHT

RITA is applying lipstick in a dressing table mirror. She turns around slowly on her chair and looks at somebody meaningfully. From the bed behind her, a man approaches, holds her shoulders and kisses her neck passionately.

INT. CITY RESTAURANT – NIGHT

JIM is sitting at the table for two. He notices a folded note has fallen from Rita’s coat. He picks it up quizzically and sits back in his chair to read it. His expression changes from light curiosity to a dark, stormy countenance – wide eyed and a dark furrowed brow.

INT. LADIES TOILETS – NIGHT

RITA puts her lipstick in her bag. She gazes at her reflection searchingly in the mirror before smoothing her clothes and hair then turning and leaving the toilets.

INT. CITY RESTAURANT – NIGHT

RITA returns to the table and sits opposite JIM. Jim stares at her inscrutably. Rita returns his gaze steadily. After a tense pause, Jim begins to speak.

Jim: (Cynically) Straight down the line, eh?

Rita looks at Jim expectantly.

Jim: You’re good Rita. Very good.

Slowly Jim slides the note across the table to Rita. Rita glances at it and her face falls. Her chest rises and falls as she breathes heavily and quickly. She opens her mouth as if to speak but then closes it again.

Jim: But you’re no good for me.

Jim drains his glass in one movement and slams it on the table. He rises, takes his coat, leaves a banknote on the table and walks out of the restaurant without a backward glance. Rita tentatively picks up the note, opens it and reads the message within. The WAITER approaches with her cocktail and places it upon the table. Rita ignores him. After a while with a blank expression on her face, she puts the note in her pocket. She swiftly swipes the glass and knocks it off the table, smashing it. She takes a gold ring from her bag and slips it on the third finger on her right hand. She rises, putting on her coat and leaving the restaurant. The banknote and the cocktail are all that are left on the table.

EXT. CITY STREETS – NIGHT

JIM stands and lights a cigarette, then walks off into the night.

INTERNAL MONOLOGUE - JIM:

It got me to thinking. In the end this world is fulla two types of people; the phoneys, and the cynics. Like I said, somethin’ in this city’s like a spectre loomin’ over all of us. Drives people to try to get ahead by treading their boots on everything that gets in the way of what they want. In this case it was those high heels of hers. Well, Rita turned out to be a true phoney and a cheat. She was the last piece of good I could see left in this city and when she turned out to be a trick o’ the light, that tore it. Guess I became the biggest cynic in town. I don’t know where she is now. She always was the elusive type. As for me? Everybody is somebody’s fool once in a while. I’ll be around I guess.

EXT. FAMILY HOUSE IN SUBURB – NIGHT

RITA can be seen through a house window. She takes off her gloves, hat and coat before embracing and kissing a man – obviously her husband – then cuddling two small children in the kitchen.

3:20

Writing our script

The writing of our script was an exciting process. Once the plot points were clearly outlined, we began the dialogue as much of the narrative was to be driven by this. I tried to ensure our script was informed by three elements: pacing, suspense and the hard-boiled American dialect so famous in film noir. Once all of the lines were written, I went over the script to find any forties alternatives to slang used and read through the script of Double Indemnity to see on paper how they used language in the film. Examples of phraseology used as a result of this research included the use of “dame” to refer to a woman, “that tore it” to mean to settle it, “schmuck”, and the heavy use of hypothetical innuendo and metaphors, i.e.

Jim: ...Say a girl’s been betting both ways on fixed odds.

Rita: (Calmly) Say she doesn’t know the table’s rigged.

Jim: Say you can’t bet on two horses.

Rita: Say she lets the best horse win.

(http://sfy.ru/?script=double_indemnity_1944)

It was difficult but imperative to get each line to further the plot and keep flowing as any conversation should. Hannah and I read through the script to keep an eye on our time-limit and we felt like we were within the criteria of five minutes. I stalled the dialogue to avoid climaxing the plot too early and letting it seem like we had rushed the plot onto the audience, and we were happy with the way the tension was to be built up on-screen and how the characters developed for a short film. We felt the script showed clearly a shift in power balance as the plot progressed. Finally I went through the script and added all stage direction to inform both Hannah and I when we shot the film what was going to be happening action-wise, and to guide our actors on set. I was very fixated with the idea of including a voice-over narrative for the beginning and the end of the short film, to allow the audience a sense of context and conclusion which can easily be lacking in short films, and to try out a clear stylistic technique of film noir. As a precaution, I wrote two versions of the narrative monologues, full length and shorter, compromising on content but which we would need if we were strapped for time in our short film limit.

Choosing character names

The names we chose for our two main characters “Jim” and “Rita” were a careful decision. It was important to us that primarily the name was of the 1940’s era, and secondarily that each possessed the appropriate connotations respectively, to inform our audience what type of characters our male love interest and female protagonist are.

The name Jim, as a shortening of the common name James, was suitably old-fashioned, and we liked its regular, ‘every-man’ feel. It seemed to compliment his character well as a young, sharp, straightforward man who was essentially good, and we hoped would help the audience to identify with him. The simplicity of his name made it more believable that he could be smitten with and deceived by a strong femme fatale.

Rita, as well as being popular in the period, and the namesake of forties Hollywood seductress Rita Hayworth, seemed fittingly exotic, racy and sensuous. Such a short, bold name to us connoted a headstrong female and definitely possessed a sexy, passionate but duplicitous quality. Once we had arrived at these names we were in no doubts as to who Jim and Rita were as characters.

Choosing our film title

We wanted a classic film title to complement our chosen short film genre perfectly, so we opted to emulate the distinctive old style of a three to four word phrase, usually beginning with “The”, as in “The Big Combo” “The Lady From Shanghai” and “The Third Man”. Each of these titles arouses interest through the use of enigmatic phrases as the audience ask who or what these titles actually refer to. Also we found that the words used in the title were particularly strong and evocative, as seen in “Angels with Dirty Faces”, “Sweet Smell of Success” and “Murder, My Sweet”. Such powerful words seen in these titles we have found often relate directly to corruption, seduction, temptation and mystery.

Hannah and I had already brainstormed a few ideas, including titles such as “Tell Me Sweet Little Lies” “Poisoned Kisses” and “Sweet Deception” and “The Lover Who Lied”, but upon conducting this research we decided “The Lover Who Lied” was both the most powerful, original and fitting.

Plot outline

A couple meet in a restaurant. The conversation begins lightly and the audience learn a little about the two characters as well as the tense dynamic of their relationship. The tension is heightened when Jim begins to distance himself and regard Rita with wariness and cynicism, when she manages to pull from him what is preying on his mind. After confronting her with various scraps of evidence and proposing difficult and unanswerable questions regarding her fidelity, Jim seems willing to listen to his partner’s defense. Through a combination of lies, manipulation and evasion, Rita placates his suspicions and declares her love for him, but upon returning from a visit to the ladies’ toilets Jim has discovered one final piece of undeniable evidence. Jim decides to walk out on her and their relationship. Rita slips on a wedding ring and returns home to her husband.