The McBain Brief Page 10

  Freddie said nothing.

  “You ever ask her out, Freddie?”

  “Yes,” he said under the roar of the machine.

  “We figure she drove the guy nuts, sitting there in her tight dresses, drinking coffee with him, being friendly, but never anything more, never what he wanted. We figured he got sore at all the Chinese boys who could date her just because they were Chinese. We figure he decided to do something about it. Want to hear more, Freddie?”

  “What is this?” Godrow asked. “This is a place of business, you know. Those cards have to . . .”

  “You went down for your customary coffee this morning, Freddie.”

  “Coffee?” Godrow asked. “What coffee? Have you been . . .”

  “Only this time you dumped strychnine into Mary Chang’s. She took her coffee very sweet, and that probably helped to hide the bitter taste. Or maybe you made some comment about the coffee being very bitter this morning, anything to hide the fact that you were poisoning her.”

  “No . . .” Freddie said.

  “She drank her coffee and ate her English muffin, and then—the way you did every morning—you gathered up the cups and the napkins and the crumbs and whatever, and you rushed out with them before Mr. Godrow arrived. Only this time, you were disposing of evidence. Where’d you take them? The garbage cans on Columbus Avenue? Do they collect the garbage early, Freddie?”

  “I . . . I . . .”

  “You knew the symptoms. You watched, and when you thought the time was ripe, you couldn’t resist boasting about what you’d done. Mary was making a call. You also knew how these calls worked because you made them yourself. There was usually a pause in the conversation while someone checked with the chef. You waited for that pause, and then you asked Mary if she knew why she was feeling so ill. You asked her because you weren’t making a call, Freddie, you were plugged in on her extension, listening to her conversation. She recognized your voice, and so she answered you in English. You told her then, and she jumped up, but it was too late, the convulsion came. Am I right, Freddie?”

  Freddie nodded.

  “You’d better come with us,” I said.

  “I . . . I still have to stamp the quotations on these,” Freddie said.

  “Mr. Godrow will get along without you, Freddie,” I said. “He’ll get himself a new boy.”

  “I . . . I’m sorry,” Freddie said.

  “This is terrible,” Godrow said.

  “Think how Mary Chang must have felt,” I told him, and we left.

  The Interview

  Sir, ever since the Sardinian accident, you have refused to grant any interviews . . .

  I had no desire to join the circus.

  Yet you are not normally a man who shuns publicity.

  Not normally, no. The matter on Sardinia, however, was blown up out of all proportion, and I saw no reason for adding fuel to the fire. I am a creator of motion pictures, not of sensational news stories for the press.

  There are some “creators of motion pictures” who might have welcomed the sort of publicity the Sardinian . . .

  Not I.

  Yet you will admit the accident helped the gross of the film.

  I am not responsible for the morbid curiosity of the American public.

  Were you responsible for what happened in Sardinia?

  On Sardinia. It’s an island.

  On Sardinia, if you will.

  I was responsible only for directing a motion picture. Whatever else happened, happened.

  You were there when it happened, however . . .

  I was there.

  So certainly . . .

  I choose not to discuss it.

  The actors and technicians present at the time have had a great deal to say about the accident. Isn’t there anything you’d like to refute or amend? Wouldn’t you like to set the record straight?

  The record is the film. My films are my record. Everything else is meaningless. Actors are beasts of burden and technicians are domestic servants, and refuting or amending anything either might care to utter would be a senseless waste of time.

  Would you like to elaborate on that?

  On what?

  On the notion that actors . . .

  It is not a notion, it is a simple fact. I have never met an intelligent actor. Well, let me correct that. I enjoyed working with only one actor in my entire career, and I still have a great deal of respect for him—or at least as much respect as I can possibly muster for anyone who pursues a profession that requires him to apply makeup to his face.

  Did you use this actor in the picture you filmed on Sardinia?

  No.

  Why not? Given your respect for him . . .

  I had no desire to donate fifty percent of the gross to his already swollen bank account.

  Is that what he asked for?

  At the time. It may have gone up to seventy-five percent by now, I’m sure I don’t know. I have no intention of ever giving a ploughhorse or a team of oxen fifty percent of the gross of a motion picture I created.

  If we understand you correctly . . .

  You probably don’t.

  Why do you say that?

  Only because I have never been quoted accurately in any publication, and I have no reason to believe your magazine will prove to be an exception.

  Then why did you agree to the interview?

  Because I would like to discuss my new project. I have a meeting tonight with a New York playwright who will be delivering the final draft of a screenplay upon which we have labored long and hard. I have every expectation that it will now meet my requirements. In which case, looking ahead to the future, this interview should appear in print shortly before the film is completed and ready for release. At least, I hope the timetable works out that way.

  May we know who the playwright is?

  I thought you were here to talk to me.

  Well, yes, but . . .

  It has been my observation that when Otto Preminger or Alfred Hitchcock or David Lean or even some of the fancy young nouvelle vague people give interviews, they rarely talk about anyone but themselves. That may be the one good notion any of them has ever contributed to the industry.

  You sound as if you don’t admire too many directors.

  I admire some.

  Would you care to name them?

  I have admiration for Griffith, DeMille, Eisenstein, several others.

  Why these men in particular?

  They’re all dead.

  Are there no living directors you admire?

  None.

  None? It seems odd that a man known for his generosity would be so chary with praise for other acknowledged film artists.

  Yes.

  Yes, what?

  Yes, it would seem odd, a distinct contradiction of personality. The fact remains that I consider every living director a threat, a challenge, and a competitor. There are only so many motion picture screens in the world, and there are thousands of films competing to fill those screens. If the latest Hitchcock thriller has them standing on line outside Radio City, the chances are they won’t be standing on line outside my film up the street. The theory that an outstanding box-office hit helps all movies is sheer rubbish. The outstanding hit helps only itself. The other films suffer because no one wants to see them, they want to see only the big one, the champion, the one that has the line outside on the sidewalk. I try to make certain that all of my films generate the kind of excitement necessary to sustain a line on the sidewalk. And I resent the success of any film but my own.

  Yet you have had some notable failures.

  Failures are never notable. Besides, I do not consider any of my films failures.

  Are we talking now about artistic failures or box-office failures?

  I have never made an artistic failure. Some of my films were mildly disappointing at the box office. But not very many of them.

  When the Sardinian film was ready to open last June . . .

  July. It opened on the Fou
rth of July.

  Yes, but before it opened, when . . .

  That would have been June, yes. July is normally preceded by June.

  There was speculation that the studio would not permit its showing.

  Rubbish.

  The rumors were unfounded? That the studio would suppress the film?

  The film opened, didn’t it? And was a tremendous success, I might add.

  Some observers maintain that the success of the film was due only to the publicity given the Sardinian accident. Would you agree to that?

  I’ll ask you a question, young man. Suppose the accident on Sardinia had been related to a film called The Beach Girl Meets Hell’s Angels, or some such piece of trash? Do you think the attendant publicity would have insured the success of that film?

  Perhaps not. But given your name and the stellar quality of . . .

  You can stop after my name. Stars have nothing to do with any of my pictures. I could put a trained seal in one of my films, and people would come to see it. I could put you in a film, and people would come to see it.

  Don’t you believe that films are a collaborative effort?

  Certainly not. I tell the script writer what I want, and he writes it. I tell the set designer what to give me, and he gives it to me. I tell the cameraman where to aim his camera and what lens to use. I tell the actors where to move and how to speak their lines. Does that sound collaborative to you? Besides, I resent the word “effort.”

  Why?

  Because the word implies endeavor without success. You’ve tried to do something and you’ve failed. None of my films are “efforts.” The word “effort” is like the word “ambitious.” They both spell failure. Haven’t you seen book jackets that proudly announce “This is So-and-So’s most ambitious effort to date.” What does that mean to you? To me, it means the poor bastard has set his sights too high. And failed.

  Are you afraid of failure?

  I cannot abide it.

  Do you believe the Sardinian film was a success? Artistically?

  I told you earlier . . .

  Yes, but many critics felt the editing of the film was erratic. That the sequences filmed before the drowning were inserted piecemeal into . . .

  To begin with, whenever critics begin talking about editing or camera angles or dolly shots or anything technical, I instantly fall asleep. They haven’t the faintest notion of what film-making is all about, and their pretentious chatter about the art may impress maiden ladies in Flushing Meadows, but it quite leaves me cold. In reality, none of them know what’s going on either behind the camera or up there on the screen. Do you know what a film critic’s sole requirement is? That he has seen a lot of movies, period. To my way of thinking, that qualifies him as an expert on popcorn, not on celluloid.

  In any event, you were rather limited, were you not, in editing the final portion of the film?

  Limited in what way?

  In terms of the footage you needed to make the film a complete entity?

  The film was a complete entity. Obviously, I could not include footage that did not exist. The girl drowned. That was a simple fact. We did not shoot the remainder of the film as originally planned, we could not. But the necessary script revisions were made on the spot—or rather in Rome. I flew to Rome to consult with an Italian screenwriter, who did the work I required.

  He did not receive credit on the film.

  He asked that his name be removed from the picture. I acceded to his wishes.

  But not without a struggle.

  There was no struggle.

  It was reported that you struck him.

  Nonsense.

  On the Via Veneto.

  The most violent thing I’ve ever done on the Via Veneto was to sip a Campari-soda outside Doney’s.

  Yet the newspapers . . .

  The Roman press is notoriously inaccurate. In fact, there isn’t a single good newspaper in all Italy.

  But, sir, there was some dispute with the screen writer, wasn’t there? Surely, the stories about it couldn’t all have been . . .

  We had some words.

  About what?

  Oh my, we must pursue this deadly dull rot, mustn’t we? All right, all right. It was his allegation that when he accepted the job, he had no idea the publicity surrounding the girl’s death would achieve such hideous proportions. He claimed he did not wish his good Italian name—the little opportunist had written only one film prior to my hiring him, and that an Italian Western starring a second-rate American television actor—did not wish his name associated with a project that had even a cloud of suspicion hanging over it. Those were his exact words. Actually, quite the opposite was true. Which is why I resisted his idiotic ploy.

  Quite the opposite? What do you mean?

  Rather than trying to avoid the unfortunate publicity, I felt he was trying to capitalize on it. His move was really completely transparent, the pathetic little bastard. I finally let him have his way. I should have thought he’d be proud to have his name on one of my pictures. As an illuminating sidelight, I might add he did not return the five-thousand dollars a week I’d paid for the typing he did. Apparently, my money did not have a similar “cloud of suspicion” hanging over it.

  “Typing,” did you say?

  Typing. The ideas for changing the script to accommodate the . . . to allow for a more plausible resolution were all mine.

  A resolution to accommodate the drowning?

  To explain the absence of the girl in the remainder of the film. I’m reluctant to discuss this, because it has a ghoulish quality I frankly find distasteful. The girl did, after all, drown; she did die. But that was a simple fact, and we must not lose sight of another simple fact. However cold-blooded this may sound, and I am well aware that it may be an unpopular observation, there had already been an expenditure of three million dollars on that film. Now I’m sure you know that leading players have taken ill, have suffered heart attacks, have died during the filming of other pictures. To my knowledge, such events have never caused a picture to halt production, and neither do I know of a single instance in which a film was entirely scrapped, solely because of the death of one of the leading players. Yet this was the very pressure being brought to bear on me immediately following the drowning, and indeed up to the time of the film’s release.

  Then the studio did try to suppress the film?

  Well . . . at first, they only wanted to stop production. I refused. Later, when they saw the rough cut—this was when all the publicity had reached its peak—they sent in a team of strong-armed Executive Producers, and Production Chiefs, and what-have-you, all know-nothings with windy titles, who asked me to suppress the film. I told them exactly where to go. And then later on, when the film had been edited and scored, the same thing happened. I finally threatened suit. My contract called for a large percentage of the gross of that film, and I had no intention of allowing it to crumble unseen in the can.

  You did not feel it was a breach of good taste to exhibit the film?

  Certainly not. The girl met with an accident. The accident was no one’s fault. She drowned. If a stunt man had died riding a horse over a cliff, would there have been all that brouhaha about releasing the film? I should say not.

  But you must agree the circumstances surrounding the drowning . . .

  The drowning was entirely accidental. We were shooting in shallow water.

  The reports on the depth of the water vary from ten feet to forty feet. Neither of which might be considered shallow.

  The water was no higher than her waist. And she was a tall girl. Five feet seven, I believe. Or eight. I’m not sure which.

  Then how did she drown, sir?

  I have no idea.

  You were there, were you not?

  I was on the camera barge, yes.

  Then what happened?

  I suppose we must set this to rest once and for all, mustn’t we? I would much rather discuss the present and/or the future, but apparently we cannot do that un
til we’ve dealt ad nausem with the past.

  As you wish, sir.

  I wish the accident had never happened, sir, that is what I wish. I also wish I would not be pestered interminably about it. The Italian inquest determined that the drowning was entirely accidental. What was good enough for the Italian courts is damn well good enough for me. But there is no satisfying the American appetite for scandal, is there? Behind each accident or incident, however innocuous, however innocent, the American public must insist upon a plot, a conspiracy, a cabal. Nothing is permitted to be exactly what it appears to be. Mystery, intrigue must surround everything. Nonsense. Do you think any of us wanted that girl to drown? I’ve already told you how much money we’d spent on the picture before the accident. I would estimate now that the delay in completion, the cost of revisions, the necessity for bringing in a second girl to resolve the love story added at least a million dollars to the proposed budget. No one wanted the drowning. If for business reasons alone, no one wanted it.

  Yet it happened.

  It happened.

  How?

  The exact sequence of events is still unclear to me.

  Your assistant director . . .

  Yes.

  Testified at the inquest . . .

  Yes, yes.

  That the girl pleaded not to go into the water.

  The water was unusually cold that morning. There was nothing we could do about that. It was a simple fact. The light was perfect, we had our set-up, and we were prepared to shoot. Actors are like children, you know. If I had allowed her to balk at entering the water, the next thing I knew she’d have balked at walking across a lawn.

  The writer of the original screenplay claims that the scene you were shooting that morning . . .

  Where the girl swims in to the dock? What about it?

  He claims he did not write that scene. He claims it was not in the original script.

  Well, let him take that up with the Writers Guild.

  Was it in the original script?

  I have no idea. If there were no innovations during the shooting of a film . . . really, does anyone expect me to follow a script precisely? What then is my function as director? To shout “Louder” or “Softer” to an actor? Let the writers direct their own scripts, in that case. I assure you they would not get very far.