Vertigo

MIDGE: Doctor, how long is it going to take you to pull him out of this?

DOCTOR: It is hard to say. Six months, at least. Perhaps a year. It depends to a certain extent on him.

MIDGE: He won't talk.

DOCTOR: No. We have ways of digging out knowledge. But it takes longer. He is suffering from acute melancholia, together with a guilt complex. He blames himself for what happened to the woman. And we know little of the background.

MIDGE: I can give you one thing: he was in love with her.

DOCTOR: Ah? That complicates the problem.

MIDGE: I'll give you another complication: he still is.

ELSTER: He had no right to say that. It was my responsibility. You didn't know her. I shouldn't have got you involved.

SCOTTIE: I -- I --

ELSTER: No, there's nothing you have to say to me. I'm getting out, Scottie. For good. I can't stay here. I'm winding up her affairs, and mine. I'm going to get as far away as I can. Probably Europe. And I'll probably never come back. Good-bye, Scottie. If there's anything I can do for you before I go...

SCOTTIE: How do you know all these things she doesn't know?

ELSTER: Her mother told me most of then before she died. I dug out the rest for myself, here.

SCOTTIE: Why did she never tell her daughter?

ELSTER: Natural fear. Her grandmother went insane and took her own life. And the blood is in Madeleine. Scottie, I ask you to watch her closely.

ELSTER: Something else. My wife, Madeleine, has several pieces of jewelry that belonged to Carlotta. She inherited them. Never wore them, they were too old-fashioned... until now. Now, when she is alone, she gets them out and looks at them handles them gently, curiously... puts them on and stares at herself in the mirror... and goes into that other world... is someone else again.

SCOTTIE: Carlotta Valdes was what: your wife's grandmother?

ELSTER: Great-grandmother. The child who was taken from her whose loss drove Carlotta mad and to her death - was Madeleine's grandmother.

SCOTTIE: Well, that explains it. Anyone could develop an obsession for the past, with a background like that.

ELSTER: But she doesn't know, about her background. She never heard of Carlotta Valdes.

SCOTTIE: Knows nothing of a grave out at Mission Dolores, or an old house an Eddy Street, or a portrait at the Palace of the Legion of Honor?

ELSTER: Nothing.

SCOTTIE: And when she goes to those places...

ELSTER: She is not my wife.

ELSTER: You've done well, Scottie. You're good at your job.

SCOTTIE: That's Carlotta Valdes.

ELSTER: Yes.

SCOTTIE: There are things you didn't tell me.

ELSTER: I didn't know where she was going to lead you.

SCOTTIE: But you knew about this.

ELSTER: Oh, yes. You noticed the way she does her hair.

SCOTTIE: How can I see her, to know her?

ELSTER: We're going to an opening at the opera tonight. We'll dine at Ernie's first. Which is easier?

SCOTTIE: Ernie's.

ELSTER: All right. You won't know what to look for at first, Scottie. Even I, who know her so well, cannot tell, sometimes, when the change has begun. She looks so lovely and normal...

ELSTER: Watched her come out of the apartment, someone I didn't know... walking in a different way... holding her head in a way I didn't know; and get into her car, and drive out to... Golden Gate Park. Five miles. She sat on a bench at the edge of the lake and stared across the water to the old pillars that stand an the far shore, the Portals of the Past. Sat there a long time, not moving... and I had to leave, to got to the office. That evening, when I came home, I asked what she'd done all day. She said she'd driven to Golden Gate Park and sat by the lake. That's all.

SCOTTIE: Well?

ELSTER: The speedometer of her car showed she had driven 94 miles that day. Where did she go? I have to know, Scottie. Where she goes and what she does, before I got involved with doctors.

SCOTTIE: Have you talked to the doctors at all?

ELSTER: Yes, but carefully. I'd want to know more before committing her to that kind of care. Scottie --

SCOTTIE: I can get you a firm of private eyes to follow her for you. They're dependable, good boys --

ELSTER: I want you.

SCOTTIE: It's not my line.

ELSTER: Scottie, I need a friend! Someone I can trust! I'm in a panic about this!

SCOTTIE: I didn't mean to be that rough.

ELSTER: No, it sounds idiotic, I know. And you're still the hard-headed Scot, aren't you? Always were. Do you think I'm making it up?

SCOTTIE: No.

ELSTER: I'm not making it up. I wouldn't know how. She'll be talking to me about something, nothing at all, and suddenly the words fade into silence and a cloud comes into her eyes and they go blank... and she is somewhere else, away from me... someone I don't know. I call to her and she doesn't hear. And then with a long sigh she is back, and looks at me brightly, and doesn't know she's been away... can't tell me where... or why...

SCOTTIE: How often does this happen?

ELSTER: More and more in the past few weeks. And she wanders. God knows where she wanders. I followed her one day.

SCOTTIE: Where'd she go?

ELSTER: Scottie, do you believe that someone out of the past, someone dead, can enter and take possession of a living being?

SCOTTIE: No.

ELSTER: If I told you I believe that his happened to my wife, what would you say?

SCOTTIE: I'd say you'd better take her to the nearest psychiatrist, psychologist, neurologist, psychoanalyst, or plain family doctor. And have him check you both.

ELSTER: Then you're of no use to me. I'm sorry I wasted your time. Thank you for coming in, Scottie.

ELSTER: Not what you think. We're very happily married.

SCOTTIE: Then?

ELSTER: I'm afraid some harm may come to her.

SCOTTIE: From whom?

ELSTER: Someone dead.

ELSTER: Would you like a drink now?

SCOTTIE: No... no, thanks. A bit early in the day for spirits. Well, I guess that about covers everything, doesn't it? I never married; I don't see much of the "old college gang"; I'm a retired detective -- and you're in the shipbuilding business. What's on your mind, Gavin?

ELSTER: Shouldn't you be sitting down?

SCOTTIE: No, I'm all right.

ELSTER: I was sorry to read about that thing in the papers. And you've quit the force. A permanent physical disability?

SCOTTIE: No, Acrophobia isn't a crippling thing. It just means I can't climb steep stairs or go to high places, like the bar at the Top-of-the-Mark. But -- -- there are plenty of street-level bars In this town.

SCOTTIE: Like all this.

ELSTER: I'd like to have lived here then. The color and excitement... the power... the freedom.

SCOTTIE: Interesting business.

ELSTER: No, to be honest, I find it dull.

SCOTTIE: You don't have to do it for a living.

ELSTER: No. But one assumes obligations. My wife's family is all gone; someone has to look after her interest. Her father's partner runs the company yard in the East -- Baltimore -- so I decided as long as I had to work at it, I'd come back here. I've always liked it here.

SCOTTIE: How long have you been back?

ELSTER: Almost a year.

SCOTTIE: And you like it.

ELSTER: San Francisco's changed. The things a that spell San Francisco to me are disappearing fast.

SCOTTIE: How'd you get into the shipbuilding business, Gavin?

ELSTER: I married into it.

SCOTTIE: Hello?

ELSTER'S VOICE: Did she hurt herself?

SCOTTIE: No. She's in fine shape. Nothing to worry about. But she doesn't know. You understand that. She doesn't know what she did.

SCOTTIE: Hello.

ELSTER'S VOICE: Scottie, what happened? She's not home, yet.

SCOTTIE: No, she's all right. She's still here. But I'll get her home soon.

ELSTER'S VOICE: What happened?

SCOTTIE: She... went into the Bay.

JUDY: Love me... keep me safe...

SCOTTIE: Too late... too late... there's no bringing her back.

JUDY: What are you going to do?

SCOTTIE: I loved you, Madeleine.

JUDY: I was safe when you found me, there was nothing you could prove! But when I saw you again I couldn't run away, I loved you so! I walked into danger and let you change me again because I loved you and wanted you! Scottie, please! You love me now! Love me! Keep me safe!

SCOTTIE: Oh, Judy!! When he had all her money, and the freedom and the power... he ditched you? What a shame! But he knew he was safe. You couldn't talk. Didn't he give you anything?

JUDY: Some money.

SCOTTIE: And the necklace. Carlotta's necklace. That was your mistake, Judy. One shouldn't keep souvenirs of a killing. You shouldn't have been that sentimental.

SCOTTIE: I made it.

JUDY: What are you going to do?

SCOTTIE: Look at the scene of the crime. Go on in.

SCOTTIE: Did he train you? Rehearse you? Teach you what to say and what to do?

JUDY: Yes!

SCOTTIE: And you were such an apt pupil! What fun you two must have had, playing games with me! Why me? Why did he pick on me?!!

JUDY: Your accident...

SCOTTIE: Ah, yes! I was a set-up. I was the made-to-order witness. Where is he now?

JUDY: I don't know... Switzerland?

SCOTTIE: We'll find him.

JUDY: Scottie, please...!

SCOTTIE: But you knew, that day, that I wouldn't be able to follow you didn't you. Who was at the top when you got there? Elster? With his wife?

JUDY: Yes!

SCOTTIE: And she was the one who died. Not you. The real wife. You were the copy, you were the counterfeit. Was she dead or alive when you got there?

JUDY: Dead. He'd broken her neck.

SCOTTIE: Took no chances, did he? And when you got there, he pushed her off the tower, was that it? But you were the one who screamed. Why did you scream?

JUDY: I wanted to stop it, I ran up to stop it --

SCOTTIE: Why? Since you'd tricked me so well up to then?!! You played his wife so well, Judy! He made you over, didn't he? Just as I've done. But better! Not just the hair and the clothes! the look! the manner! the words! Those beautiful phony trances! That jump into the Bay! I'll bet you're really a strong swimmer, aren't you! Aren't you!!

SCOTTIE: We're going up the tower, Madeleine.

JUDY: No! Let me go!

SCOTTIE: We're going up the tower.

JUDY: You can't. You're afraid!

SCOTTIE: I'm going to. It's my second chance.

SCOTTIE: And I couldn't follow her. God knows I tried. One doesn't often get a second chance. I want to stop being haunted. You're my second chances, Judy.

JUDY: Take me away...

SCOTTIE: You look like Madeleine, now. Go up the stairs.

JUDY: No!

SCOTTIE: Go up the stairs, Judy. I'll follow.

SCOTTIE: ...We stood there and I kissed her for the last time. And she said, "If lose me, you'll know that I loved you --

JUDY: Scottie --

SCOTTIE: -- and wanted to go on loving you." And I said, "I won't lose you." But I did.

JUDY: I'm scared.

SCOTTIE: So am I, But it has to be done. I have to tell you about Madeleine, now.

JUDY: No, I don't want to go. I want to stay here.

SCOTTIE: I need you.

JUDY: Why?

SCOTTIE: I can't do it alone. I need you, to be Madeleine for a while. Then, when it's done, we'll both be free.

JUDY: Scottie, why are we here?

SCOTTIE: I told you. I have to go back into the past. Once more. For the last time.

JUDY: But why? Why here?

SCOTTIE: Madeleine died here.

JUDY: Where are you going?

SCOTTIE: To complete my cure.

JUDY: We're going awfully far.

SCOTTIE: I feel like driving. Are you terrible hungry?

JUDY: No, it's all right.

JUDY: Scottie!

SCOTTIE: How does it work?

JUDY: Can't you see?

SCOTTIE: Oh, yeah. There.

SCOTTIE: I've got it. He bends down and bites the back of her neck.

JUDY: Oh! You're supposed to fasten it!

SCOTTIE: All in good time.

JUDY: I'm suddenly hungry. Would you rather go somewhere else?

SCOTTIE: No, Ernie's is fine.

JUDY: I'm going to have one of those big beautiful steaks. And... let's see... to start...

SCOTTIE: Come here.

JUDY: Oh, no. You'll muss me.

SCOTTIE: That's what I had in mind.

JUDY: Too late. I've got my face on.

SCOTTIE: Mmmm.

JUDY: Is that the best you can do?

JUDY: Where shall we go for dinner?

SCOTTIE: Wherever you'd like...

JUDY: Ernie's?

SCOTTIE: You've got a thing about Ernie's, haven't you?

JUDY: Well, after all, it's "our place."

JUDY: Well?

SCOTTIE: It should be back from your face -- with a bun at the neck. I told them. I told you.

JUDY: We tried it. It didn't suit me.

JUDY: The trouble is, I'm gone now. For you. And I can't do anything about it. I want you to love me. If I let you change me, will that do it? If I do what you tell me, will you love me?

SCOTTIE: Yes.

JUDY: All right. Then I'll do it. Because I don't care about me anymore. I just want you to love me.

SCOTTIE: The color of your hair...

JUDY: Ah, no!

SCOTTIE: Judy, please it can't matter to you...

JUDY: You don't even want to touch me.

SCOTTIE: Yes. Yes, I do.

SCOTTIE: Judy, I want to tell you: these few days have been the first happy days I've had in a year.

JUDY: I know. Because I remind you of her. The one that's dead. And not even that, very much.

SCOTTIE: No, it's you too, Judy. Something in you.

JUDY: I wish you'd leave me alone. I want to go away.

SCOTTIE: You can.

JUDY: No, you wouldn't let me. And I don't want to go...

JUDY: I don't like it!

SCOTTIE: We'll take it! Will it fit?

SCOTTIE: Judy, it can't make much difference to you. I just want to see how you'd look and I know it won't be the same, but --

JUDY: No, I don't want any clothes! I don't want anything! I want to get out of here!

SCOTTIE: Judy, you've got to do this for me! Please!

JUDY: You want me to dress like her?

SCOTTIE: Judy, I just want you to look nice. And I know what kind of suit would look well on you.

JUDY: Ah, no!!! I don't want to be dressed like someone dead!

SCOTTIE: Judy --

JUDY: It's a horrible idea! Is that what I'm here for? To make you feel that you're with someone that's dead?

JUDY: Scottie, what are you doing?

SCOTTIE: I'm trying to buy you a suit.

JUDY: But I loved the second one she wore. And this one -- -- is beautiful.

SCOTTIE: They're none of them right.

JUDY: But why?

JUDY: But I like that one, Scottie.

SCOTTIE: No, it's not right.

SCOTTIE: There's Ransohoff's. Nothing but the best. Come on.

JUDY: But Scottie, you don't have to!

SCOTTIE: I want to! Come on!

SCOTTIE: Okay. Now we're going to buy you some clothes.

JUDY: Honest?

JUDY: I like that one.

SCOTTIE: No, there. There's a good one. Do you like that?

JUDY: Yes --

SCOTTIE: Will you, Judy?

JUDY: I suppose I could phone the store in the morning, and say I'm sick.

SCOTTIE: No, Judy, I'm not going to move! Please! Stay in the chair!

JUDY: Why?!

SCOTTIE: Please! And don't look at me.

JUDY: Thank you again. Good-night.

SCOTTIE: Can I see you tomorrow?

JUDY: Tomorrow night? Well --

SCOTTIE: Tomorrow morning.

JUDY: Tomorrow m -- but I have to go to work. I've got a job.

SCOTTIE: Don't go.

JUDY: And what will I live on? My oil wells in Texas?

SCOTTIE: I'll take care of you.

JUDY: Oh, Well, thank very much. But no thanks.

SCOTTIE: No, Judy, you don't understand.

JUDY: Oh, I understand, all right. I've been understanding since I was seventeen. And the next step is, as long as you're going to see me tomorrow, why don't you stay the night.

SCOTTIE: No.

JUDY: No? Then what?

SCOTTIE: I just want to see you as much as I can!

JUDY: As friends? We'd just see a lot of each other as friends, and you'd "take care of me"?

SCOTTIE: Yes.

JUDY: Why? Because I remind you of someone? That's not very complimentary. And nothing would... happen...

SCOTTIE: No.

JUDY: That's not very complimentary, either.

JUDY: Well... I've been on blind dates before... Matter of fact, to be honest, I've been picked up before. Okay.

SCOTTIE: I'll get my car and be back in half an hour.

JUDY: Oh, no! Give me time to change and get fixed up!

SCOTTIE: An hour?

JUDY: Mmm.

SCOTTIE: Okay.

SCOTTIE: Will you have dinner with me?

JUDY: Why?

SCOTTIE: Well, I feel I owe you something for all this...

JUDY: No, you don't owe me anything.

SCOTTIE: Then will you for me?

JUDY: Dinner... and what else?

SCOTTIE: Just dinner.

JUDY: Because I remind you of her?

SCOTTIE: Because I'd like to have dinner with you.

JUDY: Listen, what is this? What do you want?

SCOTTIE: I want to know who you are.

JUDY: I told you! My name is Judy Barton! I come from Salina Kansas. I work at Magnin's! I live here! My gosh, do I have to prove it?

JUDY: What do you want to know?

SCOTTIE: Your name. And --

JUDY: Judy Barton.

SCOTTIE: Who you are --

JUDY: Just a girl, I work at Magnin's --

SCOTTIE: -- and how you happen to be living here.

JUDY: It's a place to live, that's all.

SCOTTIE: But you haven't lived here long.

JUDY: About three years.

SCOTTIE: No, a year ago! Where did you live a year ago!!?

JUDY: I told you! Right here!

SCOTTIE: But before! Where did you live before!?!

JUDY: Salina, Kansas!

JUDY: I warn you, I can yell awfully loud.

SCOTTIE: You won't have to.

JUDY: Well... you don't look very much like Jack the Ripper...

JUDY: I've heard that one before, too. I remind you of someone you used to be madly in love with, but she ditched you for another guy, and you've been carrying the torch ever since, and then you saw me and something clicked. Huh!

SCOTTIE: You're not far wrong.

JUDY: Well, it's not going to work. So you'd better go.

SCOTTIE: Let me come in.

SCOTTIE: Just let me talk to you.

JUDY: What about?

SCOTTIE: You.

JUDY: Why?

SCOTTIE: No, please! I Just want to talk to you!

JUDY: Listen, I'm going to yell in a minute!

SCOTTIE: I'm not going to hurt you! I promise! Please!

SCOTTIE: Could I ask you a couple of questions?

JUDY: What for? Who are you?

SCOTTIE: My name is John Ferguson, and --

JUDY: Is this some kind of Gallup Poll, or something?

SCOTTIE: No, there are just a few things I want to ask you, and --

JUDY: Do you live here in the hotel?

SCOTTIE: No, I happened to see you come in, and I thought --

JUDY: 0h, I thought so! A pick-up! Well, you've got a nerve, following me right into the hotel and up to my room! You beat it! Go on! Beat it!

MADELEINE: Let me go into the church alone.

SCOTTIE: Why?

MADELEINE: Please. Because I love you. He stares at her, sees the pleading look in her eyes, and lets go. She turns and walks away toward the church, slowly, her head bowed. He watches her go and starts to move after her. Then slowly, as she goes, her head begins to go up until finally, as she walks, she is staring high above her. And then, suddenly, she breaks into a broken run.

MADELEINE: You believe that I love you?

SCOTTIE: Yes.

MADELEINE: And if you lose me, you'll know that I loved you and wanted to go on loving you.

SCOTTIE: I won't lose you.

MADELEINE: It's not fair, it's too late. It wasn't supposed to happen this way, it shouldn't have happened...!

SCOTTIE: It had to. We're in love. That's all that counts. Madeleine --

MADELEINE: Let me go! Let me go!!

SCOTTIE: Madeleine!!

SCOTTIE: There are things I have to tell you, about how we met, and why we are together. But they can wait. The only important thing now is that I love you and I'm going to keep you safe.

MADELEINE: You can't.

SCOTTIE: Why?

MADELEINE: Let me go.

SCOTTIE: Where?

MADELEINE: To the church, I must go there.

SCOTTIE: Madeleine --

MADELEINE: Please let me go.

SCOTTIE: My love... because I love you.

MADELEINE: I love you too... too late... too late...

SCOTTIE: No... we're together...

MADELEINE: Too late... there's something I must do...

MADELEINE: Here with you.

SCOTTIE: And it's a all real.

MADELEINE: Yes.

SCOTTIE: Not merely as it was a hundred years ago. As it was a year ago, or six months ago, whenever you were here to see it. Madeleine, think of when you were here!

SCOTTIE: Go on with your dream. What was it that frightened you?

MADELEINE: I stood alone on the green, searching for something, and I started to walk to the church. But then the darkness closed in, I was alone in the dark, being pulled into darkness, and I fought to wake up...

SCOTTIE: You've been there before. You've seen it.

MADELEINE: No, never!

SCOTTIE: Madeleine, a hundred miles south of San Francisco there's an old Spanish Mission, Mission San Juan Bautista. It's been preserved exactly as it was a hundred years ago as a museum. Now, think hard, darling. You've been there before. You've seen it!

MADELEINE: No, never! I've never been there! Scottie, what is it? I've never been there!

SCOTTIE: Go on.

MADELEINE: At the end of the green there was a whitewashed stone house with a lovely pepper tree at the corner --

SCOTTIE: -- and an old wooden hotel of the old California days, and a saloon... dark... low-ceilinged... with hanging oil lamps.

MADELEINE: Yes?! But --

SCOTTIE: It's all there. It's no dream.

SCOTTIE: It was a dream, you're awake, you're all right, now. Can you tell me?

MADELEINE: It was the tower again... and the bell, and the old Spanish village...

SCOTTIE: Yes --

MADELEINE: But clear... so very clear... for the first time... all of it...

SCOTTIE: Tell me.

MADELEINE: There was a village square, a green with trees... and an old whitewashed Spanish church with a cloister. Across the green: a big, grey, wooden house with a porch and shutters and a balcony above... a small garden, and next to it, a livery stable... with old carriages lined up inside.

SCOTTIE: Where's your husband?

MADELEINE: I didn't wake him. I don't want him to know...

MADELEINE: No, don't go away!

SCOTTIE: Only this far.

MADELEINE: I should have phoned... but I wanted to see you... be with you...

SCOTTIE: Why? What's happened?

MADELEINE: I had the dream. The dream came back again...

MADELEINE: Don't leave me... stay with me...

SCOTTIE: All the time.

MADELEINE: I'm not mad. I'm not mad. And I don't want to die, but there's someone inside me, there's a somebody else, and she says I must die... Scottie, don't let me go!

SCOTTIE: I'm here, I've got you...

MADELEINE: I'm so afraid... ...you won't let it happen...

SCOTTIE: If I could find the key... find the beginning put it together...

MADELEINE: And so explain it away? But there is a way to explain it, you see. If I'm mad? That would explain it, wouldn't it?

SCOTTIE: But the small scenes, the fragments in the mirror: you remember them.

MADELEINE: Vaguely...

SCOTTIE: What do you remember?

MADELEINE: A room... there is a room, and I sit there alone... always alone...

SCOTTIE: Would you know the room?

MADELEINE: No... it's in shadow.

SCOTTIE: What else?

MADELEINE: A grave...

SCOTTIE: Where?

MADELEINE: I don't know. An open grave. I stand by the gravestone looking down into it. And it's my grave.

SCOTTIE: How do you know?

MADELEINE: I know.

SCOTTIE: There's a name on the gravestone.

MADELEINE: No. It's new and clean, and waiting.

SCOTTIE: What else?

MADELEINE: This part is dream, I think. There is a tower and a bell and... a garden below... but it seems to be in Spain... a village in Spain. And then it clicks off, and is gone.

SCOTTIE: A portrait? Do you ever see a portrait?

MADELEINE: No.

SCOTTIE: Of the woman in the mirror. Would you know her if you saw her?

MADELEINE: But I'm the woman in the mirror!

SCOTTIE: No!

MADELEINE: There is so little I know. It is as though I were walking down a long corridor that once was mirrored, and fragments of mirror still hang there, dark and shadowy, reflecting a dark image of me... and yet not me... someone else, in other clothes, of another time, doing things I have never done... but still me... And I can't stop to ask why, I must keep on walking. At the and of the corridor there is nothing but darkness, and I know when I walk into the darkness, I'll die. But I've never come to the and; I've always come back, before then. Except once.

SCOTTIE: Yesterday.

SCOTTIE: I'm responsible for you now, you know. The Chinese say that once you have saved someone's life, you are responsible for it forever. And so I'm committed. And I have to know.

MADELEINE: And you'll go on saving me? Again and again?

MADELEINE: Take me away from here?

SCOTTIE: Home?

MADELEINE: ...somewhere in the light.

MADELEINE: No, I can't tell you!

SCOTTIE: What?!

MADELEINE: No! Please! Please, please, please, please, don't ask me!

SCOTTIE: When you jumped in the bay, you didn't know where you were. You guessed but you didn't know.

MADELEINE: I didn't jump, I fell! You told me I fell!

SCOTTIE: Why did you jump?

MADELEINE: No!

SCOTTIE: What was it inside that told you to jump?

MADELEINE: No!... No!

SCOTTIE: Tell me what it is. Where do you go? What takes you away?

MADELEINE: No, don't ask me!

SCOTTIE: Where were you born?

MADELEINE: Long ago...

SCOTTIE: Where?

SCOTTIE: Where are you now?

MADELEINE: Here with you.

SCOTTIE: Where?

MADELEINE: The tall trees...

SCOTTIE: Have you been here before?

MADELEINE: Yes...

SCOTTIE: When?

MADELEINE: Somewhere in here I was born... and here I died and it was only a moment for you... you took no notice...

SCOTTIE: Madeleine!

SCOTTIE: Would you like a drink of water?

MADELEINE: No, thank you.

MADELEINE: Do you hear anything?

SCOTTIE: Only silence. It's always like this.

MADELEINE: And no birds sing.

SCOTTIE: No birds live here.

MADELEINE: No.

SCOTTIE: What are you thinking?

MADELEINE: Of all the people who have been born... and have died... while the trees went on living.

SCOTTIE: Their true name is Sequoia Sempervirens: always green, ever- living.

MADELEINE: I don't like them.

SCOTTIE: Why?

MADELEINE: Knowing I have to die...

MADELEINE: How old?

SCOTTIE: Oh... some, two thousand years, or more.

MADELEINE: The oldest living things?

SCOTTIE: Do you know where you're going?

MADELEINE: Of course not! I'm a wanderer! I'd like to go somewhere I've never been!

SCOTTIE: How can you be sure?

MADELEINE: If I've been there? That's silly! Either you've been to a place or you haven't.

SCOTTIE: Don't you think it's sort of a waste for the two of us to...

MADELEINE: Wander separately? Ah, but only one is a wanderer. Two, together, are always going somewhere.

SCOTTIE: No... no, I don't think that's necessarily true.

MADELEINE: I don't know.

SCOTTIE: Shopping?

MADELEINE: No.

SCOTTIE: Well... anywhere in particular?

MADELEINE: No, I Just thought I'd wander.

SCOTTIE: Ah. That's what I was going to do.

MADELEINE: Oh, yes, I forgot: It's your occupation, isn't it?

MADELEINE: Good-bye.

SCOTTIE: Good-bye.

SCOTTIE: I hope we will, too.

MADELEINE: What?

SCOTTIE: Meet again, sometime.

MADELEINE: We have.

MADELEINE: I couldn't mail it; I didn't know your address. But I had a landmark. I remembered Coit Tower and it led me straight to you.

SCOTTIE: The first time I've been grateful for Coit Tower.

SCOTTIE: Would you like some coffee?

MADELEINE: No! No, thank you!

SCOTTIE: -- talking to you...

MADELEINE: I enjoyed talking to you.

MADELEINE: Oh! Yes. Hello.

SCOTTIE: Good morning. I worried about you, last night. You shouldn't have run like that.

MADELEINE: I... suddenly felt such a fool.

SCOTTIE: I wanted to drive you home. Are you all right?

MADELEINE: Oh, yes. Fine. No after effects. But as I remember now, that water was cold, wasn't it? What a terrible thing to do... and you were so kind... It's a formal thank-you letter. And a great big apology.

SCOTTIE: You've nothing to apologize for.

MADELEINE: Oh, yes! The whole thing must have been so embarrassing for you!

SCOTTIE: Not at all, I enjoyed --

MADELEINE: No, never before. I've fallen into lakes, out of rowboats, when I was a little girl. And I fell into a river, once, trying to leap from one stone to another. But I've never fallen into San Francisco Bay. Have you? Ever before?

SCOTTIE: No... this is the first time for me, too.

SCOTTIE: Will you tell me something? Has this ever happened to you before?

MADELEINE: What?

SCOTTIE: ...Falling... into San Francisco Bay?

MADELEINE: One shouldn't live alone.

SCOTTIE: Some people prefer it.

MADELEINE: No... it's wrong.

MADELEINE: You shouldn't have brought me here, you know.

SCOTTIE: I... didn't know where you lived.

MADELEINE: You could have looked in my car. Oh, but you didn't know my car, did you?

SCOTTIE: Yes, I knew which one it was. It's out there, now. But I didn't think you'd want to be brought home that way.

MADELEINE: No, you are right, I'm glad you didn't take me home... I wouldn't have known you, to thank you... Oh, but I don't know you! And you don't know me! My name is Madeleine Elster.

SCOTTIE: My name is John Ferguson.

MADELEINE: That's a good, strong name. Do your friends call you John? Or Jack.

SCOTTIE: John. Old friends. Acquaintances call me Scottie.

MADELEINE: I shall call you Mr. Ferguson.

SCOTTIE: No, I wouldn't like that. And after what happened today I should think you could call me Scottie. Or even John.

MADELEINE: I prefer John. There, that's done. And what do you do, John?

SCOTTIE: Wander about.

MADELEINE: That's a good occupation. And live here... alone?

MADELEINE: When you... There were pins in my hair...

SCOTTIE: Oh! Yes! Here!

MADELEINE: Lucky for me you were wandering about. Thank you again. I've been terrible bother to you.

SCOTTIE: No.

SCOTTIE: The Palace of the Legion of honor. The Art Gallery.

MADELEINE: Oh, that's a lovely spot, isn't it? I've never been inside. But it looks so lovely, driving past.

SCOTTIE: Please drink your coffee.

MADELEINE: I will. You're terribly direct in your questions.

SCOTTIE: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude.

MADELEINE: You're not. Merely direct. What were you doing there? At Old Fort Point?

SCOTTIE: Wandering about.

MADELEINE: You like it, too.

MADELEINE: ...Old Port Point! Out at the Presidio! Of course I remember! I often go there!

SCOTTIE: Why?

MADELEINE: Because I love it so. It's beautiful there. Especially at sunset. Ah... thank you for the fire.

SCOTTIE: Where had you been before?

MADELEINE: When?

SCOTTIE: This afternoon.

MADELEINE: Oh... wandering about.

SCOTTIE: Before? Where? Where had you been?

SCOTTIE: You don't remember.

MADELEINE: No...

SCOTTIE: Do you remember where you were?

MADELEINE: Oh, of course I remember that! But then I must have had a dizzy spell, and fainted!

SCOTTIE: Where were you?

MADELEINE: At...

MADELEINE: Why am I here? What happened?

SCOTTIE: You... ...fell into the Bay.

SCOTTIE: Her car is gone.

MANAGERESS: What car?

MANAGERESS: And there! There you see? Her key is on the rack!

SCOTTIE: Would you please go and look?

MANAGERESS: In her room? Well, yes, of course if you ask. But it does seem silly...

MANAGERESS: Oh, but she hasn't been here today. Scottie whirls back on her.

SCOTTIE: I saw her come in five minutes. ago.

MANAGERESS: Oh, no! She hasn't been here at all! I would have seen her, you know. I've been right here all the time, putting olive oil on my rubber plant leaves!

MANAGERESS: Oh, dear! Has she done something wrong?

SCOTTIE: Please answer my question.

MANAGERESS: I can't imagine that sweet girl with that dear face --

SCOTTIE: What is her name?

MANAGERESS: Valdes. Miss Valdes. It's Spanish, you know.

SCOTTIE: Carlotta Valdes?

MANAGERESS: Yes, that's it. Sweet name, isn't it? Foreign. But sweet.

SCOTTIE: How long has she had the room?

MANAGERESS: Oh, it must be two weeks. Yes, the rent's due tomorrow.

SCOTTIE: Does she sleep here? Ever?

MANAGERESS: No... she only comes to sit. Two or three times a week. And I never ask questions, you know. As long as they're well behaved. I must say that I've wondered --

SCOTTIE: When she comes down, don't say that I've been here.

MANAGERESS: Is there something I can do for you?

SCOTTIE: Yes... you run this hotel.

MANAGERESS: Oh, yes!

SCOTTIE: Would you tell me, who has the room on the second floor in the corner, that corner?

MANAGERESS: Oh, I'm afraid we couldn't give out information of that sort. Our clients are entitled to their privacy, you know. And I do believe it's against the law! Of course, I don't think any of them would mind, really, but still I would have to know who you are, and ask --

MIDGE: As a matter of fact, I thought I might give it to you.

SCOTTIE: Oh?

MIDGE: Oh, I'm having a wonderful time! I've gone back to my first love... painting.

SCOTTIE: Good. I've always said you were wasting your time in the underwear department.

MIDGE: Well, it's a living. But I'm excited about this.

SCOTTIE: What is it, a still life?

MIDGE: No, not exactly. Want to see?

MIDGE: What have you been doing?

SCOTTIE: Wandering.

SCOTTIE: What was this desperate urge to see me?

MIDGE: All I said in the note was: "Where are you?" That doesn't sound desperate to me.

SCOTTIE: Well, I detected an undercurrent.

MIDGE: I just thought if I gave you a drink and fed you some dinner, you'd be so grateful you'd take me to a movie.

SCOTTIE: Fair enough. What'll we talk about at dinner?

MIDGE: Oh... this and that.

SCOTTIE: What I've been doing?

MIDGE: If you want to. Naturally, we won't talk about anything you don't want to talk about.

SCOTTIE: Naturally.

SCOTTIE: Mm. Better.

MIDGE: Did you need it?

SCOTTIE: Yeah.

MIDGE: Oh?

SCOTTIE: I did. Since when do you go about slipping notes under men's doors?

MIDGE: Since I stopped being able to get them on the phone. For a man who has nothing to do, you're certainly a busy little bee. Where do you go, these days?

SCOTTIE: Just wander.

MIDGE: Where?

SCOTTIE: Around.

MIDGE: Oh?

SCOTTIE: Midge!

MIDGE: Bye-bye!

MIDGE: Is she pretty?

SCOTTIE: Carlotta?

MIDGE: No, not Carlotta. Elster's wife.

SCOTTIE: Mmm, yeah, I guess...

SCOTTIE: Here you are.

MIDGE: You haven't told me everything.

SCOTTIE: I've told you enough.

MIDGE: Who's the guy, who's the wife?

SCOTTIE: Out. I've got things to do.

MIDGE: I know. The one who phoned. Your old college chum, Elster.

SCOTTIE: Out!

MIDGE: And the idea is that the Beautiful Mad Carlotta has come back from the dead, to take possession of Elster's wife? Ah, Johnny! Come on!

SCOTTIE: I'm not telling you what I think! I'm telling you what he thinks!

MIDGE: Think? Well, what do you think?

MIDGE: Now then, Johnny-O; pay me.

SCOTTIE: For what?

MIDGE: For bringing you here. Come on, tell!

SCOTTIE: Nothing to tell.

MIDGE: You'll tell, or you'll be back in that corset! Come on!

SCOTTIE: I'll take you home.

MIDGE: The poor thing....

SCOTTIE: And she died...

MIDGE: Wait a minute! You're not a detective any more. What's going on?

SCOTTIE: Do you know him well?

MIDGE: Pop Leibel? Sure.

SCOTTIE: All right, come on. Introduce me. Where is your hat?

MIDGE: Now, that's the kind of greeting a girl likes. None of this "hello you look wonderful" stuff. Just a good straight "who do you know" --

SCOTTIE: Well, who? Come on, you know everybody.

MIDGE: Professor Saunders, over in Berkeley.

SCOTTIE: Not that kind of history. The small stuff! About people you never heard of!

MIDGE: Oh! You mean Gay Old Bohemian Days of Gay Old San Francisco! The juicy stories? Like who shot who in the Embarcadero August, 1879?

SCOTTIE: Yeah.

MIDGE: Pop Leibel.

SCOTTIE: Who?

MIDGE: Pop Leibel owns the Argosy Book Shop. What do you want to know?

SCOTTIE: Who shot who in the Embarcadero in August, 1879.

MIDGE: Johnny!

SCOTTIE: Oh, damn it! Damn it, damn it --

MIDGE: Easy, now.

SCOTTIE: This is a cinch. I look up, I look down. I look up --

MIDGE: Step number two.

SCOTTIE: Okay.

SCOTTIE: Now. I look up, I look down. I look up, I look down. Nothing to it.

MIDGE: Stop kidding. Wait a minute.

SCOTTIE: Here, I'll show you what I mean. We'll start with this.

MIDGE: That!?!

SCOTTIE: What do you want me to start with -- the Golden Gate Bridge?

SCOTTIE: How's your love life, Midge?

MIDGE: That's following a train of thought.

SCOTTIE: Well?

MIDGE: Normal.

SCOTTIE: Aren't you ever going to get married?

MIDGE: You know there's only one man in the world for me, Johnny-O.

SCOTTIE: Yeah, I'm a brute. We were engaged once though, weren't we?

MIDGE: Three whole weeks.

SCOTTIE: Ah, sweet college days. But you're the one who blew it. I'm still available. Available Ferguson. Say, Midge, do you remember a guy at college named Gavin Elster?

MIDGE: Gavin? Gavin Elster? You'd think I'd would. No.

SCOTTIE: I got a call from him today. Funny. He dropped out of sight during the war, and I'd heard he'd gone East. I guess he's back. It's a Mission number.

MIDGE: That's Skid Row... isn't it?

SCOTTIE: Could be.

MIDGE: He's probably on the bum and wants to touch you for the price of a drink.

SCOTTIE: Well, I'm on the bum; I'll buy him a couple of drinks and tell him my troubles. But not tonight. If you won't drink with me, I'll drink alone, tonight.

MIDGE: Sorry, old man. Work.

SCOTTIE: Midge, what did you mean, there's no losing it?

MIDGE: What.

SCOTTIE: My... the acrophobia.

MIDGE: I asked my doctor. He said only another emotional shock could do it, and probably wouldn't. And you're not going to go diving off another rooftop to find out.

SCOTTIE: I think I can lick it.

MIDGE: How?

SCOTTIE: I've got a theory. Look. If I can get used to heights just a little at a time... progressively see?

MIDGE: It's a brassiere. You know about those things. You're a big boy, now.

SCOTTIE: I've never run across one like that.

MIDGE: It's brand new. Revolutionary uplift. No shoulder straps, no back straps, but does everything a brassiere should do. It works on the principle of the cantilever bridge.

SCOTTIE: Uh-huh!

MIDGE: An aircraft engineer down the peninsula designed it. He worked it out in his spare time.

SCOTTIE: What a pleasant hobby.

SCOTTIE: From that music.

MIDGE: Oh!

MIDGE: Well?... what'll you do?

SCOTTIE: Nothing for a while. You forget, I'm a man of independent means. Or fairly independent.

MIDGE: Mmm. Why don't you go away for a while?

SCOTTIE: To forget? Don't be so motherly, Midge. I'm not going to crack up.

MIDGE: Have you had any dizzy spells this week?

SCOTTIE: I'm having one now.

SCOTTIE: Midge, do you suppose many men wear corsets?

MIDGE: More than you think.

SCOTTIE: How do you know? Personal experience?

MIDGE: Please! And what happens after tomorrow?

SCOTTIE: What do you mean?

MIDGE: What are you going to do? Now that you've quit the police force?

SCOTTIE: You sound so disapproving, Midge.

MIDGE: No, it's your life. But you were the bright young lawyer who decided he was going to be chief of police some day.

SCOTTIE: I had to quit, Midge.

MIDGE: Why?

SCOTTIE: I wake up at night seeing him fall from the roof... and try to reach out for him.

MIDGE: It wasn't your fault.

SCOTTIE: I know. Everybody tells me.

MIDGE: Johnny, the doctors explained --

SCOTTIE: I know. I have Acrophobia. What a disease. A fear of heights. And what a moment to find out I had it.

MIDGE: Well, you've got it. And there's no losing it. And there's no one to blame. So why quit?

SCOTTIE: And sit behind a desk? Chairborne?

MIDGE: It's where you belong.

SCOTTIE: Not with my Acrophobia, Midge. If I dropped a pencil on the floor and bent down to pick it up, it could be disastrous!

MIDGE: Ah, Johnny-O...

SCOTTIE: Ow!!

MIDGE: I thought you said no more aches and pains?

SCOTTIE: It's this darned corset. It binds. He retrieves the stick.

MIDGE: No three-way stretch? How very un- chic.

SCOTTIE: Well, you know those police department doctors: no sense of style. Ah, tomorrow!

MIDGE: What's tomorrow?

SCOTTIE: Tomorrow... the corset comes off. And this thing goes out the window. I shall be a free man. I shall wiggle my behind... free and unconfined.

POP LEIBEL: She died.

SCOTTIE: How?

POP LEIBEL: By her own hand. There are many such stories.

SCOTTIE: Thank you, Mr. Leibel. Thank you very much.

POP LEIBEL: Yes... the Beautiful Carlotta... the Sad Carlotta...

SCOTTIE: What does a big old wooden house on the corner of Eddy and Gough Street have to do with her?

POP LEIBEL: It was hers. It was built for her. Many years ago.

SCOTTIE: By whom?

POP LEIBEL: By... no... the name I do not remember. A rich man, a powerful man. It is not an unusual story. She came from somewhere small, to the south of the city... some say from a mission settlement... young, yes; very young. And she was found singing and dancing in a cabaret by the man... wait... wait... Ives! His name was Ives! Yes. And he took her and built for her this great house in the Western Addition... and there was a child. Yes. This was it. The child.

SALESWOMAN: Oh, yes! It may need some slight alterations, but it is madam's size. All right, dear. We'll have it for you to try in a moment.

SCOTTIE: How soon can it be altered?

SALESWOMAN: Well...

SCOTTIE: Can we have it by tonight?

SALESWOMAN: Well, if it's absolutely necessary...

SCOTTIE: Yes, it is. Now, I want to look at an evening dress, a dinner dress, black -- short -- long sleeves -- with a neck cut this... ...and the skirt out.

SCOTTIE: Yes! That's it!

SALESWOMAN: I thought so!

SALESWOMAN: She'll be out in a moment.

SCOTTIE: Now, Judy, it isn't anything to get --

SCOTTIE: No, that's not it. Nothing like it.

SALESWOMAN: But you said grey, sir.

SCOTTIE: Not tweed -- it's a smoother material, with a larger collar and belted.