The writing is so effortless, you don't even notice you're reading a script. You can see everything described. Nothing is wasted. Nothing is superfluous. All the verbs are active. The tone is clear. You can almost feel the heat in the office. And I love the phrase "the fan whiffs overhead". It's precise and sets the scene brilliantly. Must get my hands on the full script.

Perfect timing as I just started re-reading it today...

Please email me.

I read this script a long time ago when I tried to write my own contemporary noir... I had great characters but the story severely lacked. I should dig that script out of mothballs one of these days (if I can find either one, lol). Thanks Scott, I was on the fence on what my next script should be. I think this helped (maybe). It's a shame outside of a few movies every couple years, the noir genre isn't as predominant as it once was.

I concur, David. Some of my favorite films are noir including Chinatown.

Nice, but lots and lots of words in the action. Of course, Robert Towne was already an established writer when he wrote this, but for a new writer, it would be a heckuva commitment - the entire scene (in normal-size 12pt font) is 1 3/4 pages - to employ all that detail, especially for Curly's action. Pardon the following sacrilegious tampering... _________ Curly , with another anguished sobs , turns and then rams his fist into the wall , kicking the wastebasket across the room as he does. He starts to sob again, He goes wobbly and slides along the wall where his fist has left a noticeable dent and its impact has sent the signed photos of several movie stars now hang askew. _________ Also, while "Curly towers over GITTES", it's not until further down the page that we learn Gittes is actually seated at his desk: "Gittes doesn't move from his chair."

After my presumptuous edits, the action would read: _________ Curly sobs, then rams his fist into the wall. He goes wobbly and slides along the wall where his fist left a dent and the signed photos of several movie stars now hang askew. _________ Not that I'd leave it that way, but with that version I was focused primarily on cutting words, not reworking it entirely. For example, I cut out the mention of Curly kicking the wastebasket because, while it's a nice touch, is that sort of detail needed on page 1? I did a search on the rest of the script for "basket" and "waste" and found nothing, so it's not as if it's needed here as a setup for a callback. Yes, I do get it - Curly's wife is trash. And, I suppose, Gittes deals in trash. Plus, I'd want to include a detail like that in my script if I had a scene of this sort. But again, is it really needed - which seems to be a critical issue for us, for our scripts, especially on page 1.