Rear Window Page #2

THE CAMERA MOVES ON to a distant street corner seen between

two buildings. The traffic is very light at this hour, but a

Sanitation Department truck moves through the intersection

spraying water out behind it to cool the pavement and keep

the dust down. Three little kids in bathing suits run behind

the truck, playing in the water.

THE CAMERA MOVES OFF and around to some buildings at the

side. As it skims this building, we see a hand emerge from

one of the windows, and remove the cover from a birdcage

which is hanging from a hook on the wall outside. In the

cage are two lovebirds -- arguing.

THE CAMERA NOW PULLS BACK SWIFTLY and retreats through the

open window back into Jefferies' apartment. We now see more

of the sleeping man. THE CAMERA GOES IN far enough to show a

head and shoulders of him.

He is L. B. JEFFERIES. A tall, lean, energetic thirty five,

his face long and serious-looking at rest, is in other

circumstances capable of humor, passion, naive wonder and

the kind of intensity that bespeaks inner convictions of

moral strength and basic honesty.

He is sitting in an Everest and Jennings wheelchair.

THE CAMERA PANS along his right leg. It is encased in a

plaster of Paris spica from his waistline to the base of his

toes. Along the white cast someone has written "Here lie the

broken bones of L. B. Jefferies."

THE CAMERA PANS to a nearby table on which rests a shattered

and twisted Speed Graphic Camera, the kind used by fast-action

news photographers.

On the same table, the CAMERA PANS to an eight by ten glossy

photo print. It shows a dirt track auto racing speedway,

taken from a point dangerously near the center of the track.

A racing car is skidding toward the camera, out of control,

spewing a cloud of dust behind it. A rear wheel has come off

the car, and the wheel is bounding at top speed directly

into the camera lens.

THE CAMERA MOVES UP to a framed photograph on the wall.

It is a fourteen by ten print, an essay in violence, having

caught on film the exploding semi-second when a heavy

artillery shell arches into a front-line Korean battle

outpost. Men and equipment erupt into the air suspended in a

solution of blasted rock, dust and screeching shrapnel. That

the photographer was not a casualty is evident, but surprising

when the short distance between the camera and the explosion

is estimated. A signature in the lower right hand corner of

the picture reads -- "L. B. Jefferies."

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