Rebel Without a Cause Page #2

---

The MAN fumbles in his pocket, finds a pack and drops it in

his nervousness. The FIGURES wait until he picks it up. He

offers one to BUZZ.

MAN:

(continuing)

Filter tips.

BUZZ:

(smiling, encouraging)

You smoke it. Smoke it, Dad.

Smiling uncertainly, the MAN puts the cigarette in his mouth.

BUZZ, still smiling, takes out a packet of wooden matches.

BUZZ:

(continuing)

I'll light it for you, Dad.

BUZZ ignites a match and holds it near the Man's face for a

second, searching it. Then he ignites the whole box under

his nose. The MAN shrieks, and his packages fall. BUZZ

slaps him sharply, his smile gone.

The camera pans away as the figures enclose him, and holds

on a small mechanical monkey which has dropped from its

wrappings. It begins to dance madly on the pavement, then

runs down.

The feet of the figures scatter past the unmoving monkey.

Then camera rises to show that the man has disappeared.

There is a moment of awful stillness, then we see a boy

coming down the street alone. He is quite drunk, and he

slips once. This is JIM, a good-looking kid of seventeen

with a crew-cut and wearing a good suit. The spilled

packages on the pavement stop him. He bends down to see

what they are and picks up the mechanical monkey from the

wreckage. He smiles and winds it up. He sets it on the

sidewalk and sits down. He watches it dance for a moment,

happily. A siren is heard distantly, growing louder. JIM

pays no attention to it as he winds the monkey again and

releases it for its dance.

SUPERIMPOSE TITLE: "REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE" STARRING ____ as

siren rises piercingly close, and JIM looks up, we:

DISSOLVE TO:

Close shot. Throbbing light of police car. Night. The

siren screaming wildly, then dying. The sound of brakes.

Camera moves to reveal the police car stopped at the

entrance of a Precinct Station. Two officers dismount,

bearing between them the struggling JIM. They bear him up

the steps and in through the double doors.

Inside precinct station. Reception area. A large open space

onto which several corridors converge. In the middle is a

Sergeant's desk, really a quadrangular counter in the center

of which the SERGEANT stands. There are a few glass-walked

interviewing rooms which open off the area, and several

benches lining the walls. The scene is one of confusion,

activity and waiting. Phones ring. The arrested pass in

custody of officers. Present among others at JIM's entrance

are:
JUDY, who is blonde and sixteen. She sits on a crowded

bench wearing an expression of downcast bitterness. On a

bench across the way from her are three remarkably dirty

little Mexican children without shoes or socks. The oldest

is a BOY of four who is protecting his little SISTER who in

turn mothers an infant crying on the bench beside her.

Standing at a corner of the desk is a docile, undersized boy

of fifteen named JOHN "PLATO" CRAWFORD. He is shivering.

With him is a large NEGRO WOMAN, his maid. JIM comes

through the doors and is led to the desk. One of the

officers presents a brief report to the SERGEANT, who

examines it.

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote