Days of Heaven Page #2

ABBY:

Hold still, or I can't do anything.

BILL:

I love you, Abby. You're so good to me. Remember

how much fun we had, on the roof...

8EXT. ROOF - MATTE SHOT

Bill and Abby flirt on the root of a tenement,

happily in love. The city stretches out behind them.

9INT. BED - QUICK CUT

Abby lies shivering with fever. Bill spoons hot

soup into her mouth. Ursula rolls paper flowers for extra

change.

BILL (o.s.)

(continuing)

... even when you were sick and I was in the mill.

10INT. MILL - QUICK CUT (VARIOUS ANGLES OF OTHER WORKERS)

Bill works in the glow of a blast furnace. He

does not seem quite in place with the rest of the workers. A

pencil moustache lends a desired gentlemanliness to his

appearance. He looks fallen on hard times, without ever

having known any better--like Chaplin, an immigrant lost in

the heartless city, with dim hopes for a better way of life.

BILL (o.s.)

I won't let you go back in the mill. People die

in there. I'm a man, and I can look out for you.

11EXT. SIDING OUTSIDE MILL

Along a railroad spur outside the mill, Abby and

Ursula glean bits of coal that have fallen from the tenders.

BILL (o.s.)

We're going west. Things gotta be better out

there.

12EXT. TENEMENT

A POLICEMAN, looking for Bill, roughs Abby up

behind the tenement where they live. Suddenly Bill runs out

from a doorway and slams him over the head with a clay

pitcher full of water.

POLICEMAN:

What'd you do?

Bill shrugs, then hits him again, knocking him

unconscious, when he reaches for a gun. Abby calls Ursula

and they take off running, Bill stopping only to collect

some of their laundry off a clothesline.

13EXT. FREIGHT YARDS

They hop a freight train.

14CREDITS (OVER EXISTING PHOTOS)

The CREDITS run over black and white photos of

the Chicago they are leaving behind. Pigs roam the gutters.

Street urchins smoke cigar butts under a stairway. A blind

man hawks stale bread. Dirty children play around a dripping

hydrant. Laundry hangs out to dry on tenement fire escapes.

Police look for a thief under a bridge. Irish gangs stare at

the camera, curious how they will look. The CREDITS end.

15EXT. MOVING TRAIN

Abby and Bill sit atop a train racing through

the wheat country of the Texas Panhandle.

BILL:

I like the sunshine.

ABBY:

Everybody does.

They laugh. She is dressed in men's clothes, her hair tucked

up under a cap. They are sharing a bottle of wine.

BILL:

I never wanted to fall in love with you.

ABBY:

Nobody asked you to.

He draws her toward him. She pulls away.

BILL:

What's the matter? A while ago you said I was

irresistible. I still am.

ABBY:

That was then.

She pushes her nose up against his chest and

sniffs around.

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