The Public Eye Page #2

Synopsis: Leon Bernstein is New York's best news photographer in 1942, equally at home with cops or crooks. The pictures are often of death and pain, but they are the ones the others wish they had got. Then glamorous Kay Levitz turns to him when the Mob seem to be muscling in on the club she owns due to some arrangement with her late husband. Bernstein, none too successful with women, agrees to help, saying there may be some good photos in it for him. In fact, he is falling in love with Kay.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Director(s): Howard Franklin
Production: MCA Universal Home Video
 
IMDB:
6.5
Rotten Tomatoes:
67%
R
Year:
1992
99 min
465 Views


He slams the trunk shut.

CUT TO:

INT. DAILY NEWS BUILDING - NIGHT

CLOSE ON a Daily News check, made out to Leon Bernstein. On

a stub, the check is carefully accounted for.

1 Corpse (2 bullets @ $1.50 each)............$3.00

Bernzy, riding down in an elevator, folds the check into his

pocket.

INT. DAILY NEWS LOBBY

The elevator doors open, Bernzy steps out.

The Photographer we saw leaving Thompson St. steps into the

lobby.

He only has to see Bernzy to know he's too late.

PHOTOGRAPHER:

Sh*t.

CUT TO:

INT./EXT. BERNZY'S SEDAN/STREET - NIGHT

Bernzy drives, his eyes intently scanning the nighttime

street.

A steady, low hiss is emitted from a police radio, that is

gerry-rigged under his dusty dashboard, swaying on its wires.

A metal plate on the radio says FOR POLICE VEHICLES ONLY.

Bernzy's Speed Graphic, with flash, sits on the seat next to

him.

As Bernzy reads every shadow and doorway for potential

pictures,

We see what he sees out the window (buildings and people) in

black and white, slightly overcranked: the POV of Bernzy's

trained eye.

CUT TO:

INT. TENEMENT HALLWAY - NIGHT

On the landing of the stairwell, a young Puerto Rican Woman

wails hysterically as two Cops try to calm her down. She's

in her nightgown. A flashbulb fires over her.

The narrow stairway is packed with Policemen and Puerto Rican

neighbors in their T-shirts, pajamas and robes.

A COP leads two Ambulance Attendants, with a stretcher, up

the stairs shouting as he goes.

COP:

Clear the way, get back, c'mon, c'mon,

c'mon --

Now he passes Bernzy, near the top of the stairs --

COP:

Bernzy, clear outta here.

Bernzy is taken aback --

BERNZY:

But I hear this guy's walkin' around

with a meat cleaver in his head -- !

-- as if it's every man's God-given right to photograph such

a rare sight.

COP:

Get the Hell out.

As the Cop heads into the Woman's apartment, he speaks to

the ambulance Attendants, but looks at Bernzy as he does so.

COP:

Throw a sheet over him.

The Cop is suspiciously keen to thwart Bernzy: Bernzy smells

something.

He turns to a Puerto Rican MAN, the next door neighbor, who

watches in his T-shirt and boxers.

BERNZY:

Who is this guy, anyway?

MAN:

(Puerto Rican accent)

Working for the Mayor. Visits at

night.

Bernzy sizes up the elements of the tragedy as the Orderlies

bring the victim out of the apartment. He looks at the

hysterical mistress and then at her victim/paramour, who is

covered with a sheet, but moving (with a comically high

protrusion where the meat cleaver is lodged).

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Howard Franklin

Howard Franklin is an American screenwriter and film director, known for such films as The Name of the Rose and Quick Change, his collaboration with Bill Murray. His other films include The Public Eye, about a 1940s tabloid photographer modeled on the photojournalist Weegee and starring Joe Pesci; Someone to Watch Over Me and The Man Who Knew Too Little. more…

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Submitted by aviv on February 09, 2017

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