The Conversation Page #5

Synopsis: Harry Caul is a devout Catholic and a lover of jazz music who plays his saxophone while listening to his jazz records. He is a San Francisco-based electronic surveillance expert who owns and operates his own small surveillance business. He is renowned within the profession as being the best, one who designs and constructs his own surveillance equipment. He is an intensely private and solitary man in both his personal and professional life, which especially irks Stan, his business associate who often feels shut out of what is happening with their work. This privacy, which includes not letting anyone into his apartment and always telephoning his clients from pay phones is, in part, intended to control what happens around him. His and Stan's latest job (a difficult one) is to record the private discussion of a young couple meeting in crowded and noisy Union Square. The arrangement with his client, known only to him as "the director", is to provide the audio recording of the discussion and
Production: Paramount Pictures
  Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 14 wins & 13 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.9
Metacritic:
86
Rotten Tomatoes:
98%
PG
Year:
1974
113 min
2,767 Views


without paying for them.

I...

have deliberately taken pleasure

in impure thoughts...

and...

I've been involved

in some work...

that I think will be used...

to hurt these two young people.

It's happened to me before.

People were hurt

because of my... my work.

I'm... I'm afraid

it could happen again...

and I... I was in no way

responsible.

I'm not responsible.

For these and all the sins

of my past life...

I am heartily sorry.

Hi. Can I help you?

You could explain

your system to me.

Mr Caul,

I'm Jim Storey.

How do you do?

Come in and take a look

at the system.

This is for

the surveillance...

of telephone

communication systems.

I see.

Now available.

Here's the new LT 500.

If you're in surveillance,

you belong into the LT 500.

You can hear...

and know exactly which door

has been violated.

And you got your local alarms

on the doors...

which I'm sure you've heard.

It's quite noisy.

It has a Super 8mm

camera in here...

and the dot, the 10:00 dot...

will show exactly what

the camera sees on the back.

It's a magazine-loaded camera.

Super 8mm...

William P. Moran.

William P. Moran

of Detroit, Michigan.

House courtesy telephone,

please.

That's your automatic

recorder actuator.

It undetectably

starts the recorder...

when the phone is lifted...

and shuts it off

when the receiver is put back.

What?

It's real nice, you know.

It's not your old-fashioned

voice actuator...

you know,

always starting the recorder...

when nobody was talking...

or shutting it off

in the middle...

of an important conversation.

Is it like the Moran actuator?

The Moran E-27 is a copy.

I won't let him even

smell my equipment any more.

You in surveillance?

Yeah.

Law enforcement

or private operator?

Private.

You mind if I take

your name and address...

for our mailing list?

Harry Cau... Harry Caul?

I didn't recognize you.

Say, I wonder,

would you take a Model 510-A?

Free of charge. Just to test it.

You know, say, in return for...

that we could print

in our flier that you use it.

I build all my own equipment.

Thank you.

Maybe we could take a picture

of you by our booth.

It would be a great honour

for Spectre.

This is not helping crime.

It's helping justice...

That may be affixed to

the subject's automobile--

Slide.

and will transmit

a pulsating tone signal--

Slide.

which is highly detectable.

Harry, good to see you.

Beautiful suit.

You like it? It's French.

Oh.

Let's go get a drink and talk.

Requiring no knowledge

or skill in electronics.

Come on. It's a bore.

The TA-30 may be

installed and concealed...

under the dash

in a matter of seconds.

Hey, come on. There's somebody

I want you to meet...

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Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He was part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmaking. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "The Conversation" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 17 May 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_conversation_5906>.

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