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Six Screen Plays by Robert Riskin

University of California Press

Columbia Pictures, 1931, 88 minutes

Produced by Harry Cohn

Directed by Frank Capra

Story by Harry E. Chandlee and Douglas W. Churchill

Adaptation by Jo Swerling

Continuity by Dorothy Howell

Dialogue by Robert Riskin

Cast: Loretta Young (Gallagher ), Robert Williams (Stew Smith ), Jean Harlow (Anne Schuyler ), Louise Closser Hale (Mrs. Schuyler ), Donald Dillaway (Michael Schuyler ), Reginald Owen (Dexter Grayson ), Walter Catlett (Bingy Baker ), Edmund Breese (Conroy, the Editor ), Halliwell Hobbes (Smythe, the Butler ), Claude Allister (Dawson, the Violinist ), Bill Elliott (Dinner Guest ), Harry Semels (Waiter ), Olaf Hytten (Radcliffe ), Tom London, Hal Price, Eddy Chandler, Charles Jordan (Reporters ), Dick Cramer (Speakeasy Proprietor ), Wilson Benge (Butler ), Dick Prichard.

FADE IN

1. INT. CITY ROOM OF NEWSPAPER OFFICE - DAY - FULL SHOT
General atmosphere, typical of a busy newspaper office. Copy boys running about, shirtsleeved reporters and rewrite men pounding away on typewriters. Little wire baskets containing cylinders of copy whizzing back and forth, such as are used in some department stores, etc.

SOUND

(Morkrum machines,1 typewriters, telephone bells and all other sounds relative to a newspaper office)

When shot has been fully established:

CAMERA STARTS TRUCKING DOWN MAIN AISLE
It takes in the battery of Morkrum machines clattering away; the crescent-shaped copy desk; the desk of the sporting editor, with a big cauliflower-eared pugilist and his manager standing by the side of the sporting editor, a hefty guy in his shirtsleeves, smoking a big cigar and wearing a green eye-shade; the desk of the society editor, a prissy old lady, who takes down a worn copy of the Blue Book as the camera passes her and starts looking up some data; and any other interesting or typical bits that can be thought out. At the far end of the room is the desk of Conroy, the City Editor.

Everything shows evidence of feverish activity and great haste.

2. CLOSE SHOT
On Conroy, the City Editor at his desk, speaking on the telephone.

CONROY

Yeah, that's all I ever get from you guys - a lot of hard luck stories. You come back here and I'll give you an assignment. It will be a last interview - with the cashier!

He hangs up, looks around with a scowl.

Stew! Stew Smith!

REPORTER

Oh Mr. Conroy, give me a crack at that Schuyler story, will you?

CONROY

You? If you ever got your foot into a drawing room, you'd step on a sliding rug! Stew is the only man that's got brains enough to handle this. Scram!

A Copy Boy rushes by on an errand.

Say Spud, did you find Stew?

COPY BOY

Not yet.

CONROY

Well, did you look in the

COPY BOY

First place I looked.

CONROY

Not there, eh? For cryin' out loud, where is that? Go and dig him up! Stew! Stew Smith!

CAMERA TRUCKS ON:
Until it takes in a sort of make-shift screen, concealing a corner of the room.

LAP DISSOLVE TO:

3. CLOSE SHOT
On the other side of the screen. Stew Smith is holding something in his hand. His hat tilted back on his head, and he is regarding this plaything intently. Gallagher is sitting close to him, also gazing intently at the plaything. Gallagher is a girl, one of the sob sisters2 on the newspaper, dressed in a trim but inexpensive little tailored suit.

STEW

Here it is. Pray for me, Gallagher. Pray for me. Hold everything . . .

4. CLOSE SHOT
On the object in his hand, one of those hand-puzzles where you have to land jumping beans in the holes.

5. DOUBLE SHOT

GALLAGHER

Stew, your hands are shaking. You've been drinking again.

STEW

Come on, come on. Here they come, Gallagher! Here they come!

Conroy's shouts are heard in the background.

GALLAGHER

(conspiratorially)

The boss is getting hoarse.

STEW

There's the third one. If I don't get the last one, there's a certain sob sister I know that's going to get a kick right in the . . . oh! Whoops, almost had that.

6. MED. CLOSE SHOT
Conroy, the City Editor at his desk, looking about with a scowl for Stew.

CONROY

(bellowing)

Stew! Stew Smith!

The Copy Boy races over to whisper something to Conroy.

CONROY

What? The screen?

7. CLOSE SHOT
On Stew Smith

STEW

Gallagher! I made it!

8. MEDIUM SHOT (FROM CONROY'S ANGLE)
The screen, concealing the washbasin corner.

CONTINUATION, SCENE 6
A wrathy Conroy, his eyes centering suspiciously on something. With his eyes on the screen, Conroy reaches out and grasps a heavy telephone book on the corner of his desk. Still looking off, he heaves it forcefully.

9. MED. CLOSE SHOT
Showing the screen. The telephone book crashes into it, overturning it and revealing Stew and Gallagher on the other side. They both look up, startled. The newsroom erupts in laughter.

CONTINUATION, SCENE 6
Conroy, glaring off fiercely.

CONROY

Come over here!

10. MEDIUM SHOT
Conroy at his desk. Stew saunters into the scene.

STEW

Look, I quit!

CONROY

Yeah?

STEW

Yeah.

CONROY

Yeah?

STEW

You're always picking on me. It took me three hours to get those little gadgets in those holes, and you screw it up in a minute. Hey, look!

He gives the hand-puzzle to Conroy, who is immediately captivated by the fascinating object in his hand.

11. CLOSE DOUBLE SHOT

STEW

(superior)

Mmm, not as easy as it looks, is it?

Conroy puts it down with a disgusted look.

CONROY

Aagh! No wonder you're batty. Would it be imposing too much upon you if I asked you to do a little work today? Just to sort of break the monotony?

STEW

With me you can always do business.

CONROY

Do you know what to do in a drawing-room?

STEW

It isn't a question of knowing what to do, it's knowing how to get in one that counts.

The telephone rings, Conroy answers it.

CONROY

(speaking on the phone)

Yeah, yeah. Okay, okay.

He hangs up, turns back to Stew.

Now listen, we've got a tip that the Schuyler family has finally made a deal with that chorus dame.

STEW

Gloria Golden?

CONROY

Yeah, little Gloria.

STEW

The human cash register. Got her hooks into the Schuyler kid, eh?

CONROY

Right - for the first time this year.

STEW

(modestly)

Well - it's only April.

CONROY

Come on, get going, get going!

STEW

(loftily)

Get going where? I can write that yarn without stepping out of the office.

CONROY

Yeah - and get us into a million dollar libel suit. It wouldn't be the first time. Now, you get over there and get a statement out of the old lady, the sister, or the kid. Any of them - but get it.

STEW

(resigned)

All right. Give me a voucher for expenses.

12. CLOSE DOUBLE SHOT (ANOTHER ANGLE)

CONROY

What expenses? All you need is carfare to Long Island....