| Inflating a Dog Screenplay
Chapter 5: Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl (in which we meet Patti Fiorenza) |
by Eric
Kraft
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The screen rights are available.
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INT. THE LEROY KITCHEN AND DINING
ROOM. THE NEXT DAY, SATURDAY. MORNING. Bert and Ella are drinking coffee
and reading the Babbington Reporter. Peter comes rushing through, carrying
a clipboard, headed out the kitchen door.
So long.PETERWhere are you going?BERTTo work.PETERBut Dudley and Eliza just left. You don’t have to check the house today.ELLAI’ve got a responsibility to uphold! I’m going to get right to work: look the place over, list the jobs that I’ll have to do . . .PETER(with feigned indignation)(showing his clipboard). . . make a schedule . . .Stay out of trouble.BERT(suspicious) CUT TO:
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EXT. THE BACK DOOR TO DUDLEY AND ELIZA’S
HOUSE. Peter pauses with the key in his hand, enjoying the drama.
He opens the door. He steps inside. He is in the kitchen.This door opens a new phase of my life.PETER(acting in his own movie) He walks the length of the hall that runs down the center of the house and looks through the front door. MUSIC UP: Mary Ann Fisher and the Raelettes singing Ray Charles’s “What Kind of Man Are You”: “What kind of man are you . . . I want to know . . .” Peter begins snooping. He opens dresser drawers . . . closets . . . and bedside tables . . . He reads the titles of books on the bookshelves . . . He tries on one of Dudley’s tweed suits. He sits in Dudley’s chair in front of the fire . . . drinking his Scotch . . . reading his diary . . . He stretches out on Dudley and Eliza’s bed . . . He sits at Dudley’s desk in Dudley’s study . . . He looks through the desk . . . He finds a photograph album in Dudley’s desk . . . He begins flipping through it . . . It is exclusively devoted to photographs of Ella, from about the age of 12 until she is pregnant with Peter at 19. He rummages in the desk for a magnifying glass and begins examining the images more closely. He finds Dudley as a youngish man, not bad-looking . . . He begins to think he sees in Dudley’s eyes a deepening affection for the dark-haired bobbysoxer next door: Ella. Does he see a flirtatious twinkle in Ella’s eyes when she’s looking at Dudley in these pictures? Yes. He does. And that twinkle makes him wonder. CUT TO:
EXT. PATTI FIORENZA’S HOUSE. BABBINGTON.
MORNING. It’s the first warm day in the spring, and it’s a school day.
The Fiorenzas live in a shabby house in a shabby part of town.
Wham! The screen door flies open, and there is PATTI.Pattieeeeee . . .PATTI’S MOTHER(from inside the house)I’m up. I’m up.PATTI(shouting back)Are you dressed?PATTI’S MOTHERI’m dressed. I’m dressed.PATTIThen go to school!PATTI’S MOTHER |
THIRTY SECONDS OF "WHAT KIND OF MAN ARE YOU" MARY ANN FISHER THE RAELETTES RAY CHARLES |
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| MUSIC UP: “Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl.”
She’s fourteen, a year older than Peter. Nature has assigned her a sexy part, and she plays it. She has a reputation . . . but is it deserved? Patti walks to school. Everyone pauses to watch her go by, and in her wake they sigh and indulge in wishful thinking. Among them are . . . OLD EBEN FLOOD, just a week shy of eighty-six, who tips his hat to her, then turns to ogle her bottom. MRS. DOROTHY INSKIP, a respectable matron, who sighs for her own lost youth and then, watching Patti, collides with HARRISON BARKER, bank president, who has also been distracted by the passing Patti. He’s an old flame of Dorothy’s; the flame is rekindled on the spot. And there are others, of course. Drivers lose their concentration . . . workmen whistle . . . even dogs play up to her. CUT TO:
INT. STILLMAN’S DELICATESSEN. Patti stops
to buy gum. She flirts with the CLERK, who trembles with desire.
Suddenly she notices the time on his watch, grabs his hand, turns his wrist
to check the time. She’s late! She dashes. He watches
her go, begins caressing his face with the hand she touched.
CUT TO:
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THIRTY SECONDS OF "GOOD MORNIN' LITTLE SCHOOLGIRL" VAN MORRISON |
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 |
 Here
are a couple of swell ideas from Eric Kraft's vivacious publicist, Candi
Lee Manning.
You'll find more swell ideas from Candi Lee here. |
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Copyright © 2001 by Eric
Kraft
The screenplay for Inflating a Dog is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, dialogues, settings, and businesses portrayed in it are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this teleplay may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. The illustration at the top of the page is an adaptation of an illustration by Stewart Rouse that first appeared on the cover of the August 1931 issue of Modern Mechanics and Inventions. The boy at the controls of the aerocycle doesn’t particularly resemble Peter Leroy—except, perhaps, for the smile. |
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