Thursday, April 23, 2009

Gone With The Wind - script 02

Party at Twelve Oaks

(the O'Haras drive to Twelve Oaks for the barbeque there.)
Mr. O'HARA: Well, John Wilkes. It's a grand day. You'll be having for the barbecue.
JOHN WILKES: So it seems, Gerald. Why isn't Mrs. 0'Hara with you?
Mr. O'HARA: She's after settling accounts with the overseer, but she'll be along for the ball tonight.
INDIA: Welcome to Twelve Oaks, Mr. O'Hara.
Mr. O'HARA: Thank you kindly India. (to John Wilkes) Your daughter is getting prettier everyday, John.
JOHN WILKES: Oh, India, here are the O'Hara girls, we must greet them.
INDIA: Can't stand that Scarlett. If you'd see the way she throws herself at Ashley.
JOHN WILKES: Now, now, that's your brother's business. You must remember your duties as hostess. Good morning, Girls! You look lovely. Good morning, Scarlett.

SCARLETT: India Wilkes. What a lovely dress. I just can't take my eyes off it.


(Scarlett enters the hall with her family.)
MAN1: Good morning, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Morning.
MAN2: Look mighty fine this morning, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Thank you.
MANS: Morning, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Good Morning.
MAN4: Pleasure to see you, Miss Scarlett.
MANS: Howdy, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: Ashley!
ASHLEY: Scarlett! My dear!
SCARLETT: I've been looking for you everywhere. I've got something I must tell you. Can't we go some place where it's quiet?
ASHLEY: Yes I'd like to, but... I've something to tell you, too. Something I...I hope you'll be glad to hear. Now come and say hello to my cousin, Melanie Wilkes.
SCARLETT: Oh, do we have to?
ASHLEY: She's been looking forward to seeing you again. Melanie! Here's Scarlett.
MELANIE: Scarlett. I'm so glad to see you again.
SCARLETT: Melanie Hamilton, what a surprise to run into you here. I hope you're going to stay with us a few days at least.
MELANIE: I hope I shall stay long enough for us to become real friends, Scarlett. I do so want us to be.

ASHLEY: We'll keep her here, won't we, Scarlett?
SCARLETT: Oh, we'll just have to make the biggest fuss over her, won't we, Ashley? And if there's anybody who knows how to give a girl a good time, it's Ashley. Though I expect our good times must seem terribly silly to you because you're so serious.
MELANIE: Oh, Scarlett. You have so much life. I've always admired you so, I wish I could be more like you.
SCARLETT: You mustn't flatter me, Melanie, and say things you don't mean.
ASHLEY: Nobody could accuse Melanie of being insincere. Could they, my dear?
SCARLETT: Oh, well then, she's not like you. Is she, Ashley? Ashley never means a word he says to any girl. (to Charles) Oh, why Charles Hamilton, you handsome old thing, you.
CHARLES: But, oh. Miss O'Hara...
SCARLETT: Do you think that was kind to bring your good-looking brother down here just to break my poor, simple country-girl's heart?

(India and Sue Ellen are watching Scarlett in distance)
ELLEN: Look at Scarlett, she's never even noticed Charles before, now just because he's your beau, she's after him like a hornet!
SCARLETT: Charles Hamilton, I want to eat barbecue with you. And Mind you, don't go philandering with any other girl, 'cause I'm mighty jealous.
CHARLES: I won't, Miss O'Hara. I couldn't!  
SCARLETT: I do declare, Frank Kelly, you don't look dashing with that new set of whiskers.
FRANK: Oh, thank you, thank you, Miss Scarlett.
SCARLETT: You know Charles Hamilton and Ray Kelvert asked me to eat barbecue with them, but I told them I couldn't because I'd promised you.
INDIA: You needn't be so amused, look at her. She's after your beau now.
Frank: Oh, that's mighty flattering of you, Miss Scarlett. I'll see what I can do, Miss Scarlett.
KATHLEEN: What's your sister so mad about, Scarlett, you sparking her beau?
SCARLETT: As if I couldn't get a better beau than that old maid in britches. Brent and Stew, do talk, you handsome old thing, you...oh, no, you're not, I don't mean to say that I'm mad at you.
BRENT: Why Scarlett honey...
SCARLETT: You haven't been near me all day and I wore this old dress just because I thought you liked it. I was counting on eating barbecue with you two.
BRENT: Well, you are, Scarlett...
STEW: Of course you are, honey.
SCARLETT: Oh, I never can make up my mind which of you two's handsomer. I was awake all last night trying to figure it out. Kathleen, who's that?
KATHLEEN: Who?
SCARLETT: That man looking at us and smiling. A nasty dog.

KATHLEEN: My dear, don't you know? That's Rhett Butler. He's from Charleston. He has the most terrible reputation.
SCARLETT: He looks as if, as if he knows what I looked like without my shimmy.
KATHLEEN: How? But my dear, he isn't received. He's had to spend most of his time up North because his folks in Charleston won't even speak to him. He was expelled from West Point, he's so fast. And then there's that business about that girl he wouldn't marry...
SCARLETT:Tell, tell...
KATHLEEN: Well, he took her out in a buggy riding in the late afternoon without a chaperone and then, and then he refused to marry her!
SCARLETT: (whisper)...
KATHLEEN: No, but she was ruined just the same.


(Ashley and Melanie, on the balcony open to the garden.)
MELANIE: Ashley..
ASHLEY: Happy?
MELANIE: So happy
ASHLEY: You seem to belong here. As if it had all been imagined for you.
MELANIE: I like to feel that I belong to the things you love.
ASHLEY: You love Twelve Oaks as I do.
MELANIE: Yes, Ashley. I love it as, as more than a house. It's a whole world that wants only to be graceful and beautiful.

ASHLEY: And so unaware that it may not last, forever.
MELANIE:  You're afraid of what may happen when the war conies, aren't you?  Well, we don't have to be afraid. For us. No war can come into our world Ashley. Whatever comes, I'll love you, just as I do now. Until I die.


(Out door, at the garden, men around Scarlett)
SCARLETT: Isn't this better than sitting at a table? A girl hasn't got but two sides to her at a table. (laughing)
MAN: I'll go get her dessert.
MAN2: Here, she said me.
MAN: Allow me, Miss O'Hara.
SCARLETT: I think... mmmh… I think Charles Hamilton may get it.
CHARLES: Oh, thank you, Miss O'Hara! Thank you.
MAN: Go get it.
MAN: Isn't he the luckiest...?
CHARLES: (back with dessert) Miss O'Hara...I… I love you.
SCARLETT: (saw Ashley and Melanie are walking together, very upset and push away) I… I don't guess I'm as hungry as I thought.


(Noon time, At the bedroom, girls read for siesta)
SCARLETT: Why do I have to take a nap? I'm not tired.
MAMMY: Well-brought-up young ladies take naps at parties. And it's high time you started behaving and acting like you was Miss Ellen's daughter.
SCARLETT: When we were at Saratoga I didn't notice any Yankee girls taking naps.
MAMMY: No, and you ain't gonna see no Yankee girls at the ball tonight neither.
SUELLEN: How was Ashley today, Scarlett? He didn't seem to be paying much attention to you.
SCARLETT: You mind your own business! You'll be lucky not to lose ol' whisker-face Kennedy.
SUELLEN: You've liked Ashley for months! His engagement's gonna be announced tonight. Pa said so this morning.
SCARLETT: That's all you know.
MAMMY: Miss Scarlett! Miss Suellen! You all behave yourselves. Acting like poor, white-trash children! If you's old enough to go to parties, you's old enough to act like ladies.
SCARLETT: Who cares!


(the gentlemen are gathering in the downstair hall, talking about the war.)
Mr. O'HARA: We've borne enough insults from the meddling Yankees. It's time we made them understand we ‘ll keep our slaves with or without their approval. Who's to stop them right from the state of Georgia to secede from the Union.
MAN: That's right.
Mr. O'HARA: The South must assert herself by force of arms. After we fired on the Yankee rascals at Fort Sumter, we've got to fight. There's no other way.
MAN1: Fight, that's right, fight!
MAN2: Let the Yankee's be the ones to ask for peace.
Mr. O'HARA: The situation is very simple. The Yankees can't fight and we can.
CHORUS: You're right!
MANS: There won't even be a battle. That's what I'll think! They'll just turn and run every time.
MAN1: One Southerner can lick twenty Yankees.
MAN2: We'll finish them in one battle. Gentlemen can always fight better than rattle.
MANS: Yes, gentlemen always fight better than rattle.
Mr. O'HARA: And what does the captain of our troop say?
ASHLEY: Well, gentlemen...if Georgia fights, I go with her. But like my father I hope that the Yankees let us leave the Union in peace.
MAN1: But Ashley...
MAN2: Ashley, they've insulted us.
MANS: You can't mean that you don't want war.
ASHLEY: Most of the miseries of the world were caused by wars. And when the wars were over, no one
ever knew what they were about.
Mr. O'HARA: Now gentlemen, Mr. Butler has been up North, I hear. Don't you agree with us, Mr. Butler?
HETT BUTLER : I think it's hard winning a war with words, gentlemen.
CHARLES: What do you mean, sir?
RHETT: I mean, Mr. Hamilton, there's not a cannon factory in the whole South.
MAN: What difference does that make, sir, to a gentleman?
RHETT: I'm afraid it's going to make a great deal of difference to a great many gentlemen, sir.
CHARLES: Are you hinting, Mr. Butler, that the Yankees can lick us?
RHETT: No, I'm not hinting. I'm saying very plainly that the Yankees are better equipped than we. They've got factories, shipyards, coal mines... and a fleet to bottle up our habours and starve us to death. All we've got is cotton, and slaves and ...arrogance.
MAN: That's treacherous!
CHARLES: I refuse to listen to any renegade talk!
RHETT: Well, I'm sorry if the truth offends you.
CHARLES: Apologies aren't enough, Sir. I hear you were turned out of West Point Mr. Rhett Butler. And that you
aren't received in an decent family in Charleston. Not even your own.
RHETT: I apologize again for all my shortcomings. Mr. Wilkes, Perhaps you won't mind if I walk about and look
over your place. I seem to be spoiling everybody's brandy and cigars and...dreams of victory.

(Rhett Butler leaves the hall.)
MAN: Well, that's just about what you could expect from somebody like Rhett Butler.
Mr. O'HARA: You did everything but call him out.
CHARLES: He refused to fight.
ASHLEY: Not quite that Charles. He just refused to take advantage of you.
CHARLES: Take advantage of me?
ASHLEY: Yes, he's one of the best shots the country, he's proved a number of times, against steadier hands and
cooler heads than yours.
CHARLES: Well, I'll show him.
ASHLEY: No, no no, please, don't go tweaking his nose anymore. You may be needed for more important fighting, Charles. Now if you'll excuse me, Mr. Butler's our guest... I think I'll just show him around.


(Ashley leaves the hall with intention of walking Butler around the house. But before he can do this, Scarlett calls him into a detached room.)
SCARLETT: Ashley!
ASHLEY: Scarlett...who are you hiding from here? What are you up to? Why aren't you upstairs resting with the other girls? What is this, Scarlett? A secret?
SCARLETT: Well, Ashley, Ashley...! love you.
ASHLEY: Scarlett...
SCARLETT: I love you, I do.
ASHLEY: Well, isn't it enough that you gathered every other man's heart today? You always had mine. You cut your teeth on it.
SCARLETT: Oh, don't tease me now. Have I your heart my darling? I love you, I love you...
ASHLEY: You mustn't say such things. You'll hate me for hearing them.
SCARLETT: Oh, I could never hate you and, and I know you must care about me. Oh, you do care, don't you?
ASHLEY: Yes, I care. Oh can't we go away and forget we ever said these things?
SCARLETT: But how can we do that? Don't you, don't you want to marry me?
ASHLEY: I'm going to marry Melanie.
SCARLETT: But you can't, not if you care for me.
ASHLEY: Oh my dear, why must you make me say things that will hurt you? How can I make you understand? You're so young and I'm thinking, you don't know what marriage means.
SCARLETT: I know I love you and I want to be your wife. You don't love Melanie.
ASHLEY: She's like me, Scarlett. She's part of my blood, we understand each other.
SCARLETT: But you love me!
ASHLEY: How could I help loving you? You have all the passion for life that I lack. But that kind of love isn't enough to make a successful marriage for two people who are as different as we are.
SCARLETT: Why don't you say it, you coward? You're afraid to marry me. You'd rather live with that silly little fool who can't open her mouth except to say "yes", "no",and raise a houseful of mealy-mouthed brats just like her!
ASHLEY: You mustn't say things like that about Melanie.
SCARLETT: Who are you to tell me I mustn't? You led me on, you made me believe you wanted to marry me!
ASHLEY: Now Scarlett, be fair. I never at any time...
SCARLETT: You did, it's true, you did! I'll hate you till I die! I can't think of anything bad enough to call you...


(Ashley leaves. Scarlett throws a vase to the wall in anger. The crashing of the vase startles Rhett Butler. He rises up from the couch in a dark corner of the room.)

RHETT: Has the war started?
SCARLETT: Sir, you...you should have made your presence known.
RHETT: In the middle of that beautiful love scene? That wouldn't have been very tactful, would it? But don't worry. Your secret is safe with me.
SCARLETT: Sir, you are no gentleman.
RHETT: And you, Miss, are no lady. Don't think that I hold that against you. Ladies have never held any charm for me.
SCARLETT: First you take a low, common advantage of me, then you insult me!
RHETT: I meant it as a compliment. And I hope to see more of you when you're free of the spell of the elegant
Mr. Wilkes. He doesn't strike me as half good enough for a girl of your...what was it... your "passion for living"?
SCARLETT: How dare you! You aren't fit to wipe his boot!
RHETT: And you were going to hate him for the rest of your life.

(Melanie and Girls walk down the stair, talking about Scarlett…)
INDIA: She certainly made a fool of herself running after all the men at the barbecue.
MELENIE: That's not fair, India. She's so attractive, the men just naturally flock to her.
INDIA: Oh, Melanie, you're just too good to be true.
Girl: Didn't you see her going after your brother, Charles?
INDIA: Yes, and she knows Charles belongs to me.
MELENIE: Oh, you're wrong, India. Scarlett's just high-spirited and vivacious.
INDIA: Men may flirt with girls like that but they don't marry them.
MELENIE: I think you're being very mean to her.


(Outside, there's chaos. Gentlemen, including Ashley, are leaving for the call of war.)
MAN: War! War's declared! War!
CHARLES: Miss O'Hara!! Miss O'Hara, isn't it thrilling? Mr. Lincoln has called the soldiers, volunteers to fight
against us.
SCARLETT: Oh, fiddle-dee-dee. Don't you men ever think about anything important?
CHARLES: But it's war, Miss O'Hara! And everybody's going off to enlist, they're going right away. I'm going,
too!
SCARLETT: Everybody?
CHARLES: Oh, Miss O'Hara, will you be sorry? To see us go, I mean.
SCARLETT: I'll cry to my pillow every night.
CHARLES: Oh, Miss O'Hara, I've told you I loved you. I think you're the most beautiful girl in the world. And the sweetest, the dearest. I know that I couldn't hope that you could love me, so "clumsy and stupid, not nearly good enough for you. But if you could, if you could think of marrying me, I'd do anything in the world for you, just anything, I promise!
SCARLETT: Oh, what did you say?
CHARLES: Miss O'Hara, I said, would you marry me?
SCARLETT: Yes, Mr. Hamilton, I will.
CHARLES: You will, you'll marry me? You'll wait for me?
SCARLETT: Well, I don't think I'd want to wait.
CHARLES: You mean you'll marry me before I go? Oh, Miss O'Hara...Scarlett...when may I speak to your father?
SCARLETT: The sooner, the better.
CHARLES: I'll go now, I can't wait. Will you excuse me? Dear? Dear!


(At the same time, Ashley and Melanie in the garden)
ASHLEY: It'll be a week at least before they call on me.
MELENIE: Only a week, and then they'll take you away from me.

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