GEOFFREY: | Around that time, I’d just read Emily Bronte’s ‘Wurthering Heights’. I also went to see Laurence Olivier as Heathcliffe and Merle Oberon as Cathy in the film at the local Odeon. What a film that was and what an effect it was to have. |
EXCERPT FROM THE FILM’S ORIGINAL SOUND-TRACK: WITH LAURENCE OLIVIER AS HEATHCLIFFE AND MERLE OBERON AS CATHY |
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HEATHCLIFFE: | Why isn’t there the smell of heather in your hair? |
CATHY: | Oh, Heathcliffe, why won’t you let me come near you? You’re not dirty and horrible as they all think. You’re full of pain. I can make you happy. Let me try. You won’t regret it. I’ll be your slave. I can bring life back to you. |
HEATHCLIFFE: | Why are your eyes always empty? |
TAKE THE FILM SOUND-TRACK BACK BEHIND GEOFFREY’S NARRATION AND GRADUALLY LOSE IT. |
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GEOFFREY: | (NARRATING) Sitting in the front stalls and absorbing all the high drama, an idea occurred to me. Now although I didn’t feel I stood a dog’s chance of attracting any girls on my own merits, it seemed possible, just possible, that if I could present myself to them as an imitation of Heathcliffe, even as an imitation of Laurence Olivier, I might possibly make some sort of headway. At nights in my bedroom I tried, not very successfully, to imitate his beautiful, carefully delineated voice. |
SCENE: GEOFFREY’S BEDROOM. |
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GEOFFREY: | (ALOUD) Your hair smells of the heather, Cathy. No. Your hair! – (BUT HIS VOICE TURNS INTO A SQUAWK) Your hair – (STILL NOT CONVINCED) Oh blast! (PAUSE) Your hair smells…. that’s better. Your hair smells of the heather.
(NARRATING) When I tried the Heathcliffe touch with the dumpy little blonde girl at the youth club, the result was slightly embarrassing. |
SCENE: YOUTH CLUB |
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GEOFFREY: | (OLIVIER IMITATION) Can I get you a cup of coffee, Mary? |
MARY: | I don’t mind. |
GEOFFREY: | You like coffee, Mary? |
MARY: | Are you feeling all right? |
GEOFFREY: | Feeling all right, Mary? |
MARY: | Have you got a cold or something? |
GEOFFREY: | No. Why? |
MARY: | You sound different. |
As you read and listen to the scene imagine your own pictures. They may be quite different and more vivid and colourful than the images below.
(SCENE 11. KITCHEN. FX: A LOUD HAND BELL TOLLS. A SMALL CROWD GATHERS, CHATTING LOUDLY.) |
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LUDMILLA (QUEEN MOTHER): |
(SHOUTING ABOVE THE DIN) Is everybody here and will somebody have that bell silenced? Is everybody here? |
(FX: MASSIVE BANGING OF SAUCEPAN WITH SPOON) |
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CRONE: |
Quiet. A bit of quiet in my kitchen. |
(SILENCE) |
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CRONE: |
I should think so. |
LUDMILLA: |
Thank you Crone. Vlad? Good. Otto and Sigmund. Spy? Good. Listen. We have a crisis. Listen. The king is nowhere to be found and there is a page missing. |
CRONE: |
Isn’t that just typical? |
LUDMILLA: |
What? |
CRONE: |
Always the same; just when it gets exciting. Just as you get to the best bit of the book. Just when you are get to know – |
LUDMILLA: |
(Over-riding) We are here to discover where he may have gone and what must be done; remembering of course that security is notoriously lax during the Christmas period and that Slavnik agents are known to be at hand. Speak. |
(THIS SECTION SHOULD MOVE VERY FAST) |
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OTTO: |
We saw him, Lady, up at his window. |
SIGMUND: |
This evening, early on. |
LUDMILLA: |
What were the conditions? |
OTTO: |
Snow lying, Lady. |
SIGMUND: |
Levelled and honed by the wind and the frost. |
OTTO: |
Terrible frost, Lady. |
SIGMUND: |
Cruel. |
LUDMILLA: |
Suspicious circumstances? |
SIGMUND: |
A poor man, Lady, hanging about. |
OTTO: |
Said he was looking for wood. |
SIGMUND: |
Then the King called down for young Mark. That’s his page.. |
CRONE: |
Mark the page? Nasty habit. |
LUDMILLA: |
Thank you, Crone. |
OTTO: |
Only the boy was down with us, you see, Lady. |
HARRY THE SPY: |
That’s right. If you remember up he came to the room, while we were there. After we’d gone the King ordered him to the window and pointed out this so-called-though-now-infinitely- suspicious poor man.. |
CRONE: |
Oh, no. ‘Peasant’ he said he was.. |
SIGMUND: |
Who said who aid who was? |
CRONE: |
The boy said the King said the poor man was.. |
VLADIMIR: |
Certainly, Lady Ludmilla, it was upon the basis that the poor man was a positive peasant that I calculated the relevant provisions. |
HARRY: |
Anyway, the King asked the boy who this poor man or peasant was and where he was from, what sort of house he had. |
LUDMILLA: |
But how do you know all this? |
HAARY: |
Listened through the key hole. That’s my job. I’m a spy. |
OTTO: |
The pageboy – he’d be able to give all this information because he’d heard us question the man. |
SIGMUND: |
Yes. Lives just over three miles away. |
OTTO: |
Foot of the forest. |
SIGMUND: |
Just follow the fence. |
OTTO: |
Along to St. Agnes fountain. |
EVERYBODY: |
Where? |
LUDMILLA: |
Anyway. |
VLADIMIR: |
Anyway – flesh, wine and logs were required: pine logs. |
CRONE: |
They were going to deliver it all and be back in time for dinner.. |
OTTO: |
Wait a minute – |
SIGMUND: |
The walking woodpile? |
OTTO: |
Right. |
SIGMUND: |
We saw them leave the palace, Lady. Just when the blizzard was starting up.. |
LUDMILA: |
So what we have so far is this: |
(THE BREAK-NECK PACE SLOWS DOWN NOW. AS THE NARRATIVE IS TOLD IN THE PALACE, THE MUSIC OF THE CAROL SHOULD CREEP IN BEHIND THE WORDS) |
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LUDMILA: |
Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the feast of Stephen, when the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even. Brightly shone the moon that night – though the frost was cruel – when a poor man came in sight, gathering winter fuel.’ |
CRONE: |
Fuel? |
VLADIMIR: |
Fuel. |
HARRY: |
‘Hither page and stand by me, if thou knowest its telling: yonder peasant who is he? Where and what his dwelling?’ |
OTTO: |
‘Sire, he lives a good legue hence’ |
SIGMUND: |
‘Underneath the mountain Hard against the forest fence’ |
OTTO: |
‘By St.Agnes fountain.’ |
CRONE: |
Where? |
VLADIMIR: |
‘Bring me flesh and bring me wine. Bring me pine-logs hither. Thou and I shall see him dine e’er we dine together.’ |
OTTO: |
‘Page – |
SIGMUND: |
‘And Monarch – |
OTTO : |
Forth they went; |
OTTO/SIGMUND: |
‘Forth they went together |
ALL: |
‘Through the rude wind’s wild lament |
(STOP MUSIC) |
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LUDMILLA: |
‘And the bitter weather’. Yes I see. Guards! |
OTTO/SIGMUND: |
Yes, Lady? |
LUDMILLA: |
Spy? |
HARRY: |
Yes, Lady? |
LUDMILLA: |
After them. We shall await further reports. (PAUSE) Who was carrying this several hundred-weight of fatuous good will? |
OTTO: |
The boy. |
LUDMILLA: |
As I thought. And who was leading the way? |
SIGMUND: |
The King. |
LUDMILLA: |
Precisely. They won’t have gone far. Away this moment. |
CRONE: |
Does this mean you want dinner held up? |
LUDMILLA: |
Well since there will be nobody to eat it .. |
CRONE: |
Eight thirty, he said.you know what he’s like; and it’s eight fifteen now. |
LUDMILLA: |
Go. |
CRONE: |
More than my job’s worth to be late. |
LUDMILLA: |
For God’s sake, go! |
VLADIMIR: |
I obey, lady. But first a change of disguise. No more the everyday acoutrements of a palace lackey, instead – |
(AMAZING SOUND EFFECTS OF WHOOSHING, WHIRLY GIGS, CREAKING AND BELLS) |
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VLADIMIR: |
A giant Pyrenean Mountain dog. Woof! Woof! |