Album: Sunset Boulevard

Back At The House On Sunset

Max
Where have you been?
Joe
Out. I assume I can go out when I feel like it
Max
Madame is quite agitated. Earlier this evening,
She wanted you for something and you could not be found.
Joe
Well, that's tough.
Max
I don't think you understand, Mr. Gillis,
Madame is extremely fagile. She has moment of melancholy. There have been suicide attempts.
Joe
Why? Because of her career? She done well enough.
Look at all the fan mail she gets everyday.
Max
I wouldn't look too closely at the postmarks if I were you.
Joe
You mean you write them?
Max
Will you be requiring some supper this evening, sir?
Joe
No. And Max
Max
Yes. sir?
Joe
Who the hell do you think you are,
Bringing my stuff up from my apartment
Without consulting me?
I have a life of my own-
Now you're telling me I'm supposed to be a prisoner here.
Max
I think, perhaps, sir,
You will have to make up your mind
To abide by the rules of this house.
That is, if you want the job.
Joe
I started work on the script
I hacked my way through the thicket
A maze of fragmented ramblings by a soul in limbo
She hoverd there like a hawk
Afraid I'd damage her baby.
Norma
What's that?
Joe
I thought we might cut away from the slave market...
Norma
Cut away from me?
Joe
Norma, they don't want you in every scene.
Norma
Of course they do.
What else would they have come for?
Put it back.
Joe
I'd made my first big mistake
I'd put my foot in the quick sand
It wouldn't be a few days paste and scissors
This would take weeks.
The house was always so quiet
Just me and Max and that organ
No one phoned and nobody ever came
And there was only one kind of entertainment on hand.
Max, what's on this evening?
I hope it's not one of her weepy melodramas.
Max
We'll be showing one of Madame's enduring classics:
"The Ordeal Of Joan Of Arc"
Joe
Oh, God, we saw that last week.
Max
A masterpiece can never fall
She is the greatest star of all.