[siren wailing in distance]
[flashbulb snaps]
[officer] Turn to your left.
- Listen... - To your right.
Stop talking.
Face forward.
Castello. You made bail.
[Jack] What the fuck, Ernie? I was in there all night.
[Ernie] Well, I had to make a couple of phone calls
and hand-deliver $200 to the police superintendent.
I'm an actor, Ernie. I'm a serious actor. I can't have a record.
[Ernie] Yeah, you can. Ever heard of Frank Sinatra?
Look, I've been arrested a bunch of times.
Vice squads, they're just part of the gig.
The hypocrisy of it all is what this town is built on.
The movies hawk an image of wholesome American virtue, right?
The folks making those movies... rotten to the core.
What am I gonna tell my wife?
[engine starts]
[big band music playing]
[bell dings]
[big band music playing on radio]
[Ernie] Hey, Jack. Avis needs her tank filled again.
- Right now? - This afternoon.
Avis has never been a quick lay. I like that about her.
She's old-fashioned and romantic.
Sometimes she likes to be wined and dined, even if she's paying.
Today's Bugsy Siegel's estate sale in Beverly Hills.
Might even be the house he got shot in. That'd be kind of neat.
You'll need a suit.
Uh, Ernie, I can't stay out all night.
Look, my wife is gonna kill me, and I got that screen test, I got...
Ernie! Fuck.
[Avis] Vera.
Stanley.
Hello.
Thank you so much. Do I hear seventeen-five?
Seventeen-five?
- Seventeen-five right here for this... - Tell me I look pretty today, Jack.
[Jack] You do.
You always look beautiful.
You always smell rich.
[Avis chuckles]
Maybe later you'll take me dancing.
[Jack] Uh, yeah, maybe.
Sold right here for $17,500. Thank you, sir.
Up next? Lot number 102,
a soup tureen in sterling silver from Mr. Siegel's collection.
Now we will start the bidding for this item at $500. Who will give me 500?
Two thousand!
Two thousand dollars to the lady.
Thank you so much, at $2,000. Do I hear $2,100?
That's my soup tureen.
Bugsy borrowed it and never gave it back.
[Jack] Listen, about the dancing,
I got a screen test in the morning, so I really can't stay out all night.
This casting assistant's really going out on a limb for me.
I've never had a screen test before.
Where is it?
Uh, Ace Studios.
[auctioneer continues]
My husband is Ace Studios.
- [chuckles] - [laughing]
He's in Paris, wooing Gene Tierney back to Hollywood.
Home in the morning.
So...
tonight you take care of mama.
Tomorrow she takes care of you.
Twenty-four.
Three thousand to the lady in the back!
Three thousand's going once.
Three thousand is going twice!
Sold for $3,000 to the lucky lady in lavender.
Congratulations.
[Avis moaning]
Yes!
[moaning]
[knocking on door]
[woman] Who is it?
It's Raymond Ainsley.
I thought you were coming on Tuesday.
It is Tuesday, Miss Wong.
Should I come back some other time?
Please forgive my appearance.
Can I get you a Scotch?
[Raymond] Um...
No, thanks.
So, Mr. Ainsley,
what brings you to see the great ghost?
Well, I sent you a script that I wrote a few weeks back.
- I'm not sure if you had the... - Yes.
Angel of Shanghai, I quite liked it.
That's... that's wonderful!
I have to say, Miss Wong, that I've admired you for many, many years.
I think what happened with The Good Earth was just awful.
- Were you in the war? - Yes, I was. Navy.
But I've been studying filmmaking ever since I got home.
You see, I didn't like the way Asian people
were treated during the war in this country.
Vilified to boost morale, and... being half-Asian myself,
I resented that,
but I want to be making motion pictures that put us in a different light.
You're Asian?
Half-Filipino, yes.
Wow.
Asian lead. Half-Asian director.
Who do you think would go see this picture?
A good story is a good story, Miss Wong.
My word! You're naive.
They don't want a leading lady who looks like me.
That's the only thing the audience cares about.
You need proof?
My entire career...
oversexed, opium-addled courtesans,
dangerously exotic, Far Eastern temptresses.
That's what they wanted to see from someone who looks like me.
You have a good script, and you're probably quite talented...
but you'd do well if you asked yourself the million-dollar question.
Who is ever going to make this movie?
Ace Pictures.
I sent the script to Dick Samuels and his assistant called me and wants to meet.
Hey there, beautiful lady.
What are you doing?
Just saying hi before my big meeting.
What are you so afraid of? You're one of Ace Pictures' newest contract players.
Please. They're paying me $25 a week to take acting classes,
and they are not going to like seeing a white man kissing me.
Well, you may feel like an outsider,
but when these folks look at you, they don't see one.
[women laughing]
Who's holding court over there?
[sighs] My competition.
[laughter echoing]
Christ. I gotta go.
Good luck.
So why do you think you're here, Mr. Ainsley?
I presume you saw my film reel and read my script.
You wouldn't be here if I hadn't.
Well, guess who I got to play the lead.
Anna May Wong.
She'd be a tough sell to Mr. Amberg. We hear she's a bit of a drinker.
Well, the industry did that to her, but make no mistake, she is still a star.
We could resurrect her career,
get her the Oscar she should have gotten for The Good Earth.
Are you familiar with the story?
Familiar?
Kid, I was there.
Irving Thalberg produced that picture. I was his number two.
[sighs]
You don't have to make me look Asian.
I already am Asian.
Best screen test I'd ever seen.
Anna May was the only Asian movie star in town,
and here, finally, was a role she could shine in.
It was her big moment.
Ready when you are, Mr. Franklin.
She took it.
Head and shoulders above every other girl we tested.
The Good Earth, Anna May Wong, screen test, take one.
[director] Okay,
you're holding the body of your newborn child
and you hear the men in the other room
and you enter...
and action.
"Twelve pieces for all my land. I paid a hundred times that much.
Thieves. Thieves. And well you know I must sell."
No.
Not the land.
We will not sell the land.
We'll keep it.
We'll go south...
and when we return,
we'll still have the land.
"I've brought these men here.
You must sell."
Is it your land?
Did you buy it bit by bit?
The land is our life,
and it's better to go south or die walking than to give it to you for nothing.
And they exit.
Your husband Wong walks over to you.
"How could you walk anywhere with a child?"
[sobbing softly]
The child is dead.
[director] "Dead?
But I heard him crying."
The child is dead.
I was the one who had to tell her we were giving the role to Luise.
[man] And the Academy Award goes to...
Luise Rainer for The Good Earth!
This is Luise Rainer's second Oscar in as many years,
the first actress to achieve such a feat.
Wow. What a night for Miss Rainer. She looks over the moon!
Thank you so much.
I'd like to dedicate this Oscar to the late Irving Thalberg, whose dedication...
[Raymond] That's the saddest story I've ever heard.
What's so sad about it?
Picture was a hit. Thalberg was right.
You can't open a picture with a Chinese lead or a colored one.
- A number of theaters won't run it. - But you said she deserved the part.
Yes, but the hard fact is had she gotten it,
picture's not a hit.
How do you know that?
Excuse me?
Well, you never made the movie, so...
how do you know it's not a hit?
I gotta say, Mr. Samuels,
sometimes I think folks in this town don't really understand the power they have.
Movies don't just show us how the world is,
they show us how the world can be,
and if we change the way that movies are made,
you take a chance and you make a different kind of story,
I think you can change the world.
Here are some scripts that I'm, um...
that Mr. Amberg is excited about.
Read them.
If you find something you like, come back and let's talk.
Okay.
Uh...
All of them?
All of them.
[bell ringing]
[sighs]
[indistinct chatter]
[man] Let's have the actors on their marks.
[man 2] Jack Castello screen test. Take one.
If you don't mind, Mr. Alexander, I'd prefer to be left alone.
Why? So you can sit out here and feel sorry for yourself?
I should think you'd be happy your sister married him
and took him off your hands.
Clay was pretending to love me.
There's nothing left.
Oh, stop that sniveling before you drown yourself.
Your sister's the one to feel sorry for, but now you've got a wonderful excuse
to bog down in a lot of self-pity!
MacIvor was smarter than I thought he was.
I don't blame him in the least.
- Take me into the house. - You bet I'll take you in.
You can stay flat on your back till the world falls down!
Well, that was just about the worst screen test I've ever seen.
He just yelled at her the whole time. The poor girl was terrified.
He's raw,
but he sure as hell's got the right look.
The camera loves him.
The camera might love him more if he actually turned towards it.
I don't know, Dick. I've got a feeling about this one.
The boy is handsome. He's young.
This one has got "it." That thing.
Star power. Whatever you want to call it.
I don't always see it and neither do you.
I am telling you, I see it in him.
All I see is a kid who can't act his way out of a very loosely-cinched paper bag.
Oh, Richard! Let me remind you of our old MGM days.
- Oh, here we go. - William Powell.
- You said he couldn't act. - I still say that.
Oh, Dick. What can I tell you?
I found Lana Turner.
I found Judy Garland.
I found Vivien Leigh. I win.
[light chuckling]
What can I say?
I've just got a feeling about this kid.
You got to give me this one.
All right. All right, fine.
I know when I'm beat.
Prove me wrong.
Show me he's a star, I will consider him your personal project.
We'll put him under contract, see how he does.
Thank you, Richard, darling!
[big band music swells]
Jack Castello.
I'm Ellen Kincaid.
Ms. Kincaid, I'm so sorry. I know I'm not supposed to be here.
I just wanted to see the place, so I got a cup of coffee.
We watched your screen test, and it was terrible,
but I like your look, and with some training, you might have something.
So, Ace would like to put you on contract, $25 a week.
You're kidding me. Thank you!
Thank you, Ms. Kinkaid. I won't disappoint you.
You still might, Mr. Castello. Only time will tell.
[all] I have a duty, Mr. Wainwright, to God and country.
It's not I have a "doody."
It's duty. Liquid "u."
And the article "a" is pronounced "ah."
I have a duty, Mr. Wainwright.
[all] I have a duty, Mr. Wainwright, to God and country.
Not coun-try.
Country.
I have a duty, Mr. Wainwright...
[all] To God and country.
Claire, where does the mid-Atlantic accent come from?
The middle of the Atlantic.
And who lives in the middle of the Atlantic?
- No one. - Very good, Camille.
Mid-Atlantic is a made-up accent.
No one actually speaks this way naturally,
but it takes on some British inflections that add some refinement
to the otherwise flat and grating American dialect.
You ladies would do very well to speak in this dialect at all times.
Do you concur, Camille?
Concur, I do, Ms. Kincaid.
[Camille chuckles]
- [whispering indistinctly] - Oh, very well.
Camille, will you come with me?
I will be back presently.
They're putting her in a picture. I knew it.
That girl's a movie star.
She's the prettiest girl in here. I've said it all along.
She's not the prettiest, Betsy. Not by a long shot.
[chuckling]
Is this for the swashbuckling picture on Stage 12?
No, no, no. You're not right for that film.
Today, you'll be playing opposite Jeanne Crandall.
[Camille] Oh!
I don't care what my husband told you.
I care what he told me.
I will inherit all of his assets
and control of his business interests will be my responsibility.
Coffee, Ms. Delilah?
Yes.
I'll take it in my chambers.
[director] Cut!
[bell rings]
Let's do a pick-up.
[indistinct chatter]
I just wanna do one more.
Can we do the line a little more funny?
Is it a joke?
Just think, what would Hattie McDaniel do?
- Mm-hmm. - Yeah.
Back to one. Everybody take your places.
[man] Mr. Cooper's Widow, scene 63, pickup.
Jeanne, just pick it up from your last line.
[Jeanne] Yes, sir.
[director] Action.
[Jeanne] I don't care what my husband said to you.
I care what he said to me.
I will inherit all of his assets
and control of his business interests will be my responsibility.
Coffee, Ms. Delilah?
Yes.
I'll take it in my chambers.
Cut. Check the gate.
- Moving on. - [man] Moving on to scene nine!
[bell rings]
Very good, dear.
Nice adjustment.
["You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" playing]
[Camille] Raymond?
Hi, I'm in here.
How was the shoot?
Not much of a part. A servant.
It was humiliating, actually, but Jeanne Crandall was complimentary.
- Huh. - So, I officially got my foot in the door.
How was the meeting?
They gave me 25 scripts to read, and only one of them's any good.
It's called Peg. It's about, uh, Peg Entwistle,
the girl who killed herself jumping off the Hollywood sign.
Well, what about Anna May Wong?
Well, if I can make Peg into a hit,
maybe they'll let me do Angel of Shanghai next.
You know how it is. The way to be successful...
- [Camille]...is to have a success. - That's right.
[cork pops]
["You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" continues]
♪ Sang a lullabye... ♪
- What are you doing? - Getting ready to celebrate.
That's what I'm doing.
This was quite a big day.
You are about to direct a major motion picture...
Mm-hmm.
...and I just had my first role on camera.
You did.
♪ Burning above ♪
♪ You'd be so nice... ♪
Okay.
♪ You'd be paradise... ♪
All right.
♪ To come home to... ♪
You are...
♪ And love ♪
...so sexy.
♪ Under stars chilled by the winter ♪
[Raymond sighs]
Let me get that for you.
Oh, my God.
Okay. Get over here.
♪ You'd be paradise ♪
♪ To come home to... ♪
I don't think I could love you any more than I do right this second.
[both breathing heavily]
[woman moaning]
[breathing heavily]
[moaning]
[water runs, then shuts off]
[exhales]
[sighs] Hi, baby.
I'm sorry that went so long.
We shot till dawn.
So...
Did you get any sleep?
What... what are you doing?
Being pregnant's got me real hot and bothered.
[chuckling] Oh. Listen, baby, uh...
I'm so tired, it was such a long night.
- But listen... - Oh! I can smell her!
Twice this week you've been out all night.
What is she, rich? Because you reek like Amarone, Jack. Get out!
- Hang on, calm... - Get out!
- Calm down, it's... - [grunts]
Are you all right?
- What's the matter? - [muttering]
[Jack] Sweetheart?
Sweetheart, what is it?
Ow. Oh.
Doc, what the hell's going on?
- I'm going to lose the babies. - Just try to relax, ma'am.
Waiting room's down the hall.
- Mr. Castello. - Yes.
- How is she? Are the babies okay? - They're fine,
for the moment.
[sighs] Mr. Castello,
as a father of three myself, I'm going to ask:
do you want your twins to survive to full term?
What kind of a question is that? Of course I do.
Then your job for the rest of this pregnancy is to keep your wife calm.
Okay.
If you're fucking around, stop it.
Keep it in your pants.
Women always find out.
[ambient jazz playing]
[Raymond] At this point, she's a drinker, you know?
- [Archie] Yeah. - It's her big weakness.
So Hollywood has completely destroyed her, it has tarnished her shine.
So that scene in the, um,
- the casting director's office, right? - Yeah.
So we start the shot
and we pull back...
to reveal Peg sitting there, trying to hold it together.
'Cause that's our context now. The drinking. Her drinking.
She's no longer the woman she was when we met her.
Wow.
What can I say? I'm sold.
Can I ask you something?
Yeah.
How does a black man end up writing a picture
about a white girl who jumps off the Hollywood sign?
When I think of Peg Entwistle, I see myself.
I understand her rage.
Talented as the next gal, but never appreciated.
Never accepted.
Time ticked by while she watched her whole life,
everything she ever wanted slowly dripped away.
That crushes me.
So writing her story, I feel like I'm telling her,
"Peg, somebody's finally gonna break you into this business.
You and me both."
Well, I'll tell you something, Archie,
I'm gonna change the way they make movies in this town.
I'm gonna make sure that people like us aren't on the outside looking in anymore.
What do you mean, "people like us"?
Folks who aren't white.
- You ain't white? - Asian.
No.
Half.
- You're shitting me. - No.
My whole life I feel like I've been living in a really convincing costume.
[scoffs] Yeah.
But you could pass.
That ain't like being black.
- You sound like my girlfriend. - Hold up.
You're dating a sister?
Wow.
It's gotta be tough, though.
- Can you go out together? - Some places they don't mind.
The world's changing.
Maybe.
But it ain't changing fast.
So, Dick Samuels.
You think he knows?
Knows what?
That I'm black.
- He doesn't already know? - I never met anybody in person.
I mailed him my script,
he called me on the telephone, and I told him,
"Golly, Mr. Samuels, I'm just over the moon you like my script."
- [laughing] You did not do that. - I said, "Golly, Mr. Samuels." I did.
Well...
[clears throat] I hate to break it to you, buster, but...
I'm pretty sure he's gonna find out pretty soon.
[both laughing]
[Archie] Yes.
You do that voice or not, he's gonna know.
I'm glad I'm doing this with you, Raymond.
I think you and I want the same thing.
See, I wanna take the story of Hollywood and give it a rewrite.
So, maybe someday soon, when you ain't a half-Asian director,
who feels he has to hide it.
You'll just be a director.
I won't be a black writer writing about some white lady.
I'll just be a writer.
Wouldn't that be something?
To Peg.
["Let's Misbehave" playing]
[bell dings]
♪ Let's misbehave... ♪
Looky, looky, looky.
Came back for more, huh?
Can't stop thinking about you.
[both chuckling]
♪ Let's misbehave ♪
[both breathing heavily]
- That was nice. - Yeah.
I'm glad you liked it.
- I did too. - Yeah.
Yeah.
- [both chuckle] - Can I ask you something?
Why haven't you asked me to pay you yet?
You don't pay me. You pay Ernie.
Okay, well, why hasn't Ernie told me to pay him?
Because I haven't asked him to.
Well, why is that?
You like being with me, don't you?
Yeah, I suppose I do.
So what are we then?
- Boyfriends? - [Archie laughs]
You're somebody I tricked twice and didn't charge.
Boyfriend.
Can folks like you and me even have a boyfriend?
- I don't know. I'd hope so. - Yeah?
Well, I haven't seen it.
A boyfriend's somebody you take out on the town,
show him off on your arm.
You and I can't do that.
In a molly house, maybe, sure,
a couple queens clucking to each other, hanging off the bar. Whee!
But are they boyfriends?
I wouldn't call it that.
Boyfriend.
That just ain't our destiny.
- Yeah, but wouldn't it be nice? - Would it?
What's so nice about it?
I don't know. Growing old with somebody.
Not just someone to depend on if you don't make it in this town,
but even when you do, someone to share it with.
This place can get real lonely, Archie.
I know. I wrote a whole script about it.
That's what Peg's about,
and how being surrounded by people somehow makes the loneliness worse.
That's what I'm saying.
Wouldn't it be nice to have somebody to fall back on when it's all said and done?
Someone to look back on it with.
Maybe.
But we oughta be thinking about making it first.
Yeah, well, in that case, what are you... What are you, in a hurry?
I don't make much spending time with you.
Hold on a sec.
I got... I got an audition tomorrow.
It's just one line, and I don't think I got it yet.
Can I... can I run it with you?
Just...
[Archie sighs]
Yeah, so, Andrea McCloud, that's Barbara Stanwyck,
she's trying to get in the club, but I'm the bouncer
and Joe's told me specifically not to let her in.
[Archie] Okay. Let me see.
I'm here to see Joe. The name's Andrea McCloud.
No dice, lady. Mr. Cotton ain't takin' no visitors!
Ooh. Okay.
Maybe just throw it away a little bit more, you know?
- Throw it away. - Yeah.
Like, you're not angry.
It's your job, throwing people out.
So, try it more relaxed, you know, like you're saying,
"Kick rocks, toots.
I know Mr. Cotton, and he don't like no dames like you."
[chuckles] That's better! I should do it like that.
No, no, that's your subtext.
That's what you're thinking but not saying.
Okay? So think that, relax.
[clears throat]
I'm here to see Joe. The name's Andrea McCloud.
No dice, lady. Mr. Cotton ain't taking no visitors.
That's good.
- That felt good! - Yeah.
- Yeah! - That was good. Much better.
- Can we do it again? - Wanna do it again?
- Yeah. One more. - All right, again.
- [laughing] Okay. - One more.
[Archie] All right, you relaxed?
- [Roy] Yeah. - [Archie] Okay.
I'm here to see Joe. The name's Andrea McCloud.
[Roy] No dice, lady. Mr. Cotton ain't taking no visitors.
[Archie chuckling] You're so good.
- [Roy] Yeah? - [Archie] Again. Again.
I'm here to see Joe. The name's Andrea McCloud.
[Roy] No dice, lady. Mr. Cotton ain't taking no visitors.
[indistinct chatter]
Mrs. Ryman? I'm sorry to bother you.
I'm Camille Washington,
- one of your contract players. - Mm-hmm?
I know that Alfred Zeisler is casting a new crime drama, Parole, Inc.,
and there's a role for someone my age in it.
I was wondering if I might be considered for it.
No.
That's a white role, honey.
[Raymond] The music's still playing.
We're a crane shot, we're looking down now,
and as they roll the body away, we push in.
The little rag doll's just lying there on the hillside in the dirt,
and we tilt up to the view from the Hollywood sign,
the city stretching as far as the eye can see.
The music, it surges...
the end.
So, how does it feel?
What do you mean?
You just got your first picture green-lit, Raymond.
Congratulations.
Oh, oh, oh...
[chuckling] Mr. Samuels.
Well, you're not gonna be sorry, sir.
You don't know that, and neither do I, but... let's roll the dice.
Can I just, uh...
Let's say Peg is a hit,
do you think that Angel of Shanghai could be my next picture?
Come on, Raymond. I just changed your life.
Don't spoil it.
Cheers, kid.
Jack Castello?
Claire Wood.
A little birdie told me you just got offered a contract.
Yeah, how did...? Uh...
Still can't quite believe it myself.
My screen test was terrible. I gotta take classes and everything.
Well, this is Hollywood, Jack Castello.
If you want something, you have to declare it.
And it'll fall right in your lap.
Don't say, "I gotta take classes."
You say, "Yes, Claire Wood.
I'm going to be a star."
I'm going to be a star, Claire Wood.
[chuckles softly]
That's more like it.
You know,
they're about to green-light a picture about Peg Entwistle,
the nutcase who jumped off the Hollywood sign.
I'm perfect for it, and I'm going to get an audition.
They're casting her love interest, just so you know.
[phone rings]
Yes, sir.
Mr. Fitzgerald?
Roy Fitzgerald, this is Henry Willson.
Don't sit.
[door locks]
Where are you from, Roy?
Winnetka, a small town in Illinois.
You have any acting experience?
No.
Do you know something?
In all my years as an agent, you're the first one to ever admit that.
[chuckles softly]
Now sit.
Today is your lucky day, Roy Fitzgerald. I just decided...
to sign you.
[stammers] How is that possible? You haven't seen any of my work.
What work? You just said you haven't done anything.
You read for Anne Rogers last week.
She's casting the Barbara Stanwyck picture at MGM.
Yeah, well, I wasn't sure it had gone all that well...
It didn't. She said you were terrible.
You know what my talent is?
I know in the first 30 seconds if somebody's got what it takes to be a star,
and you,
believe it or not, you got it.
You got picture potential.
You're a big fella, but you're vulnerable, so men won't find you threatening,
and women and sissy boys will fantasize about you fucking 'em.
You're wholesome, you don't perspire. No pimples.
I mean, you smell like milk...
and you got secrets churning beneath the surface.
That's good.
Everything else we gotta work on.
We're gonna beef you up, and I don't mean eating hot dogs all day.
I'm talking about calisthenics. Charles Atlas kind of stuff.
You gotta tan every day. Quit picking at your fingernails.
We'll get you drama lessons, we'll fix your posture,
and then that voice of yours...
That's tinny.
So next time you get a cold, I want you to drive up into the mountains
and holler like a banshee.
That'll break your vocal cords,
and when they heal, you'll have a nice, low baritone.
I should... maybe write this all down.
Then there's the name.
Roy Fitzgerald, that ain't gonna work.
[Henry sighs]
Something like...
Rock.
Rock Hudson.
- Rock Hudson? - Yeah.
Rock Hudson's a movie star.
- Strong like the Rock of Gibraltar. - Ooh, uh...
You don't like what you're hearing? You can get the fuck out of my office.
Farm boys don't just roll into Hollywood and stumble into pictures.
They need somebody to show 'em the ropes,
to give them a real life character
that's every bit as scripted as any role you'll ever play on screen.
I won't just be your agent.
I'll be your godfather.
I tell you what to do. You do it and pay me ten percent.
If that sounds agreeable to you,
you can just sign this contract right here.
Uh, okay, I like the sound of that.
Yeah, I thought you might, but before we do that...
there is just one thing that we gotta get outta the way.
[Henry sighs]
I need to suck your cock.
Ex... excuse me?
It's my thing.
I got to do it.
Uh...
Look, Mr. Willson...
Don't sit there and pretend to be all offended, sissy boy.
You're a fruitcake, just like me.
Saw it the moment you swished through those doors.
You can't hide it yet, but I'll teach you how.
You won't be a homosexual once I'm through with you.
So, in return,
you're gonna drop your drawers
and let me suck you dry until your eyes cross, got it?
I'm not going to ask again.
[dramatic music playing]
[breathing deeply]
Mr. Ainsley, do come in.
I spoke to my agent.
He still thinks I'm delusional because no one at the studio
seems to know anything about Angel of Shanghai.
They're not making the picture.
I'm obliged to direct another film first,
but if it's a hit, then...
The movie's not getting made.
N... not right now. Not yet, but...
I'm going to insist.
No.
I'm telling you.
The movie's not getting made.
Not ever.
This town will never give that to someone like me.
Someone who can't pass.
I'm going to change that.
Good luck with your movie.
[door closes]
[Archie] In your wildest dreams,
did you ever think you'd have your own parking spot on the studio lot?
[Raymond] I don't know what it says about me, but, uh,
actually, yes, I did.
Archie?
- [chuckles] - What the heck are you doing here?
Jack...
They're making my picture!
You gotta be shitting me, that's incredible!
Yeah, this is Raymond Ainsley. He's the director.
Raymond, Jack Castello.
Mr. Ainsley, it's a real pleasure to meet you.
- I just got put on a contract. - Lying son of a bitch.
No fooling, I can hardly believe it myself.
- So what's this picture? - It's called Peg.
Peg.
Wow. Oh, wow.
Listen, I don't know if I'm supposed to do this, fellas,
but could I walk you to lunch?
I hear there's the part of a love interest.
Folks are telling me I would be perfect for it.
- Yeah, sure. Why not? - Well, okay. Terrific!
- Well, after you, Mr. Ainsley. - Thanks kindly, Mr. Castello.
Archie, it's so great to see you.
Wow! The three of us together, huh?
[Raymond] So how do you fellas know each other?
[Archie] Jack pumps gas with me down at the station.
He got me hired, as a matter of fact.
You don't say. I can't imagine you'll be pumping gas much longer.
I don't know, turned out to be a good gig.
- Isn't that right, Archie? - Best job I ever had.
- [Jack] I beg your pardon. - Why, hello, Jack Castello.
Let me introduce you to Avis Amberg.
Mrs. Amberg's husband runs Ace Pictures.
How do you do, Mrs. Amberg?
May I introduce Raymond Ainsley? He's directing Peg.
Very nice to meet you.
I've got some great casting ideas, whenever you want to hear them.
I can't wait. This is our screenwriter, Archie Coleman.
Pleasure to meet you both.
You're colored.
I love it.
You be good, Jack.
Well, boys...
lunch is on me.
[chuckling, chattering indistinctly]
[big band music playing]