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Keeping up with Hawks - Style in Cinema - filmmaker Howard Hawks
Style, Fall, 1998 by Lea Jacobs
HILDY. (She turns back to powdering her face.) Well, haven't you got anybody else?
WALTER. (He continues adjusting his tie and comes forward to her. He takes his cigarette out of his mouth with his right hand and puts his left, Napoleon style, inside his jacket.) No. No, there's nobody else on the paper that can write. This will break me. Unless . . . (He pauses at "unless" and then turns to look directly at her.) . . . Hildy (He takes his left hand out of his jacket making a broad gesture towards Russell as he says her name. She looks directly at him. Cut. Camera angled to show office door and file cabinets to the left and three-quarter view of Russell.)
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HILDY. No! Uh, uh. Not a chance, Walter. Don't bother me. Will you get going! (Russell snaps her compact closed on "No," shakes her right hand in a "no" gesture as she moves away from Grant, toward the rear of the set, and the camera reframes right. Grant tries to stop her, his hands on her arms, and after she moves out, Grant starts to follow her. At "get going," Duffy tries to come in the door, and Grant pushes him out, as he continues in his pursuit of Russell.)
WALTER. Hildy you're going to help me out now, just this once, now will you listen to me. . . Get out of here, Duffy, I'm busy. Now look Hildy, look darling . . .
A number of the gestures have important rhythmic functions as the two lines of business give way to a single chase. A clear sequence follows the word "unless." Grant pauses, turns to look at Russell, then takes his hand out of his jacket and gestures toward her. Both the pause and the movements underscore the moment in which he springs his trap and forcefully claims Russell's attention. She finally looks directly at him instead of in her mirror, and the sound of her compact snapping shut is timed to coincide with the stressed word "no" which, like the gunshot at the beginning of a race, initiates the flight and pursuit around the table.
The sixth section is comprised of a 36 second chase around the table. All of the dialogue save for three lines is overlapped and the rate of delivery is 6.3 w/s. Note the interruption of the action as Duffy tries to get Walter's attention, putting his head in the door and getting pushed out again. In a way that is analogous to the verbal interruptions discussed above, this interruption helps to pick up the pace by increasing the density of events occurring within a fixed duration. The rest of the blocking and gestures are rapid and extensive, as Grant tries to grab hold of Russell but she manages to push him away while still holding purse and compact, turning back to hurl insults as she moves ahead and, when he finally catches up to her, punctuating her epithet "Scram, Svengali!" with the action of throwing her compact in her purse. About three fourths of the way around the table, they stand in place facing one another and argue in the fastest verbal part of this section. The segment ends with Grant moving up to the desk to answer the phone, in the position in which the chase began, and Russell following behind, tearing off her glove to show him her engagement ring.
