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gc #B-33594 10
24 CONTINUED 24
PROF. PUTMAN
I know it, Tom. May I call you Tom?
BURKE
I'm honored.
PROF. PUTMAN
(sighs, then)
I'm glad she's taken to you. I'm
really too old for her. Science.
Immersion in abstracts. Theories.
No time for normalities. Humanity.
A late marriage, as you would
expect. Efforts to conceive, and
then -- her mother dead. I do my
best, but Ginny's young and needs
young people around.
(of the papers)
Funny. I feel as if I can really
get down to it now.
PROF. PUTMAN
Have you any idea what this is all
about?
Burke is actually afraid to know.
BURKE
No sir.
PROF. PUTMAN
No? No curiosity whatsoever?
BURKE
I -- I've tried to condition my-
self, sir.
PROF. PUTMAN
To what?
BURKE
To what's none of my business.
PROF. PUTMAN
But this is your business. It is
the business of all mankind, but --
(sardonically)
-- unfortunately mankind is not
yet permitted to know of it.
BURKE
If you'll excuse me, sir.
(a feigned yawn)
Little girls can lead you a merry
chase. Think I'll turn in now.
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gc #B-33594 11
25 BURKE & PROF. PUTMAN 25
PROF. PUTMAN
Of course. Goodnight, Tom.
26 BURKE 26
Moving toward the door leading to the other adjoining room,
he opens it and looks back.
27 HIS POINT OF VIEW - PROF. PUTMAN 27
already immersed in his mysterious work.
28 BURKE 28
Alone with his thoughts, he enters the room and shuts the
door.
29 EXT. COUNTRY LANE - COTTRELL - DAY 29
standing beside his parked car.
COTTRELL
Good -- he's working.
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30 BURKE AND COTTRELL 30
Burke paces agitatedly a few feet away.
BURKE
But I don't like it.
COTTRELL
Neither do I. I'm a doctor of the
mind, and it's my job to heal. What
would you think of a doctor who
deliberately encouraged cancer in
a man because it increased his IQ?
BURKE
Wouldn't that depend on what he
does with that IQ?
For a moment Cottrell is silent with indecision.
COTTRELL
I can't tell you what he's working
on, but I will say I feel he'd be
CONTINUED
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gc #B-33594 12
30 CONTINUED 30
COTTRELL (cont'd)
better off dead. A stranger, some
incident, any one of a thousand
things could make him realize he's
been living in a dream.
(a pause)
If you can't live with a thing you
escape from it, and he's escaping
by forgetting. The trouble is, he
can never forget enough, so he
keeps trying. Dementia praecox...
is not nice.
BURKE
But with proper therapy...
COTTRELL
Damn it, they won't give us time!
They want what he can do now, so
they give him his dream until he's
done the dirty work, and then...
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Anticipating, Burke is incredulous.
BURKE
Forget him? Let him go mad?
COTTRELL
(furiously)
Why not? What better way to safe-
guard that knowledge than letting
his brain lapse into total insanity?
(a pause)
What possible good could he be then
to any foreign power?
BURKE
No. We wouldn't do anything like
that.
COTTRELL
No? My profession is understanding
the human mind. A group of men.
Split responsibility. Avoidance of
guilt. Add: security, patriotism,
fear, the natural desire to take
the easy path, and the even more
natural desire to be all-powerful
...and you'll see, the professor
doesn't stand a chance.
31 BURKE 31
reacting with sadness and apprehension.
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