[clicking]
[sad music playing]
[Claire weeping]
[dirt thuds]
[Jack] Feels like part of my insides have been ripped out.
[Archie] Hmm.
Ace was a good man. It's okay to be sad, Jack.
I'm not talking about Ace, I'm talking about our movie.
I'm talking about Meg.
Destroying a print, it's a sin.
It's like... it's like burning The Mona Lisa.
Can we not talk about that, please?
It's over. It's all over.
Nah, hold on, hold on. Avis is running the studio now.
You know, she fired the lawyers that did it.
This was her passion project.
I just think we should talk to her, you know?
Tell her we're going to reshoot the whole thing.
Half a million dollars just went up in smoke.
Now we're going to go back and ask for the same amount again?
Never gonna happen.
Look, it was an honor working with you fellas.
I'm proud of you.
[Jack] So long, fellas.
See you, Jack.
- See you around. - Archie.
[Harry] Raymond!
Ray!
Harry!
Come on, walk with me.
I wanted to tell you something.
You remember me bragging about giving it to...
Gloria Swanson?
That was way out of line.
Joe Kennedy had just dumped her.
We never really shtupped anyway.
- It was just, uh, straight-up cunnilingus. - Is that what you wanted to tell me?
No, I gotta ask you a question.
Avis is now in full control of the studio, right?
- Yeah. - Good.
When that slimy piece of garbage, Henry Willson,
started fucking with your film,
I knew I had to make a copy of your cut for safekeeping.
I did the same thing for Wizard of Oz,
when some idiot producer wanted to cut Somewhere Over the Rainbow,
if you could believe it.
I made a print, took it home, it stayed in the picture.
That's your movie, kid.
You know what this means, don't you?
You're still in the game.
[laughing]
[big band music playing]
[bell dings]
- [cork pops] - [Avis laughing] Oh!
You don't think that this is just a bit premature?
Dick, why can't I have a little fun?
Our passion project is back from the dead.
I fired every one of those lawyers who stood in my way.
A toast!
Here's to my late husband,
who, in the end, loved what we did.
- To Ace. - [all] To Ace.
Right, let's get to it.
What's the plan? How do we release this picture?
Well, there's been a lot of hand-wringing
how this film will be received in the South.
A lot of theaters there said they won't run it,
but some major cities will,
and I've promised to cover the cost of security to keep those theaters open.
It's a cost that I think that we can recoup
with a larger-than-usual nationwide release.
- How many theaters? - [Ellen chuckles]
Six hundred and seventy-five.
Has that ever been done?
No, it has never been done.
I'm calling it a "wide release."
A print of this picture will be sent to every theater in this country.
We're also going to lower ticket prices by five cents.
It will fill all those seats with people
who maybe haven't seen a movie for a while.
Perhaps never seen one.
You're gonna have a lot of poor colored folks
moving heaven and earth to come see this movie.
Exactly. It's going to be expensive...
But it's going to be a story in and of itself.
There won't be a single man, woman, or child in America
who doesn't hear about this.
It's going to be a national conversation.
I, for one, think that's a good bet.
Let's do it. What's next?
Well, I just spoke to my dear friend Hedda Hopper,
and I told her that last night in Pasadena,
Meg reported the highest test score in Ace Pictures history.
Now, now, Miss Kincaid, that wouldn't happen to be
a little white lie, would it?
Well, it was an enormous white lie, and I'm quite proud of it.
[all laughing]
How about this idea? I announce that I'm green-lighting another picture
by Raymond Ainsley,
written by Archie Coleman, starring Camille Washington!
You have another idea?
- Yes... - Sold, I'll announce it today.
This is exciting!
- I think another toast is in order. - [Raymond] I'll say.
In two weeks, either we'll all be looked at as the smartest people in Hollywood,
or we'll never work again.
To never working again.
- [all] To never working again! - [clinking]
[music playing]
Hey, baby doll!
Get in here. Come feed me.
I ain't talking about pancakes.
- You think my hair just does this? - [chuckles]
Here's what we're going to do.
I am going to whip up a couple of pot pies,
and we're gonna go to the picture show,
and then when we come back, we're going to wreck this bed again.
- Ah. - That's my idea of a Sunday.
Sounds like a plan!
- What are you looking at? - I got to tell you, kid...
I've been with a lot of women in my time. I mean a lot.
You got a point you're going to get to?
But I can't say, other than my late wife,
God rest her soul, that I had feelings for any of them.
Except you.
I'm not sure I know what to say.
Then let me do the saying.
I'm saying...
I love you, kid.
Oh, Ernie...
Mmm.
I have another plan.
- Not pot pies. Cherry. - Oh-ho-ho!
After the movies, we'll stop by House of Pies
and get the biggest, grandest cherry pie, and that's what we're gonna eat
all day long.
I'll just wear some heels and...
maybe I'll slip on a fur coat over this little thing.
Then, when we're at the movies, we can sneak in the men's room
and have a quickie!
- [coughing] - [Ellen] Oh!
I think I've even got a trench coat for you to put on.
Hey, Ellen, stop for a sec. Come here.
- What? - You're my gal now...
wouldn't you say?
Yeah, I'd say.
Well, then...
there's something you need to know.
Something I ain't told nobody yet.
This cough of mine...
the one that kept blowing all those takes, I've had it for years.
I went to the doc last week.
It's cancer.
- I'm headed for the old dirt pile. - [sighs]
How long?
Two months?
Two years?
So if you want me to throw on my trousers and walk out that door,
I'll do it, because at some point...
At some point, I'm going to be a real mess.
No, we don't need to talk about this now.
In fact...
In fact, we don't need to talk about it at all.
You're my home, Ernie.
And I'm not giving that up.
Love came late to me...
and I am going to enjoy every single second of it.
And you're sure, kid?
I'm more than sure.
[chuckling] I'm happy.
I'm happier than I've ever been in my life.
I love you, Ernest West.
I love you, kid.
- I'm gonna go see about a coat. - Hmm.
I'm in the mood for pie.
Me too.
[Claire] What are you doing?
- Staring at you. - Well, stop it.
I can't. I can't stop staring at you.
Let's go downstairs and get some breakfast.
Wait a minute, I gotta tell you something.
I shoulda told you a long time ago, but I'm gonna tell you now,
even though I think it's gonna mean you'll never wanna see me again.
When I was first working at the gas station,
- your mother came by, and she and I... - I know you slept with her.
- What? - She told me.
We've hated each other for most of my life,
but ever since she took over the studio, we're as thick as thieves.
Wait, so, are you okay with this? Is she okay with us?
Well, not at first.
- I thought she was having a stroke. - Yeah.
Oh, and then she had a crying jag
about how I was sucking the life out of her.
But, yeah, now she's fine.
She thinks you and me as an item is good PR for the movie.
Are you okay? Do you not wanna...
[phone rings]
...be with me?
[Avis screaming]
Mother?
- Oh, God. - Mother?
Oh, God, she knows I'm here.
Mother?
What happened? Are you all right?
I just got off the phone with Dick. The first receipts are in.
Look, listen, um, we always knew...
- that the odds... would be against us. - Exactly.
It doesn't matter what the movie makes,
- it's about what the movie means. - We broke all the records.
- What? - What?
That's what I said.
I told them that couldn't be right.
But they double-checked the numbers. We're the biggest hit in seven years.
[both chuckling]
- [Claire squealing] - Whoopee! [laughing]
Congratulations, Mrs. Amberg!
- [Claire shrieking] - We're a hit! Meg is a hit!
["How 'Bout That" by Louis Jordan playing]
♪ If I take you to Hollywood ♪
♪ Put you in the movies And you make good ♪
♪ Would you say you were misunderstood ♪
♪ Baby, how 'bout that? ♪
[introductory trumpet fanfare playing]
[man] Everyone's talking about Meg.
It's the first so-called "wide release," and audiences are flocking to see
the harrowing story of a girl who lands in Tinseltown
and hits the skids.
- Hey, look, it's you. - It's me!
[man] The biggest hit of the decade stars, guess who? Camille Washington.
She's an overnight sensation! But she's not playing a housekeeper,
she's would-be movie maven Meg Ennis.
Racial protests across the country simply melted away
as thousands rushed out to see a new kind of motion picture,
and moviegoers of every color have fallen in love.
Every woman I know who saw it cried.
We understood how she was feeling.
[man] Could one movie change the way a nation sees itself?
Who knows? But one thing's for sure, America's mad for...
[all] Meg!
[music crescendo]
[overlapping chatter]
[all applauding]
[chuckling] I don't think I'll ever get used to that.
I could get used to it, I'll tell you that.
Well...
I am so glad that we've made this a regular thing.
- Mmm. - Without your advice,
I don't know how I would've gotten through the premiere
and the press junkets...
Oscar nominations are coming out next week.
Oh, they are? I didn't realize.
Don't bullshit a bullshitter.
[chuckles] I know you've been counting the days off on that calendar.
It's gonna be a tough year.
You know, Rosalind Russell thinks she got the thing in the bag,
and I don't blame her.
Murder, incest...
I mean, they might as well have just handed her the Oscar
- and not even bothered to make the movie. - [both chuckling]
From what I hear...
you got a really good shot.
We'll see.
So listen,
if you get nominated,
I want you to campaign hard.
None of this shrinking violet bullshit.
You will go to every opening, you show up at every luncheon,
and answer every question
as if it was the most profound query you have ever heard in your life.
You got it? And don't let anybody shame you for doing it.
Now I took my lumps, but I had to shut it all out.
I'd worked my whole life so hard,
and I knew I was going to have to work really hard to do this.
- [Camilla] Mm-hmm. - To be the first.
So I did.
And do you know what happened when I got to the ceremony?
The hotel had a "no colored" policy.
They told me I could wait in the lobby,
and if I won, somebody would come tell me,
and then I could go in.
And I backed down.
I said, "Okay,
I'll wait out here."
Somebody leaked that I was gonna win, so just before they announced my name,
they shuffled me in the back and sat me in there.
You best mind me, sister, 'cause I'ma tell you right here, right now,
when you go to that ceremony,
you sit right down in that front row.
You scream, you shout, you scratch somebody's eyes out if you have to.
But you demand the respect that you're owed.
It ain't about whether you win or lose.
There's something more important at stake. What's important... is being in the room.
- I've been wanting to ask you something... - We ain't got no secrets at this point.
When you won...
what did that feel like?
I couldn't believe it.
I mean, I cried. I got off that stage and I cried.
I couldn't imagine it.
I was the daughter of two slaves, and here I was...
with an Academy Award.
I only played that role because my grandmother worked on a plantation,
and I knew who that woman was.
I knew Mammy.
I did it in tribute.
You know, I thought winning was gonna...
change things for me.
No more goddamn maids.
Maybe I get to play somebody romantic or...
a comedy part. You know, some funny, rich...
lady in New York with a feather in her cap.
But... fucking no.
The roles never came.
It was like the town
made me feel like I'd done something wrong by winning...
By walking across that
all-white auditorium and...
taking my place on that stage.
No great roles ever came after that.
And I never got back in that room.
So you get in that room, and you own it.
For me.
For all of us.
[phone ringing]
Hello.
Thank you.
[Raymond] Yes. Goodbye.
["Bounce Me Brother with a Solid Four" playing]
Mister, if you are pulling my leg...
[chuckling]
We just got nominated for an Academy Award.
[screaming]
Mister, if I'm dreaming, don't wake me up.
[Camille] Anybody else?
Um, Best Editing.
Uh, Best Sound Recording,
Best Supporting Actress for Anna May Wong,
Best Supporting Actor for Jack,
Best Screenplay for Archie, Best Picture...
and Best Director.
[screaming and laughing]
[breathing heavily]
What's the matter?
All my life, I thought I knew the country I lived in,
what it was always gonna be...
but now...
I feel like this ain't the place I thought it was.
Well, that's good, right?
[chuckles softly]
- Right? - That's real good.
- Yeah. - That's real good.
That's real...
good.
[laughing]
Oh!
[phone rings]
[Stinson] Yes, Mrs. Amberg.
He's here.
I'll send him right in. Mrs. Amberg will see you now.
If you'd sign here.
[Archie] Look, the reason I'm here is because...
well, because I owe you a great deal of respect.
I'm grateful because I finally feel like there's somebody in a position of power
who is trying to understand me...
being homosexual, and a black man on top of that.
I don't think it's so hard to understand you.
You and I are both outsiders.
It's different, I know.
I hardly know what it feels like to walk in your shoes.
Oh...
That's the thing. I don't think you could know.
I still can't walk down the street and hold hands with the man I love.
Ace and I never held hands either.
He had this habit of walking ten feet ahead of me.
But you could've held hands.
Me, every time I step out my door, I start lying to the world.
It's weighing on me.
I ain't gonna do it no more.
[Archie sighs]
I'm here to tell you,
I'm going to do something.
What are we talking about here, Archie?
[Archie's breath shuddering]
Rock Hudson...
He's the man I'm in love with.
We live together
and...
I'm showing up to the Oscars with him
on my arm.
He and I holding hands together, getting photographed,
telling the world we refuse to hide,
and I know it may not seem important to you,
but opening up a newspaper and seeing something like that, when...
[voice breaking]...when I was a boy...
that I wasn't alone,
that there were folks out there who had the same thing going on inside...
That would have made all the difference.
Rock is an actor.
He'll never work again. He'll be throwing it all away.
He knows that.
And you, Archie?
The retribution will be swift and merciless.
At best, protests, at worst,
violence against you.
I understand.
Still, we're doing it.
I just wanted to tell you.
I'm sorry, Miss Amberg, for putting you in this position.
I know you'll be under some pressure to release me from contract.
But whatever you have to do, I understand.
I just wanted you to hear it from me first.
[introductory music playing]
[man] News of the Day.
It's the 20th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California,
where the stars come down from the sky to walk amongst us.
Who's that handsome soldier on the red carpet?
Why, none other than our evening's host, Robert Montgomery, in naval uniform.
And here's another veteran, Jack Castello,
plucked from obscurity and now a first-time nominee
for Best Supporting Actor.
And who's that gal on his arm looking like the cat who got the cream?
That's Claire Wood, daughter of the late studio head, Ace Amberg.
They're the Hollywood couple everybody's talking about.
Here's Rosalind Russell, nominated for Best Actress.
Well, watch out Rosalind, because that's your competition:
Camille Washington, star of hit motion picture Meg,
who could be the first colored woman
to take home the Oscar for leading actress.
[reporter] Congratulations, Miss Washington. Think you'll win?
It's honestly an honor just to be nominated.
Why, sure, but it'd be even more of an honor to win.
[man] Here she is with her beau, director Raymond Ainsley.
[reporter] Mr. West, anything you'd like to say to your fans?
I've been in this biz since the silents.
- [Ellen chuckling] - It's magic!
I love the Oscars!
[man] Here's Anna May Wong, who's nominated for an Oscar.
Some would say a nomination long overdue.
And here's Meg screenwriter, Archie Coleman.
And whose hand is he holding?
Why, it's not a "she" but a "he"! It's newcomer Rock Hudson.
Some reporters are refusing to speak to them.
- [crowd booing] - [overlapping chatter]
- [Archie] Are we doing the right thing? - Absolutely, we are.
So you're a producer now, is that right?
That's right, Miss Hopper, no more cattle driving.
That's what I call managing actors.
I'm making movies now, and, you know, I got final cut on the movie.
- Really? - Yes, that's right. So you be sure
- and put that in there, you hear? - I will.
What the fuck?
- The hell are you doing? - Get your hands off of him.
Kiss my ass.
You think Henry Willson is going to clean this up for you?
No, that's it for you. You're done. It's over.
- It's over for both of you. - I don't care, Henry.
Well, you're gonna care when you're living in a boxcar,
sucking dick for loose change.
What a fucking waste of my time.
What a fucking waste of dentistry.
- Go fuck yourself, Henry. - What did you just say to me?
I'm not gonna be like you,
hiding under a rock,
preying on guys who are too afraid to tell folks who they are...
and what you are.
You're fucking slime, Henry, and that ain't news.
Everybody knows it, and you know it.
Living like you do, I'd blow my goddamn head off.
You're fired.
Let's go.
[photographers chattering]
[photographer] Show me that smile!
[photographer 2] Hey, Henry! Let's get a pose!
- Right over here! - [photographer 3] Mr. Willson!
[dramatic music playing]
[camera bulbs echoing]
Good evening.
- Good evening. - Hello.
And if you'll follow me, Miss, I'll show you where you'll be sitting.
Sir, I prefer to sit in row A, which is what it says on my ticket.
It's not my decision, Miss. It's the producers'.
I'm just doing what I was told.
Excuse me, what the hell is going on here?
She's up for Best Actress. You're letting her in that room.
Thank you, but I don't need you to fight my battles for me.
Sir, I don't know what you've been told, but I'm going to count to three
then I'm going to walk into that ceremony and take my seat in the front row.
Now, if you don't let me in,
I'm going to start yelling "fire" in this theater,
and there won't be a ceremony.
So you think for a minute about what those producers of yours are going to prefer.
You do not want to fuck with me, sir. I promise you that.
Good luck tonight, Miss. I hope you win.
Thank you so much.
[uplifting orchestral music playing]
That's more like it.
[woman] And the Academy Award for Best Editing goes to...
Francis Lyon and Robert Parrish for Body and Soul.
Are you kidding me? That piece of shit?
Fuck this night.
- Avis, darling, have a drink. - We're gonna get swept.
First, Sound Recording, and now this. They're punishing me being a woman,
and I'm not going to sit in my chair while they do it.
[Ellen] That's why we're in the green room, darling.
[man] Now, from the upcoming motion picture
For All the World to See,
please welcome Jeanne Crandall.
[applause]
[Jeanne] Thank you!
What an incredible year for supporting talent.
As the star of the upcoming Ace Pictures movie about Lee Miller,
where I play Lee Miller, I know how important support can be.
That said, I'd like to thank my darling young co-star Elizabeth Taylor,
who always had a kind word.
"That was wonderful, Miss Crandall."
- [all laughing] - "You're a real star, Miss Crandall."
So important.
And now the nominees for Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
Celeste Holm,
Gentleman's Agreement,
Anne Revere, Gentleman's Agreement,
Gloria Grahame, Crossfire,
Anna May Wong, Meg,
Marjorie Main, The Egg and I.
[speaking Chinese]
- Sh. Shh. - [Jeanne] And the Oscar goes to...
[paper rustling]
Anna May Wong for Meg!
[applause]
- [gasps] - [speaking Chinese]
[all cheering]
- Congratulations! - Oh, my God!
- [chuckling] - How wonderful.
[applause continues]
[chatter and cheering]
[cheering and applause halt]
[Anna May on radio] What an honor...
to be standing here,
as the first actress of Chinese descent to win this award.
Not for putting on yellow face and playing an oriental caricature...
but for playing a woman.
A complex woman with a heart and a soul.
Thank you, Avis Amberg, Ace Pictures, and especially...
Dick Samuels and Raymond Ainsley.
You gave my life purpose again.
Thank you.
[all applauding]
[crying, laughing and chattering]
Thank God this isn't televised.
[man] And now, to present the award for
Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Ernest Borgnine.
Here we go.
It's gonna be you.
And the nominees are:
Jack Castello, Meg,
Charles Bickford, The Farmer's Daughter,
Richard Widmark, Kiss of Death,
Thomas Gomez, Ride the Pink Horse,
Edmund Gwenn, Miracle on 34th Street.
And the winner is...
[envelope rips open]
Edmund Gwenn, Miracle on 34th Street.
What?
[instrumental "Here Comes Santa Claus"]
It's not my night, kid.
[whistles]
Fuck, Jack, I thought you had it in the bag.
Thanks, Ern, it's, uh, it's okay.
No, fuck that guy. He was a real prick to work with, too.
- Ernie. - I swear to God. If I see him...
Ernie!
It's Santa Claus.
I'm glad he won.
Oh, Jack, why?
'Cause if he'd lost, I might've stopped believing in him.
[laughing]
Listen, uh...
could I ask a favor?
Anything.
I, uh, I wrote a little something and I'd hate for it to go to waste.
Could I read it to you all? Maybe it's too much. I don't know...
- [all overlapping] - Jack, come on. We'd love to hear it.
- Come on. - As long as we're in it.
I'd just like to thank the Academy of Motion Pictures
for honoring our film, Meg.
But I cannot possibly accept this award
myself.
Camille, Rock, Claire, Ray, Archie, Ernie...
- Here, here. - [Jack chuckles]
- ...Dick Samuels, Ellen Kincaid... - Oh!
...Avis Amberg, this award belongs to you.
All my life, I wanted to be somebody.
But winning this award, I realized that being somebody doesn't mean a thing
unless you're somebody to someone.
Claire...
will you make me somebody?
What?
I promise I was going to do this up there in front of everybody.
Claire, will you marry me?
[shouting] Yes! Yes! Of course I will!
[all applauding]
[cheering and laughing]
[man] We now return to the 20th Academy Awards.
[man 2] The nominees for Best Original Screenplay are:
Sidney Sheldon, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer,
Archie Coleman, Meg...
- Mm! - ...Abraham Polonsky, Body and Soul...
- I love you. - ...Charlie Chaplin, Monsieur Verdoux...
I love you, too.
Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, A Double Life.
And the Oscar goes to...
Archie Coleman for Meg.
[applause]
- Oh, my God! - [laughing and cheering]
[applause over radio]
[laughing]
[attendees gasp]
- [chuckles] - [attendees murmuring]
[cheering and applause resume]
[Archie panting over radio]
I'm speechless.
I would like to thank Miss Amberg.
Without your bravery, I am not standing here right now.
Dick Samuels, thank you for keeping me in this movie
when everybody was telling you it'd be the end of your career.
Raymond, I couldn't imagine doing this with anybody else.
To my buddies, Jack, Ernie...
And Henry Willson, who fucking produced this thing.
To my boyfriend, Rock Hudson,
you are the love of my life.
[attendees murmuring]
[attendees jeering]
Yeah, say whatever you want, I'm too happy.
- [chuckles] - [attendees applauding]
And to everybody listening,
your story is important.
Don't go thinking otherwise, don't let your story go untold.
- [weeping] - You are important.
Your life has value.
You go out and you live your life with your head held high,
and you tell your story, 'cause I'm proof...
that there are folks out there who want to hear it.
[applauding over radio]
[man] And now, to present the nominees for Best Director, Donald Crisp.
[sobbing]
[Donald] And the nominees are:
Elia Kazan, Gentleman's Agreement,
George Cukor, A Double Life,
Henry Koster, The Bishop's Wife,
David Lean, Great Expectations,
and Raymond Ainsley, Meg.
And the Academy Award goes to...
[big band music playing]
[man] Ladies and gentlemen, Vivien Leigh.
[Vivien] Thank you.
There were so many outstanding performances this year,
and five of the most moving came from this year's nominees for Best Actress.
We met a farm girl,
a school teacher, a jilted lover,
an aspiring actress, and a nightclub singer.
And each one of them made us think,
made us feel,
made us better people than we were before.
It is my honor to present this year's nominees.
They are...
Loretta Young, The Farmer's Daughter,
Joan Crawford, Possessed,
Rosalind Russell, Mourning Becomes Electra,
Camille Washington, Meg,
and Susan Hayward, Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman.
And the winner is...
Ladies and gentlemen, the winner is...
for Meg, Camille Washington.
[all gasping]
- [girl] She won! - [gasping, crying]
[speaking Chinese]
[squealing]
[heartbeat thumping]
[sound of applause fades]
Thank you all so much.
This is very humbling for a kid from Altoona.
[chuckles]
When I was a little girl walking down the street,
I was called a lot of things.
"Movie star" wasn't one of them.
My daddy worked in the coal mines, but every time he could spare a quarter,
I'd escape to the movies.
I loved looking up at that screen...
and...
I kept waiting to see someone show up onscreen who looked like me.
A girl who was smart,
and strong,
and glamorous. [chuckles softly]
[chuckles]
Thank you
to the Academy for making sure that no little girl staring up at that screen
will ever again be told that there are limits to what you can achieve.
[all applauding]
[orchestral music swells]
Congratulations.
[overlapping chatter]
My God, you have no one to thank but yourself.
- No, thank you. - You earned everything.
So exciting!
[clapping halts]
They let me in the room this time.
[chuckling]
- Whoo! - [both laughing]
Mm-mm-mm.
- [exhales] Whoo! - [man] The nominees for Best Picture are:
Avis Amberg and Henry Willson with Ace Pictures for Meg,
and Ronald Neame and Universal Studios for Great Expectations,
- and the winner... - [drumroll]
...for Best Motion Picture is...
[suspenseful music playing]
[man 1] Miss Amberg! Miss Amberg!
[man 2] Mr. Ainsley, how does it feel to win Best Director?
Mr. Coleman, congratulations.
- I'm a producer, it's my turn to hold it. - I'm never letting you hold it.
How does it feel, Avis?
I'll tell you how it feels, Hedda.
I say if you want something done,
let a woman do it.
Here, here.
So true.
[chuckles]
[man] Miss Washington! Miss Washington!
Archie. Archie, come here.
I'm extending your contract five years,
and doubling your salary. Write whatever you want.
You don't have to have to worry about a thing.
Not a thing.
♪ I'm on the mellow side ♪
[Henry] Hello, Rock.
What do you want? I didn't invite you to sit down.
I know. Listen, I get it, you're mad at me.
I behaved badly.
Not just with you, but with others, and for a long time.
Look, point is I am here to say I'm sorry
for what I did to you.
I mean, I also got you your start in this town, but still I am sorry.
I really am.
I don't know whether you can...
get over it or not.
Yeah, Henry, I don't know if I can either.
Okay.
I've been sober for six months.
I've been going to these men's meetings
and not just about the booze, but about...
you know...
[sighs] About being like you and me.
About how it ain't some... perversion, you know?
So I ain't got to act like I'm some kind of degenerate, you know what I mean?
And I met somebody.
I've been seeing him for a while now, so it's serious.
Yeah, he's my age, in case you were wondering.
And I took a vow.
I took, like, a solemn vow.
Like, a get-on-my-knees vow,
that I will never take advantage of another person ever again, okay?
I mean it.
I'm asking you to forgive me.
I'm begging you, as a matter of fact.
I don't know if I can do that.
Okay.
- I still have nightmares about you, Henry. - Okay.
Okay?
[weeping] Thank you for saying all that, but...
forgive you?
I don't... I don't think I can.
I understand.
Thank you for hearing me out.
I want to try and make it up to you.
- Honestly, Henry, I don't... - Wait, don't, Rock. Listen to me. Listen.
Ever since you and Archie walked the red carpet at the Oscars together,
you've struggled.
You haven't had any good parts, have you?
I think folks knowing I'm queer, that just means...
there's only so many parts I can play, you know?
And with the death threats and all...
[sniffles] But I don't really care anymore.
And I've gotten into bonsai lately.
You know, those little Japanese trees?
Well, you really take care of them, you know, and it's meditative.
Okay, fuck that. You listen to me.
I am developing a movie.
It's a love story between two men.
It's gonna be the first homo love story ever made.
But not a porno, mind you, this is a genuine love story.
The lead role...
The lead role is for you.
Oh, Henry...
They would never make a movie like that.
Well...
we'll see.
[church bell tolling]
[Jack] Changed my life...
- more than anyone, I think. - [Archie] The man was a legend.
[Raymond] He stood up for all of us.
Thanks to all of you for coming.
Standing room only.
So many familiar faces.
That we're all here is a testament to the person we're remembering today.
His humor. His temper.
His joie de vivre.
Really, just one of the...
funniest, most alive people you'd...
ever have the pleasure to know.
I think he thought that he could lick it by sheer force of will.
And by God, if anybody could, it would have been him.
But cancer won the day.
Dick Samuels was a giant to me.
I worked alongside him for 27 years, so I think it's fair for me to say
that he changed this town.
Without Dick Samuels...
you just don't have Meg.
And since Meg,
we have seen the face of Hollywood change.
Many of the films in production
will star women and people of color.
Without Dick Samuels, this just doesn't happen.
There's been a sea change,
hasn't there?
Finally.
Thank you, Richard...
for that
and for all the rest.
And now, I would like to introduce John Banks,
who was Richard's partner in life.
He'd like to share a few words with us.
Thank you. Thank you, John.
[John] Thank you.
On the night he died...
it was one of the last things he said to me...
"I die an honest man."
That's what we all hope for,
to be able to say that about the lives we've lived
when our final day arrives.
I think it gives us all something to...
strive after,
to hope for.
Avis, can I have a word with you for a moment?
We have to do something, don't you think?
About what?
To memorialize Dick.
What do you suggest?
I want to make a picture.
I want to make the first romantic movie about two men.
Two men who fall in love.
And I want Archie Coleman to write it.
I've already talked to Ray Ainsley about directing,
Jack Castello says he's on board, and I want Rock Hudson to play the lead.
What do you say?
I am aware that there will be protests.
- And death threats. - Yes.
But then I think,
what would Dick say?
What would he do?
I think Dick would say, "Fuck them."
Yes.
Keep it under budget.
Consider it green-lit.
[Henry] Hey, what are these things that look like big rubber bands?
Those are fan belts.
Connects the cooling fan to the crankshaft.
Don't tell me you never worked on an engine before.
Well, God, no. I don't even know how to pop the hood.
[Ernie chuckling]
Hey, since the movie, I see you're working all the time.
- Mmm. - [Henry] Great parts, too. Well done.
I, um...
I heard the station's for sale.
Who told you that?
Friends in high places.
I also heard from a mouthy little bird
that you're selling 'cause most days you don't feel so great,
and I'm sorry for that, Ernie.
I really am.
[scoffs]
Well...
you're wrong about that.
Really? Well, do tell, I'm all ears.
I'm selling 'cause... Actually, since Meg,
with all the headlines, success and scandal of Archie and Rock
lip-locking on the red carpet,
business is down...
with the queer clientele.
That's 75% of my business.
Yeah, I've been feeling that around town myself.
I've even felt it a little,
this refusal to accept shame any longer.
You know, some guys, made out of my kind of shoe leather,
they've been pretty vocal about the fact
that they're tired of skulking in the shadows.
I guess that Archie and Rock showed them there's another path.
[Ernie] Hmm.
Well, it's a start.
Yeah, sure.
Holding a guy's hand in public,
walking down the street, you know,
you wait for a brick in the back of the head.
It doesn't come.
Well, then, before you know it, your guy wants to play house.
Have you ever spent a Saturday
picking out some cheerful, daffodil-colored linoleum for the kitchen?
I have, Ernie.
And it is enough to make you wistful for the days of secretive sodomy
and late-night crocheting.
[chuckling]
I have a suggestion.
[Ernie] Shoot.
What do you say you and me go out back to that old shed,
you slap me around a little bit
and shove that big pickle in my mouth and call me Betty.
Henry, baby...
I'm in love
with Kincaid.
Aww.
And I'm retired.
But in another life...
I was kidding.
[laughing]
Gentlemen, you're in the shot.
[Ernie] Oh.
Knock 'em dead, kid.
Nothing like the first shot of a movie, huh?
Dreamland.
Hey, thanks for doing this, Archie.
This is... this is really fantastic. This script is just great.
Yeah, what can I say?
Write what you know.
All right, everyone, roll cameras!
Dreamland, scene four, take one!
And... action!
[bell dings]
[Rock] Howdy, sailor.
- What can I do for you? - I'd, uh...
I'd like to go to Dreamland.
I'll take you there.
[bell dings]
[music swells and crescendos]
[big band music playing]