INT. HOWARD’S OFFICE, DAY

Howard alone in the office, staring at the phone. He looks fed up. He walks over to the wireless and turns it off. BEGIN THE BEGUINE stops.

Howard goes over to the stand to get his hat and coat. There is a KNOCK at the door.

HOWARD

Enter.

Henry enters. He doesn’t look well, harassed. He’s holding a newspaper scrunched up in his hand.

HOWARD

Henry! How are you?

HENRY

I - I was in the area, thought I’d drop by see how things are going.

HOWARD

You can see for yourself.

HENRY

Howard. I did you a great disservice hiring you... It’s no use. Why don’t you give up?

HOWARD

Henry please...

HENRY

It’s no use. You... You took over when I gave it up. My... My heir, eh? And look at it. You haven’t got any further than I did... ...and you won’t.

HOWARD

We’ll see.

HENRY

How many years have you been on your own now? And what have you got to show for it? You’ve done four buildings in all these years.

HOWARD

That’s quite a good deal to show for it.

HENRY

After the kind of struggle you’ve had?

HOWARD

I didn’t expect it to be easy, but those who want me will come to me.

HENRY

They don’t want you, son. Don’t you understand? This is what they want.

Henry holds up a newspaper, THE BANNER. The screaming headline, above a photo of crime bosses in cuffs being marched into a police station, reads RISE LIKE KINGS FALL LIKE DOMINOES.

HENRY

This is what they want. Gail Wynand’s Banner the foulest newspaper on earth. You hold to your own ideas and you’ll starve. Gail Wynand gives people what they ask for: The common, the vulgar, and the trite. And he’s maybe the most powerful man living. - Can you fight that?

HOWARD

I never notice it.

HENRY

The people who read this... You know what they think of architecture?

HOWARD

I don’t care what they think of architecture or anything else.

Henry is starting to look a little ill, beads of sweat are forming on his forehead and he’s getting more worked up.

HENRY

l... I don’t want to see what they’ll do to you. Me, I am... I’m through. I’ve had enough. I don’t want any part of Gail Wynand’s city!

Henry collapses and Howard rushes over to him.

HENRY

Get me an ambulance, will you?

INT. AMBULANCE, DAY

Henry is lying on a trolley in the ambulance that is beside a window. Howard is sitting beside him. There isn’t any partition between the driver/operator and the passengers.

HENRY

Howard, look at those buildings. Skyscrapers, the greatest structural invention of man. Yet they made them look like Greek temples... Gothic cathedrals and mongrels of every ancient style they could borrow... just because others had done it. - I told them. I told them that the form of a building must follow its function. That new materials demand new forms. That one building can’t borrow pieces of another’s shape... just as one man can’t borrow another’s soul. Howard, every new idea in the world comes from the mind of some one man... and you know the price he has to pay for it?

Henry sees a building and a look of delight passes over his features.

HENRY

I built that... - Howard, you do me a favor. All my things that you’re keeping for me, I want you to burn them. All my... My papers, my drawings, my contracts. Everything. Burn them, will you?

AMBULANCE OPERATOR

Mister, try to relax.

Howard and Henry ignore the operator completely.

HOWARD

Yes.

HENRY

I don’t want to leave anything to the world. How sorry I am leaving you to face them. Howard, it’s no use! Give in. Compromise. Compromise now. You’ll have to later, anyway.

HOWARD

Why are you saying this to me? That’s not what you did.

HENRY

That’s why I’m saying it. Because it’s not what I did. Do you want to end up this way? It’s your future. Do you want this?

HOWARD

Yes.

The ambulance operator scratches his head.

HENRY

Then may God bless you, Howard. You’re on your way into hell.

EXT. FRONT OF HOSPITAL, DAY

Howard is watching Henry being wheeled into the hospital. The ambulance operator is standing near him.

AMBULANCE OPERATOR

It’s not true you know.

HOWARD

What?

AMBULANCE OPERATOR

Every idea coming from just one guy. It’s not true. Not always anyhow. - My pops in Vermont had all these beer crates left over after that whole business dried up and so did my uncle down in Tennessee. They both keep chickens right? And you know how foxes is always a problem right? Well my pops suddenly realized one day that the crates would work great you know as walls for the chicken coup. And he calls my Uncle Joe. And guess what? That very same day, the very same day Joe had built up his chicken coup with his empty crates. Would you credit it?

Howard

Hm.

AMBULANCE OPERATOR

I had this teacher Miss Montgomery and she used to say "Necessity is the mother of invention children". She was real clever Miss Montgomery. Uglier than an outhouse but real smart. And when something is really needed lotsa people gets the idea for it. - But what I can’t figure is what happened to all that dough they must have made... I sure ain’t seen any sign of it.