Great Moments in Cinema... SLEUTH (1972)

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55         INT. GALLERY - EVENING                                55

MILO sinks to his knees near the top step. ANDREW passes him
and stands on the gallery by the newel post.

                                MILO
                (terrified and
                pleading)
        Look... I can’t give anything back,
        can I? I mean if it hadn’t been me it
        could have been somebody else. Please
        ... I’ll go away - you won’t never ‘ear
        of me no more... Why, Andrew? Why me?

                                ANDREW
        Don’t snivel.
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                                MILO
        I must know why!

                                ANDREW
        I’m amazed you have to ask. I hate you.
        I hate your smarmy, good-looking face
        and your easy manner. I’ll bet you’re easy
        in a ski-lodge, and easy on a yacht, and
        easy on a beach. And I knew you’d wear a
        gold charm around your neck, and I bet your
        chest is hairy, and in summer matted with
        sun oil. Above all, I hate you because
        you’re a culling blue-eyed wop - a not one
        of me - a creeping, hairdressing seducer
        of silly women, a jumped up pantry boy who
        doesn’t know his place, and who thinks that
        gentlemen are made by accents and country
        clothes. Did you really believe I would give
        up my wife and jewels to you? That I would
        make myself that ridiculous?

                                MILO
        Why not? You’re not in love with her.

                                ANDREW
        Whether I love her or not. I found her.
        I’ve kept her. She represents me. And once
        she was in love with me.

                                MILO
                (with a show of spirit)
        And now she’s in love with me, and that’s
        what you can’t forgive. And after me, there’ll
        be others. Are you going to kill them too?
        You’re mad - a bloody madman...

                                ANDREW
                (deadly)
        And you are a young man, dressed as a clown

                                                                                                70
                                ANDREW (Cont)
        about to be murdered. Put the mask on,
        Milo.

                                MILO
                (whimpering)
        No... no please... don’t...

                                ANDREW
        Put it on!

ANDREW takes the mask off the newel post and shoves it on MILO.

                                ANDREW
        Finally at your moment of dying you are
        yourself - a snivelling dago clown.
        Farewell Punchinello!

ANDREW lifts the pistol to MILO’s head. MILO is shaking with
fear.

                                MILO
        Please...

ANDREW fires point blank into MILO’s head. MILO falls backwards
down the stairway, crashing to the bottom where he lies still.