The McBain Brief by Ed McBain Read Free Book Online Page A

I’m certainly physically suited,” the girl said. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have hired me, would you?”
    â€œYes,” I explained. “Of course you are, but that’s in real life, and this is in the movie. In the movie, the producers aren’t sure yet, which is why they ask you to take off your clothes.”
    â€œWell, are these producers blind or something? I mean, anybody can see I’m physically suited, even with my clothes on. ”
    â€œThere’s a reason for this,” I said, “because for some strange reason, men like to see a girl taking off her clothes.”
    â€œYou mean this is like a sort of strip tease, is that it?” she asked.
    â€œYes, sort of. But tasteful. We don’t want to get into any sex scenes right off, you see.”
    â€œThank God,” she said. “I really don’t think I’m up to anything like that tonight. Are you, Harry?”
    â€œNo,” he said, “I’m definitely not.”
    â€œOkay then,” I said, “what you do is come into the loft, and ask if this is where we’re casting this movie, and we’ll answer you but nobody will see us, the camera will just be on you. And we’ll introduce you to Harry and then ask if you would mind taking off your clothes, and you should take them off slowly and shyly, and that’ll be the scene. Later on, we may ask you to kiss Harry or something mild like that, neither of you will have to do anything you don’t really feel like doing tonight. We’ll just play it slow and easy, we want to do a sensitive job here, and your personal feelings are very much in our minds.”
    â€œWell, okay,” the girl said.
    â€œIs something wrong?” I said.
    â€œWell, before I take off my clothes, I want you to know the contract is binding, no matter what. I’m getting fifty dollars a week, and fifteen percent of the profits, and that’s that.”
    â€œOf course,” I said. “That’s our agreement.”
    â€œOkay,” she said. “In which case, I want you to know I’m not a natural blonde.”
    â€œThat’s all right,” I said. “Quiet on the set, please.”
    I won’t bore you with all the details of that first night’s shooting, or even of the progress we made during the next two weeks. I will say that Solly had been absolutely right about the girl. She had looked spectacular when she was wearing clothes, but she looked positively fantastically unbelievable when she took themoff. Also, when she got over her shyness and embarrassment, she really did a good job with the sex scenes she performed on camera with Harry. I guess this was because Solly had written such a good script, spare and neat and what I guess you could call lean. He very much had in mind the feelings of the actors, and wanted each of the sex scenes to appear spontaneous, instead of like some of these scenes you see in cheap porn flicks, where you just know the actors are being told what to do each and every minute. Solly’s script made it all seem very natural and very beautiful and also, I might say in compliment, very artistic; I always give credit where credit is due. For example, in the scenes we shot that first week, where the girl gets the part and then starts to become acquainted with the leading man—who was Harry the dope—Solly didn’t do what a lot of script writers do, he didn’t clutter up the page with a lot of unnecessary directions. A sample of his writing from one of the early scenes will explain to you what I mean.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  34 THE LOFT—INT—NIGHT
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  The Girl is becoming acquainted with the Leading Man.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  They do sexual intercourse together.
    During all of these scenes, Ben, Solly, and I were sort of what you might call off-stage actors, or,