Dalton Trumbo[challenging John Wayne]If you're gonna talk about World War II as if you personally won it, let's be clear where you were stationed - on a film set, shooting blanks, wearing makeup, and if you're going to hit me, I'd like to take off my glasses.
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Frank King[Agreeing to hire Trumbo]All right, when do I get my goods?.
Niki TrumboSo the house is on fire, you don't wanna know?
Dalton TrumboI work in a bathtub, surrounded by water. So I'm fairly certain that even if the whole goddamn country was on fire, that I can still function as this family's personal slave. And all I ask is not to be interrupted for every little slice of fucking birthday cake. What? It's ridiculous!
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Dalton Trumbo[Presenting his new script to the producers]Oh, one problem though.
Frank King[shouting furiously]Wanna keep me from hiring union? I'll go downtown, hire a bunch of winos and hookers. It doesn't matter. I make garbage! You wanna call me a pinko in the papers? Do it! None of the people that go to my fucking movies can read!
Hedda HopperWe've been friends for a long time. When did you become such a bastard?
Kirk DouglasI've always been a bastard. You just never noticed.
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Hedda HopperNow what do you do when you love something but it stops loving you back?
Louis B. MayerYou fight.
Hedda HopperNo, no, no. You love it more until it surrenders.
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Frank KingI make crap films. You are way too good and too expensive to write for me.
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Dalton Trumbo[voiceover]... and reality has delivered, in all its beautific wonder, to the Federal penal system, J. Parnell Thomas - convicted of tax evasion.
Lucille BallThis is Lucille Ball. All of us agree that the Constitution of the United States must be defended. But the way to do this is not by shutting up the man you disagree with. You must fight for his right to speak and be heard. All civil liberties go hand in hand. And when one goes, the others are weakened. Just as a collapse of one pillar in a house would endanger the whole structure.
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Arlen HirdLook, I know what I am. Okay? I want this whole country to be different, top to bottom. If I get what I want, nobody gets their own lake.
Dalton TrumboWell, that would be a very dull life, don't you think?
Arlen HirdYeah, for you. Not for the guys who built this. If I'm wrong, tell me, but ever since I've known you, you talk like a radical. But you live like a rich guy.
Arlen HirdWell, I don't know that you're... I don't think you're willing to lose all of this just to do the right thing.
Dalton Trumbo[scoffs]Well, I despise martyrdom and I won't fight for a lost cause. So you're right. I'm not willing to lose it all. Certainly not them. But I am willing to risk it all. That's where the radical and the rich guy make a perfect combination. The radical may fight with the purity of Jesus. But the rich guy wins with the cunning of Satan.
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Otto PremingerYou keep up this level of work, and I'll make sure your name is on my movie
Dalton TrumboBut when you look back upon that dark time, as I think you should every now and then, it will do you no good to search for heroes or villains.
Dalton TrumboVictims, because each of us felt compelled to say or do things that we otherwise would not.
Dalton TrumboTo deliver or receive wounds which we truly did not wish to exchange.
Dalton TrumboI look out to my family sitting there, and I realize what I've put them through. And it's unfair.
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John WayneYou won't get any takers. Not here, anyway.
Dalton TrumboOh, why is that? All it says is that Congress has no right to investigate how we vote or where we pray, what we think, say or how we make movies. Hello, I'm Dalton Trumbo.
John WayneCongress has the right to go after anything they think is a threat.
Dalton TrumboWell, that's where we disagree and that's the point. We both have the right to be wrong.
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Hedda HopperNow listen, Ed, we'll picket every theater that movie is in unless you pull the prints tonight, and you get that traitor's name off of it.
Edward 'Ed' MuhlHedda, you can't put me in this position. That's expensive and pointless.
Hedda HopperThen you can kiss your movie, your studio, and your miserable ass goodbye.
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Niki Trumbo[about their neighbor]He knows. He sees Kirk Douglas coming in and out of here. And Otto Preminger and his Rolls. He's an idiot. But he's not stupid.
[Trumbo chuckles]
Niki TrumboHas he called the FBI? Congress? No, because everything they can do, they've already done. That Oscar belongs to you. Get it!
Dalton TrumboMy God! You're nothing like me. You're worse.
[Niki smiles]
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Niki TrumboIt's crazy, how mad you make me. Since all I ever wanted was to be just like you.
Dalton TrumboWell, I'm afraid to say that you've succeeded.
[Niki smiles]
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Edward 'Ed' MuhlKirk. Hedda Hopper just told me the American Legion is going to boycott us unless you get rid of Trumbo.
Kirk DouglasEd, he's not done with the script. His name will never be on the thing. What's anybody boycotting?
Edward 'Ed' Muhl[to the make-up artists]Kirk... Just a second. Please. Please. Just give me five seconds, please.
[the make-up artists clear away]
Edward 'Ed' MuhlListen. Twenty million Americans are saying loud and clear, they will never buy a ticket to our movie unless you fire one writer. Here's fifty. Pick one.
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Hedda HopperForty years ago, you were starving in some shtetl. The greatest country on Earth takes you in, gives you wealth, power, but the second we need you, you do nothing. And that's exactly what my readers expect from a business run by kikes.
Louis B. MayerGet out!
Hedda HopperYou know, L.B. I am fond of you. Some of my happiest years were spent on this lot. Not in your office, of course. You were always trying to fuck me on the couch. Me trying to maintain my virtue. Barely. But times change. Now I'd happily fuck you.
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Buddy RossWho needs the studios? I am strictly independent. Got cans of film, wads of Wall Street dough, and my favorite boss - me.
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Cleo TrumboWhat he's trying to say is that he loves you.
Virgil BrooksI got 20 years for killing me a white man who tried to rob my bar. I did it and I'd do it again. You look down on me and I will fuck you up like you've never been fucked up in your whole bullshit Beverly Hills life.
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Buddy RossAnd you, you crazy son of a bitch, you're gonna write all of my movies once this Washington crap clears up.
Buddy RossI'm not political, thank Jesus. If they called me in, accused me, I'd just say, "Yup, did it. Sorry, didn't mean it."
Dalton TrumboSo Congress then asks, "Are you now or have you ever been a Democrat?"
Buddy RossI am - and, God, I just feel awful about it.
Dalton TrumboThen they want the names of other Democrats. Bill and Earl, Nate, Tom.
Buddy RossThen I say, "Go to hell."
Dalton TrumboReally? How many banks fund enemies of the state? Your money's gone unless you give the names of your friends here. They'll never work again, but it's the only way you ever will. We all know each other, our families. We're friends. What would you do, Buddy?
Dalton TrumboOtto, if every scene is brilliant, your movie is going to be utterly monotonous.
Otto PremingerI'll tell you what. You write every scene brilliantly, and I will direct unevenly.
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Dalton TrumboI know the blacklist that produced "Robert Rich". I've seen its horror and cruelty. A hideous waste of life as I've walked in the long line of its anonymous. And I cannot invent one more witticism about "Robert Rich" or the Oscar he can't claim. Because that small, worthless golden statue is covered with the blood of my friends.
Dalton TrumboYou did what you wanted, Eddie. And you did it for more. More movies, more money, more dead bullshit on your walls.
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Hedda HopperI hear the rumors. Show me you're still in the game, fighting the good fight. Come on, rub my face in it. Whisper a movie you've written in secret. Maybe I've even heard of it.
Hedda HopperYou can kiss your movie, your studio, and your miserable ass goodbye.
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Dalton TrumboAs someone who has been thoroughly investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee, I started wondering, why hasn't anyone taken a good long look at them and their work in the movie industry? You see, they were convened to uncover enemy agents, expose communist conspiracies and write anti-sedition laws. Well, here we are, thousands of hours and millions of dollars later. Agents uncovered: zero. Conspiracies exposed: zero. Laws written: zero. You see, all they do is deny people their right to work. And they can't even get that right. Academy Awards: two.
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Frank KingHymie, get out here! Hymie, pay the man!
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Frank KingWe got "Killer in the Swamp." The best character's the swamp. Oh, oh. "Women in Prison." Dames fighting in their underwear. It's perfect, except it stinks. What else, Hymie?
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Hymie KingWhat about the Rosenbergs? They stole the atom bomb.
Frank KingThey didn't steal it off a fucking camera truck.
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Dalton TrumboIn all this, I know I'm the luckiest unlucky man ever to live.
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Virgil BrooksSnitch like that in here, you end up fuckin' dead.
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Dalton TrumboThey need scripts like an army needs toilet paper. Quality minimum, quantity maximum.
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Dalton TrumboWell, there are many angry and ignorant people in the world. They seem to be breeding in record numbers.
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Dalton TrumboIt'll be like this. I'll find the writer and work with him. He'll deliver the script to me. If it's good, I'll give it to you. If it needs work, I'll fix it. No one gets paid until you're happy.
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Frank KingSo you are, "The Alien and the Farm Girl."
Frank KingSo you wrote the alien talking about the rights of the worker. The pathology of capitalism. The complacency of the bourgeoisie. I don't even know what it is and I fucking hate it.
Frank KingI paid you to write a script about a guy with a giant bug head shtupping a girl in a hayloft. And you write shit that's gonna get me subpoenaed *and* stinks! Fix it!
Arlen HirdI was thinking. That's why I'm a writer. To say things that matter. Remember that?
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Arlen HirdI mean, do you ever miss writing something - forget great, just good? I mean, you must have ideas still, right?
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Dalton TrumboWhy can you not see this? If we get one big movie, we can get all the big movies. And then this whole rotten thing could collapse on the sheer irony that every unemployable writer is employed.
Arlen HirdJesus Christ, do you have to say everything like it's going to be chiseled into a rock?
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John WayneI wanna say one thing about a place I love. No, not Hollywood. I like Hollywood, but I love America. And when we talk about America, I'm talking about freedom. The kind of freedom we just fought a World War to save.
Cleo TrumboI will not let our children be raised by a bully.
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Sam WoodGod forbid you cross a picket line for set builders. What the hell do set builders have to do with writing?
Dalton TrumboWhat writers write, builders build. What they build, you shoot. Now, you make all the money you possibly can. So do I. Why shouldn't they? And why can't we help them?
Dalton TrumboNow, I have taken the liberty of drawing up a pamphlet. The subject: Congress Unaware of a Little Thing called the First Amendment.
Arlen HirdThey're aware of it. They just don't give a shit. All they care about is this nice new war of theirs. These guys love war and this is a great one, 'cause it's vague and it's scary and it's expensive. Anybody for it is a hero and anybody against it is a traitor.
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Dalton TrumboEddie, they're all actors and writers and directors, just like us.
Edward G. RobinsonThey're Nazis. They're just too cheap to buy the uniforms.
Hedda HopperOh, L.B., you helped build this business as did I. We're not gonna watch these piss-ants defile it.
Louis B. MayerI'm running a studio here, Hedda. You think I love every person on my payroll? Grow up.
Hedda HopperThen how about I make it crystal clear to my 35 million readers - exactly who runs Hollywood and won't fire these traitors? How about I name names? *Real* names. Jacob Warner, Jack Warner. Schmuel Gelbfisz, Sam Goldwyn. And of course, yours. Lazar Meir.
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Hedda HopperHe's been loved by film fans for almost 20 years. But have you noticed he hasn't been on-screen much lately? Bad box office? No. Bad politics. Bad news indeed for Mr. Edward G. Robinson.
Arlen HirdNo, you know what it is? I don't trust you.
Dalton TrumboWell, I'd say go on, but I'm afraid you will.
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Prison Guard[to Trumbo, standing in front of him, naked] Raise your hands. Open your mouth. Wider. Turn your head to the right. To the left. Tilt your head back. Spread your legs. Grab your sack and skin it back. Turn around. Spread your cheeks. Squat. Cough. Turn around. Move out. Next!