Evan Hunter: The Paper Dragon

"We have time," McIntyre said. "If you don't finish before two o'clock, there's always tomorrow."

"I'd like to quote then."

"Go right ahead, please."

"In my play, when Lieutenant Mason first arrives on Eniwetok, I have Corporal Janus, the troublemaker, say, 'Another ninety-day wonder. I wonder how long he'll last.' In The Paper Dragon , Private Colman looks at the lieutenant right after he first addresses the men, watches him as he's walking away and says, 'Straight out of college. They sent him here for his master's degree,' and Sergeant Morley says, "Cheer up, Pete, maybe he'll flunk out.' That's his first name, Pete. Peter Colman."

"Mr. Constantine, we're all interested in saving time, but it's not necessary to speak this rapidly," Brackman said.

"I didn't realize I was."

"Just take as much time as you need."

"All right. I guess we are all familiar by now with what has been called the 'female rifle' scene in The Paper Dragon , where the men are disassembling their rifles. The lieutenant is going through the authorized method, straight from the book, and every time he comes to a word like 'rod' or 'butt' or 'trigger,' it breaks the men up. They're handling pieces, you see, which is Army terminology for a gun, and they keep making sexual allusions, and getting hysterical when the lieutenant says things like 'now twist the rod toward your body with your right hand and then exert a slight pull to the right,' I'm not quoting exactly, but the scene is intended sexually, and the men are doing all this to infuriate the lieutenant, who is running the session according to the book and trying to get a little order into what is a pretty bedraggled band of fighting men."

"This is in The Paper Dragon ?"

"Yes, but its counterpart is in Catchpole . In my play I have the men discussing, within earshot of the lieutenant, the attempt of one of the men to capture a wild pig. Their references to the pig are purely sexual, and they are engaging in this kind of talk because the lieutenant had warned them he was going to try to 'clean up' the outfit before the final assault on Parry Island, those are his exact words. The pig is referred to as 'a juicy morsel,' and 'something to sink your teeth into,' and also at one point one of the men says, 'We almost had that sweet little piece of meat.' A piece of meat, of course, is a girl. I see there's a lady in the courtroom, and I hate to talk this way, but I'm referring to actual words in the works that are being questioned."

"You may say what you want to say, Mr. Constantine."

"In the motion picture, of course, this entire so-called 'female rifle' scene was eliminated. Now, in Catchpole , there are a great many references to Glenn Miller who was, as you know, a well-known bandleader during the thirties and forties and who was reported missing at about the time of the Eniwetok campaign, and I have the men speculating on what might have happened to him. In The Paper Dragon , which takes place in Korea in 1950, the Army men begin discussing Glenn Miller and how he could play trombone, whereas this is a new generation of men who actually would have very little knowledge of Glenn Miller or how he played trombone. The same references apply to the movie, and are mostly given to Sergeant Morley, the Negro."

"The same references to Glenn Miller, do you mean?"

"Yes. Now regarding the love story, the nurse in my play is a first lieutenant and of course the hero is a second lieutenant. There is a great deal of playful love-making where she constantly kids him about rank, and about reporting him to the company commander if he doesn't kiss her right that minute, all jokingly of course, but very important to the development of their affair. In the book, there is an extremely erotic sex scene where the couple are alone together for the first time, and she suddenly says, 'You'd better kiss me now,' and he says, 'Do you think it's safe?' and she replies, 'Do as I say, Coop. I outrank you.' The identical line is used in the motion picture. I'd like to say something here about the names of these characters, by the way."

"Go right ahead."

"This has to do again with specific language. My lieutenant's name is Roger Mason, and he is familiarly called 'Mase' by the nurse and by his fellow officers. The lieutenant's name in The Paper Dragon is Alex Cooper, and he is called 'Coop' by the nurse and by his friends. Which leads me to another startling similarity between—"

"Your Honor," Jonah said, "might we not do without the editorializing adjectives?"

"If you will simply state the similarities, Mr. Constantine," McIntyre said, "that will be sufficient."

"Yes, sir, I was only going to say that in my play the men keep calling the lieutenant 'Loot,' that's all. At one point in my play, the lieutenant says, 'How about lengthening that to Lieutenant Mason?' and Janus replies, 'Isn't that what I said, Loot? ' stressing the word. Well, in The Paper Dragon , there's a scene where the lieutenant says to the men, 'A lieutenant is an officer in the United States Army. A lute is a Chinese stringed instrument.' And Colman, the troublemaker, answers, 'Maybe those Mongolian bastards would prefer lutes to bugles, Loot.' This same line is used in the motion picture, though of course the word 'bastards' is deleted. But the reference is the same in all three versions of my play."

"Objection, your Honor," Willow said. "There is only one version of the play, as I understand it."

"Sustained. Strike that."

"From where, your Honor?" the clerk asked.

"The reference to all three versions. There has been, as Mr. Willow pointed out, only one version of Catchpole submitted to this Court."

Brackman glanced at Willow ruefully, and then turned again to Arthur. "Would you tell us what other specific similarities of language you found?" he said.

Arthur cleared his throat. "In the stage play," he said, "we obviously could not use profanity in the New York theater, or at least the kind of profanity a combat squad would be apt to use in the midst of one of the bitterest campaigns in the Pacific war. But I had one man in the squad addicted to the use of a word which was easily understood by the audience as a substitute — an acceptable substitute, I should say — for a more obscene word. I had this one character, one of the minor characters in the squad constantly using variations of the word 'bug,' so that he would be saying 'This bugging Army food,' or 'This bugging war,' or 'Bug off, Mac,' expressions like that, which made it absolutely clear which word I really meant. In The Paper Dragon , because such language is allowed in novels, one of the characters in the squad is addicted to the use of the actual word, I think we all know the word I mean, in all of its various forms, the same way my character uses the word 'bug.' I don't remember this character's name. I think—"

"Is it Kenworthy?"

"That's right, his name in the book is Kenworthy. And every other word out of his mouth is an obscenity, identical to the character in my play."

"Go on, Mr. Constantine."

Arthur paused. Brackman studied him for a moment and then said, "Yes?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You seemed to be hesitating."

"Oh. I was only trying to remember if I'd left anything out, before I come to the most amazing similarity of all."

"Your Honor. " Willow started, rising.

"I do think we might get along better without the descriptive adjectives, Mr. Constantine," McIntyre said.

"I'm sorry, your Honor. To my mind, this next similarity is amazing, and—"

"Objection, your Honor."

"Please, Mr. Constantine."

"I'm sorry. May I tell this last specific similarity of language?"