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"The People Vs. Pierre Laval" by Elmer Rice

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DAY OP RECKONING (FIRST REVISED) "THE PEOPLE VS. PIERRE LAVAL" PROGRAM #3 BY ELMER RICE CAST 1ST MESSENGER 2ND MESSENGER PIERRE LAVAL -- EVERETT SLOAN THE RECORDING ANGEL MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE — PAUL HENREID BENEDICT ARNOLD AW ETHIOPIAN WOMAN A GERMAN WORKER A FRENCH WORKER JOAN OF ARC SEVERAL MINOR CHARACTERS: 1ST SOLDIER 2ND SOLDIER VOICE CRIER FOR BROADCAST 7:00-7:50 P.M. SATURDAY, MARCH 20, WEAF & NET r WEAF DAY OF RECKONING (FIRST REVISED) WO,-3 ( )( ) "THE PEOPLE VS.; PIERRE LAVAL" 7:00 - 7:30 P.M. MARCH 20, SATURDAY (MUSIC CUE £. .^. ) ANNOUNCER: The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with the Council for Democracy, brings you the third in a series of special programs entitled "The Day of Reckoning" -- bringu&g to trial before the court of the free peoples of the world, the principal culprits in the current attempt to enslave mankind. Tonight's program was written by the well-known playwright, Elmer Rice. ^Starred in this are _ distinguished actors: (MUSIC 0UE_;'2:.iLIKE TIE WHIRRIIG OF THE WING3 OP GREAT BIRDS IN FLIGHT^ 1ST MESSENGER: Whoa I Slow up.1 That's Vichy down there, by the looks of it. 2ND MESSENGER; Yes, and by the smell of it, too. (EXCLAMATION OP (DISGUST) PhooJ 1ST MESS; All right.' Pull in your wings. Zoom down now. OUT SOUND: (SOUND OP PEET STRIKING EARTH) 1ST MESS: Here we are.' Hello, there, monsieur.' Is this Vichy, Prance ? VOICE: (IRONICALLY) YOU mean Vichy, Germany, don't you. (BITTER LAUGH) 2ND MESS: We're looking for Chief of State, Pierre Laval. VOICE: Well, there's no accounting for tastes. 1ST MESS: Where is he to be found? VOICE: In that building over there-- £f you can get through the guards. He's mighty careful, these days, ever since that bullet nearly - 1ST MESS: We'll get through. Thanks, friend1 SOUND: (FOOTSTEPS, THEN THE RELEASE OP A TRIGGER-LOCK) 1ST SOLDIER: (GERMAN ACCENT) Halt! What do you want? 2ND MESS: We want to see Chief of State, Pierre Laval. 1ST SOLBIER: Impossible! He sees no one except - 1ST MESS; (ROUGHLY) Out of the way, son.' 1ST SOLDIER: Stop or I'll fire! 1ST MESS: Out of the way,, I say I And save your ausnunition. It has no effect upon us. SOUND; (A SCUFFLE, FOLLOWED BY A SHOT) (THEN A CRY OF FRIGHT FROM THE SOLDIER) 1ST MESS: I told you so, didn't I? 2ND SOLDIERj Haiti 1ST MESS: We've no time to "waste. Put down that pop-gun and take us to Laval. 2ND SOLDIER: Who are you? 2ND MESS: Never mind who we are. Just show us the way. Come along. SOUND: (RAPID FOOTSTEPS, COMING TO A HALT, THEN A SHARP KNOCK ON A DOOR) LAVAL; (BEHIND DOOR) What is it? Who's there? SOUND: (OPENING DOOR) 2ND SOLDIER: Pardon, Monsieur Laval, but these two gentlemen insist - LAVAL: (NERVOUSLY) Who? What gentlemen? I'ra expecting no one. Tell them ~~J 1ST MESS: All right, boy, that's all. Run along now. Laval, we have some business with you. LAVAL: (UNEASILY) I'm very sorry, gentlemen, but urgent matters of state - I regret very much ~ 2ND MESS: They'll have to wait. You're under arrest. IAVALj (ALARMED) A^restJ Oh, I beg your paipdan, gentlemen. I was not aware that you are agents of the Gestapo.1 Heil Hitler! But there must be some mistake, my friends. Surely, you've come to the wrong place. Why, the Fuehrer and I —.' Look.1 The photograph he gave me. And read the flattering inscription. 'To my dear friend and collaborator, Pierre Laval, with my most condescending good wishes. Adolf Hitler." You see, gentlemen, you've made a mistake. 1ST MESS: We've made no mistake. You're under arrest, all right. But you've made a mistake in thinking we're Gestapo men. So cut out the heiling and the heel~ clicking. They'll get you nowhere with us. LAVAL: (REALLY FRIGHTENED NOW) Not from the Gestapo? Then by what authority --? There's been an uprising - a revolution? The people --? 2ND MESS: Not yet. But that, too, will come in time. 1ST MESS: Meanwhile, you're wanted up above. LAVAL: Above? At Berchtesgaden? 1ST MESS: Novltkgher up than that, Laval. LAVAL: (FEEBLE-FURIOUS) I demand to know who you are and who has sent you here. 2ND MESS: You'll find out soon, .enough. Come along, we're going on a little trip through space. 'LAVAL: I refuse! Get out of here, at once, or I'll - 1ST MESS: You're wasting your breath. Here, I'll get him under this arm and you get him under the other. SOUND: (SCUFFLE) 1ST MESS: That's it! All right, here we go! -5- (MCJJ3IC OUE_,;'^. ....(.SAME AS_J*2 REVER3EDj_._._THS_¥HIRRING OFJIIBQS^ GR£WING _LOUDER,_DROWKS_ OUT HISTORIES) LAVAL: I protest against this.' - I demand — J (IN TERROR) Oh.1- We're off the ground! We're moving through the air! We're - Help! Help.' (MUSIC.^.^CHANGES^. .^CELEST_IAL_MUS;[C_IS H^RD,_0LEAR_AWD_3ERENE^ FIRST 1ST MESS: 'jWe're almost there now. LAVAL: Music! I hear music! 2ND MESS: Oh, you hear it, do you? And do you recognize it? LAVAL: Well, gentlemen, I don't pretend to be a musucianJ I'm only a simple man of the people. Let me see, nowi Ye3, of course! It's the Horst Wessel song. How stupid of me! 1ST MESS: No, Laval, it's not the Horst Wessel song. Your coarse soul muddles everything, doesn't it? To you., even the music of the spheres becomes a Nazi blood- chant . LAVAL: (BEWILDERED) Excuse me. I don't understand. Music of the - 1ST MESS: Yes, celestial music. You're at the gate of Heaven. LAVAL: (LONG SIGH OP SATISFACTION) Ah, heaven! I see now! Thank you, gentlemen, thank you! I always knew that one day --J 1ST MESS; I said at the gate of Heaven. 2ND MESS: But straight is the gate and narrow is the way -! (MUSIC Ul\ ..A .GREAT_ROLL ^P_DI]UM3_AND_CLA_SH_0P _CYMBAL_S #JL ,TIffiN_RETUHN TO CELESTIAL BAG.) LAVAL: (CRYING OUT IN FRIGHT) What is it? That sound.' My eyes.' I'm blinded. 1ST MESS: (CALMLY) You'll get used to it in a minute, 2ND MESS; (SOOTHINGLY) There, that's a little better, isn't it? (RESPECTFULLY) Here's your prisoner, sir. LAVAL: (OVER-AWED) BUG who - who is this? With the great spreading wings and clothed in that terrible light. RECORDING ANGEL: (COLD) (A CLEAR PURE VOICE) I am called the Recording Angel, Laval. m LAVAL: (GASPS) The zpJi^&^-*--*~>- ^ ANGELj It is my function in the celestial hierarchy, to set down what is good and what is evil, in the life of every man and woman. In most lives, the balance swings first this way and then that. But not so with you. In your account the weight of guilt is so incredibly heavy, that though your alloted time has not yet run its course, you have been summoned hither, so that we may verify the record, lest some mistake has been made. LAVAL: (VOLUBLY) Oh, it has, your Honor.1 I assure you it has. I have committed grave errors, no doubt •- sins, perhaps. But which of us has not? Look: at the other side, I beg you.• I am a God-fearing man, your Honor. All my life, I have paid homage to the Almighty, Xl a devout life to be ignored? Does piety count for nothing - here of all places? ANGEL: Here of all places, lip-service counts for nothings Laval. Nor the devoutness that masks a scheming "brain and a conniving soul. We judge by deeds, not by "Words, But you shall hear the charges against you. Answer them, if you can. LAVAL: Charges? Who brings these charges? Some emmissary from the Kremlin? Some fellow of the Ghetto? ANGEL: No, Pierre Laval, Your accuser is one of the illustrious dead of your own land - one who spent a long life in the service of liberty - first in America, then in Prance. Call him.1 CRIER: Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motley, Marquis de Lafayette, sometime Major-General in the American Continental Army, Colonel-General of the National Guard of Paris, Vice-President of the French National Assembly, author of the Declaration of Rights, liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies, life-long servant of the people of France. LAVAL: (IMPRESSED) Lafayette.1 LAFAYETTE: (CULTIVATED, DIGNIFIED VOICE) Yes, Monsieur Laval.fi I am Lafayette. "AVAL: (PAWNINGLY) But of course, your Excellency.1 Why - why, we are kinsmen, you and I —J (OBSEQUIOUS LAUGH) LAFAYETTE: Kinsmen - you and I? Oh no, but surely not, monsieur.' TAVALi Why, yes, yes, Excellency. Kinsmen by marriage. Haven't you heard? My daughter -I Why you are her great-great- great-grandfather-in-law, so to apeak. That makes you and me - •8- LAFAYETTE: Enomios still, Laval, If my lineal descendant chooses to sully his good name and his heritage of liberty by allying himself with the assassin of his country's freedom, it moans only that he to, merits the contempt I feel for you. LAVALj This is unjust, Monsieur Recording Angel. Am I, a man of the people, to be condemned by this aristocrat, with his lands and his titles? I am a lawyer, your Honor, don't forget that and I demand that - ANGEL: We shan't forget it. Your legal career is carefully recorded here - on the debit side of the ledger. 1 LAVAL: I demand my rights.' I demand a fair trial, I demand counsel.' ANGEL: Very veil, you shall have counsel.
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