Lesson 15

[Robert Smith]

ROBERT R SMITH’s THRILLER MAP VERSION 2

TITLE: “The Golem in Gangland”

LOGLINE: A monster Golem wreaks havoc on the New York Crime Syndicate, while two time- traveling super-angels try to rescue one mobster both from the mob and the Golem.

NOTE: A golem is an artificial human being in Jewish legend, formed of mud or clay. Like the Frankenstein creature, the golem is brought to life, but by magic, not mad science. The golem legend may have influenced Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

THRILLER MAP.

NOTE: The mysterious death of gangster turncoat Abe Reles is historical and still unsolved but this is how it is incorporated in my story.

OPENING

CARD: “THE GOLEM IN GANGLAND” IS INSPIRED BY ACTUAL PERSONS AND EVENTS BUT FICTGIONALIZED.

CARD: HALF-MOON HOTEL, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

EXT – SECOND FLOOR LANDING HALF-MOON HOTEL – DAY

Turncoat mobster Abe Reles (35) lies dead five floors beneath his police-protected room.

INT – ROOM 623 OF HALF-MOON HOTEL – DAY

No clues, no fingerprints. Only a smudge of reddish clay. At first, Detective Michael Murtagh and Assistant DA Jack Saperstein are baffled and decide to interview other hotel residents to see if somebody saw or heard anything.

INT – ROOM 223 OF THE HALF MOON HOTEL – DAY

Defying his parents, Little Jimmy Hemlin (12 years old) tells Murtagh and Saperstein that when it was still dark, he heard a noise at the window. He says he opened the window, looked out and up and “saw Frankenstein only he was made of clay.” On the outside window ledge, Murtagh finds a small chip of reddish clay that resembles the smudge of red found in Reles’ Room 623.

INT – THE POLICE LAB – DAY

The lab technician reports that the reddish smudge and the reddish clay chip from Room 223 are a match, they are both terra rossa soil, rare in the USA but found all over Palestine.

CARD: MONTHS EARLIER

INT – GANGSTER MAX’S LEVITSKY’S APARTMENT IN A WAREHOUSE – NIGHT

Max Levitsky is a gangster in Murder Incorporated who brought a golem back from Palestine that is his butler. He introduces him to Murder, Inc. boss Louis “Lepke” Buchalter and his ruthless killer lieutenant Abe Reles. Lepke remarks that he recalls childhood golem stories in which he heard that golems are supposed to protect ghettos from antisemites?” Max confirms this and Lepke tells Max that Syndicate boss Meyer Lansky calls all Jewish gangsters to Madison Square Garden, next Monday where the Nazi party is having a rally. Max promises to be there with the Golem.

EXT – WAREHOUSE PARKING LOT – NIGHT

Lepke and Reles leave Max’s apartment and the warehouse and plan to murder Max and get the

golem as a syndicate asset.

INT – A SPECIAL PLACE IN HEAVEN – DAY

The souls of Rabbi Solomon Levitsky and his partner-soul, (redeemed gangster) Lou Tasca are called onto a time-travel mission back to 1939 to save the life and soul of Rabbi Solomon’s gangster uncle Max Levitsky who is in trouble.

CARD: THE NAZI PARTY RALLY AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN

INT – MADISON SQAURE GARDEN – NIGHT

(Archival footage.) Bund Leader (Fuhrer) Fritz Kuhn addresses the crowd of 20,000 and is

attacked by Isadore Greenbaum who is then beaten by Nazis until police intervene.

EXT – FAÇADE OF MADISON SQUARE GARDEN – NIGHT.

Jewish gangsters attack (but not kill) Nazis as they exit the Garden. The Golem, now

grown to 9 feet prevails in the melee against Nazis and police whose bullets bounce off him.

Max assists the Golem back into his crate in the back of a Ford COE flatbed truck with

Max driving.

EXT – MANHATTAN STREETS – NIGHT

Reles grabs his men and a car with a wheelman and starts a harrowing chase after Max’s truck with the Golem through the streets of Manhattan. Reles shoots at Max who speeds down side streets and runs red lights and finally stretches his lead to over a block ahead of Reles’ car.

EXT – UNION SQUARE – NIGHT

Max makes a sharp left turn and pulls the truck over to the curb. Max shouts to the Golem “Friday (Max’s name for the Golen), get out onto the road and stop that car and destroy it! Kill Reles!” The Golem (now 11 feet tall) hears the command and jumps out the back of the truck in front of Reles’ car that spins to avoid the Golem and careens into a newsstand, killing the owner. The Golem grabs and lifts the car and body slams it upside down. Reles escapes and flees, the driver and other gangster passengers are dead, except one.

POLICE SIRENS

EXT – CURB SIDE UNION SQUARE – NIGHT

Max hurriedly guides the Golem back onto the truck’s flatbed.

INT – CAB OF THE TRUCK – NIGHT

Rabbi Solomon and Lou Tasca appear seated on the passenger side. Max climbs in on the driver’s side. Max is startled to find them but when Rabbi Solomon makes the introductions, Max is not only relieved but overjoyed. “Oh, I have been expecting you two angels.” Max drives off.

EXT – UNION SQUARE – NIGHT

The police car stops at the crash site. A surviving but dying gangster tells the police that a golem destroyed their car. The police think the gangster must have meant “Golisch” the name of a Yorkville hood. When the police ask about Reles, the gangster dies without answering.

INT – MAX’S WAREHOUSE – NIGHT

Max assists the Golem back into a crate and into a dormant state. Max, Rabbi Solomon, and Lou enter Max’s apartment.

INT – MAX’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Max explains to Rabbi Solomon and Lou Tasca how he met Rabbi Nahoum Gabbai who gave him the Golem, an amulet, and the Pulsa di-Nurah prayer-curse to make any person die and also said that two angels will come to assist and protect him, i.e., Rabbi Solomon and Lou Tasca.

CARD: SIX MONTHS EARLIER. MANDATORY PALESTINE UNDER BRITISH RULE.

FLASHBACK

INT – A TEL AVIV PARKING LOT – NIGHT

Max trades in black market antiquities with Arab commandoes who bring a life-size reddish clay statue with Rabbi Nahoum Gabbai who explains that it is a golem in a dormant-state that he bestows on Max to be his servant and to defend the Jews in America against enemies. Nahoum

gives Max a protective amulet and presents to Max the “Pulsa di-Nurah” (Lash of Flame) curse prayer for the death of someone.

Flashback ends. Scene resumes in Max’ warehouse apartment.

INT – MAX’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

Rabbi Solomon urges Max to destroy the Pulsa di-Nurah. You cannot pray for the death of another without it damaging your own soul. Rabbi Solomon further warns that the Golem who unleashed destruction at the Nazi Rally, will one day do the same to you.

INT – A YORKVILLE TAVERN – NIGHT

Police confront Karl Golisch at the bar and ask where he was the night of the Nazi Rally, Golisch presents a solid alibi and a derisive remark about the Nazis.

INT – A POLICE HEADQUARTERS – DAY

Nazi Party leader Fritz Kuhn visits Det. Mike Murtagh in Police HQ to complain about police incompetence in providing security for the Nazis at Madison Square Garden and protection from the Jewish gangsters and their golem. He explains the nature of the golem. Murtagh now realizes that the dying gangster meant golem and not Golisch (the hood). He denounces Kuhn for his Nazism and antisemitism and dismisses him.

INT – MANNY’S KOSHER LUNCHEONETTE – DAY

Max settles down for lunch with Rabbi Solomon and Lou at his friend’s (Manny Levine) kosher luncheonette (which he believes is a safe haven because Levine no longer has connections with Lepke.) Yet, in walks contract killer Bernie Moskowitz who shoots Manny for a debt Manny owes Lepke. Bernie spots Max but has to run because Reles just pulled up in the getaway car.

INT – RELES’ GETAWAY CAR – DAY

Bernie climbs into the getaway car and tells Reles that Max was in the luncheonette. But Reles, chews out Bernie for not going back in and killing Max, but –

POLICE SIRENS

EXT – OUTSIDE MANNY’S LUNCHEONETTE – DAY.

Two cops jump out of the police car and enter the luncheonette.

INT – MANNY’S KOSHER LUNCHEONETTE – DAY

Max is tending to Manny and explains that Manny was shot by Bernie Moskowitz and Abe Reles was the getaway driver. Max swears revenge on Reles. Rabbi Solomon warns to Max that his hatred of Reles only feeds the demon inside the Golem.

INT – A POLICE HEADQUARTERS – DAY

Reles’ deadly car chase and his attack on the Kosher Restaurant compels Crime-busting Assistant DA Jack Saperstein to more urgently hunt down both Lepke, Moskowitz, and Reles.

CARD: MIDNIGHT ROSE’S CANDY STORE, HEADQUARTERS OF MURDER, INC.

INT – MIDNIGHT ROSE’S CANDY STORE – DAY

An off duty, plain clothes Police Officer steps into the store. Rose is a frumpy old woman who offers to get something for the officer. He declines and goes to a booth where Reles sits.

He joins him. The police officer tells Reles that word is out from Murtagh and Saperstein to get Reles, Moskowitz, and Lepke. Reles vows “they’ll never collar me” because he will assassinate Murtagh and Saperstein. One of the other hitmen overhears and exits the store. “Hey, Kaplan where are you going?”

INT – SING SING PRISON – DAY.

Meyer Lansky visits his friend Lucky Luciano and tells him about Reles’ plan to assassinate Murtagh and Saperstein – totally forbidden by mob rules. Luciano, in anger, orders the preemptive assassination of Reles.

INT – A POLICE HEADQUARTERS – DAY

To escape murder from the Syndicate, Reles seeks police protection so he surrenders to Murtagh and Saperstein with the promise that he will “turn canary and sing,” meaning, provide incriminating information on Lepke and Murder Incorporated.

INT – OFFICE OF ASSISTANT D. A. JACK SAPERSTEIN – DAY

Murtagh brings a full dossier on Reles’ testimony against Lepke. “Jack, the canary is singing.”

The only thing he’s not talking is the golem-thing. Saperstein order’s Lepke’s arrest Lepke at his

hideout which Reles revealed was the swanky Windsor Hotel.

MONTAGE of Lepke’s arrest by Murtagh, then Moskowitz arrested, and Reles being

interrogated and giving up more information. (Narrated by Walter Winchell voice-over.)

INT – OFFICE OF ASSISTANT D. A. JACK SAPERSTEIN – DAY

Murtagh and Saperstein, thank Reles for “singing.” They tell him that he will be kept in police

protective custody at the Half-Moon Hotel.

INT – ROOM 623 OF HALF-MOON HOTEL – DAY

(Narrated by Walter Winchell [voice-over] Reles is introduced to his new dwelling. His police

guards seem friendly and say they’ll order up lunch for him.

INT – WAREHOUSE – NIGHT

Max, who wants revenge against Reles. recites the Pulsa di-Nurah (Lashes of Flames) death-prayer against Reles which the Golem overhears and misunderstands as Max’s (his master) order to kill Reles. Max concludes the prayer and retires to his apartment. The Golem arises from his crate and walks off into the night.

INT – ROOM 623, HALF-MOON HOTEL – NIGHT

Reles climbs into bed.

EXT– WALL OF THE HALF-MOON HOTEL – NIGHT

CARD: 3:00 AM.

The now 12 foot Golem scales the wall of the hotel. Jimmy opens his second floor window, looks up, and sees the giant Golem climbing up the wall, not window to window but on the wall itself as if its hands and feet had suction cups. Jimmy ducks back inside. The Golem climbs into Reles’ 6^th floor room.

INT – ROOM 623 OF THE HALF-MOON HOTEL – NIGHT

The Golem grabs Reles and covers his mouth so he will not make a sound and hurls Reles out the window to his death, without any noise that would alert the police guards outside the room. The Golem climbs out the window and disappears as he climbs back down the wall (off screen).

INT – POLICE HEADQUARTERS – DAY

Murtagh and Saperstein’s conclusion: “The canary could sing but he couldn’t fly and the case against Lepke went out the window with him.”

INT – MAX’S APARTMENT – DAY.

Rabbi Solomon and his redeemed gangster partner Lou Tasca convince Max to do as Reles had, i.e., turn states evidence. And to call Murtagh and Saperstein to come to the warehouse and learn everything about the Golem.

CARD: LATER THAT DAY

INT – MAX’S WAREHOUSE – DAY

TWIST/CLIMAX: In the presence of Murtagh and Saperstein, Rabbi Solomon deactivates the Golem by removing the scroll with the sacred name from a scroll in the Golem’s mouth and erasing a key sacred letter written on the Golem’s forehead. The Golem crumbles into a pile of clay, after which, Rabbi Solomon destroys the evil “Pulsa di-Nurah” curse-prayer and explains.

RESOLUTION: Max turns himself over to police custody, ready to flip and testify against Lepke and the Syndicate and return to a devout Jewish life. Rabbi Solomon and Lou Tasca return to Heaven now that their Mission has been accomplished with Max totally unaware that Rabbi Solomon is his future nephew.