Original subtitles

Something here about a work slowdown at the mental hospital out in Lakeside. You

want to send Billy?

No, she's in court on that obscenity thing.

No kidding.

What'd she do?

Covering that clean up the smut campaign out in the valley. Rossi! Oh, yeah,

that's the group that wants to censor plays out there.

They're the ones who wanted to put jockey shorts on the chimps at the zoo.

Yeah, but now this bunch has enough clout to get an injunction against the

theater. Stop them from putting on plays.

Check this Lakeside work slowdown.

Yeah, I liked your piece this morning on the Wilderness Survival School. Very

good. Yes, it was. It was very informative.

Yeah, it was, wasn't it? Maybe we should do a follow -up, something with tips on

survival, how not to get lost in the woods.

How to work the ice machine at the motel, or maybe what to do if the TV in

room doesn't work.

What are you getting on me, Lou? Everybody liked the piece. Didn't you

was good?

It was a good piece, but you didn't really get involved in it.

What do you want? I flew all the way to Utah.

I interviewed everybody I could.

You didn't take the course yourself.

Your piece didn't have the smell of the forest.

You didn't make the reader taste dirt in his morning orange juice.

I did.

Of course, our dishwasher's broken.

When I was a reporter, I really tried to get into my subject. Charlie, too.

You remember Charlie on the Detroit Free Press when you did that piece on the

county jail?

Oh, yeah.

I dressed in old clothes. I drank about two quarts of muscatel. I passed out at

downtown sidewalks so the cops had to pick me up.

Of course, sometimes I did that just for a vacation.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah, but look, I've got insomnia, you know. It's hard enough trying to sleep

a civilized bed. I would have been hopeless out in the woods.

And I couldn't have written the story.

Besides, you don't have to get launched from a missile silo to write about

ICBMs. Don't tempt me.

A little rough on him. More to know.

Yeah, I'm rough on him. He's a first -rate reporter.

He could be really terrific one of these days. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.

Okay, people, let's keep those signs up nice and high where they can be seen.

That's it. Keep the circle moving.

What's the dispute about? Pay raises?

Who are you guys, anyway?

Psychiatric technicians.

Who are you?

Joe Rossi.

Trip. Oh, the press. Great. You're part of the problem. How's that?

Well, it makes great stories, doesn't it? How we mistreat patients.

Stories like that come out. They fire a couple of psych techs. The public thinks

they've solved the problem.

We're tired of being scapegoats for what goes on inside, and that's why we're

protesting. You will admit there have been some abuses, though.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, listen, most of us care a lot more about those patients

than some of the doctors and nurses doing a hell of a lot more than those.

bureaucrats in Sacramento, and for lousy pay, too. Can I quote you on that?

What's your name, please?

Why don't you just get out of here?

Because I'm not finished.

Oh, yeah, you're finished. Bert, Sam, I got a nosy reporter over here. Oh, gee,

I'd like to stay and chat, but I got a deadline to meet.

Your Honor, we can't attempt to assess the community standards on what

constitutes offensive language.

and bandied at possibly offensive words about in the courtroom.

Therefore, we've made up a list, numbering the words in question to which

parties can refer.

If all parties concur, the court will accept this list as a list of reference.

I feel naked without my camera. Shh, don't say words like that. I hate

in front of these people.

What is this word?

Number nine.

That's roughly the same as 14, Your Honor.

Oh.

Really? I'm not offended by six through eleven.

Number twelve here.

Then, Mrs. Belden, you do find number twelve offensive.

Well, it's just I didn't know anyone would do or even could.

And the other words?

Thirteen. Well, I guess I've heard my kids say thirteen.

Would they be saying 13 if we had more controls in this community?

It's this decadent new math.

Please, continue.

I don't know what 14 is.

It's roughly the same as number 9.

What's this?

They numbered the nasty words in court. You can't tell the profanity without a

scorecard.

You don't know all these words, do you?

Most of them. And if I don't know one, I'm sure I can find someone around here

who would be glad to fill me in.

This is terrific.

Some of these words were used in the play that the theater group wanted to

on. Something is legally obscene only if it offends the standards of the

community. So they had to find a way to show these words to the community to see

if they were offended without offending them.

Actually, if every home in the country had this list, it would make printing a

newspaper a lot easier. I mean, we could just print the numbers. We wouldn't

have to resort to ridiculous euphemisms like... Why nard epithet? Anglo

-Saxonism. Racy language?

Anatomical reference.

I don't see anything dirty about the human body.

Unless it happens to be yours.

Hello?

Is this Joe Rossi?

Do you know what time it is? It's three in the morning. I wasn't sleeping

because I can't sleep, but if I'd been sleeping, it would have woke me up. Get

off the story.

What are you talking about?

You know what I'm talking about, Lakeside.

The other places. We know you're poking around, but you're not going to find

anything anyway.

Uh -huh.

Who did you say you were?

He just said, get off the story, that's all.

What did you find out at Lakeside?

Not much. There was a dispute about some guys being fired.

It seems that the mere mention of the word press is like waving a red flag in

front of these guys. You figure that they were the ones who called you last

night?

I don't know. I don't know.

But whenever anybody tells me to get off a story, I figure it's time for me to

get on.

Good. And I assume you won't research this one from a motel room across the

street.

Do you think I'm a pretty good reporter?

Yes.

Do you think I lack sensitivity?

Yes.

Let me get this straight.

Do you think that it's that I don't get personally involved enough in my stories

or that they lack a degree of humanity?

Yes.

You mean I lack humanity?

Yes. Or that I don't? Yes.

You're certainly agreeable today.

Listen, I have to go interview a group of former mental patients, and I should

be done early. I figured I'd drive out to the beach, have some dinner.

Wouldn't mind some company. I'm buying. What do you say?

No.

You think this is fun, don't you?

Yes.

In this country, if a guy mugs somebody in the street, the police read him his

rights. He gets to make a phone call, have his lawyer present, post bond, and

probably gets out the next day.

But if someone is unhappy and confused and he goes for help, there are a lot of

places in this country where it's not impossible. He could be locked up and

spend years, maybe the rest of his life in an institution.

You people are out. You were patients.

Inmates.

Inmates. To us, being in a state mental hospital is like being in jail.

The psych techs?

Well, they're not the whole problem. They're just people trying to earn a

living.

mostly under -trained and underpaid.

The problem's much bigger than that.

We're worked up about this whole thing. We're activists, man. Just like any

other group, we're an oppressed minority.

Tell me, thousands of people enter and leave mental institutions. How many are

in your group? Very few.

Why?

Because they're ashamed they were in.

You don't think that there's a stigma attached to being inside a loony bin?

You try to tell that to someone who you want to...

hire you for a job. Better to have been in jail.

You're probably sitting here right now wondering how I can believe these people

are crazy.

It occurred to me.

Craziness makes people uncomfortable.

That's why no one wants to look too closely at what goes on in those places.

There are sane people walking around inside our institutions right now.

Perfectly sane people.

So many inmates are so zonked on clopromazine.

and other mind -benders that they can hardly speak.

So there's no way of knowing whether they're sane or not.

Here, we've written it down in our position papers. Read some of our stuff.

I bet you're listening to what we're telling you. You think maybe we'll fill

around the bend, don't you?

Come on.

Not if you own Stockings. You're out.

Come over to my house for dinner tonight?

This guy I've been seeing, Doug, will be there.

Then why do you want me?

Because I've never had you for dinner and because Doug's an interesting guy.

He used to work at a mental health clinic, so he could give us some deep

background.

What do you say?

What are you having?

Why? Because if you're having liver, I don't like it. So I'll have to eat it or

put it in my pocket. I don't want to do that.

I'm not having liver.

Okay, I'll come.

Kidneys, too.

I'm the same way with sweetbreads. Are you crazy?

Sweetbreads are great.

Boy.

Come into my office a minute, Lou.

Fred. It's Lou Grant.

Fred Sackler. Fred's the new man on our legal staff.

Let me say right off, Lou, that I admire what you're doing with the paper. I'm

an avid reader and an avid fan.

Thank you.

I guess I'm new and you're pretty new here, so we're both sort of the new kids

on the block.

Yeah, sort of.

Just a couple of quick points here.

One, the financial posture of this newspaper is not impregnable. We all

understand that, okay?

Two, I just want to give you gentlemen fair warning that you're tangling with a

real wacko here. With this guy out in the valley, Brian Foley, the mover and

shaker behind the Citizen Censorship Board out there.

We're not tangling with him. We've just been reporting what they're doing.

Foley is what we call litigious.

Prone to bringing lawsuits.

Yeah, we heard about him. He owns grocery stores. He sued corporations.

government agencies in the state.

So what can he sue us about?

The losses his business could suffer as a result of our articles.

Libel, maybe. Invasion of privacy. Malicious gossip.

Hold on.

Hold on.

Foley can't make any of that stick.

You've heard of the First Amendment, I'm sure.

The First Amendment does not pay court costs.

It will cost this newspaper thousands of dollars to fight this.

Because, frankly, they won't throw this case out of court so fast.

Why's that?

Ms. Newman's article does make it appear that Foley is a hypocrite, self

-serving, and something of a fool.

That's because he is.

Hey, wait a minute.

Lou, we're all on the same team here. I'm trying to be reasonable about this.

No, you're not.

You're telling me to walk on eggshells when I want to run a good story.

Yeah, but what would you say if I told you that your stubbornness could bring

this newspaper a million -dollar lawsuit?

Aren't you exaggerating a little, Mr. Sack? You know what you are?

You're a... you're a tin.

A what?

What do you mean by that?

You want to go back a hundred years? Fifty years. We had snake pits in this

country. Some communities sold them mentally ill to the highest bidder.

I want to talk about now.

Now we have treatment. Now we have medications to give people to relieve

their pain, to calm them, to make them accessible to therapy. Now we have care.

Some serious questions have been raised about that care.

Don't expect me to deny that there have been abuses.

On the other hand, I'll take some credit for effort to weed out those people who

are unfit to work in our institutions.

I'm not talking about physically abused patients. I've heard more criticism of

the general kind of care, standard procedures.

So you want us to have all the answers because we have framed certificates on

the wall. Well, I don't have all the answers.

I have seen troubled people taken away from their life situations and improve

the routine, pressure -free environment of an institution.

This group of former inmates...

That's what they call themselves.

They have some pretty damaging things to say. We do have to consider the source,

don't we?

It isn't easy to admit that you've had some serious problems, that you've been

helped. It's a lot easier to say that the state incarcerated you.

I don't doubt that in 200 years people will look back and marvel at how

primitive our methods were.

But do you want to live in a world where, no matter how incomplete our

knowledge, nobody is trying to help at all?

I don't. I'd like to visit one of these facilities with you, talk to the people

inside. So you're going to go in, Joe, with your expert's eyes, and in a couple

of hours' time, point out all of our deficiencies.

I've been studying this for 20 years, and as I said before, I don't even begin

to have the answers, so... I'm sorry, Joe. I've got to draw the line there.

No.

Those stuffed noodles were great.

What's in it?

Liver.

Just kidding.

You want some more brandy, Lou?

No, thanks.

Do you want to tell Lou why you quit working at Lakeside?

If you'll stop calling it quitting.

She just means why you stopped working.

You know, sitting here having a nice dinner, you can never have the feeling

it's like there.

Inside. There's still no reason for good people to drop out.

Drop out?

Hey, Doug, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to.

I'll tell you why I left my psychiatric residency and changed to internal

medicine. All right?

It's very simple.

I experienced burnout.

Burnout? Yeah, it's like battle fatigue.

After three months under that pressure.

Only there's no program for R &R like in the Army.

But if you really care.

Oh, come on now. It's hardest if you care.

This brandy is really nice.

You get no support.

None.

The state has cut the mental health budget all to hell.

And the attendance.

Number one, being an attendant on a psych award is not one of the most

jobs around.

And then the drugs are a problem.

Why a problem?

The staff dopes the patients up to control and make them easier to deal

that's not really handling the problem, hmm?

No, no, it's not. But, you see, you can't blame the staff for that either.

There's just not enough of them to do the job.

You try, Billy, you try to deal with a ward full of irrational, self -involved

people day after day.

And then you try to go home to family and friends and have a normal existence.

Try being a city editor.

You're saying it's hard.

Well, that's no reason not to try.

You know, it's really easy to talk that way, sitting here with good friends in a

nice room.

Yeah. Yeah, it's really pleasant here. I remember when you started, you were

so dedicated.

Billy, you know, most people start out really trying to care.

Hmm? to help, to make some change.

But how do you do therapy on somebody whose mind is so fogged on dope he can't

speak a coherent sentence?

If you gave the same amount of chlorpromazine to a timber wolf that

those patients are getting, he'd bring you your slippers and the morning paper.

Look, don't get me wrong.

I'm not knocking it.

Just for me, I had to get out.

Maybe you're still not really sure you should have left.

Listen, if you folks will excuse me, I think I'm going to turn in. I need some

sleep.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm kind of tired, too.

Billy, that was a terrific dinner.

Really wonderful.

You're a great cook.

I mean it.

Come on, Doug. I'll walk with you out to our cars.

I'm not going anywhere.

Oh?

Oh.

Yeah.

Good night. It's really a pleasure meeting you, sir.

Yeah. Yeah.

Same here. Same here.

Okay.

Good night.

Good night.

Thanks.

I'm just going to order something and eat at my desk. I'll have that sandwich,

will you? Number nine?

Lou. Hmm? Not in front of a woman.

She hasn't seen the list.

Everybody on the paper's seen the list.

You going to order anything?

No. I have a luncheon date with a woman who on a scale of one to ten, I'd say is

one through ten.

Lou? Lou,

I have never been on an assignment as tough as this mental health thing.

You hear our story yet?

No. No, everyone I talked to has a different story. I went in thinking it

the psych techs, but the further you get into this thing, the more confused you

get. Yeah, I know.

I looked into it myself.

Tough story.

Tough?

I feel like I'm clawing my way up the side of a ship and someone has pulled in

the rope ladder.

There's just no way.

Yeah.

Sometimes stories are like that.

They're just too hard.

There's nothing to do but quit

Now

what's your

full name Woodward Carl Woodward you see Okay, Carl

Would you like to tell me what's troubling you?

It's the radio in my car.

Well, it's not the radio.

The voice is on the radio.

I mean, I turn the radio off, and the voices are still coming out of the

you know?

I mean, maybe that kind of thing can happen, a scientific thing.

Have you been doing a lot of acid, Carl?

Xylothivin, TCT?

Drugs? No, no. I don't take drugs.

Uh, this could...

Be like a radio wave gets in there, even though it's turned off, you know?

Do the voices sound like anyone you know?

A little like my mother, maybe.

Well, I don't exactly remember.

It's not the voices. I don't mind them. It's what they're saying.

What do they say, Carl?

They tell me to do stuff.

What kind of stuff?

Drive my car over on the opposite side of the road into the oncoming cars.

I mean, it's pretty crazy, I guess.

Do you think I'm crazy?

I think you're very agitated right now.

I don't think it would be a good idea for you to drive your car.

What I'm going to do is have you stay here with us for a while.

Stay here?

Yeah. Let's get started on filling out these forms.

Okay.

Al, what do you have?

Well, there's that thing in the budget about the two people lost at sea in a

small boat for 28 days.

And as soon as they got back, they announced they were getting married.

So what's the big deal?

There have been other couples who have been in that sort of situation before.

When the couple was two guys.

That cleanup committee is getting even more uptight.

If they had their way, they'd censor everything anyone says, reads, wears, or

even thinks.

Yeah, I heard they set up a dress code for stage productions. Even Cinderella

couldn't pass.

Cinderella? She loses her slipper.

A little nudity.

Not funny.

We had a good story.

Billy nailed these guys, and his lawyer Sackler took the guts out of them. Well,

it's nothing for page one anyway. How is Rossi doing on mental hospitals?

He must be really digging. We haven't heard from him for a couple of days.

Hasn't been answering his phone.

Okay, Al, you're on with your shipboard romance.

What are you doing, Mr. Woodley?

I was just making some notes. Oh, that's interesting.

Woodward seems to be occupying himself.

He's exhibiting note -taking behavior.

Jot it down in his chart when you get a chance.

You're not sick. You're a doctor or a writer doing research.

How can you tell?

I don't know. I can just tell.

Think they can tell?

No.

What about you? Are you sick?

Yes, that's why I'm here.

Do you mind talking to me about being here?

No, I don't mind.

Do you like being here?

Have you been abused?

Abused?

No, not abused.

Why are you here

Not into television?

Uh, not too much.

I'm getting up tomorrow.

Oh, congratulations.

I think I'm starting to go really nutsy in here.

And you know what really is getting to me?

It's boring.

There is nothing. Nothing happens.

Most people go to sleep early.

I'm not too good at that.

I'll give you something.

No, thanks.

You want this?

What is it, doctor?

Milk.

They gave it to me.

But I don't want it. Here.

Thanks.

You must be real pleased about getting out.

Sure.

You don't seem real pleased.

I am.

Just for me, it's a little late, that's all.

You see, when I came here, I committed myself voluntarily.

I didn't know I'd be signing away all my rights.

I thought I could get out whenever I wanted to.

It doesn't work that way.

I was pretty depressed when I came in.

I had made a half -hearted attempt at killing myself.

I needed to come someplace, you know, to work things out.

Then while I was here, I found out that my little boy had been hit by a car

while riding his bicycle.

I wanted to get out, you know, to be with him.

But what they did here, they gave me more drugs.

Nobody was trying to be mean, you understand.

They're trying to help, I guess.

I was so doped up that I didn't hear about it for two days.

Nobody told me.

And then when they did, the way they dealt with that is they gave me more

The pain was there, but I was numb.

He robbed me of my chance to be with my child when he needed me.

And then they robbed me of my grief.

Another memo from the legal department.

Sackler objects to the objectionable words we use in our story on the list of

words at the obscenity trial.

We didn't list the words, we used the numbers.

Take a look.

In paragraph six, please delete reference to the number six.

Oh, isn't this guy being overzealous? Do lawyers in this newspaper usually get

into this?

I've never seen anything like that.

Well, I can't deal with this nonsense when I have important things on my mind.

We're talking big numbers here, Lou.

Animal.

I want to find out where Rossi is. It's going on three days now.

Yeah, Lou?

When you're out cruising, steer by Rossi's apartment and check it out. He

wouldn't leave his dog this long.

That mutts the only creature he really loves, huh?

That mutts the only creature that really loves him.

Halsey, did you see that?

Pretty hard to miss.

Did you, Mr. Copelands?

We're men, but it's like she didn't even see us. Like we're invisible.

No, she sees us like she sees the furniture.

Doctor.

Doctor. What?

Since I've been admitted, I haven't seen a doctor.

Yes, all right.

I just wondered when maybe a session or something was scheduled.

Yes, all right.

Yes, all right.

We are having a little interdepartmental communication problem that

I wanted to kick around.

It's about Sackler, isn't it? Hello, look.

He's new.

He's feeling his way.

And I know that he's something of a pain in the 12.

But, Lou, the different departments of this paper have to talk to each other.

Are you saying I have to listen to this super cautious lawyer telling me how to

put up the news?

I'm talking about communication, Lou. Give and take.

Like the way it is between you and me.

I mean, no pulling a rank, just an open exchange of ideas.

Okay.

I don't want to talk to this guy.

Okay. I heard you.

Now do it.

Have you talked

to

him?

Koblenz? He can't talk.

He can talk. That's not talking. It's unintelligible.

Not if you listen.

Nobody listens because it takes too much time.

I listen.

But, of course, I have a lot of time.

Can he understand me?

Yeah. He can understand me talking just like this.

Just have to listen.

Okay, Copeland.

Go ahead. Talk. I'm listening.

I can't talk like...

like

I used to.

It's so...

For us, today... The

drugs did this?

He may have been crazy when he came in here, but he could talk.

What if they stopped the drugs? Would he be able to talk then?

I don't know.

They probably won't stop the drugs.

Well,

having read that piece on the obscenity trial, there are two questions that come

to my mind. Number one, why was it several days before this list was

my attention? And number two, what is 31?

Don't be embarrassed. They couldn't even tell me in the composing room. That's

not why I called you here.

Gentlemen, we have heard from Mr. Foley's lawyers.

And it's possible if we continue our coverage of this obscenity trial, we may

hit by a very big lawsuit.

Our coverage has been very balanced.

Oh, I've read those articles, Mr. Hume. They do tend to make Mr. Foley look like

a bad joke.

Well, he is.

I mean, he crossed As You Like It off the list of plays the theater could put

because the title sounded dirty.

Well,

he is sanctimonious. He's holier than thou.

And perhaps he's a little foolish, but I don't think he's an evil man.

The fight among men is not between good and evil, but between opposing ideas of

good.

That was one of my husband's favorite sayings.

But the point isn't really whether we agree with Foley.

The point is whether we can allow him to dictate what we print by threatening to

sue us. The point is whether we can afford to go to trial.

The New York Times has a policy of fighting every nuisance suit brought

it so that people won't think they'll be able to be paid off so easily.

They'll have to go to court.

May I remind you, Mr. Grant, this newspaper is not the New York Times.

I'm reminded of it every time I pick it up. So am I, sir. I wish we had their

resources, but the simple fact is we don't. If you want me to back off on

I will.

Now, I didn't say that.

But I need you gentlemen to tell me that we can win if we go to court.

I'm sure we will.

We'll win.

That's the point.

Then as long as we're on solid ground, let him sue. I'll consider that money

well spent.

Oh, here we are.

Here we are. Number 31.

Would you explain this to Eddie in the composing room? I promised I'd let him

know as soon as I found out.

Thank you. Thank you for letting me talk to you. here. It took long enough.

I thought by law I had to be evaluated by a doctor within 72 hours.

Oh, you were.

What?

It's all right here.

How come I didn't know about it? I think the law states, Mr. Woodward, that you

have to be observed.

And you were observed.

Okay, let me lay it all out for you. Actually, my name is not Woodward. It's

Rossi. I'm a reporter. I had myself admitted here at this hospital. Take a

look at the situation inside of this hospital.

Yes.

I've seen a number of what are patently laxed in the care the patients have been

given at this hospital. I've got a list.

That's quite a sizable list.

Well, some of it is kind of subtle.

It's just the way the staff reacts toward the patients, like they don't

recognize them as human beings.

That's disturbing.

Can you prove all that? I've seen it.

Another thing, there are patients out there who are so stoned that they have

some sanity. I don't see how you can reach it.

Am I going too fast for you?

No.

You've observed someone who you feel has been overdrugged. Someone?

Several people, numerous. Uh -huh.

Boy, it is a relief to talk to someone who isn't uptight about some criticism.

Well, we're always looking for areas where we can perhaps make some

I'm not talking about perhaps.

I'm going to write this article, and I'm going to mention all these

inadequacies. Mr. Woodward, Mr. Rossi, I can understand your strong feelings

about this.

Look, Dr. Stanford, one of the things you learn as a reporter is how to read

upside down. Now, you haven't been writing down what I've been saying.

still making notes about me for that patient chart, aren't you?

Oh, boy, am I going to be glad to get out of here.

Mr. Woodward, releasing you would be contraindicated at this time.

Rossi. The name is Rossi. I told you I'm a reporter, and what's on that chart

about some non -existent person named Woodward is a lot of nonsense.

Here, look. Look at the chart. I'll show you how I faked it. See the stuff?

Look here. See the stuff about the voices?

I made that up.

And look, the first dot, the admitting dot, wrote down schizophrenic.

I mean, that first dot, put that label on me.

Schizophrenic.

Oh, now, now, wait a minute.

Now, don't you see? You put that label on me. Schizoid. Now, no matter what I

do, it's schizoid.

It's wrong!

I work for the Los Angeles...

Come down for the night.

Increase Mr. Woodward's medication.

I'll make sure that he gets it.

I checked out Rossi's apartment.

What'd you find out?

The lady next door is taking care of his dog for him.

He told her he was going to be away a while.

Everything was like he was going on a trip. She's picking up his mail, his

newspaper.

The place was neat.

By your standards?

I found this in Rossi's desk. Kind of interesting.

Kind of hard to read.

Looks like a bunch of doctor's phone numbers.

Brick wall, hard to get past.

What's that?

Some kind of note to himself, maybe.

Half cup kibble, can of liver chunks, teaspoon mineral oil.

That must be for his dog. Or his recipe for meatballs.

Look at this.

Same people in insane places.

That's some quotation from somebody.

Here he wrote a date and a phone number. 2 .30 on the 18th.

That was two days ago.

Call the number. See if he kept the appointment.

I think it's starting to add up.

I think I know what he's doing.

In order to get his story, Rossi went inside a mental hospital.

It's a crazy thing to do. I'm calling for Joe Rossi.

Yeah. No.

Well, when he's got his story and comes out, he'll tell us about it.

Maybe he can't get out.

He had an appointment, all right. They said he didn't show.

You think he would have called to cancel? He wouldn't cancel if he

be there.

We'll try to track him down. Get some guys on this.

Run down every hospital, public or private, in the state.

Call Driscoll at the cop house. See if he can learn anything.

I think I know what made him do this.

I was writing him too hard. I even said something to him about not phoning in

this story from the motel down the road.

But I didn't mean this. Lou, you didn't know he'd take it this way.

Getting down on ourselves instead of getting on it isn't going to help.

Then why don't you get on it?

If you want to get out of here, you have to play the game.

What game?

Let them think you're sick so you can improve.

But, um... You have to go along with their idea of you. You have to let them

think that they're helping you.

After all, they're human.

They have feelings, too.

So, if you act sane, they think you're crazy.

And if you act crazy, they think you're crazy.

That's right.

So you have to act... crazy.

That's what they call it, isn't it?

Acting crazy.

They say somebody is acting crazy.

I've seen it.

You give a convincing performance, you can be out of here in a month.

A month?

Why don't you do it?

Why don't you play the game and get out?

I do.

I always come back.

We checked all the hospitals. He's not on any admissions list. Maybe he's just

traveling.

He probably used a phony name when he checked in so he wouldn't recognize his

byline. He's not that well known.

He thinks he is. How can we find him unless he dropped a trail of

Maybe he wrote down that name he's using in those notes of his.

I wonder what name Rossi would use.

How about Charles DeGaulle?

Rossi? DeGaulle?

DeGaulle was six foot four.

In his heart, Rossi is six foot four.

I don't think there's any use checking that one. There's probably dozens of

Charles de Gaulle's in the institutions.

Yeah? What happens when two of them meet each other?

Usually they're both able to arrive at the truth.

They realize the other guy's crazy.

I'm sorry Mr. Grant's busy right now.

Yes, but I really wanted to see him.

He's quite busy.

You could wait if you want.

Take a seat over there.

Thank you.

Rossi is not by now. Maybe he is in trouble. It's going on four days.

Yeah.

You know, it isn't quite the same without him around.

It's true, you know.

Sometimes he could really get on your nerves, but he wasn't really a bad guy.

And he was a good reporter.

Will you two cut it out? You're talking like he's dead or something.

We have here the resources of a major metropolitan newspaper trying to track

Rossi down, and we're getting nowhere.

Some investigative reporters.

Mr. Grant?

What?

Oh, I understand you're busy. I can come back later.

What?

I'll come back later.

No, no, no. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What is it?

I'm sorry I kept you waiting.

See, we have a little problem here of a reporter missing.

Mr. Rossi. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Here, please sit down. Sit down. There you go. I just talked to him.

Oh, and where is he? In the hospital. In the hospital? What hospital is that?

Glenview. He's in there, and I want him out, and I want him out now.

Okay, listen. No, it's not okay. And I don't want any bureaucratic backtalk. I

want action. I want it now.

I want to see our reporter in this room in five minutes, so get on it. Can I ask

you one question? No, you can't ask one question.

And if you don't get him in here and fast, I'll have half the lawyers in this

state swarming all over this room.

I need to know one thing.

What?

What's his name?

Rossi.

Ow!

Rossi. We found you.

We'll have you out of here in no time.

Hi, guys. Hey, Rossi, I didn't mean for you to go inside like this, but I have

to admit, it took guts.

Yeah. Did they give you something?

A little. The green ones are really nice, Lou.

Uh -huh.

So I've got the release forms all taken care of.

Okay, come on, Rossi. We're going to go home.

You're going to see your doggie.

That's nice, Lou.

Come on, let's go get your clothes.

Yeah, it's too nice.

I wonder if we can get another bottle of whatever he's taking.

It's terrific reporting.

It's great stuff.

Okay, that's it.

That's work.

You really hit the problem right here where you talk about labeling.

I mean, once you hang a sign around somebody's neck, paranoid, manic,

oppressive, that's what it is.

It isn't fair, but as the piece points out, we do it all the time in daily

In fact, we even do it in this newsroom.

Dennis!

Yeah, Luke?

That was a nice photo on page three today, Dennis.

We're assigned to work together this afternoon, Dennis.

Why aren't you guys calling me animal?

You mad at me or what?

Sackler, he's having trouble with Rossi's story.

He is.

Well, I guess I better go communicate with him.

I was just going to knock a little racquetball around. You play? We'll have

play. I don't play. I appreciate you getting back to me so quickly. The

got back to you quickly is because this story is going in tomorrow's paper, and

I wanted to discuss the trouble you're having with it.

I just saw the first paragraphs, but I think we're going to get into a costly

fight if we go with this one.

We don't have to print it. I mean, the writing's pretty good, but, you know,

it's just another story out of hundreds, and... Yes.

We have to print it.

But if you have problems, we'll go over the story and work out the problems,

line by line.

Now, I take it you have a copy on your desk?

Uh, yeah, just the, uh, first two paragraphs.

Okay, I have the rest of it right here.

Now, sentence one.

Any problem there?

No, that's okay.

Good.

Sentence two.

Well, no.

Okay, very good.

We only have nine more pages to go.

Okay, that takes care of page three.

Now, page four, line one.

Anything there?

No. Line two.