High Fidelity revisited (deleted scene)
mannybolone
Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
I was talking about this with a friend earlier today. Forgot how funny (and how patently unrealsitic) a scene it was.b/wI want that 45 drawer.
Comments
This could be a great direct marketing tag line.
"Pissed at you no good husband, sell his records to me."
I'm saying! There's no "collector's code"! You Frickin' take the box and dance on your way out.
And yeah, offer $10 for the LPs.
Sayin. I would hit that two times.
You'd think he'd have a better poker face after his years in the game. He's doing the nervous look over and all that shit. If you can't hold it in make sure you're back is facing the seller. C'mon man, this is 101 level shit!
I watched this scene on the DVD and was having deja vu. It took me like, 30 minutes to realize that this scene was in the book and that's where I had heard/read it before. That fucked with me for a minute.
Always wondered why they cut it.
Exactly. Dude was goin thru some shit and still didnt want too underpay for that stash.
Dumbass.
It sets the mood
...but it doesn't look like either the Virgin or A&M versions of the single.
As far as the movie was concerned, naw, I think he was spot-on.
I never read Hornby's OG so I can't say if the casting made sense with that.
EXT./INT. FANCY LINCOLN PARK TOWNHOUSE - DAY
Rob mounts the stairs and rings the doorbell. The door
opens, revealing a too-tan WOMAN in her late forties, in
designer jeans and a T-shirt bearing a rhinestone peace sign.
She says nothing.
ROB
Hi. You called about the records?
She turns and walks into the house, leaving the door open
for him. He follows her in and through a fabulous first
floor, packed with big-bucks bourgeois: Rugs, art, and
antiques:
She ushers Rob into a large study, and turns the light on.
He misses a breath. The walls are lined with mahogany cases
custom-built for CDs, albums, epicurean stereo components, a
couple priceless vintage guitars -- every one of the
thousands of items bear a little numbered sticker, like a
museum. She points to several boxes on the floor, full of
hundreds of singles.
WOMAN
Those.
Rob steps into the room like an Undeserving, and carefully
drops to his knees to examine the singles, each pristine in
a plastic sleeve: the original God Save the Queen by the Sex
Pistols, original Otis Reddings, Elvis Presleys, James
Browns, Jerry Lee Lewises, Beatles... on and on. The mother
lode. Rob is doing the best to control the onset of
hyperventilation. He dares a glance over his shoulder to
her to see if this is a joke.
WOMAN (CONT'D)
What do you think?
ROB
It's the best collection I've ever
seen.
WOMAN
Give me fifty bucks and they're all
yours.
Rob's face goes funny. He looks around for a hidden camera.
ROB
These are worth at least, I don't
know --
WOMAN
I know what they're worth. Give me
fifty and get them out.
ROB
But you must have --
WOMAN
I must have nothing. Their my
husband's.
ROB
And you must not be getting along
too well right now, huh?
WOMAN
He's in Jamaica with a twenty-
three-year-old. A friend of my
daughter's. He had the Frickin'
nerve to call me and ask me to
borrow some money and I told him to
fuck off, so he asked me to sell
his singles collection and send him
a check for whatever I go, minus a
ten percent commission. Which
reminds me. Can you make sure you
give me a five? I want to frame it
and put it on the wall.
ROB
It must have taken him a long time
to get them together.
WOMAN
Years. This collection is as close
as he's ever come to an achievement.
Rob looks back at the records but avoids the trance.
ROB
Look. Can I pay you properly? You
don't have to tell him what you got.
Send him forty-five bucks and blow
the rest. Give it to charity. Or
something.
WOMAN
That wasn't part of the deal. I
want to be poisonous but fair.
ROB
(looking back at the records)
Look... I... I'm sorry. I don't
want to be any part of this.
WOMAN
Suit yourself. There are plenty of
others who will.
ROB
That's why I'm trying to compromise.
What about fifteen-hundred? They're
worth five times that.
WOMAN
Sixty.
ROB
Thirteen hundred.
WOMAN
Seventy-five.
ROB
Eleven-hundred. That's my lowest
offer.
WOMAN
And I won't take a penny over ninety.
They start smiling at each other.
WOMAN (CONT'D)
With eleven hundred he could come
home, and that's the last thing I
want.
ROB
I'm sorry but I think you better
talk to someone else.
WOMAN
Fine.
Rob half stands, then drops again for one last lingering look.
ROB
Can I buy this Otis Redding single
off you?
WOMAN
Sure. Ten cents.
ROB
Oh, come on! Let me give you ten
dollars for this, and you can give
the rest away for all I care.
WOMAN
Okay. Because you took the trouble
to come up here. And because
you've got principles. But that's
it. I'm not selling them to you
one by one.
CUT TO:
EXT. FANCY LINCOLN PARK TOWNHOUSE - DAY
Rob comes down the stairs holding his single, and walks down
the street talking to camera.
ROB
How come I end up siding with the
bad guy, the man who ran off to
Jamaica with some nymphette? I
just got left for someone else, so
why can't I bring myself to feel
whatever it is his wife is feeling?
All I can see is that guy's face
when he gets that pathetic check in
the mail for those records, and I
can't help but feel desperately,
painfully sorry for him.
You haven't spent much time in Lincoln Park have you?
I read the book first. It's been a while but when the film was announced I was shaking my head. I guess he works but he's not who I envisioned. And if you're wondering, no, I don't know who would be more fitting.
The patently unrealistic part is the idea that he would have left the singles behind. I mean, dude's a collector and runs a record store. He's going to pass up the motherlode? Yeah, I don't think so.
Great book/film though.
Yeah, they could have made the record store owner a stone-cold psychopath who is quite lacking in the looks department, but for obvious reasons they couldn't give him a girlfriend and make us believe it.
As I've probably said before on the Strut, making Hi-Fi's lead character a reasonably decent-looking man with a love life was an encouraging sign. They could have done like Ghost World and made him King Of The Sexless Nerds like Seymour and his soul buddies, but they didn't go there.
As far as Beverly D'Angelo...I was at an art show opening last night and the women definitely fit D'Angelo's profile, the older woman in her forties/fifties who still had almighty, unquestioned sex appeal. I just wish they had followed through with the original script idea and had her wear tighter clothing...
It had the boxed EMI logo on it. Looks like a reissue, because the OG EMI was tan & red.
What Otis Redding single is worth $200?
Maybe one of his pre-Volt sides like "Shout Bamalama"?