The Barefoot Girls of Bleecker Street
McCloud
helps a runaway and her baby, amidst a curious stolen property investigation.
A Vision of Television
The
script conceives a single, complicated apparatus stemming from the opening
scene. McCloud is on harbor duty when he spots a group of men loading boxes
into a truck on an abandoned pier. After a shootout in which one of the men is
killed, further investigation reveals a boatload of color television sets
bought and paid for individually with numerous credit cards not reported
stolen.
It
evolves that a cocaine dealer (Bill Fletcher) is financing the biggest deal in
New York history by selling off merchandise bought with credit cards stolen
from out-of-town businessmen by underage girls in the employ of Greenwich
Village nightclub owner Thelma, who is a health nut.
In
this vast development of the badger game, Shaw has more than one trick up his
sleeve (the band at Thelma’s are undercover Feds; Eve left her Minnesota home
in fear of her life after seeing the sheriff filch some loot), but the
visionary quality is the main effort.
Shear’s
beautifully geometric compositions translate the complications of plot
efficiently into a versatility of color and line.
Shelley
Winters was nominated for an Emmy.
|
Shelley Winters Thelma |
Written by Lou Shaw Directed by Barry Shear |
40505, 9.22.74
On the small green chalkboard where Chief Clifford has the
big bust laid out, the word SURVEILLANCE appears with one L
missing.
SGT. HARRIS: Checking your watch ain’t gonna make
the time go any faster, McCloud. You might as well get used to harbor duty.
McCLOUD: Gettin’ used to somethin’ don’t mean I have to like it. The only water I’m used to is
in a glass.
SGT.
HARRIS: Well, when you see a garbage scow floating along the desert,
you’ll know just what to do.
McCLOUD: There ya
go.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: Why do they insist on policemen
giving speeches when we should be doing police work?
SGT.
BROADHURST: I guess it’s to reassure the public that we are doing
police work.
CHIEF
CLIFFORD: How can we when we’re giving speeches?
CHIEF CLIFFORD: There’s more to police work in New
York than hoppin’ on a mule and ridin’ in with both
barrels blazing.
(First line of song by S.B.J. Ltd. at Thelma’s.)
“If you believe in forever, then life is just a one
night stand.”
(At Thelma’s, McCloud tells Chief Clifford to hang on.)
CHIEF CLIFFORD: (On telephone.) McCloud! McCloud!
MAN:
(Picks up phone.) Hello?
CHIEF
CLIFFORD: Hello!
MAN: Who’s
this?
CHIEF
CLIFFORD: Peter B. Clifford! Who’s this?
MAN: A friend.
You sound like you could use a friend.
CHIEF
CLIFFORD: Where’s McCloud?
MAN: I know
what you’re going through, Pete, but take my advice, let him go.
CHIEF
CLIFFORD: Let him go? ...Now you listen to me, you kook!
MAN: You sound
nice, Pete. What do you look like?
THELMA: Keep your hands in your pockets, Tex,
your money ain’t no good around here.
McCLOUD: Well, I
ain’t got much else to offer.
THELMA: Yeah,
that’s what you think, handsome.
McCLOUD: You fishin’ or cuttin’ bait?
THELMA: You sure got me going down Memory Lane on a toboggan.
THELMA: The first thing you learn in New York is to forget
everything you learned back home.
SGT. BROADHURST: (Working in the Juvenile files.) Well,
nobody ever died from lack of sleep, I think.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: Simple, McCloud, and to the point! Yes, or no?
McCLOUD: Yes! And
no!
CLIFFORD: That’s
simple.
CHIEF CLIFFORD: I am going to understand you,
McCloud, no matter what you say or how you say it.
THELMA: Health doesn’t come cheap nowadays.
OUT-OF-TOWN BUSINESSMAN: What do you mean, beat it?
This is my room! I paid for it!
THELMA: You got
very tacky taste.
WALTERS: You get it for me, Thelma, or I’ll put someone in here who will.
McCLOUD: Well, I’ll be dipped.
SHERIFF RODNEY: Now look, honey, we can either do
this the nice, easy, down home way, or we can do it the big city way.