She Sends Me a Fruit Cake

FRAN

Some people take, some people get took — and they know they’re getting took — and there’s nothing they can do about it.

BUD

I wouldn’t say that -(trying to change the subject) What would you like to have for diner? There’s onion soup and canned asparagus-

FRAN

I really ought to be getting home. My family will be flipping by now.

She starts into the living room. Bud follows her.

BUD

You can’t leave yet. The doctor says it takes forty-eight hours to get the stuff out of your system.

FRAN (wistfully)

I wonder how long it takes to get someone you’re stuck on out of your system? If they’d only invent some kind of a pump for that — She sits on the arm of a chair.

BUD

I know how you feel, Miss Kubelik. You think it’s the end of the world — but it’s not, really. I went through exactly the same thing myself.

FRAN

You did?

BUD

Well, maybe not exactly — I tried to do it with a gun.

FRAN

Over a girl?

BUD

Worse than that — she was the wife of my best friend — and I was mad for her. But I knew it was hopeless — so I decided to end it all. I went to a pawnshop and bought a forty-five automatic and drove up to Eden Park — do you know Cincinnati?

FRAN

No, I don’t.

BUD

Anyway, I parked the car and loaded the gun — well, you read in the papers all the time that people shoot themselves, but believe me, it’s not that easy — I mean, how do you do it? — here, or here, or here -(with cocked finger, he points to his temple, mouth and chest)– you know where I finally shot myself?

FRAN

Where?

BUD

(indicating kneecap) Here.

FRAN

In the knee?

BUD

Uh-huh. While I was sitting there, trying to make my mind up, a cop stuck his head in the car, because I was illegally parked — so I started to hide the gun under the seat and it went off — pow!

FRAN

(laughing) That’s terrible.

BUD

Yeah. Took me a year before I could bend my knee — but I got over the girl in three weeks. She still lives in Cincinnati, has four kids, gained twenty pounds — she sends me a fruit cake every Christmas.

FRAN

(suddenly suspicious) Are you just making that up to make me feel better?

BUD

Of course not. Here’s the fruit cake. (shows it to her under Christmas tree) And you want to see my knee? (starts to raise pant-leg)

FRAN

No, thanks. The fellows in the office may get the wrong idea how I found out.

BUD

So let ’em. Look, I’m going to cook dinner for us. We’ll have the fruit cake for dessert. You just sit there and rest. You’ve done enough for one day.

FRAN

(smiling) Yes, nurse.

Bud starts happily into the kitchen
THE APARTMENT – Screenplay by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond

THE APARMTMENT (1960) is one of my all-time favorite movies. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I think it might be one of only a few romantic comedies that have won Best Picture. MARTY is the only other one that comes to mind. I guess SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE too. It stars Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray in sort of a love triangle.

Here is a snippet of the plot:

C.C. “Buddy Boy” Baxter is a lonely office worker at an insurance company in New York City. To climb the corporate ladder, he allows four company managers to take turns borrowing his Upper West Side apartment for their extramarital affairs. Baxter meticulously juggles the “booking” schedule; the steady stream of women convinces his neighbors that he is a playboy.

In a quid pro quo, the four managers submit glowing performance reviews of Baxter to personnel director Jeff Sheldrake, who grows suspicious of Baxter’s popularity. Under Sheldrake’s cynical questioning, Baxter confesses the arrangement with his apartment. Sheldrake implies that he will promote Baxter, provided that Sheldrake also gains use of the apartment for his own affair, starting that night. As compensation for this short notice, he gives Baxter two tickets to see The Music Man. Baxter asks Fran Kubelik, an elevator operator employee to whom he is attracted, to join him. She agrees to meet Baxter after dinner with a “former fling”, who turns out to be Sheldrake. When Sheldrake tells her that he plans to divorce his wife to be with her, they head to Baxter’s apartment, while Baxter is stood up at the theater.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apartment

The scene from the top of this post is after C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) comes home to find Fran (Shirely MacLaine) AKA the woman he loves, passed out in his bed from a suicide attempt via drug overdose after her tryst with Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray) in Baxter’s appointment goes poorly. The scene takes places after Baxter’s neighbor (a doctor) has brought her back from her overdose.

It’s a great movie and you should watch it if you haven’t.

But Thursday’s are for flowers. This flowertography session took place in my yard: