Now Franklin stared. His mouth dropped open. For a long time, nobody spoke at all. Finally, Franklin said, “What are you talking about, ‘for insurance purposes’?”
“You are carrying a policy on this man,” Perkins said, nodding toward Chadney. “Should anything happen in the performance of this stunt, you would lose your coverage unless the stunt was first done with the dummy.”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Franklin said.
“I’m telling you how it is.”
“Never in all my years—” Franklin began.
“Have you read a stuntman’s insurance policy?” Perkins said. “Well, I’m telling you now. You risk this man’s coverage in the event of an accident unless you do it with the dummy first.”
“He’s full of crap,” Chadney said, finally speaking up. “Let’s shoot.”
“Look,” Franklin said, lowering his voice. “There are psychological factors here. That man is ready to do a dangerous stunt, and he wants to do it now. He’s safest when he’s mentally prepared, and that’s right now. The longer we wait, the more nervous he’ll get. I don’t want to delay?—”
“Do the stunt now!” Mann said. “Come on, let’s get going!”
“Mr. Mann,” Perkins said mildly, “I would think as producer you would have a stake in following correct procedure. That stuntman could sue you if something went wrong.”
“He wants to do the stunt, and I say let him do it now.” Mann was obviously very agitated, very tense.
“Let’s try and be calm,” Perkins said.
“Calm! For Christ’s sake, we’re trying to make a movie here, and your meddling is getting in our way!” Mann was turning purple with rage.
But now Franklin was wavering. He walked over to Chadney and conferred quietly with him for a moment. Chadney nodded. Franklin nodded.
I looked at Mann. He was chewing his lip. The veins stood out on his forehead.
Then I saw Franklin unhooking Chadney from the cable, and the wardrobe people were bringing over the dummy.
“What the hell are you doing?” Mann demanded. “Do the stunt with Chadney!”
Franklin paid no attention. He helped hitch up the dummy to the cable.
“Chadney,” Mann bellowed. “You chickening out? You letting this bastard get to you?”
Chadney said nothing. He helped to get the dummy in position. Then he walked with Franklin back to the cameras.
“This is crazy. This is insane,” Mann said. He was lighting a cigarette. His hands were trembling. “You guys don’t know what you are doing. This is insane.”
“We’ll do Chadney next,” Franklin said quietly. “Okay, Claude.”
“This is insane. We have to get the job done,” Mann said, smoking his cigarette.
Claude said, “Quiet for a take! Roll cameras!”
“You’re all insane,” Mann said.
The cameras began to roll. We had two high-speed cameras, and they made a very loud grinding noise. The slate boys rushed forward.
“A camera!”
“B camera!”
“C camera!”
“You have speed?” Franklin shouted over the din of the cameras. High-speed cameras take a few moments to get up to operating speed.
