Read Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert for Free Online Page B

well ...
    "What's this?" Marvin cried. He snatched the Los Angeles Times from his doormat and threw it at the front gate. LaBoo went careening after it, barking crazily.

    "You bring that paper back here and I'll kill you," Marvin told LaBoo. He snarled at LaBoo and walked down the hallway and into the living room. LaBoo charged past him and jumped onto a chair. "LaBoo, you son of a bitch, I'm gonna kill you," Marvin said.
    "Hello, LaBoo," Michelle said tenderly.
    LaBoo wagged his tail.
    "I need a beer," Marvin said. "Who's gonna get me a beer? I'm gonna get me a beer? I feel like a beer. Hell, I need a beer. Where are my glasses?" He peered around him. "Ever read this book? I got it for Christmas or some goddamn thing. A history of the West. Look here. All these cowboys are wearing chaps. Workingmen, see. Look here. Bronco Billy dressed up in the East's conception of the Western hero. See. From a dime novel. That's how authentic a Western we made when we made Monte Walsh. Where's that beer? That author, he knows what it was really like. Get me a beer."
    "Finish your coffee," Michelle said.
    "I said get me a beer. "
    Marvin paged through the book of Western lore, stopping to inspect an occasional page. When he stopped, he would pause for a moment and then whistle, moving on. Then silence. Only the pages turning. Now and again, a whistle.
    "Where's that fucking beer, baby?" He dropped the book on the rug. "Look, if I want to develop an image, I'll do it my own fucking way."
    Michelle went into the kitchen to get a beer.
    "Anne ... she seemed to be a nice girl," Marvin said. "This was when I was in London for the Royal Command Performance of Paint Your Wagon. Nice enough girl, Anne. Lord somebody or other kept pounding me on the back. I told him I'd already made other arrangements." Marvin whistled. "He kept poking me. Lord somebody or other, never did catch his name. I advised him to fuck off." A pause. A whistle. "If that's swinging, I'll bring them back to Malibu. Maybe to commit suicide. . . "
    A record, "Victory at Sea," dropped on the stereo changer. "`Victory at Sea,"' Marvin said. "Well, thousands of ships went under, right? Tells you something."
    Michelle returned with a bottle of Heineken. Marvin drank from the bottle, a long, deep drink, and then he smiled at her. "You gonna take off your clothes and jump on him now? Or later?" He smiled again. "Michelle, she's a good sport."

    "Lee!" Michelle said.
    "Where the hell are my glasses?" Marvin said. He took another drink from the bottle and looked on the floor around his chair.
    "He took the lenses out of his glasses," Michelle said. "Last night. He said he didn't want to read any more scripts."
    "Not another single goddamned script," Marvin said.
    "So he took the lenses out of his glasses."
    "I want simply to be the real Lee. The real Lee. The real Kirk Lee."
    "You left the real Lee in London."
    "Now I'm Kirk Lee. Not Lee Lee. Kirk Lee. I flew back from London with Sir Cary. I told him, I said, Sir Cary, that's a nice watch you have." Marvin pointed his finger like a gun and made a noise that began with a whistle and ended with a pop. "A real nice watch, Sir Cary, I said." Whistlepop. On the pop, his thumb came down.
    "Cary has the same watch you have," Michelle said.
    "No," Marvin said, "he has the same watch Ihave. If I saw his watch in a photograph, I could identify it anywhere. But, who gives a shit?"
    Whistle-pop. "Going back to the old neighborhood. This was London. What was it? Bulgaria? No, Belgravia. Well it was only seven-thirty in the morning. Don't you want to stay up and watch the junkies jet in?" Whistle. "Fuck you, pal, I'm getting some sleep."
    A moment's silence for symbolic sleep. Marvin closed his eyes and threw his head back against his chair. There was a door at the other end of the living room, opening onto a porch that overlooked the beach. Through the door you could hear the waves hitting the beach, crush, crush, and at this moment, while Marvin