Английский язык с Крестным Отцом
Шрифт:
having problems. They had also become, to some extent, desensitized (стали
бесчувственны, чувства их атрофировались, притупились) physically and mentally.
They could no longer "fall in love." They could no longer assume the role of hunted
women. They had been made too imperious; by money, by fame, by their former beauty.
Woltz gave his parties so that it would be easier for them to pick up lovers, one-night
stands, who, if they had the stuff (если
26
талант), could graduate into full-time bed partners and so work their way upward. Since
the action sometimes degenerated into brawls (brawl – шумная ссора, скандал) or
sexual excess that led to trouble with the police, Woltz decided to hold the parties in the
house of the public relations counselor, who would be right there to fix things up, pay off
newsmen and police officers and keep everything quiet.
For certain virile young male actors on the studio payroll who had not yet achieved
stardom (положение ‘звезды’) or featured roles (feature – полнометражный фильм),
attendance at the Friday night parties was not always pleasant duty. This was explained
by the fact that a new film yet to be released by the studio would be shown at the party.
In fact that was the excuse for the party itself. People would say, "Let's go over to see
what the new picture so and so made is like." And so it was put in a professional context.
Young female starlets were forbidden to attend the Friday night parties. Or rather
discouraged. Most of them took the hint.
Screenings (screening – демонстрация фильма; screen – ширма; экран) of the new
movies took place at midnight and Johnny and Nino arrived at eleven. Roy McElroy
proved to be, at first sight, an enormously likable man, well-groomed (хорошо
ухоженный /о лошади/; холеный), beautifully dressed. He greeted Johnny Fontane
with a surprised cry of delight. "What the hell are you doing here?" he said with genuine
astonishment.
Johnny shook his hand. "I'm showing my country cousin the sights. Meet Nino."
McElroy shook hands with Nino and gazed at him appraisingly. "They'll eat him up
alive," he said to Johnny. He led them to the rear patio.
The rear patio was really a series of huge rooms whose glass doors had been opened
to a garden and pool. There were almost a hundred people milling around (двигались
кругом, кружили; to mill – молоть; mill – мельница), all with drinks in their hands. The
patio lighting was artfully arranged to flatter feminine faces and skin. These were
women Nino had seen on the darkened movie screens when he had been a teenager.
They had played their part in his erotic dreams of adolescence. But seeing them now in
the flesh was like seeing them in some horrible makeup. Nothing could hide the
tiredness of their spirit and their flesh; time had eroded (to erode –
разрушать) their godhead. They posed and moved as charmingly as he remembered
but they were like wax fruit, they could not lubricate his glands («смазать» его железы,
гланды). Nino took two drinks, wandered to a table where he could stand next to a nest
of bottles. Johnny moved with him. They drank together until behind them came the
magic voice of Deanna Dunn.
27
Nino, like millions of other men, had that voice imprinted on his brain forever. Deanna
Dunn had won two Academy Awards, had been in the biggest movie grosser (фильм,
приносящий огромный доход) made in Hollywood. On the screen she had a feline
(кошачий ['fi:lain]) feminine charm that made her irresistible to all men. But the words
she was saying had never been heard on the silver screen. "Johnny, you bastard, I had
to go to my psychiatrist again because you gave me a one-night stand. How come you
never came back for seconds?"
Johnny kissed her on her proffered (to proffer – предлагать) cheek. "You wore me
out for a month," he said. "I want you to meet my cousin Nino. A nice strong Italian boy.
Maybe he can keep up with you (держаться наравне; составить компанию)."
Deanna Dunn turned to give Nino a cool look. "Does he like to watch previews?"
Johnny laughed. "I don't think he's ever had the chance. Why don't you break him in?"
Nino had to take a big drink when he was alone with Deanna Dunn. He was trying to
be nonchalant (беспечный, беззаботный ['nonlnt]) but it was hard. Deanna Dunn
had the upturned nose, the clean-cut classical features of the Anglo-Saxon beauty. And
he knew her so well. He had seen her alone in a bedroom, heart-broken, weeping over
her dead flier husband who had left her with fatherless children. He had seen her angry,
hurt, humiliated, yet with a shining dignity when a caddish (грубый, вульгарный) Clark
Gable had taken advantage of her, then left her for a sexpot (сексуально
привлекательная женщина, «секс-бомба»). (Deanna Dunn never played sexpots in
the movies.) He had seen her flushed with requited (to requite – отплачивать,