Original subtitles

Enjoy yourself?

Oh, yes.

I only wish you were. I am, I am. It's just that...

Well, if you'll just give me another couple of days, I'll really show you the

town. In the meantime, I see you for myself.

Oh, I'm sorry, Jane Cole, but

I...

Daddy?

Is there something wrong?

There's the post office down on the next block.

I'll get off here. But, Daddy... Are you back at the hotel tonight?

Have a good time.

Here you go, Miss Belding.

Prior. Thank you.

Jake Spencer?

My father.

What did you find in this brief?

His effects.

Clothes and wallets.

And this box here.

Um, there was another package. A small one.

Well, that's all that was turned in.

About the burial arrangements.

I want to talk to the police.

Police? My father was murdered.

And I cannot see him getting all the blame.

Do you know where there's a police station?

Park station, but that's a long walk.

I don't want to scare you, miss, but this area is known as Mugger's Alley.

Why don't you get in? We'll forget the tip.

All right.

Let me take those.

I'll park them up front.

Thank you.

Open the door. It's locked.

Miss Spencer, what happened?

Well, that beats everything.

It's usually the cab driver who gets mugged.

You don't believe he really was a cab driver?

Well, it doesn't seem likely.

But we can't be sure.

Miss Felding, you were there at the morgue? You heard what I said?

Yes.

You don't believe that either, do you?

Jane, let me take you back to your hotel.

And I'll go to headquarters and report the robbery. No, I don't... want to go

back to my hotel. I don't want you to report any robbery.

My father was murdered. That's what you should report.

Jane. And I can prove it.

This letter.

My dearest Jane Coe, if I told this to you directly, it would only lead to

questions I cannot answer.

Just know that I love you, and in the event that anything happens to me, wait

your room for Mr.

Whitetree. He'll be coming by on the 17th.

Trust him, and drink well of the wine.

All my love, Daddy.

Jane Coe?

A nickname.

He just started calling me that since we've been here in San Francisco. When

he give you the letter?

He didn't. It was in my mailbox at the hotel when I got back this afternoon.

And then a policeman came and told me... told me about... All right,

Mr. White Tree, do you know him?

Well... My father did speak of him just once.

But he said... said he was a good friend, almost like a son, and that we'd

be happy together soon. The wine he mentioned, does that mean anything to

No. Miss Spencer, for a father and daughter, there was a remarkable lack of

communication between you.

Yesterday was the first time I'd seen him in 15 years.

Oh? When my mother died, I was left with an aunt.

Daddy was always away somewhere, working.

He wasn't much of a writer.

But our lack of communication was in words, not in feelings.

There must have been some particular, some important occasion to bring you

together again.

No.

I got a wire asking me to meet him here in San Francisco and money for the

ticket.

We had such a wonderful day together.

So many things to talk about, to share.

After 15 years, I finally had a father.

We'd be together from now on.

Now on.

He's dead.

He was murdered.

A woman drove that car, Miss Spencer, a retired schoolteacher.

It was an accident.

And what about the cab driver? The package? The letter?

My father was afraid.

Of what?

Of whom?

That package.

To whom was it addressed?

I... I didn't see.

All right. What was in it?

I don't know.

Miss Spencer, we want to help you, but... But you won't.

You think I've just dreamed it all. Not at all. I just... Thanks. You tried.

But I'll find someone.

Someone who'll help.

It's Spencer.

Jane!

I remember it was just about a year ago.

I came to you asking for help.

My father was dead and you cleared his name.

The only difference now is you don't remind me of you.

Good night.

You're a man of some experience.

Some.

Has a woman ever let you finish a sentence?

Rarely. Well, I was about to say to Miss Spencer... You were about to say you

want to help her, but you have to finish up this presentation for the DA's

office tonight.

However, first thing in the morning, et cetera, et cetera.

That's what I was about to say. You're on record.

Well...

How's the guardian of our fair city's traffic? I got stuck with the corner of

Powell and Geary.

I swear the driver's raving at me.

Try it sometime without a uniform.

I hope they will this summer looking after me.

It's been so good to know.

Someone wants to be your friend.

Been so long since I had somebody to lean upon.

It's almost like I am against the wind.

Who is it?

Telegram for Mr. Jake Spencer.

Slide it under the door, please.

Sorry, ma 'am. You'll have to sign for it.

All right.

Now, where is it?

What do you want?

Where is it?

Where's...

The next one.

What do you want?

Open it.

There was no answer in room 203.

But you didn't see her leave?

Maybe she took a pill and went to sleep.

Pasky, please.

Jane? Jane?

Miss Spencer, are you in there?

Hey! Miss Spencer?

Him again?

Now do you believe me?

I'll call the police.

Oh, I'm sorry, officer.

All right, Brad, check Jane into another hotel.

And, uh, maybe you'd better stay with her tonight.

Right.

I don't suppose there's any chance of finding that second package.

We'll give it a try. I'll have Ed look for it. The cab driver should be a good

lead. We're working on that now.

You are?

We are.

You know something, Chief?

Suddenly you're you again.

I would like you to know that

suddenly I'm me again.

When you call out about that package, tell him to have the morgue make

a set of Jake Spencer's fingerprints.

My man's been away a long time.

The judge?

If you mean prison. I do.

Exactly.

Ironside.

Yes?

Yes.

Thank you.

They found the cab. The real cab driver's dead. Stuffed in the trunk.

What about Spencer's package?

Still in the cab. They're sending it over.

Good morning, Chief.

Morning.

I brought Mr. Spencer's belongings.

I thought you might want to look at them.

Good thinking.

You feeling better this morning, Jane?

Yes, much.

You found the package.

And your father's clothes.

And the cab driver?

No.

Jane, do you have any idea what all this is about?

No.

I remember my father going out shopping and coming back with little bags, but I

didn't know what was in them.

Oh, except for one, a box of cufflinks.

No cufflinks here.

Oh, they're in the bag. I saw them.

No address.

He didn't want his daughter to know what he was sending. He was probably hiding

its destination.

He could have written that at the post office.

Here it is.

Only one.

Miss O .V. V?

No one I know of.

Probably made in Japan.

Chief Ironside's office.

Yes, Ed. Hold on.

How about some coffee?

Ed?

Any luck with the other package?

I looked everywhere.

Nothing. It's probably been swept away by now.

Well, it was a long shot.

But I checked with some of the postal clerks. One remembered Spencer, said

dropped by the day before, asked how long it would take for a couple of

delivery packages to reach Los Angeles.

Los Angeles.

All right, you still have that other detail?

Yeah, fingerprints.

On my way.

Jane.

Was your father ever in Los Angeles?

I don't know.

Now, Mr. Whitetree, could he have come from Los Angeles or be there now

expecting packages before coming to San Francisco?

That's a pretty big assumption, Chief.

Well, it's got to start somewhere.

Jane's father tried to send this package to someone, but I don't think they're

simply gifts.

They mean something, a message of some kind.

Mr. Whitetree was obviously a close friend.

Or your father wouldn't have trusted you with him in case anything happened.

And they were to drink well of the wine.

Whatever that means.

Possibly what your father was trying to hide from the phony cab driver.

Meanwhile, getting a message about it to Mr. Whitetree, who might be in Los

Angeles.

Any takers?

To Barnside's office.

Yes. I just don't understand.

What was my father doing?

The answer's right here.

Thank you.

According to the dispatcher at the cab company, the real driver's last fare was

a haul to Santa Rosa.

But he never got there.

What about his fare before that one?

The driver let someone off at the Bayview Motel.

Which might very well be where he picked up his killer.

Medium height.

Dark hair, long.

Big mouth.

That sounds like 117.

Al Chambers.

Who's gone?

Late last night, this morning.

Beat me out of a day's rent.

Three days paid.

Visitors? Messages?

We don't pry.

Of course you don't.

We didn't have any visitors that I noticed.

But messages.

Nobody kept asking about them.

He seemed to be waiting for a call.

Did he ever mention from whom?

Once or twice, I think.

Well, think a little harder.

I am. I am.

Does the name Spencer register?

Spencer?

Spencer.

Spencer.

chambers come from?

Well, I don't ask my guests.

But you do keep an eye on license plates and a third finger's left hand baggage.

His suitcase had an airline tag on it.

Did that register?

Yes. Yes, it did.

Well?

North Pacific Airlines.

Now, if we can just happen to find the key, I would like to see his room.

I don't know what you expect to find. I run a clean place.

In a manner of speaking.

This was October.

3 p .m.

No. My father never mentioned anyone named Dan.

How about a Danny or a Daniel?

No.

North Pacific Airlines, a charter.

Flies between Seattle and the Orient.

The Orient?

Japan. I think I found a light in the darkness.

Flickering, though it may be. I got a line on Spencer from his finger...

Jane?

He was in construction work all over.

This information only covers him up to eight years ago. Where has he been

Okinawa.

He had a job with an American -Japanese construction outfit.

According to the company office here, he and someone named Al Chambers quit a

couple of weeks ago and flew back to the States.

Spencer to San Francisco, Chambers to Seattle.

North Pacific Airlines.

Anything on another worker, White Tree?

They checked their books for me. No White Tree listed.

Ed, you should check out a man named Dan M -something. I don't think that's

necessary. Okinawa, North Pacific Airlines, Jane Coe, made in Japan.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi, Officer Belding, is yes in Japanese, an emphatic yes.

Japanese? Which makes Dan's last name Maru. All Japanese ships are something

Maru. In this case, the Dan Maru.

Dan M.

3 p .m.

Well, that's probably when she docks. Ed, meet her.

Find out if there was a stopover in L .A. and if a passenger named White Tree

got off there.

All right. You know, this is what Spencer is playing.

Nippongo.

Nippongo?

It's a Japanese word for the scramble here, the puzzle.

And you know it.

Along with studying Japanese in the Navy during the war, the chief also played a

little.

Nippongo. You see, Japanese ideographs or characters are simply pictures.

Usually large pictures made up of smaller ones.

You put the smaller ones together and you get the large one, the larger

ideograph.

But what about the V?

There's not V, Jane.

Hito.

Simple picture for man, a trunk and two legs.

But my father didn't know Japanese.

Why not?

After eight years on a Japanese -speaking island, I'd say he picked up a

deal. And this bigger picture, are you going to translate it for us?

Ichi, ni, san.

One, two, three.

But when you get it, what does it all mean?

That, Fran, is four, five, six.

I answer a lot faster to Ed.

There's more, isn't there?

More?

Fingerprint.

That's what you started to say in there, wasn't it?

You looked for his fingerprints.

Routine procedure.

For a man with an ordinary job.

He was in prison, wasn't he?

Ed?

Ed?

What did he do?

Robbery. Got eight years reduced to five.

It only happened once.

He went to Okinawa right after that.

Then just, just once.

if he was.

What are you going to do?

Do?

Daddy had it all planned out.

Yesterday, today.

The zoo.

Steel rock.

Coit tower.

Dinner at Fisherman's Wharf.

Would have been fun.

Don't worry, Ed. I'll be fine.

I'll do something.

May I, Kibitz?

No.

But you are allowed one intelligent question.

All right.

What are the chicken scratches in one and two?

For one rubber dagger, we have the ideograph for to

cut. This is the thin sword with the blade facing downwards.

This is the blunt -edged sword.

The blade facing up.

Box two.

Ideograph for flag.

If I remember right.

It signifies a pennant which separates two farmers' rice fields.

Looks just like it.

Now... This lipstick.

Lips.

Let's try a mouth.

How do you figure this?

Figure that for...

Number one.

Now, why didn't I think of that?

Now, why didn't you?

And all of this adds up to the wine.

Uh -huh. If it hasn't turned to vinegar.

Dope.

Blood. Well, how do you show that?

Let's make it a banana.

An artery with three drops of blood.

Why three?

Because we have three men involved.

Spencer, Chambers, White Tree.

My love.

You wish to see me?

Sergeant Brown, San Francisco Police.

Oh, did one of my crew do something?

No, I just need some information.

Have a nice cigar?

Best mate in Okinawa.

No, thanks.

Information. About your itinerary.

Oh, we start in Osaka, Okinawa, Honolulu, Los Angeles, and then here in

Francisco. Did any of your passengers get off in Los Angeles?

He carried 12 passengers.

They all got off here.

How about crew?

Ah, yes. There was one young man.

First trip, he did get off. He jumped ship.

It happens.

What was his name?

Shiraki.

You want him?

No, no. I'm looking for a man named White Tree.

Well, you'll find him.

In Japanese, shira is white.

Ki is tree.

Shiraki. White Tree.

Thank you. Thank you very much again.

Fence.

You got the last one?

It just came to me.

Toothpicks pasted to four sides of a box like bamboo sticks nailed together as

in fence.

A four -sided fence.

Doesn't mean a thing to me.

Well, we've got to put them together.

And they'll spell out something about Chambers, White Tree, and Spencer?

Probably some kind of crime. Spencer has a record.

Chambers is a murderer. They both came from Okinawa, but on different planes.

Spencer was hiding something.

Chambers trying to find him.

Does all that sound legitimate to you?

No. But you haven't tied White Tree into this.

How about a Mr.

Shiraki?

Translation courtesy of the captain of the Dan Maru.

Chiraki was on his crew, jumped ship yesterday in Los Angeles.

So Spencer was trying to get this message to him.

What message?

This message.

I've had it for tonight.

Buy you a hamburger?

No, thanks.

I'll get rid of this.

Masochist.

You talk to Jane tonight?

Yeah, just about an hour ago.

She's pretty low.

I was going to drop in on her, but she wanted to be alone.

Night. See you tomorrow.

Good night, Chief.

Dexter Hotel.

Jane Spencer, please.

She left a little while ago.

Left for where?

I don't know.

She dropped her key off and said she was going out to dinner.

Would you care to leave a message?

No, thanks.

Do you have dinner?

You shouldn't have left the hotel alone. You know that. Why? What difference

does it make?

It should to you. It does to us.

Chief Ironside?

Fran? Me.

Why?

I'm not important. I'm not really important to any of you. No.

I'm like a used up part of that puzzle you've got.

And I'm the bad guy's daughter.

Jake Spencer.

Bad guy.

I've known some pretty good bad guys in my time.

Some pretty bad good ones.

You nice?

I'm trying to say the right thing.

The honest thing.

There's really nothing anyone can say.

Do you have a father, Ed?

He's dead.

But did you know him?

I mean, did you really know him?

Yes.

So you've got nice memories of him, of you and him together through the years?

Yes.

This is my memory of my father.

He gave it to me when I was seven, before he went away.

It's all I have to remember him by.

And the memory of the other night.

Will you come to the morgue, please?

And seeing him after all these years.

Seeing him.

Jason, are you hurt?

Very lonely. That's all right.

Don't look for an easy way out because you're going to find one.

You are nice.

you later, Fred. See you tonight.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I don't know.

I just got it.

The top ideograph.

I remember Hito, but what's Cooney?

Cooney is the ideograph for country or nation. One mouth.

or one tongue, equals common language.

The essence of a wind -blown flag attached to a sword which is stained

drop of blood equals patriotism. All surrounded by a fence, or a common

boundary.

All that, and you have a nation.

Kuni and Hito.

That could mean a citizen.

Person of a particular country.

Very good.

Who is he?

What do we do with him?

Ironside. Yes, sir. You asked me to phone if anyone came inquiring about Mr.

Spencer and his daughter.

Well, there's a young oriental fellow here now.

I told him it would take me some time to find out.

Good. Keep him there.

Sharanki just showed at the hotel.

Right.

Yes, sir.

Sergeant Brown, you called Chief Ironside a few minutes ago. But he's

Sergeant. Gone?

Where? I don't know. A few minutes after I phoned, I saw a man approach him.

What did he look like?

Medium belt, longish hair, wide mouth. They talked for a minute, and then they

left. They took a cab.

I got the license number.

Good work.

Lousy tippers. Where'd you take them?

Got time for a long story?

No. Well, make a long story short.

After cruising for a good 20 minutes, there goes one guy bugging me. Make a

right turn here, make a left turn here.

All the time he keeps looking out the back window as though he was being

Will we?

No. And you were going to make it short?

Yeah. Well, finally, he says to me, head for the Embarcadero.

Well, we get there.

Keep going.

under the freeway going west, and all the while he keeps looking back.

You know, like... I know. What was the other man doing, the oriental?

Uh, never said a word.

Just looked kind of tight.

Almost dead, you know? Where did you go from the Embarcadero? Back here.

Back here?

To gas up, have myself some lunch. Where did you drop them off?

Pier 93.

Chambers beat him up, left him for dead.

And he just about is.

Dr. Stanley, Chief Einstein.

Chief. Doctor.

How is he? Serious.

He's had a very bad beating.

Fractured rib.

Internal injuries.

But he'll make it. Oh, yes.

Get ready to move into a room.

Maybe talk with him first.

He's been sedated, but you can try.

Shiraki?

He's not here.

Dead?

Dead.

He was afraid of chambers.

I was afraid of chambers.

Why?

We knew him.

He would take it.

Take the wine?

Yes.

Do you know where Spencer hid it?

Yes.

You told Chambers?

Where is it, Shiraki?

Graveyard? In a graveyard?

Graveyard.

Graveyard.

Yes.

Which graveyard?

Shiraki, what is the wine?

Oh, Hakani.

Oh, Hakani.

I'm afraid that's all. He's under.

Graveyard.

Yes? There is a Kunihito buried here. In section number six.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

She brought a shovel.

I doubt if it can be very deep.

Soft here.

Turf's been cut.

Jackpot.

Sake.

It's pretty expensive wine.

Priceless.

Selling from a temple.

Some of these idols are kept locked up and displayed just once or twice a year.

No wonder Interpol wasn't on it.

I'll take that.

Mr. Chambers, I presume.

Just toss it over here.

What are you, deaf?

Cut it pretty fine, gentlemen.

You, uh, didn't give us much notice, Chief.

There's been a vast improvement in Japanese -American communications over

last 30 years.

Oh, come on. You called this a tip -off just because a gatekeeper was showing

you his scuff links?

Well, they were a manuki.

I'm glad I remembered mine.

Manuki are traditional ornaments on samurai swords.

Do I smell another ideograph?

Well, in a way.

The guard was saying there was a sword hanging over his head.

But the idol.

My father did steal it, didn't he?

Yes, he did, Jane.

He and Chambers.

And Shiraki.

Well, no matter what anyone says, he did it for me.

Of course he did.

Thank you.

I hope we'll see each other again.

I hope so, too.

Goodbye, you two.

Goodbye, dear. Bye.

Good luck.

I'll take you home.

Home is a long bus ride from here. You don't have to start till the morning.

We'll have dinner.

At the wharf?

Trying to live old memories again?

No.

I'm trying to start new ones.

Maybe the other day.

Sayonara.

Chief, speaking of dinner, hey, that's a great idea.

We could have sashimi, tempura,

sashimi, shabu -shabu, sashimi.

It has gone to his head.

Yes, it has.