Original subtitles

("Alfred Hitchcock" theme music)

- Good evening.

(spring uncoils)

I trust I didn't frighten you unduly.

I customarily pop up much more quickly,

but my spring is bent.

I also hope you will excuse this rather

light-hearted opening for our show.

But tonight's story is some what different than usual.

I thought that my usual gallows humor might not be suitable.

Our story takes place in Mexico.

It concerns death and burial and tells of an eerie battle

between a grave digger and a courageous woman.

It follows in 60 seconds.

(horn honks)

(dark dramatic music)

- [Female Tourist] No thank you.

- No thanks, we have one.

- This is the cemetery, yes.

Yes, this is the cemetery...

Yes, you come to see the mummies

and you come a long way.

They're here, they're here, come in, come in.

Admission one peso, very reasonable.

The only mummies of their kind

on the whole North American continent.

See for yourself.

You can look right in the face of death.

They're here.

- Hola, Juan Diaz, Jorge.

- Hola, Ignacio.

- It is a long climb up that hill.

Come in and rest in the shade.

- I would prefer not to rest in your shade, coffin maker.

- Why not?

You are burdened with death yourself.

- Oh but they are sweet and they are going

to make a happy profit when I sell them

at the Day of the Dead celebrations next meek.

- Is my name on one of those sugar candy skulls?

- Oh sure, Pita, Dolores, Ramona, Ramona,

it must be here somewhere, Ignacio.

- No matter, let us agree, I will not lure you

into my shed and you will not hurry to find

my sweet death's head with my name upon it.

Good luck with your skulls, Juan.

- Good luck with your coffins, Ignacio.

(laughs)

(ominous music)

(skulls crack)

(Juan coughs)

It was going to be a great profit,

the best ever for the Day of the Dead.

- Sit, rest, the profit is nothing.

The Saint's Day is nothing if you aren't here.

- I dreamt of--

- I will go for the doctor.

Jorge, stay with your father.

(Juan coughs)

- Jorge, go to the house.

There is a medicine in a bottle.

- The bottle is empty.

- Oh no no, there's some left, go.

Quickly!

(dark dramatic music)

- You have been visitors to the kingdom of the dead.

Wasn't that everything I told you it would be?

- Terrible, thank you I guess.

(coins clank)

(dark dramatic music)

(gates creak)

(dark dramatic music)

(suspenseful music)

- By the sound of the footsteps, is that not Juan Diaz?

I always guess right.

I can tell the sound of all my people.

- We are not your people.

- You will be, soon.

Well?

- Alejandro.

- [Alejandro] Yes.

- I wish to pay rent on a grave.

- This grave?

- Perhaps the next one you dig.

- [Alejandro] Which will be tomorrow.

- Perhaps tomorrow?

- My graves are expensive to rent,

three pesos for a month.

But if you want to rent for a year I give you

a real bargain, 30 pesos for the whole year,

50 pesos for two years.

You see what a kind man I am, lowering my prices.

Of course most people cannot afford to buy a grave outright.

That is why most of them are rented as you know.

- You are a rich man.

You are a Christian man and I know you will

give me two full years of rent for 40 pesos.

Alejandro, are you listening?

- Yes, I'm listening, you have 40 pesos.

- Yes.

- You have it with you?

- Yes, here.

- [Alejandro] Bring it down.

Bring it down, bright it down.

(dark dramatic music)

It's only the catacombs, come in.

If you wanna make a deal on your terms,

it must be on my territory.

(suspenseful music)

Come in or go away.

- Is that you, Alejandro?

- Me and my friends, have you met them?

Jose Morales, you remember Jose.

He couldn't keep the payments on his grave.

So, I brought him down here with the other mummies.

Carlota Ruiz, she was before your time.

Has been here 40 years.

Hello Carlota!

Antonio Reyes, you remember, he was killed by the bull.

His wife could not pay the rent on his grave.

So, here he is.

Josefina Cantina, Chico Romero, Anjelica Gomez,

this friends, is Juan Diaz.

Do you know what makes my mummies the only ones

outside of Egypt that are so fine?

It is the earth, the dry earth, and the dry air

here in this one city in all of Mexico.

Put a man in this earth for one year and when you take

him out he's cured like a harvest of tobacco.

He will last forever.

They will last forever.

Listen.

(corpse thuds)

- Alejandro, the money, here is your promise,

by that time my wife will save enough money

to pay for another two years, on my grave above.

- Why do you not want to spend the rest

of your unworldly life down here with my friends, Juan Diaz?

- I do not like this place.

- All right, two years, I promise.

Are you afraid, afraid of my friends?

- Only of you, only of you.

(dark dramatic music)

(Juan chokes and groans)

- Juan, Juan Diaz?

Juan Diaz?

Is everything all right?

(dark dramatic music)

- Maria.

- I'm here.

- Did the doctor laugh?

- Oh no, no, he has come and gone.

- Gone, already.

So everything goes quickly now.

- [Maria] Away, away now.

- Maria, so much to say.

- The important things I have heard from you always.

- What has our marriage been but hunger,

and sickness, and now nothing, nothing!

I was not a good farmer, my crops failed.

- They growed.

- I was a bad mechanic and I couldn't work in a factory.

- You had not the strength.

- I could have made the sweetest carriage on candies,

the sweetest cars, the sweetest of all this,

and then I let a whole lot of sugar skulls fall.

In what did I succeed?

- You have lit candles in the world,

this, and this, and this, do they not shine?

This house has no mirrors yet it has mirrors.

Do you not see yourself here?

- Maria, I paid two years of rent on my grave,

two years, don't let the grave digger cheat you.

Remember.

- I shall remember.

- Oh, on the name of the saints,

departing in death I might be with you.

Only in death I might provide, bring food,

if from beyond the grave...

Just this one hand might work for you.

But these are only words.

- Good words, Juan.

- Now I, I shall take three breaths,

Maria, Jorge, Sabina, Ramona.

Three breaths.

One.

(deep breaths)

Two.

(deep breaths)

Three.

(deep breaths)

(dark dramatic music)

(children exhale)

- Juan Diaz.

(sinister music)

Juan Diaz, you hear me?

You see this?

You have been dead one year, Juan, one year and five days.

Was is it a good year?

Huh?

Bad.

You do not know bad yet.

I will teach you.

This is your contract with me, it's done.

Now we shall see each other face-to-face.

(pickaxe thuds)

No, first I go.

You wait for for me, Juan.

You say you will, excellent.

(door knocks)

Maria Diaz, wife of Juan Diaz.

- Yes, this is the wife of Juan Diaz.

You know me, speak.

- The year is up.

- The year?

- The year, the year he bought the grave.

- What grave?

- What grave, what other grave is there

in the whole world besides the grave of Juan Diaz,

and his soul continues to rest there, all being well,

and the new rent money in hand.

- Juan said on his death bed, two.

He paid you for two years rent upon his grave.

- One year, unless of course you have

a signed paper proving otherwise.

- Paper, what paper?

No paper, there was no time.

He was home before such a paper could be signed.

- One year, senora.

And I have already give you five days grace.

Do you have the money now?

- No, no I don't.

- Well.

- Hey Maria, my sister.

Jorge, little one, come in, come in.

- Ricardo.

- Sit, come on, come on, sit down.

What is that matter, huh?

Sit down.

What is the matter, what is wrong?

You look like a--

- Ricardo, you must help me.

Tonight he will take Juan out of the earth.

- Has the year passed so swiftly then?

The rent's indeed come due on his grave?

Maria, open it, nothing, and nothing, and still nothing.

So, I cannot give you money.

What else can a brother do?

- But you are more than a brother.

You are the chief of the police.

- Maria, the law stops at the edge of the grave.

- If you will give me a few weeks, a few days even,

time Ricardo, time to find money, time.

- Yes, yes, look, sit down.

I will walk to the mouth of the catacomb.

I will spit in it, but ah Maria,

don't ever expect the spit ever to hit bottom.

You will hear no echo.

The catacomb is very deep.

Who I am to lose myself under the earth?

And what authority do I have to question

the dead or the keeper of the dead?

Oh well.

Let me clothe my nakedness, thus.

(Alejandro hums gleefully)

- [Alejandro] Well is that Ricardo,

the chief of all our police?

And Maria Diaz, and her son?

Well it is not often that I have such an audience.

- Stop digging.

- [Alejandro] There's a funeral tomorrow

and the grave must be open and empty already.

- No one has died.

- Someone always died.

The graveyard is full, there is not much room.

All tenants must be evicted.

I am a kind landlord, but--

- Be still more kind.

- Chief of police, there are two countries, eh,

your country and my country, the land of the living

and this land here of the dead.

Of the two, the land beyond the gate

is filled with quarrels and orders.

It is not for me.

I prefer my own population of the quiet and the silent ones,

the uncomplaining and the unquarrelsome ones,

who order no orders and criticize no criticisms.

Just as you do not like me to conduct funerals

in your municipal office, I do not welcome judges and juries

and the reckoning of the law in this place,

where after all, who can hear?

- These hear, God help them, now you hear me,

in sight of this woman and this boy

how can you desecrate the man's final bed?

- Oh, no, no, he was but a traveler in death's kingdom

who paused to rest a while here in this little room,

but there are many travelers beating upon the door.

They too in need of such rooms.

Their fists clench with money.

Am I to turn away the weary travelers because this one

forgetfully writes his contract in the dust.

- You old man.

- Why do you call me old?

Do you hope that I will die before you?

No, I will outlive you, chief of police, and what then?

- Then?

- Then, on that day, some day, or soon

when they bring your body here to me.

What, when I have to bury you?

What, when you fall in my hand, my law, on my land?

- You dog, you threaten me?

- No, no, I only said that the graveyard is small

and the catacombs deep, and the years are long.

After you die, chief of police

you may stay here with me for a long while.

- What would you do?

Hide me in a bad part of the catacomb?

Sit me a mummy at a table and drink

with me, hang me by hair, throw my bones to the dogs?

Dip ink for writing out of my skull?

- I do not say that, you say that,

and while you say, I dig.

(Alejandro hums cheerfully)

Good night, Ricardo.

Good night, Maria.

Good night, boy.

- No not good night, the night is bad.

(shovel scrapes)

(coffin creaks)

(dark dramatic music)

- Hey, where you going, Jorge?

Are you looking for your father?

We know where he is.

- We all know, tell him, Pepe.

- [Pepe] No you tell.

- Liars, you lie.

- Go see for yourself.

- We dare, go on, we dare you go on.

We dare you, we dare you.

Careful, go on, Juan Diaz is there.

Go on, go on, we're sure you'll see your father.

He's here, go on.

(dark dramatic music)

- Father?

Father?

This is Jorge, your son, the son of Juan Diaz.

Father, I...

Father.

(dark dramatic music)

I brought you this.

(suspenseful music)

I will not let them do this to you, father.

I will do something, I will be back, I promise.

Oh, I promise.

(dark dramatic music)

- Due to circumstances beyond our control,

we must interrupt to bring you the following station break.

We shall continue in a few moments.

Please bear with us.

(dark dramatic music)

(gate creaks)

(gate creaks)

- Who's there?

Who's there?

Who dares to enter my...

Who dares?

(gate creaks and shuts)

(suspenseful music)

- Mother, this way, quickly.

(dark dramatic music)

- Are you there?

Are you there, of course you are there.

You have always been there.

You will be there forever.

(sinister laugh)

Oh, this is the best part of my day.

I like to speak and have no one shout back.

Oh the silence, the silence, and the silence,

I touch it thus so, and thus, and thus.

Roberto, good evening.

(drunkenly mumbling)

Pablo, greetings, greetings my friend.

Do my dead one's breathe?

(suspenseful music)

Now, would you like to speak?

What would you like to tell me?

If you could speak, what would you tell me?

Would you tell me how much you love me?

Yes, love me, Alejandro, the keeper of dry souls.

Because if you don't love me, well, you are no burden,

death has rendered you down to mere wheat chaff,

just a dry, dead corpse.

I could lift anyone of you with my fingers, thus.

Anyone of you (drunken mumbling).

I could toss like grain into the wind.

You would blow away like dust.

Do you protest, Juan Diaz?

Do you call out against me?

Do you from your cold eyes hate me?

Well I challenge you, Juan Diaz, I dare you.

Seize the gravedigger, throttle and choke him.

Do him to death!

(sinister laugh)

(dark dramatic music)

(match lights)

(dark dramatic music)

(dark dramatic music)

Good evening Alejandro, it's time for bed,

too much drink, slowly now.

Don't run, but with care.

This foot and that, this foot and then that,

this foot and that, this foot and then that,

this foot and then that, this foot then this foot.

This foot.

- We cannot escape, he will be waiting up there.

- [Jorge] Watch.

(dark dramatic music)

(bottle crashes)

(dark dramatic music)

(lock clinks)

(Alejandro whines)

- Help me!

Robert, Sandy, Pina!

Hurry, hurry.

(door knocks)

Hurry!

(door knocks rapidly)

- You--

- Maria, forgive the hour.

- Forgive nothing, let us in.

- Will you let us in?

- Yes.

- The law of the living first, then the law of the dead.

- Shh, the children sleep.

- I cannot sleep, you have stolen from me, arrest her.

There.

- Maria?

- We have no mummy here.

- We did not say a mummy was missing.

We said nothing.

How could you know that we would say

a body was gone unless you stole it yourself?

You see.

- What else could one steal from the land of the dead?

- True, she makes a fine point.

Still my dear sister, I feel I must ask,

what is that which leans against the far wall.

- That?

- Yes, that, that!

- Oh, to celebrate the festival

of the day of our dear dead ones.

I have taken paper, and flour, and clay,

and made of it a life-size toy,

which looks like the mummies from the catacomb.

- Have you indeed done this, Maria?

- No, no, I tell you.

- With your permission, Maria.

- You'll need a light to see better.

Ah, so?

- [Ricardo] So?

- With this papier-mache mummy, this toy, I plan-

- Plan, what plan?

- It is a plan by whereby with this toy,

we provide money to eat with.

Would you deny my children this?

- I would deny your children nothing

that is rightfully theirs.

- A toy, a death toy, surely

the largest death toy I've ever seen.

I stand in awe of your talent, Maria.

- Her talent for thievery, this is no toy!

- Do you swear, Maria, that this is papier-mache?

- By the virgin, I swear.

- By the virgin?

- Well, then what more need be said?

- Mine, it's mine, my property.

- The toy if it is a toy and made

by me must surely belong to me.

And even, even if it is not a toy,

and it's indeed Juan Diaz who has come home,

why then does not Juan Diaz belong first to God?

- How can one argue that?

- I argue.

- An act of God, in God's eye, and at God's altar,

and in God's church, on one of God's holiest afternoons,

did not Juan Diaz say that we by mine through his days?

- Ah, ah, there you are, throughout his days!

Ha ha, his days are over, now he is mine!

- So, let me list, God's property first,

then Maria Diaz's property, that is if this toy

is not a toy, and is Juan Diaz.

But anyway, landlord of the dead, you evicted your tenant.

You so much as said you did not want him,

but if you love him so dearly and wish his return,

will you pay the rent now that you want to tenant him again.

- I pay?

The law.

- Ah yes.

- [Alejandro] The law.

- The law, grave keeper, I've seen many long months

and many fine points of law, many lawyers and judges,

many issues to argue now, this way and that,

which include real estate, toy manufacturers,

Maria, God, Juan Diaz wherever he is,

hungry children, the conscience of the keeper of graves,

and so much complication that his business will suffer.

Are you prepared for long years of litigation in court?

- I am prepared!

- My good man, the other night you gave me some

small advice which now I return to you.

I do not direct the traffic of the dead.

Now, you must not control the traffic of the living.

Your jurisdiction ends at the tomb yard gate.

So, I pronounce this officially, fake, a toy, not a mummy.

Come along cold one, back to your proper country, yeah?

Maria, good night.

Children of Maria, good night, sleep.

- You go, I go, but what about him?

- Well yeah, Juan Diaz goes nowhere.

He will be here if still you wish to sue in court.

Do you see him running, dancing, escaping?

You do not.

Maria, Maria, come along cold one.

(dramatic music)

(car door shuts)

(coins clank)

(dramatic music)

(door closes)

(slow dramatic music)

- Juan, Juan Diaz, do you see?

Do you know?

Do you truly understand?

We are in the town, on the way to the graveyard.

It's said to find may tourists coming this way.

They, you said, if only in death you might be with us.

You said, if only in death you might bring food.

If but one of your hands might work for us.

So, Juan, Juan, do you forgive me for bringing me here?

Do you forgive me?

Do you forgive me?

(stirring emotional music)

Previews of our next attraction

will be shown in a few moments.

First however, we come to the climax

of this evening's entertainment.

To be fully appreciated this commercial

must be seen from the beginning.

Therefore, no one will be seated after it starts.

(lively mystery theme music)

(uptempo theme music)