Original subtitles

("Alfred Hitchcock" theme music)

- Good evening.

A palmist recommended that I open a butcher shop.

Actually, she didn't read my palm.

She got no further than my thumb.

She felt I was well endowed for the position.

I have a chopping block

and a cold room.

Are you decent?

I want to be sure that all the meat is dressed.

This evening's play takes place in the Far East.

However, it is the Occidentals who prove inscrutable.

The story also shatters another cliche,

when it demonstrates that a rectangle

can be just as dramatic as a triangle.

But first, a word from a gentleman

who is always welcome to enjoy the hospitality

of my air-conditioned guest room.

Our sponsor.

(birds chirping)

- [Mary] Do not be too effusive until you know

why the Society sent him.

- [Thomas] You told me before.

- [Mary] Warned you.

- [Thomas] Warned me a dozen times before.

- [Mary] Would you rather I not

participate in your career at all?

- Of course not.

I don't know what I'd do without you.

Do I?

- [Mary] You are the best judge of that, my dear.

Hello, there!

- At last I meet the Brother Fitzgibbons.

- I am delighted to have you visit

our medical missionary, Brother Sprague.

- My wife Lucy.

- How do you do?

And my wife Mary.

- [Mary] I hope the river trip wasn't too uncomfortable.

We could have sent the jeep,

but Jarwahl was repairing it.

Ramna, see that the baggage is placed in the house.

(speaking foreign language)

Let's get out of this infested area.

The river shore is the worst, you know.

- [Lucy] Worst?

- [Mary] For insects.

Not only the creeping and crawling ones,

but the flying ones as well.

And this one, this Ramna--

- Yes, Madam Fitzgibbons?

- [Mary] I was not speaking to you, I was speaking of you.

You know he's not cleaning the path for me.

It's his belief not to kill anything.

I tried to explain, or my husband does, that is,

medically speaking, that insects are terrible.

But they think it's heaven's will.

- It's not really that dangerous, is it?

- Hurry in, quickly.

You think this region would be so infected

with horrible diseases if it weren't true?

Or that our medical clinic wouldn't be necessary?

Set out the luncheon in one half-hour.

Show Brother Sprague about.

- Well, Brother Fitzgibbons.

At last we meet.

I can't tell you how I've admired you all these years.

- Unwarranted.

- Anyone who locks himself into this place

and tries to lead these people toward God in practical ways,

ways you can feel and touch.

- [Thomas] Giving people sulfur or quinine

isn't a divine function.

- But someone must do it, and you--

- And my wife.

- Yes, of course.

You've both sacrificed so much to stay here,

build this wonderful medical missionary.

And to think you've accomplished so much with so little.

- [Thomas] So little for so long a time.

- I'm at your service, Brother Fitzgibbons.

I'm here to help you in any way I can.

- [Mary] Would you like to go to your room

and freshen up, my dear?

A bath?

You're rather pretty.

- I've had a very easy life.

- [Mary] Your husband has been a missionary.

That is never easy.

- [Lucy] He's a kind man.

He does everything for me, everything.

I have very little to do for myself.

- [Mary] He must be a good man.

A very good human being.

- Perhaps too good.

(moderate music)

- You are a vain man.

- [Thomas] A minor vice.

- There is no such thing as a minor vice.

- [Thomas] Trimming a mustache harms no one.

- It's so difficult for you to be

the kind of missionary you should be.

- I have a good reputation.

- [Mary] Because I have made sure of it.

- Yes, you have.

- You begrudge me that recognition.

- I'm the first to admit it.

- I have loved you.

I don't know if I still do.

I've had to forget my needs and devote myself

to your works so people on the outside

would view you as a great medical missionary.

I will not have that destroyed.

- No one's trying to.

- Then why are they here?

- We've always needed help.

- We didn't ask for help.

- He's a good, kind person.

- The Missionary Society is not above testing you this way.

They have a reputation to protect too.

- His wife doesn't like this place.

- How do you know?

- She told me.

- When?

Tell me when.

I was with you most of the day.

When did you have time to talk with her?

Tell me, when did you have time to talk with her alone?

- I don't know.

Sometime during the course of the day or the evening.

- Then you must have talked of other things.

What about?

Tell me!

You foolish man.

You think a pretty young thing like that

is worth secrets from me?

I know your vanities, I've seen them.

- I swear, on the Book I would swear, please.

- I'm sorry.

I want to protect you from others,

from what they would do to your reputation.

What is it you want more than anything else in the world?

Your fame in the Missionary Society

as a great medical missionary.

Do you think young people like that

would come down here just to help?

They'll move around, they'll ask questions,

they'll seek out information.

They'll inquire about how many lives you've saved,

how many illnesses you've cured.

How will you show them that?

Tell me!

Will you be such a hero then?

Will you be the great leader

sacrificing in the name of the Lord?

Will you?

You know what they'll find out, don't you?

And then you,

you'll be recalled.

You'll be made a fool of in the eyes

of all the truly capable,

dedicated people who have looked up to you.

- You're right.

All I have is a reputation.

That's all I have.

- Talk with them.

Feed them.

Smile at them.

But do not trust them.

(water splashing)

(light music)

- Get out of the water!

Get out, it's dangerous!

- You'd better do as he says, Lucy.

And when Ramna didn't say it was dangerous--

- Oh, natives do not think most of the things

that cause sickness are dangerous.

- But I've never worried about it.

- My wife never worries about anything.

She's an inveterate optimist.

- Living in a place like this for a while

will soon rob you of that.

- [Thomas] It isn't all that bad.

- Well, it's not my imagination that people have been killed

by river reptiles or poisoned on the land here

by stepping off into the brush.

And it isn't my imagination that disease is rampant, is it?

- Of course not.

We have epidemics here too.

The yaws, cholera.

It happens regularly.

One up in the plateau country now.

We'll be taking up supplies.

- The natives must be very appreciative.

- Why?

- For helping them.

- You know your Occidental theology,

but you apparently haven't studied

the tribal systems in this region.

- I know about the village system of controls.

I've done a great deal of studying about it.

- I speak of their views that most of the world

outside their individual villages

is composed of hostile and vengeful forces.

- I find it very hard to believe.

- Because the idea of having either victory

or vengeance is alien to you?

- Because vengeance is alien.

People are the same everywhere, basically the same.

- And don't people in London or New York

or Buenos Aires all form their own little circles?

And don't they find all the other little circles

and consider them the enemy?

And don't families become villages unto themselves?

- And where there are no children?

- I don't know what you mean.

- I think she means with that reasoning,

husbands and wives become like separate villages themselves.

Each against the other.

- I'm afraid I must deny it all.

People are the same.

Sure, they are afraid, of course.

But more people die from natural causes

than they do from murder or suicide,

even if you include war.

More people are helping each other.

There's an overwhelming, abiding goodness

that denies vengeance or anything like it.

- My husband and I have never had an argument.

- Neither have we.

The day is getting on.

I'm going marketing.

- [John] You mind if I join you?

- To go marketing?

- I'd like to see as much

of the surrounding country of the interior as I can.

- [Mary] Oh, of course.

- I'll stay here.

- It's rather dull.

- The clinic is dull?

- We don't, my husband doesn't allow visitors.

- I can help.

- My dear, I have been around it for years,

and I still find it quite disgusting at times.

- Are you a nurse?

- I have had training.

- So have I.

- I can always use some extra help.

- Come along, Brother Sprague.

I like to be there and back before dark.

- Thank you for letting Lucy help, Brother Fitzgibbons.

- If nothing more is wished,

I shall drive Madam Fitzgibbons.

- Shall we begin?

How long has it been since you've done any of this work?

- [Lucy] Two years.

- They come in with infected bites,

ulcerations ignored too long.

Sometimes there's nothing left to do but amputate.

It gets to the bone.

- [Lucy] Just tell me what you want me to do.

- Good morning, come in.

Do as I ask, do not assume.

This is not an infection.

It is a kind of tinea.

We use ammoniated mercury.

(car engine starting)

- [Ramna] You're not going, Madam Fitzgibbons?

- I would like to speak with you for a moment.

(door closing)

I won't stand for it.

- She's only helping me.

- What if you get a difficult case?

What if she finds out that you cannot handle them yourself?

What happens then?

- I can handle it.

- Without me?

- I don't know.

- Why didn't you refuse to let her help you?

- Why didn't you send Ramna to market?

Why didn't you stay?

- To help you, so they wouldn't know.

- The plan, everything, everything has to be your plan.

- Would you rather have that woman

work with you in the clinic instead of me?

- What's wrong with it?

- They'll destroy our work.

I won't let people like that ruin what we've built.

I won't let that common little woman--

- But you speak of them as devils.

They're missionaries.

- Didn't they lie to us?

Did they tell us that she was a nurse before they came here?

Did anyone?

They lied to us.

(suspenseful music)

(chickens clucking)

A runner from the north came in.

He says the cholera has spread to his villages.

- [Thomas] That's terrible.

- I'll have the supplies loaded.

You can take them.

I'll stay here in the village, in the clinic.

- You've been working very hard the past week.

- So have you.

- Because I find it exciting.

- Helping other people always is.

- Going from village to village will take a long time.

- The trip only takes a day or so.

- You're too tired to go.

- I'm the only one who can.

I am tired.

Do you think it'll be an imposition

if I asked your husband to go?

Cholera is highly contagious.

- I know what precautions to take.

- [Lucy] What if I wanted you to stay?

- Well, you'd know the answer.

- I ask you not to carry the medicine, to stay with me.

- If that's what you want.

- And the natives who need the supplies?

- Why do you test me this way?

You know I love you.

- Do you think I say these things to test your love?

- [John] What other reason?

- None.

- If you really want me to stay--

- I want you to do whatever you want to do.

(car engine starting)

- [Mary] It's good you and your husband

are so skilled, medically.

- You don't like me, do you?

- [Mary] Why didn't you go with your husband?

I would have gone with mine.

- In this place, to argue like ordinary people,

like women who had no concern

for anything but their own welfare.

Neither of you are like that.

Shall we go in?

Dinner will be soon.

(moderate music)

- [Man] Help!

(speaking foreign language)

Help!

(speaking foreign language)

Come quickly!

Hurry, master, hurry!

(speaking foreign language)

- Bring him in here.

Right there.

You won't be needed here.

- But I can help.

- A jungle cat has mangled his knee and calf.

- I'll have to rejoin the tendons.

- You?

You can't begin to...

Get the natives outside.

Lock that door.

Prepare the instruments.

(door closing)

(water running)

Wash the man's wound.

How would it be if they knew about this?

How would it be then?

(Mary sighs)

I'm so tired.

- We should let the Missionary Society

send someone to take over.

- They have.

- If you hate it so much,

why defend it?

- Because it's our only creation.

It's the only thing I have created as your wife.

It's the only thing you have created

as my husband.

- You go on to bed.

I'll finish up in here.

(door creaking)

- Did you save the man?

Did you?

- [Thomas] Yes, I saved him.

- It's beautiful here tonight.

- [Thomas] The river always is.

- Not to your wife.

- It has its dangers too.

- Are you defending her?

- Of course not.

- Why does she frighten herself

with all the horrors of living?

- Aren't there horrors in living?

- I'm sure there are, but I haven't seen very many.

- Your husband sees them for you.

- My husband sees only the good in humankind.

Only the good.

Is a rowboat ride on the river dangerous?

- I find it difficult to believe

that anyone like him could come here

for anything but the most altruistic reasons,

the kindest of motives.

- Is it a safe ride now?

- If one knows the hidden tree stumps and rocks.

(water splashing)

Were your parents missionaries?

- No.

- Most women can't stand this life

unless they've experienced it before.

- Then maybe I find it difficult.

- You expect to remain?

- My husband is a very dedicated man.

- So am I.

- But you allow for more than love.

- In what way?

- Vengeance.

You said so.

- Who do you want to defeat?

- No one.

- Then why does it appeal to you?

- I'm married to a wonderful man.

I like him, I respect him, I even honor him.

He does so much for everyone.

He is here to help you, really,

to help others, to even help me.

- [Thomas] How?

- By loving me.

No woman ever had such devotion, had so much done for her.

He would give me luxuries and go without necessities.

He would ignore his own health

but always protect mine.

He never showed hurt or anger or selfishness

but was always aware of my needs, my feelings.

Was I too hot, was I too cold,

was I lacking for entertainment, was I sad, was I content?

Me.

Always me.

I can never be equal to such a love.

It is too great a burden.

- In the ancient roots of the Japanese culture,

one was born with an indebtedness to the emperor.

It could never be repaid, but one must struggle to repay it

by a lifetime of service and devotion.

It was ko'on and go'on.

We have it in our world, don't we?

We westernized humanists.

We enslave each other with our dispassionate loves

more than our passionate ones.

- You're a very unusual man for a missionary.

With his goodness he shall enslave you.

With his kindness he shall take over your work.

With his self-sacrifice he shall order your life.

And was no one safe from this ko'on or go'on?

Could no one save anyone else?

- Beautiful women are their own salvation.

- Am I?

- You know you are.

- Only if someone tells me.

- If I were your husband,

I wouldn't praise your sweetness or your kindness.

I wouldn't praise your gentleness or nobility.

I would praise your beauty, would praise it,

sing it, and treat you as a woman.

(dramatic music)

- I was watching when you came back with her.

- [Thomas] Why?

- I fell asleep, and then I wakened.

Something told me, something, I don't know what.

And then I waited.

- You wanted to find out if Brother--

- She is a vile being.

- In a way, you were right about him.

- About both of them.

- But only in a way.

- She's his ally.

- He wouldn't do it out of selfishness.

- Out of kindness.

- Out of a desire to give of himself.

He's a zealot.

Not to dominate, but to serve.

- They want this place.

That's all that is important.

- Not the way you think.

He would try to help everyone.

To give too much of himself.

- Where did you go with her?

You think she's different.

The Book is full of women like her

who use themselves to gain their own advantage,

who let men use them to get their advantage.

- That's not true.

- He may be a weak man,

but she is a vision from the devil.

She is wilful and demonic.

I won't allow her to live here.

- You hate her because she is young.

(dramatic music)

(woman screaming)

(dramatic music)

- Our local stations have become restive.

I believe they have something to confide in you.

Following which we shall have the second half of our story.

(moderate music)

(car engine running)

- The messenger didn't get to me till this morning.

How is my wife?

- Yesterday, perhaps at this same hour, she died of cholera.

Cholera is a quick and terrible thing.

But it was God's way.

- No!

(door opening)

(Asian music)

Fitzgibbons!

Fitzgibbons!

Fitzgibbons?

Fitzgibbons!

Fitzgibbons!

Where's Brother Fitzgibbons?

- They are gone, sir.

- Gone?

- He said his wife was broken by the loss of your wife.

He said that years of working and this terrible thing.

He said she must leave the jungle for a while.

- Where's my wife buried?

- In the jungle.

- Show me her grave.

- I cannot.

It was cholera.

Even--

- Even what?

Tell me!

- Even a body dead from cholera is contagious.

- I must find it now.

- He alone buried it, sir.

He will be back, sir.

He took the boat down the river to the small airfield.

And when he returns, it takes a long trip by boat.

- She didn't want to come to this place.

- You must not blame yourself, sir.

Each person blames themselves

as if the will of God were in their hands.

- I should have listened.

She said,

"Whatever you want to do."

She said,

"This time you must say what you want."

I did.

It was the work I wanted.

I didn't really hear her.

- You must have rest, sir.

- Tell me again what happened.

- It was a pleasant dinner that evening.

Your wife and Madam Fitzgibbons talked kindly.

She talked much with our teacher about work

and people here and things.

And then she seemed quiet

and went to bed.

- Couldn't they see she was ill?

Couldn't they tell?

They've had experience.

- Your wife, she did not complain.

She said only that she was tired, I think.

Then in the middle of the night,

there were noises of running about, of voices.

And in the morning I was setting the table for breakfast.

Our teacher came down and told me

the terrible news of her illness.

I sent a runner to get you.

- You were exposed to it too?

- Our teacher protected me by making sure

I had no further contact.

They were most considerate, sir.

Most considerate.

- How long does the river trip take?

- There in two days, back in three.

- What's that?

- The bedding your wife used.

They said it was with germs.

- Yes, of course, they had to.

Thank you.

(door closing)

- The cholera killed her very quickly.

- I suppose it did.

- You say it so strange.

- I know.

- Something happened?

- Something very bad.

- She did not die of cholera.

- The grave is sealed.

Our lives are not involved.

That is something for the police to find out.

(wistful music)

(dramatic music)

- You can't tell me where the grave is.

- No, sir.

- And you can't find it.

- Only our teacher can.

- Tell me again what happened.

- You are so changed.

- Tell me what happened!

- They talked, they ate dinner.

Your wife became ill.

- And 24 hours later she was dead.

- Yes.

- 24 hours for cholera?

- It has happened.

- When?

- I have heard it has happened.

- Where?

- Inland from here.

- A man, a woman?

- A woman.

- How old?

- I'm not sure.

- When?

- One year.

No, two years, I--

- Stop it!

Tell him!

- Tell him what?

- Something bad happened.

- No!

- That is a matter for the police.

- The police?

- I know nothing.

I saw nothing.

But I saw nothing-- - Tell me what happened!

- I have told you.

I am telling you.

I keep telling you.

- Not everything.

Just something.

- I never lie.

- You said you heard a scream.

- Show me the grave.

- But I told you, it's impossible.

- Jarwahl, you read the jungle.

- You want to find the grave, put a marking on it, a stone?

- And to convince myself my wife died of cholera

within 24 hours after getting it.

- To convince yourself by prayer?

- By digging up a body.

(dramatic music)

(suspenseful music)

- [Jarwahl] How long has our teacher

been gone from your sight?

- Maybe 10, 15 minutes.

- [Jarwahl] Was it 10 or was it 15?

- 10.

- And you heard no sound of his walking around here,

of branches breaking?

- For a few minutes.

The burden of the coffin was heavy.

- Let's get on.

- [Jarwahl] The time was spent in walking.

The grave must have been made beforehand, sir.

(suspenseful music)

- You'll both go back to the house and wait now.

Now!

(cries)

(dramatic music)

(cries)

- I was not partner to it!

- Tell me what you heard.

- Madam Fitzgibbons threatened your wife.

Why would she kill her?

- Could they have arrived at the airport by this time?

- I do not think so.

- Show me the way.

- Jarwahl knows it better.

- You're my witness.

- I heard only screams!

I did not see if he or his wife did it!

(car doors closing)

(car engine starting)

(suspenseful music)

- Which way?

- I'm not sure.

- It won't go easy if you lie.

- What do you mean?

- The grave is open.

Someone who was there will be held responsible

for her death by the police.

- Will your Almighty forgive you?

- Does yours punish the innocent

and let the guilty go free?

- The path to the left.

(engine running)

(horn honking)

- [John] When did a plane last take passengers from here?

- [Man] Four days ago.

- [John] None since then?

- It lands only when there are passengers or packages.

We have a radio.

- [John] What if they come by river?

Where would they stop?

- One kilometer down that road.

Why do you ask, sir?

(engine running)

(dramatic music)

(suspenseful music)

(car door closing)

- [Ramna] You make me a murderer too.

- It isn't murder.

It's vengeance.

Vengeance is a kind of justice.

- Do not kill the woman.

- The biblical law.

- [Ramna] I beg of you!

- [John] Triumph of good over evil.

- No!

- If one of your people's sacred animals was killed,

would the killer go free?

- God would punish him.

- I've seen mobs tear a man to pieces for doing it.

- God would punish them!

- And we are the will of God's law.

No matter what we do.

(dramatic music)

Fitzgibbons!

- Sprague!

No!

(gun firing)

(screams)

Don't! Let me tell you--

(gun firing)

(water splashing)

(gun firing)

(gun firing)

(water splashing)

- [John] Lucy.

(dramatic music)

Mr. Sprague was apprehended and punished,

which seems to be precisely what is happening to me,

although I don't understand why.

I do know one thing.

I shall never again make sausages out of python meat.

This would appear to be the end of my part of the program.

("Funeral March of a Marionette")

(regal fanfare)