Original subtitles

("Alfred Hitchcock" theme music)

- Good evening.

The game of hockey seems to combine

all the best elements of ice skating, polo,

and World War II.

However, we have found a method for reducing the fighting

and speeding up the game.

We play over 10 feet of water on melting ice,

it keeps the players quite lively.

While dangerous, of course,

occasionally a bobbing head is mistaken for the puck.

This is most unfortunate because goals scored in this way

are not counted.

Tonight's tale is called "Memo from Purgatory"

and is about a young man

who wanted to learn about youth gangs

by personal experience.

He discovers that viewing juvenile delinquents

at close range can be extremely dangerous.

And now we are only a few seconds away from a commercial

which is as close as I care to get.

(bright jazz music)

- I have finally made it to New York to become a writer

with $300 I'd saved from working in a lithographing shop

I had quite Ohio State University

and come to find out if the streets of Manhattan

really were paved with gold, for me, for Jay Shaw.

I decided to write a novel.

It was to be about juvenile delinquency.

I wanted to see if I could get a new view,

a truthful view, from the inside.

I was gonna join a kid gang, but not as Jay Shaw,

I was going to become Phil Beldone, delinquent.

This is a street in Brooklyn,

in the section called Red Hook.

I had taken a room in this neighborhood,

$7 a week.

I shared it with the roaches.

They say Red Hook is 1000 times worse than Hell's Kitchen,

the police walk their beat in pairs,

but this could just as easily be

back of the yards in Chicago

or 105th Street in Cleveland or KC or Pittsburgh

and what happens here happens there.

I had bought myself a gravity knife in Times Square

and I practiced long and hard with it.

I was ready to enter the turf,

the territory a gang ruled.

(lively rock music)

I uh,

just moved on the block

and I heard around you gotta be a Baron to be any good.

- You got a name, cowboy?

- I heard the one to talk to is called Tiger.

- Someone asks you a question, cowboy, you answer.

- Hey, now stop, one of that turmoil in my shop.

- Shut your face.

(glass smashing)

- My name's Phil Beldone.

(clapping)

- Well, you got a Tiger here or do I talk to myself?

- Or you talk to me.

- No, that would be the same thing.

- Ha ha ha.

- Everybody freeze.

Don't push him.

I'm Tiger.

- Look, mate,

I didn't come here to bop.

They said get to the Barons

so I'm ready to go through channels.

- Let go of him, cowboy.

And then we'll talk about you going through channels.

- Candle, suck your face.

That's my vice president, man.

I'd take it badly anything happens to him.

- Think how badly he'll take it.

- What do you want?

- You tell King Kong over here to lay up the blade

and then you and me,

we go someplace and we talk like people.

- Hey, you gonna let this thing dump on ya?

- Shut up, man.

I don't want no trouble in here.

Okay, Beldone, we got a truce.

Let go of Fish.

(Candle laughing)

I said cool it!

- You got a thing coming to you, cowboy.

- Take it up with my agent.

- You made an enemy of the Candle.

- Excuse me if I don't cry.

- You're something else, man, I gotta admit that.

It took some real kinda guts

to put Fish and Candle down like that.

You work that blade without a button?

- Yeah.

- You're about as fast with one of them

as anybody we got.

- Yeah, well, used to be a pretty tough block

where I lived before.

- Where was that?

- Manhattan,

West 32nd Street between Amsterdam and Columbus.

Yeah, that's rough turf,

I heard.

So, you wanna join the club?

- I hear tell around here

I either join up or I don't walk.

- This is rough turf too, man.

We can't afford to have any free agents walking it.

If you own a street you own it, all of it, no squatters.

Wanna join?

- Um, what about Candle?

- No sweat.

He does like he's told.

He's a Baron.

And there's only one president

and I'm it.

- Well yeah, when and how soon?

- Wednesday.

- What's Wednesday?

- Initiation.

- What kind of initiation you got?

- Best kind, right Cherry?

- Might hurt ya.

- You'll see, friend.

- Yeah, you'll see.

I'll make sure.

Real sure.

(dramatic music)

(upbeat rock music)

- You been to the hospital?

How's Danny?

- He's sick, real sick.

Flyers really did him in.

- Well, I'm gonna take care of the Flyers.

(banging bottle)

Okay, okay!

Come on, let's get this meeting to order.

Bring him in, tell Slats to bring in Beldone.

Come on, let's get this meeting to order, clear it.

Cherry, turn that thing off, will ya?

We got a lot of business tonight.

Okay, meeting will come to order.

Slats take off his blindfold.

The vice president, Fish, has made a suggestion

we skip the formal business

and get right down to the initiation,

what do you think about that?

(Barons cheering)

Tonight we are to consider the name of Phil Beldone,

who wishes to become a member of the Barons.

Is there any members

who do not wish us to consider this man?

All right, will the prospective member step forward?

Okay,

you all know this recruit.

What is your name, recruit?

- [Jay] Phil Beldone.

- You ever been a member of any other rival gang

or club in any other turf besides this one?

- No.

- [Tiger] Do you wish to become

a member in good standing with the Barons?

- Yes.

- You understand the initiation has three parts

and you gotta pass all three parts

before you can actually become a full member?

- [Jay] Yeah, I understand.

- All right, form up.

The first part of initiation

you gotta make it past a row of guys.

They'll be swinging on ya

and they've been working on them buckles,

they're sharp.

Okay, get 'im.

Take him over to the sideline.

- I'm gonna like this.

You're gonna pleasure me, boy.

- Come on, enough talkin', let's see some action.

(boys goading Jay)

(gang clamoring)

(belts snapping)

- Touchdown, he made it.

- Foul!

I call foul!

He was supposed to run down the middle and he didn't.

- What's a matter, man,

you bugged 'cause he was too smart for you?

I declare he made it

and passed the first part of the initiation.

All in favor say aye.

(gang cheering)

(knocking)

(gentle jazz music)

- Yeah, who is it?

- You don't know me.

I'm Filene.

Are you gonna let me in?

- Sure, I guess so.

You were at the initiation, weren't you?

Tiger send you?

- Every Baron's got a deb,

except Tiger, he's president,

he can move around as much as he likes.

- So Tiger sent you to be my deb.

- If you want me to be.

- Do you wanna be?

- What's with all the questions,

I don't ask you, you don't ask me.

Nobody's got a past.

- Look, I don't need a chick that sticks with me

because somebody told her to.

- I don't do nothing I don't wanna do,

they coulda sent a lot of debs, I volunteered.

- How do they find out what goes on?

I mean, do you tell somebody?

I tell Connie.

She runs the debs, she tells Tiger or Fish.

They'll ask you too.

- Well, what do you say we just tell them

what they want to hear?

They don't need to know.

- It's all right with me.

You better turn off the light.

They won't, they won't believe me if you don't.

- [Jay] How 'bout a cigarette?

- Okay.

- You have nothing better to do later

maybe we could go to a movie.

- You're funny.

Like old.

- I just want to get acquainted.

- I hope the third part of the initiation

is as pink as the second.

- The third part is you rumble with 'em.

They give you a weapon, you swing.

Guy like you, you should be careful.

- Why do you say that?

- Because you're different from the others.

'Cause you don't seem like

you get kicks out of killing somebody else.

If you don't

you get killed yourself.

(dramatic music)

but it wasn't the way I thought it would be.

I wasn't ready for the kind of cruelty

these kids took as commonplace.

I realized just how vicious they could get

on the night I was told to get ready to complete

the third part of my initiation.

(tense music)

- [Candle] All right, let's go.

- Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Tiger's on the way, shouldn't we wait for him?

- I'm second in command, I say we roll 'im.

Let's go.

- Hey, hey, hey.

You doin'?

Hey, take it easy.

- The cat's tapped out.

He ain't even got a subway token.

That's all you are, man,

a filthy old creep.

Give me that tire iron.

- Oh, please, boys, don't do nothing to me,

I ain't done nothing to yous.

Please, fellas.

- Run, man, run.

- I'm gonna kill you.

- Knock it off.

Come on, what's the matter with you guys?

- This fink grabbed my arm just as I--

- Can't I even send you out

to pass a guy on his initiation without you fouling up?

- Me?

Hey, listen, man,

this fink's the one who messed everything up.

- Shut up.

What happened?

- Nothin'.

We clobbed some old wet brain.

Candle was gonna hit him with a tire iron.

Then the Lone Ranger over here gets in the way

and the fleabag runs off.

- That right?

That the way it was?

- Just about.

- I say you don't pass the third part of his initiation.

I say he's a fink.

I say we bust him up good.

- You know for 10 pounds of dog meat you talk too much.

- Why--

(laughing) Whose side you takin' in this?

- You got something to say?

- Yeah, yeah, I got something to say.

You let this psycho loose and this club's gonna have

more pain than it can handle.

He's got puddin' for brains.

- Why you slob, I oughta--

- You oughta get hit, baby, that's what you oughta.

Look,

so we find some old sauce hound

and this nitwit bangs him around pretty good

and we don't even get a bean off the guy

and we leave some stiff for the fuzz to find.

Look, I ain't puttin' anybody down,

but you start spreading the landscape with bodies

and there better be more in it than exercise.

- What're you talkin'--

- Shh.

You got smarts, Phil.

Maybe we oughta make you our war councilor.

- Hey, man, that's my job.

- Pick up your pink slip, hero.

- Come on, let's get outta here,

park's crawling with badges.

- Hey, what's going on?

I'm second in command.

I don't take that.

- Go home, man.

Cool off.

I'll see you tomorrow.

(tense music)

- Beldone?

Beldone?

Shut the door.

Let's take this place apart.

(items clattering)

Hey.

Hey, that fink's loaded.

- Hey, Candle, found something.

"Last night the Barons had a rumble

"with their rival gang, the Flyers.

"One of the Flyers was killed,

"and another hurt.

"On May 27th the Barons broke into

"the Stuyvesant Rod and Gun Shop

"and made off with some 15--"

- What's this?

Where'd you find this?

- It was in this envelope here.

- There's my name, Candle.

Real name, Emil Shasta.

Candle's been my enemy from the first.

Not because of any intent on my part,

because his own p-sy-chosis

keeps betraying him into clumsiness.

He is a real killer.

- Hey, Candle, hey, look at this.

In case of accident, please return to Mrs. Serita Shaw,

103 Shaker Boulevard, Trenton, Ohio.

Hey, he's the fuzz, huh, Candle?

He's some kind of spy.

(tense music)

- In case of accident.

That's what it says.

In case of accident.

(laughing)

- What'd your father say when you told him

you quit high school?

- Nothing, he just told me I should go to beautician school.

He read somewhere that beauty operators

make $4 an hour.

What happened?

- Shut the door.

- Must've been Candle.

Your clothes are all ruined.

- Got all the money I saved.

- Look, you tell Tiger, he's your friend.

He is, he can stomp on Candle.

- Filene, I have something to tell ya.

- What?

What's a matter, Phil?

- My name isn't Phil Beldone, it's Jay Shaw.

- So?

Lotsa guys don't use their right names.

- No, Filene,

I'm a writer, at least I want to be one.

Came here to write a book about gangs like the Barons.

I had an envelope here full of notes I made.

Everything was there.

All the bops and the raids and initiation.

And the character sketches, biographies.

Well, Candle must've found it, it's gone.

- A writer?

You mean you were takin' everything down?

Even me?

- [Jay] Even you.

- You fink.

You crummy fink.

Look, what do you think I am,

some kind of bug with six legs that you stick in a bottle

and watch it try and crawl up the sides?

- It wasn't like that, Filene.

Just try to understand--

- What's there to understand?

You're a square, that's all.

Well you wait until Candle and them see those notes.

Man, I hope they stomp on you but good.

And I thought you was different.

Yeah, yeah sure you were.

(sobbing)

- I better get my things together,

what's left of 'em.

Can't stay here anymore, that's for sure.

- What did you write about me?

Was it nice?

- Of course it was nice.

How could it be anything else?

- Man, you're some talker.

- Filene.

Filene.

As far as you and I are concerned

I want you to know--

- I don't want to know.

I don't want to know nothing,

just get out of here.

If they come back and find you I might just get generous

and be the only one at your funeral.

(dramatic music)

- We must now split to enjoy a station break.

I shall remain here on our turf and watch for the fuzz.

Our rumble will continue in a moment.

they substituted for living,

their inability to come to grips with...

Did you write that, Shaw?

Did you write that garbage?

- Yes, yes, I wrote it.

- You pity us?

Is that right, man?

You pity us?

- I wanted to write about you.

I wanted to say something true about it.

- Yeah.

And spill our names to the fuzz.

Get us all busted.

And break up the club.

Right?

- No, no,

that isn't the way I was gonna do it.

I wasn't gonna use your names

or the name of the club.

It was gonna be fiction.

- I think you're conning us, man.

I think you're a fink for the cops.

I vote we burn him, Tiger.

- Now wait a minute,

just take it easy.

I was suckered by this guy too,

just cool it for a minute.

If this guy's really a writer

and if he's really writing a book about us

he must've told somebody he was gonna do it, right?

And they're gonna know where to look

if he turns up squashed.

- Oh, knock it off, will ya?

It's all an act, book there.

He didn't tell nobody in New York he was coming down here

because he don't know anyone in New York to tell.

And he hasn't sold nothing yet so ain't got an agent,

that's what he said in there.

- I still wanna know, Beldone,

if you wasn't gonna use our names,

why you got 'em here in these pages?

- Look, these are preliminary notes.

I was gonna change the names

when I got into the actual writing.

- Man, I should hope so.

I don't know if there's any answer

to what these kids have become

but they can change.

If I needed proof Filene offers it.

She's changed,

her tough, swaggering manner is gone

and much of her fear.

She is no longer like the others,

she is something clean and lovely now.

(laughing)

- He gave us a phony name.

Why'd he give us a phony name?

- Answer the question, author.

- It's just that the book,

the book ever came out,

I didn't want you to think of me as a writer,

I wanted you to remember me as a friend.

- Burn him!

- All right, cool it.

- [Baron] Burn him!

- Hold it down.

- Burn him! - Burn him!

- Shut up!

(gang clamoring)

- Get back, or I'll burn one of you.

- [Baron] Burn him!

- Shut up! Shut up!

Gotta give this a think.

All right.

I've made my decision.

This Beldone or Shaw, or whoever he is,

he's a fink and creep and a liar and we all know it,

but he ain't no cop.

You're a cryin' slob, buddy.

You got some idea you can come down here

and bawl all over us like we was basket cases or something.

But we don't need you, man.

And by tomorrow morning you better be out of this turf

and on your way back to your old lady in Trenton

or they're gonna mail you back in an envelope.

- What are you doing, man?

You can't let him go.

He's gotta pay.

He's gotta!

- Are you telling me what to do?

- You oughta read what the author put in there about you.

- I saw it, he said I was a natural leader.

- I mean the other place, there's another place.

Did you see that?

- Where is it?

- It's on the page after--

- Never mind, I got it.

- I think I have discovered something important about Tiger.

He treats the girls with contempt,

bordering at time on cruelty.

He is the only member of the gang

without a steady deb,

preferring the much safer non-commitment

of the right of choice

from among all the girls.

Even so I have seldom seen him

with the same girl more than twice.

I am becoming convinced that he's profoundly,

perhaps desperately afraid

of the opposite sex.

Opening you up ain't enough.

- I'm sorry, Tiger.

- You ain't started to be sorry, friend.

You got a mother in Trenton.

- You can't get to my mother--

- I don't have to, wise mouth,

you can get to her.

If I split you up

then the guys dump your body someplace

and maybe she never finds out.

But if we get you burned out

in front of the whole world, man,

then not only you get it,

but maybe your old lady has something nice happen to her.

Like a heart attack.

- Oh, you lousy--

- You're gonna die a lot more thinking about your mommy,

friend author.

'Cause I got the best way of all to put you down.

I'm gonna let the Flyers do it.

(dramatic music)

(gun firing)

Here's your weapon, killer.

- Empty, right?

- You're gonna be lead off man, author.

You're gonna be right out in front

when the old troops hit that line.

You're gonna be out there like a big target

for every Flyer knife and shotgun and zip and chain.

They're gonna use you for target practice, author.

It's an honor, you know?

(laughing)

We'll send your old lady a medal.

All right.

Candle keeps his weapon to cover the author.

Everybody else give your piece to your deb.

They carry to and from the rumble.

And if we get busted by the fuzz, just split.

They ain't gonna shake down a chick on the street.

You know what your deb told me?

You been doing nothing but holding hands in the movies.

(gang laughing)

Now ain't that charming?

You're happy now, ain't ya, Filene?

All right,

Fish is official war councilor this time out.

And you listen to him.

Go ahead, Fish.

- Trooper, I want your group to cross the street and wait.

We'll take the other side.

The author goes first

and Candle's gonna cover him from behind.

Now when we hit stay out of the author's way.

Then I want you to split in half

and I want you to come at the Flyers from both sides.

Any questions?

- Yeah.

What happens if the Flyers don't cool the author?

- Who's worried?

Do I look worried?

(gang laughing)

All right, man,

start walking.

(tense, percussive music)

(horn honking)

- Police! Police!

Right, this is a stick up, come on, give me your money fast.

Come on!

- All right, put your hands up, get 'em up!

(guns firing)

Police!

Operator, operator, give me the police, quick.

Your friends are all chicken, punk.

They ran away, left you holding the bag.

Look, keep those hands up or I'll use this.

Now I've been held up here

four times in the past nine years,

I finally caught me one.

I'm gonna make an example of you

this whole neighborhood will never forget.

- Wait a minute, you don't understand,

I was faking that stick up so you'd call the police.

I dropped that gun on purpose.

- Hello, police, police?

Look, this is the Ritz Jewelry Repair,

585 Third Street,

yeah I got me a punk kid here try to hold me up.

That's right, one of those Barons.

Thanks, sergeant.

- Look, mister, what are you trying to pull?

- Get those hand up, get 'em up!

You gave it to me, huh?

Oh boy, wait'll the cops here that one. (laughing)

(dramatic music)

- Now let's get this straight.

You were picked up with a gun pulling a robbery.

Your story is that you're a writer,

you're doing some kind of book about JDs, is that right?

You better get that sweater off.

I'm not sure I can get the judge to believe much of this.

You got money for bail or a bondsman

in case they slap you with a stiff one?

- You don't even care if I'm innocent or not.

You didn't even ask me if I did it.

Listen, what kind of a,

kind of a lawyer are you?

- Look, kid, I'm assigned by the court

to a number of hours of public service down here.

They give me 25 or 30 cases in the morning

and I have to familiarize myself with each one of them.

Now all I want to know is

have you money for bail or a bondsman?

- I had some money but it was stolen.

Now I haven't, not a cent.

- Shaw, Jay Shaw.

- Yeah, here.

- Come with me.

- Where?

- Your girlfriend stood bail for you, Prince Charming,

you're getting out.

(jazz music)

- [Filene] Jay?

- Filene?

Filene?

Filene.

How did you get the money?

- You paid for itself, author,

remember that money in your room?

We figured you'd come out if she bought your bail.

This time you ain't gonna get away, author.

This time we're gonna plant you permanent.

You,

watch this.

You got any last words, author?

- Come on, man, words,

that's right in your line.

- I'm sorry, Filene.

I want you to know, I never meant to hurt you.

- That's enough.

I might break down and cry.

Now it comes, man, now it comes!

- Tiger, no you don't!

- Filene!

- Tiger, let him go, he didn't do anything to you!

(Filene shouts)

(dramatic music)

- Let's get out of here!

(somber music)

(sirens wailing)

which usually follow our plays.

There are some stories

which do not lend themselves to levity,

"A Memo from Purgatory" is certainly one of them.

I regard juvenile delinquency

as one of our nation's most serious and pressing problems.

And tonight's story was produced with that thought

uppermost in our minds.

Next week we shall present another story,

until then, goodnight.