Original subtitles

"Mr. And Mrs. Alison, Car 96, Compartment 'F'

Orient Express, Budapest, Visegrad."

Darling!

Peter.

Aren't you hungry?

No, darling.

Are you?

No, of course not.

Are you sure?

I'm starved.

So am I.

I didn't eat a bite at luncheon.

Well, neither did I.

Whoever eats anything at a wedding luncheon?

They make the food out of papier-mache.

My salad had been used four or five times this week.

Shall we dine in, Mrs. Alison?

You mean here in the compartment?

Yeah.

Elegant.

Excuse me, sir, lady.

A terrible mistake has occurred.

They have sold space in your compartment

to a gentleman.

It is terrible.

Well?

You are going only to Visegrad

which we reach at 2:00.

Might you, perhaps, make room for this gentleman?

Do please forgive this intrusion.

It is not necessary to make it so important.

You need not disturb these people.

I can make myself quite comfortable in the passageway.

Oh.

Oh, we are only going as far as Visegrad.

You're entirely welcome to share this compartment if you wish.

Very kind. Thank you.

Sorry.

That's all right.

Thank you.

Sorry I frightened you, darling.

It is, after all,

better to be frightened than to be crushed.

Well, I'm Peter Alison. This is Mrs. Alison.

Oh, it is a very great pleasure.

I'm Dr. Vitus Werdegast.

So you are going to Visegrad?

Yes, and to Gombos by bus.

Gombos is very beautiful.

I, too, am going very near there.

For the sport?

Perhaps.

I go to visit an old friend.

May I?

Certainly.

I beg your indulgence, my friend.

18 years ago, I left a girl

so like your lovely wife

to go to war.

For Kaiser and country, you know.

She was my wife.

Have you ever heard of Kurgaal?

It is a prison below Amsk on Lake Baikal.

Many men have gone there.

Few have returned.

I have returned.

After 15 years

I have returned.

Go ahead. My servant is coming.

[Speaking Hungarian]

Take me to Engineer Poelzig's house.

It is too bad about the rain.

It's very unusual.

This road was built by the Austrian Army.

All of this country

was one of the greatest battlefields of the war.

Tens of thousands of men died here.

The ravine down there

was piled 12 deep with dead and wounded men.

The little river below was swollen red,

a raging torrent of blood.

That high hill yonder

where Engineer Poelzig now lives,

was the site of Fort Marmorus.

He built his home on its very foundation.

Marmorus, the greatest graveyard in the world.

The driver is dead.

Engineer Poelzig?

Herr Poelzig has retired.

Engineer Poelzig will be expecting me.

I'm Dr. Werdegast.

We've had a bad accident.

Awaken Herr Poelzig at once and take us somewhere

where I can dress the lady's injury.

A man was killed.

Telephone the gendarmerie at Visegrad and inform them.

Dr. Werdegast has arrived.

There is no need to worry.

I'm sure that after a good night's sleep,

she will be quite all right.

It has been a long time, Hjalmar.

The years have been kind to you.

An accident on the road below.

We are all very fortunate to be alive.

Mr. And Mrs. Alison are going to Gombos.

Mrs. Alison is slightly injured.

I took the liberty of bringing them here.

Of course.

She will sleep now.

You sold Marmorus to the Russians.

Scurried away in the night and left us to die.

Is it to be wondered at that you should choose this place

to build your house?

A masterpiece of construction

built upon the ruins

of the masterpiece of destruction.

The masterpiece of murder.

The murderer of 10,000 men

returns to the place of his crime.

Those who died were fortunate.

I was taken a prisoner to Kurgaal.

Kurgaal

where the soul is killed slowly.

Fifteen years I've rotted in the darkness.

Waited.

Not to kill you,

to kill your soul slowly.

Where is my wife Karen and my daughter?

Karen?

Well, what do you mean?

I mean you told Karen I had been killed.

I found out that much in Budapest.

I mean you always wanted her.

In the days at Salzburg, before the war, always,

from the first time you saw her.

I mean that after you saved your own hide

and left us all to die in Marmorus

you went to Karen

and induced her to go to America with you.

I traced the two of you there

and to Spain and to South America

and finally here.

Where is she?

Vitus, you are mad.

Where is she?

Sorry if I'm intruding.

Not at all.

Do come in,

we were just going to have something to drink.

Now perhaps you will join us?

And what would you like?

Oh, uh, whiskey.

Whiskey.

This is a very interesting house

you have here, Poelzig.

Has an atmosphere, kind of, uh...

It is indeed hard to describe.

As hard to describe as life or, or death.

It may well be an atmosphere of death.

This place was built on the ruins

of that same Fort Marmorus

that our unfortunate friend,

the driver, described so vividly.

Herr Poelzig commanded Marmorus

during the last years of the war.

He is perhaps sentimental about this spot.

And as for the house being interesting

an architectural chef-d'oeuvre,

it could not be otherwise.

Engineer Poelzig is one of Austria's

greatest architects.

Dr. Werdegast is one of Hungary's

greatest psychiatrists.

Allow me to introduce myself more fully.

I'm Peter Alison,

one of America's greatest writers

of unimportant books.

Oh, you are an author, a novelist?

Uh, what kind of things do you do?

Mysteries.

To you, my friend,

to your charming wife, and to love.

Are you all right, Joan?

I thought you were asleep.

You are frightened, Doctor?

You are our host.

At your service, madame.

You must be indulgent to Dr. Werdegast's weakness.

He is the unfortunate victim

of one of the commoner phobias

but in an extreme form.

He has an intense

and all-consuming horror of cats.

Come, darling, you must go back to bed.

You're not strong enough.

He is quite right. You had a severe shock.

You must sleep.

Good night, gentlemen.

Joan.

Forgive my presumption

but I must emphasize the extreme importance

of Mrs. Alison having complete quiet sleep.

I gave her a very powerful narcotic,

I'm sure it will be effective soon.

Her condition is not sufficiently serious

to be cause for alarm

but it is decidedly delicate.

Rest is the important thing.

What curious changes it made in her.

You must have noticed it?

It is perhaps the narcotic.

Hyoscine affects certain people very oddly.

One cannot be sure.

Sometimes these cases take strange forms.

The victim becomes, in a sense, mediumistic

a vehicle for all

the intangible forces in operation around her.

It sounds like a lot of supernatural baloney to me.

Supernatural, perhaps.

Baloney, perhaps not.

There are many things under the sun.

I shall show you your rooms.

Strange about the cat.

Joan seemed so curiously affected

when you killed it.

That was coincidence, I think.

However,

certain ancient books say

that the black cat

is the living embodiment of evil.

At death that evil enters into the nearest living thing.

It is...

The black cat does not die.

Those same books, if I am not mistaken

teach that the black cat is deathless.

Deathless as evil.

It is the origin of the common superstition

of the cat with nine lives.

You will sleep here, Vitus.

Thank you.

Good night.

Good night, gentlemen.

Good night, Vitus.

Sleep well.

An extremely interesting and capable man.

Yes.

I hope you will be comfortable.

Thank you.

My room adjoins Mrs. Alison's.

You would like to be near her?

Yes. Thank you.

Do you mind if I keep this door open?

I'd sleep in a cold sweat if you didn't.

You know,

this is a very tricky house.

Kind of place where I like to have company.

So this guy Poelzig is a great architect?

Yes.

One of the greatest.

Well, I suppose we've got to have architects, too.

If I wanted to build

a nice, cozy, unpretentious insane asylum,

he'd be the man for it.

You think Mrs. Alison will be well enough

to go on to Gombos in the morning?

I think so.

That will be swell.

Now, Vitus,

we have something to settle, we two.

You were seeking me, Hjalmar?

I beg your pardon.

Where is my wife?

Very well, Vitus.

I shall take you to her.

Next time I go to Niagara Falls.

You will come alone, Vitus.

Wait here.

And this was the entrance to the gun turrets.

Don't you recognize it?

I can still sense death in the air.

There is still death in the air.

It is just as much undermined today as ever.

And this is the old chart room

for the long-range guns.

The guns are gone,

but the charts are still here.

Now you see, Vitus,

I have cared for her tenderly and well.

You will find her almost as beautiful

as when you last saw her.

She died

two years after the war.

How?

Of pneumonia.

She was never very strong, you know.

A-and the child, our daughter?

Dead.

And why is she...

Why is she like this?

Is she not beautiful?

I wanted to have her beauty always.

I loved her, too, Vitus.

Lies.

All lies, Hjalmar.

You killed her.

You killed her as I am about to kill you!

Come, Vitus.

Are we men or are we children?

Of what use are all these melodramatic gestures?

You say your soul was killed,

that you have been dead all these years.

And what of me?

Did we not both die here in Marmorus

15 years ago?

Are we any the less victims of the war

than those whose bodies were torn asunder?

Are we not both the living dead?

And now you come to me

playing at being an avenging angel

childishly thirsting for my blood.

We understand each other too well.

We know too much of life.

We shall play a little game, Vitus.

A game of death, if you like.

But under any circumstances

we shall have to wait until these people have gone.

Until we are alone.

Until tomorrow.

What is it, Hjalmar?

Oh, it's nothing.

Only an accident on the road below.

I want you to stay in this room

all day tomorrow, Karen.

You are the very core and meaning of my life.

No one shall take you from me,

not even Vitus,

not even your father.

Not yet, Thamal.

Put that away.

We will bide our time.

Other lives are involved.

This place is so undermined with dynamite

that the slightest mistake by one of us

could cause the destruction of all.

Until I tell you different,

you are his servant, not mine.

Peter?

Good morning.

Have you slept well?

I must examine the dressing.

Dressing?

I don't remember.

The bus.

We were in the bus and we fell...

I don't remember anything after that.

You don't?

Where is Peter? Is he all right?

He is not in his room.

He is perhaps at breakfast.

Will you sit down?

What happened, Doctor? What is this place?

This is the home of my friend, Herr Poelzig.

You will forgive this intrusion?

I came to enquire

after the health of my charming guest.

This is Engineer Poelzig, our host.

Where is Peter, uh, Mr. Alison?

I think he is breakfasting.

I'll send for him.

[Speaking Hungarian]

Are you worried, Vitus?

About myself? No.

The girl?

Perhaps.

Oh.

You are interested?

Maybe.

I thought so.

Well, I'm not. Only spiritually.

Spiritually?

Tonight is the dark of the moon.

And we shall gather, and...

You'd better come, Vitus.

The ceremony will interest you.

Don't pretend, Hjalmar.

There was nothing spiritual in your eyes

when you looked at that girl.

You plan to keep her here.

Perhaps.

I intend to let her go.

Is that a challenge, Vitus?

Yes, if you dare to fight it out alone.

Do you dare play chess with me, for her?

Yes.

I will even play you chess for her.

Provided if I win,

they are free to go.

You won't win, Vitus.

Hurt?

Not a bit.

What happened last night?

Did I do anything silly?

Silly?

How could you do anything that wasn't entirely lovely?

Do you feel well enough to leave, darling?

I'd feel well enough to leave

if I didn't feel well enough to leave.

I don't like this place.

You don't like it.

You haven't had breakfast yet.

I don't like Mr. Pigslow, or whatever his name is.

Poelzig.

Poelzig.

Hurry up and get dressed, darling.

I'll explain everything to Mr. Poelzig.

All right.

Come down when you're ready.

Mmm-hmm.

He wants to know our version of the accident.

An American?

And, uh, will you tell me about the accident, please?

Well, Mrs. Alison, Dr. Werdegast and I were

on our way to Gombos...

Gombos? It is my home.

What a beautiful place.

What grandeur, what charm.

You have chosen very wisely, sir.

Gombos is the pearl of the Carpathian Mountains...

I beg your pardon, sir.

Gombos, it's very nice, in its way.

But it cannot compare with Pisthyan.

Pisthyan is my home.

There is a place.

Sporty, if you want to sport.

Quiet, if you want quiet.

Gaiety, if you want gaiety.

Pisthyan is God's gift to young lovers. It's...

Pisthyan used to be all right 10, 15 years ago, but now...

Gombos is the place.

Sir, you are carrying it a little bit too far.

How about the accident, Lieutenant?

I think it was due almost entirely to the rain.

Part of the road gave way,

the bus tipped over and crashed. That's all.

Very well. May I have your names?

Werdegast, Dr. Vitus Werdegast.

Peter Alison.

You gentlemen can be reached here?

Oh, uh, you've been very kind, Herr Poelzig.

But Mrs. Alison and I must get back down to Visegrad.

You see, Mrs. Alison must communicate with her parents in Vienna.

May we ride back with you to Visegrad?

I, uh, should be very happy to accommodate you.

Unfortunately,

we of the gendarmerie go about on bicycles.

It would be, uh, very inconvenient for Madame.

I'm afraid it is impossible

to get a train out of Visegrad

until the express goes through at 11:00 tonight.

I shall be most happy to send you down then.

Thank you, gentlemen.

I should be very sorry if I had inconvenienced you.

And I shall be very sorry, too

if you do not decide to go on to Gombos.

Pisthyan.

Dr. Werdegast, I feel sure

that Mrs. Alison is well enough to go on to...

I beg your pardon, but do you play chess?

No.

I used to play a very good hand of poker.

Well, if you don't mind,

I think we'll go on with our game.

Please don't think we don't appreciate

your hospitality, Herr Poelzig.

Mrs. Alison is still quite shaken up

from the accident, you know,

and feels she wants to get back to Vienna.

Now, if you could send us down to Visegrad,

I'm sure we could hire a car there

that would take us on to Budapest,

or at least far enough to get a decent train.

But of course.

I shall be very sorry to see you go

but if you and Mrs. Alison think best, why...

I want you to take Mr. And Mrs. Alison

down to Visegrad.

Now, you realize, of course,

that this is against the advice of Dr. Werdegast.

And you will have to assume the full responsibility.

Oh, but I'm quite sure she'll be all right.

Then we will go on with our game.

I'm sorry, sir, the car is out of commission.

It will take some time to repair it.

Oh, Mr. Alison.

You see, l... I use the car so seldom myself.

I'm afraid you'll just have to be patient.

Then may I use your telephone?

I'll telephone the hotel in Visegrad

and ask them to send a car.

Of course. Of course.

Take the gentleman to the telephone.

Did you get the hotel?

No. The phone's dead.

Did you hear that, Vitus?

The phone is dead.

Even the phone is dead.

Come along, Joan,

we're getting out of here, fast.

What happened?

Never mind, darling.

Just stay close to me and don't say anything.

We're leaving, if we have to walk to Visegrad.

Oh, never mind about the baggage. We'll send for that later.

The main thing is to go and go quickly.

Someone's taken my automatic.

Checkmate.

You lose, Vitus.

We are leaving.

Open the door.

I hope you won't carry this too far, Hjalmar.

Child, I hope you're not afraid of me?

Where is Peter?

What have you done with him?

I?

Surely you don't think l...

It was your servant who struck him down.

Where is he? Where is he?

Please, child, listen to me.

We are all in danger.

Poelzig is a mad beast, I know.

I know, I have seen the proof.

He took Karen, my wife,

murdered her

and murdered my child.

And you let him live.

I await my time. It shall be soon.

Very soon.

Until then, I must do his bidding.

That is why even my servant obeys him.

Did you ever hear of Satanism,

the worship of the devil, of evil?

Herr Poelzig is the great modern priest

of that ancient cult

and tonight, dark of the moon,

the rites of Lucifer are celebrated.

And if I am not mistaken,

he intends you to play a part in that ritual.

A very important part.

Dear child, be brave

no matter how hopeless it all seems.

Be brave.

It is your only chance.

Who are you?

I've never seen you before, have I?

No, l... I don't think you have.

I am Karen, Madame Poelzig.

Karen? Not Karen Werdegast?

Yes, yes, how did you know my name?

Well, l... I know your father.

Oh, no, you are mistaken.

My father died in prison.

Herr Poelzig married my mother.

She died when I was very young.

And he married you? You're his wife?

Yes.

Karen, listen to me. Your father is not dead.

I know, I know, he's here in this very house.

He's come for you.

Karen, do you understand me?

Your father has come for you.

Don't, Hjalmar!

Please!

Dark of the moon. 'Tis the night.

We better hurry.

The guests will soon be here for the ceremony.

Peter!

Please let me go! Please!

Don't! Don't!

Please! No! No!

Stop struggling, little fool.

There is a way out. Come, this way.

Peter, where did he go?

Never mind him.

But you will be dead soon if you do not come quickly.

And Karen?

Karen is dead.

No, I mean Karen, your daughter.

Madame Poelzig.

What do you mean?

She is alive, here in this house.

She is Poelzig's wife.

Where is she?

Where is Karen, my daughter?

Joan.

Joan.

Do you know what I am going to do to you now?

No?

Did you ever see an animal skinned, Hjalmar?

That's what I'm going to do to you now.

Tear the skin from your body,

slowly, bit by bit.

How does it feel to hang

on your own embalming rack, Hjalmar?

No! No! No!

Joan!

The key. The key.

Let me help you.

Stand back, Werdegast.

Get away, Werdegast.

He wanted to help us.

You poor fool.

I only tried to help.

Now go. Please!

Go.

It's the red switch, isn't it, Hjalmar?

The red switch ignites the dynamite.

Five minutes.

Marmorus, you and I

and your rotten cult

will be no more.

It has been a good game.

Please stop!

Visegrad, Budapest.

Darling, here's a review of Triple Murder.

"In Triple Murder,

Mr. Alison's latest mystery thriller

he fulfills the promise shown by

The 69th Crime and the Purple Spot.

We feel, however, that Mr. Alison has, in a sense,

overstepped the bounds on the matter of credibility.

These things could never,

by the furthest stretch of the imagination, actually happen.

We could wish that Mr. Alison

would confine himself to the possible

instead of having his melodramatic imagination run away with him."