Original subtitles

DANNY: Kathy!

Kathy, did you see my brown shoes?

Never mind your brown shoes.

Come in and look at Rusty's room.

DANNY: Honey, you know, the one with the slipper.

Come in here!

You'll never believe it unless you see it.

DANNY: What?

Holy smokes.

Where there any survivors?

I doubt it.

You know, I think we should let the War

Department know about Rusty.

I'm sure he's the secret weapon they've been looking for.

Yeah.

I got to talk to this boy.

You've got to do more than talk.

You've got to be very firm.

Well, honey, after all, he's just a normal 10-year-old boy.

I know he's a normal 10-year-old boy,

but he's also a member of this family

and he's got to learn to conform to the rules.

OK. I said I'd talk to him.

What are you getting exciting about?

Well, you've got to tell him in a way he'll never forget.

All right.

Don't get excitable.

And if talking isn't enough, you're going to have

to use stronger measures.

I can use stronger measures too.

Don't worry.

I don't believe in punishing children,

but I also don't believe in coddling them.

Don't worry.

I'm not going to coddle him.

I won't coddle him.

And don't you forget it!

I won't forget it. All right.

Don't get excited.

Hi.

Boy, have I got a surprise for you.

Yeah?

Well, I got a surprise for you too.

Now you see here, young man.

Danny!

Don't you dare lay a hand on this child!

I wasn't going to lay a hand on him.

Well, you looked like you were.

You know, you women are crazy.

You're really crazy.

I was a perfectly peaceful man this morning

looking for his shoe, the brown ones with the buckles on it.

That's all I had on my mind.

Then all of a sudden, you got me all steamed about disciplining

the boy, punish the boy, and as the curly-haired little darling

walks in the room you hover over him

like a mother eagle on a nest.

Well, there are right and wrong methods

of disciplining children.

Yes, your majesty.

We will use your methods.

You go ahead.

You discipline the child.

Rusty, if you ever leave your room in this terrible condition

again I'm going to be very angry with you!

Boy, what a cruel punishment that is!

Look, Rus, I don't want to have to tell you about this anymore.

I mean, you've been very, very, very unneat lately.

You're an untidy kid.

Now, we got to have a long talk about this.

Before we have a long talk, you better

read this note from my teacher.

You got a note from the teacher?

Yeah, see you later!

Halt!

To the rear, march!

Come back, young man.

What do you mean you got a note from the teacher,

and goodbye, I'll see you later?

You think you're playing with kids?

You'll stay here while I read it and take what you got coming.

Trouble at home, trouble at school.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Williams, this is to inform you that the PTA

has selected your son, Rusty, as one of this year's

character award winners.

Let me see that.

You have to come to a dinner for the award winners

next Friday night to accept the plaque and make a speech.

Oh yeah?

Rusty, that's wonderful.

Who else won?

Well, Jimmy White got one for good citizenship,

Arnold Stewart got his for journalism,

and Peter Lorenzo, he's captain of the debating team,

got one for elocution.

No kidding.

What'd you get yours for, Rus?

Neatness.

I'm pretty sure I heard what you said,

but I'm going to ask you again.

What you'd get it for?

Neatness.

For keeping the schoolyard clean.

Must say I'm a little surprised.

I'm flabbergasted.

Where you going to hang your plaque?

Under the rug?

Rusty, if you're so neat in school,

why doesn't it carry over into your home?

Well, you know what they say, when

you come home after a hard day you like

to leave your work behind you.

Rus invited me to stop by.

I'm Peter Lorenzo.

KATHY: Oh, hello Peter.

Come on in.

Oh, Lorenzo.

You're the boy who won the elocution award.

Congratulations, Peter.

Thank you.

Say, that's wonderful.

I always say a man should have a command

of the English language.

Elocution was always a favorite subject of mine.

Won't you sit down, Peter?

Yes, you look a bit fatigued.

Won't you occupy a chair?

Russell is momentarily detained.

He is sanitizing his domicile.

He means he's straightening up his room.

I understand you're also captain of the debating team.

PETER: Yes, sir.

What are your views on capital punishment?

Well.

I mean, in debating the issue we should take

into consideration the fact that the criminological statistics

have proven that capital punishment in no way

is a deterrent to crime.

Don't you agree?

Yeah.

Sure.

Well, look, Mr. Williams, if Rusty's to busy

maybe I'd better come back later.

Oh, he's not too busy, honey.

You run on up the stairs.

Go through that door on the left and down the hall.

Yes, as you complete the ascension of the stairs,

you'll find yourself in a small corridor.

Russell's quarters are in the terminus thereof.

Yeah.

Sure.

Well, I got my room all cleaned up.

Nice and neat?

Yes, sir.

Good boy.

You should keep your room nice and neat all the time.

I can't keep it clean all the time.

Why not?

That's what you got the award for, wasn't it?

You know what?

What?

You guys have got the wrong idea about this award business.

Mmm?

Well, when they give a fella an award for climbing a mountain

they don't expect him to climb it every day you know.

No wonder you got a character award.

You're really a character.

Daddy?

What?

Peter wanted me to ask you something.

What's that?

He wants to know if you'll accept his award

for him at the PTA dinner.

Why?

What's the matter with his father accepting it?

He won't go.

What'd you mean he won't go?

You mean he can't go.

He works nights or something.

Oh no, he doesn't work nights.

He's the shoemaker down the street.

Why won't he go?

I've never heard of such a thing.

What kind of a father is he?

Well, maybe he's busy.

How busy can a father be?

Why, he could take some part in his child's activities.

Yeah, like someone once said, a man

who goes hunting with his son will never

have to go hunting for him.

Are we going hunting?

Certainly not.

Then why all the propaganda?

It's not propaganda.

It's just a saying.

It doesn't have to be hunting.

It means a father should spend some time with his son.

He should take the boy to the movies, to the circus,

to the ball game.

You just name it, I'm ready.

Right now, you can tell Peter that I'll

be very happy to make an acceptance speech for him too.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, daddy.

Not at all, son.

You know I just can't understand a man like that.

You'd think he'd be proud to receive an award for his son

especially for anything as important as elocution.

Yeah, look at me.

I'm proud to receive an award for Rusty

Williams, boy janitor.

You know I always felt there was something

strange about that Mr. Lorenzo.

You know him, honey?

Well, I went into his shoe shop a couple of times,

but he was always so unfriendly.

Never talked to me, just sort of grunted.

So I started going to the shop across the street.

He sounds like he's a miserable cuss.

Seems a shame, a lovely boy like Peter.

You know you shouldn't have to receive that award for him.

His own father should do it.

Somebody should talk to that Mr. Lorenzo.

I think we'd better just mind our own business.

I don't care.

I think someone should talk to him.

Someone who understands and tells him how

unfair he's being to his boy.

Danny.

Sweetheart?

Yes, darling?

You know I was just thinking, honey--

Hold the phone.

Cease the operation right now.

Oh, there's something about that tone.

Danny, honey, I was just thinking, sweetheart.

Look, don't start with the feminine charms

because I know what it's going to be.

Go down to see Mr. Lorenzo, you're so good with the words,

dear, you're so kind, and so wise, and you can charm him,

and you tell him, and I'm sure he'll go to the meeting.

Oh, Danny, darling.

And then all of a sudden with the fingers around the neck,

and you start whispering in my ear.

Pretty soon you got me so hypnotized,

I walk out in a trance.

Well, I'm not going to take no fall for

the same old treatment, kid.

I'm not exactly a dummy you know!

Of course you're not a dummy.

You're the smartest man I know.

You just remember that.

And darling, you are wise, and you are sweet,

and you are kind, and I'm sure that if you went

in, and talked to that Mr.--

Kathy, I have no intention of--

Well, I know, honey.

You could take my shoes in and have them heeled!

Kathy, I don't to want to take--

If you took my shoes in and had them heeled then

you could sort of break into a conversation with him,

and in no time at all you'd have him right in the palm

of your hands, honey.

I know you would.

Why, when you turn on that charm, no one can resist you.

I know I can't.

You want leather heels or rubber heels?

Excuse me?

Hey!

Would you fix the heels on these shoes?

They're leather heels.

My wife wants you to fix them.

We live in an apartment building right down the street--

Friday, 2 o' clock.

2 o' clock.

Say, uh, say, say, how about fixing the heels on my shoes?

Half leather and half rubber.

Like I was saying, we live in the apartment building

down the--

Friday, 2 o' clock.

Well, wait a minute.

I can't walk around in my stocking feet.

I say, I say I can't walk around on my stocking feet.

I thought you'd fix these while I wait.

Too busy.

Say.

Would you shut that thing off for a minute please?

Look, I got to be honest with you, Mr. Lorenzo.

I didn't come in here to have my shoes fixed.

I came here to talk about your son.

My son?

Yeah, your son.

Peter.

He's a fine boy.

Any father would be proud to have a boy like that.

Well?

Well, the PTA is having its annual father and son dinner

and your son is receiving an award.

And of all the winners there, he's the only one

who's father won't be with him.

I know.

Well, what do you mean you know?

Why can't you go?

Too busy.

Oh, come on now.

How busy can you be?

I mean all you have to do is say a few words,

make a little speech on how the home environment

helped the boy win the award.

I mean, look, you owe it your son to show up.

Friday, 2 o' clock.

Too busy.

I don't think I'm going to get anywhere with a guy like you,

but I got something on my chest and I

got to get off before I leave.

I should really mind my own business because I'm

no prize father myself.

I don't spend nearly as much time with my son as I should.

But I'm a nightclub entertainer.

I'm away most of the time.

But I guarantee you, Mr. Lorenzo, the biggest nightclub

job in the world couldn't get me out of New

York City next Friday night.

Because I'm going to be at the PTA dinner

to talk about my son.

When a boy does a good job, he deserves the praise and

encouragement of his parents.

And when he doesn't get it, he's being cheated.

And you're cheating your son, and you

should be ashamed of yourself.

Friday, 2 o' clock.

Just a minuto.

(ITALIAN ACCENT) You say I should be ashamed of myself,

that's right.

Much better if I be ashamed of myself than my boy, Pietro,

be ashamed for me.

What?

You say why not I go to the PTA?

That's going to be some joke.

My boy winning the prize for speak

good English and me, the papa, get up

and I make a speech about how I help him.

OK.

That's a crazy.

Look, yourself please.

I don't want you to think I don't love my boy.

Last week he asked me for baseball glove.

Glove they make to play catch.

I go to the store, I ask how much for the glove.

They said 12 bucks, I don't got 12 bucks.

I look at the glove, I look for the stitch, for the seam,

and I get a basic piece of leather,

and every night after I eat I come back into the shop

and I work and I sew.

Just a minuto.

Look.

That's nice, eh?

Hey.

You make that yourself?

Sure.

Nice pocket.

Gee, that's better than any glove you

can get in the store for 12 bucks.

Why not?

By the time I get through with that it's

going to cost me 16 bucks.

The glove I can make.

But this speech?

No.

I guess I had you all wrong, Mr. Lorenzo.

Tell me about Peter.

I mean, he's not ashamed of the way you talk he is?

Oh, no, no, no.

He begged me please to come to the big thing.

It's me that don't want to go for talk.

You know you're making too much of having a dialect.

It doesn't matter the way you talk, it's what you talk.

That's right.

I can't help it.

That's the way I feel.

Look.

If you didn't have to make a speech wouldn't you

want to be there and see your son win the award?

Sure.

OK.

If you promise me you'll be there

I'll make the speech for your son right

after I make the speech for my boy, Rusty.

Rusty.

Rusty?

You're Mr. Williams?

That's right.

Oh, Mr. Williams, Rusty's a fine boy.

Thank you.

You know when he come here to wait for Pietro,

he help to clean the shop, he picks up the box,

he sweep up the scraps.

He's very neat.

Thank you.

It is with a great deal of fatherly pride

that I accept this award for neatness

on behalf of my son, Rusty.

And I'd like to say that I was a big help to him,

but I really can't.

I'm afraid I haven't been setting

my son a very good example.

As you all know, children are products of their environment,

and in my neighborhood when I was a kid,

neatness was not a mark of achievement.

As a matter of fact, I never knew I had to wash my face

until I saw a cat do it.

Where I came from a tub was used mostly for a storage bin.

Don't get me wrong, we used the tub

for baths too, every Saturday.

I remember it was a ritual in our house.

My mother used to pick us kids up

and throw us into the tub four at a time to soak like laundry.

Of course, we had no stopper so us kids had to take

turns sitting on the drain.

My brother Ray was so thin we almost lost him.

10 kids we were, piling up the junk.

I remember one time she got the house spic

and span because my father was bringing the foreman

from the plant over for dinner.

You've had that happen.

Mom was so, oh she was fussy about the house.

She cleaned it up, she scrubbed the floor.

One thing that bothered her though.

There were no curtains on the living room window.

Course it didn't bother her for long because my mom was clever.

She took the shower curtains out of the bathroom

and put those up in the living room.

You know to his dying day I don't

think my father ever quite forgive my mother for that.

Because that night when he came home

he decided to take a shower and he walked

right through the window.

You know we've never stopped talking about that incident.

Every time we have a family reunion someone

is a cinch to bring up the story about Dad

and the shower curtains.

Of course, we spend most of the time

at these reunions talking about my father.

He was quite a man, a man who had the humblest of beginnings.

Born of an immigrant father, a sheepherder who

first saw life the most famous hills on earth--

the slopes of Lebanon.

Man who came to this country a young fellow

and married and raised a family of 10 against tremendous odds.

It wasn't only the problem of providing for his family.

He had to adjust himself to new customs and a strange language.

Now, I want to tell you my father had a lot of trouble

with the language.

You've heard of broken English?

My father spoke diced English.

You know the great classic story about the fellow

came from Europe who couldn't speak any English?

I'm sure most of you remember it.

It bears repeating here.

It's apropos of what I'm about to tell you.

This man came over from Europe, couldn't

speak a word of English.

Not one word.

And a relative of his got him a job in a steel plant.

Now he's working in this steel plant and every day

at noon all the workers dash into the little dining car

and they order something to eat.

This little fellow, standing there starving.

Two weeks went by.

He didn't know how to order anything in English,

and he'd just stand there watching everybody else eat.

So finally one day he said to his relative, in the native

tongue, if you could only teach me to order something,

something to keep me alive between breakfast and dinner

which we have together.

So the relative taught him to ask for apple pie and coffee.

And the fellow kept practicing, apple

pie and coffee, apple pie and coffee, apple pie and coffee.

Finally he had it.

He dashed into the dining car one day,

looked at the waitress, and he said,

hey, apple pie and coffee.

And he got it every day.

Apple pie and coffee.

It went like that for 30 days.

Apple pie and coffee.

How much can you eat?

Apple pie and coffee.

Finally he said to the relative in the native tongue,

up to here already, apple pie and coffee.

Like to have something different.

Maybe a piece of cheese.

So the relative taught him to say cheese sandwich.

He kept practicing. Finally he had it.

He went into the dining car, looked at the waitress,

and he said, hey, cheese sandwich.

She said, I beg your pardon, sir, white or rye?

He said, apple pie and coffee.

Well.

My father was very much like the fellow in that story

when he first came to this country.

But one thing was certain.

When my father had something to say, he said it.

And when he said it, people listened.

My dad was never ashamed of his dialect, because if he were it

would be as though he were ashamed of his heritage.

And that, my friends, he definitely was not.

Many times in the early days of my career,

my father used to come to the nightclub and watch me perform,

and I would tell stories about him, and about his dialect,

and use his dialect, and the audience

would laugh and applaud.

And every time they did I'd look over

and I'd see my father's face beaming with pride, because he

knew that laughter and that applause

was a tribute to him and his kind.

The men who help make America great,

the immigrants who sought freedom,

and had the courage to come to a strange land, and earn it.

I know I was supposed to talk about my son tonight.

I wound up paying tribute to my father.

I assure you, fellas, this tribute is fitting and proper.

For were it not for our fathers we, their sons,

should never have been blessed with the privilege

of being born in these great United States of America.

And our sons would not be here in this auditorium tonight,

honored by the PTA, clutching character awards

in their little hot hands.

Here you are son.

Thanks, Dad.

I, uh, just a minute please.

I have a pleasant duty to perform at this time.

I'm also to receive the plaque for Peter Lorenzo,

his father has laryngitis and can't speak tonight.

Please, one minuto.

I'm the papa.

I take the award.

Well, what about your laryngitis?

I just got well.

Very good.

Mr. Lorenzo, congratulations.

Thank you too much.

Friends, the reason my boy is a good talker is because of me.

That's right.

That's right.

I no talk, he talk all the time, and he get a lot of practice.

When I want to say something in English

I put up here, it sounds pretty good, but when I push out here.

I never, I never learn to read the books

and newspapers in America.

The only English, the best English that I learn

is what I gotta learn to become a citizen.

And these wonderful words I never forget.

These words I learn good and that's what

I want to use for my speech.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God,

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

And if you don't think that's a fine speech,

you can take your shoes someplace else.

DANNY: Hey.

Well, Mr. Williams.

How are you?

So nice to see you.

I was just going by and I thought

I would stop in and say hello.

Oh thank you too much.

I no see you for a long time.

I've been away for a few weeks.

I was playing the Chez Paree in Chicago,

That's good.

That's nice.

How's everything?

Oh, she's fine.

Everything is fine.

Glad to hear it.

You know something I got to tell you, you're too much.

Don't thank me.

Tell you too much, because you do for me

what Garibaldi do for Sicily.

DANNY: Huh?

You free me inside.

Ha!

Well, I don't know about that.

Yes.

You know, at home, with Pietro, everything change.

No?

Oh sure.

Before, I shut up and he talk.

Now, I talk and he shut up.

It's nice.

No kidding.

Well, that's wonderful.

Hey, hi, Peter.

How's everything?

(ITALIAN ACCENT) Thank you too much.

Everything, she fine.