Original subtitles

After Nancy left to play in pantomime, I resolved that the quickest way to stop

feeling angry and bitter was to forget her.

The musical Tiplos, the act which replaced Susie and Nancy, helped.

They were priceless.

They had Hank Johnson and Bill Jennings and me in stitches.

The trouble with you, son, is you just don't appreciate genuine refinement.

You're looking at two females that even Bill keeps his hands off of.

I'm trying to picture them playing Butte, Montana on Saturday night.

There's a bar across the street, friends. You coming here?

Yes. Plenty of water with it.

Thanks, but I think a better way here for my turn. Suit yourself.

Exposure to so much culture makes me kind of dry, see?

But inevitably, the main distraction was Julie Blaine.

How long are those idiots going to be?

Are you next?

I hope so.

Wait for me and we'll have a drink after.

God knows what Tommy will do to the Tiplos. They were made for him to put

there. I'll let me know when he puts them into the act. You don't like them

cos they're here and your little Nancy isn't.

No, I just don't like them.

You realise, don't you, that for sixpence you could send her a wire at

the Theatre Royal Plymouth and put an end to your ridiculous quarrel?

And what do I say?

I'm sorry, it was all my fault.

Yes, just that.

Don't you know anything about women?

This turns the subject, you know.

Well, I'm finding it all rather ghastly at the moment, too.

Tommy's been playing these dates for years.

I don't know anyone round here. All the people he knows are bookies and pub

proprietors and their fat, dull wives.

Staying at one of their pubs at the moment.

Where are you this week?

Sharing digs with Uncle Nick and Sissy.

Doesn't she ever sneak out of his bed and climb into yours?

All Sissy wants from me is friendship and vice versa.

Well, you must have some friends in Leeds.

One or two.

When they're free in the evenings, I'm not, am I?

Tell me, Richard, do you want you and I to see more of each other or not?

It's up to you.

Yes.

All right, then.

Just leave it to me.

It isn't gonna be easy.

Sandwich, Richard.

Thank you.

What address are you going to in Sheffield, sir?

Er, Country Parade.

Number 51, I think.

The same as Mr Beamish and Miss Blade.

I didn't know that.

Neither did I.

I'm such a young man.

Barbara, darling, this is Richard Hernecastle. Richard, Mrs. Wall.

How do you do, Mrs. Wall? Oh, call me Barbara.

You're welcome to my house. Thank you. What is mine is yours.

Everything except a bloomer's.

Oh, Mr. Bill.

What a bloomer's. What a bloomer's.

Family.

Come. We have the drink to celebrate.

Christmas comes but once a year, when it does, we might as well get into

practice.

Happy days.

Welcome back. I love you all.

Is the food here Russian too?

A lot of it is.

Hey, gingerbread soup and mince, Jack.

George has cooked her up.

But he was working at the steelworks in St Petersburg.

I think the corpse of a yonder's a mum.

Stick a pin in her, George.

See if she says something.

Hey, say how do, dear Toby.

Nothing. You like the drink, Mr Ancastle? Very good.

I'll have a drop more, Georgie. You're married, Mr Ancastle. Not yet, eh,

Richard? He's trying, though.

His mother and father forbid it.

My mother and father are dead.

Both of them?

They both died this year.

Your mother and father both died this year?

You

don't

have to eat at all if you don't want to. I'll calm down when I'm ready.

Sounds drunk.

He is.

And you'll get drunker.

Leave your door ajar tonight.

Why? Don't pretend to be stupid, Richard.

I have the pillow for you, Mr.

Hancastle. You'll sleep like the baby on this.

I think it's a bit dangerous with all these people around.

I like it when it's dangerous.

Don't you want me to come to your home? Mr.

Hancastle, come to look.

They can't speak English, can they, George?

You know, I'm not sure, Tom.

I've never heard him speak English.

But I've seen him smile and I've said something funny. It's the way you tell

them, George. It's the way you tell them.

What's this, Bavaria?

Till rice pudding.

Rice pudding.

You don't have rice pudding in rice grocery, do you?

Teach me the rice pudding. I make it to win the heart.

I'm very clever.

He makes best rice pudding in the world, Thomas.

You see? He's still laughing.

What's the weight of your heart, Richard?

I don't know.

Lads of his age haven't got a heart.

They're just lecherous.

All right, Nick?

You're remembering your own young days, Tommy.

I don't have to remember anything.

I bring what I want with me.

A hot, guilty blush spread from the top of my head until it seemed to me I must

be glowing.

I don't think I was obsessed with sex any more than the next lad.

It was just so tantalizing.

Tormenting almost, being under the same roof as a fascinating, bewitching

creature like Julie.

Tommy's had a boozy lunch. He's gonna sleep it off. Meet me at the corner.

What? Ten minutes.

I'll say I'm going shopping.

I had the bright idea of going to the Picture Palace.

I felt safer in the soft diamonds.

Safer and passionate.

Richard, what do you know about me?

You were a good West End actress.

And then you had a... problem.

I was living with a man who suddenly went off and married somebody else.

He liked drinking, so I drank with him.

When he wasn't there, I drank for both of us.

Then I did the fatal thing.

Instead of just drinking after the show, I drank before it and during it as well.

They rang the curtain down on me.

That was it.

I was out.

Tommy Beamish was the only person who'd touch me after that.

He'd had a similar experience and was willing to give me a chance.

And he offered me a decent salary.

And you share his bedroom?

On the stage is where I earn that money, Richard, dear. I'm not a tart.

Tommy rescued me. I was very grateful.

Are you jealous?

Yes.

Aren't you taking something for granted?

I don't think so.

So, what's Tommy really like?

I mean, he's wonderful on stage, of course, but... Offstage, I think I

dislike him as much as he seems to dislike me.

Young, strong and good-looking. He's jealous.

Riccardo thinks he's mad.

He's mostly a clever, naughty little boy.

He can be very kind and generous.

Let's say four days out of five.

And what happens on the fifth?

What do you think?

This is my only chance to get back where I belong, Richard. I can't walk out on

him.

But it would be all very different if... If what?

If someone else was really making love to me.

You know, it should be so much better if you didn't keep sharing digs with your

uncle and his idiot girl.

Why didn't you insist on taking your own?

Because they know about digs and I don't.

Next week, Christmas week, we're in Nottingham.

I know some people there you could stay with.

Will you let me arrange it?

Yes, please.

Good afternoon, Barbara.

Good afternoon, Julie.

Oh, Mr.

Hancock.

Mr. Hancock, I'd like to speak to you.

This is where we talk.

My house.

Richard, I call you.

Because to you, I am as the mother.

You are a nice boy.

Good boy, I think. Thank you. So, I speak to you as the mother.

Your drink is good for you.

All of us, we see very plain.

My musker, my husband, even Valvera. What do you see, Mrs. Wall?

Richard, I speak to you as the mother. About love.

Love all that is between you and this miss brains is hunger for the sex

animal feeling Foolish to deny we have seen we have spoken of it. We

know It's because you are young strong man.

You want girl you have no girl It's not the same with this Miss Blaines.

She is mature woman, very strong in sex.

Anyone can see she has terrible hunger.

You've been in bed with this woman.

No, I haven't.

Mind your own business, eh?

No, you mean well, Mrs. Wall.

Richard!

This is not nice, young girl, dreaming.

This is woman strong in passion.

It can be madness for young man like you, like terrible disease.

No heart, no soul.

Richard, please finish with this Miss Blaine's now, please.

If you do not, you will be broken in pieces.

I'm warning you, Richard, as mother, you will be broken in pieces,

in pieces.

Julie was as good as her word.

The next week in Nottingham, I presented myself as arranged at the house of her

two friends, Alfred and Rose Bentwood.

Mrs. Bentwood.

Richard Ancastle, of course you are.

Well, don't stand there freezing to death. Come in out of the coat.

No, go on, go on. Julie Blaine's friend.

Let's have a coat.

We don't let rooms normal, you know. Only to friends. Special friends. And

friends are friends.

Oh, Alfred loves letting rooms. If he had his way, he'd let every room in the

house.

Oh, Alfie!

Now, Alfred, this is Richard Hernecastle. Richard, this is my

husband, Alfred.

Wonderful to have you here. It really is wonderful.

Any friend of Julie's is more than a friend. He's a brother. Am I not right,

Rose? Right is right.

Now, Richard, come and see your room, then you can start unpacking. Alfred, go

and help him pick his bag up and things.

Oh, I can easily... Oh, now, you come.

Any guest of ours is as good as the Prime Minister.

Oh, come on, come on.

They laughed so much. I thought there must be something odd about my

appearance.

The fly must be undone or something.

Here we are then, Richard. What do you think of this?

Oh, this is a marvellous room.

We love theatre folk.

We'll always go into the theatre.

There's nothing we enjoy more than having theatre folk to stay. Am I not

right, Rose? Oh, right as rain.

Air used to be on the stage.

But I had to give it up when I married the tobacconist and started producing

little tobacconists.

Been on the stage all your life, have you, Richard?

Lifelong career, is it? No, I'm new. I'm very junior, actually, so I was

wondering if I could really afford this. Oh, of course you can. We don't charge

any more than anyone else, do we?

17.6 a week, bed, breakfast and a meal after the show. How's that?

17.6 a week. Say no more about it. We'll take it a settle, then.

Now to get down to the most serious business of putting the kettle on.

Oh, no!

Look out, some cakes, Alfred. I expect our guest is famished.

Oh, have you eaten the lot yourself already?

Have you? Oh,

he loves my cakes. What about you, cheapskate, booking us into that

lousy hotel?

What do you mean, lousy hotel?

Look, did you take the $3 room or the $5 room? What's the difference?

Well, the $3 room has a rat trap in it. The $5 room has a rat trap with cheese.

I took the $3 room. I wasn't hungry.

Aren't you getting married today?

I thought you were getting married today.

Well, good luck, buddy.

This is it.

Come on, we're gonna have a little raggy way.

Come on, come down where all the classy folks are heading.

I've got the preacher and here's the ring.

I've got the girl, I've got everything.

I'm coming to Christmas dinner at the Flying Horse. Tommy's giving it. Tommy?

Yeah, and everyone else is coming too.

Oh, that's good. How's it going to help us?

I thought I'd help you and Mike be together.

Don't worry, my darling. I'll give you a seat in a winter sleep out and go back

to the Bentwoods.

Don't eat and drink too much.

Keep this to yourself.

But I'm getting an idea for an effect that'll really give them the creeps.

A two dwarf effect.

Two dwarf.

It'll take some time to work out.

Two Barneys?

Yes, I know.

That's a drawback.

Oh, by the way, watch what you do with your hands at this Christmas dinner.

What do you mean?

Oh, don't come in, lad. I'm talking about Julie Blaine.

Do you think nobody noticed the week before last at Sheffield?

Sissy's got no sense, but she has sharp eyes and ears, and I don't miss much.

So none of that.

We want a merry Christmas, not trouble.

Thought you didn't believe in Merry Christmas.

I don't.

But I believe in avoiding trouble.

Christmas Eve.

I fest away from home.

Not that I had a home anymore.

But Christmas is the time for remembering it.

And loneliness stabs like a pain.

I hadn't been in church since my mother's funeral.

My mother, whose life had been as repetitive as the seasons.

Home, church, church home.

What would she have made of Julie Blaine?

Or Nancy, for that matter.

Women completely beyond her experience or her comprehension.

Women out of a novel, not real.

I would have given anything for my mother's reality that night.

I tried to enter into the spirit of Christmas.

But all the good cheer was happening to other people.

Even Julie was caught up in the ritual and the fever.

I was like somebody watching a football match and feeling bored and wondering

what all the fuss was about.

There was one part of the celebrations I could join in.

I went and got drunk.

Good morning,

Richard.

Happy Christmas.

Happy Christmas to you too, dear. Shaving water.

Oh, thank you. And breakfast is ready when you are.

I felt terrible.

Physically ill with a hangover and tense as a juggler about the day in prospect.

Would Julie and I steal an hour together?

Or should we even try to?

We're off now, dear, so if there's anything but... Oh, Richard, you've

hardly eaten a thing.

Er, well, I'm not hungry, really.

I don't like going out on Christmas Day leaving you to yourself.

I do wish you'd come. It's at Alfie's Brothers. You know you'd be terribly

welcome. I'm not going to be by myself.

I'm going out to dinner at the Flying Horse, aren't I?

Well, if you say so.

Thanks for the decorations in my room.

Yes, well, we thought we'd jolly it up a bit.

Oh I think it's sad you by yourself.

Rosie come on. Oh coming dear heart. Always a holy terror if I keep him

waiting. Back later.

If Julie was to come, I wanted everything to be perfect.

As if the room and the atmosphere were a sort of insurance against failure.

Here we go!

Right,

it's time for my mum.

She's always had a really good cry after dinner every Christmas, since I was

about three.

Just as we start on the pudding, out it all pours. I mean, pints of it, gallons.

What? I tell you, my dad moans and shouts, but nothing he can do to turn

the tap off.

What tap?

The tears. My mum's crying.

You've not been listening to her word, have you?

There I am, right on the top of Rome, about 70 feet up in the air, in the

heart of Rome.

And the Pope says to me, how are you doing up there? In Italian.

The Pope is Italian.

And I say, fine, except the spaghetti's cold.

Cheers. Are you enjoying your meal?

It went well, eh? Good flesh.

I have a little defect in my heart that I am very worried about. See what you

feel, huh? It goes something like this, huh?

All right, love?

It's Courtney's dog and it's present, yeah?

Two perfectly ordinary glasses.

Yeah.

Oh,

that's underwhelming.

More, more. Seeing ain't believing.

Let's see this.

Let's see this.

Oh, I'm at a loss here.

with my very best fananagan

I must get this coat off.

Oh, you don't.

It's snowing quite heavily now.

It was like ages, my love. I'm so sorry Tommy had to be carted off to bed and

then I had to wait and make sure he was asleep.

I've got you a present.

Oh, how exciting.

Lovely old piece.

Sir, Spanish.

18th century.

Darling, could you afford it?

No.

Now your turn.

I noticed you hadn't got one.

I hope your room's warm.

I've been warming it for hours.

Just give me five minutes then, would you, darling?

And bring some whiskey and some glasses. Rose won't mind.

Five minutes, then.

I took in her beauty as I might have done that of a landscape or a picture.

Outside desire, without wanting to possess her.

Nowadays we live in a world of nudes and semi-nudes.

But then, when women were covered from top to toe, a nakedness like this was an

extraordinary revelation.

As if a living statue, pearly and opalescent, had miraculously stepped out

of the dark huddle of clothes.

Am I?

Was it good?

My God, is that the time?

Quick.

Sweetheart, darling, I must go.

I told you to come back.

The next day I experienced the usual exultation of the predatory young male

crowing to himself about a conquest.

What about young Richard Herncastle now, eh?

What about Tommy Beamish who couldn't even begin to satisfy her?

What about Uncle Nick making do with Sissy?

I discovered what it was all about, no question of that.

Yet now that it was over, what was it all about?

Not love.

Tommy's gone back to the dead without me.

On the floor.

Don't be pompous.

For the sake of Auld Lang Syne For

Auld Lang Syne, my dear For Auld Lang Syne

We'll take a cup of wine this year For the sake of Auld Lang Syne

Listen to them in the street.

Can't we all go out, Nick?

No, we're better off in here than out there with that mob. They've nothing to

celebrate.

1914. 1914.

May it bring us at least half what we want?

Why shouldn't we ask for everything we want?

Ask too much, you might not get a damn thing.

Didn't know you were superstitious.

I'm not, but it pays to be reasonable.

I want to start the new year by having a good think about that two dwarf effect

so you two get off to bed.

And I don't mean the same bed.

Don't be late, Nick, will you?

Not tonight.

Night, Uncle.

It's been a very eventful year for you, hasn't it?

It has.

Well, I did promise you that.

Happy New Year, Richard.

And now what you've been doing.

I can smell her perfume.

And he knows there's something going on, though I shan't tell him even if he

asks.

But you're a very silly boy, Richard.

We all warned you.

And I... I could still

smell Julie's perfume, too.

It was like having a rose permanently under my nose.

There was no place in my mind for dire, dark warnings.

I don't know where it's been.

Your dog looks a bit peaky to me, so get somebody to have a look at it.

You know, a veterinary surgeon.

There's your bitch.

There's no chance of smuggling you into my rooms.

Not with the landlady I've got.

No, I'm no use either. We're staying at the Grand.

Tommy likes to do himself proud when he's playing a date he doesn't like.

Looks like we're going to have to wait till we get to London.

If that's what I've been...

Dying to tell you, my darling.

Tommy thinks he'd be better off staying on his own when he's there. It's an idea

I've been trying to put into his head for a week.

Perhaps he has a woman there. I hope he's got ten just so long as he lets me

off the chain.

You remember Nancy Ellis is at the Theatre Royal.

You're going to see her?

Yes, I am.

On stage and off, I hope.

There's no need to be so aggressive about it, my darling. There's no reason

why you shouldn't.

But do tell me why you are.

I don't know.

Curiosity, maybe.

It won't make any difference to us.

I just want to stop thinking about you and wanting you all the time.

Does she know you're here?

Not yet.

Thought I'd leave a note this afternoon and go and see the matinee tomorrow.

Tommy says we're going to the Wednesday matinee.

I could scream with boredom. I've seen four pantomimes already.

So if you're going tomorrow, when's there going to be time for us?

Even if Nancy's pretty little legs don't bewitch you all over again.

Though you like mine too, don't you?

I'm half balmy about them.

As you very well know.

Where can we go? I'm mad for you.

I know where.

Nobody.

After everything that had happened, I didn't know what my feelings would be

when I saw Nancy again.

I think I was hoping I wouldn't have any.

But I was wrong. I did.

And one of them was shame.

Richard,

I'm so glad to see you. After that silly quarrel, I was hoping you'd write. Or at

least send me a wire for Christmas.

I would have done.

But I didn't know where you were.

Did you enjoy the panto?

Not much.

Except for you. You were worth all the rest put together.

I did hope you wouldn't say that.

And it isn't true.

Yes, it is.

But don't let's start quarrelling again. Can't you come out?

I'd love to, but I can't. Not today.

One of the girls is giving a special tea party and I promised I'd go.

Tomorrow, then?

All right.

I'm not free for lunch, so there'll have to be tea after the matinee.

What about the Grand?

What's the matter?

Nothing.

The Grand, they can give us tea, can't they?

Right. About twenty past five. No, I really must go.

Nancy! Richard.

Oh, nothing, really.

It's just you look different somehow.

Are you different?

No. Tell me tomorrow.

Darling, have you been eating a huge tea all by yourself?

I've been waiting for Nancy Ellis.

And she hasn't turned up?

Oh, darling.

I saw the pantomime. I thought it was awful.

She was very sweet.

So what happens now, then? Another quarrel?

I'll go round and see her tonight. Wait at the stage door if necessary.

My love, I shouldn't do that if I were you.

Why not?

Lots of reasons.

If she couldn't help it and you meet her with that look on your face, you'll only

quarrel again.

If she didn't come because she didn't care, the last thing you should do is to

hang around waiting for her.

It's up to you, my love.

We'll see.