All language subtitles for Desperate Characters (1971)

Remember that hat?

Remember that hat he had?

How did you decide
when you were on the boat

who was the captain?

We always knew that 'cause
Charlie had the hat.

We had Charlie.
That's what we had.

Charlie...

He didn't even tell
me until this morning

that he'd actually
found a new office.

He just moved out.

"If I need the files, can
I get in touch with you?"

I don't care for the new
people he's taken up with,

the clients.

I know what's always
gone on in the office.

I've done the tiresome work

while Charlie's knocked everybody
dead with personal charm.

His whole act has
consisted in denying

that the law's anything
but an ironic joke,

and that goes far
with a lot of people.

He told me today

some clients were intimidated
by our office's grandeur.

One of his clients accused the
receptionist of being racist

because she asked him to use
an ashtray instead of the rug.

If you don't tune in on the
world, you'll disappear.

It's back.

No, he can have the boat.

It's back.

Well, you shouldn't have
fed it in the first place.

I suppose so.

I'll have to call the aspca.

Poor thing.

It does very well for itself.

All those cats do well.

Stop watching it.

Soph?

Soph.

The livers are good.

Perhaps their survival
depends on people like me.

I don't see that it matters
whether they survive or not.

Well,
it looks half-starved.

Ignore it.

Do you want all the
wild cats in Brooklyn

holding a food vigil
on our porch?

I saw one catch a bird
the other day.

They're not pussycats,
you know. They're thugs.

The days are getting shorter.

Goody. No more locals with
their God damn bongos.

Maybe it'll snow early
like last year.

Well, the weather's
not on your side.

Yes, it is.

I think I'll give
the cat a little milk.

That God damned woman

just dumped her evening
load of garbage over there.

Why doesn't the cat
go over there to eat?

Here, kitty.

Yes. Here, kitty.
Come on.

What time are we due
at the holsteins'?

9-ish.

Here, kitty, yeah...

That's a kitty.

Yeah...

Nice ki...

oh!

Oh, no! Oh...

All that melodrama.
I can't live with that.

He couldn't leave it alone.

If I wasn't with him,
I was against him.

I'll be better off by myself.

What are you going to wear?

I haven't decided yet.

Why'd it bite me?

I thought you said
it just scratched you.

Oh, whatever it did.

I was petting it.

Because it's savage,

because all it wanted
from you was food.

Charlie's using these
people and their causes.

He doesn't want to be left out.

I don't want to be left out.

Time to end it, anyway.
We've used each other up.

The truth is, I don't
even like him anymore.

I wonder how he feels.

Like Paul muni.

Paul muni?

Charlie is right.

You're barely
in the right century.

That's right.

Charlie's not bad.

No, he's not bad.

He's vain, irresponsible,
and hysterical.

Bad hasn't anything
to do with it.

Irresponsible?
What?

Shut up.

Sorry.

Don't.

Why not?

My hand. I don't want
to get blood on you.

No! Try
the bathroom window!

O.K.! Fire when ready!

I'd like to throw the door
open and catch it empty.

Like being alive
at your own funeral.

Not at all.

Two more houses
sold over there.

What happens to
the people in them now?

I don't know.

What are they doing
to that dog?

Catholics believe
animals have no souls.

Why talk about catholics?

They all to go that
pentecostal iglesia.

Watch out.

No dog ever did that.

I think maybe I'll just
give the boat to Charlie.

Where is he going
to sail it, the bowery?

Why do they drop everything
on the pavement?

The packaging/wrapping frenzy.

I saw a colored man kick
a trash can yesterday.

When it rolled in the street,

he roared with laughter.

This morning
I saw that white man,

who hangs his blanket
out the window,

pissing into the yard.

There's good and bad
in every race.

Ain't it the truth?

Ouch.

What's the matter?

I bumped my hand.

Let's see.

That's a real bite.

You shouldn't have fed it.

Why didn't you tell me?

I didn't want you to say
you shouldn't have fed it.

That's awful.

No, it's just sensitive.

You should at least
get a tetanus shot.

What do you mean, at least?

Even a psychoanalyst should know
something about animal bites.

Don't bring it up.

I'd like to leave early.

It's like a sale.

Soph, darling.
Hello, Otto.

Hello, Mike.

Hey, you look marvelous,

like some sad, lovely
girl out of the thirties.

And me?

Just sad.

Ah. Tell him.

Something's happened, and
Otto's making too much of it.

Tell me while
I make you a drink.

Gin on the rocks?

No.

It was such a shock.

I'd been feeding the damn
beast, and it turned on me.

It ought to be looked at.

It's nothing.

Animals have bitten me before.

No, I haven't.
Why'd I say that?

There's been no rabies
around here in years.

No chance.
The cat was healthy.

You know me. I want to be the
Saint who tames wild creatures.

Would you get the door?

I shall return.

A very gentile party.

A very gentile party.

I saw at least three Jews.

Your parties are
very educational.

It's not my party.

Yes, it is.

Your generation's thing.

Oh, for Christ's sake.

She's a wicked one, isn't she?

You must be
young Mike's friends.

Let's see Lonnie
in St. Luke's.

O.K.

The hospital? The visiting
hours are over now.

The final line of final lines

is from the roaring twenties.

Cagney, bogart,
Paul Kelly, Gladys George.

Cagney was top dog
all through prohibition,

but now he's a bum,

and for some reason
that escapes me,

the mob guns him down.

He's dying on the steps
of a church. It's snowing.

Gladys George... who's been in love
with him the entire picture,

but he was in love
with someone else...

is cradling him in her arms

as he draws his last breath.

A cop comes and says,
"who was he?"

And Gladys George says...
brace yourself...

Gladys George says,
"he used to be a big shot."

Man, that chokes me up.

"He used
to be a big shot."

That's a line.

Here come the tears.

Hello, Sophie.

I didn't know
you knew the holsteins.

I don't. I came with their
friends, the elders.

I don't know them.

Otto spotted me.

We chatted.

How've you been?

Fine.

You?

Fatigue,

anemia, all the symptoms
of irreversible loss.

Francis.

Oh, Dr. Reed?

Oh, I see.
No, never mind.

Another answering service.

There's no point to
leaving this number.

Who reads these?

What every analyst
needs after a tough day.

Dr. wexler?

I see.
No, never mind.

Look, there's a hospital
six blocks from here.

The emergency room's not bad.

When cervantes wanted
to come to the new world

the king wrote across
his application

"tell him to find
a job around here."

Are you working on anything?

They sent a book to translate,

but I didn't understand
it, not even in French.

It simply irritated me.

I hear Otto and Charlie are
ending their partnership...

Which would change both our
lives, and I feel nothing.

Charlie... the compulsive
bleeding-heart, dying-to-be-loved.

Otto... always strength.
The machine broke down.

What a lousy view of what
happens between people...

a machine.

As bad as that?

Worse.

Would you like me to send
you to a friend of mine,

a first-rate man,
member of the institute?

Sophie?

I was up here an hour ago.

The drapes muffled the sound.

Don't mention it to flo.

I'll clean it up myself.

Oh, well. It's nothing.

Trying to stop her from talking

is like trying to get
a newspaper under a dog

before it pukes.

I hate it when
you talk like that.

I'm tired of parties.

I don't care
about Fred Astaire,

and he doesn't care about me.

Ditto fellini,
truffaut, and bergman.

You fell asleep. Everyone
knew you were asleep.

Mike asked me to take you home.

Know what's wrong with Mike?

Culture desperation.

He can't stand his trade,

like a movie starlet

who announces she's studying
philosophy at u.C.L.A.

He called some doctors
about the cat bite.

And?

Nobody was in.

Don't you know this
country's falling apart?

It looks swollen.

Well, I'll soak it.

Ahh...

What are you sighing about?

I don't know.

I'll get the alarm.

I resent it
that someone we don't know

knows every time
we go in or out.

It makes me feel cared for.

Hello?

Hello?

It's some degenerate.

Hang up.

A degenerate.

Hang up!

An American cretin.

What are you thinking about?

Marriage.

I don't know what's
the matter with you.

You could ask.

What's the matter with you?

I think I've been
poisoned by that cat.

Why didn't you answer
the telephone?

I never hear anything

I don't want to hear anymore.

You're becoming an
eccentric, you know that?

Just like Tanya.

I thought Tanya lived her
whole life on the telephone.

Tanya only answers
the telephone

when she's broken off
a love affair.

I hate Tanya. Ahem.

You never told me that.

I never heard you say
you hated anyone before.

I just realized it.

Well, what about Claire?

Ah, Claire.
Claire's all right.

What do you care what
I think about Tanya?

You don't like her yourself.

You hardly ever see her.

I hardly see anybody.

Is that my fault?

That phone call scared me.

Get out!
Get out of here!

You ought to throw that underwear out.
It's falling apart.

I like it when
they get so soft.

Suppose you got hit by a car
and had to go to the hospital?

I'd say I was Charlie Russell,

friend of the worker,
knight of the oppressed.

Did Tanya ever try
to seduce you?

What kind of
question's that? No.

Is that why you hate her?

No.

Why do you hate her then?

I think it was that time

she visited us in flinders

and used every drawer
in that enormous bureau.

She'd put her scarf
in one drawer,

her stockings in another,

her girdle in another drawer.

What kind of woman uses every
single drawer in a bureau

just because they're there?

Did you notice
Mike Jr. tonight

with that Hungarian
ribbon around his head?

Wait till he tries to
get a job with that.

That won't be necessary.

Mike sr.
Will find him one.

Water babies...

they come out of faucets,
not out of people.

Wish I knew
what they were up to.

I think it's worse.

Well, call Noel first
thing in the morning.

We'll drive out to
pelham if we have to,

drag him to the office.

Funny, running
into Francis early.

Yes.

Did you get a chance
to speak with him?

Mm-hmm, briefly.

He's back with his wife again.

He's something of a phony.

I thought you liked him.

I do.

He's very appealing,
but he's a phony.

He can't help himself.

Otto!

Charlie.

I have to talk to Otto.

Otto's asleep.

Well, I have to see him.

I'm in a terrible state.
I have to see him.

Now? You're crazy.

I couldn't see him before.

It's taken me all this time
to get to the point I'm at.

I won't wake him.

Well, I will.

Ow.

What's the matter?

A cat bit me.

I just feel murdered.

I don't want
to see that bastard.

Let's get out and
get a cup of coffee.

Does Ruth know where you are?

Ruth who?

Oh, I hate wife jokes.
Don't make wife jokes.

Maybe we better give up.

Aw, there must be
something open.

You say a cat bit you?

Yes.

I didn't know you had a cat.

Was it one of those oriental
genetic freaks that cost $700?

You sound like a corkscrew.
It was a stray.

Come on.

You've seen a doctor?

The cat wasn't sick.

Oh, it takes five years for
rabies to incubate sometimes.

The cat wasn't sick.

That's family court.

Half my clients spend
most of their time

in those urine-scented
chambers.

Your husband won't even
set foot in the place.

We were together at Columbia,

together in the army.

We've spent most
of our lives together.

This morning
when I leave the office,

he says,
"lots of luck, fella."

I felt like my first day
in camp when I was 8...

peed my pants

as some little sadist wrapped
a milk snake around my neck.

Lots of luck, fella.

What's the point
of seeing Otto?

There's a place.

I just want him to acknowledge

that something important
has happened.

I went to a movie.

Man sitting nearby said
I was talking to myself.

I said not to interrupt.

He said I was fucking up
his one night out,

so I went to an automat,

which was full of people
talking to themselves.

Foundations of privilege
under total assault,

and Otto keeps
fiddling with his navel.

He won't survive.

If you don't tune in
on the world,

you'll dry up and disappear.

He told you?

Mm-hmm.

Ruth and I never
discuss anything.

I try, but she's
not interested,

unless it relates
to the new liberation.

She's taken up yoga,
chopped off her hair,

she wants to get some hashish.

She's like a demented
Sherlock Holmes

trying to track down
the ultimate clue... sex.

Sex is at the heart
of everything.

She talks about
sexual modalities,

the wit of pornography.

You know the funniest part,
we stopped making love.

I'm not so different from Otto.

I want the pass, too.

I hate planes and cars,
but I don't dare.

Bobby's 16. He'll be
drafted in a few years.

I don't dare.

I've had two miscarriages.

I've got a uterus
like a pinball machine.

How come you never adopted?

Well, we put it off
and put it off.

Now we're settled.

When I was 10,

I realized he was drunk
most of the time.

My mother constructed
her social life

around the idea that he had
a slight speech impediment.

How did he die?

He shot himself with
a pistol he bought in Rome,

just before he married her.

What will Ruth think

if she wakes up
and finds you gone?

She'll assume I'm with a
pale, young, beautiful girl,

which is where I should be.

How would she really feel?

She doesn't feel anything
these days.

They're hostages to fortune.

I love them, they suffocate me,

and it's a business like
everything else these days...

the having children business,

the radical business,

the culture business,

the decline of old values
business,

the militant business,

the failure business.

The self-sacrificing
lawyer business.

You know what kind of a
lawyer I wanted to be?

Like Mr. jarndyce
in bleak house.

That scene where Esther summerson
is weeping in the coach

and old jarndyce whips out
a plum pie and a cake,

offers her both of them,

and when she refuses,

he flings them both
out the window,

and says,
"floored again."

Ha ha ha!

What style.

He flings them both
out the window.

What did he
throw out the window,

the pie and the cake
or the people?

The plum cake

or the plum pie,
whatever the hell it is.

I think I've got rabies.

Have a plum pie.

Would you like me to tell
you about my love affair?

A recent one?

The only one.

Shocked?

Yes.

Because I've had one,

or because I've had any?

Both.

Lasted six months.

Then it's over.

He put me in a taxi.

When I turned around to wave,

I saw him peering in the
window of a book shop.

That's how it ended.

There's a good hospital on the
other side of the bridge.

I wouldn't go to a hospital

for anything
as foolish as this.

You're afraid.

Yes.

Well, the other is worse.

No.

Nothing frightens me
more than pain.

Frightens me more than dying.

What's the matter with him?

Three guesses.

He looks dead.

He's drunk.

But maybe he's ill.

He's drunk.

How do you know?

I know.

He could've had a heart attack.

Try a bad case of whiskey.

The American form of wisdom...

no room for doubt.

You hate your country?

No. I hate you.

A lot?

No.

That's good.

Come on. Not with that
man lying out there.

Don't flatter yourself.

What are you going to do today?

Lunch with Claire. You?

The office.

Charlie's departure
makes problems.

How's the bite?

Sore, but it looks better.

Call Noel.

He's not in on Saturdays.

He has an answering service.

You know what answering
services are for.

No. What are
answering services for?

Answering services are for
muffling the screams of the dying.

Ha ha.
These are the jokes.

Ahem.

Well, I...

Why did you say,
"lots of luck, fella"?

How'd you know that?

Charlie came here in the middle
of the night to see you.

Why didn't you wake me?

In the state he was in,
it wasn't too wise.

We went for a walk.

Why'd you wait
until now to tell me?

He's hurt.

He thinks you're not giving
this thing its proper weight,

the end of the partnership.

Don't tell me anything else.

Otto.

What?

You care about him!

Yes.

Then why is this happening?

He wants a new life.

Even Charlie wants that.

Why wouldn't he?

How's that again?

Oh, I see.

I said I see.

Bellamy?

Are you serious?

Oh, no, I think
it's an excellent idea.

Ha ha ha!

It's a bit of a surprise,
bellamy.

There are several others.

Lunch?

Tomorrow?

Well, let me think.

Uh... No, I'm afraid
I can't tomorrow.

Monday?

Yes, Monday seems all right.

Yes, Monday it is.

Anywhere you like.

Fine.

Bellamy.

Oh, I'm sure
it's an excellent choice.

Well, it is a bit of
a surprise, bellamy.

Ruth?

Ruth?

Ruth...

How are you?

Hello, Sophie.

I wanted to call you
about the trouble.

Trouble?

Charlie and Otto.

I wouldn't call it trouble.

How are the children?

The children are fabulous.

Stuart sounds so grown up
on the telephone.

He is grown up.

He's going to that
tennis camp this summer.

It's incredible how his
self-image improved.

Director knows what
tennis is about...

three hours playing,

one hour of
constructive criticism.

And Bobby and Linda?

Bobby's going through a
little phase of kleptomania.

Linda's marvelous. She
certainly knows who she is.

I really feel terrible
about the breakup, Ruth.

Oh, I always thought
there was something odd

about their dependency
on each other.

Odd?

They're big boys now.

Mustn't keep them babies.

It castrates men.

Can we have lunch?

I don't eat lunch.
I'm on a diet.

I'll call you then.

What did she say?

Did she say go away?

It doesn't matter.
I'm just curious.

Claire?

In here!
The kitchen!

Cornmeal on top,
clams on the bottom.

When they come up for it,

they clean the sand
from their craws.

Did you say hello to Leon?

I didn't know he was here.

I think his wife's
driving him into the ground.

Is he married again?

Last spring.

Some dull graduate student

who's convinced
she's a creature of lust.

That's what he tells me anyhow.

Gin or whiskey?

Gin.

He tells me more
than I want to hear

about that side of things,

like I was his charlady
instead of his first bride.

Tell him to keep it to himself.

That would hurt his feelings.

He said she fooled him by writing
a good thesis on Henry James,

some cockeyed angle on his
relationship with his brother.

He always was a brain lover.

She's dippy.

She waits for him
every night stark naked.

Calls herself his beast.

He hates to go home.

Vermouth, tonic, or what?

Tonic.

You look elegant.

How are you?

Fine.

Not so fine.

Look at those shoes.

Made by some European
slave for a lira, right?

What multitudes
we all recline on.

I thought my vanity
would subside by 40,

but it's worse.

That's why I dress this way.

Better a middle-class frump
than an aging go-go girl.

There was an African tribe

that flung women over 40
over a cliff.

How's Otto?

Charlie's leaving the firm.

Why?

They weren't getting along.

I don't see how Otto
stood him this long.

You only met Charlie once.

All that good liberal stuff
spread out so impeccably.

No holy fools enter paradise.

I knocked over a box of
little instruments like bugs

on your dresser.

I started to pick them up,

but was overwhelmed
by the dust.

Don't you ever clean up?

Come down and see Sophie.

I can see her from here.

Come down anyway.

When Leon and I
were married centuries ago,

we went to lots of meetings
that turned into parties.

I sat at Leon's feet and
listened to the men talk.

And how they talked.

All that civilized babble.

The only thing I can
remember are their wives,

especially the older ones,

waiting like pensioners
for a personal word or two.

You hated intellectuals because they
made you feel like a gentile poop.

Intellectuals?
Those dilettantes, fops?

Don't talk like that.

They were serious people.

I'm sorry.

You never did
pay attention to me.

You're wrong.
I always paid attention.

I just didn't listen.

Why didn't you marry again?

I didn't feel like it.

The truth at last.

Behind all that frantic
energy I found so admirable

is nothing but sloth.

It takes energy
to live with someone else.

I should be home reading
a grim m.A. Thesis

by a teacher who wants
to advance herself

and hates the subject
she chose.

Don't let me keep you.

Why do you dress that way?

Mother garbage.

You should've seen her
in the old days, Margaret.

Sophie.

Sophie.

What a beauty.

And moved like lightning.

Fixed leaking toilet tanks

and electric plugs.

Painted walls like a pro.

Chemtone. I painted
everything with it.

Time to reheat the potage.

You couldn't cook then.

We lived on canned macaroni,

bacon, whatever I could
steal from my mother.

What has become of us all?

Age.

And so many already dead.

No one wants to talk
about age, do they?

Humiliations of the bowels.

My own body has
turned against me.

Refill?

Who is the holy fool?

"No holy fools
enter paradise."

Who's the fool?

My son by my second wife.

20 with the mind of a newborn.

I got his letter yesterday...

must've found a stamp
in the gutter...

which I made the error
of reading

before my first class,

19th century American fiction.

It was supposed to be a poem

about the great oneness
of everything.

It's his belief that the
world began in 1950,

the year of his birth.

I have tried to dissuade
him of this delusion,

but my knowledge is no
match for his ignorance.

At the very hint
of an idea from me,

he smiles gently as if
I were eternally damned.

He wears a rubber band
around his hair

to keep it from his eyes

when he studies
the wall before him,

where his visions arise.

Lives in a horrible slum
house in east orange.

If only he wanted
to save something.

The world, for example.

But he is stupid.

Stupid.

The only basis
of his privilege, me,

has to lecture forever
on William Dean howells,

who bores me sick.

Is that justice?

In 1938, you handed out
leaflets on 6th Avenue.

There wasn't a question you
didn't have an answer for.

You and I lived together.

We never talked about love.

Wasn't necessary.

On Fridays, you lit
candles for your mother.

Reading on the subway...

No one paid for us.

You worked for the bjerskis.

They paid me almost nothing,

but asked my advice
because I was a college boy.

They drank tea all day.

Knew their employees
first names.

Played pinochle
with the turret lathe man.

On Fridays, they closed early

so you could all get
home before sunset.

Once I cut a slice of salami

with the same knife
I used for cheese.

They screamed with horror.

I have been told

by a colleague
10 years older than myself...

as if it were possible to be
10 years older than I am...

that salvation comes
from staring at

the pubic region of strangers

and freedom
from inducing in myself

by the use of a chemical

the kind of ecstatic lunacy

in which I spent
most of my adolescence,

a condition I attribute to my
body's strength at the time

and the conviction
that I'd live to see

socialism in the United States.

Now that my bones are weak,
my brain is stronger.

I don't expect anything.

It's edible.

Be still, my heart.

He's in a state of innocence.

He's scared.

He thinks one of his students
might try to drug him.

They harangue him about
drugs all the time.

He's afraid to have
coffee in the cafeteria.

Even thinks the faculty dining
room might be dangerous.

He now knows how scared
old ladies are

of being raped.

Are you ever afraid
around here?

Not of anything like that.

Nothing at all?

I'd rather be shot than
wait in the operating room

for somebody with the dirty
news in a piece of glass.

What's that?

A cat bit me.

Someone you know, I hope.

A stray.

It's been looked at?

It's nothing.

A llama bit me once.

I took Benny
to the children's zoo.

It was supposed to be
the thing to do.

A dirty, demented llama
reached over the fence

and clamped its jaws
on my hand.

It was like being bitten
by dirty laundry.

Don't touch them.

He always does them.

It's part of the agreement.

You back with that man again?

Funny you should ask that.

I ran into him last night.

And?

Nothing.

You thought I was bad
to do that, didn't you?

Yes... But it's
easy for me to say.

I never had anything like that.

The nearest
I ever came was him,

and not when we were married.

But now...

Sometimes he sleeps here.

We lie together all night long

with our arms
around each other.

No sex.

Guess I never really liked sex.

We just lie there.

Sometimes I wake up
in the night...

And I'm happy.

It is a kind
of loving, isn't it?

We can just be the way
we are with each other.

Now if he didn't
come to see me,

I think I'd blow away
like milkweed.

Sometimes in the afternoon,

I sit here for hours.

When it gets dark

I make myself
a little supper...

chops, some frozen beans.

If he's here,

I have to be a gourmet.

Days like paper chains.

All I got is that old man

I dumped 20 years ago

when he knocked up some
trotskyite lady named Carla.

Look at this sponge.

It's filthy.

Use your shirt.

What are you going
to do with those clams?

Edgar and his friend, some
hairdresser, are coming.

Can I stay?

No.

Women that hang out
with homosexuals

are spiders.

No wonder men weep.

I haven't seen any men weeping.

Because you're not observant.

Is this age of generalized cock

the revelation toward which
my life has been directed?

This age of baby shit?

What I've admired and
thought all my life

has been debased, and I weep.

Finish the dishes.

Why do you wear
your hair that way?

You're repeating yourself.
A sure sign of age.

I put it to Sophie.

It's the last one this size.

Thank you. It's exactly
the size I want.

We have them larger.

You've got to season it.

Yes.

What happened to your hand?

It's bleeding.

No.

You must've banged it
on something.

It's only a drop.

We have so little space here...

all these new shipments.

I didn't do it in here.

People have to watch
where they are going.

I'm not blaming you for this.

What?

You look like an orphan.

After dinner,
we'll go to the hospital.

We'll go now.

No, after we've eaten.

What are you reading?

Oliver Wendell Holmes'
common law.

There's a note here in your
handwriting in the margin.

"Limitation of liability
by statute."

Reminded me
how serious you are.

I wonder what you really talked
about with him last night.

He was drunk and foolish

and talked about himself.

How did we arrive
at such a place?

We agreed that it would be best

to dissolve the partnership.

We had a meeting.

We were reasonable.

The next day it began,

as though he were punishing me.

It was his idea
to end the thing, not mine.

I realize
there were difficulties.

It's a failure in me
that I can't feel more

about what preoccupies him,

but I think about it.
I care.

Sit.

Says I have
contemptuous clients.

I don't.

It's Charlie
I have contempt for

because he doesn't mean it.

He wants to be
caught up by something,

so he doesn't have to think.

The giveaway is what
he's trying to do to me.

What is he trying to do?

The way he informs clients
about the break.

The way he behaves
toward me in the office.

Someone I had represented for
years called me last week.

I had given some of
his business to Charlie

because there was
too much on my own desk.

The man told me
that Charlie told him

that I was putting my time
in on the money clients...

Where the big fees are.

He suspected I was
having personal problems

because I was neglecting so
much routine in the office.

Even implied it...

Might be something medical.

You just should've gone
and knocked him down.

I'm too old to pretend
that changes anything.

Aren't you angry?

I don't know.

All I know is
I can't live like this,

suspecting everyone.

You mean me?

He shit on our friendship
and our hard work.

You mean, you suspect me.

What did you talk about
with him last night?

He said you were cold.

He said he loved you,

and you treated him
like a delivery boy.

I didn't defend you
the way I should have.

I don't know why I didn't,

but I didn't.

I'd like to come in
and talk to you a second,

if I might.

All right.

I just want to use your phone.

Everybody around here
seems to think

that black men are killers.

I got a telegram this morning.

My roommate and I,
we got no telephone.

My mother has had a stroke.

She lives in upstate New York.

I've got to find out what
time the next train leaves.

There's a phone
right behind you.

You can use the phone.

Go on.

It's all right.

God bless you.

Uh, 6...9...

6...5...9...

6...O.

Oh, that's the new haven,
you know.

What time is the
next train to Albany?

Uh-huh.
And after that?

Uh-huh.
What's the fare?

Round-trip?

Uh, how about one-way?

Whew. Wicked.

You've got a decent man
there, lady.

It's nice to know

that there's some people
in this world

that's not crazy.

I want to thank you both.

Seems they've raised the fares

since the last time
I went up there.

It used to be very cheap.

Now they tell me
it's $22 one-way.

I... I got $12.

As soon as I get up to Albany,

I can get some more money.

I'll tell you what.

Let me write down
my name and address.

That's my pen, sorry.

And thank you very much.

You're going to
get this money back.

Have a nice trip.

Bless you, brother.

I gave him $10.

He said he'd return it

when he got back from Albany.

Arthur weinstein.

Weinstein?

That's his roommate's name.

He didn't want
to write his own.

Maybe he thought
his own wouldn't count.

I wouldn't say that.

I'd say he's
extremely resourceful.

His story might be true.

If it isn't, what's $10?

They are not to be
held accountable?

When you give something,
you give it.

He couldn't have
done better with a gun.

Yes, he could have.

A lot better.

Why did you open the door?

Smell became color

and color became smell.

What?

That's the way

I would describe
this place in a book.

I wish it was.

What?

I wish it was a book.

I can see Noel on Monday.

It won't make any difference.

Now let's go.

Put up with it.

Everyone else does.

You're the one that got
bit by the cat, honey?

Let's have a look.

I'm not going to take
that hand away from you.

Let's see.

It'll have to be reported.

Reported?

To the police.
All animal bites have to be.

When did it happen?

Yesterday.

Why didn't you come in then?

I didn't think
it was necessary.

You were wrong.

Roll up your sleeve, honey.

What for?

A little tetanus.

Just roll up your sleeve.
We'll take care of it.

That a girl.

I have no resources.

I'm absolutely gutless.

It's a medical procedure.
It's an incident.

You don't draw enough lines.

You'll have to have the shots.

You get them
at the board of health.

I know the cat isn't sick.

You can't tell by looking.

Relax, those shots
ain't so bad.

Shots in the stomach
aren't bad?

They give them in the arm now.

Suppose we caught the cat?

Then you're clean.

Just take it to the aspca,

they examine it
and let the police know.

They'll have to kill
the cat, won't they?

I think so.

They have to look at its brain.

I killed the cat.

We haven't caught it yet.

I think we frightened it
away for good.

Soph?

Hey, soph, look.
Chicken livers.

Do we have a box somewhere,

good strong carton,
something with flaps?

This is absurd.

Imperative.

Some other cat will eat them.

Uh-uh. Nope.
Not a chance.

We're going to be
watching them.

Get the box.
Go on.

It won't be back.

It'll be back.

It will.

Oh, for God's sake,
be a little uncertain.

Get the box.

Soph,

get the box.

Go on.

What time?

Half past.

Must have dined elsewhere.

Giving up?

It'll be here in the morning.

Well...

All right.

It'll be here in the morning.

Do you think it's true

they don't give them
in the belly anymore?

It'll be here in the morning.

Now.

It's here now.

All right.

Put on your jacket.
Hurry up.

Go on. Move.
Come on.

Get the box.

Here, kitty, kitty.

Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.

Here you go.
Nice chicken livers.

Here you go.

Here.

Here.

Yeah. You like that?

Come on.

Here, pussycat.

Come on.
Come on.

You got the box?

Put it down.
Put it down.

Come on.
Come on.

That's it.

Zip up your jacket,
for God's sake.

Here.

Hey.

Good.

Come on.

Here, puss, puss, puss.

Come on, puss, puss, puss.

Come on.

Get the rest.

Good pussycat.

Yeah, get the rest
of those livers.

Go on.
Here it is.

Ah, good pussycat.

Ah, my, my, my.

Those are good, aren't they?

All right.

Hello, pussycat.

O.K.

All right!

Get the rope.

You hold the flaps
while I tie it.

Hold the flaps!

Sophie, that's...

get the God...

Sophie!

God damn it!

Oh!

I got him!
Open the box!

All right.

Come on.

You hold the flaps.

I can't.

God damn it, Sophie!

Damn it!

I'll do it!
I'll do it!

Sophie, go make some tea.

I can't count on you
for a God damn thing.

Got you, you son of a bitch.

Soph?

Sophie?

Sophie?

The night man at the aspca

says there hasn't been
a case of rabies

around here for 30 years.

When will they know?

Monday.

Not till Monday.

The doctor doesn't
come in till then.

If there's anything...

There won't be anything,
Sophie.

They'll call you
before noon on Monday.

And what about the cat?

They don't have
to kill them anymore.

But?

But?

But the man asked me
if I wanted it back.

He said they'd dispose of it.

Dispose of it?

Enough.

Sophie.

I'm taking you
to flinders tomorrow.

It's going to be a nice day.

Start out early.

We'll have a picnic lunch
by the fireplace.

Go for a nice long walk.

Think about different things.

It'll do you good.

Did it make any noise
in the car?

No.

Till I handed it over
to the man.

Then what?

It screamed.

How's the hand?

It stopped hurting,
but I'm high as a kite

thinking about that phone call.

Don't worry.

There is a possibility.

It's a formality,
not a possibility.

Wish there were some
other way we could go.

Don't look.

If Charlie heard that,

he'd say that was an example

of my lack
of social conscience.

I want Charlie to be gone...

Silent, vanished.

What exactly did he say
the other night?

I told you.

One morning I found him staring
at something he'd printed

in block letters
on a piece of paper.

It was that Thoreau
quotation...

"most men live lives
of quiet desperation."

I asked him in a light tone

whether his life was
quietly desperate.

He stared at me
with absolute hatred,

buzzed his secretary,

told her to send in
his next appointment.

Could we please declare
a moratorium on Charlie?

You're right.

No more Charlie.

Who says you can't run
away from your troubles?

I'll bite. Who?

One of those things you're
brought up to believe,

so you face up.
Pure bullshit.

He said demurely.

I'm just taking
Charlie's advice.

I'm tuning in on the world.

It sounds out of place
when you talk like that.

All I need
is a little practice.

Bullshit.

Bullshit, I say, sir!

That was pure bullshit!

Thanks for suggesting this.

Yeah, let's never go back.

You can actually see the sun.

There's a car there.
There's a car there.

I couldn't see him.

You dumb...

Bastard.
I couldn't see him.

Bunny.

Name the operetta.

The operetta quiz
is on the air.

Trial by jury?

Trial by jury?
Wrong.

Patience, or bunthorne's bride.

I will never make you
a "g" and "s" fan

and that is that, I guess.

That's what I get for
marrying beneath me station.

That's what you get
for marrying.

Look at those birds.

Yep, I'd love to have some of those...
Rail fences.

She felt the wave
of pure happiness.

Good for her.

Otto!

Oh!

Hey, look at this.

Oh!

Here's how they got in.

Wouldn't you think
haynes would know?

Mr. bentwood and Mrs.!

Don't tell me it's summer!

Mr. haynes...

come in, come in!

We got a nice little parlor,

but you know how we country
folks love the kitchen.

Turn that...
Turn that thing off.

That's Dwayne and Warren.

You met them when we
fixed your porch.

That's Connie,
our glamour girl.

You know
Mrs. haynes.

Mr. haynes, someone
broke into our house.

Tom's supposed to do a weekly
check on summer places.

You know tom.

Who doesn't know good old tom?

Otto.

Did they steal any valuables?

We don't think so.

All them nice things,
you're lucky.

That's the word I was
looking for... lucky!

I'll call tom.

It could be worse.

So we've been told.

Might be kids after liquor.

You summer people keep
liquor lying around.

It's more than some young
people can take. Right?

Right.

We've checked,
there's nothing missing.

I said "might be."

How often do you check?

Every week.

This house
was checked last week?

Yes, and everything
looked fine.

No broken windows or anything.

There's a dead bird
in the bathtub.

It's been there
for quite awhile.

We were out here last week.

Otto?

They're gone.

I wish someone would
tell me how I can live.

It's only furniture.

Well, maybe
we should move away.

It's only furniture.

I wouldn't mind being
shot in a revolution,

having my house burned,

but this is meaningless.

Maybe it's just a language
you don't understand.

Are you defending pigs

who shit in your fireplace?

Otto!

Sophie... Sophie.

Sophie, stop it.

Soph... I'm sorry.

Don't!

I don't want to!

Sophie, don't!

I don't want to!

Sophie!

Don't speak, don't speak.

Don't.

Don't.

Sophie!

Sophie.

Soph.

Sophie.

Sophie.

I wonder if
those haynes bastards

had anything to do with it.

How they hate us.

Maybe we ought to...

Maybe we ought to think about
adopting a child again.

All right.

All right? Is that
how you feel about it?

I exhausted feeling about
that subject some time ago.

When I wanted to do it,

you made me feel as though

I'd asked you
to get me a tractor.

I'm thinking about it
differently now.

If I thought
you were serious...

Then?

I don't know.

Take my hand.

When will they kill the cat?

After they've examined it.

Can you stay home
tomorrow until noon?

They're not going to call.

There's always a chance.

Do you want to be rabid?

If I was, I'd be equal
to what's outside.

Are you coming?

Sophie?

Suppose they've been here, too.

Not yet.

Come on.

Captioning made possible by
Paramount Pictures Corporation