All language subtitles for Theatre Macabre. s01e03.The Tortures of Hope.eng

(somber music)

- How do you do? I'm Christopher Lee.

In the days of the Spanish Inquisition,

the torture chair didn't
exactly help one's spine,

but it certainly
straightened out one's neck.

Dr. Abarbanel, in the
story "The Torture of Hope"

by Villiers de l'Isle-Adam,
found

that the torture chair was
the least of the tribulations

prescribed for him by
The Grand Inquisitor.

Two thumbscrews before
meals or instead of them,

a flail to aid circulation,

a hot iron to get rid of the chill,

and, of course, bread and water
to reduce that spare tire.

Oh, yes, they had thought of everything.

But Dr. Abarbanel had not yet been cured.

He still had one delusion left:
the possibility of escape.

Hope was his only medicine.

(ominous music)

(fire crackling)

(footsteps)

- Prisoner before the court,

do you plead guilty or not guilty?

- [Abarbanel] Not guilty,
your eminence. I am a doctor.

- My son, the court
will decide what you are

from the evidence we hear.

You are charged that you did
profane the bodies of the dead

by preventing their
just and lawful burial.

And further you are charged

that you dismembered these bodies,

cutting their limbs apart

and disemboweling the corpses.

Do you plead guilty to these charges?

- What I have done,
I have done as a doctor,

in my desire to cure.

To be able to cure, I must know.

I must know how a disease is caused.

It is because no man can
be cured by guesswork

that my researches have been

to try and find the answers
I must have.

And the necessity of those
answers to find the truth

led to my using the bodies

of those dead of the
diseases I fought.

- And yet those who sought
knowledge before you

have never used the bodies
of the dead.

- The greatest name in medicine

used animals only:
Claudius Galenus.

He didn't find it necessary
to use the bodies of the dead.

- That was over 12 centuries
ago or more.

- As you say. But you
were born at this time.

- Yes, in the time of
increasing knowledge,

when a man must develop
his proper talent,

by developing knowledge and skill.

Above all,
I've always worked for that.

Claudius Galenus sought
by vivisection,

that his findings with
animals were analogous

to all of the human diseases.
He was wrong.

So many hopeless animal complaints

are virtually non-existent
in human form.

No issue interested me
more than this.

I have found his error through
the most careful comparison

between the corpses of animals

and those of human beings.

- Ah, then you admit that!

Admit your guilt in this
benighted work

of profaning the dead.

- How? How could I profane the dead?

- I might ask the same question of you!

You speak of profaning the dead.

Do I profane the living
when I operate on them?

I am a doctor,
not a grave robber.

- Lower your voice.

My son.

Where do you come from?

- From Aragon, your eminence.

- Beautiful country.

- Beautiful, your eminence.
Beautiful.

- And the people?

- They're splendid.

Warm and kind, full of love.

- And helping these people
is your mission in life?

- So I hope.

For that was I born.

Suddenly I am aware of
loving them.

- You love them?

So is one's soul in mortal
danger through love.

And so, would you tell
me what you have learned

from your experiments,
my son?

- That man and animals are
not the same.

The first thing I needed
was some proof

that my theories had a
basis in truth.

Most important of all,
I believed I had to start

from the beginning by a
whole new set of rules.

My initial object was the lungs.

I found that they were
like a huge open tree,

the branches threading the
oxygen absorbed

through the mouth.

But the amazing thing
was four layers of skin

protecting all of the
delicate air channels

feeding oxygen to the bloodstream.

- Proceed.

- Proceed.

- Then I wanted to follow
the bloodstream.

I wanted to help,

and to help meant I
had to know what to do.

And that meant I had

to find out all I could
about the heart.

I found the heart is
something like a big gird

out of which it provides
the body its blood,

and that blood is made pure
by a process of filtering.

A filter that acts as our chief guardian,

pumping and purifying it,

enabling us to continue living.

And so we live,
because of the heart.

But if it goes wrong, time has
caught up with us and we die.

- The heart would seem to
be the fountain of living.

Or so you would seem to say.

Say you the same of the human soul?

- You ask me that of which
I am ignorant.

I am a doctor. That's all.

I can't form an opinion of
something that's impossible

for me to grasp--
- Satan speaks

the words you say!

Our Lord God that preserves us,

free you from what you say.

You explain the heart.

It is our soul that is our heart.

And instead of showing concern
about your eternal life,

you have passed your
time seeking self-glory.

And most wickedly, for have
you not disturbed the dead

at their rest, committing foul

and miserable sacrileges against them?

Confess these sins.

Confess this before it is too late!

You'll be forgiven. Confess it!

- I am a doctor.
I know nothing beyond that.

- Speak! Answer!

(ominous music)

- By order of His Holiness,
the Pontiff Pope John,

failure to respond to question
of the Holy Inquisition

will call for the use of torture.

- You have heard.

Now! Now is the time to
confess your sins.

We want to spare you.

You have your fate in your own hands,

whether to live or die.

- What I have lived for needs
no defense.

That is my last word.

- I have reasoned with the prisoner.

According to the laws of the
Holy Court of Inquisition

laid down by His Holiness,

and for the prisoner's salvation,

let him be put now to the torture.

- So shall it be done.

(ominous music)

(fire crackling)

(somber music)

(chains rattling)

(footsteps)

(door handle clicking)

(door creaking)

(footsteps)

- Peace, my son.

Why do you hide your face?

Look at me, my son.

You need not be afraid to look at me.

Your purification ends for
the proper glory of God.

My son, for my sins I repent humbly.

Please help me by absolving
me for what I have done.

Forgive me if I had to hurt you.

Say that the pain my heart
holds will soon disappear

through your forgiveness.

It is that, for me, the life
after death is all-important.

Beelzebub's forces of
evil hold special powers.

Those that could destroy us.

In our ceaseless struggle of power,

saving one's own soul is important,

but more necessary is the
saving of another man's soul.

Someone just like you were
before we summoned you to us.

Forget these moments of anguish now.

It's almost at an end.

This is your final night in
this world of transient shadows.

Remove his chains.

(chains clinking)

My son.

You will face the quemadero,

the fire of salvation,
tomorrow morning.

You know it burns for several
hours before death takes you,

and so you will be able to
come to the Lord in fellowship.

That is the value of a slow death.

By giving you the opportunity
to repent,

and by beseeching for absolution

as the fire burns away
your transgressions,

so shall you be saved.

Put your faith blindly in
the Lord's name,

for He watches above us.

So we shall find him merciful
in forgiving us all our sins.

Beyond this life there is a
heaven waiting

for the penitent, my son.

Go with God.

Have faith in his forgiveness.

- Forgive me for my part,

that I caused you pain
for your soul's sake

so that the devil's work
should be undone.

Pardon for my sins and absolve me.

(footsteps)

(door creaking)

(doorthuds)

(ominous music)

(door creaking)

(ominous music)

(footsteps)

(music intensifies)

- Indeed, brother,
I am sometimes driven

to the very edge of despair

by the hold Satan has achieved
over some of our penitents.

That young woman from
Cadiz has been tortured

for over three weeks
and still refuses

to confess for her soul's salvation.

- You must persevere, brother,
persevere.

- I do, with God's help,
but it is very disappointing

and the danger is,
particularly with women,

that in one's zealousness,
one will cause them to die,

still in a state of sin,

and their damnation could be my fault.

- You must keep a stout
heart and trust in God.

He will know what you strive for.

I remember once...

(ominous music)

(water sloshing)

(birds chirping)

(door creaking)

(birdsong grows louder)

- You have disappointed me.

Why should you be tempted
to escape to this world,

just when your God awaits
you in the next?

(ominous music)

(fire crackling)

- Hope is a poor man's bread.

But who is rich enough to
live without it?

(somber music)