Original subtitles

♪ ♪

It's Macklin Reeves.

That was a bad scene, Miss Walker.

But Johnny's gone now.

I don't think he'll be back.

I couldn't really care less what Johnny does.

Well, won't you come down and rejoin us?

No!

Would you like me to drive you home?

Just leave me alone. Miss, Walker, I...

Johnny!

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Miss Diana.

Miss Diana.

Dear?

Good morning.

It's a beautiful morning...

Hardly a cloud in the sky.

Are you all right, dear?

After I have my shower, Cinny, please.

You're sure you're all right?

Yes, please.

Joe.

Thank you so much for coming.

How are you, Jason?

It's good to see you.

You look fine.

Sit down.

Well, I can't say that

you show any signs of wear and tear yourself.

Getting a newspaper out every day keeps a man fit.

How is Diana, Jason?

It's been four years now, Joe.

Things change, people...

Nothing wrong, is there?

Hasn't been easy for Di.

Her marriage a failure.

I understand you're your own man.

I... I can't buy you, so I won't try.

I need your help.

With Diana?

Yes.

I realize what I'm asking, but I'm desperate, Joe.

Diana and I are out of touch.

Something's happened.

I don't know what it is.

And you think she'll confide in me?

You're just about my last hope.

Jason, I don't know.

I don't know, Jason.

I just wouldn't want to do anything

to make it rough for Diana.

How could you?

What you had... the two of you.

I know that now; I've known it for years.

I've had to live with the knowledge

that I spoiled it for both of you.

Oh, you didn't do it, Jason.

I didn't have to be quite so stiff-necked.

I guess I've grown up a little, too.

But you were right.

You wanted a girl, not a newspaper empire.

I should have stepped back.

Will you see her?

Sure.

Thanks.

We're having a dinner party

at the house tonight.

Scotch, please.

Two champagne, please.

Hello, Bill. Joe!

All look the same?

Yeah, it's a little strange to be back again, after all these years.

How have you been?

Oh, still helping get out the paper.

Bill, I see you've got everything you need, eh?

Joe?

Everything, except the other half of the welcoming committee.

He means the pretty half.

I'll see what's keeping her.

Excuse me.

Oops, you better lock up the silverware.

One of the more prominent pickpockets to ever occupy a bench just arrived.

Judge Y. Franklin Leigh.

He keeps getting away with it, Joe.

What's he doing here?

Judge Leigh has aspirations to be our next senator.

I suspect he's here to woo support from the paper.

Jason? He'd never buy him.

The worst he can wind up with, Joe, is a good meal.

Joe, excuse me. The wife.

Excuse me.

Joe... Joe, I want you to meet Judge Leigh.

Joe Mannix.

Haven't we met before, Mr. Mannix?

Yes, we have.

Pardon me, gentlemen... A small domestic crisis.

Uh, where was it we met, by the way?

In court. Yours.

I was with an attorney named Knox

who was petitioning for a retrial

in the Harry Meachem case.

Oh, yes, you're, uh, you're the private detective.

That's right, Your Honor.

I developed the new evidence that Knox presented to the court.

I'm sure if Your Honor had taken the trouble to read it carefully...

Of course I weighed your evidence, Mr. Mannix.

Then why wasn't Harry Meachem released from San Quentin

before the full sentence was served?

It was all right there in the report.

Law is the art of the possible, Mr. Mannix.

A retrial in the Meachem case would have been impossible.

Good evening, Father.

Diana, some of our guests have been here for an hour.

I'm sorry, Father.

Are you all right?

What?

I said, are you all right?

Well... Now that was worth waiting for.

Hello, Joe.

Are you coming down?

Or do I have to come up and get you?

I'm coming down.

Take her to her room, Joe.

I'll make some excuse.

Good old Joe...

always around to save little Di from nasty falls.

You must have radar tuned in for falling women.

Doesn't every red-blooded American boy?

It's a pity you didn't step aside and let me break my neck.

Di, what's bugging you?

Oh, is that why you're here?

Why you came back?

To find out what's bugging me?

Is there anything to find out?

It's too late, Joe.

You understand that?! It's too late!

I'm sorry that Diana was ill.

I am too, Jason.

Good night. Good night.

Nice you could come.

Good night. So nice seeing you... good night.

Good night.

You can clean up in the morning.

Good night.

Thank you very much. Good night, Mr. Walker.

How long has Diana been that way?

Well, some time now.

Since she came back from Europe.

What happened?

Happened?

Something must have pushed her over the edge.

I don't think it was any one thing.

It just started to build up,

till one day, it was all downhill.

Right to Johnny Malina.

Where did you hear about Malina?

Diana and a cheap hood?

That kind of gossip gets around fast, Jason.

Like a dirty joke.

I tried to stop her.

What could I do, Joe?

Lock her in her room?

Handcuff her to the bed?

I'm not her jailer; I'm her father.

Hardly that, sometimes.

There seem to be so many things

we can't say to each other.

If it can't be bright and cheerful,

it has to be swept under a rug.

You didn't invent the generation gap.

But I have to build a bridge over it, Joe, somehow.

She's all I have.

If you can get through to her...

if you can find out why...

I'm afraid we've blown it, Jason.

She figures that's why I was here.

Good night, Jason.

Hello?

Mr. Mannix?

Oh, I'm so glad I could get you.

This is Iris Meacham.

Well, hello, Iris.

I know I have no right to ask you this, but...

I was hoping that you could come here.

I was hoping that you could stop Harry before he...

Before what?

All he talks about is killing Judge Leigh.

He's bought himself a gun, Mr. Mannix.

Harry's only been home a little over a week.

Maybe I should have waited,

given him a chance to settle down.

Oh, I'm sure he'll settle down

just as fast without a gun.

Iris, who is this?

Harry, Mr. Mannix

from the building where I work.

I wanted to meet you, Harry... talk to you.

You met me, we talked.

Now, come on in here, Iris.

Good night.

What is this?

Harry, a couple of Christmases ago,

we had an office party.

Iris was there.

It was kind of a sad time for her

with you in San Quentin,

so we, uh, tried to cheer her up.

Thanks.

But as sometimes happens, uh, the cheer-up backfired.

So she told us all about it.

About you and your trial in Judge Leigh's court.

Don't you think I want to forget about that?

You were railroaded, Harry.

Yeah, I did a little investigating,

so I know about the stolen goods

the police found in that warehouse you owned downtown.

It was an obvious frame-up,

and I tried everything I could

to get you a new trial.

No luck.

I had five years to think about luck.

Sit there week after week, in a coffin called a cell,

try to drag the clock around to five years.

Mr. Mannix, ask him about the gun.

Iris!

Harry, you're smarter than that.

You know what would happen if you got busted

with a gun in your possession.

I told you. I told you, Iris.

On top of everything else,

I got to have a wife who talks to cops.

She was with you all the way, Harry.

She scrubbed floors to pay your attorney fees.

Yeah, yeah, I know.

I got a wife.

She's got me.

And that's all there is.

There's nothing else to show for our life.

They tore down the warehouse.

Put up a skyscraper.

You know who owns it?

Macklin Reeves.

He tried to buy me out for years.

Had his hoodlums run off my help.

I fought him, and it cost me everything I had.

Now he's got everything.

Reeves... he's a big operator now.

Clean.

He just buys a building or a bank...

or a judge.

Judge Leigh?

In his pocket. Can you prove it?

What difference does it make?

You get me any proof there's a connection

between Judge Leigh and Macklin Reeves,

and you won't have to square accounts with His Honor.

I'll square them for you.

Where do I get proof?

That's your problem.

I'll pay you for your time.

How about it?

Okay.

Good.

Here's my card.

Call that number any time of the day or night,

and if I'm not in, my answering service

will know where to get a hold of me.

Thank you, I... I appreciate it.

Hello?

Hi.

It's, uh, me, the girl who didn't come to dinner.

Hello, Diana.

I'm sorry I was such a monster last night.

I... I was an unholy mess.

I'm sorry, Joe.

Let's just say last night didn't happen.

Scrub the whole 24 hours.

I'd like to scrub the whole last four years.

I can meet you at the Laundromat.

Or would you rather make it dinner?

We can make that dinner.

Gino really has a lock on time, doesn't he?

It's hard to believe it's been over four years

since we sat at this table.

You've been here since with other women?

I'm hooked on the lasagna.

And the candlelight.

Were you in love with any of them?

Oh, I thought so.

Once or twice.

What happened?

I stopped thinking so.

Once or twice.

I'll drink to that.

My poor Rudi.

My poor little prince.

So handsome, so dashing.

So sick.

But you married him?

Well, doesn't every rich American girl,

if she can find a prince who isn't taken?

What was wrong with Rudi?

Some men marry because they want a mother.

In Rudi's case, it was a little more complicated.

He wanted his own mother, so I sent him back to her.

I understand they're very happy.

Is that why you made the scene in Europe for three years?

I can't explain that, Joe, I..

Stopped thinking and started drifting.

I just went off in all directions.

That explains Johnny Malina.

It's no secret, you know.

Johnny just happened.

And once it started, I couldn't stop it.

What's the matter, Diana?

♪ ♪

I haven't painted here in a long time,

but it makes a nice pad when I want to get away.

There's really nothing to look at.

Those are things I did a long time ago.

All the better.

By now, they may have become old masters.

Please, no jokes about hanging them upside down.

As long as you know.

I like them.

You ought to go back to work.

Maybe I'll do that.

Or something more useful, like getting us a drink.

♪ ♪

I tried.

I don't know how many times I tried,

but I just couldn't quite catch you.

Hmm.

Well, maybe you'll try again.

Someday.

Maybe I will.

Joe, it's so wonderful to see you again.

I feel so comfortable and warm

when I'm with you, and safe.

Safe?

Did I say that?

Safe from what?

Oh, from ghoulies and beasties

and things that go bump in the night.

Hello.

Yes.

Just a minute.

It's your answering service.

Yeah, this is Mannix.

Put him on.

Mannix, I'm calling you from the Mirador Yacht Basin.

I got something.

All right, give it to me.

Judge Leigh left his house about midnight.

Raced down here like a two-year-old.

Macklin Reeves ties his yacht up here.

He was waiting for him.

They just sailed out through the breakwater.

Well, good work, Harry.

That's just for openers.

We caught us another fish.

A big one.

Jason Walker drove up and got on board

just a minute after His Honor.

You're sure about that?

You did recognize him?

Positive... I've seen his picture often enough.

Well, I'll, uh, I'll get right to work on it, Harry.

Thanks.

Morning, Jason.

Good morning, Joe.

Good news.

Diana's moved down to her beach place.

Plans to do some serious painting again.

Yeah, I know.

I'm picking her up for lunch.

Fine.

Coffee?

Oh, no, thanks.

Jason, I'd like to read you something from your paper.

"The Case for Judge Leigh" by Jason Walker,

"Editor and Publisher.

"The Observer strongly urges the support of its readers

"for the Senatorial candidacy

of the Honorable Y. Franklin Leigh, Supreme Court Judge."

Why, Jason?

I wouldn't endorse Judge Leigh,

if I didn't know he was the best man for the job.

Is that what last night's cruise on Macklin Reeve's boat

was all about?

Your way of getting to know your candidate?

I just thought you might like to try an explanation on me, Jason.

You know, sort of a dry run, to see if it holds up.

No explanation.

All right, Jason.

I guess if you want to have a midnight rendezvous

with a known hoodlum boss and his political stooge,

that's your business.

Good-bye, Joe.

Diana?

Diana!

Diana?

Diana!

Diana!

What does it mean?

I hate to say it, Jason, but it could be a suicide note.

We've got to find her, Joe!

Who are you calling?

The police.

Not the police, not yet.

Jason, this is a job for them now.

Joe, try to understand.

If this is merely a mood, a fit of depression, and I press the panic button...

Isn't there something we can do?

Jason, this is a big city.

It would take a small army to check out the places she might be.

Wait a minute.

You happen to have a small army working for you.

Maybe they can find her.

Come on, you loaders, this ain't no coffee break.

Move it!

Hold it! Hold them trucks!

You drivers and loaders... All you guys, up here.

Gather round.

We got a bird-dog from the old man!

Now who we're looking for is the old man's kid,

Diana.

L.A. Observer.

Observer.

L.A. Observer.

Observer.

Something wrong with the drink, miss?

No...

Maybe you'd like some chips or something,

or fried shrimp?

No, I'd just like to be left alone.

Observer, ma'am?

No, I don't want an Observer.

What's new, Arnie?

It's all in the Observer.

Hello.

Mr. Walker?

This is Arnie... blind Arnie.

I got the route in Santa Monica.

Yes, Arnie.

About your girl, Mr. Walker...

Could be she's in a joint here called the Glad Hand.

I ain't heard her voice in years,

but it sure sounded like her.

She used to come around on the trucks.

Called me Mr. Arnie.

I never forgot her.

Bartender, there was a girl here... tall, blonde, pretty?

Yes. She left this. Where'd she go?

Out the side entrance, onto the beach.

Hang onto that for me.

♪ ♪

Diana!

Diana!

Diana!

Diana!

Diana!

Diana!

Diana!

Diana!

Diana!

Diana! Diana!

Diana!

Diana!

Diana!

Diana, don't be a fool!

It's me, Joe!

Joe!

I killed him!

I killed him! I killed him!

I killed him...

No!

No!

Joe!

Joe, help me!

Help me, Joe!

No!

No! MANNIX'S VOICE: Diana...

No! No! Diana... Diana... Joe, help me! No!

No! Diana, it's me!

It's Joe.

Now, what is it?

Oh, Joe.

Oh... oh, my Joe.

Oh, oh, Joe.

Oh, Joe.

Oh, last night with you...

I thought something was good for me again.

Something I'd lost, I'd found,

and I kept... I kept seeing his face,

and I just wanted to die.

It was an accident.

I... I could have swerved

or maybe put the brakes on,

but I didn't, I didn't!

I hated him!

Joe, I wanted him dead!

I killed him!

Easy.

Oh, Joe, I'm... I'm glad I told you.

I'm glad I told you, Joe.

She killed a man.

I know... Johnny Malina.

How long have you known?

I suspected.

I saw Diana come in that night.

She was hysterical.

I went out to the garage.

There was a dented fender on her car.

Oh, Jason.

Jason, why didn't you go to the police?

So a girl panics and runs.

She probably could have gotten off

with a couple of years probation.

It wasn't a hit-and-run.

It was murder.

Just because Diana has some crazy ideas...

Diana never said a word to me.

How could you know?

There was a witness.

Who didn't go to the police, either, huh?

The police don't own a newspaper.

I got a call from Macklin Reeves

to meet him on his yacht

and discuss a matter of mutual interest.

He saw Diana run Malina down.

He was very sympathetic.

Most anxious to cooperate.

More than willing to save Diana from a murder charge,

even if the victim was one of his boys.

It's all heart.

Oh, what could I do, Joe?!

I can't turn in my daughter for murder!

I can't let her rot in prison

for someone like Johnny Malina.

I don't think endorsing Judge Leigh

was too high a price to pay.

Blackmail's always too high a price, Jason.

I'm gonna retire.

Diana and I are gonna go away somewhere.

Run somewhere, you mean?

Call it what you like... I'm gonna stand by her.

That's not the answer, Jason, and you know it.

It's out of your hands now, Jason.

Diana stopped running today.

She knows what has to be done.

This place is open 24 hours a day.

Come on, there's something I want to find out first.

Joe, let's get out of here.

In a minute, Diana.

I want you to tell me exactly where you were

when you hit Malina.

Now, was it this close to the house?

No... it was back further.

You sure?

Back further.

All right.

You tell me where.

Here.

Here.

You're sure this is where it happened?

Yes.

I remember going around the curve.

And, uh, Macklin Reeves was still in the house?

You left him there?

Yes.

Yes, Joe.

Take a look at the house.

Go ahead, take a look.

I can't see the house from here.

So how could Reeves have seen where you hit Johnny?

Trees blocking the house?

It couldn't stand up, Joe.

It's his word against hers.

The difference of a few yards.

How are you gonna prove it?

Maybe I can get Macklin Reeves

to prove it for us.

Well, how are you gonna do that?

A little fishing.

Oh, and if I don't get back, Jason, uh, follow it up.

Might be a good yarn.

You wanted to talk, so talk.

It's Macklin Reeves I want to talk to.

It's the same.

I'm his right hand, Cully Roberts.

Oh, you stepped into Johnny Malina's shoes.

They were getting too big for him anyway.

So that's what happened, huh?

Johnny stepped out of line,

so you got the word to put him out of his misery.

Say it again slow.

Come on now, Cully, it's just a little too pat.

Johnny's kind doesn't die stepping off a curb.

You've got nothing.

Zero plus zero.

I've been putting it together.

It adds up.

You take care of Johnny,

just like Reeves planned it.

Then you prop him up in the road and let her hit him.

She takes the blame,

and then Reeves has her old man on the hook.

Everybody's happy.

Hey, try it again.

You still got nothing.

The girl hit him.

I say she killed a dead man.

Lots of luck proving that, Mr. Mannix.

All right,

tell me how you know Diana didn't run Johnny down.

I'm very interested.

Oh, I think I'd be wasting my time, Mr. Reeves.

She tells me you saw the whole thing

from the house. That's right.

Uh, you'd better check the geography

before you try and sell that under oath.

I stood on the spot where she hit Johnny.

Can't see it from the house.

Ah, now, I wondered what would happen

if I scratched the image

of the new Macklin Reeves.

Correct, impeccable

business connections, pillar of the community.

Now you know.

Now I know.

♪ ♪

A guy trying to change a tire too close to the road

could have a real bad accident.

Yeah... now give me a hand.

All right.

Remember to step on the brake

when you hit that puddle.

I want to get good skid marks,

so it really looks like somebody tried to miss him.

I'm glad you happened along, Macklin.

Seems I've got a tire needs changing.

Oh, hi, Joe.

"Oh, hi, Joe."

I thought you might be interested

in knowing what happened.

We won it all.

Macklin Reeves has been indicted,

and Judge Leigh has withdrawn from the race.

Uh-huh.

And you're not listening.

Joe.

How do you like it?

Well, I think you finally caught me.

No one will ever do that.

But if you don't mind...

I'd like to keep trying.