Original subtitles

(cheery orchestral music)

- [Buz] Sometimes everything gets sharper

and takes on a meaning out of the day, like,

Paradise Street is ironic when you're on your way back

to Spring Grove State Hospital.

Three going out, and only two coming back.

I mean, maybe if you don't live around here,

it might not mean anything to you,

but Spring Grove is for people who are mentally ill.

(leisurely orchestral music)

- Let's go.

- What's it going to cost us?

We've got an extra half hour, anyway?

- I don't mind the half hour.

For what?

- I don't know.

If she's going to be in there the rest of her life,

what's a half hour?

And if she's out again,

I'd like to be here to see it personally.

(leisurely orchestral music)

- [Tod] We never met Lillian Adlrich

before five days ago.

We're not related to her, we're not in love with her.

We're more nearly acquaintances than friends.

The only thing we really have in common is membership

in the same human race.

That, and because we know her agony personally.

(intense orchestral music)

(leisurely orchestral music)

- Hide and seek.

- Hide and seek?

- Yeah.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

(intense orchestral music)

- Am I well? Really?

I think so,

but am I?

- Yes.

You've been well for some time.

(somber orchestral music)

- You've got the address of the shipyard?

- Yes. - You know where to go?

- You report right to personnel,

the same places, the same people you saw before.

Oh! When you come home tonight,

have a hot bath and go right to sleep.

If it seems too quiet, turn on the radio.

- [Patient in black] Lillian, I'll see you outside!

- [Patient in White] I'm next, Lillian!

- Lillian, good luck.

- And Lillian, now you be good,

and don't you come back here.

- [Patient in Black] Lillian, God be with you.

(patients laughing)

- Don't be ashamed to leave the lights on

in your room if you feel like it.

- Are you nervous for me?

- Yes, a little.

- I'll be all right.

I think I have to do it alone now.

- Goodbye.

(eerie orchestral music)

(door slamming shut)

(intense orchestral music)

(hums with the rhythm of the train)

(crane horn blares)

(Lillian gasping)

- Can I help you?

- [Lillian] I'm supposed to go to the personnel office.

I work there.

I'm supposed to work there.

- [Tod] Right over there, right up the stairs.

- [Buz] There's a sign there.

I'll help you if you want.

- No, thank you.

Thank you, both.

- You want to see a fighting lady, there she goes.

Fighting with men, fighting with life,

fighting with --

- Let's go, I'm hungry.

- You're hungry?

Who hung us up in the first place?

I was on my way to put something in my stomach,

and I turn around and you're giving directions.

- You want to eat or you want to discuss?

- We'll eat first, discuss later.

(horns and whistle sounding) (employees chattering)

- Really, it's not very hard.

Sometimes it takes a few days to catch on,

but after that it's just routine.

- Thank you.

- After you finish this, you'll be an expert.

- What, am I doing this all right?

- Very well, you're doing very well.

- I thought because you were watching me --

- Don't be nervous.

I have another job for you.

Each one of these folders belongs to a different person.

I want you to go through each folder,

and check all the social security numbers.

I want to be sure the employment applications,

employment records, and time cards all match.

Is that clear?

I pulled over a whole filing cabinet my first day

of my first job.

- (Laughs) Thank you.

Please don't keep looking at me.

I know, because I'm new.

I know everybody's curious about me,

but I'm nervous today.

Please.

(leisurely orchestral music)

(workers chattering)

- Aside from that am I doing it right?

- I'm Buz Murdock.

Who do I see about my social security number?

- Talk to Miss Aldrich, right here.

- Hello.

You can look at me.

I don't bite people for looking at me.

- You're social security number's wrong.

- [Buz] It should be 100-20-0853.

- It's right on your W-2,

but on the application for employment, it's wrong.

- Well, let me see it.

It's okay, it's my social security card?

- Wait, please!

- Now, wait a minute, let me see.

- Please!

Does he have the right to take that out

of my hands like that?

Does he have the right to take it like that

and pull it out of my hand?

- [Employee] You give it back to her!

You have no right to that!

Give it back to her.

- Well, now, wait a minute!

Don't get hysterical!

I'm not going to do anything,

I'm just going to look at my social security number.

There's no secret about that.

Well, now you've done it.

If it's that important to you.

- You're a monster!

You're a mean, rude, impolite, uncaring, unthinking,

unfeeling human being!

- Well, then, don't fall in love with me!

- Don't you know you can't have everything?

Don't you know that people have to live together?

They have to listen to each other

and share each other's problems,

and listen as if they were their own?

- Look, I don't need the kindergarten lecture, forget it!

Now if I ripped the paper, I'm sorry,

but if it means that much to you,

just give me some mending tape

and I'll put it together again!

- I hate a wise guy!

- What was that all about?

- You get out of here!

- I didn't do anything!

- Get out! You get out of here!

- You're all hysterical.

- I'm sorry.

Please, forgive me.

I'm not ready.

I thought I was ready, but I'm not ready.

I'm not ready, I'm not!

(intense orchestral music)

- Coffee, light, please.

- [Buz] Hey, lady, wait a minute!

What's the matter?

- You've done enough!

You just keep away from me!

You've done enough!

Hey! Wait a minute, I'm --

You're crazy, the bunch of you up there, you're crazy.

- [Supervisor] Hey, what's the matter?

Have you got money in the bank or something?

(melancholy orchestral music)

- Lillian,

I got a call from the shipyard.

They told me exactly what happened there.

- I'm so ashamed.

- Lillian, I want to talk to you.

Will you promise to sit here and wait 'til I have time

and we can talk together?

Will you do that?

(melancholy orchestral music)

- Now, I think you'd better tell me why you came here

and we can work something out.

- I can't go back there, I made a scene.

- You can always apologize.

- I don't want to go back there, I want another job.

- [Nurse] We don't have another job for you

just at this time.

- I can't go back there!

- Lillian, you're asking for special privilege.

I can't do that for you!

You're not sick,

you're well!

- I can't go back there.

- I think you'll have to.

- I'll go right back to Spring Grove!

- Lillian!

- [Lillian] I liked the other girls.

- At the shipyard?

They like you, too.

Oh, yes, Mr. Guin told me when he called to tell me

about the other matter.

What do you see out there, Lillian?

- The world, and it's somebody else's world.

I want to be part of it again,

I want to belong to it again.

Can I, may I?

- You see, it's getting dark.

In a little while it's going to be night,

and then you can sleep.

When you wake up, you can say to yourself,

"A whole day has passed."

A whole day in everybody else's world has passed.

That's all you can do, Lillian,

one day added to another,

and then in the course of time,

by the magic of God,

you'll discover, even if you haven't thought about it

for a long time, that this is your world, too.

- I feel as if I were five years old.

Every thought in my head is a question.

- Lillian, how long were you in the hospital?

- 18 years.

- Oh, well.

- They shelter you there.

- Do you pay such an awful price for shelter?

Do you?

Do you want me to come home with you?

- I don't know how far I can go, Mrs. Ware.

But whatever I do, I must do it myself.

(phone ringing)

- [Woman's Voice] Hello? Hello?

Hello? Hello?

- Hello? (line clicks off)

- Who was it?

- Somebody that hangs up.

(phone ringing)

Hello?

- This is the person that called about a half an hour ago.

I'm sorry I woke you.

- Who is this?

- [Lillian] This is Lillian.

- Lillian who?

- Mrs. Lillian Aldrich.

We had a fight today, that's how you know me.

- Oh, yeah, are you the one that cried,

or the one who slapped me?

- The one who cried.

- Mm-Hmm, well, um, you want me to apologize, is that it?

- [Lillian] I didn't call for that.

- Well, what did you call for?

Hello?

- I'm here.

- Where'd you get this number from?

- I found it on your employment application.

I couldn't forget that.

I was lying in bed, I was trying to sleep,

and I kept remembering your social security number

and your address and your telephone number.

100-20-0853, 3456 Greer Mill Street, AU-9, 2322. (laughs)

I just wanted you to know, I'm not the kind of person

you saw me act like today.

That's all.

- Look, Mrs. Aldrich, I really don't understand.

- Oh, I'm not Mrs. Aldrich, I was divorced 12 years ago.

I've no right to call myself that.

- Look, I don't understand, why did you call me?

It's almost three o'clock in the morning.

Is this an emergency, is that what you're trying to tell me?

- I'm trying to build a bridge.

That's what I was trying to tell you.

- In case you're curious,

- I'm not.

- That was a call from a lady bridge-builder.

- What's the matter?

- I get a call in the middle of the night,

and it's for help.

- She in trouble or something?

- Something, or some kind of trouble, something.

- [Tod] You should call her back.

- Hmm.

Hello, let me have information, please.

Information, I want the phone number

of a Mrs. Lillian Aldrich.

Yeah, no, I don't know the phone number, I mean,

I don't know the address.

Lillian, yes.

Huh? Oh, thank you.

Not listed.

- Maybe it's a gag.

- No.

- Well, you'll see her tomorrow.

- Yeah. - Goodnight.

- Goodnight.

(melancholy orchestral music)

If you needed help, who would you call for?

- A friend.

- Imagine how alone that woman must be,

if she has to call a friend for help

and I'm the only name she can think of.

(leisurely orchestral music)

- [Buz] Peace!

- What do you want?

- I come in peace, Chief Sitting Bull.

Come to bring back your arrows.

I know they were in my back,

but they really belong to you.

Besides, I don't like to sleep on my stomach.

- I asked you what do you want.

- Well, can't you see I'm trying to apologize?

I want to say I'm sorry to Mrs. Aldrich.

- She's not here.

- Well, I can see that.

When is she coming in?

- I don't know.

- Good morning.

- Morning.

- Morning.

(phone ringing)

- Personnel, Guin speaking.

I don't understand, Mrs. Ware,

why didn't she call me directly?

Well, I hope you don't think we've given her the impression

we don't like her!

I think we've gone out of the way

to make her feel comfortable.

I'm not angry, I'm puzzled, frankly.

Well, do you want me to go see her personally?

Yeah.

I don't know how I feel about it.

I guess I'm willing to put up with her for a couple of days,

but if this is a permanent pattern,

you'll have to count me out.

I like Mrs. Aldrich, Mrs. Ware, but this is a business.

All right, thank you for calling me about it.

Goodbye.

- Mr. Guin, I couldn't help overhearing your conversation,

and I got an idea about Mrs. Aldrich.

- Go ahead.

- Well, I had a fight with her yesterday here at the office,

I grabbed my application out of her hand,

and she called me down for it,

she got pretty upset.

- Go ahead.

- Well, I was wondering,

could you give me her phone number or address?

I want to apologize.

- We don't give that information out, Mister.

- [Buz] I'm Buz Murdoch.

Look, I'm not trying to be a wise guy,

I'm not trying to make a pass at her,

I just sincerely want to apologize.

I think it's important.

- Do you know Mrs. Aldrich's background?

- No.

- You don't know anything about her background at all?

- No.

- Important to whom, your apology?

- Well, I think it's important to her.

(leisurely orchestral music)

- Can I help you?

- [Buz] We want to see Mrs. Lillian Aldrich.

- Well, are you friends?

- [Buz] Well, it's sort of personal business.

- Come in.

Sit down.

- What's the matter?

- Is she sick or in trouble or something?

- [Mexia] I have a 35 year old son who's a manic depressive.

Most of the time, he's in a mental hospital.

When he's home, he lives here.

Everybody in this boarding house has been

in a mental hospital at one time or another.

Some of them 20 years ago.

Mrs. Aldrich got out yesterday.

Now, you ask if she's sick.

No, the hospital wouldn't let her out if she was.

You ask if she's in trouble, well,

you cut yourself off from society for 18 years

and you come back to it one day,

and you see if you have trouble.

- 18 years?

- She wasn't old enough to vote when she went in.

- 18 years! Wow!

- She was married when she was committed

and had an infant daughter.

After the legal time period was passed,

her husband divorced her.

Her daughter grew up possibly thinking

that her mother was dead.

Anyway, she never saw or contacted her mother

from the day she went in.

What I'm trying to tell you is that, well,

the woman's out now, nobody to knock on her door

and nobody to ring the telephone,

and trouble her first day on the job.

Right now Mrs. Aldrich is bewildered,

troubled, and frightened,

and a difficult person.

Now, nobody has the right to ask you

to take on that difficulty.

If you want to be friends, well,

that'd have to come out of yourself.

- We'd still like to talk to her if that's possible.

- I'll tell her she has visitors.

- [Tod] Sir?

You going to tell her that we know she was in the hospital?

- Well, if she knows you know the worst

and didn't run away,

may give her a little more trust in the world.

- Why didn't she say something last night on the phone?

- Would you?

(melancholy orchestral music)

- 18 years.

Wow.

- How do you do?

- How do you do? - How do you do?

- Won't you sit down, please?

Mr. Mexia will bring us some cookies and lemonade.

You see, you don't see many outside people

in the mental hospital,

so you forget how to act.

So we used to practice for how it was

when we'd come out in the day room.

We'd practice, we'd take turns being host and visitor.

The host would say, "How do you do?"

And the visitor would say, "How do you do?"

And the host would say,

"Would you like some cookies and some lemonade?"

And after that the whole thing's gone

clear out of my head.

(laughter)

Isn't it a nice day today?

(cheery orchestral music)

- You don't want to do that, why don't we go

to the Italian restaurant, the old (mumbles).

- We had Italian food night before last.

Let's just get in the car and go out

along the bay until we find someplace nice and quiet.

- Why don't we let her decide, okay?

- All right, fine.

- Hello, girls.

Is Mrs. Aldrich around?

- No, she went home a little bit early today.

That's why we're waiting around to tell you.

- Is she all right?

- Well, she was crying a little bit.

- You know.

- Well, what happened?

- Well, Georgianna's sister had her baby last night,

and so we just made a little party about it,

and then Lillian began to cry.

- I think Lillian felt a little lonely.

You know, now my sister has a little baby,

and she has this lonely life, and well, you know.

- I think she went back to where she lives.

You know, that boarding house.

- Thanks.

- Listen, please don't worry about it too much.

Every girl feels a little bit blue sometime.

- You know.

(melancholy orchestral music)

- Yes? - Oh.

- What's the matter?

- I'm your mother.

Yes, I am.

Yes, I am.

- My mother is dead.

- Oh, no, I'm not.

- What do you want?

- I want to be friends with you.

- But you're dead.

- Why?

- I went to my father and I said to him,

"They're going to ask, 'Where is your mother?'"

And I said, "Daddy, I'm going to say to them,

"'My mother is dead!'"

That was on my 10th birthday.

- I need you.

- You'd better go back to the hospital.

(door slamming shut) (melancholy orchestral music)

(phone ringing)

- Hello?

Yeah, they're here.

Sure, we'll come and get you.

Where are you?

Well, stay there, now!

Just stay there!

I don't know what happened,

she said she had a fight with her daughter or something.

Here's where she is,

she says she's waiting for you to pick her up.

Said she wants you to take her back to the hospital.

(melancholy orchestral music)

- I want to go back to the hospital, please.

- Lillian, we don't want to take you back to the hospital.

- She shouldn't have closed that door on me.

- Look, you've got to remember,

she's got a life of her own, too, right?

- You know why they put me in that hospital?

I tried to kill her.

Another time, another place, another me.

I was 18.

I'd been married since I was 16.

The world was pressing in on me.

My husband was the same age I was.

He had parents, I was an orphan.

We'd fight and fight.

He'd slam the door and go out.

I'd stay inside and the little girl would cry.

Sometimes. (laughs)

Sometimes not.

I knew right away, I was in prison with that little girl.

First thing I remember at the hospital,

they gave me this mop that had a heavy weight on it.

That felt good, something heavy to hang onto.

I pushed it and I pushed it.

The whole world was gray.

One day, color came back.

I asked what day it was,

they said I'd been there 11 years.

Well, five years ago, I came to town by myself

and stayed one whole day.

Three years ago I stayed five days one week.

In the same boarding house I am now.

I want to go back to the hospital, please.

Please?

- You've got no right to go back.

- What do you know about pain?

- I don't care about pain.

It doesn't count now.

You think it's going to be any better back there?

Do you think you're going to forget what happened

when you rang your daughter's doorbell?

- I'll blot it out.

Yes, I will!

- Lillian, I've seen a lot of people try not remembering

things a lot of different ways.

It doesn't really work.

What happened happened, and what's real is real.

Maybe you belong back in the hospital,

that's not for me to say,

but if you're going back there because that girl

slammed the door in your face,

I want you to remember something.

For 18 years she didn't see you, and she doesn't know you.

You and that girl are strangers.

Maybe you feel a need for her and that gives you the right

to go knocking at her door after 18 years,

but she's got the right to say,

"I don't want any part of it."

I don't care how cruel that seems,

I don't care how mean that seems,

that's the way it is,

and you're not going to changing by running away

and hiding out anywhere in the world.

You can't change it.

If you give it a chance,

you'll find there are other doors

where you'll knock and they'll be opened,

and the person opening it'll smile when they see you,

but that's still in the future,

that's still something you've got to make,

and I don't see you making it by running

back to the hospital.

- It hurts.

I hurt.

(melancholy orchestral music)

- [Buz] Sometimes everything gets sharper

and takes all the meaning out of the day, like,

Paradise Street is ironic when you're on you way

back to Spring Grove State Hospital,

three going out and only two coming back.

(intense orchestral music)

- The room's smaller.

- I guess if you grow, the room seems smaller.

- [Patient] Hello, Lillian!

Say, did you come back to stay?

- She picked the wrong night,

they got that awful pudding.

- You always say it's awful,

and then every time they have it

you have three portions of it every time!

- [Patient] I'll have as much as I want to!

- Ladies, ladies.

- I don't belong here anymore.

- I've been waiting for you to find that out.

(cheery orchestral music)

- Mind your own business.

- Oh, right, you'll sit around your room for a while.

(patients bickering)

(exciting orchestral music)

- How do you do?

- How do you do?

- How do you do?

- If you come inside,

we'll be glad to serve you cookies and lemonade.

- Well, we were sort of waiting for you to come out.

- Right after the lemonade.

- There's no mistake.

- There's no mistake.

It's a nice day, isn't it?