Original subtitles

(mysterious music)

(tiger roars)

(tiger roars)

(mysterious music)

(gasping)

(mysterious music)

- Peter.

- Go back to sleep Julie.

- I know about the other times.

I pretended to be asleep

but I know about them.

You've dreamed it before,

whatever it is, haven't you?

- What makes you think it's just a dream?

It's the only thing I live for.

(dramatic music)

(sheep bleating)

- Now which one of you did this?

You?

Or you?

What kind of a mother are you to let this happen?

- Morning.

Well, I'm all set for the day,

go ahead and ask me.

- Did you consult a book?

Or did you just talk directly to the camel?

- A book.

I thought it might be better to sneak up on him.

What happened to him?

- Somebody stepped on his foot.

Only nobody wants to confess.

Did your book tell you how to wrangle wild camels?

- No, not exactly.

It was more on the order of camelus dromedarious,

camelus bactrious.

Although I did find out one thing.

According to geologic findings,

the camel originated in North America.

How about that for one of your quiz programs?

One group migrated to asia

another bunch cut out for South America.

The ones that stayed in North America

became extinct probably during the glacial period.

- Fascinating.

- The book I read also said camels bite

but, then, so do ants.

- I hire a helper, I get a philosopher.

Let me tell you this philosopher,

true, there is little difference in principle

between a camel biting and ant biting

but there's considerable difference

in the size of the bite.

Secret of breaking camels is to get bitten only by ants.

(camels grunting)

You could still change your mind.

- Nah, for $43 a day they can chase me all over the field.

I've got a buddy in the hospital, Mr. Hale.

- Well, you better make sure you don't join him.

The real secret of wrangling camels

is to have a strong rope, a strong stake,

and an even stronger back.

- Does it help any to talk to 'em like with horses?

- You know any arabic?

- Well, where is the American consulate?

How far to the hotel?

How far to the post office.

(Peter laughs)

- I think something a little richer is demanded.

Something with a little more color.

(shouting in arabic)

(tiger growls)

- Good morning, Mr. Brauner.

(lion growling)

How long do they live?

Peter says that elephants get to be 70.

(tiger growling)

Why does Peter keep that animal here?

I don't understand.

Can you bare to look at him?

How can you bare to feed him?

When I awake in the morning

and I look into Peter's eyes

I see his eyes

in the dark

in our room

At night before I go to sleep

I can feel his presence with me.

I can feel his presence very minute of the day.

(tiger snarling)

(somber music)

- Julie.

- Makes me feel so home grown,

like somebody's strawberry preserves at the state fair.

to see the names in those posters.

Copenhagen.

What's Copenhagen like, Peter?

- Copenhagen, Canoga Park, people are the same.

- Except Lisa and Julie.

- Mr. Hale.

Well, how does she look, Mr. Hale?

- Nicely, coming along nicely.

- We're making up the photo mural

covering this whole wall here

with some of the best shots of your wife

ever taken in action.

- This is my wife, Mr. Wasson.

- Oh, I'm sorry Mrs. Hale, but,

well, you know what I meant.

I had an idea today Mr. Hale,

see how it sounds.

I'd like to inset some of the colored shots

at regular intervals,

make 'em up in a special pattern,

in the shape of a lion or a tiger,

one of the big cats, whatever.

Back-light them so that they stand out.

You like it?

- Yes, yes I like that very much.

Now I'll tell you what I think we better do.

We better start right at the beginning of her career

and move them left to right.

- [Mr. Wasson] Well, I've read a lot about her, Mr. Hale,

but that's something I'd rather you pick out.

The sooner the better if you still want this room ready

for the big summer opening.

- It's got to be ready.

- Oh, well, only eight days more.

That doesn't give us much time to finish,

especially with all the other work

that has to be done around the place.

- All right, I've got an appointment in town.

When I come back this afternoon I'll pick the photographs.

- Good deal.

All right fellas, you can start work on the frames

right now.

- Julie?

(somber music)

Julie?

(camel grunting)

- Hyah!

Hyah!

Hyah!

(shouting in arabic)

Hyah!

How do you say lunch in arabic?

You'll just have to learn to speak my language.

Take 30.

(woman crying)

I have a hungry troop of camels outside

just dying to take a bite out of somebody.

Any suggestions?

- If you want to hit your head against a wall

isn't it a good idea to find a wall first?

- The smart money wears crash helmets.

- Me and my shadow.

Thanks.

I haven't seen you before.

- Oh, they say it can be a sobering experience.

(Julie laughs)

- You work here?

- Since this morning.

- I'm Mrs. Hale.

- I noticed the ring.

- Seven carats.

- Neat, but not gaudy.

- It was hers.

All of a sudden I know how an insect feels.

How helpless when it's caught by a cruel child.

A blank face

bigger than the sky

smiling down at you

from somewhere beyond your own tiny world.

Smiling down

and taking its time

letting its icy fingers pull off your legs

and your wings.

(orchestral music)

(knocking)

- [Man] Come in.

- Bruce, come, Bruce, come.

- Hey, Pete.

Pete, what are you doing in Southern California?

How did you know I was here.

- He can sing too.

- You hear a few things, read a piece in the paper.

- Say, I can get you a lot of work on the circuit.

You're the world's greatest disappearing act.

You know one day you see him,

the next thing is you don't.

But you look great, just great.

- My Country 'Tis of Thee and a little rock 'n roll, too.

- Uh, call me next week.

- You know, next week runs through Monday to Friday.

Maybe you can zero it in a little.

- How 'bout next Tuesday, Bruce, huh?

- Is that all right?

Okay, thank you.

Come on, Brucie.

Come on.

That's it good boy.

- How about tall one for me, mostly water?

- Yeah.

Has it been two years?

- Come on, Pete, give.

- Hell is empty, Phil,

all the devils are here in this world.

- Well, if you can tell me where I can get

half a dozen of 'em they should make a great act

if you can stand the smell of sulphur.

- I heard you were gonna be in town a couple of weeks.

I, I need a favor.

- Pete, you need a favor.

You know all you ever had to do was name it

so now name it.

But first, you're gonna sit right down,

you're gonna start from the top,

and you're gonna bring me right up to date

and then we're gonna go on this town.

- I remarried.

- Hey, good for you.

- How 'bout you.

- Say, put a little more whiskey in there, will you?

Oh, I don't know, someday.

When I find the right girl.

- Is there such a thing, Phil?

For you, I mean.

- Now, listen, Pete.

I remember a certain party in London.

You drank a a lot and you talked a lot.

I'll tell you what you said.

You said the image of the inherited enemy

is all ready sleeping in the nervous system.

A chick that's out of its egg will dart for cover

if a hawk flies over,

not a pigeon and not a duck, a hawk, you remember?

Well, here's to wives, the inherited enemy.

- Some night next week, any night you say,

I'll send a car in for you.

This is the favor I ask,

that you be guest of honor.

- For what?

- What night Phil?

- Oh, Thursday.

- Thursday.

- Now will you give?

- I bought a zoo last month,

kind of a jungle park.

We're modernizing it,

putting in a lot of special attractions.

Gonna get ready for the public, you know.

- Great.

- There's one room I'm turning into a memorial for Lisa.

I was hoping you'd be here to dedicate it,

special services.

Nothing elaborate, but,

what's a dedication without a guest of honor?

Thursday's fine, we'll be ready.

- Pete, I know how you felt about Lisa.

It's something nobody could ever forget.

I mean the way it happened.

Maybe this sounds kind of selfish,

as close as I was to you,

but I've never stopped being glad I didn't see it.

When I flew back for the funeral--

- How's seven o'clock?

- Oh, seven's just fine.

(somber music)

- Not back yet? - No.

- Well, maybe you can okay this copy

for the panels, Mrs. Hale.

They got to be hand-printed

and if I don't get Charlie started on them right away,

we'll never get 'em back in time.

Now, this little piece here,

that'll go on the east wall.

- My husband wrote all this out for you.

Why is it necessary to re-check it?

- Oh, he dictated it over the phone to my secretary

and you don't know my secretary.

I'd appreciate it if you'd just look it over, Mrs. Hale.

I don't want any trouble with your husband.

- "I met a lady in the meadow, full beautiful,

"a faerie's child.

"Her hair was long, her foot was light,

"and her eyes were wild."

My husband wrote this?

- Mm-Hmm.

He wants it on a special plaque,

like a cornerstone he said.

- Keats wrote it and it's meads not meadow,

"I met a lady in the meads."

All right if I use the phone?

- How would you spell meads?

- M-E-A-D-S.

Person to person to Buz Murdock, please,

Pacoima Hospital.

Like a bee with one Z.

Todd Stiles.

- No!

No, I won't approve them.

- Hi, uh, I'll call you back.

- I got a boy, 14 years old,

says he wants to come in with me when he grows up.

Be a contractor like the old man.

Well, sir, I'll put him in the cement mixer first.

If you ask me, I think she's jealous.

Well, can't blame her.

Morning, night, and noon, all you hear people talk about

around here is the great Lisa Hale

and how to build up the legend,

wring the last dollar out of her memory,

if you really want to know.

- Why don't you shut up?

- Yes, sir, right in the cement mixer.

(somber music)

- I'm sorry.

I hate to be so emotional.

You msut think I'm either crying all the time

or screaming at people.

Actually, I'm very happy.

How's everything in camel land?

- This morning, I saw the way he held a baby goat

that was hurt.

He's a man of feels.

Just a minute ago I read all that stuff in the folder

about how she was killed.

Try and put yourself in his place.

The arena in New York, just outside the ring,

separated from her by the bars,

watching the tiger crouched,

ready to spring on her from behind,

not being able to stop it,

not being able to help.

Think how he must feel.

So, if the statue or the memorial hall

makes him feel any better

then let him have his statue and his memorial hall.

- Nobody can feel that guilty.

- Julie, is there a limit to guilt,

or any other feeling?

- Nobody can feel that guilty unless they have reason.

(suspenseful music)

- Good, good.

Good, good, good.

Good, good, good.

Good.

(tiger snarling)

Back off.

Back.

Good, good, get.

(tiger snarling)

(tiger growling)

- You all right? - (gasping) Yeah.

- Camels, Stiles, not lions!

- He's ready, Peter.

- Are you sure?

- I couldn't have stand with him another 10 seconds

and come out alive.

Peter, he's ready.

(suspenseful music)

- Who's your friend?

- Number 12.

- That's not bad for first week.

I'm sorry I yelled at you.

- Oh, I didn't notice.

- You noticed.

Why don't you let some of it out?

You've been watching me all week,

must have a lot of questions.

Go ahead, ask.

- There's an old bedouin proverb, Mr. Hale,

the viper that doesn't bite me

may he live a thousand years.

- Why do I keep that particular tiger?

Isn't that what you're wondering?

Haven't you and Julie been discussing it?

Why haven't I killed him, right?

- Okay, when she told me that was the animal

that killed your wife, yeah, I wondered.

- Well, maybe you've wondered why Brauner

hasn't killed it either.

- Why would he want to kill him?

- Lisa was his daughter.

- I better get moving.

- You know, when I was younger I lived in Africa.

I used to hunt.

One day I stopped.

I stopped because I couldn't miss anymore.

10 bullets, 10 kills.

It had become a surgical thing.

The rifle swinging up, the same sound of gunfire.

The cough, like the passing cough of a sleeping man.

And in the near distance,

a living thing who had no knowledge of me, staggered.

If he had brothers or offspring or a mate

they might interrupt their feeding long enough

to bolt away as he fell.

But soon enough in the sun

in a long silence, unafraid,

they'd return to graze quietly alongside the body.

And the tragedy had no meaning,

either for them or for me.

Unless a man gives, gives a meaning to tragedy,

means nothing.

(somber music)

Don't let me keep you.

(somber music)

We're almost ready, Lisa.

I'm sorry it took so long.

- Peter.

- I hoped you loved me enough to trust me.

Now let me have those Julie.

Julie!

Well, where do we go from here?

- I've asked you so many times,

what do you see there

at the window when you stand there?

When you say, "Go back to sleep Julie."

It's all you ever say to me.

I remember you told me that you would refuse

that insurance check.

Blood money, you called it.

But finally, you did take it, didn't you?

You bought this place and you married me.

I remember everything you told me about her.

How she'd done the same act dozens of times

all over the world and nothing had ever gone wrong.

How she would let the tiger get behind her.

And how the audience would hold its breath

and the drums rolled.

Then, how the tiger pounced on her.

Then, how the crowd screamed as she fell down

and she and the tiger rolled over and over

in the sawdust.

Then how she suddenly would be back up on her feet

and the tiger would be stretched out on its back

with its paws folded, like a kitten,

lying there, conquered.

Then she would place one foot on its chest

and raise one arm in triumph

and the crowd cheered and the drums pounded.

I remember something else you told me,

about a lion you had to shoot in Africa

because he killed 12 people.

An old lion, you said,

who'd never have killed a human being before

and you found a thorn in its front paw.

That's why he'd gone mad, a thorn, Peter?

Or a hat pin.

(suspenseful music)

It could be the same, couldn't it?

I know why you killed her.

Because of those men.

The men on the list.

What can I do now?

- What do you want to do?

- What can I do now?

(dramatic music)

(somber music)

- First Pete, then you Brauny.

This sure has been a week for surprises.

Okay, be mysterious, Pete'll tell me the story

after a few drinks.

Give him enough, he starts sounding

like Alfred Tennyson or Lord Byron.

Aw, come on Brauny, why hold out on me?

I worried about both of you.

I'm still worried.

It just isn't curiosity.

You both are acting like it was just last night.

You gotta live, Brauny, you gotta forget.

- Why?

(somber music)

- Ladies and gentlemen, you'd have to look far and wide

to find a more deserving guest of honor

than Philip Tager,

possibly the greatest of all agents.

Lisa's father and I have selected him

from among all others to be here with us tonight

as we dedicate this memorial hall to Lisa Hale.

Phil?

(crowd applauds)

- Those of you who knew Lisa know how hypnotic she was,

not only with the big cats but with everyone she met.

With a look, she could conquer you.

Those of you who never had the experience,

the pleasure of knowing her can meet her now

here in this memorial hall.

I'm very proud that my old,

my very dear friend Peter asked me here tonight.

(crowd applauds)

- A little closer, Mr. Tager, Mr. Hale?

Now hold it.

Thank you.

- In a month you'll probably forget this place is here.

Except, maybe, to stop by once a week

and make sure the floor is swept

and the glass in front of the picture panels

is wiped off.

- Don't leave.

- The party's just started.

I'm not going anywhere, I was gonna have a drink.

- No, I mean don't leave tonight.

At least not until Philip Tager does.

Please, there's no one else I can ask if I have to.

- Ask what?

- Just promise me.

- Julie what is it?

- You don't have to stay.

If you want to leave you can leave.

Forget what I said.

- [Peter] Well? - Hi.

- Most attractive, Peter.

- Hmm?

- The new Mrs. Hale.

- Tonight we, we drink to the old one.

- To the old.

- Phil, you haven't even seen the place yet.

Come on I want to show you around.

Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute.

Excuse me.

Take along a little something to light the way.

(mysterious music)

You know, Lisa'd like it here.

Those oaks up on the crest

would remind her of home.

The trees of her childhood.

You know the Ardennes, Phil?

- Oh, it's one place I miss.

- Well, as a child, Lisa would always rise

exactly a half hour before sunrise in the morning.

Can you imagine that?

I suppose you could say that farm life starts early

in the Ardennes.

But to her, she always told me she felt that

the sun was her sun, that it was born inside her,

that if she overslept, the day would be late.

So, she'd rise and run down the path

from her father's house and stand on a hill

to make the morning come,

a hill just like that one.

As the light started, she'd watch the trees being born

out of the darkness.

She'd watch the countryside reach for life

against a new sky.

She felt that it was her life.

You see, Phil, she didn't just see things,

she was the things she saw.

She didn't hear sounds, she was those sounds.

You understand what I'm telling you Phil?

- I'm, I'm, I'm trying to Pete.

I'm trying, trying to.

- I suppose that's why she was so magnificent with animals.

When she was with tigers, she was a tiger.

All of her cats believed she was one of them.

- You know,

you know these drinks are terribly strong.

I'm losing my capacity, you feel?

- How about Australia, Phil?

Is that another place you missed?

- Yeah, yeah, I missed Australia.

I missed Australia, too.

- When murder is done in Australia,

at least amongst some of the more primitive tribes,

they bury their corpse and then they smooth the earth

around the grave.

The first ant that runs over it shows them the direction

in which to look for the murderer.

(glass clinks)

Here, take the glasses and the bottle.

Wash them thoroughly and then smash them into powder

and scatter the powder.

- Can you carry him by yourself?

- When you carry a cross,

the last few steps are the easiest.

(suspenseful music)

Tager!

- Oh, my name is Phil.

Everybody calls me Phil.

- No, I want you to be conscious.

I want every nerve in your body to be alive.

I want you to know the pain.

(talks incoherently)

- I don't want anymore, thanks.

No more, thanks. - Put him inside.

- No more, Pete, thanks.

(suspenseful music)

(Phil laughing)

- You asked where we'd been the last two years,

Lisa's father and I.

We've out wading through filth, Phil,

yours and all the low tides of seven other men.

There were eight of you, at least I thought there were,

but it turned out there was only you.

- I don't know what you're talking about.

- In New York,

Lisa came to me.

She told me there was another man.

She said she loved him.

She was the world, Lisa was,

but I loved her enough, trusted her enough

to know that if she had found another man

he had to be better than I was,

better for her.

So, I told her, "All right.

"Go to him, Lisa, marry him.

"I won't stop you."

Well, that was the morning of the day she died.

She was gone all afternoon and that night.

Just before she went into the ring,

I found her crying.

She didn't say much,

just enough so that I understood.

This man had rejected her.

Oh, not as a woman, but as a wife.

He didn't want anything permanently, Phil,

not even a thing of beauty,

a thing as rare as Lisa.

- Pete, you gotta understand how it was.

I never encouraged her.

It was just one of those things.

Who knew it'd get serious?

Look, how do you think I felt all this time?

Don't you think I've sat up nights and hated myself?

- Don't you understand what I'm trying to tell you, Phil?

She killed herself deliberately.

She committed suicide!

Just before she went into the ring,

she jabbed this pin into the fore paw of the tiger.

She knew he'd kill her the minute she turned her back.

I ran in, I tried to save her, but I couldn't.

And then I saw the pin.

Nobody ever knew,

only Lisa's father and I.

(intense music)

- Pete, oh Pete, come back, Pete!

Pete, don't go!

Don't leave me here, Pete!

Pete, don't leave me here, Pete!

Hey, let me out of here Brauner!

Pete, come back, get me out of here!

Brauner, let me out of here!

Pete, Pete!

(tiger snarls)

Pete, where are you?

Come back here!

Brauner, let me out of here, Brauner!

Let me out of here, Brauner!

Pete, Pete, don't do this to me!

Pete, where are you?

Come back here!

Brauner let me out of here!

Pete, Pete!

(tiger growls)

- Don't do it.

Don't do it, Peter, don't do it.

Peter, no!

Peter, don't, it's my fault

because I didn't make you love me so much

that you'd forget how much you hated.

It's my fault that I failed you.

- Get back, Stiles, don't take another step.

(tiger growling)

- Don't let him out.

We might just as well get into the cage with that man

because we'll be just as dead as he is.

(suspenseful music)

(tiger growling)

(suspenseful music)

(slow melody)

- Stiles, go let the man out.

You know what we always said, Brauny,

hell is empty all the devils are here.

We've kept this one too long.

Let's let go of him now.

(somber music)

(upbeat music)

- [Announcer] This has been a Screen Gems film presentation

from Columbia Pictures.

Herbert B. Leonard, executive producer.