Original subtitles

Buy it, buy it.

The old man said you didn't, huh?

No.

Please.

I don't know how it's been.

I got nothing, Dean, nothing. You hear that?

You got to do something for me.

I should do something for you, Paul. I really should.

Give me a truce. Back.

Mr. Hodges, you don't want his picture taken.

Oh, I didn't know that. You know it now.

Look, maybe I should talk to him.

Yeah, maybe you should do that.

Hello, Mr. Hodges.

For the expense of camera. Oh, it's the best.

You sit at that table a long time, then you take my picture.

Why?

Actually, I was waiting for you to do something. You see, to me,

it's like signing an autograph. I'm a professional photographer.

I want that picture.

Fine, I'll send you a print. I want the film now.

Give it to me, please. Braco, come on, you start.

Yep, be nice, boy. Hellas.

Now, big woman.

Hollis, you'll come with us, please.

A pleasure.

I had been overseas checking out a story of a smuggling operation between

European and American racketeers when I received a call from my assistant,

Jack Flood, calling me on to Athens, Greece.

Where he was doing some legwork on the case.

He told me he had uncovered vital information and to meet him as soon as possible.

Demetrius Hodges, American expatriate and one of the most

famous deportees and international organizers of crime,

was behind the ring. Untouched and all spoiled, the pretty one is his girlfriend,

Helene Theodocus. She trails him like he was a Greek god.

What is all this about Hadjius hoping to get back into the States?

It's more than just a hope, Paul. It's close to reality.

The talk is he's got the machinery all set up for a special

bill before Congress letting him back in again.

For what? To stick his hands in the pockets of more Americans for his racket cuts?

Maybe we can settle this hatch once and for all.

Competition's big, my friend. Because let's face it,

it takes big-time politics to railroad such a bill through Congress.

And it seems that Mr. Hodges still has a few connections.

Who are these two in the background?

A couple of his skullbusters.

They were working up to it with me when the police stepped in.

Police thought I was some kind of contact man for Demetrius.

Took a little explaining to get me out of it.

Oh, I've also got a list of all the people

who talked to him or went to his apartment.

I want to talk with some of the deportees.

You think they'll tell you anything?

Doubt it.

No, he won't grant any interviews.

He won't even let his picture be taken if he can help

it. Now, don't you worry. I'll talk with him.

He's going to ask me to.

In the meantime, you keep exploring the backwash.

There may be someone who has a grudge, somebody with a chip on his shoulder.

Wait a minute. Maybe there was one.

A little man named Janaris, real seedy-looking character.

Demetrius really gave him the brush, as it happens, just before I took this picture.

Gennaris.

Seems to me there was a Gennaris connected with the mobs back in Chicago years ago.

Mr. Gennaris may just be the shortest distance between Demetrius and a Bolivian.

I don't want to hear no excuses, Frank. You want to make excuses,

take a nap in the papers. Just get it through.

Yes, I know you're working on it, but get that bill through!

And listen, Frank, you gotta make it soon, real soon, you got that?

I don't care what it costs, just do it!

I gotta sweat it out.

How do you like that lousy politician? Complications, he says.

The crumb lives off of complications.

Who told you to open the door?

You said you were sweating.

I said I'm sweating it out, that call to New York. Sweating it out?

You know, the trouble with you, Eleni, is you're still thinking Greek.

I speak English for you.

I learn.

Look out there.

You see how beautiful?

From all over the world, people come to see Athens.

Yeah.

A city without meat or butter.

Goat's milk and cheese, and hot, always hot.

Is there nothing here you like?

Nothing agapimo?

How many times I got to tell you?

You talk to me that way, I think I never left Athens.

Maybe you should have never left, huh?

Oh, we live good, Dimitris.

You don't know what living is, Eleni.

Not real living.

In America, everything is big. Cars, nightclubs, the streets to go with them.

They got lights, Eleni.

All kinds of lights. Big time shows, big buildings.

You know who's king of it all?

Me, Demetrius Hodges.

They eat out of my hand over there. They respect me.

You should have seen the crowd when I left.

It was in February, a cold night, and they were all there.

Cops, reporters, big shots, everybody.

And they yelled, you'll be back, Demi. Keep punching, boss. Demi, you'll be back.

But they sent you away.

After what I did for the country during the war, keeping the docks clean.

We're going back, Eleni.

You wait and see. I got something working.

Come in.

Oh, hello, Eleni.

Hello, Oliver.

I brought along the clippings for the last month. On the whole,

I'd say they were excellent. They're clippings I can look at any time.

That's not what I called you over here for.

A guy by the name of Paul Marino. You know him?

Marino? Well, of course. He writes a top column. Yeah,

word's gotten around that he's going to want

to see me, you know, talk to the top man.

You tell him I'm busy.

Show in the hospital supply house, let them see this place.

The picture's on the wall.

Give it to them good, huh?

I'll lay out the red carpet.

The best.

The races, champagne.

You let them know Dimmie's no piker, huh? It'll be VIP all the way.

I picked myself a good public relations man. We get along, Ollie, huh?

I will do everything I can.

I think about it, and yeah, it makes sense.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Thank you.

What do you want, a bottle of this?

No, this is on me. I've got this. I'll take care of this.

Thank you.

Marino? Yes? Police. You will come with us, please.

You were planning to call on Nicolas Andreades, Mr. Marino.

Why?

I didn't know that was a crime, Captain Custer.

Unfortunately, Andreades is our guest in the Avaros prison.

He's suspect in a murder.

But the prevention of crime is still another police function.

An association with a noted criminal like Andrealis could

result in an injury to a visitor in our country.

I appreciate your protection, Captain.

We are also protecting ourselves, Mr. Marino.

Our reputations.

My government would not favor any exposés about...

Gangsters reported back where they came from.

That wasn't the kind of story I planned to write.

They were going to make them heroes? No, I was

going to write the truth about them. The truth.

The truth is, Mr. Marino, that most of them can't even speak our language.

I would not like you to give the impression that...

Greece is a garbage can for undesirable aliens.

There is enough to be written about in your own country.

Or do you feel you are all so clean?

Hardly, Captain.

The fact is we haven't got rid of anything.

All we've done is moved a problem across the ocean into your laps.

They still carry on their rackets.

Demetrius Hodges.

Who supposedly runs a hospital supply ship and files a tax return on $5,000.

How accurate is that, Captain?

Now, you are fishing for information, Mr. Marino.

Well, I'm willing to share mine with you.

All this smuggling of American cigarettes into foreign countries.

Millions of dollars worth. You come here to throw up to us our shame,

and you expect me to help you? Will it make things any better?

Hiding the fact that you're at war with Hodges and the rest of his ilk?

War?

We Greeks have known wars, Mr. Marino.

Many wars.

Against the Turks, the Germans, the Balkans,

even a civil war at the end of the big one in 1945.

And many of our children have grown up without knowing their fathers.

Because of them.

We prefer peace.

You Greeks, it would seem, are indestructible.

What is it one of your poets once wrote...

Bite off a piece of their land and it goes on growing?

You come well prepared.

All I'm trying to do, Captain, is bite off the bad piece from both our countries.

Thank you.

It was wide open, the whole city, all the cities around it. Demetrius,

he had it all sewed up. Hey!

Keep the change.

Thank you.

I'll shoot you around here if you let them get away with it.

You say you were big back there.

How big?

I was one of Demi's lieutenants, that's all.

That's big enough.

Now, wait a minute.

I saw what happened between you and Demetrius at the cafe the other day.

How come?

He don't give me no part of action.

So I hang around like this, begging him.

Everyone else around him gets fat.

He says, I drink too much.

He don't trust me.

That I can't sit around in my room.

I must get out, talk to people.

Sure, sure you do.

Demetrios, he try be king, but he no king. No, he in Greece, he no king.

He could not even get big Nicholas Andriades out of prison.

Nicholas Andriades? Yeah.

He rates pretty high in the organization, doesn't he?

Used to rate.

If I was him, I would really spill my guts before

I would rot in a place like that of a lost prison.

Paul, you've been a big help. Now, this is for you.

To me, he's not so big. I was big. I was very big. I was big, man.

Thank you.

Thank you, friend. My pleasure. Hey, good night. Good night.

What's the service at Gennaro's?

No! No! No!

Well, my friend Gennaro, what are you doing?

Did you see this sign around your neck? It's stuck in a knot.

Maybe in a minute you'll be able to get used to it.

And you'll be able to pay for it.

Think about it very carefully.

You'll pay for it.

The murder of Paul Gennaris for the moment ruptured

my good relations with the Greek police.

Jack Flood, who had been with Gennaris, was picked up by Chirondas.

And when he had to mention my name, of course, I was sent for.

I would not give a drachma for your friend's life, Mr. Marino.

You had better get him back to Paris in a hurry.

You seem to have pushed the right button. And what came out was jackpot.

Friend...

It's all right, go ahead. Demetrius is behind that cigarette smuggling operation.

Well, as you know, the tobacco industry being

a government monopoly in France and Italy,

they impose a heavy duty on the American tobaccos to protect their own industry.

I am relieved we Greeks are not included.

Well, oddly enough, Demetrius Hodges takes a trip to Tangiers, Morocco at intervals.

You see, there, through a contact man representing

the underworld of both sides of the ocean,

he arranges for the purchase of boatloads of American

cigarettes in great demand all over Europe.

On the assumption that the cigarettes purchased were

meant for shipping out to another free port,

say, Gibraltar, Hagias is given clearance.

And since it's literally impossible to patrol 2,000 miles of coastline,

a smuggling operation is a cinch.

Under cover of night, a fleet of swift boats constituting

a small armada moves the contraband to France and Italy,

where it's grabbed anywhere from 50 to 75 cents a pack.

And now that you know this, Mr. Marino, you think you can stop it?

My job is to report on it, make it known.

That sometimes helps.

You can't prevent it.

It is humanly impossible. And for that, a man died.

They always die before they really begin talking.

Janaris also mentioned a man named Nicholas Andreadis.

What about him?

He said he was a power in the network and that he

was angry because he'd been left in jail to rot.

He's in the Alvaro's prison, but he's getting out in a few days.

They're always a step ahead.

Andreadis.

Big Nicholas should be hanged.

But we must release him for lack of evidence.

Does this Andreadus know he's going to be released?

No.

He has been playing both sides,

his own group and the United States Bureau of Narcotics.

He had hopes your government might pull some strings and get him out.

Well, since he's going to be released anyway...

Why don't we send Jack to the prison with the release

order and bargain for more information?

Diabolo's prison is worse than a pig pen.

Even I hate to go there.

One needs a strong stomach.

I've got a strong stomach.

Come in, come in.

Sit down, sit down.

Coffee?

No, no, no thanks.

You got something to tell me?

It's about Mr. Marino. Yeah, I thought so.

Well, I'm not changing my mind. You tell him I'm too busy.

Let me know when you're showing him this place and I'll go out, but no interviews.

About Mr. Marino, Demetrius. So what about Marino, huh? He won't give up, huh?

Well, you tell him you asked me again, the answer's still no.

You've got to be tough with these newspaper guys,

otherwise they'll walk right over you. Listen, Demetrius,

he doesn't want to see you.

No, Ali, you got him all wrong.

He said he wanted to see me. You said you'd show him

the store and this place, and then he got mad. No?

Well, what's he here for, then? He's seeing Andreatus and everybody else, isn't he?

It's a mistake.

It's not a mistake, Demetrius.

He means to kill your chances of getting back to America

by stirring up the press, putting them on guard.

You get him here.

You get him here, you understand?

I hire you right off of Madison Avenue, pay you plenty,

and you tell me Marino doesn't want to see me.

What kind of a public relations guy are you, huh?

What have you got for brains, chicken fat? Demi.

You get him here.

I want to talk to that guy.

I don't care how you do it, but get him here.

He should come all the way to Greece and not talk with a cop man.

Who does this Marino think he is? You tell me that!

Well, maybe it's better if he doesn't come if you're going to browbeat him.

Anybody ask your opinion?

Vini, Oliver only wants... Shut up and eat!

You need to lessen that guy. If you want Marino's help,

you're going to have to smile at the birdie. Play for sympathy. Play the underdog.

I'll butter him up. You just get him here.

I'll do my best.

Hey, maybe I know a better way to get to him.

Here's the invitation.

Did you ever see a moron's face?

This Marino, from what you tell me, he's a guy that'll listen to reason, right?

Yes, but... But?

But?

Only one but.

To soften him up enough so he can listen.

And Lenny can do that.

Look at this merchandise.

Look.

Who's gonna doubt her when she tells Marino that I'm reformed, huh?

That I'm a good, worthy citizen for the United States.

You tell him how someday you and me are getting married. We'll have an apartment,

maybe on Central Park West.

We'll go to the track at Saratoga, the big hotels

for dinner, the cars, the good living.

There are all these things you've got to earn, right?

All these things when you go to see Marino.

I don't know.

Thank you for coming, Mr. Marino.

This time of day, few people come here.

It is very beautiful, no? Very beautiful.

We Greeks, we are... Postoleni, how you say?

More flashy in our chapel.

Like Dimitris.

Maybe if he came here more often... How can I help you, Miss Theodocus?

By understanding my problem, Mr. Marino.

And listening to him?

Is that why he sent you?

What makes you sure he sent me?

Oh, isn't it obvious?

First Baylis, who works for him, tries to set up a meeting.

Now you.

I do work for him, Mr. Marino.

You might say I'm dedicated to Dimitri's wishes.

Well, not respected least.

He's a most fortunate man.

You're very kind, Mr. Marino.

He has changed since he came back.

He hasn't changed.

You just see the side of him that he wants you to see.

And how much of what he is did you make him in America?

He learned, yes.

But what he learned was in your country.

I remember him as a very young man.

I was in love with him even then.

How you say, Postolini, a dumb boy?

Following him around, getting in his way. Oh, being called names.

But little girls aren't much different from grown women when they give their hearts.

Then he went away.

But it doesn't matter. I want him the way he is.

The way he is, Miss Theodocus?

A man who could do the things he's done?

You condemn him without giving him a chance to explain.

Do you think that would help?

Isn't it the right of any man not to be judged without giving his side of it?

You're grasping at straws.

One doesn't reason with a drowning person, Mr. Marino.

Suddenly a straw seems to be salvation, and you are that salvation to Dimitris.

Is it asking so much for you to go and see him and listen to him?

I implore you, Mr. Marino.

Please. All right, I'll see.

Thank you.

You honor me, Mr. Marino.

You know why?

Because you make it all seem more like home.

Here, look for yourself.

Every newspaper printed in New York, I get sent here airmail.

I read them from beginning to end. Yeah,

all it does for me is make me hungrier for the big town.

You know?

I'm waiting for the day when I can pick up one of these papers in the subway.

Who'd look after your business interests here? Well, at this apartment,

the hospital supply store. I'll dump them.

I was thinking about your other interests.

Well, sure, I got a little money stashed away.

Is there a law against that? Only against the way you made it.

Riding roughshod over everybody.

Hurting and spoiling. People do what they want to do. What's inside them?

Anytime anything happens, who gets the blame? Demetrius Hodges.

Some guy in the rackets gets killed, who did it? Demetrius.

I make my living working for a hospital supply house.

All this publicity is hurting my chances to go back home again.

You were arrested on a drug charge once.

Oh, come on. I was a kid, Marine. A 15-year-old kid.

I didn't even know what was in the package I was delivering.

Some guy came up and made me a proposition. I needed the money for food,

for clothes. And that made you smart.

Now you let others make the deliveries. Look,

all I've done ever since the day I was thrown out of the

States is dream of the time when I can go back again.

You think I'm going to hurt those chances?

At my age, there's more important things.

Come here. I want to show you something.

You see that yacht?

She's mine.

She's good enough to cross the ocean.

You know what I call her? Manhattan.

One day I figured I'd give the captain the word, take off, bust her for home.

That's why she's down there, where I can see her, all polished and weighty.

You want to write something?

Write about how much money I give the charity.

I give the church around the corner from where I live in the States $10,000, 10 Gs.

You put that in your article. I will.

I'll tell them how Demetrius Hodges made a $10,000 donation to

a church he never attended four days after his indictment. You twist everything.

Well, here's something you can't twist. How I helped out during the war.

You print my citation. I'll print the letter you got thanking you

for your help with your waterfront hoods while you were in prison.

I kept the docks clean. And you kept your smuggler friends

busy getting supplies to the partisans for a cut.

And here's another thing I'll write.

How you were always too busy to become an American citizen. And how right now,

you're trying to push a bill through Congress

to get you back into the United States.

And the names of those who are helping you, because I'll find out.

You louse that up, Marino, and so help me.

Yes.

Interview's over. It never began. Get out!

Nice apartment, Demetris.

I hope you spend the rest of your life in it.

For what you're thinking of, Demetris.

I pray God forgive you.

Release order?

They're gonna let me out? That depends. They've got to let me out.

Three of us in a room with no windows. The heat and the flies are eating us up.

Please, kid, you do not play games with Nicolas.

I couldn't stand no games.

You are from the United States Department?

Mm-hmm.

Just a few questions. Look, I'll make a deal with you.

You skip the questions.

I'll fix you up.

I'll give you all the dough you want.

You name the price.

Kid, you wouldn't have to work a day in your life.

You didn't look like the kind, but I had to try.

What else can I lose?

I'm already in it over my head.

So what else you guys want to know?

Anything to back up Dimitri's cigarette operations.

You know about that? We want to know where he banks his money, for instance.

In Geneva? Geneva's a big place, lots of banks there.

The National Alpine.

Any account number?

I should buy a slot in the graveyard for all I'm telling you.

The number is J88. Hey, you ain't putting my name down. No.

That would be asking for it.

How much does the operation bring in a year? Plenty.

Millions come out of it.

What do you know about Demetra's plans to get back to the States?

All I know is some deal on. Who with? I've been hooked here. How would I know?

Look, the cigarette business, that I know.

How soon they are going to let me out?

Today.

Maybe.

Look, do me a favor.

Will you let a friend of mine know to come and see me here? Here.

I'll give you his name. His name is George Konstantinidis.

He's the only guy I can trust now. Not so fast.

It all depends on how cooperative you are.

Okay.

Shoot.

Flood's detailed information on the affairs of Demetrius Hodges,

plus my follow-up work on his Swiss bank accounts,

gave us enough for an opening shot.

My story broke in the United States press and was picked up widely overseas.

Of course I know what it says!

It's the same in all the papers! Lies! All lies!

You tell them I don't care what it says.

They gotta push it through! They gotta pass it!

I'm not gonna rap in this hole! Listen to me!

No, you listen.

And you listen good, Bailey, so you ain't ever gonna listen.

Now you get to them!

Today!

And let me know!

Dimitraki, is it so important?

So much your life?

Yeah.

It's so important.

And if you had to stay home the rest of your life?

I'd rather be dead.

Because of her?

The American woman?

Just like the others, huh?

You spy on me, too.

Ha, ha, ha, ha.

The sun is bright. Everything looks different. And I got everything arranged.

What you need is a good meal, wine, and a good glass brandy.

Brandy?

Old brandy.

But you know what? I could cry.

Why? When I get everything arranged for a good meal, wine and brandy?

You know what I'll do, George?

I'll tease myself first.

I will hold that brandy under my nose.

And when I'm ready to faint, only then I will sip it down slowly.

George, you are the best friend a man ever had. You deserve the best.

You noticed our light increase, Mr. Marino?

At night, we are like any other land.

But in daytime, our light is very different.

The meeting with Dimitris did not go well, did it? I didn't think it would.

He means to go back to your country somehow, somewhere.

And if he goes back...

I will never see him again.

I don't think there's much chance of his being allowed back into the States.

I want to make sure, so I give you this.

In it are the names of those in America who plan to bring

before the Congress a law letting Dimitris come back.

It may surprise you.

Women in my country can be brought this way.

It does more than surprise me.

It discourages me.

You wonder why I do this to Dimitris.

Rob him of what he wants most.

Because he's all I have.

There's another woman in America he wants.

I've known that for a long time.

There's this woman who draws him back more than his pride.

And I have no pride where Demetrius is concerned.

Suppose he finds out.

Perhaps because of our light, we Greeks see too much.

What I see is emptiness and loneliness, the kind Dimitris feels now.

Without him, there is nothing any of.

Like all Greeks, our curiosity makes us invincible.

So sure we can change everything.

And like all Greeks, you have a word for it.

Love, Mr. Marino.

Love.

George, George, it was great.

It is not over yet, Nicholas.

Oh, George, George.

You relax.

I'll be right back.

I know he's not a saint.

I know he's done a lot of rotten things, but so have a lot of other people.

Other people who are still walking around scot-free and nobody after them.

Is that your defense?

Pity? Yes, pity.

It isn't the first time that defense has been used.

Throwing yourself in the mercy of the court.

The quality of mercy, Mr. Marino.

You're a learned man. You've heard it before.

You make me sick.

Not because you come here begging for him or

because it'll mean more money in your pocket,

but because you have so little respect for yourself, for your countrymen, your home.

I can understand Hodges or his girl, his bitch, but you,

a man with some background, a man who had respect for yourself...

A career that can stand examination. One more plea for mercy. Quote,

It droppeth like the gentle rain from heaven. You expect me to be gentle with you?

A human parasite living off a shark?

Knowing what he is, what he stands for,

and still willing to get down on your knees to scum like that?

I do a job the same as you. Yours is getting together the story on a man.

Mine is keeping it out of print.

We're both making our living off him. Even your reasoning is warped.

You've been away so long.

You raided once, had a career, a future in advertising.

Why don't you start selling America instead of selling it short?

Now get out of here and tell your boss it's no deal.

And here, an advance copy of my column tomorrow.

Time to go home, Jack. How's tonight?

How to railroad a bill through Congress.

Recipe for corruption.

Here is a recipe for corruption in Washington.

Take one deportee, preferably a famous one with connections

that extend into the highest reaches of politics.

Add substantial fees for go-between lobbyists.

This is the recipe for a bill now cooking in Congress.

Mix into the bowl several congressmen whose names

happen to be Paul Rayl and Alexander Treveen,

and a go-between bearing the name Lehman Stone.

And we can understand why a bill now being readied will

find its way before the Congress of the United States.

Predicated on obtaining an official sanction for the return of Demetrius Hagis.

We're dead, Demetrius. By tomorrow, those names will be on all the front pages. Who?

Who?

I don't know who, Demetrius. Well, I'll find out who did it.

I'll find out, and when I do... It was, um...

Andrea is Demetrius.

Why, that lousy... We might have had a chance, but now that this thing...

There must be another way.

I tried every source. Nobody wants to stick his neck out now. And mine?

My neck?

Okay, I'm dead, then he's dead. Him and his mealy-mouthed assistant.

He killed every chance I had to get out of here. I want him. Now, wait a minute.

Look, Demetrius, I didn't bargain on killings.

You didn't bargain on anything.

What did you ever find out for me, do for me?

Even the names of the guys working for me, you couldn't keep out of the papers.

Come on, get out of here. I can't stand the sight of you.

Look at him.

Look at him. A guy who can go back anytime. Nobody's stopping him,

but he hangs around here instead, and you know why? Because he's a freeloader.

Get out of here! Just looking at you reminds me you can go back and I can't.

Maybe it's time for me to go back.

Goodbye, Lainey.

Goodbye, Oliver.

And thanks, Demetrius, for everything.

And don't give my regards to Broadway!

Hey, we've got to get going. We'll miss that plane.

You know what I'm going to miss? It's this food.

Wait up.

Yes, sir.

Hey!

He's got my typewriter.

Looks like we've fallen into a nice little trap.

Eleni.

Eleni.

Eleni.

Eleni.

Dimitris?

Lenny, I thought you'd run out on me too.

I wanted to, Dimitris, but where would I go?

The days are long for Demetrius, as long as they are for any man without a country.

And what he thinks about constantly is what might have been,

perhaps even the prophetic words of a great poet who asked,

breathes there a man with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said,

This is my own, my native land.