Original subtitles

Davert. Davert.

Yes?

You gotta help me. I'm gonna kill that guard.

They won't be able to execute me.

They'll have to give me a new trial.

Any you can be my witness.

Lebras, I've told you. And I've told you.

I'm against killing.

I'm against killing, too.

I'm against killing me.

Detail, halt. Cell 18. Prisoner Lebras.

Don't go in there, he'll kill you.

Damn you, Davert.

God damn you!

Prisoner Lebras, it is time.

Step forward!

Get him.

Prisoners, on your knees,

before the guillotine.

The condemned prisoner is ready for execution, Major.

Murder, all killing is murder!

The armies of France

and its allies

have been victorious.

An armistice has been declared.

A general amnesty on all death penalties has been proclaimed.

By the authority of the President of France and the Minister of Justice.

Your sentence is commuted to life imprisonment.

You bastard.

You inhuman bastard.

All prisoners previously under sentence of death

will serve out their life sentences

at hard labor in the maximum security penal colony,

on Devil's Island.

All right. All right.

No. No, I'm not finished.

No, no, I'm not done!

There's nothing to look at.

All right, you've had enough time to feed your ugly faces.

Now get work. All of you. Left turn. Go.

Forward march, go!

Lebras, butcher. One skinny knife.

Davert, butcher, one cleaver.

Lebras, you killed the wrong hog.

This is trouble, Lebras.

That hog's a friend of Sergeant Grissoni.

A good friend.

Yes, you know about hogs, Brescano.

Your mother raised them.

Now you got his clothes off. I see why Grissoni likes the hogs.

Open 'em up. We see if he got any guts.

Maybe he missing a liver like his friend.

Son of a whore.

I won't dirty my hands with you.

I know about some little man

who can kick your ass and wash your mouth.

Lover of pigs.

Send two men if they are like you.

My man kill hogs and lovers of hogs.

Prisoner Caballe.

Twenty francs on my small little friend,

if you can get 'em from your mother.

Money for you, butcher.

Lebras, you beat him,

or you spend every night for a week in the box.

Finish him up, or I'll finish you.

The dealer has 17.

He takes some over here.

A slap on the ass.

Just a card.

Ouch, that hurt Tommy.

Banker pays, don't you, Daddy?

Deal him out.

Well, what's the matter? You the only one around here

that's supposed to win?

I play cards for fun, win or lose.

Let's talk and I'll buy you a drink.

Two from the bar.

I see a man, playing a card and playing to win.

Man has no fancy, boy.

Man, he don't drink or smoke the dream pipe.

Man don't bet on our feathered friends.

The man I'm talking about has a life sentence on this island of ours.

I say to myself, I say now,

what for this man save his money?

For his old age?

Well, that's the old story. The ant and the grasshopper.

Never heard it.

The man I'm talking about, only one thing interests him.

Escape.

The hell it does. No man ever escaped from Devil's Island.

A few have tried.

They brought 'em all back and buried 'em up on the hill.

Nobody's gonna ever escape from Devil's Island.

The sharks, the sea, the jungle, they see you dead first.

Tono Lebras...

Now he's too smart for such crap.

I've made my home at Devil's Island.

We're the sweet creams of the jails of France.

We the lion. They the sheep.

Look, you collect my overdues for me for a percentage.

Like for the Belgian in the old days. Eh?

What you say?

I'll let you know when I'm ready.

But you stay away from that punk, Jo-Jo.

And the Arab. They give you bad name and maybe worse.

Man can't be a lion if you don't have the sheep.

Pelliserre.

You learn nothing, eh?

Well,

we cut your hair like a new arrival, huh?

No talking, Pelliserre.

No talking, uh?

We let the sun teach you the rules all over again.

There are no rules in the penal code against prisoners talking.

This one knows the rules better than we do.

Perhaps he has something to say.

Let's hear him.

Start talking son-of-a-bitch.

And you, Communist, stop looking.

Share your wisdom with us.

What do the rules say about a son-of-a-bitching prisoner who talks

all the time?

Start talking.

Why beat us, comrade?

Why beat us and let the higher-ups keep clean hands?

We should stand together.

Not apart.

Where are we different?

Same sun. Same hours.

Can you do this to me?

Can you beat on me? Answer me, you piece of shit!

Can you feel that?

One of us is the guard, the other, the prisoner.

Nobody have much trouble telling which is which.

Silence! Silence!

The leader of the Communist League still has the floor.

What'll our comrades gonna say when we come

crawling back to Europe on our knees, huh?

Are we fit to lead the revolution

after having kissed the capitalist ass

and begged for pardons?

Talk about the capitalists.

Ah, I piss on Rosenquist.

I want Davert.

Lebras wants him alone.

You go back and you tell him or I'll cut your friend to pieces.

Don't be naive, comrades. The government will twist

and distort our petitions into apologies and recantations.

And those who betray the revolution will be branded traitors.

We are now branding traitors, Rosenquist?

Just like the government that put us here?

Our comrades will be trained by our weakness.

Lebras.

Lebras.

Get out of here.

I owe you an explanation for betraying you.

I've been saved. Hey, you saved my ass.

If I had killed that guard, it would have been Madam Guillotine for sure.

And no chance of amnesty for me.

You were lucky.

No, we were both lucky.

But you saved my life.

Tono Lebras pays his debts to his friends

and his enemies.

Now you listen hard. We're gonna sail out of here. I'm taking you with me.

It's all set.

You're my luck.

Look, Lebras, I can't leave now.

They're... They're preparing to pardon politicals.

I mean, we're preparing a petition right now.

Fuck them.

You can die waiting.

Lebras, if I escape now, the chances for a pardon

will be gone.

I can't betray my friends.

Your friends? What friends?

I can cut you up right now.

Why aren't they coming out here to save your ass, huh?

It's not that simple.

The hell, it isn't.

Now, you think about it.

All by yourself.

And, Davert,

you've been lucky for me.

I'm gonna be lucky for you.

Hey, hold it steady, will you?

Any nick in this thing could be the one that sinks us.

Listen, what the hell are we cutting all these extra hides for?

You know your friend ain't coming.

Who says he ain't coming? I ain't even finished talking to him yet.

Talk, talk, talk. That's all we've been doing is talking.

Listen, if he ain't coming, I wanna shut him up.

Now, come here.

Now, he's got Bolshevik underground contacts.

He can get us papers and smuggle us into France.

Now, we've got the first half of this thing all worked out, right?

Now he can get the second half fixed.

All right.

Here comes, Mr. Spit.

Look, you keep him busy until we get this hide out of here.

You know how to do it, just sing his favorite song.

I just thought you should know about a friend of yours.

Sergeant Zamorra's new bosom buddy.

Don't you play about with me, you piece of shit. Out with it.

Sergeant, you have such strong hands, Sergeant.

You Corsicans are all alike.

You don't know your own strength.

How's it coming? Good, Lebras. Here.

Hey, Jo-Jo, get outside and be a lookout.

Four hides is not gonna be enough.

We're gonna need one more.

I still say your friend ain't coming.

Four hides should be enough.

Brescano's gonna get wise to something.

We killed three weeks supply of beef already.

It's starting to stink in this heat.

It could be worse. We could have to stay around and eat it.

That light, looks like it came out from underneath that hay stack.

Get that lantern.

Oh, no, Lebras.

Get out of here. You get the fuck out of here.

You finally found yourself a fancy boy.

Your best Britons.

Lebras, we give it up now, huh? I mean, he's gonna squeal for sure.

They'll put us on the shit list. Escapers.

They'll work us to death in the salt pens with the politicals.

Yeah, we gotta move everything.

He'll be back.

Ah, that spying son-of-a-bitch won't be fooled for long.

He'll smell something fishy besides fish.

Short weight. Short weight.

Punishment.

One stroke across the back.

Davert,

you give it to him.

You give him one.

Or I give him 10.

Ten good ones.

Come on, do it.

It's a bargain.

You're no goddamn saint.

Use it!

Use the stick.

Use it or I will.

You use it, my friend.

You will all need the practice.

'Cause come the revolution, everyone will have a smaller stick.

Old con like you, he don't hollow out

a haystack just to fuck a fancy boy.

Dangerous work being a fisherman, hmm?

I wonder what Lebras is up to, I say to myself.

Maybe, just maybe, if I ask him first

he might cut me in on something real good.

You know, a man fishes too deep, gets in water over his head.

Fish strip his bones. Fish get caught, served up here for supper.

Don't con an old con, Lebras.

- Come on. - Come on.

Clean them off good. Don't cheat the hogs.

True story about a fisherman with a big mouth.

Gets caught in his shit.

I don't know what you're up to, but I'm gonna find out.

Whiskey still, maybe, huh? Is that it?

Whatever it is, I know you're in something sweet.

And I'll tell you something else.

There are a lot of people around here'd be interested in knowing what Lebras is

really doing out in that moonlight.

Tell you what I'm gonna do for you.

I'm gonna check with my partners

and see if we can find a place for you.

Hmm?

Well, yeah, sure, but, I gotta hear what it is first.

Oh, you're gonna hear about it. Don't worry.

In fact, I think we got a place for you.

A real special place.

Go on, God damn it, drop it or you stand there all day with it.

You tried to help them.

Do you think they help you?

They damn afraid to join you.

Too much salt for them.

They wait and argue about it tonight.

Lots of talk. We do this, we do that.

Might be too late for you.

Couple of 100 pounds too late.

Drop it on.

Prisoner Pelliserre. Drop the bag on the stack.

That's an order.

Drop it.

That's an order.

I'm warning you.

Prisoners can be shot for disobedience.

Drop it.

Get up.

Get your asses up.

God damn, damn you.

Get to it.

On your feet.

Get up. Back to work.

On your feet.

Tell them to get up.

Tell them to go back to work.

This is insurrection?

You know what this means, insurrection?

The death penalty.

The death penalty. Tell them. Get up!

Tell them to get up.

Tell them.

God damn you.

You mother fuckers. You faggot bastards.

You faggots.

The Barber'll hear about this.

He's already heard about this.

That's why we're here. Shouldn't bugger his friends prisoner Blassier.

Hey, better go tell the guard.

Prisoner Blassier here has committed suicide.

In the shit house.

Prisoner Davert. Are you Prisoner Davert?

Maurice Davert.

Get him a chair. I said bring him a chair.

Bring, bring those salt bags over here.

You! Stand at attention.

Prisoner Davert.

You have been accused of inciting insurrection.

It seems, however, in view of certain facts.

Certain unfortunate facts,

you might wish to make a counter accusation.

It is forbidden to force a prisoner to punish another prisoner.

I advise you to speak up on your own behalf.

Do you want to make a counter accusation?

Yes.

Yes.

I accuse you.

I accuse your superiors.

You don't put the boot in yourself.

You use the guards.

They run the system for you

so you can keep your hands clean.

Take him away. Get the prisoner out of here.

This is your zoo.

You treat men like wild beasts.

You make them into wild beasts.

Put that in your report.

Put that in your report.

I accuse you, Commandant.

I accuse you!

I accuse you!

Put him in the box. It'll give him time to think.

And the box should also be a good place for this cretin.

We can't allow the prisoners to become guards.

But we can make a guard a prisoner.

Come on in.

We've been waiting for you.

Now all the meat is here.

You better let us get back to cutting, Sergeant,

'cause we'll be working all night, you know?

Don't feed me that crap.

You been holding out on me.

You been working every goddamn night.

I want to know at what?

You're the butcher now, Sergeant.

You're a smart ass, Lebras.

A tough monkey.

You had the connections to buy into a soft job when you arrived.

But your vacation is over.

You try to fuck with Brescano,

now he's gonna fuck with you.

You're gonna get one more chance to tell Brescano.

What are you doing out in the bush at night?

I don't wanna hear any crap about you and this fancy boy here.

Blassier was onto you. He told me you had something going.

Must have been something pretty sweet.

Sweet enough to get him killed, huh? Ain't that right?

Brescano, you know the Barber had that done.

Don't give me that.

I don't wanna hear lies.

I don't wanna hear lies.

Listen, Lebras.

Brescano gets his part, whatever it is, I don't want to know,

but it better be something extra sweet for Brescano,

starting tomorrow.

I don't give a God damn how much juice you got.

But Brescano gets his share.

Or your ass is gonna be meat.

And I'm the tiger.

And a little something sweet from you, too, huh?

Well...

I think everything is gonna work out just fine.

We're gonna be one happy family.

Lebras. Lebras, cut us down.

Lebras, we got to buy him off.

We gotta give him our escape money.

We gotta come up with something sweet for him.

I'll come up with something sweet for him.

I'll make him lick the blade that cuts his throat.

Put them inside.

I will see you soon, Comrade.

Since when are the cat and a rat comrades?

Since, Lieutenant, we stopped kissing the ass of the dog.

Put him in.

Who's that?

Keep quiet.

Davert, what are you doing?

Davert, don't leave me.

Davert. Davert.

Your friend, the guard, was unlucky, huh?

And you have another death sentence.

Madam Guillotine is waiting for you back there. Just like me.

We're in this together.

Just like in the death pens.

I saved your ass and you're gonna thank me when I ask you to.

I've got some use for you.

And I've got no use for you.

Oh, yeah?

Watch him, Lebras.

Here. Now you take that gun. He go over the side, you go with him.

Now, let's paddle. We gotta clear this beach.

Lebras.

Lebras.

Lebras. Wake up. Huh?

We're riding low.

It's too heavy. We needed one more hide.

Or one less man on board.

Yeah.

Hey, Lebras, help me.

This part is getting loose again.

Pull it.

I got it. I got it.

Well, there's one thing about a raft.

Don't have to worry about bailing, huh?

Well, this whole damn thing is falling apart.

I got it.

All right, cut them loose.

Nothing like riding a horse, huh?

I never rode a horse.

I haven't either, but it beats swimming.

I've never done that either.

Land!

There's land. There's land.

Hey! Hey! There it is.

I can touch the bottom.

The bottom.

Shark! Shark!

Shark!

Shark!

Come on! Come on!

No!

Oh, my God.

Come on. Come on, Jo-Jo.

Now, that's smart.

That's damn smart.

Last night, the wind and the current both came from the west.

So we don't know how far this thing was carried down the coast.

It could be here. It could be 10 miles from here.

Sergeant. Sir?

Send your trackers into the jungle at quarter mile intervals.

Yes, sir.

Come on! Come on!

And remember, not just the coastal areas, the inland, too.

I want every government post from here

to the Brazilian border alerted.

After all, no man has ever escaped from Devil's Island.

Hey. Hey.

Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!

Come on, we gotta get out of here.

Come on, come on. Get up, get up.

They're gonna send a couple of runners to see what happened.

We gotta make a run for it.

We could ambush 'em right here.

Ambush? You mean you wanna kill 'em?

I've never been hunted before.

Hey!

What is that?

Follow me, my friends. Quickly.

We're being hunted.

They hunt us too.

Follow me. You have no choice.

Follow me.

Hey, hey.

There's no danger.

Come on.

Stay in the water. No traps.

Hurry, hurry. Hurry.

A hiding place. It leads to a hiding place.

These are friends.

The trail.

Guard the trail.

Please, come, come, please.

Come, sir, eat. Come.

Sit. Sit.

We are friends. You are safe here. Come.

Food. Please eat. Eat, we are friends.

There are worse things than leprosy, my friends.

Pity, tuberculosis, madness,

that is the government program for us.

You live like this, right under their noses,

without being caught?

We like to keep to ourselves.

You see, leprosy is an exclusive society.

It's the true aristocracy.

It's in our blood. But we prefer to live free

here in the jungle. And like you, they hunt us

to take us back.

What are your plans?

Well, there's only one plan. We push inland.

That's the only direction they wouldn't expect us to go.

Up country, the rivers flow down to Brazil and the Amazon.

So we follow one of them down.

Oh, my friend, every one of those rivers

has a tribe of Indians and they are suspicious.

And they are dangerous.

Keep the river on your right.

When it runs out, you will be in the Amazon watershed.

Well, we don't have another choice.

If we go down the coastline, it's only a matter of time.

It is just a matter of time for all of us, my friends.

Today,

tomorrow,

but we all prefer tomorrow.

It's the lepers.

They left us some more food.

They've been following us.

Jo-Jo, no!

Jo-Jo, stop! Look out!

Hey. Hey.

How long have I been out?

A long canoe ride down the river.

You killed her husband.

And now they're gonna kill us.

Go on after her.

You took her man and it looks like she's chosen you to replace him.

Well, so that's the game.

Holy shit!

Is that the way it's gonna be, huh? Okay...

Push all the canoes into the river. Save one for us. I'll get Lebras.

Lebras!

Yeah?

Jo-Jo's at the canoes. Come on, let's go.

What do you mean, let's go?

I'm not leaving.

Now, wait a minute.

Remember? I'm the special guest of honor.

The happy groom.

What the hell is wrong with you?

Those people are dangerous, Lebras.

You sound just like me, Davert.

Now, let me tell you something.

It's no worse here than it is in France.

If I was there, I'd be collecting debts for the Belgian,

or I'd be a crook. Well, here,

maybe I'm on top of the game or something.

But I believe in luck. You know that.

There she is.

Laying right there.

Good luck to you.

Damn it.

Thief! Thief! Thief!

Hi, sailor. Buy me a drink? We'll sit in the back.

I give you what you want.

Up yours!

Police got Jo-Jo.

Picking pockets in the marketplace.

The old hand lost his skills, huh?

Jo-Jo of Montmartre getting caught dipping in a hole like this.

You know, Davert, he was the best. Take the smile right off your face.

Jo-Jo had too many talents.

His fingers and his ass. Chose the wrong one, that's all.

Since an escaped political is involved

we cabled your command immediately.

We realize the importance of speed in these matters.

I came as soon as your cable arrived, Captain.

Uh, of course, this man is a common criminal.

Ordinarily, he would be kept upstairs in an open cell.

Now, if you would show me the results

of your preliminary investigation?

The interrogation...

Nothing. Nothing?

Peculiar for a criminal. He would not talk.

We put him in the lineup.

One of our informers saw him with the pimps

on the Rua do Santa Teresa. A maricon.

They got descriptions of us up and down the coast.

They'll cable the penal colony

and they'll send someone down here looking for us.

Well, looks like we need a little luck, huh?

I've had about enough of your luck.

We're gonna change address.

Because the police will trace Jo-Jo here.

Well, you change your address,

because I'm tired of running and I like it right here,

and I'm gonna stay right here.

Because I have credit here.

There she is right over there.

Oh, you, uh...

You like her, huh? To risk Madam Guillotine for?

You fucker!

I like her? I like her?

What I like, I left back up that river to save your ass.

And I could have arranged your funeral

to go along with my wedding, you know that?

Then, why didn't you?

I didn't volunteer to escape.

You brought me along to use me.

Don't give me any crap about saving my life.

We're even now. I don't owe you

a damn thing.

What about the visa and passports?

I have them here.

The forger is an artist.

We'll leave tonight.

Mmm-hmm. Unless you want to stay for the festival of Santa Lucia.

Big fireworks. The whole thing. Wonderful. Huh?

There'll only be two of us.

The police got my other friend.

But I wasn't followed here.

Look, I tell you what I do.

I speak to my Chief, huh?

We can't risk the whole cell for two men.

Now, listen...

They're not in this bunch.

Come on, we'll go out through the back room. Come on!

If your men are in Santa Teresa, Major,

they will run for it with the rest.

We know all their little holes.

Looks like we'll spend the night in jail.

I'll buy us out in the morning.

No, what I got on my head, money won't buy off.

But I'm not gonna spend another night in jail.

Look, Mama, tell you what.

You go up there and you shake your ass at them.

If they were women, I'd do the same thing for you.

I'll put the curse of Papa Ogan on any man that harms you.

Goodbye, French.

Shall we bring her around again, Major?

Another little walk will do her good.

No. The two fit the description.

She doesn't know anymore.

Anything else will be lies.

Pig, two cresados.

Drink, she's extra.

You extra, too, but not much.

Do you want a pig?

What's the matter with him?

We're trying to reach the river.

You got the back way out.

Help us. Help us.

Oh, shit.

No time to get back way. Get in here.

You go that route, you'll be the first

not to get the clap on the way out.

This is a pig meat house, not a goddamn thoroughfare.

Get out!

Hey, you carve a piece of our pig, God damn it,

or I carve a piece of yours.

Get out! Get out!

Get out of here!

God damn it! Can't I make a living without you bastards wanting a piece?

First, it's the money, then it's my ass.

Get out of here.

Damn it!

Give me some bandages.

Yeah.

La policia, they're all around.

Oh, shit.

It's not as bad as it looks. Thank God.

The boat will only wait till midnight.

You got your papers, I charge you nothing.

I... I can't help you. La policia.

I can't help you. Meet the boat under the main pier.

I... I can't help you. Wait a minute!

All he needs is a little time. And I can't leave him,

and I still need your help!

I don't give a damn.

They gone now.

They ain't coming back for you.

You a dead man pretty soon.

Don't pay Bedalia nothing for saving their ass.

What you think about that, eh?

It ain't so much, but Bedalia don't complain.

So long, dead man.

Lebras.

I thought you'd gotten smart.

What the fuck are you doing back here?

Well, I...

I still think we can make it out together.

No. Uh-uh. What I want is waiting for me back up that river.

You. You just go out and save all the people, my friend.

Save the world.

See how they thank you.

Me, I'm gonna save Lebras.

He knows how to thank me.

Hey, hey. You're kind of violent for a pacifist, huh?

Lebras, we can still make that boat.

No, we gotta split up.

What are you talking about?

There's no way for us to get out of this together.

Now they got this whole place tied up.

Lebras, listen to me. We can...

Look. Look, here.

Now I'm gonna get them off your back. Do you understand that?

And I want you to do one thing for me.

Don't miss that boat.

My men are in position, Major.

He's still in here.

Clear the carnival!

There's a killer loose in there!

Clear the carnival!

He escaped you, but he won't get through my men.

My men, your men.

You know, you make it sound like we're on different sides, Captain.

All right.

Tell your men to move in.

Move in!

Move in!

Move in!

Watch the alley at the end of the street!

We're never gonna get him if we lose him in the crowd.

Well, Major, there's always the first time.