Original subtitles

BERT LEONARD: Ladies and gentlemen,

you are about to see the Naked City.

I'm Bert Leonard, the producer.

As you see, we're flying over an island.

A city, a particular city.

And this is a story of a number of people,

and a story also of the city itself.

It was not photographed in a studio.

Quite the contrary.

The actors played out their roles in the streets

and in the apartment houses of New York,

and in Pennsylvania Station.

[SIREN WAILING]

In the Naked City, death is the necessary outcome of life.

Everyone owes an unavoidable debt to nature,

and must expect to pay the reckoning sooner or later.

But to become the instrument of another man's death, to hasten another's payment,

is to any sober-thinking person an act of shocking responsibility.

It can haunt your conscience forever,

torment a man beyond all reason,

even when the cause is just, even when there is no choice.

POLICEMAN: He's on that scow, the last one.

[GUNSHOT]

Seems desperate enough.

Caught him breaking into a truckload of furs on the pier, chased him out here.

[GUNSHOTS]

Jimmy, duck in there and come around from the end of the pier.

[GUNSHOT]

[GUNSHOT]

[GUNSHOTS]

[GUNSHOTS]

Call the coroner.

How about that, Dan? Face to face.

You'll be all right, Jimmy boy.

You'll be all right. Here you are, sir.

Well Jimmy, that's your first, isn't it?

MAN: It is the conclusion of this jury that Peter Cretias was shot to death

during the commission of a felony, and while attempting to kill an arresting officer.

The verdict is, justifiable homicide.

[PEOPLE CHATTERING]

Oh, what justice is this?

My son shotted down in cold blood by your police.

What justice is this?

Why should he go free and my flesh and blood lies still in the morgue?

-Those are the breaks. -[SOBBING]

Murderer!

[SPEAKING GREEK]

Easy lad. Don't let it get a hold of you.

I don't think it would have been so bad if

we hadn't been so close to each other, not more than a few feet away.

It's no good when that's the last thing you see in a man's eyes.

The life going out of him, and you're the one who took it.

In Korea, I was different.

There was a lot of snow, and they wore these white suits.

Now and then, we'd be shooting at them.

But none of us ever really knew whether or not we ever hit anybody.

It's like something that couldn't touch you.

Like a disease you hear about, but it's always someone else who gets it, never you.

Well, now all of a sudden, I've got it.

You're not being honest with yourself, Jimmy.

You did what you had to do.

Now I've been reading about this man, this Peter Cretias.

He wasn't much of a person.

You think that's the whole story?

Well, I wonder.

Then go find out.

Find out yourself what kind of a person he was.

Yeah?

I don't want anything to drink, I want to talk.

So talk.

Maybe I want you to say a few words too.

Cop?

Yeah.

Can't buy much for a buck, sonny, not even around here.

It's about Peter Cretias.

No harm talking about him.

I understand he used to hang out around here.

Can you tell me what sort of guy he was?

He used to sit there, always the same stool.

Anyone else sat on it, he'd fight them if they didn't get off.

He liked to fight?

Yeah, he was a tiger.

Well what else about him.

Nothing much.

Only he was just an okay guy, that's all.

I've seen him loan more money to more characters around here than,

than all the missions in the Bowery. And never ask for it back.

Guys around here miss him.

Let me ask you, you're a cop.

Why'd they have to knock him off anyways?

Frank, is Dan inside?

He's up on the roof, feeding the pigeons.

How about some lunch?

No, no thanks.

Sir? Arcaro said you were up here, I wonder if I could talk to you.

Oh, what is it Jimmy?

I, I don't know sir, I just can't seem to get this thing out of my head.

This feeling of, all of a sudden everything's different.

Me, my job, even Janet.

When it was happening, I didn't think I was doing anything I didn't have to do.

I mean, I just did it.

'Cause I'd been trained to do it.

Now that it's over, I keep thinking, maybe I could have done something else.

Maybe I didn't have to kill him.

Suppose while you were debating what else to do, he'd killed you.

Well, all our lives long, we're born and reborn.

Constantly hatching out of one egg into a bigger egg.

Until finally, we either break out,

and have a long, wide view of the universe,

or we give up and settle for just the view of the shell.

And all the time, guilt keeps snapping at our heels.

Guilt that we're smashing the egg that sheltered us.

Yes, but...

Well sure, he wasn't the most savory character in the world,

but he wans't all bad either.

As a matter of fact, from all I can find out, he...

He wasn't too bad at all.

Sir, do you remember the first time you ever...?

Yes.

Well, was it any easier for you?

The killing? As easy as that.

The killing is not the hard part, lad.

It's the after that tears at you, if you have a conscience.

It's the after that, makes you search your soul.

And what did you find, when you searched?

A way to live with myself.

Well, how?

I came to think of conscience as a monument to mark the memory of a mistake.

Every man must live in a cemetery of his own digging, Jimmy.

Only he knows what lies buried there.

When we do wrong toward one particular person,

certainy all of us isn't in that single act.

Wouldn't it an atrocious injustice to judge us by any one single act alone?

As if, all we are, all we were,

all we ever hoped to be were summed up in one particular deed.

Well if that's true for us, then the same thing is true for Peter Cretias.

I think I'm going to go over and see his wife and mother.

What good's that, either for them or for you?

I don't know it's just something to try.

Well, it's a mistake.

But I'll not stop you.

I've got to tell them how it was, sir.

We all want to know about the things that hurt us, so go ahead lad, go ahead.

Knock your head against it.

His best suit, I buried him in.

These I shall cover with mothballs.

You remember this suit, Yankee?

That was a wedding.

Three days and nights, he danced and drank and laughed.

What a boy.

You were one girl in 10 million, Yankee.

To have a wedding like that, and a man like my son.

[KNOCKING ON DOOR]

Who is it?

MRS. CRETIAS: Who is there?

MRS. CRETIAS: Who is there?

-Who I ask? -You don't know him?

No, I don't know him.

Well Mrs. Cretias, the property clerk gave me these.

They're your son's things. I thought you might want them.

[CHUCKLES]

Look how he makes his face seem sad. [CHUCKLING GRIMLY]

Why not?

He can afford a little sadness, what does a little sadness cost him?

Mom Katina,

he did bring Peter's clothes. He could have sent somebody else.

Why should he send another man? You do not understand him.

He wants to see for himself the ruin of the house he destroyed.

JIMMY: Mrs. Cretias.

There, there he is.

And here I am.

And yet, I don't tear out his eyes.

Mrs. Cretias.

[MRS. CRETIAS SIGHS]

It wasn't easy, coming here,

to ring that bell.

I stood outside the door five minutes, my hand on the bell,

but I, I couldn't ring it.

I came here because I wanted to say something to you.

What can you say? What can you say?

Mrs. Cretias, I, I never killed anybody before.

I'm sorry.

Believe me, I've never in my life been sorry about anything.

You still have it, don't you?

Hm?

It's there, isn't it?

The gun. The gun that killed him.

Well Mrs. Cretias, both of you were at the inquest. You heard how it was.

Yeah, I heard how it was.

You are him.

Better you than my son. Of course you still have the gun.

You police wear them to bed, don't you?

When you embrace your wives, you wear them!

When you kneel in Church, you wear them!

All this sorrow from a gun. A gun!

No I don't want your pity. I don't want your tears, they come from your eyes.

Mine come from the soles of my feet!

From the roots of my hair, they come.

Bitter, bitter like blood!

Well, did it make you feel any better?

No, worse, sir.

Janet called you. She's worried about you. So am I.

How do you forget it?

You don't, lad. You just learn to live with it, that's all.

And you do the best you can.

[TELEPHONE RINGING]

Yeah?

All right, put her on.

Mrs. Cretias, for you.

For me?

Hello?

Yes, this is Halloran.

Why yes. Sure, all right. Right away.

Good bye.

That was the girl, his wife.

She wants to see me.

Now easy lad, easy. I wouldn't go back to that house.

Women can be dangerous at a time like this.

She asked me to meet her at Penn Station, sir, gate 11.

I don't like it.

I'd like to go sir, unless you order me not to.

All right, call me after, and be careful.

Mr. Halloran?

I wasn't sure you'd come.

Well I did wonder why you'd want to meet me here,

in Penn Station.

I can't let her see us together.

You don't think she will, do you?

Did she follow you?

No. No, I told her that I was going to the delicatessen,

needed some bread.

Mr. Halloran, I have to talk to you.

Could we go some place that's not so out in the open?

Here, how's this?

I'm okay now.

You know, you're okay.

I can see it, you're sorry for what you did.

Peter was never sorry for anything.

Don't feel sorry about Pete, Mr. Halloran.

He wasn't worth it.

He wasn't worth it?

Believe me, I know.

Mrs. Cretias, is, is this what you wanted to talk to me about?

No, no.

I need your help, Mr. Halloran.

And I'm ashamed to ask,

'cause you'll think I'm just saying these things so you'll help me.

Look, Mrs. Cretias, it was my idea helping you.

How much do you need?

I need 23 dollars more.

Twenty-three.

Here, here's 25.

You don't earn much, this'll set you back.

Take it. Please, I want you to have it.

I'm going to send it back to you. Soon as I get a job, I'll send it back to you.

All the time I kept praying he'd change,

but whoever does?

He was all dark inside, Mr. Halloran.

Like a blackboard.

I guess I was the only one who could see all the dirty things written there,

that no eraser could take away.

It was like this doll I had once.

You see I, I had this doll once.

This boy I used to know in St. Louis, nice boy.

Never even tried to kiss me, this boy.

He gave me this doll when I was just a kid.

I kept it. I don't know why.

I guess I kind of loved it.

And it was right after we got married.

It was on our wedding night.

And Pete tore the doll all to pieces.

And his eyes were cold all the time he did it.

And he laughed all the time.

I remember afterwards,

I kept wondering if maybe I was like the doll.

But I did everything he told me to do.

Do you think I'll ever be okay again?

I mean, do you think maybe somebody could love me?

Without just wanting to kiss me, you know?

Like that boy in St. Louis.

Look Mrs. Cretias, you go back to St. Louis, but you don't start over again.

You start fresh from right now.

I don't suppose any of us can really change what's happened.

All we can do is learn from it.

And we can if we try to understand what's really happened, and why.

It's like,

you see it's like, like breaking out of a shell,

and getting a broader view of things.

You understand?

Come on, I'll put you on the train.

Will you, Mr. Halloran?

Don't you just let them try and stop me.

Hello, Janet?

Listen, I, I just had a great idea, why don't you call up Dan?

He's still at the precinct, and ask him to come over to our house about 8.

Put on an extra plate for him.

Sure sure, I'm, I'm all right, I'm fine.

What?

Yeah something, something did happen.

Something that gives these last few days a little meaning after all.

No, no, I'll tell you all about it when I get home.

Okay, hun? Yeah, bye.

There are 8 million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them.