All language subtitles for A View From The Bridge.ENG

You wouldn't have known it,
but something amusing has just happened

You see how uneasily they nod to me?
That's because I'm a lawyer

In this neighbourhood to meet
a lawyer or a priest on the street is unlucky

We're only thought of in connection with disasters,
and they'd rather not get too close

I often think that behind that suspicious little nod
of theirs lie three thousand years of distrust

A lawyer means the law, and in Sicily,
from where their fathers came...

...the law has not been a friendly idea
since the Greeks were beaten

I'm inclined to notice the ruins in things,
perhaps because I was born in Italy

I only came here when I was twenty-five

In those days Al Capone, the greatest Carthaginian
of all, was learning his trade on these pavements

And Frankie Yale himself
was cut precisely in half by a machine gun...

...on the corner of Union Street, two blocks away

Oh, there were many here
who were justly shot by unjust men

Justice is very important here

But this is Red Hook, not Sicily

This is the slum that faces the bay
on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge

This is the gullet of New York
swallowing the tonnage of the world

And now we are quite civilised,
quite American

Now we settle for half, and I like it better

I no longer keep a pistol in my filing cabinet.
And my practice is entirely unromantic

My wife has warned me, so have my friends

They tell me the people in this neighbourhood
lack elegance, glamour

After all, who have I dealt with in my life?

Longshoremen and their wives,
and fathers and grandfathers

Compensation cases, evictions, family squabbles,
the petty troubles of the poor. And yet...

Every few years there is still a case,
and as the parties tell me what the trouble is...

...the flat air in my office suddenly washes in
with the green scent of the sea

The dust in this air is blown away
and the thought comes that in some Caesar's year...

...in Calabria perhaps or on the cliff at Syracuse...

...another lawyer, quite differently dressed,
heard the same complaint

And sat there as powerless as I,
and watched it run its bloody course

- You working tomorrow?
- Yeah, there's another day yet on that ship

This one's name was Eddie Carbone

A longshoreman working the docks from the Brooklyn
Bridge to the breakwater where the open sea begins

- I'll see you tomorrow, Eddie
- See you Louis

Hi, Eddie

- Where you going all dressed up?
- I just got it. You like it?

- Yeah, it's nice. What happened to your hair?
- You like it? I fixed it different

He's here, Bea

It's beautiful.
Turn around, let me see in the back

If your mother was alive to see you now,
she wouldn't believe it

- You like it?
- You look like one of them girls that went to college

- Where you going?
- Wait till Bea comes in, I'll tell you something

Here, sit down.
Hurry up, will you, Bea?

What's going on?

- I'll get you a beer, all right?
- Come over here, talk to me

- Tell me what happened
- I want to wait till Bea comes in

Guess how much we paid for the skirt

- I think it's too short, ain't it?
- No

- Not when I stand up
- Yeah, but you gotta sit down sometimes

Eddie, it's the style now.
I mean, if you seen me walking down the street...

Listen, you been giving me the willies
the way you walk down the street, I mean it

- Why?
- Catherine, I don't want to be a pest...

- But I'm telling you you're walking wavey
- I'm walking wavey?

Don't aggravate me, Katie,
you are walking wavey

I don't like the looks they're giving you
in the candy store

And with them new high heels on the sidewalk?

Clack, clack, clack,
The heads are turning like windmills

But those guys look at all the girls,
you know that

- You ain't all the girls
- What do you want me to do? You want me to...?

- Don't get mad, kid
- Well, I don't know what you want from me

Katie, I promised your mother on her death bed.
I'm responsible for you

You're a baby, you don't understand these things. I mean
like when you stand by the window, waving outside

I was waving to Louis

Listen, I could tell you things about Louis,
which you wouldn't wave to him no more

Eddie, I wish there was one guy
you couldn't tell me things about

You're getting to be a big girl now. You gotta
keep yourself more, you can't be so friendly, kid

Bea, what are you doing in there?
Get her in here, will you? I got news for her

- What?
- Her cousins landed

No!
Bea! Your cousins...

- What...?
- Your cousins got in

- What are you talking about? Where?
- I was just knocking off work before

Tony Bereli come over to me,
he says the ship's in the North River

- They're all right?
- He didn't see them yet, they're still on board

But as soon as they get off he'll meet them.
He figures about ten o'clock they'll be here

And they'll let them off the ship all right?
That's fixed, hey?

Sure, they give them regular seamen's papers,
they walk off with the crew

Don't worry about it, Bea, there's nothing to it.
Couple of hours they'll be here

What happened?
They wasn't supposed to be till next Thursday

I don't know.
They put them on any ship they can get them out on

Maybe the other ship they was supposed to take
there was some danger

What you crying about?

I just... I can't believe it.
I didn't even buy a new table cloth

You're saving their lives,
what are you worrying about a table cloth?

They probably never even seen a table cloth
in their whole life where they come from

I'm just worried about you,
that's all I'm worried

Listen, as long as they know
where they're gonna sleep

I told them in the letters.
They're sleeping on the floor

Beatrice, all I'm worried about is you got such
a big heart, I'll end up on the floor with you...

- ...and they'll be in our bed
- All right, shop it

Because as soon as you see a tired relative,
I end up on the floor

When did you end up on the floor?

When your father's house burned down
I didn't end up on the floor?

- Well, their house burned down
- Yeah, but it didn't keep burning Torture weeks

All right, look,
I'll tell them to go some place else

Beatrice, wait a minute. I just don't want
you being pushed around, that's all

You got too big a heart.
What're you so touchy?

I'm just afraid if it don't turn out good
you'll be mad at me

Listen, if everyone keeps his mouth shut,
nothing can happen. They'll pay for their board...

- Oh, I told them...
- Then what the hell. It's an honour, Bea. I mean it

I was thinking just before coming home,
suppose my father didn't come to this country...

...and I was starving like them over there. And I had
people in America could keep me a couple of months

That man would be honoured
to lend me a place to sleep

You see what he is?
You're an angel. God will bless you

- You'll see, you'll get a blessing for this
- I'll settle for my own bed

- Go, Baby, set the table
- We didn't tell him about me yet

Let him eat first, then we'll tell him.
Bring everything in

What's all that about? Where's she going?

No place. It's very good news, Eddie.
I want you to be happy

- Well, what already?
- She's got a job

- What job? She's gonna finish school
- Eddie, you won't believe it...

No, no, you gonna finish school.
What kinda job, what do you mean?

- All of a sudden you...?
- Listen a minute, it's wonderful

No, it's not wonderful.
You'll never get nowhere unless you finish school

You can't take no job.
Why didn't you ask me before you take a job?

- She's asking you now, she didn't take nothing yet
- Listen a minute

I came to school this morning and the principal
called me out of class, see? To go to his office

So I went in and he says to me
he's got my records, you know?

And there's a company wants a girl right away.
it ain't exactly a secretary, it's a stenographer first

But pretty soon you get to be secretary. And he says
to me that I'm the best student in the whole class

- You hear that?
- Well, why not? Sure she's the best

I'm the best student, he says,
and if I want, I should take the job

And at the end of the year he'll let me take
the examination and he'll give me the certificate

- So I'll save practically a year
- Where's the job? What company?

- It's a big plumbing company over Nostrand Avenue
- Nostrand Avenue and where?

- It's some place by the Navy Yard
- Fifty dollars a week, Eddie

- Fifty?
- I swear

What about all the stuff
you wouldn't learn this year, though?

There's nothing more to learn, Eddie,
I just gotta practise from now on

I know all the symbols, I know the keyboard.
I'll just get faster, that's all

And when I'm working
I'll just get better and better, you see?

Work is the best practice anyway

- That ain't what I wanted, though
- Why? It's a great big company

- I don't like that neighbourhood over there
- It's a block and half from the subway, he says

Near the Navy Yard
plenty can happen in a block and a half

And a plumbing company. That's one step
over the waterfront. They're practically longshoremen

Yeah, but she'll be in the office, Eddie

I know she'll be in the office,
but that ain't what I had in mind

- Look, she's gotta go to work sometime
- Listen, Bea

She'll be with a lotta plumbers? And sailors up and
down the street? So what did she go to school for?

- But it's fifty a week, Eddie
- Look, did I ask you for money?

I supported you this long, I support you a little more.
Please, do me a favour, will you?

I want you to be with different kind of people.
I want you to be in a nice office

Maybe a lawyers office someplace in New York
in one of them nice buildings

I mean if you're gonna get outa here, get out.
Don't go into practically the same kind of neighbourhood

Go, Baby, bring in the supper

Think about it a little bit, Eddie. Please.
She's crazy to start work

It's not a little shop, it's a big company.
Some day she could be a secretary

They picked her out of the whole class.
What are you worried about?

She could take care of herself. She'll get out
of the subway and be in the office in two minutes

- I know that neighbourhood, Bea, I don't like it
- Listen

If nothing happened to her in this neighbourhood
it ain't gonna happen no place else

Look, you gotta get used to it, she's no baby no more.
Tell her to take it. You hear me?

I don't understand you. She's seventeen years old,
you gonna keep her in the house all her life?

- What kinda remark is that?
- Well, I don't understand when it ends

First it was gonna be when she graduated high school,
so she graduated high school

Then it was gonna be when she learned stenographer,
so she learned stenographer

So what're we gonna wait for now??
I mean it, Eddie, sometimes I don't understand you

They picked her out of the whole class,
it's an honour for her

With your hair that way you look like a Madonna,
you know that? You're the Madonna type

- You wanna go to work, huh, Madonna?
- Yeah

All right, go to work

Hey, take it easy!
What're you crying about?

I'm gonna buy all new dishes with my first pay.
I mean it. I'll fix up the whole house, I'll buy a rug

- And then you'll move away
- No, Eddie

Why not? That's life. And you'll come visit Sundays,
then once a month, then Christmas and New Years

- No, please
- I only ask you one thing. Don't trust nobody

You got a good aunt but she's got too big a heart,
you learned bad from her. Believe me

Be the way you are, Katie, don't listen to him

You lived in a house all your life, what do you know
about it? You never worked in your life

- She likes people. What's wrong with that?
- Because most people ain't people

She's going to work. Plumbers,
they'll chew her to pieces if she don't watch out

Believe me, Katie, the less you trust,
the less you be sorry

- First thing I'll buy is a rug, eh, Bea?
- I don't mind

I smelled coffee all day today.
You unloading coffee today?

- Yeah, a Brazil ship
- I smelled it too. It smelled all over the neighbourhood

That's one time, boy, being a longshoreman is a pleasure.
I could work coffee ships twenty hours a day

You go down in the hold, you know?
It's like flowers, that smell

- We'll bust a bag tomorrow, I'll bring you some
- Just be sure there's no spiders in it, will ya?

I mean it. I still remember that spider coming
out of that bag he brung home. I nearly died

You call that a spider? You should see
what comes outa the bananas sometimes

- Don't talk about it
- I seen spiders could shop a Buick

- All right, shut up
- Well, who started with spiders?

All right, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it.
Just don't bring none home again

- What time is ii?
- Quarter nine

- He's bringing them ten o'clock, Louis?
- Around, yeah

Eddie, suppose somebody asks if they're living here.
I mean if they ask

Now look, Baby,
I can see we're getting mixed up again here

No, I just mean...
people!" see them going in and out

I don't care who sees them going in and out
as long as you don't see them going in and out

And this goes for you too, Beatrice.
You don't see nothing and you don't know nothing

- What do you mean? I understand
- You don't understand

You still think it's all right to talk about this
to somebody just a little bit

Let me say this once and for all,
because you're making me nervous again, both of you

I don't care if somebody comes in the house
and sees them sleeping on the floor

it never comes out of your mouth
who they are or what they're doing here

Yeah, but my mother'll know

Sure she'll know, but just don't you
be the one who told her, that's all

This is the United States government you're
playing with now, this is the Immigration Bureau

If you said it you knew it,
if you didn't say it you didn't know it

Yeah, but, Eddie, suppose somebody...

I don't care what question it is.
You don't know nothing

They got stool pigeons all over the neighbourhood,
they're paying them every week for information

You don't know who they are.
It could be your best friend. You hear?

- Like Vinny Bolzano, remember Vinny?
- Oh, yeah. God forbid

Tell her about Vinny. You think I'm blowing steam here?
Go ahead, tell her

You was a baby then. There was a family living
next door to her mother, he was about sixteen

No, he was no more than fourteen,
'cause I was to his confirmation in Saint Agnes

But the family had an uncle that they were hiding
in the house, and he snitched to the Immigration

- The kid snitched?
- On his own uncle

- What, was he crazy?
- He was crazy after, I tell you that, boy

It was terrible.
He had five brothers and the old father

And they grabbed him in the kitchen
and pulled him down the stairs

Three flights,
his head was bouncing like a coconut

And they spit on him in the street, his own father
and his brothers. The whole neighbourhood was crying

- So what happened to him?
- I think he went away. I never seen him again, did you?

Him? You'll never see him no more. A guy do
a thing like that, hour's he gonna show his face?

Just remember, kid, you can quicker get back a million
dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away

Okay, I won't say a word to nobody, I swear

It's gonna rain tomorrow.
We'll be sliding all over the decks

Maybe you oughta put something on for them,
they be here soon

I only got fish, I hate to spoil it if they ate already.
I'll wait, it only take a few minutes. I could broil it

What happens, Eddie, when that ship pulls out
and they ain't on it? Don't the captain say nothing?

- Captain's pieced-off, what do you mean?
- Even the captain?

What's the matter, the captain don't have to live?
Captain gets a piece, maybe one of the mates

Piece for the guy in Italy who fixed the papers for them,
Tony here will get a little bite

I just hope they get work here, that's all I hope

Oh, the syndicate'll fix jobs for them.
Till they pay 'em off they'll get them work every day

It's after the pay off,
then they'll have to scramble, that's all

- Well, it be better than they got there
- Oh, sure. Well, listen

- So you gonna start work Monday, eh, Madonna?
- I'm supposed to, yeah

I hope you have good luck.
I wish you the best. You know that, kid

- You sound like I'm going a million miles
- I know. I guess I just never figured on one thing

- What?
- That you would ever grow up

- I left a cigar in my other coat, I think
- Stay there, I'll get it for you

He was as good a man as he had to be
in a life that was hard and even

- What are you so mad at me lately?
- Who's mad? I'm not mad. You're the one is mad

He worked on the piers when there was work,
he brought home his pay and he lived

Here, I'll light it for you

Don't worry about me, Eddie, eh?

Don't burn yourself.
You better go in help her with the dishes

I'll do the dishes, Bea

And towards ten o'clock of that night,
after they had eaten, the cousins came

You Marco? Come in, come in

I'll see you on the pier tomorrow.
You'll go to work

- Marco. And you're...?
- Yes, Rodolpho

Geez, you got here

- Are you my cousin?
- Beatrice

This is my husband, Eddie.
Catherine, my sister Nancy's daughter

My brother. Rodolpho.
I want to tell you now, Eddie...

- When you say go, we will go
- Oh, no...

I see it's a small house, but soon, maybe,
we can have our own house

You're welcome, Marco,
we got plenty of mom here

Give them supper, Katie, eh?

- Sit down. I'll get you some soup
- We ate on the ship. Thank you

Get some coffee. We'll all have coffee.
Come sit down

How come he's so dark
and you're so light, Rodolpho?

I don't know. A thousand years ago, they say,
the Danes invaded Sicily

He's practically blonde!

- How's the coffee doing?
- I'm getting it

- You have a nice trip?
- The ocean is always rough. But we are good sailors

- No trouble getting here?
- No. The man brought us. Very nice man

He says we start to work tomorrow.
Is he honest?

Ne. But as long as you owe money,
they'll get you plenty of work

- You ever work on the piers in Italy?
- Piers? No

In our town there are no piers,
only the beach, and little fishing boats

- So what kinda work did you do?
- Whatever there is, anything

Sometimes they build a house,
or if they fix the bridge...

Marco is a mason
and I bring him the cement

In harvest time we work in the fields,
if there is work. Anything

- Still bad there?
- Bad, yes

It's terrible. We stand around all day
in the piazza listening to the fountain like birds

- Everybody waits only for the train
- What's on the train?

Nothing. But if there are many passengers and you're
lucky you make a few lire to push the taxi up the hill

- You gotta push a taxi?
- Oh, sure. It's a feature in our town

The horses in our town are skinnier than goats

So if there are too many passengers
we help to push the carriages up to the hotel

- In our town the horses are only for show
- Why don't they have automobile taxis?

There is one. We push that too.
Everything in our town, you gotta push

So what you wanna do,
you gonna stay here in this country...

- ...or you wanna go back?
- Go back?

- Well, you're married, ain't you?
- Yes. I have three children

- Three! I thought only one
- No, I have three now

- Four years, five years, six years
- I bet they're crying for you already, eh?

What can I do? The older one is sick in his chest.
My wife, she feeds them from her own mouth

I tell you the truth, if I stay there
they will never grew up. They eat the sunshine

- My God. So how long you want to stay?
- With your permission, we will stay maybe a...

She don't mean in this house,
she means in the country

- Oh. Maybe four, five, six years, I think
- He trusts his wife

Yeah, but maybe you'll get enough,
you'll be able to go back quicker

I hope. I don't know.
I understand it's not so good here either

You guys'll do all right. Till you pay them off,
they'll get you work every day

It's after the pay off,
then you'll have to scramble, that's all

- But you'll make better here than you could there
- How much? We hear all kinds of figures

How much can a man make?
We work hard, we'll work all day, all night

On the average a whole year?
It's hard to say, see. Sometimes there's no ships

- We lay off three, four weeks
- Three, four weeks?

I think you could probably... thirty, forty a week
over the whole twelve months of the year

- Dollars?
- Sure, dollars

- If we can stay here just a few months...
- Listen, you're welcome, Marco

- Because I could send them a little more if I stay here
- As long as you want, we got plenty of room

My wife...
I want to send right away maybe twenty dollars

- You could send them something next week already
- Eduardo...

Don't thank me.
Listen, what the hell, it's no skin off me

- What happened to the coffee?
- I got it on

- You married too? No
- Oh, no...

- I told you...?
- I know, I just thought maybe he got married recently

I have no money to get married.
I have a nice face, but no money

He's a real blonde

- You want to stay here too? For good?
- Me? Yes, forever

Me, I want to be an American. I want to go back
to Italy when I am rich, and I will buy a motorcycle

A motorcycle?

With a motorcycle in Italy
you will never starve any more

- What you do with a motorcycle?
- He dreams, he dreams

Messages. The rich people in the hotel
always need someone who will carry a message

But quickly, and with a great noise

With a blue motorcycle I would station myself
in the courtyard of the hotel

- And in a little while I would have messages
- When you have no wife you have dreams

Why can't you just walk,
or take a trolley or something?

Oh no, the machine is necessary

A man comes into a great hotel
and says, I am a messenger

Who is this man? He disappears walking,
there is no noise, nothing

Maybe he will never come back,
maybe he will never deliver the message

But a man who rides up on a great machine,
this man is responsible, this man exists

He will be given messages.
lam also a singer, though

- You mean a regular...?
- Oh, yes

One night last year Andreola got sick. Baritone.
And I took his place in the garden of the hotel

Three arias I sang without a mistake.
Thousand-lire notes they threw from the tables

Money was falling like a storm in the treasury.
It was magnificent

- We lived six months on that night, eh, Marco?
- Two months

- Can't you get a job in that place?
- Andreola got better. He's a baritone, very strung

- He sang too loud
- Why too loud?

Too loud.
The guests in that hotel are all Englishmen

- They don't like too loud
- Nobody ever said it was too loud

I say it was too loud. I knew it
as soon as he started to sing. Too loud

- Then why did they throw so much money?
- They paid for your courage

- The English like courage. But once is enough
- I never heard anybody say it was too loud

- Did you ever hear jazz?
- Oh, sure, I sing jazz

- You sing jazz?
- Oh, I sing Napolitan, jazz, bel canto...

I sing Paper Doll you like Paper Doll?

Oh, sure, I'm crazy for Paper Doll

Go ahead, sing it

I'll bell you boys, it's tough to be alone
And it's tough to love a doll that's not your own

I'm through with all of them
I'll never fall again

- Hey, kid, wait a minute...
- Leave him finish, it's beautiful

- Look, kid, you don't want to be picked up, do you?
- No

Because we never had no singers here before

And all of a sudden there's a singer in the house,
you know what I mean?

- Yes, yes. You be quiet, Rodolpho.
- They got guys all over the place, Marco. I mean

Yes. He'll be quiet. You'll be quiet

- What's the high heels for, Garbo?
- I figured for tonight...

Do me a favour, will you? Go ahead

- All actresses they want to be around here
- In Italy too. All the girls

- Yeah, eh?
- Yes. Especially when they are so beautiful

You like sugar?

Sugar?
Yes, I like sugar very much

Who can ever know what will be discovered?
Eddie Carbone had never expected to have a destiny

A man works, raises his family, goes bowling,
eats, gets old, and then he dies

Now, as the weeks passed there was a future,
there was a trouble that would not go away

It's after eight

- It's a long show at the Paramount
- They must've seen every picture in Brooklyn by now

He's supposed to stay in the house when he ain't
working. He ain't supposed to go advertising himself

Well, that's his trouble, what do you care? If they pick
him up they pick him up, that's all. Come in the house

What happened to the stenography?
I don't see her practise no more

- She'll get back to it. She's excited, Eddie
- She tell you anything?

What's the matter with you?
He's a nice kid, what do you want from him?

That's a nice kid?
He gives me the heeby-jeebies

- Go on, you're just jealous
- Of him? Boy, you don't think much of me

I don't understand you.
What's so terrible about him?

You mean it's all right with you?
That's gonna be her husband?

Why? He's a nice fella, hard working,
he's a good-looking fella

- He sings on the ships, did you know that?
- What do you mean, he sings?

Just what I said, he sings.
Right on the deck, all of a sudden...

...a whole song comes out of his mouth.
With motions

You know what they're calling him new?
Paper Doll they're calling him, Canary. He's like a weird

He comes out on the pier, one-two-three,
it's a regular free show

Well, he's a kid,
he don't know how to behave himself yet

And with that whacky hair,
he's like a chorus gilt or something

- So he's blonde, so?
- I just hope that's his regular hair, that's all I hope

- You crazy or something?
- What's so crazy? I don't like his whole way

Listen, you never seen a blonde guy in your life?
What about Whitey Balsa?

Sure, but Whitey don't sing,
he don't do like that on the ships

- Well, maybe that's the way they do in Italy
- Then why don't his brother sing?

Marco goes around like a man,
nobody kids Marco

I tell you the truth, I'm surprised
I have to tell you all this

- I mean I'm surprised, Bea
- Listen, you ain't gonna start nothing here

I ain't starting nothing,
but I ain't standing around looking at that

For that character I did not bring her up.
I swear, Bea, I'm surprised at you

I sit there waiting for you to wake up
but everything is great with you

- No, everything ain't great with me
- No?

- No. But I got other worries
- Yeah

- Yeah, you want me to tell you?
- Why? What worries you got?

When am I gonna be a wife again, Eddie?

I ain't been feeling good.
They bother me since they came

It's almost three months you don't feel good. They're
only here a couple of weeks. It's three months, Eddie

I don't know, Bea.
I don't want to talk about it

What's the matter, Eddie, you don't like me, eh?

What do you mean, I don't like you?
I said I don't feel good, that's all

Well, tell me, am I doing something wrung?
Talk to me

- I can't. I can't talk about it
- Well, tell me what...

I got nothing to say about it. I'll be all right, Bea.
Just lay off me, will ya? I'm worried about her

The gin is gonna be eighteen years old,
it's time already

- The guy is taking her for a ride
- All right, that's her ride

What're you gonna stand over her till she's forty?

Eddie, I want you to cut it out now, you hear me?
I don't like it

- Now come in the house
- I want to take a walk, I'll be in right away

They ain't going to come any quicker
if you stand in the street. It ain't nice, Eddie

I'll be in right away. Go ahead

- Wanna go bowling tonight?
- I'm too tired. I'm going to sleep

- How's your two submarines?
- They're okay

- I see they're getting work all the time
- Yeah, they're doing all right

That's what we oughta do. We oughta
leave the country and come in under the water

- Then we get work
- You ain't kidding

- Well, what the hell. You know?
- Sure

- Believe me, Eddie, you got a lotta credit coming to you
- Ah, they don't bother me, don't cost me nothing

That older one, boy, he's a regular bull. I seen him
the other day lifting coffee bags over the Matson Line

They leave him alone,
he woulda load the whole ship by himself

Yeah, he's a strung guy, that guy.
Their father was a regular giant, supposed to be

Yeah, you could see. He's a regular slave.
That blonde one, though...

- He's got a sense of humour
- Yeah. He's funny

Well, he ain't exactly funny,
but he's always like making remarks like, you know

- He comes around, everybody's laughing
- Yeah, well, he's got a sense of humour

Yeah, I mean,
he's always making like remarks, like, you know?

Yeah, I know. But he's a kid yet, you know?
He's just a kid, that's all

I know.
You take one look at him, everybody's happy

I worked one day with him last week
over the Moore-MacCormack Line

- I'm telling you, those guys was all hysterical
- Why? What'd he do?

I don't know, he was just humorous.
You never can remember what he says, you know?

But it's the way he says it. I mean, he gives you
a look sometimes and you start laughing

Yeah. He's got a sense of humour

- Well, I'll see ya, Eddie
- Take it easy

Yeah. See ya. If you wanna come bowling later
we're going Flatbush Avenue

Hey, Eddie, what a picture we saw.
Did we laugh!

- Where'd you go?
- Paramount. It was with those two guys...

- Brooklyn Paramount?
- Sure, the Brooklyn Paramount

- I hold you we wasn't going to New York
- All right, I only asked you

I just don't want her hanging around
Times Square, see. It's full of tramps over there

I would like to go to Broadway once, Eddie.
I would like to walk with her once...

...where the theatres are and the opera.
Since I was a boy I see pictures of those lights

Look, I got to talk to her a minute, Rodolpho,
go inside, will you?

Eddie, we only walk together in the streets.
She teaches me

You know what he can't get over?

- That there's no fountains in Brooklyn
- Fountains?

In Italy, he says, every town's got fountains,
and they meet there

You know what? They got oranges on the trees
where he comes from, and lemons

Imagine, on the trees! I mean... it's interesting.
But he's crazy for New York

- Eddie, why can't we go once to Broadway?
- Look, I gotta tell her something

Maybe you can come too.
I want to see all those lights

I'll walk by the river before I go to sleep

Why don't you talk to him, Eddie?
He blesses you, and you don't talk to him hardly

- I bless you and you don't talk to me
- I don't talk to you? What do you mean?

I don't see you no more.
I come home, you're running around some place

Well, he wants to see everything, that's all,
so we go...

- You mad at me?
- No

It's just I used to come home,
you was always there

Now, I turn around, you're a big gin.
I don't know how to talk to you

- Why?
- I don't know

You're running, you're running, Katie.
I don't think you're listening any more to me

Eddie, sure I am.
What's the matter? You don't like him?

- You like him, Katie?
- Yeah. I like him

- You like him
- Yeah

What you got against him?
I don't understand. He only blesses you

- He don't bless me, Katie
- He does. You're like a father to him

- Katie?
- What, Eddie?

- Are you gonna many him?
- I don't know. We just been going around, that's all

What're you got against him, Eddie?
Please, tell me. What?

- He don't respect you
- Why?

Katie, if you wasn't an orphan,
wouldn't he ask your father's permission...

- ...before he run around with you like this?
- Oh, well, he didn't think you'd mind

He knows I mind, but it don't bother him
if I mind, don't you see that?

No. Eddie, he's got all kinds of respect for me.
And you too

We walk across the street he takes my arm,
he almost bows to me

You got him all wrung, Eddie, I mean it.
You...

- Katie, he's only bowing to his passport
- Passport?

That's right. He marries you, he's got the right to be
an American citizen. That's what's going on here

You understand what I'm telling you? The guy
is looking for his break, that's all he's looking for

- No, Eddie, I don't think so
- You don't think so?

Katie, you're gonna make me cry here.
Is that a working man?

What does he do with his first money? A snappy
new jacket he buys, records, a pointy pair of new shoes

And his brother's kids
are starving over there with tuberculosis?

That's a hit-and-run guy, baby,
he's got bright lights in his head, Broadway

Them guys don't think of nobody but theirself. You many
him and the next time you see him it'll be for divorce

- Eddie, he never said a word about his papers
- You mean he's supposed to tell you that?

- I don't think he's even thinking about it
- What's better for him to think about?

He could be picked up any day here
and he's back pushing taxis up a hill

- No, I don't believe it
- Katie, don't break my heart, listen to me

- I don't want to hear it
- Katie, listen...

- He loves me
- Don't say that, for God's sake

- This is the oldest racket in the country
- I don't believe it

They been pulling this
since the Immigration Law was put in

- They grab a green kid that don't know nothing and...
- I don't believe it and I wish to hell you'd shop it

Katie...
Why don't you straighten her out?

- When are you going to leave her alone?
- Bea, the guy is no good

You going to leave her alone?
Or you gonna drive me crazy?

Listen, Catherine.
What are you going to do with yourself?

- I don't know
- Don't tell me you don't know

You're not a baby any more,
what are you going to do with yourself?

- He won't listen to me
- I don't understand this

He's not your father, Catherine.
I don't understand what's going on here

What am I going to do,
just kick him in the face with it?

Look, honey, you wanna get married,
or don't you wanna get married?

What are you worried about, Katie?

I don't know.
It just seems wrung if he's against it so much

Sit down, honey, I want to tell you something.
Here, sit down

Was there ever any fella that he liked for you?
There wasn't, was there?

He says Rodolpho's just after his papers

Look, he'll say anything.
What does he care what he says?

If it was a prince came here for you
it would be no different

- You know that, don't you?
- Yeah, I guess

- So what does that mean?
- What?

It means you gotta be your own self more.
You still think you're a little girl, honey

But nobody else can make up your mind for you
any more, you understand?

You gotta give him to understand
that he can't give you orders no more

Yeah, but how am I going to do that?
He thinks I'm a baby

Because you think you're a baby. I told you
fifty times already, you can't act the way you act

You still walk around in front of him in your slip

- Well, I forgot
- Well, you can't do it

Or like you sit on the edge of the bathtub
talking to him when he's shaving in his underwear

- When did I do that?
- I seen you in there this morning

- I wanted to tell him something
- I know, honey

But if you act like a baby
and he be treating you like a baby

Or like when he comes home sometimes you throw
yourself at him like when you was twelve years old

- Well, I like to see him and I'm happy so...
- Look, I'm not telling you what to do, honey, but...

No, you could tell me.
Gee, I'm all mixed up

See, I...

He looks so sad now and it hurts me

Well, look, Katie, if it's going to hurt you so much
you're gonna end up an old maid here

- No
- I'm telling you, I'm not making a joke

I tried to tell you
a couple of times in the last year or so

That's why I was so happy
you were going to go out and get work

You wouldn't be here so much,
you'd be a little more independent. I mean it

It's wonderful for a whole family to love each other

But you're a grown woman
and you're in the same house with a grown man

- So you'll act different now, eh?
- Yeah, I will. I'll remember

Because it ain't only up to him, Katie, you understand?
I told him the same thing already

- What?
- That he should let you go

But, you see, if only I tell him,
he thinks I'm just bawling him out

- Or maybe I'm jealous or something, you know?
- He said you was jealous?

No, I'm just saying maybe that's what he thinks.
You think I'm jealous of you, honey?

- No. It's the first I thought of it
- Well, you should have thought of it before

But I'm not. We'll be all right

Just give him to understand. You don't have to right,
you're just... you're a woman, that's all

And you got a nice boy,
and now the time came when you said good-bye

- All right?
- All right... If I can

- Honey. YOU Gotta
- Okay

It was at this time that he first came to me

I had represented his father
in an accident case some years before

And I was acquainted with the family
in a casual way

I remember him now
as he walked through my doorway

His eyes were like tunnels.
My first thought was that he had committed a crime

But soon I saw it was only a passion
that had moved into his body, like a stranger

I don't quite understand what I can do for you.
ls there a question of law somewhere?

That's what I want to ask you

Because there's nothing illegal
about a girl falling in love with an immigrant

What about if the only reason
is to get his papers?

- First of all you don't know that
- I can see it in his eyes

- He's laughing at her and he's laughing at me
- Eddie, I'm a lawyer

I can only deal in what's provable.
You understand that, don't you?

- Can you prove that?
- I know what's in his mind, MrAlfieri

- Eddie, even if you could prove that...
- Listen... Will you listen to me a minute?

My father always said you were a smart man.
I want you to listen to me

- I'm only a lawyer, Eddie
- Will you listen a minute?

I'm talking about the law.
Lemme just bring out what I mean

A man, when he comes into the country illegal,
don't it stand to reason he's gonna take every penny...

...and put it in the sock? Because they don't know
from one day to another, right?

- All right
- He's spending

Records he buys now. Jackets. Shoes.
You understand me?

This guy ain't worried. This guy is here. So it must be
that he's got it all laid out in his mind already

- He's staying, right?
- Well? What about it?

- All right. I'm talking to you confidential, ain't I?
- Certainly

I mean it don't go no place but here.
Because I don't like to say this about anybody

- Even my wife I didn't exactly say this
- What is it?

- The guy ain't right, Mr Alfieri
- What do you mean?

- I mean he ain't right
- I don't get you

- Did you ever get a look at him?
- Not that I know of, no

- He's a blonde guy. Like platinum. You know what I mean?
- No

I mean if you close the paper fast
you could blow him over

- Well, that doesn't mean...
- Wait a minute, I'm telling you something

He sings, see. Which is...
I mean it's all right

But sometimes he hits a note, see... I tum around.
I mean... high, you know what I mean?

- Well, that's a tenor
- I know a tenor, MrAlfieri. This ain't no tenor

I mean if you was to come into the house
and you didn't know who was singing...

...you wouldn't be looking for him,
you be looking for her

- Yes, but that's not...
- I'm telling you something, wait a minute

Please, MrAlfieri. Let me bring out my thoughts here.
Couple of nights ago my niece brings out a dress

Which it's too small for her, on account of
she shot up like a light over this last year

He takes the dress, lays it over a table, he cuts it up.
One-two-three, he makes a new dress

I mean he looked so sweet standing there, like an angel.
You could kiss him, he was so sweet

- Now look, Eddie...
- MrAlfieri, they're laughing at him on the piers

I'm ashamed.
Paper Doll they call him. Blondie now

His brother thinks it's because he's got a sense of humour
which he's got. But that ain't what they're laughing

Which they're not going to come out with it
because they know he's my relative...

...which they got to see me
if they take a crack, you know?

But I know what they're laughing at, and when
I think of that guy laying his hands on her...

I mean it's eating me out, Mr Alfieri,
because I struggled for that girl

- And now he comes in my house and...
- Eddie, look

I have my own children. I understand you.
But the law is very specific. The law does not...

You mean to tell me that there's no law
that a guy which he ain't right...

...can go to work and marry a girl and...?

- You have no recourse in the law, Eddie
- But if he ain't right, MrAlfieri, you mean to tell...

There is nothing you can do, Eddie, believe me

- Nothing?
- Nothing at all. There's only one legal question here

- What?
- The manner in which they entered the country

But I don't think you want to do anything
about that, do you?

- You mean...?
- Well, they entered illegally

Oh, Jesus, no,
I wouldn't do nothing about that, I mean...

- All right, then, let me talk now, eh?
- MrAlfieri, I can't believe what you tell me

- There must be some kinda law which...
- Eddie, I want you to listen to me

You know, sometimes God mixes up the people

We all love somebody, the wife, the kids.
Every man's got somebody that he loves, eh?

But sometimes there's too much, you know?
There's too much, and it goes where it mustn't

A man works hard, he brings up a child,
sometimes it's a niece, sometimes even a daughter

And he never realises it, but through the years
there is too much love for the daughter

There is too much love for the niece.
Do you understand what I'm saying to you?

- What do you mean, I shouldn't look out for her good?
- Yes, but these things have to end, Eddie, that's all

The child has to grow up and go away,
and the man has to learn to forget

Because after all, Eddie, what other way can it end?
Let her go. That's my advice

You did your job, new it's her life.
Wish her luck, and let her go

Will you do that? Because there's no law, Eddie.
Make up your mind to it, the law is not interested in this

- You mean to tell me, even if he's a punk?
- There's nothing you can do

- All right, thanks very much
- What are you going to do?

What can I do?
I'm a patsy, what can a patsy do?

I worked like a dog twenty years
so a punk could have her, so that's what I done

I mean in the worst times, you know the worst,
when there was no ships coming in the harbour...

...I didn't stand around looking for relief. I hustled.
When there was empty piers in Brooklyn...

...I went to Hoboken, Staten Island,
the West Side, Jersey, all over

Because I made a promise. I took out of my own mouth
to give to her. I took out of my wife's mouth

I walked hungry plenty days in this city.
And now I gotta sit in my own house...

...and look at a son of a bitch punk like that.
Which he came out of nowhere

I give him my house to sleep.
I take the blankets off my bed for him

And he takes and puts his dirty filthy hands
on her like a goddam thief

- But, Eddie, she's a woman now
- He's stealing from me

She wants to get married, Eddie.
She can't many you, can she?

What're you talking about, many me?
I don't know what the hell you're talking about

I gave you my advice, Eddie. That's it

All right.
It just it's breaking my heart, you know

I understand. Put it out of your mind.
Can you do that?

I'll see you around

There are times when you want to spread an alarm,
but nothing has happened

I knew, I knew then and there.
I could have finished the whole story that afternoon

It wasn't as though there was a mystery to unravel.
I could see every step coming

Step alter step, like a dark figure
walking down a hall toward a certain door

I knew where he was heading for,
I knew where he was going to end

And I sat here many afternoons asking myself why,
being an intelligent man, I was so powerless to stop it

I even went to a certain old lady in the neighbourhood,
a very wise old woman, and I told her

And she only nodded, and said, 'Pray for him'.
And so I waited here

You know where they went?

- Where?
- They went to Africa once. On a fishing boat

It's true, Eddie

I didn't say nothing

I was never even in Staten Island

You didn't miss nothing

How long that take you, Marco?
To get to Africa?

- Oh... two days. We go all over
- Once we went to Yugoslavia

They pay all right on them boats?

- If they catch fish they pay all right
- They're family boats though

Nobody in our family owned one.
So we only worked when one of the families was sick

You know, Marco, what I don't understand.
There's an ocean full of fish and you are all starving

They gotta have boats, nets, you need money

Yeah, but couldn't they like fish from the beach?
You see them down Coney Island

- Sardines
- Sure. How you gonna catch sardines on a hook?

I didn't know they're sardines.
They're sardines!

Yeah, they follow them all over the ocean,
Africa, Yugoslavia...

It's funny, you know. You never think of it,
that sardines are swimming in the ocean

I know.
It's like oranges and lemons on a tree

I mean,
you ever think of oranges and lemons on a tree?

Yeah, I know. It's funny

I heard that they paint the oranges
to make them look orange

Paint?

Yeah, I heard that they grow like green

No, in Italy the oranges are orange

- Lemons are green
- I know lemons are green, for Christ's sake

You see them in the store,
they're green sometimes

I said oranges they paint,
I didn't say nothing about lemons

- Your wife is getting the money all right, Marco?
- Oh, yes. She bought medicine for my boy

- That's wonderful. You feel better, eh?
- Oh, yes. But I'm lonesome

I just hope you ain't gonna do
like some of them around here

They're here twenty-five years, some men,
and they didn't get enough together to go back twice

Oh, I know. We have many families in our town,
the children never saw the father

- But I will go home. Three, four years, I think
- Maybe you should keep more here

Because maybe she thinks it comes so easy
you'll never get ahead of yourself

Oh, no, she saves. I send everything.
My wife is very lonesome

She must be nice.
She pretty? I bet, eh?

- Ne, but she understand everything
- Oh, he's got a clever wife

I betcha there's plenty surprises sometimes
when those guys get back there, eh?

Surprises?

I mean, you know... they count the kids
and there's a couple extra than when they left?

No, no... The women wait, Eddie.
Very few surprises

- It's more strict in our town. It's not so free
- it ain't so free here either, Rodolpho, like you think

I seen greenhorns sometimes get in trouble that way

They think just because a girt don't wear a shawl
over her head that she ain't strict, you know?

Gilt don't have to wear black dress to be strict.
Know what I mean?

- Well, I always have respect...
- I know, but in your town...

...you wouldn't just drag off some girl
without permission, I mean

You know what I mean, Marco?
It ain't that much different here

- Yes
- Well, he didn't exactly drag her off though, Eddie

I know, but I seen some of them
get the wrung idea sometimes

I mean it might be a little more free here
but it's just as strict

I have respect for her, Eddie.
I do anything wrung?

- Look, kid, I ain't her father, I'm only her uncle
- Well then, be an uncle then. I mean

No, Beatrice, if he does wrung you must tell him.
What does he do wrung?

Well, Marco, till he came here she was never
out on the street twelve o'clock at night

You come home early now

Well, you said the movie ended late, didn't you?

- Yeah
- Well, tell him, honey

The movie ended late

Look, Bea, I'm just saying,
he thinks she always stayed out like that

You come home early now, Rodolpho

All right, sure.
But I can't stay in the house all the time, Eddie

Look, kid, I'm not only talking about her. The more
you run around, the more chance you're taking

I mean suppose he gets hit by a oar or something.
Where's his papers, who is he? Know what I mean?

Yeah, but who is he in the daytime, though?
It's the same chance in the daytime

Yeah,
but he don't have to go looking for it, Beatrice

If he's here to work, he should work.
If he's here for a good time then he could fool around

But I understood, Marco, you was both coming
over here to make a living for your family

- You understand me, don't you, Marco?
- I beg your pardon, Eddie

You see,
that's what I understood in the first place

- Yes. That's why we came
- That's all I'm asking

- You wanna dance, Rodolpho?
- No, I'm tired

Go ahead, dance, Rodolpho

Ah, come on.
They got a beautiful quartet, these guys

- What's that, a new record?
- It's the same one

- We bought it the other day
- They only bought three records

Must be nice to go all over in one of them fishing boats.
I would like that myself. See all them other countries

- But the women don't go along, I bet
- No, not on the boats. Hard work

- What're you got, a regular kitchen and everything?
- Yes, we eat very good on the boats

Especially when Rodolpho comes along,
everybody gets fat

- Oh, he cooks?
- Sure, very good cook. Rice, pasta, fish, everything

- He cooks too? He sings, he cooks...
- Well, it's good. He could always make a living

It's wonderful.
He sings, he cooks, he could make dresses...

They get some high pay, them guys. The head chefs
in all the big hotels are men. You read about them

- That's what I'm saying
- Yeah, well, I mean

He's lucky, believe me.
That's why the waterfront is no place for him

I mean like me... I can't cook, I can't sing,
I can't make dresses, so I'm on the waterfront

But if I could cook, if I could sing,
if I could make dresses, I wouldn't be on the waterfront

I'd be some place else.
I'd be like in a dress store

What do you say, Marco, we go to the bouts
next Saturday night. You never seen a fight, did you?

- Only in the moving pictures
- I'll treat you. What do you say, Danish

- You wanna come along? I'll buy the tickets
- Sure. I like to go

- I'll make some coffee, all right?
- Go ahead, make some. Make it nice and strung

You wait, Marco,
you see some real fights here

- You ever do any boxing?
- Ne, I never

- I'll bet you've done some, eh?
- No

- Well, come on, I'll teach you
- What's he got to learn that for?

You can't tell. Maybe one of these days
somebody's liable to step on his foot or something

Come on, Rodolpho,
I show you a couple a passes

Go ahead, Rodolpho.
He's a good boxer, he could teach you

- Well, I don't know how to...
- Just put your hands up like this

That's right. That's very good. Keep your left up.
Because you lead with the left, see, like that

Now what you gotta do is you gotta block me,
so when I come in like that...

That's very good.
All right, now come into me. Come on

- I don't want to hit you, Eddie
- Don't pity me, come on

Throw it, I'll show you how to block it.
That's it. Come on again for the jaw, right here

- Very good
- He's very good

Sure, he's great. Come on, kid,
put something behind it, you can't hurt me

Attaboy!
Now I'm gonna hit you, so block me, see?

- What are they doing?
- He's teaching him. He's very good

Sure, he's terrific!
Look at him go!

Now, watch out,
here I come, Danish!

- Eddie!
- What? I didn't hurt him

- Did I hurt you, kid?
- No, he didn't hurt me. I was only surprised

That's enough, Eddie.
He did pretty good, though

Yeah. He could be very good, Marco.
I'll teach him again

Dance, Catherine. Come

- Can you lift this chair?
- What do you mean?

From here

Sure, why not?

Gee, that's hard, I never knew that.
It's on an angle, that's why, huh?

Here

On the twenty-third of that December a case
of Scotch whisky slipped from a net while being unloaded

As a case of Scotch whisky is inclined to do
on the twenty-third of December on pier 41

There was no snow, but it was cold.
His wife was out shopping. Marco was still at work

The boy had not been hired that day.
Catherine hold me later...

...that this was the first time
they had been alone together in the house

- You hungry?
- Not for anything to eat

I have nearly three hundred dollars

- Catherine?
- I heard you

- You don't like to talk about it any more?
- Sure, I don't mind talking about it

What worries you, Catherine?

- I been wanting to ask you about something. Could I?
- All the answers are in my eyes, Catherine

But you don't look in my eyes lately.
You're full of secrets. What is the question?

- Suppose I wanted to live in Italy
- You going to many somebody rich?

No, I mean live there. You and me

- When?
- Well, when we get married

You want to be an Italian?

No, but I could live there without being Italian.
Americans live there

- Forever?
- Yeah

- You're fooling
- No, I mean it

Where do you get such an idea?

Well, you're always saying it's so beautiful there,
with the mountains and the ocean and...

- You're fooling me
- I mean it

Catherine, if I ever brought you home
with no money, no business, nothing...

...they would call the priest and the doctor
and they would say Rodolpho is crazy

- I know, but I think we'd be happier there
- Happier! What would you eat? You can't cook the view

- Maybe you could be a singer, like in Rome or...
- Rome is full of singers

- I could work then
- Where?

- God, there must be jobs somewhere
- There's nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing!

Now tell me what you're talking about. How can I bring
you from a rich country to suffer in a poor country?

What are you talking about?
I would be a criminal stealing your face

In two years
you would have an old, hungry face

When my brother's babies cry they give them water,
water that boiled a bone. Don't you believe that?

- I'm afraid of Eddie here
- We wouldn't live here

Once I am a citizen I can work anywhere and I would
find better jobs and we would have a house, Catherine

If I were not afraid to be arrested
I would start to be something wonderful here

Tell me something.
I mean just tell me, Rodolpho

Would you still want to do it if we had to go
live in Italy? I mean just if it turned out that way

- This is your question or his question?
- I would like to know, Rodolpho. I mean it

- To go there with nothing
- Yeah

No

- You wouldn't?
- No. I will not many you to live in Italy

I want you to be my wife, and I want to be a citizen.
Tell him that, or I will

And tell him also, and tell yourself, please,
that I am not a beggar

And you are not a horse, a gift,
a favour for a poor immigrant

- Well, don't get mad
- I am furious

Do you think I am so desperate?
My brother is desperate, not me

You think I would carry on my back the rest of my life
a woman I didn't love just to be an American?

It's so wonderful?
You think we have no tall buildings in Italy?

No electric lights? No wide streets?
No flags? No automobiles?

Only work we don't have.
I want to be an American so I can work

That is the only wonder here, work.
How can you insult me, Catherine?

- I didn't mean that
- My heart dies to look at you

- Why are you so afraid of him?
- I don't know

Do you trust me, Catherine?
You?

It's only that...
He was good to me, Rodolpho

You don't know him.
He was always the sweetest guy to me

Good.
He razzes me all the time but he don't mean it

I know I would just feel...
ashamed if I made him sad

'Cause I always dreamt that when I got married
he'd be happy at the wedding, and laughing

And now he's mad all the time and nasty

Tell him you'd live in Italy. Just tell him, and maybe
he would start to trust you a little, see?

Because I want him to be happy.
I mean... I like him, Rodolpho and I can't stand it

Oh, Catherine... oh, little girl

I love you, Rodolpho, I love you

- Then why are you afraid? That he'll spank you?
- Don't laugh at me

I've been here all my life

Every day I saw him when he left in the morning
and when he came home at night

You think it's so easy to tum around
and say to a man he's nothing to you no more?

- I know, but...
- You don't know. Nobody knows

I'm not a baby.
I know a lot more than people think I know

- Beatrice says to be a woman, but...
- Yes

Then why don't she be a woman?
If I was a wife I would make a man happy

Instead of going at him all the time

I can tell a block away when he's blue in his mind
and just wants to talk to somebody quiet and nice

I can tell when he's hungry or wants a beer
before he even says anything

I know when his feet hurt him,
I mean I know him

And now I'm supposed to turn around and make
a stranger out of him? I don't know why I have to do that

Catherine, if I take in my hands a little bird
and she grows and wishes to fly

But I will not let her out of my hands because
I love her so much, is that right for me to do?

I don't say you must hate him.
But anyway you must go, mustn't you? Catherine?

- Hold me
- Oh, my little girl

Teach me. I don't know anything.
Rodolpho, you teach me, hold me

Come, there's nobody here now.
Come

And don't cry any more

- Beatrice?
- You got home early

Knocked off for Christmas early.
Rodolpho making you a dress?

- No, I'm making a blouse
- Beatrice went to buy presents for her mother

Pack it up. Go ahead.
Get your stuff and get outa here

- Where you going?
- I think I have to get out of here, Eddie

- No, you ain't going nowheres, he's the one
- I think I can't stay here no more. I'm sorry, Eddie

Don't cry.
I'll be around the neighbourhood. I'll see you

I just can't stay here no more.
You know I can't. Don't you know I can't?

You know that, don't you?
Wish me luck

- Eddie, don't be like that
- You ain't going nowheres

Eddie, I'm not gonna be a baby any more

Don't! Stop that! Have respect for her

- You want something?
- Yes. She'll be my wife

- That is what I want. My wife
- What are you gonna be?

- I show you what I be
- Wait outside. Don't argue with him

- Come on, show me
- Don't say that to me

Eddie! Let go, ya hear me!
I'll kill you! Let go of him!

You see? I'll give you till tomorrow, kid.
Get outa here. Alone. You hear me? Alone

- I'm going with him, Eddie
- Not with that. Don't make me do nothing, Catherine

Watch your step, submarine. By fights they oughta
throw you back in the water. But I got pity for you

Get outa here. Don't lay another hand on her
unless you wanna go out feet first

On December twenty-seventh I saw him next

I normally go home well before six, but that day
I sat around looking out my window at the bay

And when I saw him walking through my doorway,
I knew why I had waited

And if I seem to tell this like a dream,
it was that way

Several moments arrived
in the course of the two talks we had...

...when it occurred to me
how almost transfixed I had come to feel

I had lost my strength somewhere.
I looked in his eyes more than I listened

In fact, I can hardly remember the conversation

But I will never forget how dark
the mom became when he looked at me

His eyes were like tunnels

I kept wanting to call the police, but nothing
had happened. Nothing at all had really happened

So in other words, he won't leave?

My wife is talking about renting
a mom upstairs for them

An old lady on the top floor
has got an empty mom

- What does Marco say?
- He just sits there. Marco don't say much

- I guess they didn't tell him, eh? What happened?
- I don't know. Marco don't say much

What does your wife say?

Nobody's talking much in the house.
So what about that?

But you didn't prove anything about him. it sounds
like he just wasn't strong enough to break your grip

I'm telling you, MrAlfieri, the guy ain't right.
Somebody that don't want it can break it

Even a mouse, if you catch a teeny mouse
and you hold it in your hand...

...even that mouse can give you the right kind of fight

He didn't give me the right kind of fight.
I'm telling you, MrAlfieri, the guy ain't right

- What did you do that for, Eddie?
- To show her what he is

So she would see, once and for all.
Her mother will turn over in the grave

So what do I gotta do now?
Tell me what to do

- She actually said she's marrying him?
- She hold me, yeah. So what do I do?

This is my last word, Eddie.
Take it or not, that's your business

Morally and legally you have no rights.
You cannot slop it, she is a free agent

- Didn't you hear what I told you?
- I heard what you told me

And I'm telling you what the answer is.
I'm not only telling you now, I'm warning you

The law is nature.
The law is only a word for what has a right to happen

When the law is wrung it's because it's unnatural,
but in this case it is natural

And a river will drown you if you buck it now.
So let her go and bless her

Somebody had to come for her, Eddie, sooner or later.
You won't have a friend in the world, Eddie

Even those who understand will turn against you,
even the ones who feel the same will despise you

Put it out of your mind.
Eddie!

Give me the number of the Immigration Bureau.
I want to report something

Illegal immigrants.
Two of them. That's right

441 Saxon Street, Brooklyn.
Yeah... Ground floor

Huh?
I'm just around the neighbourhood, that's all

- Go bowling, Eddie?
- No, I'm due home

- Well, take it easy
- I'll see you

Where is everybody?

- I says where is everybody?
- I decided to move them upstairs with Mrs Dondero

- Oh, they're all moved up there already?
- Yeah

- Where's Catherine? She up there?
- Only to bring pillow cases

- She ain't moving in with them
- Look, I'm sick and tired of it

All right, all right, take it easy

I don't wanna hear no more about it,
you understand? Nothing

What're you blowing off about?
Who brought them in here?

All right, I'm sorry. I wish I'd a drop dead before
I told them to come. In the ground I wish I was

Don't drop dead. Just keep in mind
who brought them in here, that's all

I mean I got a couple of rights here.
This is my house here, not their house

What do you want from me?
They're moved out, what do you want now?

- I want my respect
- So I moved them out, what more do you want?

- You got your house now, you got your respect
- I don't like the way you talk to me, Beatrice

- I'm just telling you I done what you want
- I don't like it

The way you talk to me
and the way you look at me

This is my house,
she is my niece and I'm responsible for her

- So that's why you done that to him?
- I done what to him?

What you done to him in from of her.
You know what I'm talking about

She goes around shaking all the time, she can't go
to sleep. That's what you call responsible for her?

The guy ain't right, Beatrice.
Did you hear what I said?

Look, I'm finished with it.
That's all

I'm gonna have it out with you
one of these days, Beatrice

Nothing to have out with me,
it's all settled

Now we gonna be
like it never happened, that's all

- I want my respect, and you know what I'm talking about
- What?

What I feel like doing in the bed
and what I don't feel like doing. I don't want no...

- When did I say anything about that?
- You said, you said, I ain't deaf

I don't want no more conversations about that

I do what I feel like doing
or what I don't feel like doing

Okay

You used to be different, Beatrice.
You had a whole different way

I'm no different

You didn't used to jump me all the time
about everything

The last year or two I come in the house
I don't know what's gonna hit me

- It's like a shooting gallery and I'm the pigeon
- Okay, okay

Don't tell me okay, okay. I'm telling you the truth.
A wife is supposed to believe the husband

If I tell you that guy ain't right
don't tell me he is right

- But how do you know?
- Because I know

I don't go around making accusations.
He give me the heeby-jeebies the first minute I saw him

And I don't like you saying
I don't want her marrying nobody

I broke my back paying her stenography lessons
so she could go out and meet a better class of people

Would I do that if I didn't want her to get married?
Sometimes you talk like I'm a crazy man or something

But she likes him

Beatrice, she's a baby,
how is she gonna know what she likes?

You kept her a baby, you wouldn't let her go out.
I told you a hundred times

- All right, let her go out then
- She don't wanna go out now, Eddie. It's too late

- Suppose I hold hem go out
- Eddie, they're going to get married next week

She said that?

Eddie, if you want my advice,
go to her and tell her good luck

I think maybe now that you had it out
you learned better

What's the hurry next week?

Well, she's been worried about him being picked up.
This way he could start to be a citizen

She loves him, Eddie.
Why don't you give her a good word?

Because I still think
she would like you to be a friend, you know?

I mean like if you hold her
you'd go to the wedding

- She asked you that?
- I know she would like it

I'd like to make a party here for her.
I mean there oughta be some kinda send-off, eh?

I mean she'll have trouble enough in her life,
let's start it off happy. What do you say?

Because in her heart she still loves you,
Eddie. I know it

What, are you crying?
Go... why don't you go and tell her you're sorry?

There... she's coming down.
Come on, shake hands with her

- No, I can't, I can't talk to her
- Eddie, give her a break. A wedding should be happy

- I'm going for a walk
- Katie? Eddie, don't go, wait a minute

- Come on. Katie. Ask him, honey
- It's all right, I'm...

No, she wants to ask you.
Come on, Katie, ask him

We'll have a party. What are we gonna do,
hate each other? Come on

I'm gonna get married, Eddie.
So if you wanna come, the wedding'll be on Saturday

I only wanted the best for you, Katie.
I hope you know that

- Okay
- Catherine? I was just telling Beatrice...

If you wanna go out, like...
I mean, I realise maybe I kept you home too much

But he's the first guy you ever knew, you know?

I mean now you got a job, you might meet
some different fellas

You might get a different idea

I mean you can always come back to him,
you're still only kids, the both of you. What's the hurry?

Maybe you'll get around a little bit,
you grow up a little more

Maybe you see things different in a couple of months.
I mean you be surprised, it don't have to be him

No, we made it up already

- Katie, wait a minute
- No, I made up my mind

Katie, you never knew no other fella.
How could you make up your mind?

Because I did. I don't want nobody else

- But, Katie, suppose he gets picked up?
- That's why we gonna do it right away

Soon as we finish the wedding
he's going right over and start to be a citizen

I made up my mind, Eddie. I'm sorry.
Could I get two more pillowcases for the other guys?

Sure, go ahead.
Only don't let her forget where they came from

- She's got other boarders up there?
- Yeah, there's two guys that just came over

- What do you mean, came over?
- From Italy. Lipari the butcher, his nephew

They come from Ban',
they just got here yesterday

I didn't know myself till Marco and Rodolpho moved up
there before. It'll be nice, they could all talk together

What, you got no brains?
You put them up there with two other submarines?

- Why?
- How do you know they're not tracking these guys?

They'll come up for them and find
Marco and Rodolpho

- Get them out of the house
- But they been here so long already

How do you know what enemies Lipari's got?
Which they'd love to stab him in the back?

- Well, what'll I do with them?
- The neighbourhood is full of rooms

Can't you stand to live a couple of blocks
away from him? Get them out of the house

- Well, maybe tomorrow night I'll...
- Not tomorrow, do it now

Catherine, you never mix yourself
with somebody else's family

These guys get picked up, Lipari's liable to blame
you and me and we got his whole family on our head

- They got a temper, that family
- How am I gonna find a place tonight?

Will you shop arguing with me
and get them out of the house

What's the matter with you?
You think I'm always trying to fool you or something?

Oh, you don't believe I could think of your good?

I never told you nothing in my life
that wasn't for your good. Nothing

And look at the way you talk to me.
Like I was an enemy. Like...

A knock on the door

They all stand motionless.
Another knock

Go up the fire escape,
get them out over the back fence

Catherine stands motionless

- Immigration. Open up in there!
- Go, go. Hurry up

- She stands a moment staring at him
- Well, what are you looking at?

- Open up!
- Who's that there?

- Immigration, open up in there
- Knock repeated

- All right, take it easy
- The officer steps inside

- What is all this?
- Where are they?

- Where's who?
- Come on, come on, where are they?

Who? We got nobody here.
What's the matter with you?

- This is 441, ain't it?
- That's right

Eddie turns to Beatrice.
She looks at him now and sees his terror

Oh, Jesus, Eddie

- What's the matter with you?
- Oh, my God, my God

- What're you, accusing me?
- My God, what did you do?

We see the officer descending with Marco.
Behind him Rodolpho and Catherine

What do you want from them? They work, that's all.
They're boarders upstairs, they work on the piers

Beatrice to officer

Ah, Mister, what do you want from them,
who do they hurt?

- Catherine pointing to Rodolpho
- They ain't no submarines, he was born in Philadelphia

- Step aside, lady
- What do you mean? You can't just...

All right, take it easy.
What street were you born in Philadelphia?

What do you mean, what street?
Could you tell me what street you were born?

Sure. Four blocks away,
111 Union Street

- Let's go, fellas
- No, you can't! Now, get outa here

Look, girlie, if they're all right
they'll be out tomorrow

If they're illegal
they go back where they came from

If you want, get yourself a lawyer, although
I'm telling you now you're wasting your money

- Officer to Rodolpho and Marco
- Andiamo, Andiamo, let's go

Rodolpho and Marco start.
Marco hangs back

who're they hurting, for God's sake,
what do you want from them?

They're starving over there,
what you want?

Marco breaks from the group
and spits in Eddie's face

Oh, you mother's...!

The officer quickly intercedes
and pushes Eddie from Marco

- Cut it out
- I'll kill you for that, you son of a bitch

Stay in here now, you hear me?
Don't come out, don't bother him, fella

For an instant there is silence

I don't forget that, Marco.
You hear what I'm saying?

That's the thanks I get? Which I took the blankets
off my bed for you? You gonna apologise to me, Marco

Marco points back at Eddie

- That one. I accuse that one
- Come on

That one! He killed my children.
That one stole the food from my children

- Marco is gone
- He's crazy

I give them the blankets off my bed.
Six months I kept them like my own brothers

For Christ's sake, I kept them,
I give them the blankets off my bed

Eddie turns to Louis.
Louis barely turns, then walks off

He's gonna take that back.
He's gonna take that back or I'll kill him

You hear me? I'll kill him

There is a pause of darkness before the lights rise
on the reception room of a prison

- I'm waiting Marco, what do you say?
- Marco never hurt anybody

I can bail you out until your hearing comes up.
But I'm not going to do it, you understand me?

Unless I have your promise. You're an honourable man,
I will believe your promise. Now what do you say?

In my country he would be dead now.
He would not live this long

- All right, Rodolpho, you come with me now
- No! Please, Mister

Marco, promise the man.
Please, I want you to watch the wedding

How can I be married and you're in here?

Please, you're not going to do anything.
You know you're not

Marco, don't you understand? He can't bail you out
if you're gonna do something bad

To hell with Eddie. Nobody is gonna talk to him again
if he lives to a hundred

Everybody knows you spit in his face,
that's enough, isn't it?

Give me the satisfaction. I want you at the wedding.
You got a wife and kids, Marco

You could be working till the hearing comes up,
instead of laying around here

- I have no chance?
- No, Marco. You're going back

- The hearing is a formality, that's all
- But him? There is a chance, eh?

When she marries him he can start to become an
American. They permit that, if the wife is born here

- Marco, tell the man
- What will I tell him?

- He knows such a promise is dishonourable
- To promise not to kill is not dishonourable

- No?
- No

- Then what is done with such a man?
- Nothing. If he obeys the law, he lives. That's all

- The lawn? All the law is not in a book
- Yes, in a book. There is no other law

He degraded my brother. My blood.
He rubbed my children, he mocks my work

- I work to come here, Mister
- I know, Marco

- There is no law for that? Where is the law for that?
- There is none

I don't understand this country

Well? What is your answer?

You have five or six weeks you could work.
Or else you sit here. What do you say?

- All right
- You won't touch him. This is your promise

Maybe he wants to apologise to me

This is not God, Marco. You hear?
Only God makes justice

- All right
- Good

- Catherine, Rodolpho, Marco, let us go
- I'll get Beatrice and meet you at the church

I'll be back in about an hour, Eddie

- Only God, Marco
- All right?

What, have I been talking to myself?

- Eddie, for God's sake, it's her wedding
- Didn't you hear what I told you?

You walk out that door to that wedding,
Beatrice, you ain't coming back

Why? What do you want?

I want my respect. From my wife.
Didn't you ever hear of that?

It's after three. We're meant to be there
already, Beatrice. The priest won't wait

Eddie. It's her wedding.
There'll be nobody there from her family

For my sister, let me go.
I'm going for my sister

Look, I been arguing with you all day already,
Beatrice, I said what I'm gonna say

He is gonna come here
He is gonna apologise to me

Or no-one from this house
is going in that church today

Now if that's more to you than I am, then go.
But don't come back

- You be on their side or on my side, that's all
- Who the hell do you think you are?

You got no more right to tell nobody nothing.
Nobody

- The rest of your life, nobody
- Shut up, Katie

- You're gonna come with me
- I can't, Katie, I can't

- How can you listen to him? This rat
- Don't you call him that

What are you scared of? He's a rat

- He belongs in the sewer
- Stop it

He bites people when they sleep. He comes
when nobody's looking and poisons decent people

- In the garbage he belongs
- No, Eddie!

Then we all belong in the garbage.
You, and me too

Don't say that. Whatever happened we all done it,
Catherine, and don't you ever forget it

Now go, go to your wedding, Katie.
I'll stay home

Go. God bless you,
God bless your children

- Eddie?
- Get outa here. Who said you could come in here?

Marco is coming, Eddie.
He's praying in the church. You understand?

Catherine, I think it is better we go.
Come with me

- Eddie, go away, please
- Eddie, let's go some place. Come. You and me

I don't want you to be here when he comes.
I'll get your coat

- Where? Where am I going? This is my house
- What's the use of it?

He's crazy now, you know the way they get,
what good is it?

You got nothing against Marco,
you always liked Marco

I got nothing against Marco? Which he called me
a rat in front of the entire neighbourhood?

Which he said I killed his children?
Where you been?

It is my fault, Eddie. Everything. I wish to apologise.
it was wrong that I do not ask your permission

- I kiss your hand
- Eddie, he's apologising

I have made all our troubles.
But you have insult me too

Maybe God understand why you did that to me.
Maybe you did not mean to insult me at all

Eddie, listen what he's telling you

I think, maybe when Marco comes,
if we can tell him we are comrades now...

- Now, listen...
- Eddie, give him a chance

- Eddie, what do you want?
- I want my name

He didn't take my name, he's only a punk.
Marco's got my name

And you can run tell him, kid, he's gonna give it
back to me in front of this entire neighbourhood

Or we have it out.
Come on, take me to him. Where is he?

- Eddie...
- I heard enough. Come on, let's go

Only blood is good?
He kissed your hand

- What he does don't mean nothing to nobody
- What's gonna mean something?

Eddie, listen to me.
Who could give you your name?

Listen to me,
I love you, I'm talking to you, I love you

If Marco'll kiss your hand outside, if he goes
on his knees, what is he got to give you?

- That's not what you want
- Don't bother me

You want something else, Eddie,
and you can never have her

The truth is not as bad as blood, Eddie.
I'm telling you the truth. Tell her goodbye forever

That is what you think of me?
That I would have such thoughts?

- Eddie Carbone!
- Yeah, Marco. Eddie Carbone

No, Marco, please! Eddie, please,
he has children

- Eddie, go in the house
- Maybe he come to apologise to me

Heh, Marco? For what you said about me
in front of the neighbourhood?

He knows that ain't right.
To do like that to a man?

Which I put my roof over their head
and my food in their mouth, like in the Bible?

Strangers I never seen in my whole life? To come
out of the water and grab a gilt for a passport?

To go and take from your own family
like from the stable, and nevera word to me?

And now accusations in the bargain!
Wiping the neighbourhood with my name like a dirty rag

I want my name. Marco, come on.
Gimme my name, we go together to the wedding

- Don't, Eddie
- No, Marco knows what's right from wrung

Come on Marco, tell the people.
Tell them what a liar you are

Come on, liar, you know what you done

Animal!
You go on your knees to me

You lied about me, Marco.
Come on now, say it

Most of the time now we settle for half,
and I like it better. But the truth is holy

And even as I know how wrung he was,
and his death useless, I tremble

For I confess that something perversely pure
calls to me from his memory

Not purely good, but himself purely

For he allowed himself to be wholly known

And for that I think I will love him
more than all my sensible clients

And yet, it is better to settle for half,
it must be

And so I mourn him,
I admit it, with a certain alarm