Original subtitles

(upbeat music)

- I'm glad I don't have any old

college buddies with a shrimp boat.

Biloxi, you said.

Didn't you say Biloxi?

- Okay, okay, so I said Biloxi.

When you fish for shrimp, you go where the shrimp go.

- You know, that sounds like

a motto a man can really live by.

(man grunting)

(dramatic music)

(man grunting)

- The next run with him, it will not go so easy.

- [Andre] Jean!

(dramatic music)

(Jean laughing)

- What if he cannot swim, eh?

- All dogs can swim, no?

(laughing)

(speaking in foreign language)

- Do something, my net is sinking.

- Well it's good, it's an old one.

It's like this old barnacle bottom,

this tub of ice, the Biloxi Queen.

- Don't talk to me.

I don't talk to you, you don't talk to me, okay?

- You all know Charlotte Duval is my woman.

And she know it too, huh.

- Oh sure.

- I'm gonna tell you what Jean,

you don't slap Charlotte today yes.

We have trouble on Grand Isle.

More trouble than be in that little pale of fish.

I say Jean.

Now we go get a cup of good cajun cafe huh.

We forget our troubles.

(upbeat music)

- Went to Caracas in that, the Biloxi Queen?

- That's what he said Tampico and Panama.

- You know your dad's barges Tod?

We've swabbed bigger than this.

Picnic weather, Brooklyn Heights, in our wake.

- Yeah at least this one's still afloat.

Mark.

Mark, we made it.

- Looks like it's Mark who made it.

- Well he never was much of a mechanic.

Maybe he needed her to get the engine in shape.

We're looking for Mark Chalmers.

- He's gone a long time now.

- Now there's a man who really follows his shrimp.

- Gone, why?

- It's bad fishing, the worst I remember.

No shrimp, no clams, even the browns have left.

So your friend he go to.

And I buy Biloxi Queen, I am the captain now.

- You?

- Why not me?

I know what he thinks, just a woman huh?

Just a clown in makeup, a masquerade,

a something to dance on the string

at the command of any passing man.

What does she know about the sea?

Well I'm telling you, my grandpere,

that was a piece of man that was,

a man to cross oceans and laugh at the wind

while the other men shook in their boots.

My grandpere taught my father, and my father he taught me.

Can you yankee boys learn any gale, huh?

Use a knife like a heathen in hot country ports?

Your kind I know, turns himself inside out

the minute he is in deep water.

Over the gun hole from himself he feed the fish.

You, what do you know about boats?

- Me, I launched my first ship when I was five.

49th and eight, after a heavy rain storm.

That ship sailed one block before

that sardine can sank with all hands aboard.

- Get off, get off.

Off my boat, off my boat.

You too off, off.

Imbecile.

(dramatic music)

- No wonder the shrimp left Grand Isle,

she scared them away.

- Let me see.

- Oh its nothing, the skipper had us figured for a mackerel.

Well what do we do now?

- First we better get something on that.

- You gonna be alright, no scar.

- Well thanks, what do we owe you?

- You keep, we need our shrimp come home.

- We heard things were bad.

- [Doc] Very bad.

- Wait, better not take that away.

- Charlotte, she one woman that one.

- It's bad?

- May never play at the philharmonic again.

- Don't let him get you, he can't even play a jukebox.

- You too are good friends, yes?

- We just sort of happened to be

traveling in the same direction.

- You know anything about the shrimp boat?

- Well we heard the song.

♪ Shrimp boats are coming

- Listen, you want to crew the Biloxi Queen?

- Well we drove down from New York

with something like that in mind.

- Yes, is deal, yes, okay, for you okay.

(speaking in foreign language)

Okay now you buy the grocery enough for ten day.

We need 16 tons, $7.60 a ton, $121.60.

I give you $60 okay.

Hey is the way, the crew he pay half,

the captain he pay the other half.

What have we got in the kitty?

- Not less than six or more than seven,

and that's not counting lunch.

- He means dollars, six or seven dollars.

- Look, this may sound a little crazy but

us the crew, what do we make?

- I divide the catch, one third for the captain

and one third for each of the crew.

- What do they pay for shrimp?

- $85 a barrel.

- And how many barrels can we take?

- 20, 30, who knows, sometimes papa

come in from the outside with 50 barrel.

- 20 barrels at $85 a barrel is $1700.

- Yes.

- That's almost $600 a piece.

- Sure.

- For ten days work?

- You're forgetting the shrimp it went two month.

- No shrimp hide from a Duval, I find him.

- You still own your own boat?

- Why sure?

- Then why aren't you out with the others?

The man said everybody else left this morning.

- I tell you what, I get credit

for the grocery and ice okay.

Where you stay in Grand Isle?

- We just got here.

- Go find Andre Cabateau, everybody know him.

You say Charlotte tell him to give you a house.

You pay him later okay?

Alright now I go back to the boat,

fix a little thing here and there,

and you come when you are ready, I wait for you.

Marvelous.

- You know I didn't know your friend Mark,

but I have the feeling that I wouldn't have felt the same

about him as I do about his replacement.

- You know she didn't answer the question.

- What question?

- Why she didn't go out with the others.

- She was waiting for us.

(suspenseful music)

- Mr. Cabateau

- Yeah.

- Charlotte said to look you up we need a place to stay.

Well, any kind of a place will be all right,

we're shoving off in a day or so.

- On the Biloxi Queen.

- I'm saying man must be six six in his boot,

he think to go outside the Biloxi Queen with that woman.

- We didn't see any quarantine signs.

- I think you gonna try boy.

Well, maybe, who knows.

- Try, why?

- To stand six six in your boot.

- This Charlotte, she married or something?

I mean, she got a jealous husband is that it?

- Charlotte, that one married?

(chuckling sardonically)

I tell her, I say Charlotte you listen to Andre.

Many a good storm I been through with your papa.

Now, he and your mama is gone.

Now is time for you to marry.

A good woman ought to get married.

Ought to make 12 kids.

My mama get 12.

But that one, she look me straight in the eye

and she say, Andre, how many kids did Joan of Arc get?

I tell you, that Charlotte she crazy,

but anybody touch her, I open him up, like catfish.

- Mr. Cabateau right now,

we're not looking for girls, just for work.

- Hey, you as crazy as she.

Well, okay, we all working men on Grand Isle.

There is a house, number nine,

it's second row, back of the wharf, she yours.

- We're a little short right now.

- No, no pay.

- Oh, well, I didn't mean--

- No, tomorrow, maybe sooner,

you gonna leave Grand Isle, I think.

Until then, number nine, she's yours.

(suspenseful music)

- What is it?

- The birds, man of war birds, he fly west toward mainland.

It's a bad thing.

(suspenseful music)

- You know, I had a landlord like that once.

All you had to do is mention man of war

and he'd be off to the bookies.

Maybe they're taking book on the birds here.

(both laughing)

(metallic grinding)

(suspenseful music)

- Aren't they back too soon?

Just one day?

- When papa was a boy there was a year like this.

(suspenseful music)

- [Radio] All military aircraft have been alerted

for take off and transfer inland.

If the squall continues to build,

this first hurricane of the season is to be called Audrey,

but at last report, wind velocity was still only 67 miles

an hour over Havana with the storm center moving

approximately 10 miles an hour in a northwesterly direction.

Barometric pressure remains above 30, sky and rainfall--

- Take the wheel now, will you

and drop me up onto the pier.

(suspenseful music)

The ship, she don't come.

So why waste your muscle?

- The man of war fly.

The bird she know, there will be hurricane.

- Is nothing, I hear on the radio

it's a squall still in Cuba, could turn south or east.

- Or west.

- Andre, I do not come here to talk weather.

What is the head of a man Andre?

He's a machine no?

The eyes they see, the ears they hear,

they pick a problem and she go round and round in the brain.

I see and I hear, my friends they are troubled.

Do you know the bank said to him

if he don't pay by next week they come take the boat.

La Port they come to take the boat already.

Also Benoit, also Gedree.

- Well, the bank he tried to understand.

The bank has given me money on the factory,

on the houses, right now, the bank can give no more

and I have give our friends all I have.

- Andre, I want you to go to bank

and ask them to give money against my boat,

because my boat is free and clear.

It's mine, it's all mine.

I work hard and got smile, so I take the money

and give to La Rue, La Port, Benoit and Gedree.

- And Duval?

- Charlotte.

- The bank take her boat too if she no can pay.

Oh Jean, you a good man,

but I think you keep one eye covered.

You keep covered too long, you go blind.

- She's a woman.

(Andre speaking in foreign language)

And she know how I feel.

- Let me tell you something Jean.

I understand woman, she is not like a fish.

You do not catch her with a net or a hook.

No, a woman she don't like to love all fists

and muscle in her man, she like to see

the little boy underneath the man's skin.

She like to have something to protect.

- I am not boy, I'm a man.

- Ah, okay, then I go talk to the bank,

I have them give you the money,

you give them paper for the boat,

then you help your friends La Port and all the others,

but not Duval

Jean, you put up one damn good fight yesterday.

You ready for more?

- Did the beau come back?

- Nah, these not like that dog yesterday.

These two boys from the north,

I give them house number nine.

They planning to help Charlotte take Biloxi Queen outside.

(dramatic music)

(upbeat music)

- It's like we were a couple Pied Pipers or something,

the way they hung around the dock and watched us.

Look at 'em, they just won't leave.

That makes you feel kinda good.

- Look like a pack of buzzards to me,

just hanging around, waiting for something.

- They sure picked a couple of live ones

when they picked us.

Do you think we oughta offer 'em something?

- Yeah.

- Yeah?

- Yeah, why don't you give 'em a 10 dollar bill each.

(upbeat music)

- We're going out on the Biloxi Queen in the morning.

When we get back, how'd you like to take a spin in that?

- We go now yes?

- Well, it's been kind of a long day.

We're shoving off pretty early in the morning.

It'll keep okay.

- Then we'll never get to go.

Jean, he comes soon and throw you in bayou.

- Oh, why should Jean want to do that.

- He throw everybody in the water,

everybody who try to work for Charlotte Duval.

- Well, uh, doesn't anybody ever throw Jean in the water?

- Nobody can do that.

- [Jean] Hey you!

- Thanks for the flash kid.

- I never like to hit a man until I know first.

- Know whether he's gonna hit you back?

- Is it true you sign on the Biloxi Queen?

- Whoa, whoa, wait a minute, let me talk to him.

- Ask him if we should change into our bathing suits,

we don't like to go swimming in our good clothes.

- Oh and if it is true, you leave now, you go, yes?

- Look, fella, who elected you mayor?

- Why this.

- Let's impeach the mayor.

- We made a deal with a lady, where do you fit in?

- Well, no men work for her.

- Why?

- Because I say so.

- He said so.

- Tell him to think of a better reason.

- Listen you, if you wanna talk to Jean,

you talk to Jean, not to this one, huh?

- Tell him I don't talk to Jean.

Tell him I said goodnight.

(punches landing) (Jean shouting)

(dramatic music)

Sometimes I ask myself who it hurts more,

the guy with the jaw or the guy with the knuckle.

(groaning)

- Hey, hey, still wanna take that ride?

(slow jazz music)

(knocking)

- A lucky punch.

- You remember Jean, I tell you

a woman like to see a weakness in her man?

Well, now there is a weakness, your jaw.

(chuckling)

- I have a jaw like a hammerhead.

But I'm telling you Andre, it was a lucky punch.

That's all, one lucky punch.

- I have heard it said you pass on the word

that nobody should tell Charlotte what happened.

Now, Jean, this is the time for her

to see the little boy in you.

You let it be told her what happened to you,

and she will love you.

- Love me, she will throw fish again in my face.

(Andre scoffing)

Anyway, I do not want a mother.

I want a woman and I do not want my woman to be a captain.

- And Charlotte believes that she was born to be a captain

like her papa and his papa.

Oh, you know Jean, sometimes I think

you two will never get together.

- (Chuckling) By next week.

When the bank, she come to take back her boat,

then she come to me, on her knees she come, no?

- Well, now I don't know Jean, she is a Duval.

If she go out in the morning,

she make all you fellas look like fools.

She is a witch with the shrimp.

- Andre, the shrimp is not to be found.

Not within a month's time.

And she will not go in the morning.

- Oh?

- Oh, they humbled me once,

but they will not take Charlotte Duval

to sea with them tomorrow, this I promise!

(dramatic music)

(quiet knocking)

- Charlotte, Charlotte.

- Andre?

- Ah, Charlotte, how many times I tell you girl,

to try to be like the others, huh?

- Andre, don't.

- Oh, well, don't tell me.

All right, I give up asking, okay,

you gotta be captain, then you gotta be.

I say no more.

Maybe I say too much already.

Now, who knows, maybe you can find the shrimp.

We need them, but I don't know Charlotte

if even your papa would go outside now,

not when the man of war, he fly to the west.

- Andre, you know papa would go.

- Yes, I know, but I say to you Charlotte,

if you go to try for the shrimp,

you better get those two fella

and go now, right away, right now.

Not in the morning, but now.

You do not have more than one day

outside, maybe even less.

So it take as long to get back from there

as it take to go out.

You do not go out to far ay?

- Andre don't worry.

(dramatic music)

Hey, wake up, wake up.

We must go to the dock, fast as you can, get up.

Idiot.

- Tod, he gets eight hours,

me I get what I can, when I can.

- Listen, wake him up please.

Come to the dock as fast as you can, we must go.

- Hey, go where?

- To find the shrimp.

(dramatic music)

(birds calling)

(suspenseful music)

- We are leaving.

Someday, someday you know how it feels.

(suspenseful music)

(upbeat music)

- You, you can hold a course, yes?

- Bearing two 55?

- Okay, hold it.

- Where's the radio?

- Who needs?

- No navigation aids, no piezometer, no radar?

- I choose god, not radar.

- No maps or navigational charts either.

- In here, every rift, every bayou,

every island, every shore all right in here

and all the dips between yes huh?

- And recipes?

- Recipes?

- Yeah, when do you start cooking dinner?

- Me?

I am captain, not cook.

(upbeat music)

- What island did she say this was?

- I don't know she's not even speaking to me.

(dramatic music)

(bells tolling)

- Quick, now there is little time,

I hear the bell off Father Duboix.

You don't hear it?

That bell rings only when there is danger.

- Who rings it?

- We say the finger of god tapped the bell

to warn the men at see.

(speaking in foreign language)

(dramatic music)

Think I'm like a loon, huh?

When I go ashore, I look across the water

to the mainland, there is a delta,

but only here is the way you find the way the eddy go.

You understand?

Like the year she goes under the water,

this way and that, she makes a natural churning,

a trail to the west, that way is where you find

the schooling of the shrimp.

You take huh?

Ah, is so easy you know,

but how can I be romantic when Jean is such a

(speaking in foreign language)

So I must prove to them, it's the only way.

Papa, he tell me where I find the shrimp.

I see him there on that island,

beyond the clouds, pass the sunset.

- How come he's way out here,

why not back at Grand Isle?

- He's not here either,

but this place, I feel close to him.

This is where he died.

When I am 13, he bring me here once

to meet Father Duboix, oh what a man that Father Duboix was.

He built that church with his own hands,

so the fisherman, they don't have to leave the sea

to go to mass, huh and my father say to me once,

listen Charlotte, so I listen,

and I hear that bell and I see the fleet come,

over the water like angels they come,

with their nets sprayed out like wings.

That is when I am 13, but when I am 19,

there is a big wind from the south, a hurricane, you know?

All the fishermen they run their boats

far up the bayou, far inland, but not papa.

He come to sea, come to carry Father Duboix home,

but papa, Father Dubouix, we never find them.

This place is like this after that storm.

Only the wind, the waves and I come back.

- Anybody game for my turtle sauce picante?

- It's the only thing he can make.

- Wouldn't bet on that.

- Whatever you make I like.

(dramatic music)

(suspenseful music)

- Jean!

Jean I don't see how we can go much further.

We're headed straight into it.

- I'm still the captain, yes?

(suspenseful music)

- I'll take over now, you go eat.

Go on, we can handle it.

- Okay.

(whistling contentedly)

- Creole jambalaya, it's got everything in it,

but the shrimp.

- We'll have him by dawn.

- Or he'll have us.

- You do this?

- Well, I'll tell you.

I signed on this hail boat with this captain

who was some kind of a nut.

(giggling)

You know, someday you're gonna

have to do something about that.

- About what?

- The fact that you're not a man,

no matter how much you might wanna be.

- I would rather be a barracuda than a man like most men.

You are good at cooking.

- But not minding my own business.

- That's right. (giggling)

- Like the library in the bunkhouse.

- What is wrong to read?

- Oh no, some of our best people do,

but not all on the same subject.

The rights of women, biographies on Joan of Arc,

Queen Bess, Florence Nightingale,

Susan B. Anthony, this is not a war.

- Scrub woman, scrub, bear the child,

wait for me to come home, don't tell me there's no war.

Even mama was such a good one as papa.

What does she do all her life, she wait.

You know, she could not see her hand

this close in front of her face,

but she could see a gull in the sun, why?

Because for 20 years her eyes are glued

on the horizon watching for papa.

When she know papa is lost and she never see him again,

she sit in her house and she rock

and she stay in that house and she die.

Not Charlotte Duval, never.

I will share the sea with my husband.

No weeping at home for me,

the waves will rock me to sleep,

not a chair with a squeak.

- I don't believe you, that's not what you really want.

That's only what you think you want.

No woman can be independent, not, not really.

You just can't be.

The only way a woman can win the battle

you're fighting Charlotte, is to let herself lose it.

- First I die.

(dramatic music)

(wind howling)

- Try 'em on 2738.

- This is the Grand Isle Coast Guard Marine Operator

calling troller Conquistador, come in Conquistador.

- Andre, what is Jean's output power?

- Uh, he have battery 12 volt, that give him 41.

- Well, that's good for over a hundred miles.

He should be able to call in.

- Unless he go out more than hundred miles, yes.

- With Audrey heading this way?

- If you love one girl, Lieutenant,

named Charlotte, what is another girl named Audrey,

even if she is hurricane?

- This is the Grand Isle Coast Guard Marine Operator

calling troller Conquistador, come in Conquistador.

(wind howling)

- The antenna's off, she is broke clean off from the wind.

(bells tolling)

- The bell!

The bell of Father Duboix.

(dramatic music)

- Here, we try, yes?

- Looks the same to me.

- No, no, from here you can see the tide line.

The little fish, they are like birds, they migrate.

Only they do not have a nest, they have a coastal shelf.

You remember all I teach you, huh?

- First we use the try troll right?

- Right and we keep the fingers crossed huh.

I take over.

- Skipper says this is the place.

- I looked outside, all I saw was red, red sky

and you know what they say.

- I'll bite, what do they say?

- It's the calm before the storm jazz,

you know, red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.

- Shakespeare?

- Red sky in the morning, oh yeah.

I was reading Taming of the Shrew.

I thought there might be a couple of hints

on how to handle the skipper.

- Were there?

- And now I see her lances are but straw,

her strength as weak, her weaknesses past compare.

- Come on, come on.

(dramatic music)

- How long do we do this?

- 10 minutes she said, to see if it's worth

using a double troll.

- How long do we do them?

- Two hours at least.

- I hope her sense of timing is good.

That mess out there, it's not as far off as it looks.

(suspenseful music)

- Bring it in.

(suspenseful music)

Charlotte!

(dramatic music)

- Oh, look at them.

It's the big one we call lobster shrimp,

he brings the most money at the dock.

Hey, (speaking in foreign language)

why you try to hide from Charlotte huh?

Thank you papa, Charlotte she thank you.

All of Grand Isle thank you, they say you are still

the best man on the fleet.

(giggling)

- They might even say that about you skipper.

- You know what we do with these shrimp?

We take him in the left hand,

the right hand, she break off the neck

and peel him half way down to the tail.

The left hand she break off the tail,

the right hand she throw the meat in the basket so.

Okay, now we take out the twin nets

and we drag all along the bottom here.

We bring in many barrel, but the storm is nearing,

so we only have two hour

and then we must run for Grand Isle,

but don't worry, papa show me how to cross many times.

- Except, once, just once, he didn't.

(suspenseful music)

- I guess you had to say that huh?

- Yeah, I had to.

(dramatic music)

(thunder crashing)

(wind howling)

(thunder crashing)

(wind howling)

- Let me take it.

- I'm all right, go help Buz.

(waves crashing)

- [Tod] Okay down there?

- Okay!

(storm roaring)

(waves crashing)

- There's a light off the starboard bow.

- [Jean] Help!

Help!

(thunder crashing)

- Tell her to slow down.

- Just off the starboard, 20 or 30 yards.

- Okay.

(thunder crashing)

(waves crashing)

(thunder crashing)

(storm roaring)

(waves crashing)

(storm roaring)

- Henri, Poussin, they're still in the water!

(suspenseful music)

(dramatic music)

- Oh, goodbye Audrey.

- Like always, she come from the east,

she finish by the west.

- Chin off the floor Andre,

those shrimp trollers are rugged.

- [Radio] Navy NC4232 to Grand Isle

Coast Guard Marine Operator.

Shrimp troller bearing one eight one from Weeks Island

on a heading due north for Grand Isle.

(sentimental music)

- How does it feel?

You bought the whole enchilada,

you found the shrimp, you proved you were a better man

than the best they had to offer.

Today is kingdom come day.

- You are the most cruel man in the whole world.

- Oh, no, skipper, I'm just the guy

you let your hair down with.

I'm the guy you finally were a woman with.

I've never even held your hand.

- Hold ours.

- You're almost home skipper.

(dramatic music)

(upbeat music)

(crowd shouting)

(speaking in foreign language)

(crowd exclaiming)

- How many barrels would you say that is?

(Andre speaking in foreign language)

(exclaiming)

(speaking in foreign language)

(crowd applauding)

(dramatic music)

- A Duval, a true Duval.

- Did you send Jean after me?

- Oh, not in many years have I seen such shrimp.

You sure you can find the bed again?

- Did you send Jean after me?

- No one send Jean Poussin where he does not choose to go.

- Because of me he lost the Conquistador.

- Oh, he will try again, he is young.

When I am his age, I am losing six ships already.

He will try again.

- All right, now we have the shrimp, we have enough money,

the bank she cannot take my boat from me,

I want you to right a paper that gives my boat to Jean.

Then when he earns enough money,

I take my boat back and I go to sea again.

(sentimental music)

- Andre, you're right, I'm a pig.

I'm a (speaking in foreign language)

I choke with my pride, but all the time,

it's not the pride, it's the heart.

It's a heart so full with love for you Charlotte

that it stopped me from saying what I say right now.

I cannot take your boat, I cannot take you.

I was not good enough man for you.

I didn't even go to the storm to save you,

I just went because I wanted to drag you back.

That's how I started, but instead I...

(dramatic music)

- Oh Jean.

- Can a boat not have to captains?

A boat can have two captains.

(sentimental music)

- At least we're rich, almost.

Say, aren't you the fella that once said,

speaking about girls, they're all nice kids.

- Yeah, I'm the fella, that's me.

Look.

- [Tod] Books?

- House cleaning day on the Biloxi Queen.

Goodbye to Queen Bess

and Florence Nightingale, Susan B. Anthony.

- And Charlotte Duval?

- And Charlotte Duval.

(dramatic music)

(upbeat music)

- [Announcer] This has been a Screen Gems

Film Presentation from Columbia Pictures.

Herbert B. Leonard, Executive Producer.