Original subtitles

(dramatic orchestral music)

(exciting orchestral music)

- Tod, are you sure about those figures?

$2.42 an hour for unskilled labor?

- $1.70 in cash and 72 cents in fringe benefits.

- Who cares about his fringes?

Let's tell him we want it all in cash.

- Yeah, you tell him.

There it is.

(exciting orchestral music)

(dramatic music)

- Once Albert, I felt like you do.

It's a terrible hunger, this famishing for flesh.

The kind of hate you can smell deep behind your eyes.

Like the fumes of a match.

But I've given my word and I'll do my best.

- Oh, you should be proud.

- You wish you were doing it, don't you.

- Yes. - This is no way to send

the doctor off, besides, it might be our last chance anyway.

It may take less than the 72 hours,

but it can't take more, they make that clear?

- They made everything perfectly clear.

- Even what happened to the others

before you when they got close?

- Particularly that, they showed me photographs.

- Doctor,

you forgot your bag.

- I don't suppose you've read Marcus Aurelius lately.

In his time he had the power of life or death

over most of the civilized world,

yet he was capable of writing these words.

The most complete revenge is not to imitate the aggressor.

We haven't come far in 2,000 years, have we?

(dramatic music)

- With the luggage please, Bartlett.

(whistling) Whatever you've got in there,

I sure hope it don't eat much, if it gains anymore weight

it won't be able to fly back in.

205, can do, Eddie?

- He could have a live alligator in there

as far as I'm concerned, as long as he and the rest of

the boys here don't add up to more than 1,500 pounds.

- Okay, partner, you can load up out there.

Okay, you look underfed, hop on.

Alright, step down.

Murdock.

Don't have anything in there against regulations, do you?

Like say, booze?

- Who needs it?

You're drilling for offshore gin, aren't you?

- That'd be the day.

Fielding.

- You know him?

- I don't think so.

Maybe I've seen a picture of him someplace.

Maybe in the papers.

Anyway, that isn't what I was thinking.

He looks out of place.

- How are you supposed to look

when you work on an oil rig, like a bum?

(dramatic orchestral music)

(gentle orchestral music)

- I'm Hanson.

- Stiles.

- You wait over there.

- Murdock.

- State room three.

Stow your gear and see Jenkins.

He's the roustabout pusher, he'll give you the word.

You're the 12 noon (speaking quickly).

Good to have you aboard.

Carson? - Right.

- Fielding, Joe's sure gonna be glad to see you, Fielding.

He's been short a foreman all morning.

You ever work on a rig before, Bartlett?

- No sir.

- [Hanson] They did tell you

in New Orleans what a roustabout does?

- Yes.

- Could be rough.

- I know, I need the money.

- Fair enough, see Jenkins, he handles the roustabouts.

State room three.

- That's Thompson's sack, he's on the Midnight Tower.

But we're gonna switch things around on Friday

so you'll all be working the same shift

and sleeping at the same time.

- You mean working and sleeping at the same time?

- Everybody gets one joke when he comes on.

- And you just went one over quota.

- You can stow your gear in one of them.

Number one, that's Thompson's locker.

- Why not?

- Down the hall is the storage room, compartment C.

You can put your suitcases in there.

You boys had your lunch?

- About the seats in the lunch hall,

has Thompson staked one of those out too?

- In there there's plenty of room for everybody.

First come, first serve.

- I'll brief him, Mr. Jenkins.

Somebody already has the lower,

and we thought we might take those two, so there's a locker.

Mr. Jenkins said we were supposed to unpack

and put our bags in the room down the hall.

- Oh, I can't do that, I need this with me.

- Well if you want to change in private,

why not use the bathroom?

- Yeah.

(dramatic music)

(machines whirring)

- That's the drill floor up there.

You being new and all, there's a lot to learn about rigs.

Like mud, you know what happens

we don't pump mud through our drill?

We're liable not to have our cuttings

brought back up the way we should.

We can ruin a bit in just about the time

you've been goofing off, Mr. Bartlett.

- I'm sorry, I just came up to get a drink of water.

- The next time you work in the mud room,

try the fountain in there, we keep it good and icy.

(dramatic music)

You thirsty too, Stiles?

(playful music)

(dramatic music)

- Mr. Thompson.

Saved a place for you.

- Oh, thank you.

Yeah sorry, I don't think I know you fellas.

- Murdock.

- Stiles. - Hi.

- State room number three.

- Oh, sure thing, you must be the other lower.

- Upper floor, your upper's sitting opposite you,

Mr. Barlett, Mr. Thompson.

Locker number one.

- Oh, pleased to meet you fellas.

I never did care to know a man just by his snore.

(laughing)

Good old Jenkins says he's putting you on the (mumbling)

on Friday, that way we all ought to get a snore together.

- Say Tommy, how come there's so many guys aboard here?

We were told there's only 23,

and there's seven days off and seven days on.

- Oh, we get to overlap three, four times a year

like this week whenever we get a deep one.

- [Buz] Deep one?

- [Thompson] Yeah, anything over 12,000 feet.

Then we get both crews aboard.

Every man (mumbling) aboard the rig, 46 of them.

And that's why it makes it hard to get a seat

at the 5 o'clock feeding like this week.

But don't you worry, this jam up will be over

by Friday noon, half the men will go to shore

and everything will be back to normal.

- So are we supposed to sign that pad too?

(speaking quickly)

(upbeat orchestral music)

(suspenseful orchestral music)

- I always thought mud was supposed to be soft and soothing.

- Here, try some of this.

(dramatic music)

(swelling dramatic music)

(door opening)

(swelling dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

(sighing)

- First day?

- [Tod] Second.

- Roustabout?

- The most accurately named job I've ever had.

Pusher has rousted us over, under, around, and about.

- You'll get the hang of it.

- I dunno, mud men, rough necks,

pipe liners, it's a different world.

- Don't forget the monkey board.

- Monkey board?

- Yeah, straight up 125 feet.

It's no bigger than two of those wash basins.

Derrick man works there, it's the best job on the tower.

You got time, you come on out, I'll show you.

Ask for Palmer.

- [Tod] Thanks, I'm Stiles.

(dramatic music)

- What damn fool put this in my pocket?

- Let me see.

Ooh-ee.

(suspenseful music)

- If that's supposed to be funny,

somebody tell me where to find the joker who thinks so.

(dramatic music)

What'll I do with it?

I can't just throw it in that trashcan right over there.

These were people.

- You mean you can't throw them away?

Why not?

They're dead.

- Why don't you try it, mister?

(dramatic music)

- Mr. Bartlett, about that picture.

- Ah, I shocked you, I'm sorry.

- No, you surprised me, even earlier than this morning.

I didn't sleep very well last night.

I know where the picture came from.

I saw the letter too.

I saw you take the dinner list

and compare it with the handwriting in the letter.

When it didn't compare you looked like somebody kicked you.

And then the pictures turns up in that fellow's pocket.

Why?

- You must have been dreaming.

- Shall we go to state room three right now,

look in your bag, and see if that letter isn't signed Paul?

- You shouldn't have done that.

- I was pretty ashamed, until this morning.

- You can't understand, at least be understanding.

- Of a stunt like that?

- You don't know the reasons.

Tod, if I may assume the familiarity,

forget what you saw last night.

Not only for the sake of the nameless dead,

for your own sake.

Quite possibly for your life.

Not that I threaten you, but I am here with

a legacy of embitterment, an escort of ghosts

calling upon me to do what I detest, what I must, I'm lucky.

(somber orchestral music)

I hope your life is long, that you never know

the blistering forces which sear and destroy.

Turn men into enemies and sweep them beyond

the last frontiers of compassion.

Once you've seen that dark, unceasing tide of faces,

faces of the victims bent to the ground,

their last spark of dignity so obliterated

that not one face is lifted to heaven,

not one voice is lifted in protest, even as they die.

Once you've seen that, you can never again

close your ears to the silence

of the slaughtered no matter how hard you try.

I have tried, even thought I'd succeeded.

But you see me here now.

And I can't turn back.

- Bartlett, Stiles, anybody tell you boys

we're on a tight schedule around here?

Stiles!

Do you want me to roust that paint for ya?

- Don't resent Mr. Jenkins, be grateful for him.

If he is what he seems, he has every right to be concerned

with paint and oil and sacks of drilling mud.

He's one of the lucky ones, Tod, one of the sane ones

in a world of gigantic insanity.

Go on.

(dramatic music)

Go.

- You sure you know what you're in for?

Why don't you just mix the paint?

Let one of the younger fellas shimmy out there?

- My name was on the detail, wasn't it?

I can go.

- You keep a firm grip on the handrail, don't look down.

(dramatic music)

- Well maybe we are on somebody's list,

but why won't he tell us whose?

- I don't think he knows.

(dramatic music)

(splashing)

(splashing)

(alarm sounding)

- Tod!

(yelling)

(yelling)

- They're trying to swing the net, (yelling).

(dramatic music)

(splashing)

- As far as I can see, there's no fractures, Mr. Bartlett,

but the X-ray will tell the rest of the story.

And I think you'd better turn in,

I'd say for the rest of the day.

Okay with you?

- You know it, doc.

I told you it could be rough.

You gotta watch it every second.

- This was no accident.

I tried to get some of the planking

when I was in the water but it was washed away.

Mr. Hanson, it broke too clean to be an accident.

As soon as he put his weight on one end of it.

- That's a pretty hairy accusation, Stiles.

- That's not what happened.

I slipped, tried to grab something, and the platform gave.

It was nobody's fault.

- Buz, you saw it.

- Yeah, I saw it, but it happened to Mr. Barlett,

not to you, not to me, so, he oughta know how it was.

- Well, you take it easy til morning.

Half the crew's going off at noon, things will settle down.

You need anything, you let me know, you hear?

- You must have been in the war, or in Chicago in the '30s.

Machine gun?

Well I think I only have one possible prescription,

I think I'll let you pour it yourself.

Take your time, stop in to see me tomorrow.

All three of you, huh?

- Mr. Bartlett?

Tod?

Buz?

Yeah, don't mind if I do.

Ah, not too much, no.

Like Tod said, it broke clean, I saw it, no accident.

Somebody set you up.

- Now he says it.

- Well it looked like Mr. Barlett

wanted to play it cool, so I cooled it.

Whoever you're bugging, he sure feels the hot breath.

- There's not much time left for subtleties.

Actually I want the pot to boil.

I was testing Hanson more than anything else.

- [Buz] And the doctor?

- It's not the doctor.

- How can you be so sure it's not?

- His eyes are the wrong color.

- This mystery man, don't you have a picture of him?

- No, they were all burned, even 20 years ago he was

careful, but I know his age and the color of his eyes.

- Well whoever you're looking for and haven't found,

he's certainly found you.

- And us, he saw us get off the copter with you,

he knows we share the same state room, do the same work,

and I'm willing to bet that he saw the three of us

pulled out this morning by Hanson, together.

- Don't you think we deserve to know?

- The less you know, the better.

One way or the other this must end by noon tomorrow.

Between now and then, see me as little as possible.

Stay as far away from me as you can.

- Mr. Bartlett, if someone saved me

from a trip down the gulf stream,

I'd show a lot more gratitude than you're showing.

I'd break out the facts.

At least let people know what's gonna hit them.

- Facts.

What are the facts of our man?

Can you touch his tongue with

a litmus paper and isolate him?

Are the facts a radiated view of a man's ribcage?

The leavings of Schutzstaffel and bullets?

Hardly.

But this is not what you want to hear.

You want to hear that my name is not really Bartlett,

but Daniel Torvalds, that I carry an automatic pistol

in my suitcase, and yet I teach,

or at least attempt to teach international law in Missouri.

Currently on a lecture tour, last heard Tuesday in Chicago,

due Monday in San Francisco, but mysteriously vanished

for one week, reconstituted as Frank Bartlett,

roustabout on an oil rig in the Louisiana tide lands.

(dramatic music)

These are the facts.

And what do they tell you?

Can they tell you how much of a man's life,

how many of those who were his very core

escaped him forever through the smokestacks of Auschwitz?

(sighing) Facts are but the small change

in a man's pocket to be jangled, spent on strangers.

We are not strangers.

And friends do not insist upon knowing too much.

(dramatic music)

- Hi.

Where's Buz and Tod?

- They'll be back soon.

- Say, you fellas aren't planning

on going to shore tomorrow, are you?

- I'm not.

- How 'bout Buz and Tod?

- I couldn't say.

- Well there ain't no sense in beating around

the brush about it, I got the word, confidential.

Some of the boys are planning on

throwing me a surprise party tomorrow.

It's my birthday.

Now, I ain't supposed to know about it but since I do,

I just want to make sure the three of you all are coming.

- Ah, we'll be there, thanks.

(playful music)

(suspenseful music)

- [Jenkins] Hot out tonight, huh?

- Oh yeah I chose pancakes for the midnight feeding

and I feel like I swallowed three discuses.

Or do you call them disci?

- Goodnight.

- Oh uh, cigarette?

Let me ask you something, Mr. Jenkins.

Now can you tell just by looking at me, I mean,

that every time I eat disci that

I (speaking quickly) and ask a lot of questions?

- Don't show.

- Well when you take that to note on the bulletin board

between the driller and (speaking quickly)

that says that every time you use a prong

you have to check the lines to make sure

that they're in tip top shape, you check the spinning chain

and the makeup chain and the back lines and the jerk lines.

You know I read that for 10 times before I gave up

and I wondered, could you explain that to me,

especially about the jerk lines?

- Sure thing.

(dramatic music)

- [Hitler On Record] Sieg heil!

(cheering and chanting)

Sieg heil!

(cheering and chanting)

Sieg heil!

(cheering and chanting)

(speaking in foreign language)

Sieg heil!

(cheering and chanting)

Sieg heil!

(cheering and chanting)

(record clicking off)

(dramatic music)

- Hey Shirley, come here!

(dramatic music)

- Johnny!

Send her up, huh?

(suspenseful music)

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

- [Announcer] Attention all personnel going off duty,

the 12:15 copter from Venice is now landing,

there will be one more pickup at 12:30.

(dramatic music)

- Still got Thompson stashed away?

- Why didn't you get paper plates like I asked you?

This'll be one fine mess to clean up.

- Is he still out there?

- He's out on a starboard pontoon with Johnny

fishing for yellowtails, stop worrying.

- Is Mr. Bartlett here?

- Not in here.

- Hey Palmer, doc wants to see you before you leave.

- But that is not what you wanna hear.

What you wanna hear is that my name is really

Daniel Torvalds, not Bartlett,

and that I carry an automatic pistol in my suitcase.

- He wouldn't have said it unless it were true.

- [Announcer] Attention all personnel,

the 12:30 copter is now landing.

Attention all personnel,

the 12:30 copter is now landing.

- Hey doc, what is it, I'm in a hurry.

(dramatic music)

(scoffing)

What's this, a gag?

- You've learned to talk like an American,

haven't you, Reinetz?

- Reinetz?

Look mister, you got your signals crossed.

- If I've made a mistake, I've done you

a terrible injustice and I'll apologize.

- You can't just pull a gun on a guy and scare him

half to death and then say sorry buddy, wrong guy.

What do you want?

- That X-ray table, get on it.

(scoffing)

- If I do, then can I go catch my helicopter?

I got someone waiting for me in town, you know.

- You're Otto Reinetz, a lot of people are waiting for you.

A judge, a jury, a nation.

Your head under here.

(machine whirring)

Otto Reinetz was never brought to trial in Nuremberg.

He suffered a concussion in the bombardment

when the Navy and Americans captured him.

Back of his skull was crushed and

a steel plate had to be inserted.

He escaped from the hospital 15 years ago.

(dramatic music)

- How did you know I was here?

- You sent a letter.

- He was my first teacher, he would not betray me.

- He was an old man, he died,

and neglected to take your letter with him.

- You needed an X-ray to uncover me,

I saw through you at once.

Your kind give off a smell, a smell of fear, subservience.

- Yes, I know.

If I smell of fear it's because I've been afraid many times.

If I smell of subservience, it's because I am subservient.

But not to you, Otto Reinetz, to myself,

and to what I've learned to believe in.

Now pick up that suitcase.

And open it.

Pull out this drawer.

Take that plate.

Put it in the suitcase, lock it.

We're going to leave together at 12:30,

we'll simply walk out and board.

The gun will be in my pocket, but trained on you.

You will get in first and sit in the last seat at the back.

When we land, others will meet you,

arrange for your care and transportation.

Now pick up that suitcase and walk to the door.

- I don't believe you can do it.

- I asked myself the same question.

Have you got the nerve to find out?

(dramatic music)

(suspenseful music)

- [Announcer] Attention please all personnel,

the 12:30 and final flight is now loading on the upper deck.

♪ Happy birthday to you

♪ Happy birthday to you

♪ Happy birthday dear Thompson

♪ Happy birthday to you

(laughing)

(crowd murmuring)

- Mr. Bartlett, we looked all over the rig for you.

We were supposed to meet you in the atrium, you didn't show.

- I left my suitcase in Thompson's bunk.

You know, there's some shirts I never wore,

a few ties, not very good, but do what you wish with them.

- [Tod] What next?

- You never saw us leave together.

Not Otto Reinetz nor Daniel Torvalds.

You walked Bartlett and Palmer to the plane and saw them

take off together arm in arm for a weekend somewhere.

(dramatic music)

(crowd chattering)

I'm sorry I can't shake your hands

but I'll think of you both very often.

(suspenseful music)

(dramatic music)

- Right in the bunk above me, how 'bout that?

After all those years, they finally got him.

They finally pulled him down.

(dramatic music)

(gentle jazzy music)

- [Announcer] This has been a Screen Gems

film presentation from Columbia Pictures,

Herbert B. Leonard, executive producer.