Original subtitles

(mysterious music)

- Laura, remember now,

tomorrow morning 8:30 sharp.

Laura?

Your parole officer, Mr. Regal, will drive you to work.

He'll even go in with you if you want him to.

That's your decision.

Goodbye.

(ominous music)

- Sheba girl, what kind of thanks is this?

You know, the bus won't be here for a couple of hours.

I can have you home by then.

Maybe those walls are so thick

that you didn't hear who your friend was.

The boy that pushed your parole,

little old boy that went to bat for you,

making restitution for that money,

getting your job back.

That little old boy was me, sheba, me.

You know they were saying down in the sherriff's office

how when they lock up a girl she gets fat,

fat and flabby,

she gets old looking before her time

but not you, sheba,

you just as rangy as ever.

- Breakfast, lunch and dinner I've been on a special diet,

seven months, I've never had enough of it,

hating you.

- Well you didn't leave me nothing else I could do.

It's like a little puppy dog,

you gotta spank her till she's housebroke.

I had to spank you.

- I don't know when or how

but I'm gonna destroy you, Woody,

I'm gonna make you the sorriest man that ever lived.

- I only did it 'cause I love you.

Well how do you think it was for me,

you being away, locked up behind them walls,

locked up away from me?

(ominous music)

Well, Laura, don't run from me.

Don't run, Laura.

- So what do we do if she rents the room?

- Mazel tov.

(jazz music)

- Get the baggage sir?

- Yeah, everything but sleeping bags.

Hey, come on.

(sexy music)

Boy, this is the place.

- Hey, bell keep.

- How's this for living, huh?

Yeah, this is the place.

- You know how long it took us to find that room

at Ms. Coindexter's boarding house.

Now when are you gonna get a better deal than that?

Clean sheets every Friday,

private bath,

continental breakfast with a heated danish

all for $15 a week.

- For i've got the world on a string.

Come on, you'll adjust to it.

- You want anything, just dial.

- Yeah, thanks.

Oh, there you are.

- Thank you, sir.

- You're welcome.

- You gave him a dollar.

- Start it off.

- Are you aware

that we're only making a dollar and a quarter an hour?

- Well, that puts us two bits in the lead.

- Okay, nirum, how much does this place cost?

- Oh, come on, it's only for one week.

Besides we've got $520 in the bank,

we've got $110 in our kick

and a steady job.

Everybody needs a little relaxation and some luxury,

even us.

So why don't we comb the burrs out of our hair

and get the tumbleweed out of our shoes and yeah?

- Okay, you win.

- Ah.

- Hmm.

You know we gotta go to work?

- Mmhmm, gotta go to work.

- Yeah, we really gotta go to work.

Come on, let's go.

- [Pedro] I understand.

- I'll bet you don't.

- It's my business, Laura, betting on people.

- You must go bankrupt 20 times a day.

- Every time you don't,

it makes the times you do durable.

Shall I go in with you?

- I wish you could go in instead of me.

- Buenos dias, Pedro.

- Buenos dias, Senor Lengua.

- Morning, Laura.

Laura, try to look at it this way,

experience isn't just what happens to a person,

experience is making what happens to you count.

End of speech now.

Come on in and go to work.

- 12.

- Thank you, Laura.

- Two spoons of sugar, Miss Laura?

Do you still use two spoons of sugar?

Miss, Laura, coffee?

(yelling)

- Hey, hey, the panic's over.

I'm sorry.

- Don't you be nice to me too.

- Now there's a compliment I haven't had from too many kids.

- I'm sorry.

I could stand anything except those smiling faces,

forgiving me,

the calculated niceness,

the deliberate not mentioning it.

- Oh, you must be Laura Church,

the girl who--

- Took the money.

- What's the big emotional jazz?

You did your time.

Society's got its pound of flesh.

New slate.

- At least you're willing to talk about it.

- Why not?

Most people are in jail of one kind or another

but they don't know about it.

Okay, so you made the real scene

and you know what it's about.

Now you can enjoy life.

What's the beef?

- I didn't take the money.

- Some of my best friends are innocent.

Guys I grew up with except they get their mail at Sing Sing

and their suits run in stripes

but they didn't do it either.

(ominous music)

(mumbles)

- Hey, Joe, don't be standing around.

Go down and check on what time those trucks are coming.

Oh and Joe, give me some cigarettes.

You're gonna make me ask.

- I did what you wanted.

Furs, jewelry, clothes.

- I don't know what I'd do without you, Hannah.

- Find someone else for the job, I guess.

- Ah, but nobody else could.

- Would you mean.

- What's troubling you?

- Why don't you leave her alone?

- Hannah, you know that little cow pony of mine,

the way when he's running

he's reaching out there for the wind

just for the pleasure of it,

trying to beat the sunset on the horizon?

Well, that's me, trying for sheep

just for the pleasure of the race

and knowing I gotta win it no matter what.

Now, Hannah, you and me, we been together too long

to have any misunderstandings now.

You're a fine woman, Hannah.

You're real fine.

(dramatic music)

- If you promise not to break my jaw,

I'll tell you a secret.

We're driving right through the center of town.

No lectures, no strings, no bus tolls.

How about it?

- I'll wait for the bus.

- I'll wait for the bus, thanks.

- No favors.

It's just that you're the prettiest girl we've seen in Texas

and we figure you deserve door to door service.

- We'll even ask ourselves up for a little drink.

- When you're on parole you're not allowed to drink

or fraternize with men

or don't you know the rules?

- There's nothing in the rules against common courtesy

is there?

Look Ms. Church, everybody's been knocking themselves out

trying to make things comfortable for you

but you don't want to let go of it do you?

You want to go right on suffering.

Well...

Let's go, Tod.

(ominous music)

- Where'd you get a key?

- Jerry.

Yeah, he and me,

we used to share almost everything together.

You know, you oughta get out of this dump.

It's no good.

It's full of a lot of bad memories.

Bad memories got a way of kinda hanging on

like iron hangs onto a magnet.

That's why I got you all these nice things over here,

dresses and the fur and all the sweet snow in Fort Wayne.

I know what you like and I know what you hunger for.

Like these records,

a lot of new albums come out since you've played these.

You like to dance and go for a long ride in the car.

- How would you know?

- Jerry told me.

Jerry told me all about you Sheba.

Jerry used to like to kind of brag.

- You're a filthy liar.

I oughta kill you, Woody.

- Well, I see Mr. Regal hasn't told you yet.

I'm your advisor,

that's right,

appointed by the board of pardons and paroles.

Now, every month when they send your parole report in

down at the bottom of that page is a little space

and that's for me,

for my comments and my recommendations

since I'm responsible for your behavior.

Don't you forget that, Sheba.

Oh come on, Sheba, honey,

you just don't want to face life like it really is,

the facts.

I know you.

I know you better than Jerry ever could.

I know what you're like,

I know what kind of people you come from

and I know what you need.

Why don't you take a look behind Jerry's picture?

Go on.

I stopped, Woody.

No, when Jerry and I were married I stopped.

You know that, Woody, you know I stopped.

Of course when Jerry died and I was all alone again

I had to try to forget so--

- There is only one way to forget a man, Sheba,

that's with another man.

- Get out.

Get out!

Get out!

Take your parkas, jackets, get out!

Get out!

Get out!

- Yeah you really did it, Sheba.

You threw it all.

The fur and the dresses, that lovely smelling toilet water,

yes, sir, you threw it all

but I noticed one thing,

you didn't throw that bottle of whiskey did you?

Bye, Sheba.

- What'll it be, gentlemen?

- Two martinis, very dry, please.

- Y'all must be new round El Paso.

You ever hear of Alamogordo?

- Yeah isn't that the place

they exploded the first atomic bomb?

- That's right.

Well, that's only about 60 miles from here, see,

and there was a scientist on that project

and that man was a stickler for dry martinis.

So what he done was he took a bottle of dry vermouth

and he attached it to the bomb,

you get the picture,

so that way when it blows, the vermouth blows too

and it gets all mixed up in the atmosphere.

Well, ever since then we got around here

what we call vermouth fallout.

So what I do is every night about six o'clock

I set out my martini glasses,

let 'em soak up the outside air a little bit

and I bring 'em back in,

pour in the straight gin.

My friends, I want to tell you that around El Paso

we have got the driest martinis in the world,

plus a built-in chain reaction.

- Well, we're in your hands.

- Look a little lonesome over there.

- I think the two by the window are better.

- You mean by the curtain?

You're kidding?

- Let's flip.

- Heads.

- Heads.

- There you are.

That'll make you glow in the dark.

Not dry enough?

- I'm an old customer, Herman, leave me alone.

Hey, hey, wait a minute!

Hey, wait a minute, let's go.

- Thank you.

- Oh, oh.

- That a girl.

- Woody knew this would happen,

Woody knew this would happen.

Woody, the big, rich, cattleman.

All the muscles in the world,

all the money in the world,

all the friends in the world.

Put me in front of those bottles, Sheba,

and I won't let you drown,

not if you let me touch you,

not if you let me hold you,

crush, crush, crush you.

- Easy,

that a girl,

that's a girl,

come on.

That's enough.

Even a polar bear couldn't take it.

- Try it again.

Once more, clearer.

- What's that stuff all about?

- A sobriety test in New Mexico City.

If you can pronounce the name of that volcano,

you gotta be sober.

Oh come on, let's hear it again.

That sounds good.

(heavy breathing)

- I must've stood out like a boil.

- Nobody saw you,

just half of El Paso.

There's your clothes.

Come on, hurry up, get dressed.

- Will you zip me up, please?

- How do you feel?

- Better.

Only been out 24 hours.

I just better secede from the human race.

- Well you had some pressure on you

and you just let your hair down.

- Pressure, that's the story of my life.

I'm suffering from a case of the bends.

It's when you go to deep.

I wouldn't mind if I could drag Woody down with me.

- It's that name again.

- Why not?

Some people got smallpox, I got Woody.

He's the one who set me up, you know,

the one who arranged it.

I know you don't believe that but that's alright.

I guess you don't care anymore.

You forget where the truth ends and where the lies start in

and everything gets all mixed up.

There's one thing I'm not mixed up about,

that's Woody Biggs.

I don't know how he got the money out of the safe

but he did,

$3,800.

I was a cashier for a first continental company then.

Jerry'd been dead about four months.

It was vacation time

and I was driving down to New Orleans to visit his folks.

State police stopped me just outside Fort Worth.

They searched my car,

they found $2,000 under the front seat,

brought me back for trial.

The worst part of it was the company believed I was innocent

till it came out that I had paid off $1,800 in bills

a week before I left.

I told the court Woody had given me the money.

He was Jerry's friend and his employer.

Then Woody took the stand.

He said he'd never given me a cent.

Here it is seven months, 22 days later.

(knocking)

- [Woody] I've come for Laura.

- Laura, it's for you.

- Well, Sheba,

I heard maybe you'd been drinking a little bit.

- Why not?

Isn't that the way you planned it?

- Now, Sheba, honey,

you shouldn't lie like that in front of strangers.

Why would I do a thing like that?

I'm responsible for your good behavior to the parole board.

Well, I guess I just can't let you out of my sight.

- Woody, please, just go away, please, go away.

- Come on, Laura, let's go.

- Bye, Woody.

(dramatic music)

- Laura, Laura, Laura!

(dramatic music)

- Come on in.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Looks like we took a ride for nothing.

- There's some life over there.

- Can I help you?

- Maybe.

We're looking for a particular kind of bull.

- Woody Biggs.

- The question is whether he's a brave bull.

We figure we'd like an answer.

- We need to get an account settled.

- I do the books for him.

I could help you.

- Well this is kind of a personal account.

We figure we'd like to get it settled this morning

while the brew still shows.

- You both look intelligent.

Be intelligent.

Be gone before he comes back.

- Well, we can't do that.

It's like when a pilot crashes.

If he's able to walk,

they get him right up there again to fly.

That's the way it is with us.

You understand?

- I don't expect him back for hours.

- We'll wait.

- You'll have to excuse me, we're busy around here.

(mooing)

- You know, somebody should invent a horn

to stampede women like that.

- What do you think?

Should we forget this joker

or hang around and we come back?

- Oh, let's cut out, leave a message with the umpire.

- We're leaving now.

Tell Biggs I said he was a slob.

If I catch him with Laura Church,

I'll pack him in cotton.

(ominous music)

- Oh, Woody.

- Call Doc Evans.

- She did it.

- Hold your tongue, Hannah and just call the doc.

- Woody, won't you ever see?

- I'll call him myself.

- Oh, Woody, why don't you leave her alone?

She'll kill you yet.

- Hannah, you're getting all worked up about nothing.

Laura didn't do this.

One of them bulls over there gored me.

You saw it happen, didn't you?

Didn't you, Hannah?

- I'll call your doctor.

- What's the matter with you boys?

Ain't you ever seen a man gored before?

That was the way it happened.

Anybody say it didn't,

well they're gonna have Woody Biggs on their back

and that's a mighty heavy burden.

Now, what's on your mind?

- It'll keep.

- Mr. Regal?

- Yes?

- We work with Laura Church.

This is Buz Murdock,

I'm Tod Stiles.

- How do you do?

- We're friends of hers

and frankly we're a little concerned.

There's some things we want to ask you.

- Huh?

- Well, I guess it sounds like none of our business

but that's the way friends are.

- What do you want to know?

- Laura claims that this Woody Biggs

stole the money from the company

and made it look like she did it.

- She was tried and convicted

according to the facts and evidence available.

Whether the facts are just or unjust,

whether the evidence is circumstantial or not circumstantial

that is not for me to say

but now Laura Church has rejoined society

and whatever I can do to make sure she doesn't fail it again

or that it doesn't fail her,

this I will do.

That she should accuse Mr. Biggs,

well, she made quite an issue of it at the trial,

yet he overlooked it.

He repaid all the money that was stolen,

he turned every wheel in Texas to have her released

the first moment she was eligible for parole.

Are these the acts of an enemy?

- He really is her advisor.

- Look, we've been around,

we see a lot of people.

We don't usually get this feeling about our own girl.

- Don't you?

The more you get around,

the more you come to know,

feelings are usually wrong.

They're based on all kinds of shifting sense,

memories, triumphs, emotions,

prejudice and all kinds of disguises all mixed together,

all self serving.

Laura Church is a lovely looking girl

and like most of society,

you tend to judge her biologically.

You either do not know about or prefer to ignore

the scar tissue inside which a pretty outside conceals.

When my son is grown, will he remember this Sunday?

The sun on his face,

the love of a father to lean on

or like Laura Church,

will he have parents whose lives have set a bad example

causing him to grow beautiful to see

but inside, bleak, lonely and desperate?

- Thank you, Mr. Regal.

- Thank you.

Laura needs friends, the right ones.

Well, time for the baby's nap.

Bye now.

- You know, maybe we owe this guy Biggs an apology.

He finds Laura in our room,

he could've figured us for a couple wise guys.

- So why'd she try to cob him up?

- Well, you saw what he did,

he covered for her,

told us to forget it.

You know, he makes a lot of sense.

Good looking girl, a Saturday night, a sad story,

we could be wrong too, you know.

- Mmm, smell that air.

They say the best things in life are free

so take a deep breath 'cause it's the real stuff.

- Good for the long view and hangovers.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean that.

I'm glad you brought me up here.

At least up here I don't feel like a mud worm

or tomorrow's headline.

Don't I sing a sad song?

- You got it bad.

- Yeah, how do you get it good again?

- Well, if I knew that,

we could package it and make a fortune.

Smell that air.

Why'd you bring me up here?

- That's a silly question.

Did you ever look in the mirror?

- You haven't made a pass.

- Well, I just got here.

- But you're not going to.

- Oh, what do you

got some kind of special radar or something?

- The best.

- Okay, so we talk.

We were at the pens this morning

when Biggs came back from town.

He looked like someone used him for a sardine can.

He wouldn't let on who did it.

Why?

- Why did I do it?

- I suppose I could figure that.

He pushed you in a corner and you pushed back with a knife.

Why did he cover for you?

That doesn't make sense.

- Woody didn't push me.

He didn't come near me.

No, Woody didn't come near me this morning.

He stood by Jerry's picture and he said,

"Sheba, honey, you're about done running.

"Maybe you don't know it but I do."

Then something kind of blew up in my head

remembering how Jerry died.

Crushed in those pens by running cattle

and how right after that Woody started coming around

calling me Sheba

and then like somebody turned on a light there it was.

- What?

- What he meant was Beth Sheba,

David and Beth Sheba,

the king who took the captain

so he could take the captain's wife.

- That's a long jump, Laura,

and it's a rough accusation.

- Could be, Woody was there when it happened.

And then when it didn't work out for him,

he tried to break me by having me put in jail

and then getting me out on a string.

I felt that string pulling me this morning,

pulling me toward him.

So help me for a minute,

I wanted him to keep pulling me toward him.

I ran into the kitchen, I got the knife

and I struck at him.

Do you understand?

I struck at him.

- Because of what he did to Jerry?

- Because of what he almost did to me.

- Well what happens now?

- I don't know.

When I cut him, everything went out of me.

I don't know if I'll have the strength next time

to strike at him.

(ominous music)

- Now whim, will you listen and not be so stubborn?

You know, we could come out of this looking pretty stupid.

- Look aren't you the guy that always says

don't look for the logic in human contact.

Expect the unexpected and you'll never be disappointed.

- Well, that's for other people.

It doesn't give us a license to be kooks.

- What about that other jazz you're always talking about?

That Freudian stuff about secrets?

- I'm not always talking about anything.

It's just I learned a few things in school

and I try to pass them on

so you too can be a real popular kid.

- Okay, let's hear it.

- What?

- What Freud has to say about secrets.

- Well, Freud says we can't keep secrets,

that self betrayal oozes from every pore

and that the unconscious need for self punishment

has to be considered one of the most basic forces

shaping the destiny of man.

- So, let's give it a try.

You gotta watch out for these little accidents

around the house.

One sure way is to stay out of other people's kitchens.

Where is he?

- Get her out of town.

Today, tonight, but get her out of El Paso.

- The parole board might take a dim view of that.

- That'd be better for everybody.

The worst she could get is the rest of her sentence.

- Lady, you ever been locked up for one month?

- Not one month, two months, years,

ever since I came here.

- Well I don't see any leg awnings and manacles.

- They don't show, do they?

- There's a lot of things around this place that don't show.

Where was Jerry Church killed, which pen?

See, Freud was right.

- Who are you?

What do you want?

Why do you come around here and make trouble?

- We haven't made any trouble.

Why do you say we're making trouble?

- You saw it, didn't you?

How did it happen

and where was Biggs when it was all happening?

Well, I guess we'll ask the big man himself.

- Maybe we've all been through enough for today.

- Get 'em ready to load 'em into number four.

- Woody, they've been asking questions

but I didn't tell them anything.

- Questions?

- About Jerry.

- Well, what about Jerry?

- How he was killed.

- Right out here,

sudden stampede.

Herd of cattle just like this one,

Mexican mesa cattle,

rodeo style.

- Hannah told us how it happened.

- I said nothing.

- You said nothing about what?

- I'm gonna get me a man for a bookkeeper.

I've been meaning to for some time.

Women they ain't got no savvy.

Ain't that the way you boys see it?

- Woody.

- If you boys want to talk to me,

you can tell her to leave.

I can't stand the sight of her.

You can tell her that I'm gonna take me a wife any day now

and wives are kinda funny

about having females on the payroll.

- Why don't you tell her?

Let's say Hannah was right.

Let's say that Jerry was in there

and that you started the cattle running.

- Say anything you want,

don't bother me now.

- The horn, that could've started them.

- Why don't the two of you clear out of here?

I was out late last night and up early this morning.

Just 'cause I got a few stitches under my arm

don't mean I can't use them.

That's not common.

Am I right?

Now go on, get out of here.

- Why don't we try something first?

Why don't we put you in there

and see how you make out?

How does that sound?

- Well, I say you better put on a few pounds

before you try anything.

(dramatic music)

- Hit the horn!

Hit the horn!

- Are you out of your mind?

Get out of there.

(mooing)

- Say it, say it!

Say it!

- Yes, yes!

(horn blowing)

- [Laura] I'll be right out.

- Let me ask you something,

what did you expect to do if they stampeded?

- The truth?

- What else?

- I wasn't thinking about that

but don't forget, I used to cross the west side highway

when I was six years old during rush hour.

What's a couple of hundred steers

compared to a couple of hundred diesel trucks?

- Good morning.

- Hi.

- Same deal, no tokens?

- No tokens.

(jazz music)