Original subtitles

[upbeat jazz music]

QuickFix / Resync By Chuck

- Says here Spring Chinook is king salmon of the Columbia.

Better than silversides and bluebacks. - So where's the wreck?

- Says here, Chinook brings 60 cents a pound at the cannery.

Now if the average weight is 25 pounds, that's uh.

- I thought it'd coming up by now, unless we're lost.

How can you get lost on a beach? - 15 bucks a Chinook,

and if a man gets himself only 10 salmon day,

that's one hundred and fifty bucks.

- You remember what they said in Seaside. - Remember what?

- The beaches in Oregon are public highways.

You can drive almost all the way to Astoria,

but watch for the wreck of the Peter Iredale,

that's the marker where you turn inland, so where's the wreck?

[whimsical music]

[dramatic music]

- Toika.

[dramatic music]

- Forget it.

- I can't, it's from the same can I brought you last month.

Stale, but it's hot.

- Thank you.

- Momma says people often do just the opposite

of what they really wanna do.

- Get out.

- I can't just walk out of here as though it's nothing to me.

[mellow music]

- Get in the car now.

[dramatic music]

I'm no ordinary woman.

No helpless widow who sits around with folded hands,

and grieves a lost husband.

You even look at her one more time,

and I'll treat you the way you treat a shark in your nets.

I'll shoot you.

Do we understand each other?

- How about a drink Anna? Just you and me now that the kid's gone.

[dramatic music]

[whimsical music]

[doorbell ringing]

- Yes? - We're looking for Captain A. Gustafson .

- Which one of you is Stiles? - He is. - Is the Captain here ma'am?

- Well the add did not say Captain. - It said A. Gustafson.

I'm Anna Gustafson, you're Murdock. - Yes ma'am.

- Well come in, come in.

The papers you made me,

your seamanship, navigation, and piloting seem sound enough,

but I didn't see anything on motor care.

If there's anything I put store in, it's motor care.

- Would you like to go outside,

and spread your lunch on the carburetor?

- A lot of difference between a car engine,

and what drives a 40 foot Trawler.

Suppose you're 20 miles outside pounding a hungry sea,

and your engine fails to develop it's rated power?

You expect to run her into a garage, and wipe it clean with a rag?

Like you might have done just now for all I know,

just to impress a small town widow?

- Well I guess the first thing I'd do is see if it were misfiring.

Now that could be caused by water in the fuel system,

or a loose connection in the ignition wiring,

failing fuel pump, to rich a mixture, sticky valves.

That's if I was lucky. It could be a damaged prop,

engine and shaft out of alignment,

ignition timing, a blown gasket, a cracked--

- We'd uh, fix it Mrs. Gustafson.

20 miles is too far to swim unless you're a salmon,

and if salmon had engines we wouldn't be putting them in cans would we?

- Well just don't stand there, bring your gear inside.

Breakfast at seven, dinner at 12, supper at six whenever you're ashore.

Eh Stiles, you went to college?

- Yes ma'am. - I can always tell.

That was Toika at the top of the stairs, my daughter.

- Uh, I miss something? - Not your type.

- Well I like to keep an open mind.

- All freckles and pigtails, eight, nine years old.

- Toika!

Toika, set two more places for dinner.

Your room's upstairs to the left, second door. [whimsical music]

[whimsical music]

- The Pacific's seven miles out. You can just see the South jetty,

and those white caps in the distance

that's the bar where the sea and the river meet.

They say it separates the men from the boys

when they pass over that bar and go beyond.

Shipwrecks all over this coast. We've got an eight knot ebb tide.

Sometimes the wind is.

This tour isn't reaching you? - I got hung up on the guide.

- A remark like that, Momma would consider a very encouraging sign.

- Well she did kinda throw us together, I guess she wants a happy ship.

- It's the first night in six months

that I haven't had to do the dishes.

- Does it always stay light this late? It's pass nine o'clock.

- Does the daylight inhibit you?

- Well now what would Momma say about a remark like that?

- She thinks you're a good catch. - The season hasn't opened yet.

What do they do to poachers? People who ah, jump the gun.

Well I was just doing a little advanced trolling.

- Are you always so glib? - Am I coming on too strong?

- Strong I don't mind, glib I resent. There's no feeling to it.

I believe in feeling, deep deep feeling. That's all I want out of life,

to care, to care passionately.

I collect birds with broken wings, fish out of water,

people locked up inside themselves, they need me.

I don't think you need anything or anybody Mr. Stiles.

- Don't judge Toika,

and don't think the world is as beautiful as it looks from up here.

Most people don't wanna be saved.

Their greatest ambition is self-destruction.

- You confuse me. - Good.

- I'm glad you answered Mother's add. I'm glad you're here.

[whimsical music]

[turns to dramatic music]

- What's his problem?

- Are you working for me or not?

Do you want me to take you out on this boat or not?

That's Karno Starling, stay clear of him.

Don't look at him, don't get around him here on the wharf,

at the bars in town, or especially outside at sea.

[dramatic music]

[whimsical music]

- Any red sails in the sunset? - Why don't you shut up?

- Ooh touched a nerve huh?

- I like this place, I like these people.

- Especially nine year old ugly ducklings

with pigtails, and freckles, and not my type.

- Four years ago tomorrow in some shallow gravel bar,

up some mountain stream that feeds this watershed,

a pink egg moved and a baby salmon popped free.

Grew and swam a thousand mile to the Pacific.

Now four years later he's coming home full grown.

Right now Buz, he's out in the ocean,

heading in on a radar course and he'll keep right on coming.

Past our hooks, past the gillnets in the channel.

Past every obstacle man and nature can throw at him,

until he finds a mate. Then they'll swim up that mountain stream

to that same gravel bar he left four years ago

to breed, to die, to leave his own flesh there,

so next Spring salmon can feed,

swim out to the ocean again. - Monotonous huh?

- Where's the romance in your soul?

- 4116 Skyway Drive, don't wait up.

- Well aren't we the sly one.

- Keep an eye on those gravel bars old man.

- I'll walk you to the car, I wanna get the inside story.

[whimsical music]

Look Ace, you wouldn't mind if I gave you a little tip would ya?

- About what?

- About Miss Meter Maid, I have a whole new theory for you.

She's expecting all muscle and hair tonic, so change your style.

- What's all this muscle talk? I did it with my smile and teeth.

- Be the intellectual, change your pace,

she'll never see it coming, it'll dazzle her.

Tell her you're an existentialist. - That's the tip?

- Ah it's very stylish, she'll love it.

- Well supposing she asks me what it is?

- Tell her you don't talk about it, you live it,

and give her a little Rimbaud.

- Look I just met her, what's all this Rimbaud jazz?

- The greatest, like the genius of all poets.

I know the lightening open skies, waterspouts, eddies and surfs.

I know the night and dawn are risen like a colony of doves,

and sometimes I have seen what men have thought they saw.

I've seen the low sun fearful with the mystic signs

lighting with far flung violet arms like actors in an ancient tragedy.

- You know what she'll think? - Fluted water shimmering far away.

- I'm outta my skull. - I've dreamed green nights of dazzling.

[dramatic music]

- You, I saw you with Toika,

on the boat, in town, in Church.

I saw the way you looked at her. - It's a big world friend,

we don't have to crowd each other.

- Oh you're one of the apologizers, one of the talkers.

Poetry on a stickin' fish dock.

You go for her huh lover? Well why not? She's full of fire.

Ever notice her eyes?

Ever notice the way she walks? Notice her mouth and full lips?

- You know, you've got a dirty mouth.

- Here's something you don't know lover.

When she was 16 she won the state beauty contest.

Now to win a beauty contest at 16

you really gotta be something huh.

- You go ahead and keep your date,

I have something I wanna say to this gentleman.

- No, I think I'll stick around. These dock fighters, a special breed.

You gotta enjoy cracking ribs and splitting skulls

when you mix with these wharf rats.

You're cut out for better things, me, I like it.

[fist thuds]

- Now it's just you and me,

let's see how much good your poet Rimbaud does you now.

[dramatic music] [fists thudding]

She comes to my boat every time she can sneak away from Anna.

You ask anybody.

I threw her off before because she meant nothing to me,

but now it's gonna be different.

[fist thudding]

You wanna protect her, you wanna stop me?

There's one way.

Kill me. [dramatic music]

[whimsical music]

- All right we talk about Strokedge? Ten feet of ox bone.

Every time I hit him, my elbow came loose, and he just laughed,

and he threw me right off the pier again.

Finally I tried using a chain on him, but he just wrapped me up in it,

and he threw me right back in the Hudson.

That's when I went for the ax.

- But you didn't use it. - How could I? He ran.

- I don't believe in axes.

- Then you don't know guys like Strokedge or Karno do you?

- He was just drunk, probably forgotten it by now. - Sure.

- Okay, it wasn't just a fight.

He fought like,

like he wanted to kill me.

Like he didn't care if I killed him.

- Slated on here West Southwest. There's a spot there I want to cross.

I marked the block on the chart. - Busy intersection?

- If you keep your lines well surfaced.

If you cross him at sea it'll be a lot worse for you

than ignoring my warning here on this dock.

He'll sink you, believe me he'll sink you. [dramatic music]

Good luck.

- Let's go Buz.

[whimsical music]

[turns to ominous music]

- Hey Tod!

Didn't you see him coming? He cut our lines.

- How? - How do I know how? Maybe he was dragging something astern.

All I know is we had eight lines, we only got four left.

I don't know what's bugging him,

but I know what's bugging me and it's him.

He just got elected community property,

so don't give me that jazz about him being your problem.

The minute I get ashore Mr., Mr. Karno Starling and me,

we got business together. - He won't fight you, it's me he wants.

- Just watch. - Something more than Toika.

How many wharf rats have you known who ever heard of Rimbaud?

Karno has. - Well I don't care what he wants,

it's me he gets this time.

- I'll hook up a new set of spoons. [dramatic music]

[whimsical music]

[turns to ominous music]

- Hey Karno!

I've been studying poetry, you wanna hear me recite? On the dock!

- He's back ashore and with a fine first catch.

- Hey you!

Roses are red, violets are blue. - It won't work kid.

- What's the matter, you afraid to climb the beanstalk?

- The punishment should fit the criminal not the crime.

You're one of the innocents kid, one of the unspoiled.

- And you're one of the apologizers right?

[dramatic music]

- [Karno] Fuel her up nice and good, we'll cast out for sea tomorrow.

- [Man] Sure.

[fist thudding]

- It's a stinkin' world isn't it kid?

[dramatic music]

[whimsical music]

- [Toika] Hi. - Hi. - Mother told me you had a fine catch.

They'll talk about me at every table tonight.

- Is that what you want Toika? - I heard about what happened.

- Don't see him anymore Toika.

- But why?

- Because I asked you not to. - I should see only you?

- That's something else, but not him.

- Tod, I like you.

Since you're here I think about you quite a bit,

but I have other thoughts too.

Other feelings, go back before I ever saw you.

I can't just forget about them. - Toika he has no respect for ya.

- Is that why you fought?

- Toika there's no light inside him, he's dark.

- You don't know him. What a tortured person he really is.

I'll walk home Tod. I don't wanna think about you right now.

- As a child I was considered the checker prodigy of the East side.

I call this move ah, the triple backhand, never fails.

Tell you what, spot you two checkers.

Yeah that's a good idea, let's get some air. - I wanna do this myself.

- Big help you are.

[upbeat dance music] [patrons clapping]

- Outside.

- Tod this is my idea, not his. - Go home Toika.

- Go down to the boat kid, I'll be right there.

- Can't you see, he wants you to fight him. - You coming.

- All right I'll go home if you promise that you won't fight.

What are you animals? I'm gonna call the police.

- This time I win. You wanna know why?

I'm gonna make you feel sorry for me,

and while you're feeling sorry for me, I'm gonna tear you to pieces.

- Where you're concerned Karno, I have no feelings.

Not pity, not even hate. [fist thudding]

- How about fear?

The fear that you'll have to kill me to get me off your back.

It's written all over you. The Colonel was right, you can smell it.

You're afraid to go too far aren't ya? I know all about you guys,

the civilized, the humane, the thinkers, the feelers.

There's hooks in your brains.

Words, ideas, knowledge, truth, honor, conscience.

Everyone of them is a stinking, burning hook.

- What happened to you Karno?

- Listen to him.

Listen to the man with his brains on a gaff.

What happened to me? Well let me tell you.

Only one tiger to a hill, kill or be killed right?

[fist thudding]

You wonder about me.

Maybe I'm not just a drunk on a beat up boat.

Maybe I'm not just a dock rat.

I went to college, pure egghead,

and then somebody came along with the slogan

make the world safe for democracy,

so I put on a suit and a pair of jump boots,

and there I was a First Louis with a platoon of paratroopers.

D-Day dropped in the lowlands right in the middle of a swamp

with Nazi guns in every point of the compass.

One of my Sergeants brought in a prisoner.

A Colonel, one of the SS boys.

I pressed my carbine into his stomach. I'm gonna count three I said.

Either you lead us outta this swamp or you die in the mud.

He laughed at me.

"I'd do that, he said, "but you won't.

"I have no scruples, but you have,

"and you'd rather die than change them. "No, you won't kill me."

I just stood there defeated.

Lost in his contempt.

The Nazi guns opened up and all of my men,

all of them killed except me, because I held back.

Decency, feelings, in a world full of animals.

During the fighting a Colonel got a gun,

and shot me in the back and left me in the swamp,

and I've been there ever since.

I'm at home there, and when I see the banner wavers,

the bright, shiny, clean little boys like you,

I just have to put them in with me.

[dramatic music]

[fists thudding]

[siren wailing]

[dramatic music]

[whimsical music]

- Stand still a minute will you?

I put the strawberry jam in a separate jar,

and when you get ready to eat your peanut butter sandwiches

put the jam on then, then that way you see--

- The bread won't get soggy.

- Who keeping you on your radio today?

- Far winds Northwesterly 20 knots,

swells in the Northwest, nine feet, cresting every 10 seconds, okay?

- For you life's not complicated isn't it?

10 knots, 20 knots, it's all the same.

- You wouldn't want me to worry about

every change in the wind [chuckles].

- Please Tod, stop saving me.

Maybe I love him, I'm not sure of it,

but now I care for you too.

How can I feel that way about two men at the same time?

Please don't let anything happen to either one of you. Promise me?

- I'll do the best I can Toika. - No no, promise me.

Please. - I can't promise Toika.

- Toika, Toika they'll miss the tide!

- Casting off the stern.

- Mind the radio you hear?

[whimsical music]

[turns to dramatic music]

- Take the wheel Buz!

- You'll do it now huh?

Beauty versus beast?

Alone with the beast. - You don't hate me Karno, you hate yourself.

- You won't strike first will ya? - I finally understand you Karno.

You made it didn't you? You finally turned yourself into a brute.

Is that the answer to what happened

between you and the Colonel in the swamp, brutality?

That's no answer, there's no future in hate Karno.

Strength yes, with conscience and compassion. That's the future Karno.

[dramatic music]

Buz!

Hurry, wanna swing around and get him.

Hard to port!

[melancholy music]

Karno, in spite of everything I still reach out.

I still offer you my hand,

but where do I look for you now? On the horizon, on the tide?

Have I killed you Karno,

or have you killed me?

[horn honking]

[dramatic music]

- When I was out there in the water

I felt like I did at the end of the war.

When the guns had stopped firing,

when it was so quiet that all you could hear were your own thoughts.

I looked up at the clouds,

and I knew that no man could pull 'em down.

I felt the sea around me,

and I knew that no man could drain the sea.

I don't know I,

it's funny but it,

it felt good to be so small.

Then all of a sudden I was big, gigantic.

I was born again.

[mellow music]

[upbeat jazz music]

- [Announcer] This has been a Screen Gems Film presentation,

Herbert B. Leonard, Executive Producer.

QuickFix / Resync By Chuck