Street Scene (1931) Movie Script
Good evening, Mrs Jones.
Good evening, Mrs Fiorentino.
Well, I hope it's hot enough for you.
Ain't it too awful?
- I ain't got a dry stitch on me.
It took off my shoes.
But before I go to bed
I take a nice bath.
But the trouble with a bath is
by the time you're all through ..
You're as hot as when you started.
Good evening, Mrs Olsen.
Evening.
Awful hot, ain't it.
Just awful.
Mrs Fiorentino.
My husband says will you
put the garbage out for us?
Sure, sure.
I'm just about ready to pass out.
My baby is crying, crying.
Yeah. It's the same with dogs.
My Queenie, she's just been
laying around all day.
Maybe they got no sleep.
Don't tell me.
If you was to know what I
went through with my ..
Hey, Ma!
Why don't you go upstairs
instead of yelling like that?
Hey, Ma!
What do you want, Willy?
- Give me a dime, will you.
I want to get a cone.
Good evening, Mrs Jones.
Good evening, Mrs Maurrant.
How many cones did
you have today already?
I'm hot. Come on, give me a dime.
Well remember, it's the last one.
I'd like to hear one of my
kids talking to me like that.
Here.
Catch it.
And remember, that's the last one.
Don't come home too late, Willy.
Good evening, Mrs Maurrant. Why
don't you come down and be sociable?
Well I'm keeping some
supper warm for my husband.
But maybe I will for just a minute.
She has her problems with that Willy.
I guess she's got her
minds on other things.
Mr Sankey was coming
again today to see her.
That's terrible.
Wouldn't you think a woman her age ..
Two times already this
week I see him coming here.
Well, I seen him myself
one day last week.
He was coming out of the house
just as I was going in with the dog.
"Good morning, Mrs Jones".
He says to me as if butter
wouldn't melt in his mouth.
"Good morning" I says to him.
Looking him straight in the eye.
Shush. Be careful. She's coming.
My goodness.
Ain't it hot.
Yeah .. I feel like a
wet dish-rag myself.
I'd like to have gone to the park concert
tonight if Rose had got home on time.
Ain't she come home yet?
No. I think maybe she
had to work overtime.
Well, all mine ever comes
home for is to sleep.
Olga!
Olga!
Back to the baby. She's crying again.
Olga!
What them foreigners don't know about
bringing up a baby would fill a book.
Foreigners know just as much
as other people, Mrs Jones.
Oh, well the Germans is different.
More like the Irish.
What I'm talking about ..
- Good evening, ladies.
Good evening, Mr Buchanan.
Awful hot, ain't it.
It's not the heat I mind, as
much as it is the humidity.
Yeah. It makes everything stick to you.
How is your wife, Mr Buchanan?
Well, she's afraid to
go out of the house.
She thinks maybe she
can't get back in time.
In case ..
Oh, you know.
Oh yeah. I was the same
way with my Vincent.
Afraid to take a step.
The trouble is I can't
get her to eat a thing.
Oh, well tell her ..
She must keep up her strength.
She's got two to feed, you know.
Yes, I know.
Excuse me. She's calling.
You'd think it was him
that was having the baby.
Well she's such a puny little thing.
Well, that's the way it goes.
The little skinny ones have them
and the big strong ones don't.
Welcome home, Mr Maurrant.
Evening.
It's some baby of a day.
You been working all this while, Frank?
I'll say I've been working.
Dress rehearsal since twelve
o'clock with lights in this weather.
Tomorrow I got to go
Stanford for the try-out.
Oh, you're going to Stanford tomorrow?
Sure. The whole crew is going.
Why, what about it?
Oh nothing.
What I want is a good wash.
I've been sweating like a horse all day.
My husband too is sweating terrible.
Mine don't.
There's some people that just naturally
do and then there's others that don't.
Is Rose home?
No, I think maybe she
had to work overtime.
I never heard of nobody working
nights in a real-estate office.
The head of the firm died, and the
funeral is tomorrow so I thought ..
It's a mother's job to know
what her daughter's doing.
Things are different
nowadays, Mr Maurrant.
Yeah? Well not in my family
they ain't going to be different.
Hello, Mr Maurrant.
Good evening, Ladies.
Good evening, Mr Jones.
I guess your hubby is feeling
the heat, Mrs Maurrant?
Oh, men are all alike.
They're easy to get along with so long as
everything goes the way they want it to.
But once it don't .. goodnight.
Yes, that's true, Mrs Jones.
I think it's a shame that people can't
live together in peace and quiet.
Instead of making each other miserable.
Well, what I say is ..
You get married for better or for worse.
And if it turns out for the worst.
Well, all you can do
is make the best of it.
I think the trouble is that
people don't make allowances.
They don't seem to realize that
everybody wants a kind word now and ..
Then.
Good evening, folks.
Is it hot enough for you?
- Good evening.
I don't know when we've
had a day like this before.
Six dead in Chicago
and no relief in sight.
Well, it's good for the milk business.
Yes.
You hardly get the milk in the
morning before it turns sour.
You should make milk cake.
Oh yes. My wife makes it too.
How is our wife, Mr Sankey?
You were telling me
that .. she had a cold.
Was I?
Well, that was a couple of weeks ago.
Sure. She's all right again now.
You got a family too, ain't you?
Yes. Yes, I have .. two little girls.
Well.
I told my wife I'd go to the drug-store
and get her some nice, cold ginger ale.
Well if you ask me, all that gassy
stuff don't do you a bit of good.
I guess you're right at that.
Still, it cools you off.
Well, see you all again, folks.
Is that that fellow, Sankey?
Yeah, Mr Sankey.
- He's a collector for the milk company.
Good evening.
Good evening, Miss Cushing.
How is your mother today, Miss Cushing?
Well she complains about the heat.
A woman her age, you know.
Well, I'm just going down
to get her a little ice-cream.
Between you and I.
I don't think her mother
is long for this world.
Poor Miss Cushing.
She just spent her whole
life looking after her mother.
Well I have to tell you after
all I've done for my kids ..
I expect them to look
after me in my old age.
Oh, I don't know.
It seems a person should get more out of
life than just looking after someone else.
Well.
I guess I'd better go
and look for Willy.
My husband doesn't
like it if he stays out late.
Did you get that?
Going to look for Willy.
Can you beat it?
- It's just terrible.
Do you think she's just going
out looking for this guy Sankey?
Oh, ain't men the limit?
What do you suppose he
came walking by here for?
Today he stands there and
looks and looks at her.
Well, what about the looks
she was giving him?
Why you'd have thought it was
Someday her husband is killing him.
Well it's no more than he
deserves, the little rabbit.
Going around, breaking up
decent people's homes.
"Good evening folks."
Just like hoosis on the radio.
Do you think Maurrant is
wise to what's going on?
Well if he ain't there must be
something the matter with him.
Say, what do you think? I just saw
them together, the two of them.
What did I tell you?
It's awful isn't it.
It looks to me it's
getting pretty serious.
You didn't notice whether they
was kissing or anything did you?
To tell you the truth, Mrs Jones.
I felt so ashamed for her.
Look out, Maurrant is coming.
What's become of my wife?
Why ..
She said she was just going
around the corner to look for Willy.
Oh.
- Yeah.
Well, I guess I'd better be
getting back to my mother.
Goodnight, Miss Cushing.
- Goodnight.
Goodnight, Mr Maurrant.
- Goodnight.
Good evening.
Papa, here is your tea.
Haven't you finished your paper yet?
It makes it so hot with the light on.
Alright. Put it out. Put it out.
There is anyhow nothing
to read in the papers.
Nothing but divorce, scandal and murder.
You wouldn't think anyone would want to
read all that Hebrew writing would you?
I don't see how they make
head nor tail out of if myself.
I guess if you learn it
when you're a kid ..
Will you look at your hubby, Mrs F.
How about an ice-cream!
A nice and fresh ice-cream cone.
Give me you violin.
Thank you, Mrs Jones. Here.
Is a cone for you.
- Thank you very much, Mr Fiorentino.
And Mrs Fiorentino.
One nice and fresh for you too.
- This makes me too fat.
No, no. Five or ten pounds more.
Nobody can tell anyway.
Mr Jones.
I will at that. Thanks, thanks.
And Mr Maurrant.
- No, I got my pipe.
Oh you like the pipe better
than ice-cream, eh?
Mrs Kaplan, yes. And Mr Kaplan?
Mr Olsen, do you like the cone?
- Sure. Much obliged.
Taste good, eh?
- You betcha.
And it cools you off a little.
Sure it cools you off. I am wet.
Wet like I used to come
out from the bathtub.
It's hot like hell in the park.
Two or three thousand people.
Everybody sweating.
And smelling like a menagerie.
That's that Miss Simpson.
Mrs Hildebrand ain't come home yet.
Do you know when she'll be back?
Well she just went around
to the picture theater.
She's coming now.
Mrs Hildebrand. Hurry up, hurry up.
Where have you been, Mrs Hildebrand?
- To a moving-picture show.
Where did you get the money?
It was only 75 cents.
75 cents is a lot when you're
being dispossessed.
I suppose it came out of the money
we gave you to buy groceries?
Is this your conception of philanthropy?
You will please be good enough
to mind your own business.
You should go home and read
in your bible the life of Christ.
Will you listen to who
is talking about Christ.
Nobody is going to give you any money
to spend on moving-picture shows.
What's the matter with you, lady?
Here. Take this money and go
to the picture show every night.
And take your little bambino.
- Thank you.
We'd better go inside. We can't
stay here and talk to you.
Among all these people.
Wouldn't she give you a pain?
I tell you the whole problem.
She is living all alone and
she ain't got no sweetheart.
Here is your wife now, Mr Maurrant.
Is Rose home yet, Frank?
- No, she ain't.
Where you been all this while?
- Why, I been out looking for Willy.
I'll give him a fanning
when I get hold of him.
Oh don't whip him, Frank.
All boys are wild like that.
Sure. My boy Benson was the
same way. And look at him today.
Driving his own taxi and
making a good living.
What's aright about that?
- Excuse me.
Tomorrow they are going to throw
Mrs Hildebrand out on the street, eh?
Yes, they are.
And you ought to help her
realize the value of money.
No, no lady.
I give her a couple of dollars.
Make her feel good.
Make me feel good. Doesn't hurt anybody
- Yes, it does.
It is bad for her character.
- Ha, you make me laugh.
Nobody is asking your opinion.
It's alright. I'm telling
you without asking.
All the same, you people
are the first to ask for help.
Come back here. I'll tell you something
will maybe do good for your character.
This is nothing but another device
for pulverizing the working classes.
Ah, he's shooting off his face again.
Papa, it's time to go to bed.
When the rich steal from the
worker's arms a million dollars ..
They give to the poor a thousand.
Well, if you don't pay your
rent you got to move.
But it doesn't seem right though to
put a poor woman out of her home.
For her husband to run away,
that was not right either.
There should be a law against women going
around stealing other women's husbands.
So long as the institution of
private property exists ..
The workers will be at the mercy
of the property owning classes.
Oh, can all that hooey.
I'm making a good living, see.
And I ain't doing no kicking.
We got prosperity in this country.
Put the boots of industry in the
hands of the working class.
And this can be accomplished
only by a social revolution!
Yeah? Well we don't want no
revolution in this country.
I know all about that stuff.
Teaching kids there ain't no Gods
and their grandfathers was monkeys.
If you don't like the way things are
here go back where you came from.
Everybody has a right to his
own opinion, Mr Maurrant.
We don't want no foreigners coming
in telling us how to run things.
Nothing wrong to be a foreigner.
Many good people are foreigners.
Sure! Look at Christopher Columbus.
The first man that discovered
America. He was an Italian.
Just like me.
The first man is Leif Erikson.
What's that?
The first man is Leif Erikson.
No, no. Columbus.
Columbus. Columbus is the first
man who discovered America.
Everybody knows that.
Erikson was really the first discoverer.
No, no!
But Columbus was the first to
open America to settlers.
Just what I am saying.
Columbus, the first American.
The first man is Leif Erikson.
What we need in this country is a
little more respect for law and order.
Look what happens to people's homes with
divorces and one thing and another.
I tell you it's time something was done
to put the fear of God into people.
Yeah, you're right.
- Yeah.
Sometimes I think they are only trying
to get a little something out of life.
Something they ought
not to have. Is that it?
When private property is abolished ..
The family will no longer
have any reason to exist.
Well it's got to exist, see.
Husbands and wives loving each as they
said they would when they were spliced.
And a dirty Bolshevik that says different
is liable to get his head busted open.
Alright! Why should I argue
with a low class gangster?
Who is a gangster? Why, you ..
Alright, alright. Let me go.
If he talk like that in Italy ..
Mussolini going to give
him the castor oil.
Oh, why can't people
be kind to each other?
Why can't they live together in peace?
Live in peace. You're always
talking about living in peace.
Well I guess I'll go round to
Callaghan's and shoot a little pool.
Don't be coming home late
at all hours of the morning.
Oh lay off that stuff.
I'll be back in a half an hour.
Are you coming along, Mr Maurrant?
I'm going to wait a while.
Sam. Are you coming in?
No. It's too hot to go to bed.
Well don't make a noise
when you come in.
How do you like the concerto, eh?
I didn't like it.
Those Italian organ-grinder
tunes aren't music.
Then what do you call
music? Tchaikovsky?
Yes, Tchaikovsky. And Beethoven.
What I like is ..
[ Singing ]
Primo!
The old German waltz.
[ German singing ]
Well give me a good
jazz band every time.
Jazz is not music, I say.
Like you hear.
Quack, quack, quack.
No feeling. Nothing.
But Beethoven expresses the
emotions of the human soul.
He's no good, Beethoven.
He makes you cry.
I want to laugh.
Italian music will make you
happy. It makes you feel good!
[ Italian singing ]
How beautiful. It makes you feel fine.
It makes you want to dance.
I want to give you music.
Beautiful.
Want to dance with me?
How about you, Miss Maurrant?
Come on, give me a little dance.
Look out you two.
You're blocking traffic.
Say go right ahead.
Don't let me stop you.
Oh, that's alright.
I guess we danced to that enough.
A pretty hot night for dancing.
Yes, it is.
Well, I guess I'll be going along.
Goodnight, forks.
Goodnight.
Marguerite, stop the music.
Who was that bird?
Why that's Mr Sankey.
He's a collector for the milk company.
Why ..
he's just been round to the drug-store
to get his wife some ginger ale.
What I want to know is why
ain't Rose home yet?
I told you, Frank.
Alright about that, but I want 'em
home, not batting round the streets.
You hear me?
Have you been fighting again?
That big stiff ain't going
to say that to me.
I'll knock the stuffing out of him.
That's what I'll do.
Who's been saying things to you?
That big stiff Joe Conley, that's who.
I'll knock his eyes out,
that dirty louse.
Here, here. Cut out the swearing or
I'll give you something to ball for.
What did he say to you, huh?
No. Let go of my arm!
Oh what difference does it make?
- Nobody is asking you.
What did he say?
Up to bed, I don't want to hear
any more. Go. Beat it.
Wait Billy, I'll come along.
Are you coming up now, Frank?
No I ain't.
I'm going round to Callaghan's
and get a drink.
And if Rose ain't home when I get
back, there is going to be trouble.
Well.
Goodnight all.
- Goodnight.
Miss Fiorentino. Miss Fiorentino.
You missed it.
- What?
Who should come along but Sankey.
So there was the three of them.
Mr Maurrant looking at Sankey
as if he'd like to kill him.
Did he say so?
Not until after Sankey was gone.
"Who is that" says he.
"He's the milk collector", says she.
It's just awful.
- And then Willy comes home.
A boy tell him his mama is a bad woman.
And Willy lick him.
- Well what else is she?
Stop it.
Stop it!
Leave her alone, can't you.
Why do you always have
to tear her to pieces?
Why does every ..?
Pah!
Well he must be off his nut, too.
It's a fine house to
be living in, ain't it.
Well.
Goodnight all.
Wait a minute, Miss Olsen.
I'll go with you.
Marguerite, if I catch you making
whoopee with the milkman ..
I'm going to break your neck.
Stop your fooling, Filippo.
Come to bed.
It's about half way down the block.
This is it.
Seventy cents.
There you are.
- Thanks.
Goodnight, Mr Easter.
I've had a lovely time.
You're not going to
leave me like this are you?
I've hardly had a chance to talk to you.
We've been doing nothing
but talking since six o'clock.
No we haven't. We've
been eating and dancing.
Rose, I ..
Please don't, Mr Easter.
There is somebody coming.
Good evening, Mrs Olsen.
- Good evening, Miss Maurrant.
She's got the cutest baby you ever saw.
- Yeah? That's great. Listen, Rose.
I've really got to go upstairs now.
Rose, I'm just crazy about you.
Please, let me go now.
- Kiss me goodnight.
No.
Just one little kiss.
- No. - Yes.
It wasn't nice of you to do that.
- Why not? Didn't you like it?
It's not that. You've
got a wife haven't you?
I tell you I'm clean
off my nut about you.
Go down.
Good evening, Mrs Jones.
Good evening.
I think your father has been
kind of worried about you.
Has he?
- Yeah.
Well, I've got to give
Queenie her exercise.
Soon, I'll have all the
neighbors talking about me.
Why not snap out of it all?
- Out of what?
This. Working.
The whole business.
You are not wise to yourself, Rose.
Why with your looks and
personality and brains.
You shouldn't keep looking at
me at the office all the time.
I guess I just can't
keep my eyes off you.
And I've got it all figured out.
The first thing you do is
throw up your job, see.
Then you get yourself
a job on the stage.
How could I get a job on the stage?
- Easy.
I've got three or four friends
in the show business.
I don't think I'd be any
good on the stage.
All you got to do is
put up a little front.
Get yourself a swell little apartment,
throw a couple of parties.
And you're all set.
You do like me, don't you?
I don't know if I do or not.
- Why of course you do.
Think of all the good times
we could have together.
You with a little apartment and all.
What about your wife?
The way I figured it, she wouldn't
have to know anything about it.
I don't think it's the way
I'd want things to be.
Oh, sweetheart,
- No.
Look, there is my father. There will
only be an argument if he sees you.
Alright.
Goodnight.
I'll see you at the old man's
funeral tomorrow.
Hello, Pop.
Who was that you was talking to?
Mr Easter. He's the
manager of our office.
You been out with him?
Yes, I had to stay late to get out some
letters and he took me to dinner.
A fine time to be getting
home from dinner.
Well we danced afterwards.
A little petting on the side.
Is that it? - No, it isn't.
Is this bird married?
I thought so.
Now get this straight.
No married man ain't going to come
nosing round my family. Get me?
Quiet Pop, there's somebody coming.
- I don't care who's coming.
I think the baby is coming!
Is there anything I can do, Mr Buchanan?
Well if you wouldn't mind
phoning for a doctor.
Here's his number.
- Sure I will.
You go back to your wife.
- Yes, I had better.
Tell Ma I've gone out for Mrs Buchanan.
- Alright.
Hello Rose, what's your hurry?
- Mrs Buchanan.
Say, your little friend is
kind of cute, ain't she.
Say?
According to you, anything
in a skirt is kinda cute.
Yeah? But there ain't none of
them as cute as you, Mae.
Oh yeah?
Honest. I mean it.
How about a little kiss?
Well, you might show
a little enthusiasm.
Say .. you seem to think I
ought to hang out a flag ..
Every time some fellow decides
to wipe off his mouth on me.
The trouble with you is you
need another little snifter.
Nope. I can't swallow anymore
of that rotten gin of yours.
It ain't the worst.
I don't mind it no more since I had
that brass lining put on my stomach.
Well. Happy days.
Hey!
What are you doing, emptying the flask?
I thought you didn't want none.
Oh, can't you take a joke?
Hey.
Go away.
I feel like a three alarm fire. Whoo!
Shut up will you. You'll be
waking the whole neighborhood.
What the heck do I care. Whoo .. whoo!
Whoo!
Kiss me quick.
- I'll say.
Come on.
Wait a minute. Where you going?
Come on, I'm telling you. Let's go
down to Fred Hennessey's apartment.
I ought to go home.
Say baby, go down that go
down this sidewalk will you.
Come on.
Hello Rose. How's the milkman?
Goodnight, sweetheart.
Miss Maurrant. Miss Maurrant!
Did you get the doctor?
Yes. He'll be here right away.
Well that's certainly very nice of you.
You don't know how much I appreciate it.
She seems to be getting worse.
Excuse me. She's calling.
If there is anything I can do ..
- Thanks. I'll let you know.
Hello Rosy.
What's your hurry?
I've got to go in.
- Ah ..
You don't want to go in yet.
Come on, I'll take you for
a little ride in my arms.
Let me past.
Say, you got a lot
of strength, ain't you.
Hey, you big tough.
- Take your hands off her.
Well, look who's here.
What do you want?
Keep your hands off her.
- Oh yeah?
Me ..?
Now what have you got to say?
- You let him alone.
If you touch her again ..
- "If you touch her again .."
Ah shut up you little Kike.
Come on, get up why don't you.
What's going on here?
Hello Ma.
Hello Vincent.
Ah, just a little friendly argument.
You'd better keep your hands
to yourself. - Is that so?
Who said so, huh?
Oh come on, Vincent.
Alright. I'm coming.
Goodnight, dearie.
Some Sheik you picked out for yourself.
You seem to have plenty of
admirers, Miss Maurrant.
But I guess you come by it, natural.
The dirty rat. I'll kill him.
I'll kill him.
It's alright, Sam. Never mind.
Oh I'm a coward.
No you're not, Sam.
He's just a big tough. That's all he is.
He can do anything he likes to me.
What of it? It won't be
that way for long.
In a few years from now you'll far above
him you won't even remember he's alive.
Oh, I sometimes think I'll
never get anywhere.
Of course you will.
Say.
There is something I want to ask you.
What is it, Rose?
I wouldn't dream of
asking anyone but you.
Do you think it is true what
they say about my mother?
I guess it is, isn't it.
They were talking here before.
I couldn't stand it any longer.
Why do you we go on
living in a place like this?
What can I do, Sam?
My father means well enough.
But .. he's always sort of
making you freeze up.
That's the whole trouble, I guess.
Mother never had
anyone to really love her.
Only the way things are now with all
the neighbors whispering and spying.
Sometimes I get a feeling ..
I don't know.
I wish I could help you, Rose.
You do help me, Sam.
Just by being nice and sympathetic.
There's so few people
you can really talk to.
I get blue and discouraged
sometimes, too.
Like this morning when I woke up.
I felt so miserable.
And I started walking to the
office through the park.
Everything was so fresh and green.
I felt things weren't so bad after all.
Then I got to thinking about
that poem you said for me.
Remember?
Say it again, Sam.
Please.
"Sail forth."
"Steer for the deep waters only."
"Reckless old soul exploring."
"And thou with me."
"That we may brave where
mariner has not yet dared to go."
"And we will risk the ship."
"Ourselves and all."
Yes, that's it.
That's just what I felt.
Like risking everything
and not being afraid.
Miss Maurrant!
Would you mind phoning the doctor again.
He should be here by now.
Yes, sure I will.
- Wait. Maybe this is him now.
Yes, yes. That's him.
Oh doctor. I guess you're none too soon.
Plenty of time.
Plenty of time.
Just don't get excited.
Rose. You know what time it is?
Yes Pop, I'll be right up.
Don't make call you
again now. Do you hear.
I'd better go up now, Sam.
Goodnight.
Will you kiss me goodnight, Rose?
Of course I will.
You wait and see.
You are going to do big things someday.
I've got lots of confidence in you.
Do you really mean it, Rose?
Of course I do.
Don't you forget it.
Goodnight.
Goodnight.
Shirley, what's Sam doing
outside all the time?
Yoo-hoo, Sam.
Goodnight, Sam.
Goodnight, Rose dear.
Doctor.
Well?
What if she does wake up?
Oh she won't I told you.
You had better go and
get some sleep yourself.
Well goodnight.
- Goodnight.
Well how about kissing me goodnight?
Ain't you had enough
kissing for one night?
Well say, if that's the
way you feel about it.
Going to be another scorcher, Charlie.
- You said it.
Hey, what are you looking at?
Good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Morning.
Good morning.
Hold that.
I bet you can't do this.
I bet I can.
Ha ha. Told you you couldn't.
Ha ha.
Oh gosh.
How many steps can you jump up?
- Three.
I can jump four.
- Let's see you.
Willy, we're waiting for the bread.
Alright. Can't you see I've got it?
Hello Rose.
- Hello, Sam.
Coming down?
Willy come back yet?
- Yes, he's on his way up.
I'll be down as soon
as the dishes are done.
Sam, breakfast is ready.
- I don't want any breakfast.
You've got your head so
full of that Rose Maurrant.
I'd like to know why you want to get
mixed up with a little Shiksa like that.
Oh, can't you ever get
over your race prejudice?
I've told you a thousand times that the
Jews are no better than anyone else.
Look at her family.
What's her father?
Nothing but an illiterate ruffian.
And her mother ..
- Are you starting too?
Shirley!
Alright Papa.
Come in Sam, or Papa will be
making long speeches again.
Alright. I'm coming.
Good morning.
- Good morning.
Good morning, Mr Buchanan.
Good morning, Mrs Fiorentino.
I guess you know that the
baby came last night.
No, I did not hear a thing about it.
3:30 this morning.
I've been up the whole night.
- A boy is it?
No. It's a little girl.
Filippo.
Morning. I was just telling
your wife the baby ..
Mr Buchanan has a little girl.
That's fine.
Marguerite.
Why don't you have any babies, eh?
I must go and make the coffee.
That is a funny thing.
You got a little skinny wife.
And she got the baby.
My Marguerite is big and fat.
And she's not going to have any babies.
Well say, I've got to be getting
down to the drug-store.
Good morning.
Oh. Good morning, Miss Maurrant.
It's awful hot again isn't it.
In Italy, where I am born, it is
much more hot than here.
I remember when I am a little boy.
I lay down on the ground.
Under the lemon tree
and I sleep all day.
Under a lemon tree?
That must have been wonderful.
I'd love to go to Italy.
I don't suppose I ever will.
- Why sure ..
Someday you are going
to marry a rich fellow ..
And he take you to Italy and everywhere.
Good morning.
- Good morning, Mr Maddigan.
Anyhow.
I don't feel I'd be happy marrying a man
with money if I didn't care for him too.
What's the matter, huh?
You love that little Kike, huh?
No I don't.
I don't love anybody.
At least I don't think I do.
Filippo, breakfast!
Alright, Marguerite.
You marry a fellow with plenty
money. Is mucho better.
Why Willy, you can't
go to school like that.
Oh, for the love of Mike.
You're getting big enough to comb
your own hair without being told.
There.
Now you look very nice.
Comb your own hair.
Why don't you look where
you're going, you little shrimp?
Nuisances, boys that age.
Good morning, Mrs Jones.
- Good morning.
How is little Miss Buchanan
getting along?
Well she's sleeping now, poor thing.
I really didn't think last night she'd
have the strength to pull through.
Well, it's something we've
all got to go through.
After all, what more does
any woman want than ..
Watching her kids grow up and
a husband to look out for her.
Yes, that's true.
- Yeah.
The world would be a
whole lot better off if ..
There was more that lived up to it.
Well ..
I got to go get my Mae up out of bed.
Oh, Miss Maurrant.
If you don't mind my being so bold ..
I'd think twice before I'd
let any child of mine ..
Bring that Sam Kaplan into the family.
I don't see what that has
to do with you, Mrs Jones.
But there is no need in
getting huffy about it.
Ha.
I'm sure it don't make no
difference to me what you do.
Come on, Queenie.
She and those wonderful
children of hers.
There's a lot of people that
never seem to be happy ..
Unless they're making
trouble for somebody.
I wonder if it wouldn't
better for us, though ..
If we moved out to the
suburbs somewhere.
I don't think Pop would do it.
Oh, are you leaving now, Frank?
- Looks like it, don't it.
Where have you been all this while?
Why you know where I've been.
Up to Mrs Buchanan's.
Say, why not look after your own home
and let the Buchanans look after theirs?
All I tried to do was be
a little bit neighbourly.
A woman's got a right to stay in her own
home to look her husband and children.
What else have I been doing all
these years I'd like to know.
See that you don't forget it, is all.
There's liable to be trouble.
Oh alright, Frank.
Don't say any more, please.
When will you be back, tomorrow?
When I'm through with
my work. That's when.
What are you so anxious to know for?
Why, I just asked. That's all.
You just asked, eh?
Just in case somebody wants to
come around calling. Is that it?
Why no. It isn't.
It isn't anything of the kind.
Why, you've no right to be talking to me
like that in front of my own daughter.
You've got no right!
No! You haven't!
Ma ..
- Come back here you.
Come back. Do you hear?
You stay right here.
Pa.
Pa, if you were only a little nicer to
her, maybe things would be different.
Say, ain't I always been
a good husband to her?
Ain't I always looked after her?
Someone to be nice and
gentle. That's all it is.
So she got you headed the same way, huh?
Running around nights with married men.
You don't need to worry about me, Pop.
A girl nowadays can look
after herself, but not her.
She needs somebody to look after her.
Oh, can all that talk.
And don't let me catch that other
bozo hanging around here either.
That's all I got to say.
- Pop, listen.
Couldn't we get a little
house somewhere?
Queens or somewhere like that?
This place suits me alright.
I thought it would be
sort of nice for all of us.
Maybe if Ma had a real nice home
and some real nice neighbors ..
Forget it .. I don't know
when I'll be back, see.
Why hello Mr Maurrant.
You off on a little trip?
Yeah. Don't you forget what
I told you, you hear me.
Why do you look so sad?
A young girl like you
should not look so sad.
Mr Kaplan, why must things
being the way they are?
Why must people always be
fighting and having trouble?
Instead of just being happy together.
- My dear young lady.
This is something which all the
philosophers have been unable to answer.
It is my opinion that most unhappiness
can be traced to economic causes.
Hello Charlie. Hello Mary.
Hello.
We are going to be dispossessed today.
What a shame.
- Yes, ma'am.
My father ran away so
we couldn't pay the rent.
Oh come on, Mary.
We have to go to school now. Goodbye.
Isn't that awful?
In a civilised world.
Such things could not happen.
You mean, if there were different laws?
Not laws.
We got already too many laws.
We must have action, not laws.
The working class ..
- Excuse me. My mother.
I got a little chicken to make
Mrs Buchanan some soup.
Did he go?
- Yes, Ma.
I've always tried to be
a good wife to him, Rose.
But it didn't seem to make
any difference to him.
I know just the way you feel about, Ma.
Do you, Rose?
Yes Ma, I do. Honest I do.
But.
It's on account of ..
Are you going to start too?
I thought you'd be the one
that would feel different.
I do, Ma. Really I do.
What's the good of being alive if you
can't get a little something out of life.
Well .. is it hot enough for you today?
It's awful, isn't it.
- You said it.
Still, along about January we'll all be
wishing we had a little of this weather.
Ma.
If I say something will
you listen to me?
Yes, sure.
Sure I will, Rose.
I'll listen to anything you say.
Well .. what I was thinking ..
If he didn't come around
here so much, maybe ..
You see what I mean, Ma?
Well every person in the world has
got to have somebody to talk to.
You can't live without
somebody to talk to.
It's only on account of Pop.
I'm scared of what he's likely
to do if he starts drinking.
Oh well, alright.
Sometimes, I think I'd be
better off if I were dead.
Ma.
Oh, Mr Buchanan.
I got a little chicken to make your
wife some good nourishing soup.
Well say, you've got to
let me pay you for it.
Never mind about that.
I called the office and they told
me not to come down today.
Well, that will be a comfort
to her to have you around.
Yes. That's what I thought, too.
Well, I'd better be
getting upstairs now.
I'll be up later with the soup.
Well, thanks.
You've been a mighty good
neighbour, Mrs Maurrant.
He's an awful nice young fellow.
Nice and gentle.
It makes you feel sort of sorry for him.
Well, I'd better get up
and start this chicken.
Are you coming home for lunch, Rose?
Yes, I'll be back as soon
as the funeral is over.
Oh. Alright.
Good morning.
- Good morning.
Morning.
It's another awful day, isn't it.
Yes. And when you have
to keep forty children quiet ..
Thank goodness in two weeks school
closes. Otherwise I think I'd go crazy.
Miss Maurrant.
I'd like to talk to you
about my brother.
Why.
Why certainly, Miss Kaplan.
I guess you know he's only
finishing college this month?
Yes, of course I do.
Then he has to go to law school.
It will be years before he
can think about marriage.
We're just good friends. That's all.
I've had to work hard enough
to get him as far he is.
And if you are such a good friend, you
shouldn't take his mind off his work.
Don't you think there are other
things in the world beside just work?
Don't you think I know that?
Maybe you think I'm only an old maid
schoolteacher without any feelings.
I don't. I don't.
But I haven't tried to vamp Sam.
Honestly I haven't.
No.
He sees a pretty face and ..
Right away, he forgets.
I know I haven't got as much
brains as Sam or as you.
I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.
Only.
He's all I've got in the world.
Hello Rose.
Hello Sam.
Please don't tell him what I said.
- No, I won't.
Want some coffee cake?
No.
Sam.
Tell me.
Is there any special way of
attending a synagogue?
In a synagogue?
Yes, this funeral I'm going
to is in a synagogue.
I thought there might be
something special you had to do.
Never in my life have I
been in a synagogue.
You mean, your family didn't
bring you up to believe in anything?
No.
I don't know.
Only it seems better to believe in
something that makes you a little happy.
There is not much to be happy
about living a place like this.
I know things aren't the way
you want them to be.
They aren't for me either.
Someday it will be different.
I just know it will.
In the meantime, let's
try to make the best of it.
The best of it?
What have you got to be happy about?
Tell me. I'd like to know.
Why, lots of things, Sam.
Just being alive.
Looking at the faces of people
you like and hearing them laugh.
Rough-housing with your kid brother.
And .. I don't know ..
Listening to a good band and dancing.
I think there is a lot.
Only I wish you'd be a little
bit happy about things, too.
Does it really make any difference
to you whether I am or not?
You know it does.
You are the best friend I've ever had.
I can't think of anything but you, Rose.
Sam.
There is something I wanted
to ask your advice about.
A man in our office wants
to put me on the stage.
The stage?
But don't you know what he wants?
Look out, Sam. Here is
that tough from upstairs.
Hello Rosy.
Have you been here all night
talking to the little Yid?
Hello Marxist.
Shake.
Let me go.
- Let him alone.
Gee, I'd hate to get in
a mix up with him.
Got a date for tonight, kid?
Yes, I have.
- Yeah?
Who with, the milkman?
Why you ..
- What did you say?
I thought I heard you
say something, you ..
Frightened Kaplan,
the pride of Jerusalem.
For crying out loud.
Sometimes, I think I'd
just like to run away.
Would you go with me, Sam?
- Yes, anywhere.
I've heard people are much nicer and
friendlier when you go outside New York.
But you couldn't give up your law work.
I'd give up anything
to be with you, Rose.
I wouldn't let you.
Morning, Rose.
Morning, Mr Easter.
I happened to be round the corner so I
thought we'd go to the funeral together.
I hardly expected to
see you around here.
I want you to meet my friend, Mr Kaplan.
Nice to know you, Mr Kaplan.
- How do you do.
Awful hot again, isn't it.
Yes it is. We can pick
up a cab at the corner.
No. I'd rather walk.
Well, whatever you say.
So.
I guess it's time we got started.
Goodbye, Sam. See you later.
Good morning, Mr Kaplan.
Glad to have met you.
It's a pretty hot day for walking.
- Not if you keep in the shade.
No. Not if you can.
Only there isn't much shade
this side of Columbus.
Mr Easter, how long do you
suppose the funeral will last?
I don't know. I imagine ..
You see, my mother isn't so well and ..
I was thinking ..
Oh that's alright. Just so
you put in an appearance.
You can duck out as soon as it starts.
I understand it is the custom to
keep your hat on in a synagogue.
Who'd have thought old Jacobsen
would kick off so suddenly.
Well, that's the way it goes.
Here today, gone tomorrow.
You never know who'll get it next.
No, you don't.
Steve.
Oh. Hello.
Come up.
- Now?
Yes. I've got talk with you.
Are you sure it's alright.
- Yes, he's gone to Stanford.
Well, how about later?
No. Rose will be home in an
hour. She's not working today.
Alright.
Well this must be it.
Better get the janitor up here.
Hey, janitor!
We got a Dispossess
Warrant for Hildebrand.
Hildebrand?
Fourth floor. Hildebrand.
You got anybody to
take the furniture away?
I don't know.
Well, we'll have to dump it on
the sidewalk. Go ahead, Brad.
Hello, Sam.
Hello.
Ice-cream!
Ice-cream!
Ice-cream!
Ice-cream!
Any old clothes?
Any old clothes, mister?
I cash clothes.
Any old clothes, lady?
No. Nothing.
Old shoes or stockings?
No. Nothing, I tell you.
I cash clothes.
Any old clothes, mister?
I cash clothes.
I cash clothes.
Well hello, Mr Maurrant. I thought you
was off for Stanford this morning.
Mr Maurrant. For God's sakes, no.
Oh no, don't.
Mrs Maurrant! Mrs Maurrant!
What's the matter?
Is Sankey in there?
Quick, quick. Run and tell her. Quick!
Mrs Maurrant! Mrs Maurrant!
Mrs Maurrant!
[ Gunshots! ]
No .. no!
[ Gunshot! ]
Hurry and get an ambulance, you.
Grab him! He's coming down.
Stay back!
Stay back.
The lot of you.
Stay where you are.
Hurry up, Doc. She's still breathing.
Hey.
Where are you going?
- I'm going home.
What are you doing here?
- I came for a music lesson. That's all.
Well, nobody can leave the house.
I want to go home.
Who's this kid?
- She came for a music lesson.
You know about the killing?
No I don't. I just heard
some shooting. That's all.
My mother will be worried
Well, you can't go home now.
Get in there out of the way.
Hey, what did he do? Shoot the lovers?
- I'll say he did.
The guy was dead when I got up there.
Some guy down the block just
killed his wife and her lover.
Yeah? I know who that is right now.
Please get out of my way.
Let me get through!
Let me through here please!
Please help me to get through.
I've got to get through.
Get out of my way.
Let me get through there, please.
I've got to get through here.
Sam.
What's happened?
Who was the ambulance for?
Listen to me, Rose. Let's go away.
What is it, Sam?
Is it my mother?
It's not my mother, is it?
Sam, is it?
There's been an accident,
Rose. Let's go away.
Tell me what's happened! Tell me.
They are bringing her down.
Look at Rose.
It is my mother.
Doctor. Doctor, is she dead?
Please, I am her daughter.
Rose.
Mother.
Mother!
Mother.
Mother.
Rose. Be brave, do you hear?
I got to go with her.
Please, I've got to go with her.
Don't take her away.
They can't take her away.
I've got to see her!
Let me go, let me go!
And there is that fellow
what's-his-name.
Trying to climb out of the window.
A fine chance she had to get away with
Maurrant coming in so sudden like.
Look.
There is where he broke the window.
See it?
Can you imagine what those
two must have felt like ..
When he walked in and
caught them like that.
Well, he just happens to be
one of the ones that finds out.
Believe me, there are
plenty of husbands ..
Who don't know the
half of what goes on ..
While they are out making a living.
Ah, he's in again.
Shut up you little weasel, can't you.
Keep moving ladies.
No loitering around here.
Say, have they caught him yet?
Why, ain't you heard?
He was last seen flying over
Nova Scotia on his way to Paris.
Who are you trying to kid?
Would you let us come
up and look around?
Why sure, sure. Bring the babies up too.
The Commissioner is
serving tea up here at 4:30.
You're a smart guy, ain't you.
Yeah.
That's why they put me on
the entertainment committee.
I'm handsome Harry Murphy,
the boy comedian of Brooklyn.
Fresh.
Say, I'd better be getting back.
The madam would throw a duck fit.
If she thought I'd brought her precious
dumpling into a neighborhood like this.
Over the river, girls.
See you in the funny papers.
Oh, don't be so cheeky.
Drop in a gain when you're
in the neighborhood.
And tell Mrs Manderville
Harry was asking for her.
Is Miss Maurrant up there, Officer?
No. She ain't been back since she
went off the hospital this morning.
Officer.
Have they caught him yet?
No, not yet. But we'll get him alright.
Have they caught him yet?
- No.
Well, I've been down Police
Headquarters all this while.
What does he want here?
Pardon me. Maybe you can tell
me where I can find Miss Maurrant.
Why no, I can't.
Was there something special
you wanted to see her about?
I'm a friend of hers.
- Yeah.
Well I guess she'll have need
of all the friends she's got now.
Can you imagine a thing like that
happening right here in this house?
I told everybody some
day he'll kill her.
Well, I ain't saying
it's right to kill anyone.
But if anybody had a reason,
he certainly did.
Why, you ought to have heard ..
Some of the questions they was asking
me down at Police Headquarters.
I could just feel myself
getting redder and redder.
Hey, press! Read about
the double murder!
Hey, press!
About the double murder. Press!
Latest press about the double murder!
Latest press!
Ma'am, press about the double murder.
My last paper, ma'am. I want to go
home. All about the double murder.
It's the last one, ma'am. Pictures and
everything. About the double murder.
The latest about the
double murder, ma'am.
The latest.
Rose.
Have they got him yet?
No they haven't. Here,
let me take your bundles.
I hope he got away.
He'd never have done it if
he'd been in his right mind.
The minute I heard about it I went round
to the hospital. They said you'd left.
She never opened her eyes.
They did everything they could for her.
But it didn't help.
Can I get you something?
A drink or something.
No .. I'm alright.
It's so hot.
If you want to go up to my flat
and lay down for a minute ..
No thanks. I ..
I've got to go up and
get some things I need.
Say.
You don't want to go up there.
Oh, the place is a sight.
Why, you're liable to go
into a faint or something.
I guess nothing can be any worse
than what's already happened.
I've got to change my dress.
I bought her a white dress
and white silk stockings.
She always liked to look pretty.
Yeah. White is the nicest.
She looked so quiet and natural.
You'd think she was asleep.
Yes, it was the same way with my mother.
Why, you'd have thought she was
going to get up the next minute.
Well.
I got to go out and get me some lunch.
You certainly never know when
you get up in the morning ..
What the day is going to bring.
I guess I'd better be going up too.
But listen here. You can't
go through this all alone.
A kid like you.
That's why I came around.
It's awfully nice of you,
Mr Easter, but ..
I don't need any help. Really I don't.
Well .. how about a place
to live and all that?
I guess I'll have to find a place
where Willy and I can live.
You see ..
There is nobody but me
to look after him now.
Why won't you let me help you?
It's terribly nice of
you Mr Easter, but ..
I don't need any help.
I am young and strong and
able to take care of myself.
You see .. I've sort of been
thinking things over.
I honestly don't think I care
about going on the stage.
Say, you've got me all wrong, Rose.
I just want to help you. That's all. I'm
not trying to put anything over on you.
Rose!
Rose.
You poor thing.
This is terrible, terrible.
Yes it is.
But I had a feeling all along that
something terrible was going to happen.
How could he do such a thing?
Thanks awfully for
coming over, Mr Easter.
I don't know when I can
get back to the office.
Why, that's alright about that.
Only in the meantime I wish that ..
If I need any help I'll let you know.
Alright.
But don't forget.
Goodbye.
Well.
Goodbye.
Miss Kaplan.
It sounds silly of my, I guess, but ..
I'm kind of afraid to go up there alone.
Anything I can do.
Thanks ever so much.
He wouldn't say that.
So I just looked at him for a
while without saying anything.
And then I said.
My dear boy, in this day and age ..
Why even Sinclair Lewis used to write
for the Saturday Evening Post, I think.
Exactly.
Well there has been some excitement
around here today, hasn't there.
How can we call ourselves civilized?
When we see that sex jealousy ..
Has the power to awaken in us the
primitive passions of the savage?
Yes. That's true, too.
Well I just phoned the doctor.
This thing has given my
wife a kind of a relapse.
She thought a lot of Mrs Maurrant.
Is Rose home yet?
- Upstairs with Shirley.
Well this is a terrible thing
which has happened.
I found Willy at school.
I took him over to his
grandmother's in Brooklyn.
[ Police whistle ]
[ Gunshots! ]
[ Gunshots! ]
They wouldn't shoot him, would they?
[ Gunshot! ]
We got him.
They got him. They got him!
They found him hiding by
the furnace down at 322.
Yes Rose, you'd better ..
No. No, let me alone.
I want to see him.
He was hidden alright.
Pop. Were you hurt?
- Rose.
Keep back, Miss.
- Give me a break. It's my daughter.
Let him talk.
Alright, but don't try to
pull anything, you hear?
Get back you!
You're wearing a black dress, Rose.
Pop, why did you do it? Why did you?
I'd been drinking, Rose.
See what I mean?
And all the talk was going round. I just
went clean off my nuts, that's all.
What will they do to you, Pop?
It's the chair for me, I guess.
But I don't care.
It's her I'm thinking of.
The way she looked at me.
Alright, that's all.
- Give me a minute, can't you?
What's going to happen to you, Rose?
I'll be alright, Pop.
No need to worry about me.
I ain't been a very good father, have I.
Don't worry about that, Pop.
- But it ain't that I ain't mean to be.
It's just the way things happened
to turn out. That's all.
Keep .. keep your eye
on Willy, won't you Rose.
I'll do everything I can for him, Pop.
You're a good girl, Rose.
You always was a good girl.
Oh Pop ..
- Come on, Miss.
You had better come inside, Rose.
I am alright, Sam. Honest I am.
What about Willy?
I told him that an
accident had happened.
I guess I'll have to tell
him what happened.
He'll only find out for himself
with the papers all full of it.
Rose.
Yes, Miss Kaplan?
There is some chicken here
that I found on the gas stove.
Chicken?
- Yes.
Oh, I remember.
Mother was going to make
some soup for Mrs Buchanan.
It won't keep long in this weather.
- No.
I really think Mrs Buchanan
ought to have the good of it.
Alright. I'll take it up to her.
It's ..
It was only a few hours ago
she was standing there.
Telling me about the chicken.
I've got to go up and get my things.
- Wait a minute, Rose.
I want to talk to you.
What are you going to do?
Why.
I really think the best thing for Willy
and me would be to get out of New York.
You know, like we were
saying this morning.
If you go, I'll go with you.
Sam, dear.
Oh, I don't care anything
about my career.
It's you I care about, Rose.
Don't leave me.
I like you so much, Sam.
I like you better than anybody I know.
I love you, Rose.
Let me go with you.
It would be so nice
for us to be together.
But it can't be, Sam. Not yet.
other and belong to each other.
That we can find the
strength to escape all this.
No, Sam.
Why do you say no?
Do you want to go through life
alone, never loving anyone?
Never having anyone to love you.
Sam.
I want love more than anything
else in this world.
But loving and belonging
aren't the same thing.
Sam dear, listen.
If we say goodbye to each
other for a little while ..
Then it will be better
for us in the end.
What I think is ..
We should give ourselves a
chance to get started first.
Just think how young we both are.
Let's each of try to work
out things for ourselves.
You'll see. We won't lose
anything by waiting.
Do you think so, Rose?
Of course I do.
I know everything is going to
work out the way we want it.
I'm so fond of you, Sam.
I've got such a lot of
confidence in you.
I was just telling Sam that ..
I think we ought to say goodbye
to each other for a while.
I've put your things in this suitcase.
You've been awfully nice
to me, Miss Kaplan.
Don't worry about Sam.
Everything is going to
be alright with him.
I hope so.
I just know it will.
Goodbye.
Goodbye, Rose.
You're a sweet girl.
I hope so, Rose.
Shirley. What's the
matter again with Sam?
- Let him alone, Papa.
Can't you ..
[ Singing: ]
"The farmer killed the wife."
"The farmer killed the wife."
"Ee-aye-addio, the
farmer killed the wife."
"The wife killed the child."
"The wife killed the child."
"Ee-aye-addio, the
wife killed the child."
"The child killed the dog."
"The child killed the dog."
"Ee-aye-addio, the
child killed the dog."
Good evening, Mrs Fiorentino.
Well, I hope it's hot enough for you.
Ain't it too awful?
- I ain't got a dry stitch on me.
It took off my shoes.
But before I go to bed
I take a nice bath.
But the trouble with a bath is
by the time you're all through ..
You're as hot as when you started.
Good evening, Mrs Olsen.
Evening.
Awful hot, ain't it.
Just awful.
Mrs Fiorentino.
My husband says will you
put the garbage out for us?
Sure, sure.
I'm just about ready to pass out.
My baby is crying, crying.
Yeah. It's the same with dogs.
My Queenie, she's just been
laying around all day.
Maybe they got no sleep.
Don't tell me.
If you was to know what I
went through with my ..
Hey, Ma!
Why don't you go upstairs
instead of yelling like that?
Hey, Ma!
What do you want, Willy?
- Give me a dime, will you.
I want to get a cone.
Good evening, Mrs Jones.
Good evening, Mrs Maurrant.
How many cones did
you have today already?
I'm hot. Come on, give me a dime.
Well remember, it's the last one.
I'd like to hear one of my
kids talking to me like that.
Here.
Catch it.
And remember, that's the last one.
Don't come home too late, Willy.
Good evening, Mrs Maurrant. Why
don't you come down and be sociable?
Well I'm keeping some
supper warm for my husband.
But maybe I will for just a minute.
She has her problems with that Willy.
I guess she's got her
minds on other things.
Mr Sankey was coming
again today to see her.
That's terrible.
Wouldn't you think a woman her age ..
Two times already this
week I see him coming here.
Well, I seen him myself
one day last week.
He was coming out of the house
just as I was going in with the dog.
"Good morning, Mrs Jones".
He says to me as if butter
wouldn't melt in his mouth.
"Good morning" I says to him.
Looking him straight in the eye.
Shush. Be careful. She's coming.
My goodness.
Ain't it hot.
Yeah .. I feel like a
wet dish-rag myself.
I'd like to have gone to the park concert
tonight if Rose had got home on time.
Ain't she come home yet?
No. I think maybe she
had to work overtime.
Well, all mine ever comes
home for is to sleep.
Olga!
Olga!
Back to the baby. She's crying again.
Olga!
What them foreigners don't know about
bringing up a baby would fill a book.
Foreigners know just as much
as other people, Mrs Jones.
Oh, well the Germans is different.
More like the Irish.
What I'm talking about ..
- Good evening, ladies.
Good evening, Mr Buchanan.
Awful hot, ain't it.
It's not the heat I mind, as
much as it is the humidity.
Yeah. It makes everything stick to you.
How is your wife, Mr Buchanan?
Well, she's afraid to
go out of the house.
She thinks maybe she
can't get back in time.
In case ..
Oh, you know.
Oh yeah. I was the same
way with my Vincent.
Afraid to take a step.
The trouble is I can't
get her to eat a thing.
Oh, well tell her ..
She must keep up her strength.
She's got two to feed, you know.
Yes, I know.
Excuse me. She's calling.
You'd think it was him
that was having the baby.
Well she's such a puny little thing.
Well, that's the way it goes.
The little skinny ones have them
and the big strong ones don't.
Welcome home, Mr Maurrant.
Evening.
It's some baby of a day.
You been working all this while, Frank?
I'll say I've been working.
Dress rehearsal since twelve
o'clock with lights in this weather.
Tomorrow I got to go
Stanford for the try-out.
Oh, you're going to Stanford tomorrow?
Sure. The whole crew is going.
Why, what about it?
Oh nothing.
What I want is a good wash.
I've been sweating like a horse all day.
My husband too is sweating terrible.
Mine don't.
There's some people that just naturally
do and then there's others that don't.
Is Rose home?
No, I think maybe she
had to work overtime.
I never heard of nobody working
nights in a real-estate office.
The head of the firm died, and the
funeral is tomorrow so I thought ..
It's a mother's job to know
what her daughter's doing.
Things are different
nowadays, Mr Maurrant.
Yeah? Well not in my family
they ain't going to be different.
Hello, Mr Maurrant.
Good evening, Ladies.
Good evening, Mr Jones.
I guess your hubby is feeling
the heat, Mrs Maurrant?
Oh, men are all alike.
They're easy to get along with so long as
everything goes the way they want it to.
But once it don't .. goodnight.
Yes, that's true, Mrs Jones.
I think it's a shame that people can't
live together in peace and quiet.
Instead of making each other miserable.
Well, what I say is ..
You get married for better or for worse.
And if it turns out for the worst.
Well, all you can do
is make the best of it.
I think the trouble is that
people don't make allowances.
They don't seem to realize that
everybody wants a kind word now and ..
Then.
Good evening, folks.
Is it hot enough for you?
- Good evening.
I don't know when we've
had a day like this before.
Six dead in Chicago
and no relief in sight.
Well, it's good for the milk business.
Yes.
You hardly get the milk in the
morning before it turns sour.
You should make milk cake.
Oh yes. My wife makes it too.
How is our wife, Mr Sankey?
You were telling me
that .. she had a cold.
Was I?
Well, that was a couple of weeks ago.
Sure. She's all right again now.
You got a family too, ain't you?
Yes. Yes, I have .. two little girls.
Well.
I told my wife I'd go to the drug-store
and get her some nice, cold ginger ale.
Well if you ask me, all that gassy
stuff don't do you a bit of good.
I guess you're right at that.
Still, it cools you off.
Well, see you all again, folks.
Is that that fellow, Sankey?
Yeah, Mr Sankey.
- He's a collector for the milk company.
Good evening.
Good evening, Miss Cushing.
How is your mother today, Miss Cushing?
Well she complains about the heat.
A woman her age, you know.
Well, I'm just going down
to get her a little ice-cream.
Between you and I.
I don't think her mother
is long for this world.
Poor Miss Cushing.
She just spent her whole
life looking after her mother.
Well I have to tell you after
all I've done for my kids ..
I expect them to look
after me in my old age.
Oh, I don't know.
It seems a person should get more out of
life than just looking after someone else.
Well.
I guess I'd better go
and look for Willy.
My husband doesn't
like it if he stays out late.
Did you get that?
Going to look for Willy.
Can you beat it?
- It's just terrible.
Do you think she's just going
out looking for this guy Sankey?
Oh, ain't men the limit?
What do you suppose he
came walking by here for?
Today he stands there and
looks and looks at her.
Well, what about the looks
she was giving him?
Why you'd have thought it was
Someday her husband is killing him.
Well it's no more than he
deserves, the little rabbit.
Going around, breaking up
decent people's homes.
"Good evening folks."
Just like hoosis on the radio.
Do you think Maurrant is
wise to what's going on?
Well if he ain't there must be
something the matter with him.
Say, what do you think? I just saw
them together, the two of them.
What did I tell you?
It's awful isn't it.
It looks to me it's
getting pretty serious.
You didn't notice whether they
was kissing or anything did you?
To tell you the truth, Mrs Jones.
I felt so ashamed for her.
Look out, Maurrant is coming.
What's become of my wife?
Why ..
She said she was just going
around the corner to look for Willy.
Oh.
- Yeah.
Well, I guess I'd better be
getting back to my mother.
Goodnight, Miss Cushing.
- Goodnight.
Goodnight, Mr Maurrant.
- Goodnight.
Good evening.
Papa, here is your tea.
Haven't you finished your paper yet?
It makes it so hot with the light on.
Alright. Put it out. Put it out.
There is anyhow nothing
to read in the papers.
Nothing but divorce, scandal and murder.
You wouldn't think anyone would want to
read all that Hebrew writing would you?
I don't see how they make
head nor tail out of if myself.
I guess if you learn it
when you're a kid ..
Will you look at your hubby, Mrs F.
How about an ice-cream!
A nice and fresh ice-cream cone.
Give me you violin.
Thank you, Mrs Jones. Here.
Is a cone for you.
- Thank you very much, Mr Fiorentino.
And Mrs Fiorentino.
One nice and fresh for you too.
- This makes me too fat.
No, no. Five or ten pounds more.
Nobody can tell anyway.
Mr Jones.
I will at that. Thanks, thanks.
And Mr Maurrant.
- No, I got my pipe.
Oh you like the pipe better
than ice-cream, eh?
Mrs Kaplan, yes. And Mr Kaplan?
Mr Olsen, do you like the cone?
- Sure. Much obliged.
Taste good, eh?
- You betcha.
And it cools you off a little.
Sure it cools you off. I am wet.
Wet like I used to come
out from the bathtub.
It's hot like hell in the park.
Two or three thousand people.
Everybody sweating.
And smelling like a menagerie.
That's that Miss Simpson.
Mrs Hildebrand ain't come home yet.
Do you know when she'll be back?
Well she just went around
to the picture theater.
She's coming now.
Mrs Hildebrand. Hurry up, hurry up.
Where have you been, Mrs Hildebrand?
- To a moving-picture show.
Where did you get the money?
It was only 75 cents.
75 cents is a lot when you're
being dispossessed.
I suppose it came out of the money
we gave you to buy groceries?
Is this your conception of philanthropy?
You will please be good enough
to mind your own business.
You should go home and read
in your bible the life of Christ.
Will you listen to who
is talking about Christ.
Nobody is going to give you any money
to spend on moving-picture shows.
What's the matter with you, lady?
Here. Take this money and go
to the picture show every night.
And take your little bambino.
- Thank you.
We'd better go inside. We can't
stay here and talk to you.
Among all these people.
Wouldn't she give you a pain?
I tell you the whole problem.
She is living all alone and
she ain't got no sweetheart.
Here is your wife now, Mr Maurrant.
Is Rose home yet, Frank?
- No, she ain't.
Where you been all this while?
- Why, I been out looking for Willy.
I'll give him a fanning
when I get hold of him.
Oh don't whip him, Frank.
All boys are wild like that.
Sure. My boy Benson was the
same way. And look at him today.
Driving his own taxi and
making a good living.
What's aright about that?
- Excuse me.
Tomorrow they are going to throw
Mrs Hildebrand out on the street, eh?
Yes, they are.
And you ought to help her
realize the value of money.
No, no lady.
I give her a couple of dollars.
Make her feel good.
Make me feel good. Doesn't hurt anybody
- Yes, it does.
It is bad for her character.
- Ha, you make me laugh.
Nobody is asking your opinion.
It's alright. I'm telling
you without asking.
All the same, you people
are the first to ask for help.
Come back here. I'll tell you something
will maybe do good for your character.
This is nothing but another device
for pulverizing the working classes.
Ah, he's shooting off his face again.
Papa, it's time to go to bed.
When the rich steal from the
worker's arms a million dollars ..
They give to the poor a thousand.
Well, if you don't pay your
rent you got to move.
But it doesn't seem right though to
put a poor woman out of her home.
For her husband to run away,
that was not right either.
There should be a law against women going
around stealing other women's husbands.
So long as the institution of
private property exists ..
The workers will be at the mercy
of the property owning classes.
Oh, can all that hooey.
I'm making a good living, see.
And I ain't doing no kicking.
We got prosperity in this country.
Put the boots of industry in the
hands of the working class.
And this can be accomplished
only by a social revolution!
Yeah? Well we don't want no
revolution in this country.
I know all about that stuff.
Teaching kids there ain't no Gods
and their grandfathers was monkeys.
If you don't like the way things are
here go back where you came from.
Everybody has a right to his
own opinion, Mr Maurrant.
We don't want no foreigners coming
in telling us how to run things.
Nothing wrong to be a foreigner.
Many good people are foreigners.
Sure! Look at Christopher Columbus.
The first man that discovered
America. He was an Italian.
Just like me.
The first man is Leif Erikson.
What's that?
The first man is Leif Erikson.
No, no. Columbus.
Columbus. Columbus is the first
man who discovered America.
Everybody knows that.
Erikson was really the first discoverer.
No, no!
But Columbus was the first to
open America to settlers.
Just what I am saying.
Columbus, the first American.
The first man is Leif Erikson.
What we need in this country is a
little more respect for law and order.
Look what happens to people's homes with
divorces and one thing and another.
I tell you it's time something was done
to put the fear of God into people.
Yeah, you're right.
- Yeah.
Sometimes I think they are only trying
to get a little something out of life.
Something they ought
not to have. Is that it?
When private property is abolished ..
The family will no longer
have any reason to exist.
Well it's got to exist, see.
Husbands and wives loving each as they
said they would when they were spliced.
And a dirty Bolshevik that says different
is liable to get his head busted open.
Alright! Why should I argue
with a low class gangster?
Who is a gangster? Why, you ..
Alright, alright. Let me go.
If he talk like that in Italy ..
Mussolini going to give
him the castor oil.
Oh, why can't people
be kind to each other?
Why can't they live together in peace?
Live in peace. You're always
talking about living in peace.
Well I guess I'll go round to
Callaghan's and shoot a little pool.
Don't be coming home late
at all hours of the morning.
Oh lay off that stuff.
I'll be back in a half an hour.
Are you coming along, Mr Maurrant?
I'm going to wait a while.
Sam. Are you coming in?
No. It's too hot to go to bed.
Well don't make a noise
when you come in.
How do you like the concerto, eh?
I didn't like it.
Those Italian organ-grinder
tunes aren't music.
Then what do you call
music? Tchaikovsky?
Yes, Tchaikovsky. And Beethoven.
What I like is ..
[ Singing ]
Primo!
The old German waltz.
[ German singing ]
Well give me a good
jazz band every time.
Jazz is not music, I say.
Like you hear.
Quack, quack, quack.
No feeling. Nothing.
But Beethoven expresses the
emotions of the human soul.
He's no good, Beethoven.
He makes you cry.
I want to laugh.
Italian music will make you
happy. It makes you feel good!
[ Italian singing ]
How beautiful. It makes you feel fine.
It makes you want to dance.
I want to give you music.
Beautiful.
Want to dance with me?
How about you, Miss Maurrant?
Come on, give me a little dance.
Look out you two.
You're blocking traffic.
Say go right ahead.
Don't let me stop you.
Oh, that's alright.
I guess we danced to that enough.
A pretty hot night for dancing.
Yes, it is.
Well, I guess I'll be going along.
Goodnight, forks.
Goodnight.
Marguerite, stop the music.
Who was that bird?
Why that's Mr Sankey.
He's a collector for the milk company.
Why ..
he's just been round to the drug-store
to get his wife some ginger ale.
What I want to know is why
ain't Rose home yet?
I told you, Frank.
Alright about that, but I want 'em
home, not batting round the streets.
You hear me?
Have you been fighting again?
That big stiff ain't going
to say that to me.
I'll knock the stuffing out of him.
That's what I'll do.
Who's been saying things to you?
That big stiff Joe Conley, that's who.
I'll knock his eyes out,
that dirty louse.
Here, here. Cut out the swearing or
I'll give you something to ball for.
What did he say to you, huh?
No. Let go of my arm!
Oh what difference does it make?
- Nobody is asking you.
What did he say?
Up to bed, I don't want to hear
any more. Go. Beat it.
Wait Billy, I'll come along.
Are you coming up now, Frank?
No I ain't.
I'm going round to Callaghan's
and get a drink.
And if Rose ain't home when I get
back, there is going to be trouble.
Well.
Goodnight all.
- Goodnight.
Miss Fiorentino. Miss Fiorentino.
You missed it.
- What?
Who should come along but Sankey.
So there was the three of them.
Mr Maurrant looking at Sankey
as if he'd like to kill him.
Did he say so?
Not until after Sankey was gone.
"Who is that" says he.
"He's the milk collector", says she.
It's just awful.
- And then Willy comes home.
A boy tell him his mama is a bad woman.
And Willy lick him.
- Well what else is she?
Stop it.
Stop it!
Leave her alone, can't you.
Why do you always have
to tear her to pieces?
Why does every ..?
Pah!
Well he must be off his nut, too.
It's a fine house to
be living in, ain't it.
Well.
Goodnight all.
Wait a minute, Miss Olsen.
I'll go with you.
Marguerite, if I catch you making
whoopee with the milkman ..
I'm going to break your neck.
Stop your fooling, Filippo.
Come to bed.
It's about half way down the block.
This is it.
Seventy cents.
There you are.
- Thanks.
Goodnight, Mr Easter.
I've had a lovely time.
You're not going to
leave me like this are you?
I've hardly had a chance to talk to you.
We've been doing nothing
but talking since six o'clock.
No we haven't. We've
been eating and dancing.
Rose, I ..
Please don't, Mr Easter.
There is somebody coming.
Good evening, Mrs Olsen.
- Good evening, Miss Maurrant.
She's got the cutest baby you ever saw.
- Yeah? That's great. Listen, Rose.
I've really got to go upstairs now.
Rose, I'm just crazy about you.
Please, let me go now.
- Kiss me goodnight.
No.
Just one little kiss.
- No. - Yes.
It wasn't nice of you to do that.
- Why not? Didn't you like it?
It's not that. You've
got a wife haven't you?
I tell you I'm clean
off my nut about you.
Go down.
Good evening, Mrs Jones.
Good evening.
I think your father has been
kind of worried about you.
Has he?
- Yeah.
Well, I've got to give
Queenie her exercise.
Soon, I'll have all the
neighbors talking about me.
Why not snap out of it all?
- Out of what?
This. Working.
The whole business.
You are not wise to yourself, Rose.
Why with your looks and
personality and brains.
You shouldn't keep looking at
me at the office all the time.
I guess I just can't
keep my eyes off you.
And I've got it all figured out.
The first thing you do is
throw up your job, see.
Then you get yourself
a job on the stage.
How could I get a job on the stage?
- Easy.
I've got three or four friends
in the show business.
I don't think I'd be any
good on the stage.
All you got to do is
put up a little front.
Get yourself a swell little apartment,
throw a couple of parties.
And you're all set.
You do like me, don't you?
I don't know if I do or not.
- Why of course you do.
Think of all the good times
we could have together.
You with a little apartment and all.
What about your wife?
The way I figured it, she wouldn't
have to know anything about it.
I don't think it's the way
I'd want things to be.
Oh, sweetheart,
- No.
Look, there is my father. There will
only be an argument if he sees you.
Alright.
Goodnight.
I'll see you at the old man's
funeral tomorrow.
Hello, Pop.
Who was that you was talking to?
Mr Easter. He's the
manager of our office.
You been out with him?
Yes, I had to stay late to get out some
letters and he took me to dinner.
A fine time to be getting
home from dinner.
Well we danced afterwards.
A little petting on the side.
Is that it? - No, it isn't.
Is this bird married?
I thought so.
Now get this straight.
No married man ain't going to come
nosing round my family. Get me?
Quiet Pop, there's somebody coming.
- I don't care who's coming.
I think the baby is coming!
Is there anything I can do, Mr Buchanan?
Well if you wouldn't mind
phoning for a doctor.
Here's his number.
- Sure I will.
You go back to your wife.
- Yes, I had better.
Tell Ma I've gone out for Mrs Buchanan.
- Alright.
Hello Rose, what's your hurry?
- Mrs Buchanan.
Say, your little friend is
kind of cute, ain't she.
Say?
According to you, anything
in a skirt is kinda cute.
Yeah? But there ain't none of
them as cute as you, Mae.
Oh yeah?
Honest. I mean it.
How about a little kiss?
Well, you might show
a little enthusiasm.
Say .. you seem to think I
ought to hang out a flag ..
Every time some fellow decides
to wipe off his mouth on me.
The trouble with you is you
need another little snifter.
Nope. I can't swallow anymore
of that rotten gin of yours.
It ain't the worst.
I don't mind it no more since I had
that brass lining put on my stomach.
Well. Happy days.
Hey!
What are you doing, emptying the flask?
I thought you didn't want none.
Oh, can't you take a joke?
Hey.
Go away.
I feel like a three alarm fire. Whoo!
Shut up will you. You'll be
waking the whole neighborhood.
What the heck do I care. Whoo .. whoo!
Whoo!
Kiss me quick.
- I'll say.
Come on.
Wait a minute. Where you going?
Come on, I'm telling you. Let's go
down to Fred Hennessey's apartment.
I ought to go home.
Say baby, go down that go
down this sidewalk will you.
Come on.
Hello Rose. How's the milkman?
Goodnight, sweetheart.
Miss Maurrant. Miss Maurrant!
Did you get the doctor?
Yes. He'll be here right away.
Well that's certainly very nice of you.
You don't know how much I appreciate it.
She seems to be getting worse.
Excuse me. She's calling.
If there is anything I can do ..
- Thanks. I'll let you know.
Hello Rosy.
What's your hurry?
I've got to go in.
- Ah ..
You don't want to go in yet.
Come on, I'll take you for
a little ride in my arms.
Let me past.
Say, you got a lot
of strength, ain't you.
Hey, you big tough.
- Take your hands off her.
Well, look who's here.
What do you want?
Keep your hands off her.
- Oh yeah?
Me ..?
Now what have you got to say?
- You let him alone.
If you touch her again ..
- "If you touch her again .."
Ah shut up you little Kike.
Come on, get up why don't you.
What's going on here?
Hello Ma.
Hello Vincent.
Ah, just a little friendly argument.
You'd better keep your hands
to yourself. - Is that so?
Who said so, huh?
Oh come on, Vincent.
Alright. I'm coming.
Goodnight, dearie.
Some Sheik you picked out for yourself.
You seem to have plenty of
admirers, Miss Maurrant.
But I guess you come by it, natural.
The dirty rat. I'll kill him.
I'll kill him.
It's alright, Sam. Never mind.
Oh I'm a coward.
No you're not, Sam.
He's just a big tough. That's all he is.
He can do anything he likes to me.
What of it? It won't be
that way for long.
In a few years from now you'll far above
him you won't even remember he's alive.
Oh, I sometimes think I'll
never get anywhere.
Of course you will.
Say.
There is something I want to ask you.
What is it, Rose?
I wouldn't dream of
asking anyone but you.
Do you think it is true what
they say about my mother?
I guess it is, isn't it.
They were talking here before.
I couldn't stand it any longer.
Why do you we go on
living in a place like this?
What can I do, Sam?
My father means well enough.
But .. he's always sort of
making you freeze up.
That's the whole trouble, I guess.
Mother never had
anyone to really love her.
Only the way things are now with all
the neighbors whispering and spying.
Sometimes I get a feeling ..
I don't know.
I wish I could help you, Rose.
You do help me, Sam.
Just by being nice and sympathetic.
There's so few people
you can really talk to.
I get blue and discouraged
sometimes, too.
Like this morning when I woke up.
I felt so miserable.
And I started walking to the
office through the park.
Everything was so fresh and green.
I felt things weren't so bad after all.
Then I got to thinking about
that poem you said for me.
Remember?
Say it again, Sam.
Please.
"Sail forth."
"Steer for the deep waters only."
"Reckless old soul exploring."
"And thou with me."
"That we may brave where
mariner has not yet dared to go."
"And we will risk the ship."
"Ourselves and all."
Yes, that's it.
That's just what I felt.
Like risking everything
and not being afraid.
Miss Maurrant!
Would you mind phoning the doctor again.
He should be here by now.
Yes, sure I will.
- Wait. Maybe this is him now.
Yes, yes. That's him.
Oh doctor. I guess you're none too soon.
Plenty of time.
Plenty of time.
Just don't get excited.
Rose. You know what time it is?
Yes Pop, I'll be right up.
Don't make call you
again now. Do you hear.
I'd better go up now, Sam.
Goodnight.
Will you kiss me goodnight, Rose?
Of course I will.
You wait and see.
You are going to do big things someday.
I've got lots of confidence in you.
Do you really mean it, Rose?
Of course I do.
Don't you forget it.
Goodnight.
Goodnight.
Shirley, what's Sam doing
outside all the time?
Yoo-hoo, Sam.
Goodnight, Sam.
Goodnight, Rose dear.
Doctor.
Well?
What if she does wake up?
Oh she won't I told you.
You had better go and
get some sleep yourself.
Well goodnight.
- Goodnight.
Well how about kissing me goodnight?
Ain't you had enough
kissing for one night?
Well say, if that's the
way you feel about it.
Going to be another scorcher, Charlie.
- You said it.
Hey, what are you looking at?
Good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Morning.
Good morning.
Hold that.
I bet you can't do this.
I bet I can.
Ha ha. Told you you couldn't.
Ha ha.
Oh gosh.
How many steps can you jump up?
- Three.
I can jump four.
- Let's see you.
Willy, we're waiting for the bread.
Alright. Can't you see I've got it?
Hello Rose.
- Hello, Sam.
Coming down?
Willy come back yet?
- Yes, he's on his way up.
I'll be down as soon
as the dishes are done.
Sam, breakfast is ready.
- I don't want any breakfast.
You've got your head so
full of that Rose Maurrant.
I'd like to know why you want to get
mixed up with a little Shiksa like that.
Oh, can't you ever get
over your race prejudice?
I've told you a thousand times that the
Jews are no better than anyone else.
Look at her family.
What's her father?
Nothing but an illiterate ruffian.
And her mother ..
- Are you starting too?
Shirley!
Alright Papa.
Come in Sam, or Papa will be
making long speeches again.
Alright. I'm coming.
Good morning.
- Good morning.
Good morning, Mr Buchanan.
Good morning, Mrs Fiorentino.
I guess you know that the
baby came last night.
No, I did not hear a thing about it.
3:30 this morning.
I've been up the whole night.
- A boy is it?
No. It's a little girl.
Filippo.
Morning. I was just telling
your wife the baby ..
Mr Buchanan has a little girl.
That's fine.
Marguerite.
Why don't you have any babies, eh?
I must go and make the coffee.
That is a funny thing.
You got a little skinny wife.
And she got the baby.
My Marguerite is big and fat.
And she's not going to have any babies.
Well say, I've got to be getting
down to the drug-store.
Good morning.
Oh. Good morning, Miss Maurrant.
It's awful hot again isn't it.
In Italy, where I am born, it is
much more hot than here.
I remember when I am a little boy.
I lay down on the ground.
Under the lemon tree
and I sleep all day.
Under a lemon tree?
That must have been wonderful.
I'd love to go to Italy.
I don't suppose I ever will.
- Why sure ..
Someday you are going
to marry a rich fellow ..
And he take you to Italy and everywhere.
Good morning.
- Good morning, Mr Maddigan.
Anyhow.
I don't feel I'd be happy marrying a man
with money if I didn't care for him too.
What's the matter, huh?
You love that little Kike, huh?
No I don't.
I don't love anybody.
At least I don't think I do.
Filippo, breakfast!
Alright, Marguerite.
You marry a fellow with plenty
money. Is mucho better.
Why Willy, you can't
go to school like that.
Oh, for the love of Mike.
You're getting big enough to comb
your own hair without being told.
There.
Now you look very nice.
Comb your own hair.
Why don't you look where
you're going, you little shrimp?
Nuisances, boys that age.
Good morning, Mrs Jones.
- Good morning.
How is little Miss Buchanan
getting along?
Well she's sleeping now, poor thing.
I really didn't think last night she'd
have the strength to pull through.
Well, it's something we've
all got to go through.
After all, what more does
any woman want than ..
Watching her kids grow up and
a husband to look out for her.
Yes, that's true.
- Yeah.
The world would be a
whole lot better off if ..
There was more that lived up to it.
Well ..
I got to go get my Mae up out of bed.
Oh, Miss Maurrant.
If you don't mind my being so bold ..
I'd think twice before I'd
let any child of mine ..
Bring that Sam Kaplan into the family.
I don't see what that has
to do with you, Mrs Jones.
But there is no need in
getting huffy about it.
Ha.
I'm sure it don't make no
difference to me what you do.
Come on, Queenie.
She and those wonderful
children of hers.
There's a lot of people that
never seem to be happy ..
Unless they're making
trouble for somebody.
I wonder if it wouldn't
better for us, though ..
If we moved out to the
suburbs somewhere.
I don't think Pop would do it.
Oh, are you leaving now, Frank?
- Looks like it, don't it.
Where have you been all this while?
Why you know where I've been.
Up to Mrs Buchanan's.
Say, why not look after your own home
and let the Buchanans look after theirs?
All I tried to do was be
a little bit neighbourly.
A woman's got a right to stay in her own
home to look her husband and children.
What else have I been doing all
these years I'd like to know.
See that you don't forget it, is all.
There's liable to be trouble.
Oh alright, Frank.
Don't say any more, please.
When will you be back, tomorrow?
When I'm through with
my work. That's when.
What are you so anxious to know for?
Why, I just asked. That's all.
You just asked, eh?
Just in case somebody wants to
come around calling. Is that it?
Why no. It isn't.
It isn't anything of the kind.
Why, you've no right to be talking to me
like that in front of my own daughter.
You've got no right!
No! You haven't!
Ma ..
- Come back here you.
Come back. Do you hear?
You stay right here.
Pa.
Pa, if you were only a little nicer to
her, maybe things would be different.
Say, ain't I always been
a good husband to her?
Ain't I always looked after her?
Someone to be nice and
gentle. That's all it is.
So she got you headed the same way, huh?
Running around nights with married men.
You don't need to worry about me, Pop.
A girl nowadays can look
after herself, but not her.
She needs somebody to look after her.
Oh, can all that talk.
And don't let me catch that other
bozo hanging around here either.
That's all I got to say.
- Pop, listen.
Couldn't we get a little
house somewhere?
Queens or somewhere like that?
This place suits me alright.
I thought it would be
sort of nice for all of us.
Maybe if Ma had a real nice home
and some real nice neighbors ..
Forget it .. I don't know
when I'll be back, see.
Why hello Mr Maurrant.
You off on a little trip?
Yeah. Don't you forget what
I told you, you hear me.
Why do you look so sad?
A young girl like you
should not look so sad.
Mr Kaplan, why must things
being the way they are?
Why must people always be
fighting and having trouble?
Instead of just being happy together.
- My dear young lady.
This is something which all the
philosophers have been unable to answer.
It is my opinion that most unhappiness
can be traced to economic causes.
Hello Charlie. Hello Mary.
Hello.
We are going to be dispossessed today.
What a shame.
- Yes, ma'am.
My father ran away so
we couldn't pay the rent.
Oh come on, Mary.
We have to go to school now. Goodbye.
Isn't that awful?
In a civilised world.
Such things could not happen.
You mean, if there were different laws?
Not laws.
We got already too many laws.
We must have action, not laws.
The working class ..
- Excuse me. My mother.
I got a little chicken to make
Mrs Buchanan some soup.
Did he go?
- Yes, Ma.
I've always tried to be
a good wife to him, Rose.
But it didn't seem to make
any difference to him.
I know just the way you feel about, Ma.
Do you, Rose?
Yes Ma, I do. Honest I do.
But.
It's on account of ..
Are you going to start too?
I thought you'd be the one
that would feel different.
I do, Ma. Really I do.
What's the good of being alive if you
can't get a little something out of life.
Well .. is it hot enough for you today?
It's awful, isn't it.
- You said it.
Still, along about January we'll all be
wishing we had a little of this weather.
Ma.
If I say something will
you listen to me?
Yes, sure.
Sure I will, Rose.
I'll listen to anything you say.
Well .. what I was thinking ..
If he didn't come around
here so much, maybe ..
You see what I mean, Ma?
Well every person in the world has
got to have somebody to talk to.
You can't live without
somebody to talk to.
It's only on account of Pop.
I'm scared of what he's likely
to do if he starts drinking.
Oh well, alright.
Sometimes, I think I'd be
better off if I were dead.
Ma.
Oh, Mr Buchanan.
I got a little chicken to make your
wife some good nourishing soup.
Well say, you've got to
let me pay you for it.
Never mind about that.
I called the office and they told
me not to come down today.
Well, that will be a comfort
to her to have you around.
Yes. That's what I thought, too.
Well, I'd better be
getting upstairs now.
I'll be up later with the soup.
Well, thanks.
You've been a mighty good
neighbour, Mrs Maurrant.
He's an awful nice young fellow.
Nice and gentle.
It makes you feel sort of sorry for him.
Well, I'd better get up
and start this chicken.
Are you coming home for lunch, Rose?
Yes, I'll be back as soon
as the funeral is over.
Oh. Alright.
Good morning.
- Good morning.
Morning.
It's another awful day, isn't it.
Yes. And when you have
to keep forty children quiet ..
Thank goodness in two weeks school
closes. Otherwise I think I'd go crazy.
Miss Maurrant.
I'd like to talk to you
about my brother.
Why.
Why certainly, Miss Kaplan.
I guess you know he's only
finishing college this month?
Yes, of course I do.
Then he has to go to law school.
It will be years before he
can think about marriage.
We're just good friends. That's all.
I've had to work hard enough
to get him as far he is.
And if you are such a good friend, you
shouldn't take his mind off his work.
Don't you think there are other
things in the world beside just work?
Don't you think I know that?
Maybe you think I'm only an old maid
schoolteacher without any feelings.
I don't. I don't.
But I haven't tried to vamp Sam.
Honestly I haven't.
No.
He sees a pretty face and ..
Right away, he forgets.
I know I haven't got as much
brains as Sam or as you.
I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.
Only.
He's all I've got in the world.
Hello Rose.
Hello Sam.
Please don't tell him what I said.
- No, I won't.
Want some coffee cake?
No.
Sam.
Tell me.
Is there any special way of
attending a synagogue?
In a synagogue?
Yes, this funeral I'm going
to is in a synagogue.
I thought there might be
something special you had to do.
Never in my life have I
been in a synagogue.
You mean, your family didn't
bring you up to believe in anything?
No.
I don't know.
Only it seems better to believe in
something that makes you a little happy.
There is not much to be happy
about living a place like this.
I know things aren't the way
you want them to be.
They aren't for me either.
Someday it will be different.
I just know it will.
In the meantime, let's
try to make the best of it.
The best of it?
What have you got to be happy about?
Tell me. I'd like to know.
Why, lots of things, Sam.
Just being alive.
Looking at the faces of people
you like and hearing them laugh.
Rough-housing with your kid brother.
And .. I don't know ..
Listening to a good band and dancing.
I think there is a lot.
Only I wish you'd be a little
bit happy about things, too.
Does it really make any difference
to you whether I am or not?
You know it does.
You are the best friend I've ever had.
I can't think of anything but you, Rose.
Sam.
There is something I wanted
to ask your advice about.
A man in our office wants
to put me on the stage.
The stage?
But don't you know what he wants?
Look out, Sam. Here is
that tough from upstairs.
Hello Rosy.
Have you been here all night
talking to the little Yid?
Hello Marxist.
Shake.
Let me go.
- Let him alone.
Gee, I'd hate to get in
a mix up with him.
Got a date for tonight, kid?
Yes, I have.
- Yeah?
Who with, the milkman?
Why you ..
- What did you say?
I thought I heard you
say something, you ..
Frightened Kaplan,
the pride of Jerusalem.
For crying out loud.
Sometimes, I think I'd
just like to run away.
Would you go with me, Sam?
- Yes, anywhere.
I've heard people are much nicer and
friendlier when you go outside New York.
But you couldn't give up your law work.
I'd give up anything
to be with you, Rose.
I wouldn't let you.
Morning, Rose.
Morning, Mr Easter.
I happened to be round the corner so I
thought we'd go to the funeral together.
I hardly expected to
see you around here.
I want you to meet my friend, Mr Kaplan.
Nice to know you, Mr Kaplan.
- How do you do.
Awful hot again, isn't it.
Yes it is. We can pick
up a cab at the corner.
No. I'd rather walk.
Well, whatever you say.
So.
I guess it's time we got started.
Goodbye, Sam. See you later.
Good morning, Mr Kaplan.
Glad to have met you.
It's a pretty hot day for walking.
- Not if you keep in the shade.
No. Not if you can.
Only there isn't much shade
this side of Columbus.
Mr Easter, how long do you
suppose the funeral will last?
I don't know. I imagine ..
You see, my mother isn't so well and ..
I was thinking ..
Oh that's alright. Just so
you put in an appearance.
You can duck out as soon as it starts.
I understand it is the custom to
keep your hat on in a synagogue.
Who'd have thought old Jacobsen
would kick off so suddenly.
Well, that's the way it goes.
Here today, gone tomorrow.
You never know who'll get it next.
No, you don't.
Steve.
Oh. Hello.
Come up.
- Now?
Yes. I've got talk with you.
Are you sure it's alright.
- Yes, he's gone to Stanford.
Well, how about later?
No. Rose will be home in an
hour. She's not working today.
Alright.
Well this must be it.
Better get the janitor up here.
Hey, janitor!
We got a Dispossess
Warrant for Hildebrand.
Hildebrand?
Fourth floor. Hildebrand.
You got anybody to
take the furniture away?
I don't know.
Well, we'll have to dump it on
the sidewalk. Go ahead, Brad.
Hello, Sam.
Hello.
Ice-cream!
Ice-cream!
Ice-cream!
Ice-cream!
Any old clothes?
Any old clothes, mister?
I cash clothes.
Any old clothes, lady?
No. Nothing.
Old shoes or stockings?
No. Nothing, I tell you.
I cash clothes.
Any old clothes, mister?
I cash clothes.
I cash clothes.
Well hello, Mr Maurrant. I thought you
was off for Stanford this morning.
Mr Maurrant. For God's sakes, no.
Oh no, don't.
Mrs Maurrant! Mrs Maurrant!
What's the matter?
Is Sankey in there?
Quick, quick. Run and tell her. Quick!
Mrs Maurrant! Mrs Maurrant!
Mrs Maurrant!
[ Gunshots! ]
No .. no!
[ Gunshot! ]
Hurry and get an ambulance, you.
Grab him! He's coming down.
Stay back!
Stay back.
The lot of you.
Stay where you are.
Hurry up, Doc. She's still breathing.
Hey.
Where are you going?
- I'm going home.
What are you doing here?
- I came for a music lesson. That's all.
Well, nobody can leave the house.
I want to go home.
Who's this kid?
- She came for a music lesson.
You know about the killing?
No I don't. I just heard
some shooting. That's all.
My mother will be worried
Well, you can't go home now.
Get in there out of the way.
Hey, what did he do? Shoot the lovers?
- I'll say he did.
The guy was dead when I got up there.
Some guy down the block just
killed his wife and her lover.
Yeah? I know who that is right now.
Please get out of my way.
Let me get through!
Let me through here please!
Please help me to get through.
I've got to get through.
Get out of my way.
Let me get through there, please.
I've got to get through here.
Sam.
What's happened?
Who was the ambulance for?
Listen to me, Rose. Let's go away.
What is it, Sam?
Is it my mother?
It's not my mother, is it?
Sam, is it?
There's been an accident,
Rose. Let's go away.
Tell me what's happened! Tell me.
They are bringing her down.
Look at Rose.
It is my mother.
Doctor. Doctor, is she dead?
Please, I am her daughter.
Rose.
Mother.
Mother!
Mother.
Mother.
Rose. Be brave, do you hear?
I got to go with her.
Please, I've got to go with her.
Don't take her away.
They can't take her away.
I've got to see her!
Let me go, let me go!
And there is that fellow
what's-his-name.
Trying to climb out of the window.
A fine chance she had to get away with
Maurrant coming in so sudden like.
Look.
There is where he broke the window.
See it?
Can you imagine what those
two must have felt like ..
When he walked in and
caught them like that.
Well, he just happens to be
one of the ones that finds out.
Believe me, there are
plenty of husbands ..
Who don't know the
half of what goes on ..
While they are out making a living.
Ah, he's in again.
Shut up you little weasel, can't you.
Keep moving ladies.
No loitering around here.
Say, have they caught him yet?
Why, ain't you heard?
He was last seen flying over
Nova Scotia on his way to Paris.
Who are you trying to kid?
Would you let us come
up and look around?
Why sure, sure. Bring the babies up too.
The Commissioner is
serving tea up here at 4:30.
You're a smart guy, ain't you.
Yeah.
That's why they put me on
the entertainment committee.
I'm handsome Harry Murphy,
the boy comedian of Brooklyn.
Fresh.
Say, I'd better be getting back.
The madam would throw a duck fit.
If she thought I'd brought her precious
dumpling into a neighborhood like this.
Over the river, girls.
See you in the funny papers.
Oh, don't be so cheeky.
Drop in a gain when you're
in the neighborhood.
And tell Mrs Manderville
Harry was asking for her.
Is Miss Maurrant up there, Officer?
No. She ain't been back since she
went off the hospital this morning.
Officer.
Have they caught him yet?
No, not yet. But we'll get him alright.
Have they caught him yet?
- No.
Well, I've been down Police
Headquarters all this while.
What does he want here?
Pardon me. Maybe you can tell
me where I can find Miss Maurrant.
Why no, I can't.
Was there something special
you wanted to see her about?
I'm a friend of hers.
- Yeah.
Well I guess she'll have need
of all the friends she's got now.
Can you imagine a thing like that
happening right here in this house?
I told everybody some
day he'll kill her.
Well, I ain't saying
it's right to kill anyone.
But if anybody had a reason,
he certainly did.
Why, you ought to have heard ..
Some of the questions they was asking
me down at Police Headquarters.
I could just feel myself
getting redder and redder.
Hey, press! Read about
the double murder!
Hey, press!
About the double murder. Press!
Latest press about the double murder!
Latest press!
Ma'am, press about the double murder.
My last paper, ma'am. I want to go
home. All about the double murder.
It's the last one, ma'am. Pictures and
everything. About the double murder.
The latest about the
double murder, ma'am.
The latest.
Rose.
Have they got him yet?
No they haven't. Here,
let me take your bundles.
I hope he got away.
He'd never have done it if
he'd been in his right mind.
The minute I heard about it I went round
to the hospital. They said you'd left.
She never opened her eyes.
They did everything they could for her.
But it didn't help.
Can I get you something?
A drink or something.
No .. I'm alright.
It's so hot.
If you want to go up to my flat
and lay down for a minute ..
No thanks. I ..
I've got to go up and
get some things I need.
Say.
You don't want to go up there.
Oh, the place is a sight.
Why, you're liable to go
into a faint or something.
I guess nothing can be any worse
than what's already happened.
I've got to change my dress.
I bought her a white dress
and white silk stockings.
She always liked to look pretty.
Yeah. White is the nicest.
She looked so quiet and natural.
You'd think she was asleep.
Yes, it was the same way with my mother.
Why, you'd have thought she was
going to get up the next minute.
Well.
I got to go out and get me some lunch.
You certainly never know when
you get up in the morning ..
What the day is going to bring.
I guess I'd better be going up too.
But listen here. You can't
go through this all alone.
A kid like you.
That's why I came around.
It's awfully nice of you,
Mr Easter, but ..
I don't need any help. Really I don't.
Well .. how about a place
to live and all that?
I guess I'll have to find a place
where Willy and I can live.
You see ..
There is nobody but me
to look after him now.
Why won't you let me help you?
It's terribly nice of
you Mr Easter, but ..
I don't need any help.
I am young and strong and
able to take care of myself.
You see .. I've sort of been
thinking things over.
I honestly don't think I care
about going on the stage.
Say, you've got me all wrong, Rose.
I just want to help you. That's all. I'm
not trying to put anything over on you.
Rose!
Rose.
You poor thing.
This is terrible, terrible.
Yes it is.
But I had a feeling all along that
something terrible was going to happen.
How could he do such a thing?
Thanks awfully for
coming over, Mr Easter.
I don't know when I can
get back to the office.
Why, that's alright about that.
Only in the meantime I wish that ..
If I need any help I'll let you know.
Alright.
But don't forget.
Goodbye.
Well.
Goodbye.
Miss Kaplan.
It sounds silly of my, I guess, but ..
I'm kind of afraid to go up there alone.
Anything I can do.
Thanks ever so much.
He wouldn't say that.
So I just looked at him for a
while without saying anything.
And then I said.
My dear boy, in this day and age ..
Why even Sinclair Lewis used to write
for the Saturday Evening Post, I think.
Exactly.
Well there has been some excitement
around here today, hasn't there.
How can we call ourselves civilized?
When we see that sex jealousy ..
Has the power to awaken in us the
primitive passions of the savage?
Yes. That's true, too.
Well I just phoned the doctor.
This thing has given my
wife a kind of a relapse.
She thought a lot of Mrs Maurrant.
Is Rose home yet?
- Upstairs with Shirley.
Well this is a terrible thing
which has happened.
I found Willy at school.
I took him over to his
grandmother's in Brooklyn.
[ Police whistle ]
[ Gunshots! ]
[ Gunshots! ]
They wouldn't shoot him, would they?
[ Gunshot! ]
We got him.
They got him. They got him!
They found him hiding by
the furnace down at 322.
Yes Rose, you'd better ..
No. No, let me alone.
I want to see him.
He was hidden alright.
Pop. Were you hurt?
- Rose.
Keep back, Miss.
- Give me a break. It's my daughter.
Let him talk.
Alright, but don't try to
pull anything, you hear?
Get back you!
You're wearing a black dress, Rose.
Pop, why did you do it? Why did you?
I'd been drinking, Rose.
See what I mean?
And all the talk was going round. I just
went clean off my nuts, that's all.
What will they do to you, Pop?
It's the chair for me, I guess.
But I don't care.
It's her I'm thinking of.
The way she looked at me.
Alright, that's all.
- Give me a minute, can't you?
What's going to happen to you, Rose?
I'll be alright, Pop.
No need to worry about me.
I ain't been a very good father, have I.
Don't worry about that, Pop.
- But it ain't that I ain't mean to be.
It's just the way things happened
to turn out. That's all.
Keep .. keep your eye
on Willy, won't you Rose.
I'll do everything I can for him, Pop.
You're a good girl, Rose.
You always was a good girl.
Oh Pop ..
- Come on, Miss.
You had better come inside, Rose.
I am alright, Sam. Honest I am.
What about Willy?
I told him that an
accident had happened.
I guess I'll have to tell
him what happened.
He'll only find out for himself
with the papers all full of it.
Rose.
Yes, Miss Kaplan?
There is some chicken here
that I found on the gas stove.
Chicken?
- Yes.
Oh, I remember.
Mother was going to make
some soup for Mrs Buchanan.
It won't keep long in this weather.
- No.
I really think Mrs Buchanan
ought to have the good of it.
Alright. I'll take it up to her.
It's ..
It was only a few hours ago
she was standing there.
Telling me about the chicken.
I've got to go up and get my things.
- Wait a minute, Rose.
I want to talk to you.
What are you going to do?
Why.
I really think the best thing for Willy
and me would be to get out of New York.
You know, like we were
saying this morning.
If you go, I'll go with you.
Sam, dear.
Oh, I don't care anything
about my career.
It's you I care about, Rose.
Don't leave me.
I like you so much, Sam.
I like you better than anybody I know.
I love you, Rose.
Let me go with you.
It would be so nice
for us to be together.
But it can't be, Sam. Not yet.
other and belong to each other.
That we can find the
strength to escape all this.
No, Sam.
Why do you say no?
Do you want to go through life
alone, never loving anyone?
Never having anyone to love you.
Sam.
I want love more than anything
else in this world.
But loving and belonging
aren't the same thing.
Sam dear, listen.
If we say goodbye to each
other for a little while ..
Then it will be better
for us in the end.
What I think is ..
We should give ourselves a
chance to get started first.
Just think how young we both are.
Let's each of try to work
out things for ourselves.
You'll see. We won't lose
anything by waiting.
Do you think so, Rose?
Of course I do.
I know everything is going to
work out the way we want it.
I'm so fond of you, Sam.
I've got such a lot of
confidence in you.
I was just telling Sam that ..
I think we ought to say goodbye
to each other for a while.
I've put your things in this suitcase.
You've been awfully nice
to me, Miss Kaplan.
Don't worry about Sam.
Everything is going to
be alright with him.
I hope so.
I just know it will.
Goodbye.
Goodbye, Rose.
You're a sweet girl.
I hope so, Rose.
Shirley. What's the
matter again with Sam?
- Let him alone, Papa.
Can't you ..
[ Singing: ]
"The farmer killed the wife."
"The farmer killed the wife."
"Ee-aye-addio, the
farmer killed the wife."
"The wife killed the child."
"The wife killed the child."
"Ee-aye-addio, the
wife killed the child."
"The child killed the dog."
"The child killed the dog."
"Ee-aye-addio, the
child killed the dog."