The Great White Hope (1970) Movie Script
- I ain't gonna fight no dinge!
- Listen to me, Frank.
- You wouldn't fight one when you had the belt.
- I didn't have to, but you do.
In your hat, I do! I know what
"retired" means, and that's what I am.
- I'll get you back in shape in a month.
- You have tillJune.
I need time to promote it. This one
is even bigger than your last one.
- And this one's a breeze.
- You'll smoke him in five.
- Four.
- Two! They got glass jaws.
- Right, Cap'n Dan?
- I ain't gonna fight no dinge!
Now, Frank, when you retired
with that gold belt last summer...
nobody thought it would
work out like this.
We thought, match the two best heavies,
and whoever beats who is the new top man.
- Right?
- Right!
Nobody thought the nigger would lick one,
then go after the other
all the way to Australia.
I was down in Melbourne for the paper,
Mr. Brady, and let me tell you...
no paper here could print
how bad it really was.
He'd say, "Wanna hit me now, fella?"
Then he'd let him.
Grinning all the time.
Cuffing him, jabbing.
- Making smart-ass remarks to the crowd.
- You're the white hope.
- I'm the what?
- The white hope.
Every paper in the country
is calling you that.
He lands in San Francisco
tomorrow. Come on!
How would you like it if he claims
the belt's his because you won't fight him?
How would you like it if the whole
damn country says, "Brady let us down.
He let a loudmouth nigger
be champion of the world!"
Now, Frank, you go take a good
long look at that belt...
then come on out here with it.
I know you trust me,
and I say you can beat him.
And, Franklin, the good Lord
hates a quitter.
Good.
- So it's fixed, Cap'n Dan.
- The man's in a hurry.
- What about terms?
- We're no babies here.
You know myJackie
would fight your boy for a nickel.
- 80-20, Goldie.
- What? A world's championship?
- 80-20. That's it.
- God bless America.
- And Cap'n Dan to be the referee.
- You're kidding me.
Who did you have in mind?
Booker T. Washington?
All right, all right.
What else?
He don't have to fight
with his feet tied together?
- We'd better set the place.
- Any place.
Name it.
The coast, Chicago.
No big towns, Pop. You'll
have every nigger jamming in there.
Well, what about Tulsa, huh?
Denver. Reno.
- Hey, Reno!
- Why not?
The good old Rockies.
A white man's country.
- Yes, but who lives there?
- It's on the main line now.
- And it's high and dry.
- The drier, the better.
That nigger gets a sweat up,
one good whiff and Frank is finished.
- Well, he ain't through yet!
- There we are!
Get your photos, boys.
- A deal?
- It's a deal.
It's gonna be a pleasure.
Tell your nigger I said so.
That's-a boy!
- Mow 'em down.!
- Yah! Whoo! Yah! Whoo!
- Easy, now. Easy.
- Hyah!
Watch him.! Watch him.!
Now move! He's jabbin'!
Fake with the body,
notjust the head.! Fake.!
Hook in behind him!
Now you listen to me, sugar.
Hook him again.
- Three more.
- Hee-yea! Hyah!
Hey, baby! Here! Wham-wham-wham-wham,
wup-wup, boom!
Watch what you're doin'!
Honey, you know you're tired
of sitting here. Go buy yourself a pretty.
No, let me stay.
Unless you mind me here, Jack.
You my lady luck.
I don't mind you nowhere.
Long as you're looking
at him, he don't mind.
Are we gonna mooch,
or are we gonna move?
Hmm.
Sh...
You hold me that bag, man.
I'm gonna bust it wide open, then we all
go out for a champagne lunch!
Four soft-boiled eggs...
that's what you're gonna have.
- Hey, Goldie.!
- How you doin', boss?
- I figured you were stayin'
in Reno till tomorrow.
- We got it settled there.
- How do you feel?
- He feels like he looks.
- Not eatin' too quick?
- No, sir! Chewin' good.
- Come on, Goldie. When it gonna be?
- The Fourth ofJuly.
The Fourth ofJuly.
And Lord, you knows why!
So it makes a difference?
We have some gate there...
12,000 seats.
You know what
they're calling it?
Already by them,
it's the fight of the century.
Twenty years,
I've never seen such a hoopla.
Trains from St. Louis
and Chicago... direct yet.
Tents they have to put up.
It's a regular madhouse.
Lively times,
I can hear you comin'.
Boy, you about to win
the fight of the century.
Yeah. Or else lose
and be the nigger of the minute.
- Jack, listen...
- Hey, what kind of odds going?
Brady, eight-to-five.
What's the girl doing here?
- She just lookin' around.
She don't bother us none.
- Lookin' around for what?
You be nice now, Goldie.
Come over here, Ellie.
Don't be shy now, hon.
- He a friend of mine.
- How do you do?
Come on, Goldie. Shake hands
with Miss Eleanor Bachman.
I'm pleased to meet you,
Miss Bachman.
You're a fan ofJack's?
No, Ellie was on the same boat from Australia.
She was visiting down there.
Well. Must be great
to be home again.
- Hmm.
- Can't beat Frisco.
Yes, I like it fine.
My home is in Tacoma, though.
Oh.
Well, Miss Bachman...
the guys from the papers will be here
any minute, you know what I mean?
- Maybe if you'll excuse...
- She's staying where she is.
- What's the matter with you?
- I said she's staying where she is.
- I'll wait in the hotel.
- Hotel? Jesus Christ!
- You be nice now.
- Jackie, listen to me!
First, they hate your guts
for fighting white guys, but okay.
Then they hate you more
because you win.
Still okay.
Then they hate you so much, they're
willing to pay through the nose...
to see you maybe
get knocked on your can.
That's more than okay.
Cash in.
After all, it's so nice to be colored.
You shouldn't have a bonus.
But, sonny, when they start
hating you more than that, watch out.
That means now.
I got ears! I get told things!
Guys who want to put dope
into your food there.
A guy who wants
to watch the fight behind a rifle.
Okay, that we'll handle.
But this, on top of it?
A white girl?
Jackie, you want to
drive them crazy...
What am I supposed to do?
Stash her in a hole someplace in Niggertown
and go sneaking up there at 12:00 at night?
Or carry her around with me
in a little box, like a pet bunny rabbit?
- Jack, I...
- She put black on her face
and puff her mouth out...
so nobody notice
I took nothin' from 'em.
You know I fooled around plenty,
Goldie, and she know it too.
She know it all, but I ain't foolin' around
this time, you understand?
If he say, "That's what you said last time,"
I'll bust his nappy head.
- I ain't said nothin'!
- Jack.
I swear I'll help you, only
you shouldn't throw it in their faces.
Go. Uh, sit.
I just spoke with Chicago.
- Five-to-one?
- Come on.! Five-to-one.
- Hi, fellas! Hey, Smitty! How you doin'?
- Hi, Jack!
Just a few questions, fellas, okay?
- You sure look good, Jack.
- Thank you, boss.
- Hey, Jackie boy.!
- What about the Fourth? Startin'to getjumpy?
Yeah, I'm scared that Brady
gonna change his mind.
- Think you can take him?
- I ain't saying I can take him straight off.
Anyway, that'd be kinda mean.
Big holiday fight.
Can't send them people
right back home again.
- Your only worry is picking the round?
- That takes some thinkin'.
You see, if I lets it go on too long
and I'm just keeping him off...
they'll say, "Ain't that one shiftless nigger?
Why are they all so lazy?"
But if I chop them down too quick,
the third or fourth round...
Get to him all at once, they'll holler...
"No, it ain't fair.
The poor man fighting a gorilla. "
But I'm gonna
work it out.
What about that yellow streak
Brady talks about?
Hey, yeah.
You want to see it?
Stop fooling around!
Any idea, Jack,
why you smile when you're fightin'?
I'm a happy sort of person
and always feels good.
When I'm fighting,
I feels double good...
so why do I wanna
put a face on for?
Anyway, it's a sport, right?
Like a game.
Well, I likes whoever I'm hitting
to see that I'm still his friend.
- Going back to Chicago after the fight?
- I wanna see my mama.
- And fried chicken, Jack.
- Okay, wait!
- One more question.
- Yeah. Go ahead.
You're the first black man in the history
of the ring who's ever had a crack...
at the heavyweight title.
White folks, of course, are behind Brady.
He's the redeemer of the race.
But you, JackJefferson,
are you the black hope?
- I'm black, and I'm hopin'.
- Answer straight, Jack.
I ain't fighting for no race.
I ain't redeeming nobody.
My mama told me Mr. Lincoln done that.
Ain't that why you shot him?
My, oh, my.
The big black rooster
and the little red hen.
I got you, you mother.
- What you want here?
- I show you what I want!
- Hey.!
- Jack.! Jack.!
You crazy?
You bitch.! Goddamn it.!
Just a family quarrel. A family quarrel.
You leave my man be, girl. You don't,
I'm gonna throw you at him in chunks.
- You got it all wrong, Clara.
- I got it from the chambermaid
at the Park Royal Hotel.
I come all the way
from Chicago to got it.
Now that you "got" it,
you get your black ass out of here.
- Jack!
- Let the gentlemen see how
you're 'smirchin' your wife.
- She ain't no wife of mine.
- We's common law, and I's comin' home to Papa.
I's common nothin'.
Don't you "papa" me, girl, or I'll
"papa" you so you never forget it.
I quit on you when you cleared out
of Detroit with Willie the Pimp.
I quit on you when you cleared out
of Detroit with Willie the Pimp.
- Have a heart, please, fellas.
- I know you come after me.
I know you was lookin'.
You lucky I too busy to find you,
you sellin' my clothes, my ring...
my silver brushes.
Give me another chance, baby.
I misses you awful.
Just don't come on
with me, girl.
- Your Willie's in jail.
You just smellin' gravy here.
- How you know where he at?
I'm from the jungle like you, baby,
and I hear the drums.
Tick, give her 20
and carfare back.
- Let's go.
- You ain't closin' the book
on me so easy, Daddy.
You hear me, gray meat?
Get it while you can.
- Clara, let's go! Goddamn it!
- Who's the other woman?
I'm asking you man-to-man, for
everybody's good, don't write about it.
If it gets out,
God knows what can happen.
Now, look, we wanna have a fight,
don't we?
I'll buy it, for now.
Okay?
I'll hold it up
as long as you do.
Thanks, fellas.
Say, let me buy you all a drink.
Jack, what's...
what's the girl's name?
It's gonna get worse,
you know?
I know.
You wanna go along with it?
Along with you.
Then hold right on.
Just don't never
call me Daddy.
205!
When I put on the gloves now
and defend this here belt...
it's the request of the public
who forced me out of retirement.
I want to assure 'em
I'm fit to do my best.
I don't think
I'll disappoint nobody!
How come there ain't no music
when I comes in?
Hey, come on!
How do you do,
Mr. Jefferson?
As you know,
I'm your referee.
I am proud to shake the hand that
shook the hand of the Prince of Wales.
Don't take no lip from him.!
Turn around.!
Let's see that yellow streak, nigger.!
You're gonna get yours, coon!
Get it over with right now.!
Get out ofhere right now.!
Hey, Frank! How you doin'?
Look like Frank
about to walk the plank.
191!
Brady! Brady!
- 204.
- 204.
Hey, Frank.
Do you believe that?
This man here said
that I'm lighter than you.
- Just your statement, please.
- Huh? Oh, sure.
I wants to thank Mr. Brady here
for being such a sport...
and giving me a shot
at the belt today.
- There's been a whole lots
of mean talk around...
- Shut up, nigger.!
Get your skinny...
Here...
But here we is.
Here's me and here's Frank, and I glad
it come down to a plain old scuffle.
Let's get in there.
Hey there, home folks!
- How are you all today?
- Come here to pray for you, Mr. Jefferson.
Oh. You couldn't get
no tickets, huh?
- Best they don't go in there.
- Oh, that don't matter.
- Just so long as the good Lord
lets you win for us.
- Amen.
Lf"us" mean any of you with cash riding on me,
your prayers will pay off about the fifth.
No, Mr. Jefferson.
He mean win for us colored.
Oh. Is that what
you're praying?
May the good Lord
be guiding your hand for us.
- Amen!
- You traipse all this way to pray it? My, my.
What the reverend
mean to signify...
- I know what he signifyin'.
I'm big, but I ain't dumb.
- What you salty with me for?
- Hey, man. What's my winning gonna do for you?
- Huh?
- Give him self-respect.
- Amen. Tell it, brother.
Yeah, I be proud
to be colored tomorrow.
Country boy, if you
ain't there already...
all the boxing and nigger-praying
in the world ain't gonna get you there.
- Jack, let's go.
- You look colored, but you
ain't thinking colored.
No, sir, I'm thinking colored,
colored, and then colored.
I'm so busy thinking colored,
I can't see nothin' else sometime.
I just ain't thinking
colored like you.
You're telling me
you're praying here.
You expect I'm gonna say thank you,
and you ain't praying for me.
It ain't, "Lord, don't let
that peck break his nose"...
or "Lord, let him get out of town
and not get shot at!"
I ain't nothing to you
but a black, ugly fist here.
Lord...
when smoke of battle clear away, may
that good man be standing in victory...
and may them
who keep on shoving all us down...
see they can't do it
every time, take a lesson.
Give us just a day, Lord.
We needs it.
And give him the light
to understand why.
Speech.!
Oh, my, my.
It look like
"rest in peace," don't it?
Yeah, well,
I am all rested up...
and as you can see, I'm about to
make Chicago my real home, sweet home.
Guess I don't have to
chase around for work for a while, huh?
Ain't stuck Brady's head
up on the wall, has you?
No, man, but there a picture of old Queen
Cleopatra that'll make you sit up straight!
Hey, Ellie. Help me
with these flowers here.
Yeah, I want you all to say hello
to my fiance, Miss Eleanor Bachman.
Ooh!
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
All right. Hey, listen.
While y'all at it, I want you to
congratulate my manager and friend, Goldie!
- And, uh...
- See, if you're black, you're coming in last!
But how 'bout this
little doodad, folks?
Okay! Okay!
Bring it on inside!
Open house!
Let's have
some lively times!
Come on!
Everybody!
That's it, brothers!
Yeah.
Whoop it up now!
Got your white crumbs
off the white man's table...
and you feel just fine.!
Gonna jump...
all night!
How much white you up to?
How much you done took on?
How much white
you pinin' for?
How white you wanna be, and how white
you gonna get? Now, you tell me!
Shame on you.!
Hustlin' for the white man's
sportin' prize.
Itchin' for the white man's
piece of poontang.
Struttin'around like you're
the white man's nigger.!
Thinkin' you's
a walking natural man.
Don't know you swimming half-drowned
in the whitewash, same as all of them!
Gulpin' it every day here...
and pickled in it.
You...
and you, and you, and you.!
Even the nose you got...
the lips you got...
the hair you got...
and the skin you... got.
Well...
lively times.
SinceJefferson opened this caf, we've
made no fewer than seven arrests there.
- He wasn't arrested.
- Madam, we have no ground.
But you're the district attorney!
What about the Bachman girl?
She's over the age of consent.
But this connection
between them is an outrage.!
It's a threat to every
decent home in America.
Forgive me, Doctor,
but I must speak my mind.
We can't pretend
that race is not the issue here...
and I'm with you because
this man Jefferson does harm to his race.
He confirms certain views of us
that you may already hold.
That does us harm.
But he also confirms
in many people of color...
the belief that his life
is the desirable life...
and that can do us
even greater harm.
- Absolutely.
- That's right.
Well, I'm grateful to you all
for your concern.
You shouldn't
have come.
A girl can't say no to a district attorney.
He was very polite.
So you say "no" polite.
You think your family's in on this or what?
No. They're just trying
to forget me now.
Well, this is looking for trouble.
I can't make any more
than I have already, can I?
- Over there?
- Yes, and get down every word of it.
If a good white hope showed up
and beat him, I wouldn't need to do this.
A public servant has to
serve the public, Al.
You ever have the screws
put on you like this in Washington?
Oh, I don't think they'd even know
where to look for us.
Come in.
Good afternoon,
Miss Bachman.
- Take a seat, please.
- Thank you.
You understand, this is,
uh, just an informal inquiry.
- Yes. I understand.
- Good.
Now then, Miss Bachman...
- I see you resumed your maiden
name after your divorce.
- That's right.
- And you obtained your divorce
from Mr. Martin in Australia.
- Yes.
- That's an odd place to go for a divorce.
- I have an aunt there.
- I wanted to get away.
- Oh.
- You hadn't met Mr. Jefferson
before your trip?
- No, I had not.
- You did not travel there
to be with Mr. Jefferson?
- No, I didn't.
I met him on the boat
coming back.
- How did he approach you?
- He didn't.
- I asked the captain to introduce us.
- May I ask why?
Yes. I wanted to
make his acquaintance.
And once you had, Miss Bachman,
what did he propose to you?
That I have dinner at his table.
- Which you did for several evenings.
- Yes.
- Until you began taking
your meals in his stateroom.
- Yes, that's correct.
Where a great deal of wine
and champagne was consumed.
Well, you might say that.
Presumably he would keep
filling your glass.
- When it was empty, yes.
- Uh-huh. Ten times per evening?
No, I drank very little.
- How often did he give you medicine or pills?
- Never. I wasn't ill.
But the steward reports
you hardly left the stateroom.
Didn't you feel...
strange? Sleepy?
No.
I felt uncomfortable at how people
looked at me. I wasn't used to it.
- He took you from the boat to the hotel.
- Yes.
Did you ask to be taken there?
- No, I just went with him.
- What had he promised you?
- To spend some of his time with me.
- Nothing else?
Nothing that would interest you.
Naturally,
he's provided you with money.
He's given me presents, yes.
Your railway ticket to Chicago... did you
buy that or was that a sort of present?
Um, I honestly
don't remember.
- I... I believe I bought it, though.
- Thank you.
You've parried these questions
very well.
I didn't come here
to tell lies, Mr. Cameron.
I wanted to head off any notion
you have of getting atJack through me.
I hope I've done that.
Well, yes, I'm afraid you have.
Frankly, though...
I admire you for it.
Not many women...
You're quite devoted
to him, aren't you?
Yes, I love him,
Mr. Cameron.
He's a splendid man, really.
L- In many ways.
- No one doubts that, you know.
- No, I've never doubted it.
- Magnificent fighter...
- Oh, that's not all he is.
He's generous and he's kind
and he's sensitive.
Why are you smiling?
I'm sorry.
It's how you shy away
from the, uh, physical attraction.
I embarrassed you.
Forgive me.
I'm not ashamed
of wanting Jack for a lover.
- I wanted him that way.
- Of course you did.
- And he would want you.
- Why? Because I'm white?
No. I just meant that
any man would be proud...
Mr. Cameron, I'm proud
that he wanted me. Is that clear?
Certainly. Don't be distressed.
Why can't they leave us alone?
What's the difference...
There shouldn't be
a difference, ideally.
People shouldn't be so blind
about the physical side.
Ayoung woman,
divorced, disappointed.
Please, if you've finished, then...
Please let me go.
Here, here, now.
You mustn't cry,
Miss Bachman.
It hasn't turned out
so badly, has it?
You have this wonderful man
to love you. Why should you cry?
I'll never give him up. I can't.
- Of course not, but why be ashamed of it?
- I swear I'm not.
- You seem to be.
- I'm not.
- If you say so.
- I'm crazy for him, yes. It's the truth.
I didn't know what it was until
I slept with him. I'll say it to anyone.
- H-He makes you happy that way?
- Yes.
- And you love him, do anything for him?
- Yes, I would.
- And not be ashamed.
- No, never.
- Even if it seemed unnatural.
- Yes.
- When you have, you were only...
- What?
Making him happy too,
am I right?
Now, Miss Bachman...
You slimy, two-bit,
no-dick mothergrabber.
- Well, if that's all...
- Yes, I believe so.
Good day, then.
Thank you for coming in.
Nothing to move on. Zero.
I'm not so sure.
It occurred to me that we just
might nail him with the Mann Act.
What?
That's for commercial ass, not this.
- She's not a pro.
- I'm gonna have a word
with the fine-print boys.
- Won't hurt you.
- Like a sick child.
Oh! How lovely!
Whoo!
Shucks, hon.
It ain't cold.
It's the finest time
for swimming.
Oh, we've come to
a parting of the way.
Oh, Lordy. What to do when
the romance done gone?
Oh, Jack, I couldn't make it
to the door.
Is that right? Well, suppose I carry you
down there and ease you in?
- Come here.
- Don't tickle me, Jack. Don't!
- Look at you!
- Ow! Oh, that hurts.
- Oh!
- Oh, I'm sorry.
It's this damn sunburn.
Oh. Here.
Let me pat somethin' on it.
Mmm.
Oh. Ohh!
That's nice.
- Nice and cool?
- Mmm.
Jack.
Oh, not champagne, Jack!
- It's all right, baby. You're worth the best.
- All over me.
Yeah. Let's get
some lake on you, huh?
No.
Turn around a little.
No, more this way.
- Are you feeling all right?
- Ain't feelin' no different.
- You sure?
- Yeah.
- You ate all those clams.
Maybe you're getting sick.
- What you doing that for?
- I ain't got no fever.
- You look a little peculiar.
Oh. Gettin' kind of ashy,
you mean.
- Yes, a sort of funny...
- No, baby, that's not sick.
That's how I get sunburned.
All right.
What you laughin'at now?
Huh?
I thought...
- Come on, now. That's not nice.
- I'm sorry.
You thought what, hon?
I thought it just
bounces off, that's all.
Just bounces off? Well,
Miss Medium Rare, meet Mr. Well Done.
Yeah, you oughta see
my cousin Chester. He turn purple.
Do we have to leave
tomorrow?
Yeah.
- Gotta stay around the caf, you know.
- I know.
Mmm.
Oh, my.
You do smell good, though.
Yes. Jack, you're not tired
of being alone with me?
Hey, are you kiddin'?
Tired of me
asking questions like that.
Oh.
I'm tired of plenty...
but you ain't in there at all.
It's lovely to hear you say that.
Have a swim, if you want.
No. I'm cozy here now.
Yes, I'm cozy,
and you are rosy.
# Early this mornin' #
# Blues walked
in my door #
#And early this mornin' #
# Blues walked in my door #
# Last time I saw you, baby #
- Hmm.
- #You made me cry... ##
Lying in the sun...
I was...
oh, daydreaming.
How maybe I'd stay there,
and it would keep on burning me...
day after day.
I'd get darker and darker.
I really can get dark, you know?
Then I'd dye my hair
and I'd change my name.
I'd come to you in Chicago
like somebody new.
A colored woman
or a Creole, maybe, huh?
Nobody but you
would ever guess.
- It wouldn't work, hon.
- Hmm?
Everybody know I done gone off
of colored women.
Oh, Jack, you...
I has, too,
except for my mama.
Maybe I...
- Hey.
- What will we do?
Shh. Shh.
Shh.
I'm a federal marshal, Jefferson.
Let's not make this any worse than it is.
At 10:00 a. m. You drove Miss Eleanor Bachman
across the Illinois-Wisconsin state line.
Having done so, you proceeded
to have relations with her.
Under the Mann Act,
that makes you liable.
- Therefore, I'm placing you under arrest.
- No! No! I'm...
- Put your clothes on.
We'll take you into town.
- Jack!
Don't you fret, now.
Just get dressed.
Hold a blanket up
or something.
- Thanks, mister.
- Sure.
- How much does this carry?
- One to three.
She clear?
- Just you.
- Yeah. Thanks.
- We need these, Jim?
- No, just find him his pants
and let's get outta here.
From when he was a child...
I knowed this day was comin'.
"Look at that, Mama.
Why can't I, Mama?"
Roamin' and reachin' all over.
I tried to learn him
like you got to learn a colored child.
"Dass'nt. Dass'nt. Dass'nt.
That ain't for you. "
I hit him with my hand.
He say, "So what?"
I hit him with my shoe.
He look up at me and smile.
I took a razor strap to him.
That made him squint a little, but then he'd
do a funny dance and ask me for a nickel.
I hit him with a stick
till I couldn't hit no more.
He pulled away from me,
bust it in two and run off.
- Eleven years old.
- Sister.
You're getting yourself
all upset, Mrs. Jefferson.
Why don't I put on
a pot of fresh coffee.
Thank you, Clara.
Got a guardian angel there.
She been round every day
since she heard I was ailin'.
- We're hoping with you, sister,
maybe they'll let him off.
Y'all must ain't
got the right house.
- Mrs. Jefferson's house, ain't it?
- Yeah, but hang on!
All y'all can't fit in there!
- Afternoon, everybody.
- You all from the courthouse?
No, ma'am. Us just get a message
askin' us to pay a call here.
- We the BlueJays.
- You the which?
The Detroit BlueJays.
- You know, the colored baseball club.
- Oh, yeah.
My name Rudy Simms, ma'am.
Who say you supposed to
call in here?
Well, we sort of
friends with Jack.
- This ain't no celebratin' party, you know.
- Hush, Clara.
Why somebody wanna send us
a baseball team here?
I ain't never seen Jack
with no baseball friends.
Well, I ain't never
seen him with you, so we're even.
- Well, Tick?
- It ain't good, Mrs. Jefferson.
- Lord have mercy!
- Come on, come on.
20,000 fine,
three years in Joliet.
Why can't all them Jew lawyers
do nothin'? Why can't they...
I'll die if they lock him up!
But he do have the week out
on bail, Mrs. Jefferson.
He'll be right here.
Don't take on. He's comin'.
That snaky little wax-faced bitch.
Where's she at now?
Oh, I'll smoke her out, and, man,
what I gonna do be worth 103 years.
It ain't her fault, Clara.
She know this end up comin'.
Ain't a deaf, dumb,
blind pinhead livin' didn't know it.
But, oh, Daddy,
she just 'joyin' herself so.
It's so good when it's goin'.
Leave it alone.
"Oh, but, Daddy,
I just loves you. "
Could be she do
love him, Clara.
Then why'd she run off, then,
with her man in trouble?
Love him, my black ass.
Sister!
How you doin', champ?
- Good work, Rudy.
- Ready for you, Jack.
Well, praise the Lord, and welcome.!
Thank you, Pastor,
everybody.
How are you, Mama Tiny?
They didn't hurt you.
- You get enough to eat?
- Shoot, yeah.
How 'bout you?
- Well, it drained me out, son.
- Oh, Mama.
Hard luck, Jack.
- The Lord didn't want to hear us, I guess.
- Mama...
But he gonna put me on my feet,
I can feel it...
and I'll come down visitin' you often
as they allows you to.
- No, Mama...
- Oh, baby! Baby!
- I can't let them trap you up in there.
- What's she doin' here?
- Mama, what the hell?
- I been doin' for your mama, Jack.
She's trying to mend her ways.
Now, don't be mad.
Jack, let her be for now.
All set?
All set? What?
What you boys up to?
- Yeah, what's goin' on?
- Who you playin' peekaboo with out there?
You ain't about to make it worse,
are you, son?
- I got to trust you folks.
- Son, no matter how rough it appears to be...
- Stand by the window, Jack. They lookin'.
- Who? Who lookin'?
- Detectives in the car, Mama.
- What they lookin' for?
- They worried that I'm
gon' try to jump my bail.
- Jack, you just let out.
No, it's the best time, Mama.
They don't know I ready.
They followin'you about?
No, they think they is.
Now, first thing what I do,
take off my coat.
I, uh, stands here
sorta talkin', you see.
Yeah, here.
Yeah, yeah.
So and so
and so and so.
For heaven's sake.
No foolin'. Yeah.
And then I let 'em
see my face.
Yeah.
Hey, looks like rain!
And I knowed
they seen my shirt.
Yeah! Don't you wish
you had one?
So I goes on
sorta talkin', see?
Now, over there's Rudy.
Yep, he's checkin' his turnip again.
He has to hop
on that train soon.
The BlueJays are playin' in Canada next.
Ain't you, Rudy?
- Against the Montreal Blacks?
- That's right, Jack.
Okay, fella, let's go.
He look mighty fine,
our Rudy there. Don't he?
He's not as pretty as me...
but he's near about the same size
and a half a shade lighter.
Whoo.! Mercy.!
You got the shirt on too.!
Clearin' up now?
What you trick him into?
- It's his idea. Believe me.
- It's all right, Mama.
Rudy will spend the afternoon by the window
here, and I go across the border with theJays.
- They'll find you out, Jack.
- Hey.
Who find me, and who lookin'? Y'all heard
that old sayin' how all niggers look alike.
Ain't that so, team?
- That's right.
- That's right, Jack.
But we friends
with Canada, son.
We's hardly
a different place.
Yeah, and 'fore they cotton to it,
we on that boat for England.
Right! Right!
It's all fixed, Mama.
All what fixed...
ain't just got to happen.
It's a serious offense,
floutin' the law, Jack.
I know they done you hard, but it's gon'
hang over you just as long as you live.
Look, man, what gonna hang, gonna hang,
and I ain't hangin' with it.
I done my kickin'
around this country.
Served my one-nights.
My 30 days once too.
I ain't gonna rot in no jail like no log
for three years and come out broke neither!
I'm in the prime of my life!
Got to live it the way I got to!
Gonna make me some money again.
I'm gonna fight!
I got my turn to be the champion
of the world, and I'm takin' my turn.
I'm stayin' what I am,
wherever I have to be it.
The world ain't curled up
in no 48 states here.
Praise the Lord
for lightin' the way for my boy!
Forgive me!
I said you didn't
listen, Jesus!
- That's it, Mama.
- Well?
Take me with you, honey.
- Don't cross me, now.
- I'd go with you, baby. Anyplace.
- You know the score, girl.
- Please. Please!
She comin' to ya, ain't she?
That's where she at.
Well, you ain't meetin' that bitch.
I'll turn you in first!
Hold her down!
Get her down
on the floor!
Sit on her!
Somebody sit on her!
Somebody sit on her! That's right!
Make some noise!
Make some noise!
Sing, children, sing!
- Keep it up.
- Good luck, Jack.
God bless you.
- Pretty, ain't it?
- Yes. I love it.
You see? Right at home already.
- Think that's for rent?
- Might even do better.
- Yes?
- Yeah. You gonna be all right here, hon.
- Welcome to London, sir.
- Thank you, sir.
- Welcome.
- Thank you.
Is it true, sir, you'll be
fighting Albert Lynch here?
- Gonna sign it right up.
- I'd so enjoy watching you
against Billy Wells too.
- Hey, hey. One at a time.
- And Angus McKinnon.
- Mr. Jefferson?
- Yeah.
From the ministry, sir.
What do they mean, a hearing?
But is there any question
that the man is an undesirable?
How, sir, can your ministry
permit his entry? A convicted criminal.
A fugitive from justice.
Are you aware, sir, of what this implies?
Official license for breaches of the peace,
for moral deficiency flaunted.
- Wait, now. I ain't been here
but a couple of days.
- Jackie, quiet.
- Gentlemen, please.
- No. Sir. Can I talk for a minute?
- Yes. By all means.
- I'm sorry to fuss anybody out in here...
but I come over here to make my livin'
the best way I know how.
And I guess I got to act extra quiet,
sir, 'cause of what I am and all.
And I intend to, word of honor,
because we likes it here fine, now.
My manager here done fixed me up
a match already, so I'll just
get to training and boxing...
and there'll be no rumpus.
Well, Mr. Coates,
as we view this at the moment...
the American legalities
are none of our concern.
The breaches of the peace
you foresee are unlikely...
and as to the man's character, it may be
deficient by Queen Victoria's standards...
but she, of course,
is gone now.
- You have something
to add, Mr. Coates?
- Indeed I have, sir...
concerning Mr. Jefferson's assumption
that he will be boxing here.
What you talkin' 'bout?
I'm fightin' Albert Lynch January 12.
Bradby.
"On behalf of Mr. Lynch,
I agreed to this engagement...
but the London County Council
now refuses to license it. "
What are you tryin' to pull here?
We don't have to stick to London!
I believe, sir, you will meet
with a similar refusal...
in Birmingham,
Manchester and Leeds.
- Easy, now, baby.
- Don't do this to him.
You're supposed to be fair here.
- Mister, what the hell...
- Sir, let me assure you...
you're welcome to remain here and find
any other means of livelihood you can.
You'll excuse us now, please?
I'm really very sorry.
Your client will be
leaving the country, I take it.
That's right, man.
You take it. It's all yours.
Breathe deep, champ.
Nice and slow.
- Yeah, I know how to breathe.
- See if that's too tight.
Say, when did you
start calling me champ, anyway?
- Full house?
- Girly, they're hangin'from the rafters.
- Water bottle. Take the one I rinsed.
- You okay?
- Why do you keep asking me?
- So what? So I'm askin'.
Couple of more minutes.
- Put 'em up, baby. Better warm up some.
- I'm gonna warm up on the man.
- I'll be good. I ain't gonna get you winded.
- Listen.
- You ain't got to tell me
what wind I ain't got.
- No, baby. I just...
I know what shape is. I know when I ain't
in it and when gettin'in it is a waste.
- I ain't got to train to
take no fifth-rate geechee.
- The best they got around here.
Oh, yeah. Just hit him one
and shovel up the money, right?
Just jump in with the gold belt.
Right?
- Messieurs, if you please.
- I'll go into my seat now, Jack.
- Honey.
- Good luck, darling.
There's nothin' that
you're gonna wanna see, okay?
MonsieurJefferson, the famous smile.
You won't deny our public the smile?
No. I got it on me.
- Hello there, Miss Bachman.
- Hello.
- Smith. Evening Mirror. Smitty.
- Oh, yes.
Aren't you here for the fight?
The boys'll dope me in.
He's at it again; that's the main thing.
- I guess so.
- And how are you holding up?
- Fine.
- Must be kind of tough on you now, though.
- Not especially.
- Sure. Moving around so much.
When my missus was
four months gone with little Smitty...
Go away, will you?
You were looking so peaked the other day,
and you did go to the doctor, Miss Bachman.
- Decided not to have it?
- Why do you do this?
- Don't be sore. People wanna
read about you, aboutJack.
If there's something new,
I'd like to get it first. That's all.
Nothing personal. And it's no worse
than getting paid for knocking people down.
What the hell's going on in there?
How much you say he weighs, Fred?
265. He's 6'8".
- Not bad, Dan.
- Here's Vancouver two weeks ago.
Now, hold on.
- There's my boy,
the one on the right.!
- Couldn't miss him.
Rushes straight in. Why,
when that kid first... Aw, for cryin'out loud.
- Won't take a minute.
- I don't think we have to see any more, Pop.
- No.
- So, what do ya say?
- If that's no white hope,
I'm Queen Pocahontas.
- He's the right stuff, Dan.
- Maybe a little raw yet.
- Fresh. Fresh is what he is.
Big, clean, strong. Real farm boy.
They're waiting for something like him.
I'm ready to promote it, Dan.
What do you think?
I think he's a full-grown polar bear myself.
He's the best of the bunch. I won't argue.
But say we send him over... bang...
it's 10-to-1 the black boy does it again.
- Then where are we?
- We won't ever have it on a plate, you know.
Pop, Fred,
let me tell you a secret.
The next white hope is the one
who gets that belt back...
not means to or almost does
or gets half-killed in trying.
He takes it!
He finishes right on his feet...
with a big, horizontal nigger
down there for good.
What do you mean, Dan?
Is it yes or no?
Pop, I'd like you
to meet a friend of mine.
- Is Mr. Dixon here yet?
- I'm right here, Dan.
Oh, come on in.
- Pop Weaver.
- How are ya?
- Fred.
- Gentlemen.
Have a seat. Dixon's with the bureau,
you see, and like you might expect...
they have Mr. Jefferson
on their minds too.
Now, I've been down there, and we've
got some ideas. You explain it to 'em, son.
Well, when a man beats us out like this,
we of course look foolish...
but more important,
so does the law.
People lose respect for law, and that
we just cannot afford right now.
You may not be aware of it yet, but a very
large, very black migration is in progress.
They're coming from the fields
down South, filling up the slums.
And I am talking about hundreds
of thousands, maybe millions soon.
Millions of ignorant Negroes
rapidly massing together.
Now, we cannot allow the image of this man
to go on impressing and exciting these people.
- I'm only a sports promoter.
- He read the writing on the door, Pop. Go on.
Well, if he were less of a hero to them...
after his next engagement, let's say,
we would be disposed to reduce his sentence.
You'd make it worth his while
not to win the fight, you mean?
- I think I've said what I mean.
- Well, I say my kid can
beat him fair and square.
- Easy, Fred.
- Well, count me out! I'll
hop on a boat with him...
- You don't wanna do that.
- Don't tell me what I can...
- I'm telling you as a friend.
- There must be another way, Dan.
- It just goes against me.
- Well, it goes against me too.
Now, I don't have to make no speeches here
about how I feel workin' something crooked.
None of us like it.
We wouldn't be the men we are
if we did or be where we are.
I know it's lousy, but we got a situation
here that needs a little bending.
Now, the man's tried
to tell you how serious it is.
They're bending with it.
I'm bending with it.
Now, who are you, Fred, to
stand there and say it goes against you?
And you, Pop? Now,
don't you get on a pedestal here.
- What about the champ?
- He'll never buy it, or my kid either.
- He's straight out of Sunday school.
- Don't tell your kid a thing.
- He's straight out of Sunday school.
- Don't tell your kid a thing.
And, Jack, after what
he did to that Frenchman, nobody
there'll fight 'im anymore.
He's drifting around.
I hear he's down to peanuts.
- How would you put it to him?
- You work it out, Pop.
- Me?
- You're the promoter, Pop.
- Oh, Dan, I'm an old man.
- And as smart as they come.
- You can't put that deal
in writing, can you, mister?
- I'm sorry. I wasn't even here.
- Kameradschaft.
- Kameradschaft. Okay.
- Thank you.
- Prost.
- Bitte.
- Bitte. Right. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you... very much.
Okay.
We were just leavin', sugar.
You said you'd
call for me, Jack.
- Where's Goldie, honey?
- He had to go out.
- Don't drink anymore.
- Goldie seeing that guy about an exhibition?
- No. Some friend from New York, he said.
- Maybe something movin', baby.
- Ain't nothin' movin' here.
- Kameradschaft.!
- Hey! Kameradschaft.!
- It pleases you, we make you comrade, ja?
Oh, man. I'm happy
as a cow with six tits.
How are you so strong, boxer?
Well, just chompin'
on them bananas, man.
Jack, stop it.
- What?
- Please.
- I just fools when I wants to, hon.
- All these people.
- Where I wants to and how, hear?
- Baby, let's go eat.
Who asked you?
You're so goddamn touchy about people
lookin' at you, you ain't even oughta be here.
- I don't like people looking
when you're this way, Jack.
- Oh, you don't?
Well, I don't either, but I'm stuck with it,
and you ain't, so any ti... Where you goin'?
Get your ass back on there,
girl. The man bought champagne.
You sit down too!
- I'll be in the room, Jack.
- Yeah. Then you'll say you're
sick of waiting around hotels.
- I never said that.
- You're givin' out your misery
so hard, you don't have to.
- You just don't like nothin' no more.
- I won't even answer you.
- That's right. Give it out!
- What do you want?
- Sit down here, girl.
- Let her go, man. She got the fear again.
- Eleanor!
- I'll walk her back.
- Yeah. You get.
Okay. I'm listening.
Well, I just saw Pop Weaver.
- We got a match.
- A match? How much do I get for losing?
- Let me first explain what the deal is.
- No, no.
- If Pop want a straight fight,
he don't come sneakin'.
- What are you gettin' sore?
- Fred's got this kid, see?
- How much is it worth to him, boss?
- 80-20 split. A hundred G's guaranteed.
- Oh, boy.
And they'll cut the rap
to six months for ya.
- You see all folks can do
when everybody pitches in?
- Jackie.
- Any special round they'd like me to dive in?
- He says we can work that out.
- Yeah. What did you say?
- I said it stinks,
but we'll let 'em know later.
Later? You send 'em a bottle of that and
tell 'em to suck it through a straw.
- No thinking it over?
- How long you been my manager?
- Five, six years.
- Why you gotta ask?
Why? Because we gotta eat, that's why!
What else you got in front of ya,
big shot? Send 'em champagne?
- I can't even book a two-bit exhibition.
- It's time to find fresh meat.
- Then what the hell do you need me for?
- I been thinkin' about that.
- Let's go talk to 'im.
- No. You called it right.
- You'll fall apart here.
- No hard feelings, boss.
Wait, Jack! Listen.
- You got enough to get home on?
- Look at what you're doin'.
Yeah, I know.
It ain't good, boss; just the best I can.
...Uncle Tom's Cabin.
...JackJefferson.
- Here, Uncle Tom. Do come and sit beside me.
- Indeed I will, Miss Eva.
Right here
on this lovely old grassy bank.
See how beautiful the clouds are, Tom?
And the water too?
You right with 'em.
You is the "beautiful-est" of all.
But, friend,
why do you seem sad this evening?
Oh, Miss Eva.
You and the master so good to old Tom,
he just got to cry about it now and then.
Sing about the spirits bright,
Tom, would ya?
Yes, ma'am.
I'm just gettin' set to.
Tom!
Look. Look.
Look who has come to make us lively.
- How old are you, Topsy?
- I don't know, missy.
- Don't you know how old you are?
Who was your mother?
- I don't know, missy.
- I never had no mother.
- But, Topsy, someone must've made you.
Nobody I knows, old missy.
I expects I just "growed. "
Oh, Topsy.
Tomorrow? Okay. Thank you.
Nothin', man.
May be something pullin' out tomorrow.
- Anybody know who's shootin' who out there?
- Porter said they're practicin'.
- What will we do, Jack?
- I don't know yet.
- Do you think maybe we should
go back to the hotel?
- I said I don't know yet!
- All right. I heard you.
- Play cards or somethin' with her, will ya?
Jack?
- Jack, I didn't know if you heard...
- I told you to lay off me, man.
It's sort of an emergency back home, Jack.
Your mother's very low.
I'm sorry about this, fella.
- Yeah. Thank you.
- Maybe we could work something out for ya.
I'm sure you want
to see her.
Now, I've hired a car
and fixed up your passage.
I'm so sorry, Jack.
She'd know by tomorrow
you're on your way, Jack.
- Might mean a lot to her knowing that.
- Wanna thank you for comin', man.
You can't stay
over here now anyway, Jack.
It's finished here.
A war is starting.
- Now, where do ya go?
- I just don't want none today, man.
- Whatever you say.
- I'll see you around sometime.
All right, fella.
Oh, what's the good of it, Jack?
All this? Keeping this up?
I mean, you're not a Boy Scout.
What the hell is it for?
Keeping the belt a little longer?
Staying champ longer?
I honestly can't make you out.
Champ don't
mean piss-all to me.
I've been it.
That champ stuff
been beat clear out of me.
That belt of yours
just hardware.
Don't even hold my pants up,
and I'm stuck with it.
It's a hunk of junky hardware
that don't let go.
Turnin' green on me,
and it still ain't lettin' go.
So I stuck with it, just as you all
are stuck needin' it off of me.
So shake it loose,
you understand?
Just knock me for 10 and take it.
I'll be much obliged.
- Believe me. We'd rather have it straight.
- Oh, you would, huh?
- If you weren't so good...
- You got a 100 million people
over there, ain't you?
- Now, let me go.
- Picked out the best you got,
ain't you? I want a match.
- It's not up to me.
- I said a match with him!
You ain't gonna give me one, I'll make ya,
same as I done before.
Make ya!
Take my funky suitcase...
my $300, $400,
get myself to Mexico!
How you like that?
Right up next to ya!
I'm gonna
sit on the line...
wave the crummy belt at you...
sing out, "Here I is!
"Here I is!
"Here I is!
Here I is!
Here I is!"
- Slow it up. Slow it up.
- What?
Slow it.
#Times is very hard #
# Give me 10 cents' worth
of lard #
# Gonna
keep my skillet greasy #
# If I can ##
- Enough?
- Yeah. I'm pushin' it.
Okay, Paco. That's it.
Oughta raise the bag
up a little higher tomorrow, huh?
Maybe about a foot or so,
seeing how big that kid is.
Oh, he sure is
a funny size for a kid, ain't he?
Hey, it looks like something
done gone wrong with his glands.
- Hey, leave those, will you?
- S, campen.
You can't
work out today no more.
How much did that guy say
he'd give you for 'em? Fifty?
Your gloves, baby?
Buenas tardes, seorita.
I wish they'd
feed their dogs around here.
- Well, you're feeding yours, ain't you?
- Set it down, hon.
- How's the gal today?
- All right. You?
Fine. Oh, you should've seen him
burn up that road this morning.
- Right from the bridge, all the way down...
- You going to say it or what?
No. Nothing, Jack.
No cables. No letters. Nothing.
- Thanks.
- If you ask me, we's lucky
they ain't signed up yet.
- Giving us all this gettin'- ready time.
- Just you rub, man.
Worryin' makes you tight. That's
why you ain't sweatin' like you were.
- Let him eat before it gets cold, Tick.
- Yeah.
- Switch your brain off a while.
- Leave it!
Why don't you come back
and wash now, Jack?
- I'll wait here if you like.
- Smellin' pretty strong, huh?
- You know that's not what I meant.
- That's enough, man.
Jack, will you talk to me?
Tick is crossin' over
on an errand.
Maybe you can walk
around there a little with him.
Not with me, boss. I ain't
strollin' with no white girl in no Texas.
Hold the fort, hon.
It won't be long.
Do what they want you to, Jack.
Will you take them specs off?
I can't hardly see ya.
Well, I didn't think
you wanted to.
- Are you readin' my mind now?
- Jack.
- I told you to keep out of it.
- I can't keep out of it.
Please do it.
You have to.
- You finally battin' for the home team, huh?
- Jack, cable them tonight.
- You finally come around to it, huh?
- Don't bitch me, Jack!
- And I told you...
- I don't care what you told me.
Say yes and get it over with!
- You're letting them
do this to you, it's worse.
- Worse for you maybe.
Jack, it is slow poison here,
and there is nothing else to wait for.
- Nothing for you maybe.
- Nothing but hammering that stupid bag.
- You're not your own man anymore, Jack.
- Oh, now you're rollin'.
How can you be your own man when
they have you? They do, and you know it.
You're theirs. At least you can
buy yourself back from them.
Sold:
One-buck nigger for the lady?
Run whenever they push you
or pull you, work yourself sick...
in this hellhole for nothing,
and you tell me you're not theirs.
Look at this grease
you swallow for them.
- Bedbug bites. The blotches in your eyes.
- Don't leave the smell out.
Yes. The two of us smell.
Whatever turns people into niggers.
- There. It's happening to both of us.
- Your wish coming true, huh?
- Never this. Never this, Jack!
- Dang it, sister.
I want you fighting 'em again;
that's what I wish.
- I want to watch when you're
knocking them down for this.
- How 'bout rooster fightin'?
- Listen to me.
- Yeah. I oughta look into that.
You'd go home. You'd be with your frien...
We could live then!
Damn you!
- Little frame house. Tree in the front?
- Anything.
- Nice, quiet street?
- Anywhere. A place. A kitchen.
Put the cat out?
Tuck in the kids?
God, you're hateful.
Get away from me.
I'm gonna teach you what the livin' like,
baby. I'll put you straight on it.
I went to the fair once, and
there was this old pug, see...
who'd give anybody two bucks
to stand up a round with him.
Professional setup.
Regulation ring and all.
'Cept there was rope
just on three sides.
That's right.
The back side was the tent.
So I watches a couple
get laid out in there real quick, see...
but he don't look all that red-hot to me,
so I climbs in with him.
And I'm doin' all right
for a youngster, when all at once...
he bulls me up
against the tent side of that ring...
and... slam, wham.
Somebody behind there
conks me right through the canvas...
and they must've
used a two-by-four.
And every time I stand up, he pushed me back
again, and... whomp... another one!
- Jack.
- Now, that's the way the livin'
go the way I know it, baby.
- Sometimes.
- Uh-uh. All the way, now.
That's the way it is and what I'm gettin',
and I'm gonna get it the same sayin' yes or no.
See, it don't matter what I do.
Been there, you understand?
And I don't want you watchin'...
or helpin', askin'.
I ain't into your shit
about livin'...
or anything from you
but out, and I mean out!
- What?
- How goddamn plain I gotta make it to ya?
Oh, Jack. If you
want other girls, I'm...
Hey. Get your stuff ready.
The train is out 10:00.
- No, I won't. No.
- Tick'd come. He'd give you a hand.
- Jack, you stop this.
- You'd better start movin'.
- I wanna apologize for
acting yellow up to now.
- You have to stop it, Jack.
- All I got to do is to be black and die, lady.
- I want to stay, even if you...
- You can stay with your own.
- What are you doing?
- Now, come on. Quit that. Quit it! Quit it!
- I won't go, Jack.
- Now, start movin'.
- Just wait.
- Don't cross me, now.
- I thought we'd save some...
- I said move!
- Please. I only meant that with time...
- I'm through with it now.
No more lousy grub you gotta puke up.
No more you lookin' like a washed-out rag.
- Your eye twitchin'.
- Don't. I don't care. I'll
take better care of myself.
- Hangin' on me. Dead weight.
- I'll find a job, that's what I'll do.
- I told you when my mama died.
I said to leave me be for a...
- I can't run, not by myself.
You got your own people.
No! You're a young woman!
- I'll never meet no one else.
- You're gonna find one.
- Tough titty!
- Wait!
- Move, goddamn it.!
- Why can't you wait and give me
one chance to make you happy?
Only one! I swear,
I've never had one!
- It's too big an order all around, huh?
- I won't go, Jack!
You wanna drag it out, huh? I'm gonna
wise you up real good now, you bitch!
You can't
make me go, so...
Why do you think I ain't
put a hand to you for how long?
Why do you think it turned me off
just lookin' at you? No. Stay still for it.
You know why,
honey bunch?
'Cause every time you pushed
that pinched-up face in front
of me, I see where it done got me.
And that's what I'm lookin'at... the why,
the wherefore and the number-one who...
right-down-the-line girl...
and I mean you!
And I don't wanna
give you nothing, understand?
- I'd cut it off first.
- God, I despise you.
Right! Like
all the rest of you!
- I'd like to smash you, Jack.
- Yeah.!
Me and every other dumb nigger
who lets you. So you go home,
hustle up one who don't know it.
There's plenty for ya.
Just score 'em up!
You win, Daddy.
- Good evening, Jefferson.
- Campen.
- Who are you, mister?
- It's not "mister. " I'm el jefe in this place.
- Government. Comprende?
- Yeah.
We're making it easier, Jefferson.
The match can be held in Havana.
You fight the way you're told, turn yourself
in, you'll get a suspended sentence.
Or else what?
Well, apart from your original conviction,
which carries up to three years...
there have been
numerous other violations:
Jumping bail, tax irregularities,
falsifying passports.
They throw the book
on you, hombre.
Maybe you can tell me how,
mister...
because their "book"
is up there, and I'm down here.
We can't leave that out,
can we, man, 'cause this is your country.
It is legal, once we learn where a wanted man
is, to request cooperation of that government.
Perdn. Campen,
we have need of them.
We don't like,
but we need.
- Yeah.
- Look.
You go fight in Havana.
It's better for you.
You go to jail,
you come out a very old man.
Well, I'm pretty far along
as it is, man.
I'm just sittin' here
gettin' older every minute...
and I'm goin'
right out the door.
No, compadre.
Use it if you've got to, man.
Even if I let you,
where now you go?
- That's all up to me, man.
- I will shoot you if you do this.
- And I'll kill you first, man.
- Hijo.
Every place catch on you, I swear.
They all give you to the gringos.
Hombre. Hombre.
You... Give me a break,
for God's sake.
- Maybe you'd be doin' me a favor.
- One more step and I'll shoot.
Jefferson, for...
Threw herself down the well.
- What?
- Busted her neck.
Honey?
Oh, baby.
Please.
What I done.
What they done to us.
You set that goddamn f... fight up.
Set it up.
I'll take it now.
Lay down already, will ya?
You won't have a head left.
You hear me?
This round, you understand?
You'll go down
and stay there, you hear me?
Makes you feel kind of old, doesn't it?
Seein' Brady refereeing.
Well, who the hell cares?
He's the man who
lost that belt, Pop...
and this whole rotten world's
gonna watch him at the finish now...
lifting it right up high
and passing it on...
like the Kid'll pass it on,
and the next one'll pass it on.
This time, we keep it
in the family.
One!
Two.!
Three.!
Four.!
Five.!
Six!
Seven.! Eight.!
Nine!
Jackie!
Clench him!
- Jack!
- One! Two! Three!
Four.! Five.! Six.!
Seven!
Clench him, dumb ox!
One.! Two.! Three.!
Four.! Five.!
- Jack.!
- Seven.!
Eight! Nine!
Baby, what you doin'?
I'm beggin' ya... like
you're my son, I'm beggin' ya.
They'll kill you, Jack.
Keep your hands up.
Here. You gotta stay off those ropes.
You think you're tired? He's dead tired.
- Dan!
- Oh, shut up, Pop.
One! Two! Three! Four!
Five! Six! Seven!
One! Two! Three!
Four! Five!
Six!
: Ole.!
Ole.!
One! Two! Three!
Four! Five! Six!
Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten!
- Just one word, Jack.
- Not now, Smitty!
Jack. Jack, in the 11 th round, were you...
Why do you think it happened, Jack?
Why did it?
- He beat me. That's all.
I just didn't have it.
- Ain't that right, boy?
- Jack, just blow it off.
- Nice and slow.
- But why, Jack? Really?
Oh, man.
I ain't got them "reallys"
from the year one...
and if any of y'all got 'em,
I'd sure like to hear 'em.
No? You new here
like I is, huh?
Come on, children.
Let 'em pass by.
- Listen to me, Frank.
- You wouldn't fight one when you had the belt.
- I didn't have to, but you do.
In your hat, I do! I know what
"retired" means, and that's what I am.
- I'll get you back in shape in a month.
- You have tillJune.
I need time to promote it. This one
is even bigger than your last one.
- And this one's a breeze.
- You'll smoke him in five.
- Four.
- Two! They got glass jaws.
- Right, Cap'n Dan?
- I ain't gonna fight no dinge!
Now, Frank, when you retired
with that gold belt last summer...
nobody thought it would
work out like this.
We thought, match the two best heavies,
and whoever beats who is the new top man.
- Right?
- Right!
Nobody thought the nigger would lick one,
then go after the other
all the way to Australia.
I was down in Melbourne for the paper,
Mr. Brady, and let me tell you...
no paper here could print
how bad it really was.
He'd say, "Wanna hit me now, fella?"
Then he'd let him.
Grinning all the time.
Cuffing him, jabbing.
- Making smart-ass remarks to the crowd.
- You're the white hope.
- I'm the what?
- The white hope.
Every paper in the country
is calling you that.
He lands in San Francisco
tomorrow. Come on!
How would you like it if he claims
the belt's his because you won't fight him?
How would you like it if the whole
damn country says, "Brady let us down.
He let a loudmouth nigger
be champion of the world!"
Now, Frank, you go take a good
long look at that belt...
then come on out here with it.
I know you trust me,
and I say you can beat him.
And, Franklin, the good Lord
hates a quitter.
Good.
- So it's fixed, Cap'n Dan.
- The man's in a hurry.
- What about terms?
- We're no babies here.
You know myJackie
would fight your boy for a nickel.
- 80-20, Goldie.
- What? A world's championship?
- 80-20. That's it.
- God bless America.
- And Cap'n Dan to be the referee.
- You're kidding me.
Who did you have in mind?
Booker T. Washington?
All right, all right.
What else?
He don't have to fight
with his feet tied together?
- We'd better set the place.
- Any place.
Name it.
The coast, Chicago.
No big towns, Pop. You'll
have every nigger jamming in there.
Well, what about Tulsa, huh?
Denver. Reno.
- Hey, Reno!
- Why not?
The good old Rockies.
A white man's country.
- Yes, but who lives there?
- It's on the main line now.
- And it's high and dry.
- The drier, the better.
That nigger gets a sweat up,
one good whiff and Frank is finished.
- Well, he ain't through yet!
- There we are!
Get your photos, boys.
- A deal?
- It's a deal.
It's gonna be a pleasure.
Tell your nigger I said so.
That's-a boy!
- Mow 'em down.!
- Yah! Whoo! Yah! Whoo!
- Easy, now. Easy.
- Hyah!
Watch him.! Watch him.!
Now move! He's jabbin'!
Fake with the body,
notjust the head.! Fake.!
Hook in behind him!
Now you listen to me, sugar.
Hook him again.
- Three more.
- Hee-yea! Hyah!
Hey, baby! Here! Wham-wham-wham-wham,
wup-wup, boom!
Watch what you're doin'!
Honey, you know you're tired
of sitting here. Go buy yourself a pretty.
No, let me stay.
Unless you mind me here, Jack.
You my lady luck.
I don't mind you nowhere.
Long as you're looking
at him, he don't mind.
Are we gonna mooch,
or are we gonna move?
Hmm.
Sh...
You hold me that bag, man.
I'm gonna bust it wide open, then we all
go out for a champagne lunch!
Four soft-boiled eggs...
that's what you're gonna have.
- Hey, Goldie.!
- How you doin', boss?
- I figured you were stayin'
in Reno till tomorrow.
- We got it settled there.
- How do you feel?
- He feels like he looks.
- Not eatin' too quick?
- No, sir! Chewin' good.
- Come on, Goldie. When it gonna be?
- The Fourth ofJuly.
The Fourth ofJuly.
And Lord, you knows why!
So it makes a difference?
We have some gate there...
12,000 seats.
You know what
they're calling it?
Already by them,
it's the fight of the century.
Twenty years,
I've never seen such a hoopla.
Trains from St. Louis
and Chicago... direct yet.
Tents they have to put up.
It's a regular madhouse.
Lively times,
I can hear you comin'.
Boy, you about to win
the fight of the century.
Yeah. Or else lose
and be the nigger of the minute.
- Jack, listen...
- Hey, what kind of odds going?
Brady, eight-to-five.
What's the girl doing here?
- She just lookin' around.
She don't bother us none.
- Lookin' around for what?
You be nice now, Goldie.
Come over here, Ellie.
Don't be shy now, hon.
- He a friend of mine.
- How do you do?
Come on, Goldie. Shake hands
with Miss Eleanor Bachman.
I'm pleased to meet you,
Miss Bachman.
You're a fan ofJack's?
No, Ellie was on the same boat from Australia.
She was visiting down there.
Well. Must be great
to be home again.
- Hmm.
- Can't beat Frisco.
Yes, I like it fine.
My home is in Tacoma, though.
Oh.
Well, Miss Bachman...
the guys from the papers will be here
any minute, you know what I mean?
- Maybe if you'll excuse...
- She's staying where she is.
- What's the matter with you?
- I said she's staying where she is.
- I'll wait in the hotel.
- Hotel? Jesus Christ!
- You be nice now.
- Jackie, listen to me!
First, they hate your guts
for fighting white guys, but okay.
Then they hate you more
because you win.
Still okay.
Then they hate you so much, they're
willing to pay through the nose...
to see you maybe
get knocked on your can.
That's more than okay.
Cash in.
After all, it's so nice to be colored.
You shouldn't have a bonus.
But, sonny, when they start
hating you more than that, watch out.
That means now.
I got ears! I get told things!
Guys who want to put dope
into your food there.
A guy who wants
to watch the fight behind a rifle.
Okay, that we'll handle.
But this, on top of it?
A white girl?
Jackie, you want to
drive them crazy...
What am I supposed to do?
Stash her in a hole someplace in Niggertown
and go sneaking up there at 12:00 at night?
Or carry her around with me
in a little box, like a pet bunny rabbit?
- Jack, I...
- She put black on her face
and puff her mouth out...
so nobody notice
I took nothin' from 'em.
You know I fooled around plenty,
Goldie, and she know it too.
She know it all, but I ain't foolin' around
this time, you understand?
If he say, "That's what you said last time,"
I'll bust his nappy head.
- I ain't said nothin'!
- Jack.
I swear I'll help you, only
you shouldn't throw it in their faces.
Go. Uh, sit.
I just spoke with Chicago.
- Five-to-one?
- Come on.! Five-to-one.
- Hi, fellas! Hey, Smitty! How you doin'?
- Hi, Jack!
Just a few questions, fellas, okay?
- You sure look good, Jack.
- Thank you, boss.
- Hey, Jackie boy.!
- What about the Fourth? Startin'to getjumpy?
Yeah, I'm scared that Brady
gonna change his mind.
- Think you can take him?
- I ain't saying I can take him straight off.
Anyway, that'd be kinda mean.
Big holiday fight.
Can't send them people
right back home again.
- Your only worry is picking the round?
- That takes some thinkin'.
You see, if I lets it go on too long
and I'm just keeping him off...
they'll say, "Ain't that one shiftless nigger?
Why are they all so lazy?"
But if I chop them down too quick,
the third or fourth round...
Get to him all at once, they'll holler...
"No, it ain't fair.
The poor man fighting a gorilla. "
But I'm gonna
work it out.
What about that yellow streak
Brady talks about?
Hey, yeah.
You want to see it?
Stop fooling around!
Any idea, Jack,
why you smile when you're fightin'?
I'm a happy sort of person
and always feels good.
When I'm fighting,
I feels double good...
so why do I wanna
put a face on for?
Anyway, it's a sport, right?
Like a game.
Well, I likes whoever I'm hitting
to see that I'm still his friend.
- Going back to Chicago after the fight?
- I wanna see my mama.
- And fried chicken, Jack.
- Okay, wait!
- One more question.
- Yeah. Go ahead.
You're the first black man in the history
of the ring who's ever had a crack...
at the heavyweight title.
White folks, of course, are behind Brady.
He's the redeemer of the race.
But you, JackJefferson,
are you the black hope?
- I'm black, and I'm hopin'.
- Answer straight, Jack.
I ain't fighting for no race.
I ain't redeeming nobody.
My mama told me Mr. Lincoln done that.
Ain't that why you shot him?
My, oh, my.
The big black rooster
and the little red hen.
I got you, you mother.
- What you want here?
- I show you what I want!
- Hey.!
- Jack.! Jack.!
You crazy?
You bitch.! Goddamn it.!
Just a family quarrel. A family quarrel.
You leave my man be, girl. You don't,
I'm gonna throw you at him in chunks.
- You got it all wrong, Clara.
- I got it from the chambermaid
at the Park Royal Hotel.
I come all the way
from Chicago to got it.
Now that you "got" it,
you get your black ass out of here.
- Jack!
- Let the gentlemen see how
you're 'smirchin' your wife.
- She ain't no wife of mine.
- We's common law, and I's comin' home to Papa.
I's common nothin'.
Don't you "papa" me, girl, or I'll
"papa" you so you never forget it.
I quit on you when you cleared out
of Detroit with Willie the Pimp.
I quit on you when you cleared out
of Detroit with Willie the Pimp.
- Have a heart, please, fellas.
- I know you come after me.
I know you was lookin'.
You lucky I too busy to find you,
you sellin' my clothes, my ring...
my silver brushes.
Give me another chance, baby.
I misses you awful.
Just don't come on
with me, girl.
- Your Willie's in jail.
You just smellin' gravy here.
- How you know where he at?
I'm from the jungle like you, baby,
and I hear the drums.
Tick, give her 20
and carfare back.
- Let's go.
- You ain't closin' the book
on me so easy, Daddy.
You hear me, gray meat?
Get it while you can.
- Clara, let's go! Goddamn it!
- Who's the other woman?
I'm asking you man-to-man, for
everybody's good, don't write about it.
If it gets out,
God knows what can happen.
Now, look, we wanna have a fight,
don't we?
I'll buy it, for now.
Okay?
I'll hold it up
as long as you do.
Thanks, fellas.
Say, let me buy you all a drink.
Jack, what's...
what's the girl's name?
It's gonna get worse,
you know?
I know.
You wanna go along with it?
Along with you.
Then hold right on.
Just don't never
call me Daddy.
205!
When I put on the gloves now
and defend this here belt...
it's the request of the public
who forced me out of retirement.
I want to assure 'em
I'm fit to do my best.
I don't think
I'll disappoint nobody!
How come there ain't no music
when I comes in?
Hey, come on!
How do you do,
Mr. Jefferson?
As you know,
I'm your referee.
I am proud to shake the hand that
shook the hand of the Prince of Wales.
Don't take no lip from him.!
Turn around.!
Let's see that yellow streak, nigger.!
You're gonna get yours, coon!
Get it over with right now.!
Get out ofhere right now.!
Hey, Frank! How you doin'?
Look like Frank
about to walk the plank.
191!
Brady! Brady!
- 204.
- 204.
Hey, Frank.
Do you believe that?
This man here said
that I'm lighter than you.
- Just your statement, please.
- Huh? Oh, sure.
I wants to thank Mr. Brady here
for being such a sport...
and giving me a shot
at the belt today.
- There's been a whole lots
of mean talk around...
- Shut up, nigger.!
Get your skinny...
Here...
But here we is.
Here's me and here's Frank, and I glad
it come down to a plain old scuffle.
Let's get in there.
Hey there, home folks!
- How are you all today?
- Come here to pray for you, Mr. Jefferson.
Oh. You couldn't get
no tickets, huh?
- Best they don't go in there.
- Oh, that don't matter.
- Just so long as the good Lord
lets you win for us.
- Amen.
Lf"us" mean any of you with cash riding on me,
your prayers will pay off about the fifth.
No, Mr. Jefferson.
He mean win for us colored.
Oh. Is that what
you're praying?
May the good Lord
be guiding your hand for us.
- Amen!
- You traipse all this way to pray it? My, my.
What the reverend
mean to signify...
- I know what he signifyin'.
I'm big, but I ain't dumb.
- What you salty with me for?
- Hey, man. What's my winning gonna do for you?
- Huh?
- Give him self-respect.
- Amen. Tell it, brother.
Yeah, I be proud
to be colored tomorrow.
Country boy, if you
ain't there already...
all the boxing and nigger-praying
in the world ain't gonna get you there.
- Jack, let's go.
- You look colored, but you
ain't thinking colored.
No, sir, I'm thinking colored,
colored, and then colored.
I'm so busy thinking colored,
I can't see nothin' else sometime.
I just ain't thinking
colored like you.
You're telling me
you're praying here.
You expect I'm gonna say thank you,
and you ain't praying for me.
It ain't, "Lord, don't let
that peck break his nose"...
or "Lord, let him get out of town
and not get shot at!"
I ain't nothing to you
but a black, ugly fist here.
Lord...
when smoke of battle clear away, may
that good man be standing in victory...
and may them
who keep on shoving all us down...
see they can't do it
every time, take a lesson.
Give us just a day, Lord.
We needs it.
And give him the light
to understand why.
Speech.!
Oh, my, my.
It look like
"rest in peace," don't it?
Yeah, well,
I am all rested up...
and as you can see, I'm about to
make Chicago my real home, sweet home.
Guess I don't have to
chase around for work for a while, huh?
Ain't stuck Brady's head
up on the wall, has you?
No, man, but there a picture of old Queen
Cleopatra that'll make you sit up straight!
Hey, Ellie. Help me
with these flowers here.
Yeah, I want you all to say hello
to my fiance, Miss Eleanor Bachman.
Ooh!
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
All right. Hey, listen.
While y'all at it, I want you to
congratulate my manager and friend, Goldie!
- And, uh...
- See, if you're black, you're coming in last!
But how 'bout this
little doodad, folks?
Okay! Okay!
Bring it on inside!
Open house!
Let's have
some lively times!
Come on!
Everybody!
That's it, brothers!
Yeah.
Whoop it up now!
Got your white crumbs
off the white man's table...
and you feel just fine.!
Gonna jump...
all night!
How much white you up to?
How much you done took on?
How much white
you pinin' for?
How white you wanna be, and how white
you gonna get? Now, you tell me!
Shame on you.!
Hustlin' for the white man's
sportin' prize.
Itchin' for the white man's
piece of poontang.
Struttin'around like you're
the white man's nigger.!
Thinkin' you's
a walking natural man.
Don't know you swimming half-drowned
in the whitewash, same as all of them!
Gulpin' it every day here...
and pickled in it.
You...
and you, and you, and you.!
Even the nose you got...
the lips you got...
the hair you got...
and the skin you... got.
Well...
lively times.
SinceJefferson opened this caf, we've
made no fewer than seven arrests there.
- He wasn't arrested.
- Madam, we have no ground.
But you're the district attorney!
What about the Bachman girl?
She's over the age of consent.
But this connection
between them is an outrage.!
It's a threat to every
decent home in America.
Forgive me, Doctor,
but I must speak my mind.
We can't pretend
that race is not the issue here...
and I'm with you because
this man Jefferson does harm to his race.
He confirms certain views of us
that you may already hold.
That does us harm.
But he also confirms
in many people of color...
the belief that his life
is the desirable life...
and that can do us
even greater harm.
- Absolutely.
- That's right.
Well, I'm grateful to you all
for your concern.
You shouldn't
have come.
A girl can't say no to a district attorney.
He was very polite.
So you say "no" polite.
You think your family's in on this or what?
No. They're just trying
to forget me now.
Well, this is looking for trouble.
I can't make any more
than I have already, can I?
- Over there?
- Yes, and get down every word of it.
If a good white hope showed up
and beat him, I wouldn't need to do this.
A public servant has to
serve the public, Al.
You ever have the screws
put on you like this in Washington?
Oh, I don't think they'd even know
where to look for us.
Come in.
Good afternoon,
Miss Bachman.
- Take a seat, please.
- Thank you.
You understand, this is,
uh, just an informal inquiry.
- Yes. I understand.
- Good.
Now then, Miss Bachman...
- I see you resumed your maiden
name after your divorce.
- That's right.
- And you obtained your divorce
from Mr. Martin in Australia.
- Yes.
- That's an odd place to go for a divorce.
- I have an aunt there.
- I wanted to get away.
- Oh.
- You hadn't met Mr. Jefferson
before your trip?
- No, I had not.
- You did not travel there
to be with Mr. Jefferson?
- No, I didn't.
I met him on the boat
coming back.
- How did he approach you?
- He didn't.
- I asked the captain to introduce us.
- May I ask why?
Yes. I wanted to
make his acquaintance.
And once you had, Miss Bachman,
what did he propose to you?
That I have dinner at his table.
- Which you did for several evenings.
- Yes.
- Until you began taking
your meals in his stateroom.
- Yes, that's correct.
Where a great deal of wine
and champagne was consumed.
Well, you might say that.
Presumably he would keep
filling your glass.
- When it was empty, yes.
- Uh-huh. Ten times per evening?
No, I drank very little.
- How often did he give you medicine or pills?
- Never. I wasn't ill.
But the steward reports
you hardly left the stateroom.
Didn't you feel...
strange? Sleepy?
No.
I felt uncomfortable at how people
looked at me. I wasn't used to it.
- He took you from the boat to the hotel.
- Yes.
Did you ask to be taken there?
- No, I just went with him.
- What had he promised you?
- To spend some of his time with me.
- Nothing else?
Nothing that would interest you.
Naturally,
he's provided you with money.
He's given me presents, yes.
Your railway ticket to Chicago... did you
buy that or was that a sort of present?
Um, I honestly
don't remember.
- I... I believe I bought it, though.
- Thank you.
You've parried these questions
very well.
I didn't come here
to tell lies, Mr. Cameron.
I wanted to head off any notion
you have of getting atJack through me.
I hope I've done that.
Well, yes, I'm afraid you have.
Frankly, though...
I admire you for it.
Not many women...
You're quite devoted
to him, aren't you?
Yes, I love him,
Mr. Cameron.
He's a splendid man, really.
L- In many ways.
- No one doubts that, you know.
- No, I've never doubted it.
- Magnificent fighter...
- Oh, that's not all he is.
He's generous and he's kind
and he's sensitive.
Why are you smiling?
I'm sorry.
It's how you shy away
from the, uh, physical attraction.
I embarrassed you.
Forgive me.
I'm not ashamed
of wanting Jack for a lover.
- I wanted him that way.
- Of course you did.
- And he would want you.
- Why? Because I'm white?
No. I just meant that
any man would be proud...
Mr. Cameron, I'm proud
that he wanted me. Is that clear?
Certainly. Don't be distressed.
Why can't they leave us alone?
What's the difference...
There shouldn't be
a difference, ideally.
People shouldn't be so blind
about the physical side.
Ayoung woman,
divorced, disappointed.
Please, if you've finished, then...
Please let me go.
Here, here, now.
You mustn't cry,
Miss Bachman.
It hasn't turned out
so badly, has it?
You have this wonderful man
to love you. Why should you cry?
I'll never give him up. I can't.
- Of course not, but why be ashamed of it?
- I swear I'm not.
- You seem to be.
- I'm not.
- If you say so.
- I'm crazy for him, yes. It's the truth.
I didn't know what it was until
I slept with him. I'll say it to anyone.
- H-He makes you happy that way?
- Yes.
- And you love him, do anything for him?
- Yes, I would.
- And not be ashamed.
- No, never.
- Even if it seemed unnatural.
- Yes.
- When you have, you were only...
- What?
Making him happy too,
am I right?
Now, Miss Bachman...
You slimy, two-bit,
no-dick mothergrabber.
- Well, if that's all...
- Yes, I believe so.
Good day, then.
Thank you for coming in.
Nothing to move on. Zero.
I'm not so sure.
It occurred to me that we just
might nail him with the Mann Act.
What?
That's for commercial ass, not this.
- She's not a pro.
- I'm gonna have a word
with the fine-print boys.
- Won't hurt you.
- Like a sick child.
Oh! How lovely!
Whoo!
Shucks, hon.
It ain't cold.
It's the finest time
for swimming.
Oh, we've come to
a parting of the way.
Oh, Lordy. What to do when
the romance done gone?
Oh, Jack, I couldn't make it
to the door.
Is that right? Well, suppose I carry you
down there and ease you in?
- Come here.
- Don't tickle me, Jack. Don't!
- Look at you!
- Ow! Oh, that hurts.
- Oh!
- Oh, I'm sorry.
It's this damn sunburn.
Oh. Here.
Let me pat somethin' on it.
Mmm.
Oh. Ohh!
That's nice.
- Nice and cool?
- Mmm.
Jack.
Oh, not champagne, Jack!
- It's all right, baby. You're worth the best.
- All over me.
Yeah. Let's get
some lake on you, huh?
No.
Turn around a little.
No, more this way.
- Are you feeling all right?
- Ain't feelin' no different.
- You sure?
- Yeah.
- You ate all those clams.
Maybe you're getting sick.
- What you doing that for?
- I ain't got no fever.
- You look a little peculiar.
Oh. Gettin' kind of ashy,
you mean.
- Yes, a sort of funny...
- No, baby, that's not sick.
That's how I get sunburned.
All right.
What you laughin'at now?
Huh?
I thought...
- Come on, now. That's not nice.
- I'm sorry.
You thought what, hon?
I thought it just
bounces off, that's all.
Just bounces off? Well,
Miss Medium Rare, meet Mr. Well Done.
Yeah, you oughta see
my cousin Chester. He turn purple.
Do we have to leave
tomorrow?
Yeah.
- Gotta stay around the caf, you know.
- I know.
Mmm.
Oh, my.
You do smell good, though.
Yes. Jack, you're not tired
of being alone with me?
Hey, are you kiddin'?
Tired of me
asking questions like that.
Oh.
I'm tired of plenty...
but you ain't in there at all.
It's lovely to hear you say that.
Have a swim, if you want.
No. I'm cozy here now.
Yes, I'm cozy,
and you are rosy.
# Early this mornin' #
# Blues walked
in my door #
#And early this mornin' #
# Blues walked in my door #
# Last time I saw you, baby #
- Hmm.
- #You made me cry... ##
Lying in the sun...
I was...
oh, daydreaming.
How maybe I'd stay there,
and it would keep on burning me...
day after day.
I'd get darker and darker.
I really can get dark, you know?
Then I'd dye my hair
and I'd change my name.
I'd come to you in Chicago
like somebody new.
A colored woman
or a Creole, maybe, huh?
Nobody but you
would ever guess.
- It wouldn't work, hon.
- Hmm?
Everybody know I done gone off
of colored women.
Oh, Jack, you...
I has, too,
except for my mama.
Maybe I...
- Hey.
- What will we do?
Shh. Shh.
Shh.
I'm a federal marshal, Jefferson.
Let's not make this any worse than it is.
At 10:00 a. m. You drove Miss Eleanor Bachman
across the Illinois-Wisconsin state line.
Having done so, you proceeded
to have relations with her.
Under the Mann Act,
that makes you liable.
- Therefore, I'm placing you under arrest.
- No! No! I'm...
- Put your clothes on.
We'll take you into town.
- Jack!
Don't you fret, now.
Just get dressed.
Hold a blanket up
or something.
- Thanks, mister.
- Sure.
- How much does this carry?
- One to three.
She clear?
- Just you.
- Yeah. Thanks.
- We need these, Jim?
- No, just find him his pants
and let's get outta here.
From when he was a child...
I knowed this day was comin'.
"Look at that, Mama.
Why can't I, Mama?"
Roamin' and reachin' all over.
I tried to learn him
like you got to learn a colored child.
"Dass'nt. Dass'nt. Dass'nt.
That ain't for you. "
I hit him with my hand.
He say, "So what?"
I hit him with my shoe.
He look up at me and smile.
I took a razor strap to him.
That made him squint a little, but then he'd
do a funny dance and ask me for a nickel.
I hit him with a stick
till I couldn't hit no more.
He pulled away from me,
bust it in two and run off.
- Eleven years old.
- Sister.
You're getting yourself
all upset, Mrs. Jefferson.
Why don't I put on
a pot of fresh coffee.
Thank you, Clara.
Got a guardian angel there.
She been round every day
since she heard I was ailin'.
- We're hoping with you, sister,
maybe they'll let him off.
Y'all must ain't
got the right house.
- Mrs. Jefferson's house, ain't it?
- Yeah, but hang on!
All y'all can't fit in there!
- Afternoon, everybody.
- You all from the courthouse?
No, ma'am. Us just get a message
askin' us to pay a call here.
- We the BlueJays.
- You the which?
The Detroit BlueJays.
- You know, the colored baseball club.
- Oh, yeah.
My name Rudy Simms, ma'am.
Who say you supposed to
call in here?
Well, we sort of
friends with Jack.
- This ain't no celebratin' party, you know.
- Hush, Clara.
Why somebody wanna send us
a baseball team here?
I ain't never seen Jack
with no baseball friends.
Well, I ain't never
seen him with you, so we're even.
- Well, Tick?
- It ain't good, Mrs. Jefferson.
- Lord have mercy!
- Come on, come on.
20,000 fine,
three years in Joliet.
Why can't all them Jew lawyers
do nothin'? Why can't they...
I'll die if they lock him up!
But he do have the week out
on bail, Mrs. Jefferson.
He'll be right here.
Don't take on. He's comin'.
That snaky little wax-faced bitch.
Where's she at now?
Oh, I'll smoke her out, and, man,
what I gonna do be worth 103 years.
It ain't her fault, Clara.
She know this end up comin'.
Ain't a deaf, dumb,
blind pinhead livin' didn't know it.
But, oh, Daddy,
she just 'joyin' herself so.
It's so good when it's goin'.
Leave it alone.
"Oh, but, Daddy,
I just loves you. "
Could be she do
love him, Clara.
Then why'd she run off, then,
with her man in trouble?
Love him, my black ass.
Sister!
How you doin', champ?
- Good work, Rudy.
- Ready for you, Jack.
Well, praise the Lord, and welcome.!
Thank you, Pastor,
everybody.
How are you, Mama Tiny?
They didn't hurt you.
- You get enough to eat?
- Shoot, yeah.
How 'bout you?
- Well, it drained me out, son.
- Oh, Mama.
Hard luck, Jack.
- The Lord didn't want to hear us, I guess.
- Mama...
But he gonna put me on my feet,
I can feel it...
and I'll come down visitin' you often
as they allows you to.
- No, Mama...
- Oh, baby! Baby!
- I can't let them trap you up in there.
- What's she doin' here?
- Mama, what the hell?
- I been doin' for your mama, Jack.
She's trying to mend her ways.
Now, don't be mad.
Jack, let her be for now.
All set?
All set? What?
What you boys up to?
- Yeah, what's goin' on?
- Who you playin' peekaboo with out there?
You ain't about to make it worse,
are you, son?
- I got to trust you folks.
- Son, no matter how rough it appears to be...
- Stand by the window, Jack. They lookin'.
- Who? Who lookin'?
- Detectives in the car, Mama.
- What they lookin' for?
- They worried that I'm
gon' try to jump my bail.
- Jack, you just let out.
No, it's the best time, Mama.
They don't know I ready.
They followin'you about?
No, they think they is.
Now, first thing what I do,
take off my coat.
I, uh, stands here
sorta talkin', you see.
Yeah, here.
Yeah, yeah.
So and so
and so and so.
For heaven's sake.
No foolin'. Yeah.
And then I let 'em
see my face.
Yeah.
Hey, looks like rain!
And I knowed
they seen my shirt.
Yeah! Don't you wish
you had one?
So I goes on
sorta talkin', see?
Now, over there's Rudy.
Yep, he's checkin' his turnip again.
He has to hop
on that train soon.
The BlueJays are playin' in Canada next.
Ain't you, Rudy?
- Against the Montreal Blacks?
- That's right, Jack.
Okay, fella, let's go.
He look mighty fine,
our Rudy there. Don't he?
He's not as pretty as me...
but he's near about the same size
and a half a shade lighter.
Whoo.! Mercy.!
You got the shirt on too.!
Clearin' up now?
What you trick him into?
- It's his idea. Believe me.
- It's all right, Mama.
Rudy will spend the afternoon by the window
here, and I go across the border with theJays.
- They'll find you out, Jack.
- Hey.
Who find me, and who lookin'? Y'all heard
that old sayin' how all niggers look alike.
Ain't that so, team?
- That's right.
- That's right, Jack.
But we friends
with Canada, son.
We's hardly
a different place.
Yeah, and 'fore they cotton to it,
we on that boat for England.
Right! Right!
It's all fixed, Mama.
All what fixed...
ain't just got to happen.
It's a serious offense,
floutin' the law, Jack.
I know they done you hard, but it's gon'
hang over you just as long as you live.
Look, man, what gonna hang, gonna hang,
and I ain't hangin' with it.
I done my kickin'
around this country.
Served my one-nights.
My 30 days once too.
I ain't gonna rot in no jail like no log
for three years and come out broke neither!
I'm in the prime of my life!
Got to live it the way I got to!
Gonna make me some money again.
I'm gonna fight!
I got my turn to be the champion
of the world, and I'm takin' my turn.
I'm stayin' what I am,
wherever I have to be it.
The world ain't curled up
in no 48 states here.
Praise the Lord
for lightin' the way for my boy!
Forgive me!
I said you didn't
listen, Jesus!
- That's it, Mama.
- Well?
Take me with you, honey.
- Don't cross me, now.
- I'd go with you, baby. Anyplace.
- You know the score, girl.
- Please. Please!
She comin' to ya, ain't she?
That's where she at.
Well, you ain't meetin' that bitch.
I'll turn you in first!
Hold her down!
Get her down
on the floor!
Sit on her!
Somebody sit on her!
Somebody sit on her! That's right!
Make some noise!
Make some noise!
Sing, children, sing!
- Keep it up.
- Good luck, Jack.
God bless you.
- Pretty, ain't it?
- Yes. I love it.
You see? Right at home already.
- Think that's for rent?
- Might even do better.
- Yes?
- Yeah. You gonna be all right here, hon.
- Welcome to London, sir.
- Thank you, sir.
- Welcome.
- Thank you.
Is it true, sir, you'll be
fighting Albert Lynch here?
- Gonna sign it right up.
- I'd so enjoy watching you
against Billy Wells too.
- Hey, hey. One at a time.
- And Angus McKinnon.
- Mr. Jefferson?
- Yeah.
From the ministry, sir.
What do they mean, a hearing?
But is there any question
that the man is an undesirable?
How, sir, can your ministry
permit his entry? A convicted criminal.
A fugitive from justice.
Are you aware, sir, of what this implies?
Official license for breaches of the peace,
for moral deficiency flaunted.
- Wait, now. I ain't been here
but a couple of days.
- Jackie, quiet.
- Gentlemen, please.
- No. Sir. Can I talk for a minute?
- Yes. By all means.
- I'm sorry to fuss anybody out in here...
but I come over here to make my livin'
the best way I know how.
And I guess I got to act extra quiet,
sir, 'cause of what I am and all.
And I intend to, word of honor,
because we likes it here fine, now.
My manager here done fixed me up
a match already, so I'll just
get to training and boxing...
and there'll be no rumpus.
Well, Mr. Coates,
as we view this at the moment...
the American legalities
are none of our concern.
The breaches of the peace
you foresee are unlikely...
and as to the man's character, it may be
deficient by Queen Victoria's standards...
but she, of course,
is gone now.
- You have something
to add, Mr. Coates?
- Indeed I have, sir...
concerning Mr. Jefferson's assumption
that he will be boxing here.
What you talkin' 'bout?
I'm fightin' Albert Lynch January 12.
Bradby.
"On behalf of Mr. Lynch,
I agreed to this engagement...
but the London County Council
now refuses to license it. "
What are you tryin' to pull here?
We don't have to stick to London!
I believe, sir, you will meet
with a similar refusal...
in Birmingham,
Manchester and Leeds.
- Easy, now, baby.
- Don't do this to him.
You're supposed to be fair here.
- Mister, what the hell...
- Sir, let me assure you...
you're welcome to remain here and find
any other means of livelihood you can.
You'll excuse us now, please?
I'm really very sorry.
Your client will be
leaving the country, I take it.
That's right, man.
You take it. It's all yours.
Breathe deep, champ.
Nice and slow.
- Yeah, I know how to breathe.
- See if that's too tight.
Say, when did you
start calling me champ, anyway?
- Full house?
- Girly, they're hangin'from the rafters.
- Water bottle. Take the one I rinsed.
- You okay?
- Why do you keep asking me?
- So what? So I'm askin'.
Couple of more minutes.
- Put 'em up, baby. Better warm up some.
- I'm gonna warm up on the man.
- I'll be good. I ain't gonna get you winded.
- Listen.
- You ain't got to tell me
what wind I ain't got.
- No, baby. I just...
I know what shape is. I know when I ain't
in it and when gettin'in it is a waste.
- I ain't got to train to
take no fifth-rate geechee.
- The best they got around here.
Oh, yeah. Just hit him one
and shovel up the money, right?
Just jump in with the gold belt.
Right?
- Messieurs, if you please.
- I'll go into my seat now, Jack.
- Honey.
- Good luck, darling.
There's nothin' that
you're gonna wanna see, okay?
MonsieurJefferson, the famous smile.
You won't deny our public the smile?
No. I got it on me.
- Hello there, Miss Bachman.
- Hello.
- Smith. Evening Mirror. Smitty.
- Oh, yes.
Aren't you here for the fight?
The boys'll dope me in.
He's at it again; that's the main thing.
- I guess so.
- And how are you holding up?
- Fine.
- Must be kind of tough on you now, though.
- Not especially.
- Sure. Moving around so much.
When my missus was
four months gone with little Smitty...
Go away, will you?
You were looking so peaked the other day,
and you did go to the doctor, Miss Bachman.
- Decided not to have it?
- Why do you do this?
- Don't be sore. People wanna
read about you, aboutJack.
If there's something new,
I'd like to get it first. That's all.
Nothing personal. And it's no worse
than getting paid for knocking people down.
What the hell's going on in there?
How much you say he weighs, Fred?
265. He's 6'8".
- Not bad, Dan.
- Here's Vancouver two weeks ago.
Now, hold on.
- There's my boy,
the one on the right.!
- Couldn't miss him.
Rushes straight in. Why,
when that kid first... Aw, for cryin'out loud.
- Won't take a minute.
- I don't think we have to see any more, Pop.
- No.
- So, what do ya say?
- If that's no white hope,
I'm Queen Pocahontas.
- He's the right stuff, Dan.
- Maybe a little raw yet.
- Fresh. Fresh is what he is.
Big, clean, strong. Real farm boy.
They're waiting for something like him.
I'm ready to promote it, Dan.
What do you think?
I think he's a full-grown polar bear myself.
He's the best of the bunch. I won't argue.
But say we send him over... bang...
it's 10-to-1 the black boy does it again.
- Then where are we?
- We won't ever have it on a plate, you know.
Pop, Fred,
let me tell you a secret.
The next white hope is the one
who gets that belt back...
not means to or almost does
or gets half-killed in trying.
He takes it!
He finishes right on his feet...
with a big, horizontal nigger
down there for good.
What do you mean, Dan?
Is it yes or no?
Pop, I'd like you
to meet a friend of mine.
- Is Mr. Dixon here yet?
- I'm right here, Dan.
Oh, come on in.
- Pop Weaver.
- How are ya?
- Fred.
- Gentlemen.
Have a seat. Dixon's with the bureau,
you see, and like you might expect...
they have Mr. Jefferson
on their minds too.
Now, I've been down there, and we've
got some ideas. You explain it to 'em, son.
Well, when a man beats us out like this,
we of course look foolish...
but more important,
so does the law.
People lose respect for law, and that
we just cannot afford right now.
You may not be aware of it yet, but a very
large, very black migration is in progress.
They're coming from the fields
down South, filling up the slums.
And I am talking about hundreds
of thousands, maybe millions soon.
Millions of ignorant Negroes
rapidly massing together.
Now, we cannot allow the image of this man
to go on impressing and exciting these people.
- I'm only a sports promoter.
- He read the writing on the door, Pop. Go on.
Well, if he were less of a hero to them...
after his next engagement, let's say,
we would be disposed to reduce his sentence.
You'd make it worth his while
not to win the fight, you mean?
- I think I've said what I mean.
- Well, I say my kid can
beat him fair and square.
- Easy, Fred.
- Well, count me out! I'll
hop on a boat with him...
- You don't wanna do that.
- Don't tell me what I can...
- I'm telling you as a friend.
- There must be another way, Dan.
- It just goes against me.
- Well, it goes against me too.
Now, I don't have to make no speeches here
about how I feel workin' something crooked.
None of us like it.
We wouldn't be the men we are
if we did or be where we are.
I know it's lousy, but we got a situation
here that needs a little bending.
Now, the man's tried
to tell you how serious it is.
They're bending with it.
I'm bending with it.
Now, who are you, Fred, to
stand there and say it goes against you?
And you, Pop? Now,
don't you get on a pedestal here.
- What about the champ?
- He'll never buy it, or my kid either.
- He's straight out of Sunday school.
- Don't tell your kid a thing.
- He's straight out of Sunday school.
- Don't tell your kid a thing.
And, Jack, after what
he did to that Frenchman, nobody
there'll fight 'im anymore.
He's drifting around.
I hear he's down to peanuts.
- How would you put it to him?
- You work it out, Pop.
- Me?
- You're the promoter, Pop.
- Oh, Dan, I'm an old man.
- And as smart as they come.
- You can't put that deal
in writing, can you, mister?
- I'm sorry. I wasn't even here.
- Kameradschaft.
- Kameradschaft. Okay.
- Thank you.
- Prost.
- Bitte.
- Bitte. Right. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you... very much.
Okay.
We were just leavin', sugar.
You said you'd
call for me, Jack.
- Where's Goldie, honey?
- He had to go out.
- Don't drink anymore.
- Goldie seeing that guy about an exhibition?
- No. Some friend from New York, he said.
- Maybe something movin', baby.
- Ain't nothin' movin' here.
- Kameradschaft.!
- Hey! Kameradschaft.!
- It pleases you, we make you comrade, ja?
Oh, man. I'm happy
as a cow with six tits.
How are you so strong, boxer?
Well, just chompin'
on them bananas, man.
Jack, stop it.
- What?
- Please.
- I just fools when I wants to, hon.
- All these people.
- Where I wants to and how, hear?
- Baby, let's go eat.
Who asked you?
You're so goddamn touchy about people
lookin' at you, you ain't even oughta be here.
- I don't like people looking
when you're this way, Jack.
- Oh, you don't?
Well, I don't either, but I'm stuck with it,
and you ain't, so any ti... Where you goin'?
Get your ass back on there,
girl. The man bought champagne.
You sit down too!
- I'll be in the room, Jack.
- Yeah. Then you'll say you're
sick of waiting around hotels.
- I never said that.
- You're givin' out your misery
so hard, you don't have to.
- You just don't like nothin' no more.
- I won't even answer you.
- That's right. Give it out!
- What do you want?
- Sit down here, girl.
- Let her go, man. She got the fear again.
- Eleanor!
- I'll walk her back.
- Yeah. You get.
Okay. I'm listening.
Well, I just saw Pop Weaver.
- We got a match.
- A match? How much do I get for losing?
- Let me first explain what the deal is.
- No, no.
- If Pop want a straight fight,
he don't come sneakin'.
- What are you gettin' sore?
- Fred's got this kid, see?
- How much is it worth to him, boss?
- 80-20 split. A hundred G's guaranteed.
- Oh, boy.
And they'll cut the rap
to six months for ya.
- You see all folks can do
when everybody pitches in?
- Jackie.
- Any special round they'd like me to dive in?
- He says we can work that out.
- Yeah. What did you say?
- I said it stinks,
but we'll let 'em know later.
Later? You send 'em a bottle of that and
tell 'em to suck it through a straw.
- No thinking it over?
- How long you been my manager?
- Five, six years.
- Why you gotta ask?
Why? Because we gotta eat, that's why!
What else you got in front of ya,
big shot? Send 'em champagne?
- I can't even book a two-bit exhibition.
- It's time to find fresh meat.
- Then what the hell do you need me for?
- I been thinkin' about that.
- Let's go talk to 'im.
- No. You called it right.
- You'll fall apart here.
- No hard feelings, boss.
Wait, Jack! Listen.
- You got enough to get home on?
- Look at what you're doin'.
Yeah, I know.
It ain't good, boss; just the best I can.
...Uncle Tom's Cabin.
...JackJefferson.
- Here, Uncle Tom. Do come and sit beside me.
- Indeed I will, Miss Eva.
Right here
on this lovely old grassy bank.
See how beautiful the clouds are, Tom?
And the water too?
You right with 'em.
You is the "beautiful-est" of all.
But, friend,
why do you seem sad this evening?
Oh, Miss Eva.
You and the master so good to old Tom,
he just got to cry about it now and then.
Sing about the spirits bright,
Tom, would ya?
Yes, ma'am.
I'm just gettin' set to.
Tom!
Look. Look.
Look who has come to make us lively.
- How old are you, Topsy?
- I don't know, missy.
- Don't you know how old you are?
Who was your mother?
- I don't know, missy.
- I never had no mother.
- But, Topsy, someone must've made you.
Nobody I knows, old missy.
I expects I just "growed. "
Oh, Topsy.
Tomorrow? Okay. Thank you.
Nothin', man.
May be something pullin' out tomorrow.
- Anybody know who's shootin' who out there?
- Porter said they're practicin'.
- What will we do, Jack?
- I don't know yet.
- Do you think maybe we should
go back to the hotel?
- I said I don't know yet!
- All right. I heard you.
- Play cards or somethin' with her, will ya?
Jack?
- Jack, I didn't know if you heard...
- I told you to lay off me, man.
It's sort of an emergency back home, Jack.
Your mother's very low.
I'm sorry about this, fella.
- Yeah. Thank you.
- Maybe we could work something out for ya.
I'm sure you want
to see her.
Now, I've hired a car
and fixed up your passage.
I'm so sorry, Jack.
She'd know by tomorrow
you're on your way, Jack.
- Might mean a lot to her knowing that.
- Wanna thank you for comin', man.
You can't stay
over here now anyway, Jack.
It's finished here.
A war is starting.
- Now, where do ya go?
- I just don't want none today, man.
- Whatever you say.
- I'll see you around sometime.
All right, fella.
Oh, what's the good of it, Jack?
All this? Keeping this up?
I mean, you're not a Boy Scout.
What the hell is it for?
Keeping the belt a little longer?
Staying champ longer?
I honestly can't make you out.
Champ don't
mean piss-all to me.
I've been it.
That champ stuff
been beat clear out of me.
That belt of yours
just hardware.
Don't even hold my pants up,
and I'm stuck with it.
It's a hunk of junky hardware
that don't let go.
Turnin' green on me,
and it still ain't lettin' go.
So I stuck with it, just as you all
are stuck needin' it off of me.
So shake it loose,
you understand?
Just knock me for 10 and take it.
I'll be much obliged.
- Believe me. We'd rather have it straight.
- Oh, you would, huh?
- If you weren't so good...
- You got a 100 million people
over there, ain't you?
- Now, let me go.
- Picked out the best you got,
ain't you? I want a match.
- It's not up to me.
- I said a match with him!
You ain't gonna give me one, I'll make ya,
same as I done before.
Make ya!
Take my funky suitcase...
my $300, $400,
get myself to Mexico!
How you like that?
Right up next to ya!
I'm gonna
sit on the line...
wave the crummy belt at you...
sing out, "Here I is!
"Here I is!
"Here I is!
Here I is!
Here I is!"
- Slow it up. Slow it up.
- What?
Slow it.
#Times is very hard #
# Give me 10 cents' worth
of lard #
# Gonna
keep my skillet greasy #
# If I can ##
- Enough?
- Yeah. I'm pushin' it.
Okay, Paco. That's it.
Oughta raise the bag
up a little higher tomorrow, huh?
Maybe about a foot or so,
seeing how big that kid is.
Oh, he sure is
a funny size for a kid, ain't he?
Hey, it looks like something
done gone wrong with his glands.
- Hey, leave those, will you?
- S, campen.
You can't
work out today no more.
How much did that guy say
he'd give you for 'em? Fifty?
Your gloves, baby?
Buenas tardes, seorita.
I wish they'd
feed their dogs around here.
- Well, you're feeding yours, ain't you?
- Set it down, hon.
- How's the gal today?
- All right. You?
Fine. Oh, you should've seen him
burn up that road this morning.
- Right from the bridge, all the way down...
- You going to say it or what?
No. Nothing, Jack.
No cables. No letters. Nothing.
- Thanks.
- If you ask me, we's lucky
they ain't signed up yet.
- Giving us all this gettin'- ready time.
- Just you rub, man.
Worryin' makes you tight. That's
why you ain't sweatin' like you were.
- Let him eat before it gets cold, Tick.
- Yeah.
- Switch your brain off a while.
- Leave it!
Why don't you come back
and wash now, Jack?
- I'll wait here if you like.
- Smellin' pretty strong, huh?
- You know that's not what I meant.
- That's enough, man.
Jack, will you talk to me?
Tick is crossin' over
on an errand.
Maybe you can walk
around there a little with him.
Not with me, boss. I ain't
strollin' with no white girl in no Texas.
Hold the fort, hon.
It won't be long.
Do what they want you to, Jack.
Will you take them specs off?
I can't hardly see ya.
Well, I didn't think
you wanted to.
- Are you readin' my mind now?
- Jack.
- I told you to keep out of it.
- I can't keep out of it.
Please do it.
You have to.
- You finally battin' for the home team, huh?
- Jack, cable them tonight.
- You finally come around to it, huh?
- Don't bitch me, Jack!
- And I told you...
- I don't care what you told me.
Say yes and get it over with!
- You're letting them
do this to you, it's worse.
- Worse for you maybe.
Jack, it is slow poison here,
and there is nothing else to wait for.
- Nothing for you maybe.
- Nothing but hammering that stupid bag.
- You're not your own man anymore, Jack.
- Oh, now you're rollin'.
How can you be your own man when
they have you? They do, and you know it.
You're theirs. At least you can
buy yourself back from them.
Sold:
One-buck nigger for the lady?
Run whenever they push you
or pull you, work yourself sick...
in this hellhole for nothing,
and you tell me you're not theirs.
Look at this grease
you swallow for them.
- Bedbug bites. The blotches in your eyes.
- Don't leave the smell out.
Yes. The two of us smell.
Whatever turns people into niggers.
- There. It's happening to both of us.
- Your wish coming true, huh?
- Never this. Never this, Jack!
- Dang it, sister.
I want you fighting 'em again;
that's what I wish.
- I want to watch when you're
knocking them down for this.
- How 'bout rooster fightin'?
- Listen to me.
- Yeah. I oughta look into that.
You'd go home. You'd be with your frien...
We could live then!
Damn you!
- Little frame house. Tree in the front?
- Anything.
- Nice, quiet street?
- Anywhere. A place. A kitchen.
Put the cat out?
Tuck in the kids?
God, you're hateful.
Get away from me.
I'm gonna teach you what the livin' like,
baby. I'll put you straight on it.
I went to the fair once, and
there was this old pug, see...
who'd give anybody two bucks
to stand up a round with him.
Professional setup.
Regulation ring and all.
'Cept there was rope
just on three sides.
That's right.
The back side was the tent.
So I watches a couple
get laid out in there real quick, see...
but he don't look all that red-hot to me,
so I climbs in with him.
And I'm doin' all right
for a youngster, when all at once...
he bulls me up
against the tent side of that ring...
and... slam, wham.
Somebody behind there
conks me right through the canvas...
and they must've
used a two-by-four.
And every time I stand up, he pushed me back
again, and... whomp... another one!
- Jack.
- Now, that's the way the livin'
go the way I know it, baby.
- Sometimes.
- Uh-uh. All the way, now.
That's the way it is and what I'm gettin',
and I'm gonna get it the same sayin' yes or no.
See, it don't matter what I do.
Been there, you understand?
And I don't want you watchin'...
or helpin', askin'.
I ain't into your shit
about livin'...
or anything from you
but out, and I mean out!
- What?
- How goddamn plain I gotta make it to ya?
Oh, Jack. If you
want other girls, I'm...
Hey. Get your stuff ready.
The train is out 10:00.
- No, I won't. No.
- Tick'd come. He'd give you a hand.
- Jack, you stop this.
- You'd better start movin'.
- I wanna apologize for
acting yellow up to now.
- You have to stop it, Jack.
- All I got to do is to be black and die, lady.
- I want to stay, even if you...
- You can stay with your own.
- What are you doing?
- Now, come on. Quit that. Quit it! Quit it!
- I won't go, Jack.
- Now, start movin'.
- Just wait.
- Don't cross me, now.
- I thought we'd save some...
- I said move!
- Please. I only meant that with time...
- I'm through with it now.
No more lousy grub you gotta puke up.
No more you lookin' like a washed-out rag.
- Your eye twitchin'.
- Don't. I don't care. I'll
take better care of myself.
- Hangin' on me. Dead weight.
- I'll find a job, that's what I'll do.
- I told you when my mama died.
I said to leave me be for a...
- I can't run, not by myself.
You got your own people.
No! You're a young woman!
- I'll never meet no one else.
- You're gonna find one.
- Tough titty!
- Wait!
- Move, goddamn it.!
- Why can't you wait and give me
one chance to make you happy?
Only one! I swear,
I've never had one!
- It's too big an order all around, huh?
- I won't go, Jack!
You wanna drag it out, huh? I'm gonna
wise you up real good now, you bitch!
You can't
make me go, so...
Why do you think I ain't
put a hand to you for how long?
Why do you think it turned me off
just lookin' at you? No. Stay still for it.
You know why,
honey bunch?
'Cause every time you pushed
that pinched-up face in front
of me, I see where it done got me.
And that's what I'm lookin'at... the why,
the wherefore and the number-one who...
right-down-the-line girl...
and I mean you!
And I don't wanna
give you nothing, understand?
- I'd cut it off first.
- God, I despise you.
Right! Like
all the rest of you!
- I'd like to smash you, Jack.
- Yeah.!
Me and every other dumb nigger
who lets you. So you go home,
hustle up one who don't know it.
There's plenty for ya.
Just score 'em up!
You win, Daddy.
- Good evening, Jefferson.
- Campen.
- Who are you, mister?
- It's not "mister. " I'm el jefe in this place.
- Government. Comprende?
- Yeah.
We're making it easier, Jefferson.
The match can be held in Havana.
You fight the way you're told, turn yourself
in, you'll get a suspended sentence.
Or else what?
Well, apart from your original conviction,
which carries up to three years...
there have been
numerous other violations:
Jumping bail, tax irregularities,
falsifying passports.
They throw the book
on you, hombre.
Maybe you can tell me how,
mister...
because their "book"
is up there, and I'm down here.
We can't leave that out,
can we, man, 'cause this is your country.
It is legal, once we learn where a wanted man
is, to request cooperation of that government.
Perdn. Campen,
we have need of them.
We don't like,
but we need.
- Yeah.
- Look.
You go fight in Havana.
It's better for you.
You go to jail,
you come out a very old man.
Well, I'm pretty far along
as it is, man.
I'm just sittin' here
gettin' older every minute...
and I'm goin'
right out the door.
No, compadre.
Use it if you've got to, man.
Even if I let you,
where now you go?
- That's all up to me, man.
- I will shoot you if you do this.
- And I'll kill you first, man.
- Hijo.
Every place catch on you, I swear.
They all give you to the gringos.
Hombre. Hombre.
You... Give me a break,
for God's sake.
- Maybe you'd be doin' me a favor.
- One more step and I'll shoot.
Jefferson, for...
Threw herself down the well.
- What?
- Busted her neck.
Honey?
Oh, baby.
Please.
What I done.
What they done to us.
You set that goddamn f... fight up.
Set it up.
I'll take it now.
Lay down already, will ya?
You won't have a head left.
You hear me?
This round, you understand?
You'll go down
and stay there, you hear me?
Makes you feel kind of old, doesn't it?
Seein' Brady refereeing.
Well, who the hell cares?
He's the man who
lost that belt, Pop...
and this whole rotten world's
gonna watch him at the finish now...
lifting it right up high
and passing it on...
like the Kid'll pass it on,
and the next one'll pass it on.
This time, we keep it
in the family.
One!
Two.!
Three.!
Four.!
Five.!
Six!
Seven.! Eight.!
Nine!
Jackie!
Clench him!
- Jack!
- One! Two! Three!
Four.! Five.! Six.!
Seven!
Clench him, dumb ox!
One.! Two.! Three.!
Four.! Five.!
- Jack.!
- Seven.!
Eight! Nine!
Baby, what you doin'?
I'm beggin' ya... like
you're my son, I'm beggin' ya.
They'll kill you, Jack.
Keep your hands up.
Here. You gotta stay off those ropes.
You think you're tired? He's dead tired.
- Dan!
- Oh, shut up, Pop.
One! Two! Three! Four!
Five! Six! Seven!
One! Two! Three!
Four! Five!
Six!
: Ole.!
Ole.!
One! Two! Three!
Four! Five! Six!
Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten!
- Just one word, Jack.
- Not now, Smitty!
Jack. Jack, in the 11 th round, were you...
Why do you think it happened, Jack?
Why did it?
- He beat me. That's all.
I just didn't have it.
- Ain't that right, boy?
- Jack, just blow it off.
- Nice and slow.
- But why, Jack? Really?
Oh, man.
I ain't got them "reallys"
from the year one...
and if any of y'all got 'em,
I'd sure like to hear 'em.
No? You new here
like I is, huh?
Come on, children.
Let 'em pass by.