The Music of Chance (1993) Movie Script
- You need any help?
Can I give you a ride?
You okay?
I'm going to New York,
is that all right for you?
Seat belt's on your right.
- Not one dime.
They didn't leave us with
a single fucking dime.
Six of us in the room.
The other five, your basic chumps,
you know, weekend chipsters.
Give me steady dose of guys like that,
I could retire before I'm 30.
They're the best,
solid Republicans with
their Wall Street jokes,
goddamn dry martinis.
True blue American assholes.
I got there with a little more
than five grand in my pocket,
by four o'clock, I'm almost up to nine.
I getting ready to roll.
I figure I'll go for one more big win,
walk out with 12, 14,000,
call it a night's work.
Then outta nowhere, door flies open,
in bursts these four huge motherfuckers.
"Don't move. "Don't move or you're dead."
They shout.
Pointing goddamn shotguns in our faces.
It's 40, $50,000 worth of
legal tenders sunning itself
on the table, I'm spread out
the floor, can't see a thing.
Can hear him stuffing
money into bags, you know,
going around the table, sweeping it off,
making quick work of it.
I'm digging my face in
the goddamn shag carpet,
praying like a son of a bitch,
the robbers are gonna split
before I open my eyes again.
My prayers are answered,
we hear the car drive away.
We all stand up and start breathing again.
As it turns out, the real
fun hasn't even started yet.
George Whitney, the guy who owns a house,
one of these hot air balloons,
walks around in green plaid
pants, white cashmere sweaters,
starts poking me in the
chest with his fat finger,
pushing me back in the corner of the room,
"You set us up you slime ball,
"you're gonna pay for it, Pozzi.
"We're not gonna let you
and your hoodlum friends,
"get away with a thing like that."
You know, he's a big one,
this George, 6'2 ", 6'3".
You know, hands off, then I say something,
hands off, get your hands
off me and step back.
But the bastard's going
crazy, he won't stop.
And the others joined in.
For a moment there, I thought
they were gonna kill me,
it was awful, man.
A real Punch and Judy show, a bloodbath
in living color.
After a while, they
started to run outta steam,
I tore ass outta there
and headed for the woods.
If you hadn't picked me up,
I'd probably still be running now.
- And did you set them up?
- What do you take me for?
I'm a professional card player.
Nearly $10,000.
I was just getting warmed up.
I had big plans for the little bundle.
Now I'm wiped out, I'll have
to start all over again.
- That's too bad.
- Tell me about it.
Day after tomorrow, I was supposed to be
in one of the biggest games of my life.
There isn't a fucking chance in hell,
I can raise the kinda money I need by then.
- How much do you need for this game?
- Nothing under 10,000,
that's rock bottom,
I couldn't walk in with
a penny less than that.
- How much were you expecting to win?
- 30, 40,000, maybe even 50.
- You sound awfully sure of yourself.
- I am.
I don't get into a game
when I don't know who I'm playing with.
I checked these two guys out,
met 'em last month in Atlantic City.
There's a game I sometimes
go to down there
and they sat in for a while.
I never saw such a stupid
bet in my entire life,
it was like playing with Laurel and Hardy.
One's fat and the other's thin.
Dropped five grand each in 20 minutes.
After the game, the
fat one comes up to me,
Flower's his name,
invites me to play a friendly game
with him and his friend, Stone,
in their place in Pennsylvania sometime.
So last week I called up,
arranged for a game Monday night.
Chance of a lifetime down the tubes.
No, I'll use the subway,
I'll get off here.
- Do you have any money?
- No.
- Where you going?
- Don't worry about me, all right,
I can take care of myself.
I've been in a worse place
than this before.
- I got a proposition for you.
- Yeah.
- Look, I'm checking into a hotel here.
Why don't you come and get
cleaned up, we'll talk?
- You aren't a fruit, are you?
Check this out?
Jesus.
Look, the little dude's
no bigger than I am,
look at the way he handles these fuckers.
If I knew how to do that stuff,
last night never would've happened.
- How you feeling?
- I'll live.
- You need $10,000 to play cards.
What if I knew someone who'd be willing
to put up the money for you?
- I'd pay him back as soon as the game
was over, with interest.
- Well, this person isn't a money lender.
Probably be thinking
more all along the lines
of a business partnership.
- What are you, some kind
of venture capitalist?
- What he wants to know is,
what kind of offer you'd
be willing to make.
Talking about percentages.
- Shit, I don't know.
Yeah, I'd pay back 10 grand
and yeah and give him a
fair share of the profits.
You know, a fifth, mmm...
20, 25%, you know, something like that.
- That sounds a bit stingy to me.
I'm talking about an even split,
50% for you, 50% for him,
minus the 10,000, of course.
How's that strike you?
Think it's fair?
- Yeah, I could live with that.
But, wait, so where is this
other guy supposed to be,
the one with the 10,000?
- He's around, won't be hard to find him.
- Yeah, that's what I figured.
And if he just happens to be
sitting next to me right now,
what I'd like to know is
why does he wanna get
involved in a thing like this?
I mean, he doesn't know me
from a hole in the wall.
- No reason, he just feels like it.
- No, no, come on, come on.
There's gotta be a reason.
I don't go for it unless I know.
- Well, he needs the money.
- I don't buy that.
He's already got 10,000.
- He needs more money.
That's the truth.
This is crazy.
Pick up on a road, you look half dead,
you tell me this wild story,
why the hell should I
believe a word of it?
Take a look at yourself.
- All right, all right, all right,
so I don't look too sharp right now,
but every word I told
you is a goddamn gospel.
Okay, no, no, all right,
so your friend needs cash.
I guess, you know, I can buy that.
That's what you might call a
desperate situation, right?
- Right.
He's not stupid either, Jack,
he doesn't throw his
money away on con artists.
You might be a hell of a card player,
you also might be a bullshitter.
I gotta see what you
can do with my own eyes.
- Hey, no problem, partner,
I'll show you my stuff.
You'll be so impressed,
your mouth will drop open.
I'll make your eyes fall
outta your fucking head.
- Okay, Mr. Pozzi, so you can shuffle.
Now, let's see you play cards.
Not bad kid, you beat the pants off me.
- I told you I don't fuck around,
when it comes to the poker.
Nine times outta 10, I'm
gonna come out on top.
It's like a law of nature.
- Well, let's just hope tomorrow's
one of those nine times.
- Don't worry about it, I'm
gonna kill those suckers.
I guarantee it, they're not
half as good as you are.
And you saw what I just did to you.
- You do anything besides play poker?
- No, that's it, I just play poker.
- No job?
Nothing to back you up
if you hit a dry spell?
- I worked in a department store once.
The summer I got outta high school,
they put me in the men's shoe department.
Let me tell you, it was the pits,
the absolute worst.
Getting down your hands and
knees like some kind of a dog,
having to breath in all
those dirty sock smells,
it used to make me wanna puke.
Quit after three weeks,
I haven't had a regular job since.
What about you, you work for a living?
- Not anymore, I quit about a year ago.
What'd you do?
- Put out fires.
- A troubleshooter, huh?
So that's where you got your money.
It's top level management.
- No, I'm talking about real fires.
The old hook and ladder routine,
axes, burning buildings,
people jumping outta windows.
I was with the Boston Fire Department
for close to seven years.
- So why'd you quit?
What you win the Irish
Sweepstakes or something?
- Something like that.
- Bill Flower, Willy Stone,
good to see you, gentlemen.
Bill Flower, Willy Stone,
good to see you, gentlemen.
Jesus, I look like a fag in these clothes.
I can't believe you bought this get up.
- So Mr. Fireman, what are
you gonna do with yourself
after we strike it rich?
- I haven't decided yet.
First thing tomorrow,
I'll probably go see my daughter,
spend a few days with her,
and I'll sit down and make some plans.
- You're a daddy, huh?
I didn't figure you for
one of those family guys.
- I have this little girl in Minnesota.
She'll be turning four
in a couple of months.
- No wife in the picture?
- No, girl lives with my sister
and brother-in-law in Minnesota.
- So where's the wife,
what, she croak on you or something?
- Not exact, she's probably
still alive somewhere.
- What, you mean she walked out on you
and didn't think the kid,
what kind of a bimbo would
do a thing like that?
I tell you this, if it was my wife,
I would've dragged it back and
pounded some sense into her.
- What do you know,
Laurel and Hardy exist.
- It's locked.
Here we go.
- What can I do for you boys?
- We're here to see Mr. Flower.
- You're the two from New York?
- You got it.
Straight from the Carlyle Hotel.
What about the car then?
- What about it?
- I was wondering, you're from New York
and the licence plates
on the car say Minnesota,
the land of 10,000 lakes.
It seems to me like that's
in the opposite direction.
- You got a problem, chief,
what the fuck difference does it make
where the car comes from?
- You don't have to get a huffy fella,
I'm just doing my job.
We can't have no uninvited guests
sneaking through the gates.
- We got an invitation.
We're here to play cards.
If you don't believe me, go ask your boss.
Flower or Stone, doesn't matter which,
both personal friends of mine.
- His name is Jack Pozzi,
you must've been told
he was expected.
- Jack Pozzi.
What about you, fella?
- I'm Jim.
- It's my brother, all right.
I called to say he was coming.
- I don't let nobody in
without a name, that's a rule.
Should have told me straight off.
- You didn't ask.
- Yeah.
Well maybe I forgot.
- Fuck them, them rats.
Yes.
Your guests are here.
- Hi there, Bill.
- Gentlemen, delighted you could make it.
- Good to see you again.
This is my big brother, Jim.
- Jim Nashe is it?
- That's right,
Jack and I are half brothers,
we have the same mother.
- Now, I don't know
who's responsible for it,
but he's one hell of
a little poker player.
- I got him started
when he was just a kid.
- Jim was my mentor,
taught me everything I know.
Beats the living daylights outta me now.
I don't even dare sit down
at the same table with him anymore.
- Mr. Nashe.
Hello.
Willie Stone.
Nice to see you again, Jack.
- Willie.
- Awfully glad you could make it.
- Oh.
Oh.
Willie and I always loved cards.
Back in Philadelphia it
was a ritual with us,
we played poker every Friday night.
By God, how we used to love
our weekends back then.
Let me tell ya,
there's no better medicine
than a friendly card game
for sloughing off
the casual worker day world.
- It's very relaxing.
It takes your mind off things.
- Precisely.
You know, for many years,
Willie and I had offices
in the same building on Chestnut Street.
He was an optometrist, you know,
and I was an accountant.
And every Friday we'd close
up shop promptly at five.
First, we'd swing around
to the corner newsstand
and buy a lottery ticket.
Then would go across the
street to Steinberg's Deli
and I would always order the
same thing, pastrami on rye.
And Willie always had the corn beef.
We did that for many years,
didn't we Willie?
Nine or 10, I'd say.
- At least nine or 10.
Maybe 11 or 12.
- Maybe 11 or 12.
Willie's wife died and my wife left me.
- Then you struck it rich?
- Just like that.
A bolt from the blue.
- That was almost seven years ago,
October 4th, to be precise.
No one had hit the winning
number for several weeks
and the jackpot had grown
to an all time high.
Over $20 million, if you can believe it.
Truly astonishing sum.
For some reason Willie
and I actually discussed
the numbers we were gonna pick that day.
You see, I've dealt
with numbers on my life.
And after a while, you begin to feel that
each number has a personality of its own.
You see numbers have souls
and you can't help but
get involved with them
in a personal way.
- So there we were holding the
lottery ticket in our hands,
trying to decide which numbers to bet on.
- And I looked at Willie
and I said, primes.
And Willie looked back at me
and he said,
- Of course.
- Because that was precisely
what he was going to say
to me, prime numbers.
It was all so neat and elegant.
Numbers that refuse to cooperate,
that don't change or divide,
numbers that remain the
same for all eternity.
- Three, seven, 11, 13, 19, 23, 31.
- Ah, it was the magic combination,
the key to the gates of heaven.
- But it shocked us just the same.
For the first week or two,
we didn't know what to think.
- It was chaos.
Television, newspapers, magazines,
everyone wanted to talk to us.
- And take our picture.
- Well, took a while for that to die down.
No sooner, did we become rich
then we started to become very rich.
And once we were very rich,
we became fabulously rich.
I know my way around
investments, after all,
I'd handled other people's
money for so many years.
- Bill has the Midas touch.
- No matter what we do,
it seems to turn out right.
Now, so much pours in,
we give half of it to charity
and still there's more than
we know what to do with.
It's as if God had singled
us out from other men.
- Maybe so, but you didn't do so hot
when you played me at poker.
- That's true, that's very true.
In these past seven years,
it's the one time our luck has failed us.
- That's why we're so
keen on this rematch.
- What makes you think anything's
gonna be different this time?
- We took lessons.
- Lessons?
- From a man named Sid Zeno,
have you ever heard of him?
- Don't worry about it?
Yeah, he's an old guy, lives in Vegas,
way back when, used to be one of the top,
half dozen players in the game.
- Well, he still has an
excellent reputation.
So we had him flown out here from Nevada.
I think you'll find our performance
much improved this time, Jack.
- I hope so.
Be a shame to waste all
that money on lessons
and not get anything out of it.
- At one point, I asked him
if he had ever heard of you
and, uh, he confessed...
he didn't know your name.
- Well, Sid's a little
outta touch these days.
We indulge in
other hobbies besides poker.
We travel, of course.
I collect antiquities and Willie
spends much of his time in here.
It's called
the City of the World.
It's only about half finished,
but I guess you can get some idea
what it's supposed to look like.
And you have
to admit, it's amazing.
A stupendous achievement.
- I like working on it.
It's the way I'd like the world to look.
Everything in it happens at once.
- If you look carefully, come, come,
you'll see that many of the figures
actually represent Willie himself.
Here in the playground,
you see him as a child.
And here you see him grinding lenses
in his shop as a grown man.
And there on the corner of the street,
you see the two of us
buying the lottery ticket.
And over here, here...
his wife and parents are
buried in the cemetery here,
yet there they are again,
hovering as angels over that house.
All these things are
put in a larger context.
This is merely an illustration,
an example of one man's journey
through the City of the World.
If you look at the prison,
you'll see that, over there,
you'll see that all of the prisoners
are working happily at various tasks,
and that all of them have
smiles on their faces.
That's because they're glad
they're being punished for their crimes.
And they're learning how to
recover the goodness within them
through hard work.
William Stone is a
great artist, gentlemen,
and I consider it a tremendous honour
to count myself among his friends.
- What are your plans
for this section, Willie?
- The house and the grounds,
the fields and the woods.
Over to the right I'm
planning to build a model
of this room.
I'd have to be in it, of course,
which also means I'd have to build
another City of the World.
- And then we have our new
joint project, don't we Willie?
Last year, we took a trip
to England and Ireland
and the best thing about it,
we're discovering how many
old things there are
in that part of the world.
We were in the West of Ireland.
And one day as we were motoring
around the countryside,
we came upon this 15th century castle
and I decided to buy it and
have it shipped back to the US.
A 15th century, Irish castle
destroyed by Oliver Cromwell.
A historical ruin of major significance
and Willie and I own it.
- You're not planning to
rebuild the thing are you?
- Well, we thought about it, Willie and I,
but then... we dismissed it
as being impractical.
Too many pieces are missing.
- So you have thousands of stones
sitting in a meadow and you
don't know what to do with them.
- 10,000 to be precise.
And we know exactly what
we're going do with them,
don't we Willie.
- Absolutely.
We're gonna build a wall,
a monument, really,
a monument in the shape of a wall.
- How fascinating,
I can't wait to see that.
- Well, I can already see it,
standing out there in the meadow,
it will be a memorial to itself,
gentlemen,
a symphony of resurrected stones.
And every day it will sing a dirge
for the past we carry within us.
- A whaling wall.
- Yes.
- A whaling wall.
- A wall of 10,000 stones.
- Willie, do you mind if I
finish that hamburger for you?
- Go ahead.
Would you give this to Bill for me?
There you go.
- Thanks Jack.
- Waste not, want not.
Seems like $10,000 to me,
plus or minus a couple of hundred.
We'll give you the benefit
of the doubt, Mr. Nashe.
- Won't we Willie?
- Oh yes.
- So what's it to be then, Jack,
seven card stud?
- That's fine, seven card
stud from start to finish.
- I propose that if
Jack pulls ahead early,
Willie and I be allowed
to replenish our stakes,
up to a maximum of $30,000.
- Listen, you fellas need
to go beyond 30 grand,
that's okay too.
- No, no, $30,000 will be sufficient.
If all three of us manage to stay in,
we call a stop to the game after 24 hours.
No questions asked.
- No questions asked.
Here we go.
- Aces full.
Queen's full.
Two pair.
- Straight to the five.
- Flush.
- Straight flush to the queen.
Clubs.
Three twos.
- Aces.
- Nine to the five, sorry gentlemen.
- Looks like it's time to
replenish our chips, Bill.
- Yes it does, doesn't it?
Can you get me another $10,000 worth?
- Absolutely.
And I'll take five for myself.
- 27 grand.
- Excuse me, gentlemen,
I'm going to the bathroom.
- Where the fuck have you been?
- Took a nap on the
sofa in the living room,
couldn't help it.
I was exhausted.
- You know better than to
walk out on me like that.
- You're my lucky charm asshole.
As soon as you left the goddamn
roof started to collapse.
- We've had some big hands.
Your brother went for
broke on a full house.
But Willie came through on the last card
and beat him out with four sixes.
And just a few hands later,
there was a dramatic
showdown, a duel to the death,
but in the end, my three kings prevailed
over your brother's three jacks.
You missed some excitement
here, young man,
let me tell you that.
This is poker as it
was meant to be played.
- Here's $2,300 Jack,
why don't you buy some more chips.
It's not much, but this will give you
a little more room to work with.
- That'll clean you out.
I'm still hanging in there.
Let's give it a few more hands,
see what happens.
- Don't worry, take the money now,
it'll change the mood,
and hopefully get you going again.
You just hit a lull, that's all.
Come roaring back.
- 2,300.
- This is such a sorry
hand to be winning with.
Straight to the five.
Heart,
heart, heart
heart,
heart.
Well?
- That's good.
I have always loved the ladies.
- I want a new deck.
- Oh, alrighty.
- I wanna make a proposition.
- Proposition?
What are you talking about?
- We're almost outta chips.
Well fine, go ahead
and buy some more.
- We would, but we've also run outta cash.
- Oh, then I suppose that means
the game is over.
- Well, I wanna propose something else,
something other than cash.
- Please. Mr. Nashe, no, IOUs.
I don't know you well
enough to offer credit.
- Not asking for credit,
I wanna put up my car as collateral.
- Your car?
And what kind of car is that,
the second hand Chevy?
- No, it's a good car.
Year old BMW in perfect condition.
- Well, what am I supposed to do with it?
Willie and I already have
three cars in the garage.
- Sell it then, give it away.
What difference does it make?
- And how much do you think
this car of yours is worth?
- I don't know, I paid $28,000 for it.
It's probably worth at least
half that now, maybe even 15.
- $15,000 for a used car?
I'll give you three.
- That's ridiculous.
Why don't you go outside, have a look at it
before you make an offer, huh?
- Because I'm in the middle of a hand now,
I don't wanna break my concentration.
- Give me eight, we'll call it a deal.
- No.
Five, $5,000.
It's my final offer.
- Seven.
- Five.
Take it to leave it, Mr. Nashe.
- All right, I'll take it.
5,000 for the car.
Don't worry, we'll deduct it
from our winnings in the end.
I wouldn't want you to be
stuck with something you don't want.
- We'll see about that.
In the meantime,
let's just cut out the chips
and get on with it.
Can't stand these interruptions.
They destroy all the pleasure.
- All right, Willie,
let's see what you got.
- I have these two eights.
And I have this 10.
And I have this other 10.
And I have this third eight.
- A full house.
- What can you do to answer that, Jack?
- Not a thing.
Well, old buddy looks like
we have to walk home.
- I hope you boys have comfortable shoes.
It's a good 80 or 90 miles
back to New York, you know.
- Just cool your jets, Tubby, all right.
We owe you 5,000 bucks.
We'll give you our marker,
you give us a car,
we'll pay you back within the week.
- Oh no, no, no,
that's not the deal I made with Mr. Nashe.
That car belongs to me now.
- What kind of bullshit
poker player are you?
Of course you'll take our marker,
that's the way it works.
- I said this once and I'll
say it again, no credit.
I'd be a fool to trust a pair like you.
The minute you drove away from here,
our money would be gone.
- All right, all right, we'll cut for it.
If I win you, you give us back the car,
just like that, one cut it's finished.
- No problem.
And what happens if you don't win?
- Then I owe you $10,000.
- You should be more careful, my friend.
This hasn't been your lucky night.
Why make things worse for yourself?
- 'Cause we need the car
to get outta here, asshole.
- No problem.
- Shuffle the cards Jack,
hand them to Mr. Flower.
We'll give him the first try.
- A four.
A four.
He couldn't even beat my seven.
- $10,000.
Looks like we've hit
the magic number again.
- I think we have a dilemma here.
- Yeah, it's a real dilemma.
What you might call a situation.
- These two fellas owe us money.
And if we let them leave,
they'll never pay us back.
But if we don't let them leave,
they won't have a chance
to come up with the money they owe us.
What do you think, Willie?
Something of a quandary, isn't it?
- There's always the wall.
- The wall?
- The wall.
Someone has to build it.
- Ah... the wall.
That's a brilliant idea, Willie.
By God, I think you've really
surpassed yourself this time.
- You gotta be shitting me.
If you think I'm gonna do that
you're outta your fucking minds.
- Take it easy kid, there's
no harm in listening.
Gotta work out something.
- No harm.
You don't negotiate with mad men.
Once you start to do that,
your brain gets all fucked up.
- I'm glad you brought your brother along.
At least there's one reasonable man
we can talk to.
- Shit, he's not my brother.
He's just some guy I met on Saturday.
I barely even know him.
- Well, whether you're
related to him or not.
You're lucky he's here with you.
And the fact is young man,
you're staring at a heap of trouble.
You and Nashe owe us $10,000.
If you try to walk out without paying,
well, let's just say,
the local chief of police
is a good friend of ours.
- Fuck you, fuck your friends.
- Jack...
I already said we'd listen to you.
You don't have to make threats.
- I'm not making threats.
I'm just presenting you with the facts.
Now either you show some cooperation
and we work out an amicable arrangement,
or we'll take more drastic measures.
Now Willie has come up with a solution,
a perfectly ingenious solution,
as far as I'm concerned.
I think we should get down to brass tacks.
- The specifics, hourly
wage, living quarters, food,
the practical details.
- You can live right
out there in the meadow.
There's a trailer already on the premises.
- It has a kitchen, you can cook there
and eat anything you want.
Calvin will bring the supplies.
Whatever you ask for, he'll bring.
- What are you planning to pay us?
- Five, $6 an hour.
- That's too low.
We won't even consider
it for less than 12.
- This isn't brain surgery Mr. Nashe.
- Still, we're not gonna
do it for $6 an hour.
If you can't do better than that, you might
as well call your friend in the police.
- Stubborn, aren't you?
And what if I went up to 10,
what would you say to that?
- Let's figure it out then we'll see.
- If you put in an average
of 10 hours of work,
you'll be making $200 a day.
That means it'll take you
approximately 50 days,
not so long.
- I have to talk to you in private.
- Excuse me.
- Come on, let's go, time to leave.
- We can't leave, we owe them money.
I'm not in the mood to
get hauled off to jail.
- They're bluffing.
Come on, there's no way they
get the cops involved in this.
- You're wrong, Jack.
Guys with money like that
can do anything they want.
The police are in Flowers' pocket
and we'd be picked up before
we're half a mile from here.
Look, it's less than two months.
No big deal.
We might have even have some fun.
- Fun?
You call lifting 10,000 stones, fun?
- Can't kill us, not 50 days of it.
- I'm telling you, it's a mistake
to trust these sons of bitches.
- Maybe you're right.
Maybe you should go now.
I'm the one that got us into this mess.
- You'd stay here and do it alone.
- Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
- You're crazy, aren't you?
- Look, I've lost everything,
my car, all my money.
Staying here, working off the debt,
that doesn't seem like such a bad option.
You can walk out now,
I won't hold it against you,
that's a promise.
- All right.
Shit.
You really think I'd leave you alone,
old man?
If you did that work yourself,
you'd probably drop
dead of a heart attack.
- I took your stuff outta the car
and put it in the back there,
the bag and all those tapes.
Figured you might as
well have it with you.
They said you're gonna
be here for a while.
- What about the car?
- I took it over to my place.
If you want, we can sign the
registration papers tomorrow.
- No rush.
- You mean they gave the car to you?
- Who else?
They didn't want it.
Seems like a good one to me,
handles real nice.
- Sure, just bring the
papers around to me tomorrow.
Can you add a portable radio
tape player to the list?
- Can do.
- Deck of cards, today's paper, a calendar
and this month's Penthouse.
- I'll put it on the list.
- I wonder if I can make a phone call.
- There's no phone in here,
you can see that for yourself.
- Maybe you could take me
back to the house then?
- What do you wanna make a phone call for?
- Well, I doubt that's any
of your business, Calvin.
- No, I don't suppose it is.
I just can't take you up to the house
without knowing what for.
- I wanna call my sister, she's
expecting me in a few days.
I don't want her to worry
when I don't show up.
- Sorry, I'm not allowed
to take you there.
They gave me special instructions.
- How about a telegram?
If I wrote down the message,
you could call it in yourself.
- No, I can't do that.
The bosses wouldn't like it.
Send a post card, if you want.
Be happy to mail it for you.
- Make it a letter, you
can buy me some paper
and envelopes in town.
- Okay, paper and envelopes, got it.
- If I send it tomorrow,
I suppose it'll reach her in time.
You think he'll mail it.
- I have no idea.
If I had to bet on it,
I'd say there's a good chance,
but it's hard to be sure.
Look at this, our two little friends.
- Where the hell'd they come from?
- Where do you think?
- You didn't steal 'em, did you?
- Of course I did.
How else you think they
wound up in my pocket?
- You're nuts.
- Didn't seem right to walk off
without taking a souvenir.
- They ain't gonna be too happy
when they find out about that.
- Too bad for them.
- Yeah?
Too bad for them.
You can't just plop down stones
and hope for the best.
You've gotta do things right.
- Yeah, we're not building
the fucking Taj Mahal here, are we?
- No, nothing fancy.
Still, there are your basic preparations.
- What? The walls a wall.
- There ain't gonna be no
construction in this meadow
until you drawn your line,
dug out a proper trench
and made it nice and flat.
It's all right here in the plans.
I'll get you boys started, get some twine.
- What's that?
- There's a road ahead.
- Jesus Christ.
I told you before, it was a
mistake to trust these guys.
Why didn't I take off when I could?
- Take it easy, Jack.
Jack, calm down.
Guys like Flower and Stone
don't want people
sneaking onto their property.
That's why they built this fence.
- You're wrong.
It's to keep people from leaving.
- Come on.
Don't get so worked up.
Let's go back.
- You're right.
Let's get back before they
turn the dogs loose on us.
Morning, boys.
- Morning.
- Here's your supplies.
- I don't remember asking for shovels.
You ask for shovels, Jim?
- Might not have asked for 'em son,
but you sure enough got yourself a couple.
- Where are your wheels today, Cal?
- Huh?
- Your Jeep?
- I won't be bringing that here no more.
What are you afraid we're gonna
steal it from you and escape.
- You can come to your own
conclusions about that.
Digging time.
Oh shit,
found another fucking rock.
- It's a big one too.
- Hey, old timer, be a sport will you
and bring a couple of those
crowbars over and a pick too.
- That won't be possible, son.
- Won't be possible?
- You see I'm being paid
to supervise you two,
and you're being paid
to do the physical work,
that's the way the bosses wanted it.
- Well the bosses
probably said to themselves,
"Hey Willie, you know,
we better make certain
"that old potato head stays away
"from the picks and the crowbars."
"I couldn't agree with you more, Bill.
"I mean imagine if that clown, Calvin
"trips on a crowbar and
pales himself on a pick."
All right, hold on.
I got it.
Quitting time, 6:00 p.m.
Gather up your tools
and take 'em over to the shed.
See you in the morning, boys.
- If we get a lost in the woods, Calvin,
what would we do without you.
Asshole.
I spit on that son of a bitch,
pumpkin face,
pork belly rodent.
- He's not my idea of a good time either.
Just don't carry it too far, Jack.
No mail today.
- Lunch is over boys, let's go.
- Where in the hell are Flower and Stone.
- Hiding in their house,
Probably locked in the attic,
marking up brand new decks of cards
to cheat some other guy.
- Still, I'd have thought they'd be
poking around the meadow every day,
wanna see how the work was coming along.
- Monument in the shape of a wall.
- Murks is probably keeping
them up to date, huh?
- Isn't that right, Calvin.
- What's that, son?
- Forget about it.
- Oh, nearly forgot.
This came for you today.
- It's from my sister.
- You can take a break
and read it, if you'd like.
Where are you going?
- You said take a break.
- Not to you, I didn't.
You get back to work.
- Pal, why are you always trying--
- Come on, cut it out,
we both go back to work then.
- Just read your letter, all right.
I'm glad somebody knows we're here.
- Important thing is that
Murks kept his promise.
- So how are things in Michigan?
- Minnesota.
Everybody's fine.
My sister says Juliet misses me.
I miss her.
I hope I'll be back in
time for Juliet's birthday.
- You gotta show up for the kid's party.
- Well, the birthday's in early June,
we won't be outta here by then.
- I won again.
You don't fuck around
when it comes to Solitaire.
- I don't fuck around
when it comes to poker.
But I don't cheat, neither.
- Don't brood on it, Jack.
We do our time, we're outta here.
Don't brood on it.
That's easy for you to say,
I'm the one who lost.
It's my professional
reputation that's at stake.
- My money that's gone.
Guess there's no such thing
as a sure thing.
- You car too.
- The car.
You know, losing that felt almost worse
than losing the money.
- And to Calvin Murks,
king of the numbskulls.
It was new wasn't it?
- Year old, I bought it
brand new last April.
- How come it had 97,000
miles on the odometer?
- I did a lot of driving.
- You'd have to be driving full-time
to clock up that kinda
mileage on a new car.
- I was.
After I quit the Fire Department,
I had this idea that I drift for a while,
travel around from place to
place, see what happened.
Figured I'd grow tired of it
after a bit, but I didn't,
and I just kept driving.
- What about your kid?
- Sent her postcards.
- Must've been pretty expensive,
what with all the gas bills, hotels,
restaurants,
incidentals.
- It was.
I had $200,000 my father left me.
It's all gone?
- All gone.
- Was your old man a
millionaire or something?
- No.
Last time I saw him, I was two years old.
Since then, nothing.
We had no contact at all.
Not one letter, not one phone call.
- I guess he was trying
to make it up to you.
- Here.
- What's that?
- A wagon.
- I know what it is, what's it for?
- I brought my daughter one of
those on her third birthday.
- Well it ain't no birthday present.
From now on, you boys
will be hauling the stones
over to the trench with this here wagon.
- You're not serious, are you?
- I'm serious.
From now on, you'll be using
the wagon in the morning,
in the afternoon, you'll be
cementing the stones in place.
That's the plan.
- So Calvin, where are the bosses?
Where are Flower and Stone?
When are they coming to visit us?
- They're busy.
- Doesn't make any sense.
You'd think they'd wanna come by
and take a look at their investment.
- This means they're guilty.
Fuckers know I'm on to them
and they're too scared
to show their faces.
Oh Jesus.
I'm on to these sons of bitches.
I'm gonna fix those shit birds,
I'm gonna make that gumbo confess.
- Jack, where you going?
Come back.
Jack.
Jack, hey.
- Shit.
- Looks like they're out for the night.
- Oh they're in there, man.
They're just two chicken to answer.
- I think it's time to give up.
If you want to, we'll come back tomorrow.
Come on.
- Hey Flower, that's right
I'm talking to you, fat man.
You're a creep, mister, you know that?
You and your little
friend are both creeps.
You're gonna pay for what you did to me.
- Come on Jack,
let's head back to the trailer,
we'll get some sleep, huh?
Let's call it a night,
think we've had enough.
Come on, come on.
- Assholes.
All this fucking run by... asshole.
Come on, Jack.
- Jim, I can't stand it any longer.
- Only 30 more days.
One little month to go.
- I gotta get laid.
- Penthouse magazine of yours,
not doing the trick?
- I don't know about you,
but I'm used to getting laid a lot.
- No doubt.
- You get laid a lot on the road?
- No.
- Come on, a handsome
stud fireman like you
could certainly get a little action going.
No girlfriends back in the
Boston Fire Department?
It's coed now, isn't it?
Broads in badges, helmets...
big boots.
- No.
No fire women girlfriends.
There was someone I saw
a lot of for a while,
I asked her to marry me.
And?
- That was it, she said, no.
- Tell you the truth,
I don't see a Mrs. Jack Pozzi
in my life real soon.
- Probably worked out for the best.
I was on the road,
on the move a lot of the time.
- Little lady wasn't
worth settling down for.
What exactly were you doing on the road?
- Driving, just driving.
Every night, I'd tell
myself that I'd had enough
and that I'd pack it in and settle down.
Every morning I'd wake up,
crawl back into the car and drive.
And I thought, why not.
Why not just keep driving?
There's no reason to stop.
- You had the money, why not?
- I was on the road for 13 months in all,
I covered just about the
whole of the United States.
It wasn't the places I went
to that were important,
it was the driving.
Feeling you get when you're going fast,
long and empty highway and
everything is flashing past.
You know, nothing lasts
for more than a moment,
nothing to hold you back
or weigh you down.
When I was driving, nothing
could hurt me anymore.
- Then you met me.
- And then I met you.
- Fuck.
- One more storm like this,
and the whole damn wall
will blow away.
- Serve 'em right.
- It's not level there, young man.
Go back and do that again.
- It's level enough.
- No it ain't. Make sure you
pull those weeds out too.
- Listen, big mouth, if you're
such an expert at all this,
then why the fuck don't you
come and do it yourself?
- 'Cause it's not my job.
You boys supposed to do the work,
I'm just here to see you don't screw up.
Yeah? What makes you so high
and mighty Mr. Bumpkin?
How come you get to stand there
with your goddamn hands in your pockets
while we're busting our
dicks in this dung heap, huh?
Come on out with it,
gimme one good reason.
- Well, that's easy, 'cause you
play cards and I don't.
Fuck.
- It don't matter.
Little squirt can't handle
the pressure, that's all.
You don't let it happen again.
Next time I might not be so nice about it.
- Asshole.
All right, I'll leave.
- As I remember, you were
the one playing cards.
The only thing I did
was sit there and watch.
- But you were part of it.
You were breathing life into me, pal.
And every time I felt your breath,
good luck came poring into my bones.
- You didn't expect me to
piss in my pants, did you?
- Sure, fine, go to the bathroom,
I don't have a problem with that.
But how long does it take,
three minutes, five minutes?
Sure, go take a leak.
But Christ, Jimmy, you were
gone for a whole fucking hour.
- I was worn out, I had
a lie down, take a nap.
- But you didn't take a nap, did you?
I mean, you went upstairs
and started prowling around
that dumb ass City of the World.
I mean, why'd you do a crazy like that?
I mean, I'm sitting downstairs,
waiting for you to come back
and little by little I start
to lose my concentration.
And then when things get really bad,
it pops into your head to
steal a chunk of the model.
I mean, I can't believe
what a mistake that was.
It's like committing a sin
to do a thing like that.
It's like violating a
fundamental law, all right.
We had everything in harmony,
we'd come him to the
point where everything
was turning into music for us,
and you have to go upstairs
and smash all the instruments.
You tampered with the universe, my friend.
And once a man does that,
he's gotta pay the price.
I'm just sorry I gotta pay it with you.
- You're starting to
sound like Flower, Jack.
The guy wins the lottery, all of a sudden
he thinks he was chosen by God.
- God has nothing to do with it.
- I don't care what you call it,
God or luck or harmony,
all comes down to the same bullshit.
It's a way of avoiding the facts
or refusing to look at
how things really work.
- You think you're smart, Nashe,
you don't know what goddamn thing.
- That's right, I don't.
Neither do you, Jack.
We're just pair of know nothings,
a couple of dunces,
got in over our heads.
Now we're trying to square the account.
If we don't mess up, we'll
be outta here, 27 days.
- You shouldn't have done it Jim.
Once you swiped those little men,
things went outta whack.
- Take a good look, tell me what you see.
- Christ, you know,
- what do you wanna be playing games for?
- Just look.
Just look. Come on Jack,
you tell me what I'm holding in my hand?
- Flower and Stone.
- Flower and Stone?
I thought Flower and Stone
were bigger than this.
These two guys aren't more than
an inch and a half tall.
- All right, it's not Flower and Stone,
it's what you call a replica.
- You believe this little scrap wood
is stronger than we are, don't you?
You think it's so strong.
- No, no.
- Yes you do,
you think it's so strong,
in fact, it made us lose all our money.
- No, that's not what I said, all right.
I just meant you shouldn't have swiped it.
Some other time, maybe,
but not when we're playing poker.
- Here it is, every time you look at it,
you get a little scared, don't you, huh?
It's like they cast an
evil spell over you.
Remedy for everything kid.
A few minutes, all your
troubles will be over.
See.
There's nothing to it.
Once you know the magic formula,
no obstacle's too great.
- You're outta your mind,
I hope you're realise that.
Howdy.
Morning.
- Oh buddy, looks like you finally
put your cards on the table.
- Cards, I told you
yesterday, I don't play cards.
- Its just a figure of speech.
I'm talking about that fucking
lolly pop you got there,
that ding dong, hanging from your waist.
- Oh that, yeah.
Well I figured I shouldn't
take no more chances.
You're a crazy son of a bitch, little guy,
no telling what you might do.
- That narrows the possibilities
though, doesn't it?
I mean, a thing like that can seriously
hamper a man's ability to express himself.
Curtail his first amendment rights,
if you know what I'm talking about.
- You don't have to get cute, mister.
I know what the first amendment is.
- Of course you do,
you're a sharp customer,
no one can put anything over on you.
- Like I said yesterday,
I'm always willing to give
a man a break, but only once.
After that, you have to
take appropriate action.
- In fact, I'm kinda glad you
put on your dress-up belt today,
it gives my friend, Jim here
a better picture of things.
- That's the idea.
It does have a way of
adjusting focus, don't it?
- Well, my man, get a
load of what we just did.
Whoo!
Whoo!
- Looks like the little bugger's
feeling proud himself, don't it?
- He deserves to,
he's worked hard.
- Ah, it ain't been easy,
I'll grant you that.
But looks like this thing's
finally going up.
- Top of the world, ma!
Whoo!
Just eight more days to go.
- Though we do have a
little problem, don't we.
We'll walk out of here a couple of bums,
we won't even have the
price of a bus ticket.
- I can't write my mother
and ask her for a loan.
- Same with my sister.
Anyway, by the time we send off a letter
or receive an answer,
already be past the 17th.
There is another option.
- No way, Jim.
No way.
We're not gonna stay
unless we get it in writing.
Exact terms, everything spelled out.
- What you call a rider to the contract,
that what you mean?
- Yeah, that's it, a rider,
we don't get one of them,
we walk outta here on the 17th.
- It's all been taken care of.
- You're awfully sure of
yourself, Calvin, aren't you?
- It's just common sense.
I mean, it was only a matter of time
before you asked me about it.
Ain't no other way it could have gone.
So I figured I'd get ready for you
and have the bosses draw up the papers.
Didn't take but a minute.
- We have to have some
kinda celebration on the 17th.
- What for? We're not leaving then.
- You wanna let the day slip by
without doing something special?
I mean, for Christ
sakes, let's whoop it up,
throw a little shindig,
welcome in the new era.
- What do you have in mind?
- We'll be needing champagne,
a half dozen bottles at the least,
lobsters, caviar, party favors...
- Well, jot it down on your list,
I'll see what I can do.
- And we'll be needing a girl.
- Pardon?
- You know, a broad, a juicy babe.
Come on, man, legs, blonde
hair, things like that.
- I'm not exactly sure
I'm following you there.
- Well, it's easy enough, Calvin,
you're jotting down to Atlantic City,
there's pussy for sale on
every corner down there.
- You mean a whore?
Is that what you're trying to tell me,
you want us to get you a whore?
- Well, that's what I'm saying.
- That's a pretty unusual request, son.
It's out of my jurisdiction,
I'll have to take it up with the bosses.
- Good.
- Tiffany, you might as well know,
you're in the presence of two
very distinguished gentlemen.
- Is that a fact?
- Of course, but then
Professor Nashe and I
are distinguished by your own company.
I mean, it's been many
months, years, really
since either one of us
have had the pleasure of
dining with such a
lovely and sophisticated,
talented, intelligent and
supremely beautiful lady
such as yourself.
- Come on, be serious.
- I am dead serious.
In our line of work--
- So what exactly
is your line of work?
- Well, we're building this wall.
- I'll come to that in a moment.
In our line of work, we have occasion
to meet with many different
women, cover girls,
runway models, movie stars,
airline stewardesses,
to name but a few.
But you, sweet Tiffany are
the cream of the cream.
You make all the others seem
like yesterday's mash potatoes.
- Really?
- I assure you.
- And where did a little guy like you
learn how to talk that kinda crap?
- Comes naturally.
- I'll bet.
- Two of us are architects,
came here to Pennsylvania
a couple of weeks ago
to oversee construction on
this castle we had designed.
We're specialists in the art
of historical... reberation.
'Cause so if people can afford to hire us,
we usually, you know, wind up working
for eccentric millionaires.
Now I don't know what the
fat man, little skinny guy
told you about us, but you
can forget about it right now.
They're kidders those two
and they'll just as soon
wet their pants in public,
as give you a straight
answer about anything.
We have a crew, 36 carpenters,
masons coming to the meadow every day.
Jim and I, we live on
the construction site,
you know, 'cause we always do that.
Atmosphere means
everything to us, you know.
The job always turns out better
if we live the life that
we've been hired to create.
This particular job is
a medieval reberation.
So we've been living like monks.
- Tonight's the exception.
Our next job's taking us to Texas,
an old tycoon has hired us to build him
a replica of Buckingham
Palace in his backyard.
Last year we built the Brooklyn Bridge
for a computer magnet
in San Jose, California.
The year before, life-size Eiffel Tower
to fit over a ranch house
in the Jersey suburbs.
- You boys sure have been busy.
- Oh Tiffany, there have been times
when we felt like bagging
it and moving to a condo
in West Palm Beach.
But finding the work is too
damn interesting to stop.
And what with all the
American millionaires
that wanna live in European castles.
Whoops.
Give you a hand here.
- Hey, hey, hey.
- Oh.
- No problem.
Dessert time.
- Encore.
- Braviss.
Bravo.
- I'm retiring.
Good night my friends.
- Was I just invited here for the party.
I mean those two guys, they
shelled out plenty for this
and I came here thinking
I was gonna fuck you both.
- No, I'm just a cook,
I'm finished for the night
and I'm sure you'll have your
hands full with Jack anyway.
- Well that's fine with me.
Maybe another time.
You know, I have a friend you might like.
Why don't I leave you my number,
and you can give me a call,
and we'll both come.
You can always reach me at that number.
- Thanks.
You never know, maybe Jack and I
will come over to Atlantic City
and see you next time.
- Sure, why not.
Anyway, it was nice meeting you.
- Yeah, you too.
Well Jackie.
- Howdy.
- Hello there.
- So, have a good time last night?
- It was all right as parties go.
I didn't stay up very late,
hit the sack before midnight.
- I think the chauffeur drove
off with the girl around 5:30.
- Jack's still sleeping in there.
- Yeah, must've had a busy night.
- I don't think he was disappointed,
the whole thing worked out pretty well.
- Well, I'm afraid I got
some bad news for you.
- I know that.
Wouldn't have come out
here today unless you did.
- Well, I'm awful sorry.
It kinda confused me when
bosses told me about it,
but I guess they're within their rights.
All depends on how you
look at it, I guess.
What's this supposed to be?
- The bosses' figures,
credits and debits, balance
sheet of money spent
and money earned.
- What is this, some kind of a prank?
- I'm afraid not.
- All these things were
supposed to be included.
- Well, I thought so too,
but I guess we were wrong.
What do you mean wrong?
We all shook hands on it,
you know that as well as I do.
- Maybe so.
But if you look at the contract,
there's no mention of food,
lodging, yes, work clothes, yes,
but there's no mention anywhere of food.
- This is a dark and dirty thing, Calvin.
I hope you understand that.
- It's not for me to say.
The bosses have always been fair with me.
I never had no reason for complaining.
I'll come right down to it,
you gotta be glad they're not charging you
for rent and utilities.
- I think it's time, I went
over to the main house,
had a talk with your bosses.
- Afraid you can't do that now.
They're gone.
- Gone, what are you talking about?
- That's right, they're gone.
They left for Paris, France
about three hours ago.
They won't be back to
just before Labour Day.
- It's hard to believe they'd
just take off like that.
Without bothering look at the wall.
- Oh, they saw it all right.
See, I brought them out early this morning
when you and the kid were still asleep.
They thought it was
coming along real nice.
They said, you know, "Good
job, keep up the good work."
They couldn't have been happier.
- Shit.
Shit on them and their goddamn wall.
- No sense of getting angry Nashe.
It's only another two or three weeks.
Cut out the parties and such,
you'll be outta here before you know it.
- Three weeks from now, it will be July.
- You're a tough one, Nashe.
You can handle it.
- What about Jack?
Once he sees this paper,
it's gonna kill him.
- Well, Mr. Fireman, we come to a
parting of the ways.
- You'll be fine.
Just remember brush your
teeth after every meal,
nothing bad can happen to you.
- Yeah.
Hold this, I'll crawl through.
Come on.
Come with me.
Don't be a jerk, come on with me.
- I'll catch up with you
in a couple of months.
Better get moving.
- Yeah.
All right, so uh...
call your sister tomorrow,
tell her you're all right?
- Just beat it.
Go as fast as you can.
- I'm already outta here.
By the time you count to a hundred,
you won't even remember who I am.
- My God.
What have they done to you, Jack.
Morning boys?
- Come in.
- Morning.
What's the matter with him,
he got one on again last night?
Christ almighty, this boy's in trouble.
- Yeah, you're damn right he's in trouble.
Don't get him to a
hospital in the next hour,
he's not gonna make it.
- I'll run back to house and get the Jeep.
This here is Floyd, he's my son-in-law,
he can help us carry the kid.
We'll be back soon as we can.
- What are you talking about,
I'm coming with you.
- Sorry, I can't let you do that.
There's been too much commotion
around here for one day.
I don't want things getting out of hand.
Now don't you worry, Nashe.
Floyd and me can manage on our own.
Hey, hey.
- You're a liar.
And a goddamn son of a bitch.
Shoot me you son of a
bitch, come on, go ahead.
- He don't know what he's saying anymore.
Poor bugger's lost it.
Howdy.
Beautiful weather again, huh?
Took the kid over to Doylestown.
Sister of Mercy's hospital.
- I'm on to you, Murks.
- Pardon?
- You heard me, I'm on to you.
You're not gonna get away with this.
- I don't know what you're talking about.
You're a powerhouse today,
Nashe, that's great.
Don't overdo it,
don't wanna hurt yourself.
This is is my grandson, Floyd Jr.
Hope you don't mind if
he tags along with me?
- Nope, I don't mind.
- I'll keep my on him, make
sure he don't get in your way.
- There's something wrong with me today,
I don't feel like myself.
- Well, maybe it's that flu bug
that's been going around.
- Yeah,
that must be it.
- We'll call it a day then.
Little too moist for
little Floyd Jr. anyway,
he'll ended up catching his death.
Come on, Floyd.
Oh my gosh, I almost forgot to tell you.
- What?
- About Pozzi.
See, I called the hospital last night
to see how he was doing.
The nurse said he was gone.
- Gone?
Gone in what sense?
- Well gone, you know, as in gone bye-bye.
See, he got himself up outta bed,
put on his clothes
and walked outta the hospital.
- You don't have to
make up stories, Calvin.
Jack's dead, he died two weeks ago.
- No, sir, he ain't dead.
It didn't look good there for a while,
I'll grant you that.
But then he pulled through.
Little runt was tougher than we thought.
Now he's got himself all better.
I thought you'd like to know that.
- I only wanna know the truth.
- Well, that's the truth,
Jack Pozzi's gone,
now you don't have to
worry about him no more.
- Well let me call the hospital myself.
- I can't do that son, you know that.
No calls are allowed until you
finish paying off the debt.
But the rate you're going now,
won't be no time.
Then you can make all the calls you want.
As far as I'm concerned, you
can call to kingdom come.
- Hey!
You did it!
You're a free man now.
How'd you like to go out for
a drink with Floyd me tonight?
- What for?
- I don't know, you know, just to get out,
see what the world looks like.
You've been cooped up
here a long time, son.
You told me you wanna
work a couple more weeks
to earn your travelling money.
So, might not be a bad idea do
a little celebrating tonight,
now that the debt's at zero.
- You're forgetting, I
don't have any money.
That's all
right, drinks are on me.
- Thanks, but I think I'll pass.
I was planning on writing
a few letters tonight.
- Well, you can write them tomorrow.
- It's true, then again,
I could be dead tomorrow,
never know what's gonna happen.
- All the more reason
not to worry about it.
- Maybe some other time.
It's nice of you to offer,
I'm just not in the mood tonight.
Well, I'm just
trying to be friendly, Nashe.
- I know you are, I appreciate it.
You don't have to worry about me,
I can take care of myself.
- It's not like you're the only one
that gets set free today.
You know, I've been out here
in this field, same as you,
sweating my butt off seven days a week.
Probably worse damn job
I ever had in my life.
I got nothing personal against you, Nashe,
but it ain't been no picnic.
No sir, no picnic at all.
Maybe we oughta just sit down
and bury the hatchet.
- All right.
I'll go out for a drink with you.
Why the hell not?
- Good.
We'll go in your old car.
Eight o'clock then.
- Did granddad tell you about my new job?
- No.
- The chauffeur that brought the whore
up to your trailer last month,
said his company was
looking for new drivers.
- Boy went down there,
the next day he got the job.
- How you like wearing the uniform, Floyd?
- Well, I like it.
It's kind of nice to have
something special to wear.
It sort of makes me feel important.
And the main thing is I
love to drive, you know.
- Driving is a good thing,
I agree with you about that.
- Well, you ought know,
I mean, look at granddad's car,
now that's a beautiful machine.
- Yeah.
That was the best car I ever owned.
- One thing that puzzles me though,
how'd you put so much
mileage on that thing?
Were you a travelling
salesman or something?
- Yeah, that's it, I was
a travelling salesman.
You know, lugging my
samples around in a trunk,
living out of a suitcase.
Staying in a different city every night.
- I think I like that, it
sounds like a good job to me.
- It's not bad.
Have to like being alone,
but once you've taken care
of that, the rest is easy.
How about $10 a game?
- Sounds good.
50 bucks I owe ya.
- Keep the money Floyd,
doesn't make any difference to me.
Buy your little boy a present.
- That's awfully good of you, Jim.
Most fellas wouldn't let 50 bucks
slip through the fingers that easy.
I guess I owe you one,
anytime you need a favour,
all you got to do is ask.
- Well, now that you mention it.
Maybe there is one thing
you can do for me.
It's a very small thing, really.
- Just you name it.
- Let me drive the car back home tonight.
- Granddad's car?
- Yeah, granddad's car.
The car I used to own.
- I'm afraid that's
not for me to say, Jim.
That's up to granddad.
You'll have to ask him.
But I'll put in a word for.
Seat belt's on your right.
- You damn fool, you're driving too fast.
- Are you okay?
Do you need a ride?
- I'm okay.
I'm going to New York.
Is that all right for you?
Minnesota, I'm going to Minnesota.
Could you get me to a payphone?
Can I give you a ride?
You okay?
I'm going to New York,
is that all right for you?
Seat belt's on your right.
- Not one dime.
They didn't leave us with
a single fucking dime.
Six of us in the room.
The other five, your basic chumps,
you know, weekend chipsters.
Give me steady dose of guys like that,
I could retire before I'm 30.
They're the best,
solid Republicans with
their Wall Street jokes,
goddamn dry martinis.
True blue American assholes.
I got there with a little more
than five grand in my pocket,
by four o'clock, I'm almost up to nine.
I getting ready to roll.
I figure I'll go for one more big win,
walk out with 12, 14,000,
call it a night's work.
Then outta nowhere, door flies open,
in bursts these four huge motherfuckers.
"Don't move. "Don't move or you're dead."
They shout.
Pointing goddamn shotguns in our faces.
It's 40, $50,000 worth of
legal tenders sunning itself
on the table, I'm spread out
the floor, can't see a thing.
Can hear him stuffing
money into bags, you know,
going around the table, sweeping it off,
making quick work of it.
I'm digging my face in
the goddamn shag carpet,
praying like a son of a bitch,
the robbers are gonna split
before I open my eyes again.
My prayers are answered,
we hear the car drive away.
We all stand up and start breathing again.
As it turns out, the real
fun hasn't even started yet.
George Whitney, the guy who owns a house,
one of these hot air balloons,
walks around in green plaid
pants, white cashmere sweaters,
starts poking me in the
chest with his fat finger,
pushing me back in the corner of the room,
"You set us up you slime ball,
"you're gonna pay for it, Pozzi.
"We're not gonna let you
and your hoodlum friends,
"get away with a thing like that."
You know, he's a big one,
this George, 6'2 ", 6'3".
You know, hands off, then I say something,
hands off, get your hands
off me and step back.
But the bastard's going
crazy, he won't stop.
And the others joined in.
For a moment there, I thought
they were gonna kill me,
it was awful, man.
A real Punch and Judy show, a bloodbath
in living color.
After a while, they
started to run outta steam,
I tore ass outta there
and headed for the woods.
If you hadn't picked me up,
I'd probably still be running now.
- And did you set them up?
- What do you take me for?
I'm a professional card player.
Nearly $10,000.
I was just getting warmed up.
I had big plans for the little bundle.
Now I'm wiped out, I'll have
to start all over again.
- That's too bad.
- Tell me about it.
Day after tomorrow, I was supposed to be
in one of the biggest games of my life.
There isn't a fucking chance in hell,
I can raise the kinda money I need by then.
- How much do you need for this game?
- Nothing under 10,000,
that's rock bottom,
I couldn't walk in with
a penny less than that.
- How much were you expecting to win?
- 30, 40,000, maybe even 50.
- You sound awfully sure of yourself.
- I am.
I don't get into a game
when I don't know who I'm playing with.
I checked these two guys out,
met 'em last month in Atlantic City.
There's a game I sometimes
go to down there
and they sat in for a while.
I never saw such a stupid
bet in my entire life,
it was like playing with Laurel and Hardy.
One's fat and the other's thin.
Dropped five grand each in 20 minutes.
After the game, the
fat one comes up to me,
Flower's his name,
invites me to play a friendly game
with him and his friend, Stone,
in their place in Pennsylvania sometime.
So last week I called up,
arranged for a game Monday night.
Chance of a lifetime down the tubes.
No, I'll use the subway,
I'll get off here.
- Do you have any money?
- No.
- Where you going?
- Don't worry about me, all right,
I can take care of myself.
I've been in a worse place
than this before.
- I got a proposition for you.
- Yeah.
- Look, I'm checking into a hotel here.
Why don't you come and get
cleaned up, we'll talk?
- You aren't a fruit, are you?
Check this out?
Jesus.
Look, the little dude's
no bigger than I am,
look at the way he handles these fuckers.
If I knew how to do that stuff,
last night never would've happened.
- How you feeling?
- I'll live.
- You need $10,000 to play cards.
What if I knew someone who'd be willing
to put up the money for you?
- I'd pay him back as soon as the game
was over, with interest.
- Well, this person isn't a money lender.
Probably be thinking
more all along the lines
of a business partnership.
- What are you, some kind
of venture capitalist?
- What he wants to know is,
what kind of offer you'd
be willing to make.
Talking about percentages.
- Shit, I don't know.
Yeah, I'd pay back 10 grand
and yeah and give him a
fair share of the profits.
You know, a fifth, mmm...
20, 25%, you know, something like that.
- That sounds a bit stingy to me.
I'm talking about an even split,
50% for you, 50% for him,
minus the 10,000, of course.
How's that strike you?
Think it's fair?
- Yeah, I could live with that.
But, wait, so where is this
other guy supposed to be,
the one with the 10,000?
- He's around, won't be hard to find him.
- Yeah, that's what I figured.
And if he just happens to be
sitting next to me right now,
what I'd like to know is
why does he wanna get
involved in a thing like this?
I mean, he doesn't know me
from a hole in the wall.
- No reason, he just feels like it.
- No, no, come on, come on.
There's gotta be a reason.
I don't go for it unless I know.
- Well, he needs the money.
- I don't buy that.
He's already got 10,000.
- He needs more money.
That's the truth.
This is crazy.
Pick up on a road, you look half dead,
you tell me this wild story,
why the hell should I
believe a word of it?
Take a look at yourself.
- All right, all right, all right,
so I don't look too sharp right now,
but every word I told
you is a goddamn gospel.
Okay, no, no, all right,
so your friend needs cash.
I guess, you know, I can buy that.
That's what you might call a
desperate situation, right?
- Right.
He's not stupid either, Jack,
he doesn't throw his
money away on con artists.
You might be a hell of a card player,
you also might be a bullshitter.
I gotta see what you
can do with my own eyes.
- Hey, no problem, partner,
I'll show you my stuff.
You'll be so impressed,
your mouth will drop open.
I'll make your eyes fall
outta your fucking head.
- Okay, Mr. Pozzi, so you can shuffle.
Now, let's see you play cards.
Not bad kid, you beat the pants off me.
- I told you I don't fuck around,
when it comes to the poker.
Nine times outta 10, I'm
gonna come out on top.
It's like a law of nature.
- Well, let's just hope tomorrow's
one of those nine times.
- Don't worry about it, I'm
gonna kill those suckers.
I guarantee it, they're not
half as good as you are.
And you saw what I just did to you.
- You do anything besides play poker?
- No, that's it, I just play poker.
- No job?
Nothing to back you up
if you hit a dry spell?
- I worked in a department store once.
The summer I got outta high school,
they put me in the men's shoe department.
Let me tell you, it was the pits,
the absolute worst.
Getting down your hands and
knees like some kind of a dog,
having to breath in all
those dirty sock smells,
it used to make me wanna puke.
Quit after three weeks,
I haven't had a regular job since.
What about you, you work for a living?
- Not anymore, I quit about a year ago.
What'd you do?
- Put out fires.
- A troubleshooter, huh?
So that's where you got your money.
It's top level management.
- No, I'm talking about real fires.
The old hook and ladder routine,
axes, burning buildings,
people jumping outta windows.
I was with the Boston Fire Department
for close to seven years.
- So why'd you quit?
What you win the Irish
Sweepstakes or something?
- Something like that.
- Bill Flower, Willy Stone,
good to see you, gentlemen.
Bill Flower, Willy Stone,
good to see you, gentlemen.
Jesus, I look like a fag in these clothes.
I can't believe you bought this get up.
- So Mr. Fireman, what are
you gonna do with yourself
after we strike it rich?
- I haven't decided yet.
First thing tomorrow,
I'll probably go see my daughter,
spend a few days with her,
and I'll sit down and make some plans.
- You're a daddy, huh?
I didn't figure you for
one of those family guys.
- I have this little girl in Minnesota.
She'll be turning four
in a couple of months.
- No wife in the picture?
- No, girl lives with my sister
and brother-in-law in Minnesota.
- So where's the wife,
what, she croak on you or something?
- Not exact, she's probably
still alive somewhere.
- What, you mean she walked out on you
and didn't think the kid,
what kind of a bimbo would
do a thing like that?
I tell you this, if it was my wife,
I would've dragged it back and
pounded some sense into her.
- What do you know,
Laurel and Hardy exist.
- It's locked.
Here we go.
- What can I do for you boys?
- We're here to see Mr. Flower.
- You're the two from New York?
- You got it.
Straight from the Carlyle Hotel.
What about the car then?
- What about it?
- I was wondering, you're from New York
and the licence plates
on the car say Minnesota,
the land of 10,000 lakes.
It seems to me like that's
in the opposite direction.
- You got a problem, chief,
what the fuck difference does it make
where the car comes from?
- You don't have to get a huffy fella,
I'm just doing my job.
We can't have no uninvited guests
sneaking through the gates.
- We got an invitation.
We're here to play cards.
If you don't believe me, go ask your boss.
Flower or Stone, doesn't matter which,
both personal friends of mine.
- His name is Jack Pozzi,
you must've been told
he was expected.
- Jack Pozzi.
What about you, fella?
- I'm Jim.
- It's my brother, all right.
I called to say he was coming.
- I don't let nobody in
without a name, that's a rule.
Should have told me straight off.
- You didn't ask.
- Yeah.
Well maybe I forgot.
- Fuck them, them rats.
Yes.
Your guests are here.
- Hi there, Bill.
- Gentlemen, delighted you could make it.
- Good to see you again.
This is my big brother, Jim.
- Jim Nashe is it?
- That's right,
Jack and I are half brothers,
we have the same mother.
- Now, I don't know
who's responsible for it,
but he's one hell of
a little poker player.
- I got him started
when he was just a kid.
- Jim was my mentor,
taught me everything I know.
Beats the living daylights outta me now.
I don't even dare sit down
at the same table with him anymore.
- Mr. Nashe.
Hello.
Willie Stone.
Nice to see you again, Jack.
- Willie.
- Awfully glad you could make it.
- Oh.
Oh.
Willie and I always loved cards.
Back in Philadelphia it
was a ritual with us,
we played poker every Friday night.
By God, how we used to love
our weekends back then.
Let me tell ya,
there's no better medicine
than a friendly card game
for sloughing off
the casual worker day world.
- It's very relaxing.
It takes your mind off things.
- Precisely.
You know, for many years,
Willie and I had offices
in the same building on Chestnut Street.
He was an optometrist, you know,
and I was an accountant.
And every Friday we'd close
up shop promptly at five.
First, we'd swing around
to the corner newsstand
and buy a lottery ticket.
Then would go across the
street to Steinberg's Deli
and I would always order the
same thing, pastrami on rye.
And Willie always had the corn beef.
We did that for many years,
didn't we Willie?
Nine or 10, I'd say.
- At least nine or 10.
Maybe 11 or 12.
- Maybe 11 or 12.
Willie's wife died and my wife left me.
- Then you struck it rich?
- Just like that.
A bolt from the blue.
- That was almost seven years ago,
October 4th, to be precise.
No one had hit the winning
number for several weeks
and the jackpot had grown
to an all time high.
Over $20 million, if you can believe it.
Truly astonishing sum.
For some reason Willie
and I actually discussed
the numbers we were gonna pick that day.
You see, I've dealt
with numbers on my life.
And after a while, you begin to feel that
each number has a personality of its own.
You see numbers have souls
and you can't help but
get involved with them
in a personal way.
- So there we were holding the
lottery ticket in our hands,
trying to decide which numbers to bet on.
- And I looked at Willie
and I said, primes.
And Willie looked back at me
and he said,
- Of course.
- Because that was precisely
what he was going to say
to me, prime numbers.
It was all so neat and elegant.
Numbers that refuse to cooperate,
that don't change or divide,
numbers that remain the
same for all eternity.
- Three, seven, 11, 13, 19, 23, 31.
- Ah, it was the magic combination,
the key to the gates of heaven.
- But it shocked us just the same.
For the first week or two,
we didn't know what to think.
- It was chaos.
Television, newspapers, magazines,
everyone wanted to talk to us.
- And take our picture.
- Well, took a while for that to die down.
No sooner, did we become rich
then we started to become very rich.
And once we were very rich,
we became fabulously rich.
I know my way around
investments, after all,
I'd handled other people's
money for so many years.
- Bill has the Midas touch.
- No matter what we do,
it seems to turn out right.
Now, so much pours in,
we give half of it to charity
and still there's more than
we know what to do with.
It's as if God had singled
us out from other men.
- Maybe so, but you didn't do so hot
when you played me at poker.
- That's true, that's very true.
In these past seven years,
it's the one time our luck has failed us.
- That's why we're so
keen on this rematch.
- What makes you think anything's
gonna be different this time?
- We took lessons.
- Lessons?
- From a man named Sid Zeno,
have you ever heard of him?
- Don't worry about it?
Yeah, he's an old guy, lives in Vegas,
way back when, used to be one of the top,
half dozen players in the game.
- Well, he still has an
excellent reputation.
So we had him flown out here from Nevada.
I think you'll find our performance
much improved this time, Jack.
- I hope so.
Be a shame to waste all
that money on lessons
and not get anything out of it.
- At one point, I asked him
if he had ever heard of you
and, uh, he confessed...
he didn't know your name.
- Well, Sid's a little
outta touch these days.
We indulge in
other hobbies besides poker.
We travel, of course.
I collect antiquities and Willie
spends much of his time in here.
It's called
the City of the World.
It's only about half finished,
but I guess you can get some idea
what it's supposed to look like.
And you have
to admit, it's amazing.
A stupendous achievement.
- I like working on it.
It's the way I'd like the world to look.
Everything in it happens at once.
- If you look carefully, come, come,
you'll see that many of the figures
actually represent Willie himself.
Here in the playground,
you see him as a child.
And here you see him grinding lenses
in his shop as a grown man.
And there on the corner of the street,
you see the two of us
buying the lottery ticket.
And over here, here...
his wife and parents are
buried in the cemetery here,
yet there they are again,
hovering as angels over that house.
All these things are
put in a larger context.
This is merely an illustration,
an example of one man's journey
through the City of the World.
If you look at the prison,
you'll see that, over there,
you'll see that all of the prisoners
are working happily at various tasks,
and that all of them have
smiles on their faces.
That's because they're glad
they're being punished for their crimes.
And they're learning how to
recover the goodness within them
through hard work.
William Stone is a
great artist, gentlemen,
and I consider it a tremendous honour
to count myself among his friends.
- What are your plans
for this section, Willie?
- The house and the grounds,
the fields and the woods.
Over to the right I'm
planning to build a model
of this room.
I'd have to be in it, of course,
which also means I'd have to build
another City of the World.
- And then we have our new
joint project, don't we Willie?
Last year, we took a trip
to England and Ireland
and the best thing about it,
we're discovering how many
old things there are
in that part of the world.
We were in the West of Ireland.
And one day as we were motoring
around the countryside,
we came upon this 15th century castle
and I decided to buy it and
have it shipped back to the US.
A 15th century, Irish castle
destroyed by Oliver Cromwell.
A historical ruin of major significance
and Willie and I own it.
- You're not planning to
rebuild the thing are you?
- Well, we thought about it, Willie and I,
but then... we dismissed it
as being impractical.
Too many pieces are missing.
- So you have thousands of stones
sitting in a meadow and you
don't know what to do with them.
- 10,000 to be precise.
And we know exactly what
we're going do with them,
don't we Willie.
- Absolutely.
We're gonna build a wall,
a monument, really,
a monument in the shape of a wall.
- How fascinating,
I can't wait to see that.
- Well, I can already see it,
standing out there in the meadow,
it will be a memorial to itself,
gentlemen,
a symphony of resurrected stones.
And every day it will sing a dirge
for the past we carry within us.
- A whaling wall.
- Yes.
- A whaling wall.
- A wall of 10,000 stones.
- Willie, do you mind if I
finish that hamburger for you?
- Go ahead.
Would you give this to Bill for me?
There you go.
- Thanks Jack.
- Waste not, want not.
Seems like $10,000 to me,
plus or minus a couple of hundred.
We'll give you the benefit
of the doubt, Mr. Nashe.
- Won't we Willie?
- Oh yes.
- So what's it to be then, Jack,
seven card stud?
- That's fine, seven card
stud from start to finish.
- I propose that if
Jack pulls ahead early,
Willie and I be allowed
to replenish our stakes,
up to a maximum of $30,000.
- Listen, you fellas need
to go beyond 30 grand,
that's okay too.
- No, no, $30,000 will be sufficient.
If all three of us manage to stay in,
we call a stop to the game after 24 hours.
No questions asked.
- No questions asked.
Here we go.
- Aces full.
Queen's full.
Two pair.
- Straight to the five.
- Flush.
- Straight flush to the queen.
Clubs.
Three twos.
- Aces.
- Nine to the five, sorry gentlemen.
- Looks like it's time to
replenish our chips, Bill.
- Yes it does, doesn't it?
Can you get me another $10,000 worth?
- Absolutely.
And I'll take five for myself.
- 27 grand.
- Excuse me, gentlemen,
I'm going to the bathroom.
- Where the fuck have you been?
- Took a nap on the
sofa in the living room,
couldn't help it.
I was exhausted.
- You know better than to
walk out on me like that.
- You're my lucky charm asshole.
As soon as you left the goddamn
roof started to collapse.
- We've had some big hands.
Your brother went for
broke on a full house.
But Willie came through on the last card
and beat him out with four sixes.
And just a few hands later,
there was a dramatic
showdown, a duel to the death,
but in the end, my three kings prevailed
over your brother's three jacks.
You missed some excitement
here, young man,
let me tell you that.
This is poker as it
was meant to be played.
- Here's $2,300 Jack,
why don't you buy some more chips.
It's not much, but this will give you
a little more room to work with.
- That'll clean you out.
I'm still hanging in there.
Let's give it a few more hands,
see what happens.
- Don't worry, take the money now,
it'll change the mood,
and hopefully get you going again.
You just hit a lull, that's all.
Come roaring back.
- 2,300.
- This is such a sorry
hand to be winning with.
Straight to the five.
Heart,
heart, heart
heart,
heart.
Well?
- That's good.
I have always loved the ladies.
- I want a new deck.
- Oh, alrighty.
- I wanna make a proposition.
- Proposition?
What are you talking about?
- We're almost outta chips.
Well fine, go ahead
and buy some more.
- We would, but we've also run outta cash.
- Oh, then I suppose that means
the game is over.
- Well, I wanna propose something else,
something other than cash.
- Please. Mr. Nashe, no, IOUs.
I don't know you well
enough to offer credit.
- Not asking for credit,
I wanna put up my car as collateral.
- Your car?
And what kind of car is that,
the second hand Chevy?
- No, it's a good car.
Year old BMW in perfect condition.
- Well, what am I supposed to do with it?
Willie and I already have
three cars in the garage.
- Sell it then, give it away.
What difference does it make?
- And how much do you think
this car of yours is worth?
- I don't know, I paid $28,000 for it.
It's probably worth at least
half that now, maybe even 15.
- $15,000 for a used car?
I'll give you three.
- That's ridiculous.
Why don't you go outside, have a look at it
before you make an offer, huh?
- Because I'm in the middle of a hand now,
I don't wanna break my concentration.
- Give me eight, we'll call it a deal.
- No.
Five, $5,000.
It's my final offer.
- Seven.
- Five.
Take it to leave it, Mr. Nashe.
- All right, I'll take it.
5,000 for the car.
Don't worry, we'll deduct it
from our winnings in the end.
I wouldn't want you to be
stuck with something you don't want.
- We'll see about that.
In the meantime,
let's just cut out the chips
and get on with it.
Can't stand these interruptions.
They destroy all the pleasure.
- All right, Willie,
let's see what you got.
- I have these two eights.
And I have this 10.
And I have this other 10.
And I have this third eight.
- A full house.
- What can you do to answer that, Jack?
- Not a thing.
Well, old buddy looks like
we have to walk home.
- I hope you boys have comfortable shoes.
It's a good 80 or 90 miles
back to New York, you know.
- Just cool your jets, Tubby, all right.
We owe you 5,000 bucks.
We'll give you our marker,
you give us a car,
we'll pay you back within the week.
- Oh no, no, no,
that's not the deal I made with Mr. Nashe.
That car belongs to me now.
- What kind of bullshit
poker player are you?
Of course you'll take our marker,
that's the way it works.
- I said this once and I'll
say it again, no credit.
I'd be a fool to trust a pair like you.
The minute you drove away from here,
our money would be gone.
- All right, all right, we'll cut for it.
If I win you, you give us back the car,
just like that, one cut it's finished.
- No problem.
And what happens if you don't win?
- Then I owe you $10,000.
- You should be more careful, my friend.
This hasn't been your lucky night.
Why make things worse for yourself?
- 'Cause we need the car
to get outta here, asshole.
- No problem.
- Shuffle the cards Jack,
hand them to Mr. Flower.
We'll give him the first try.
- A four.
A four.
He couldn't even beat my seven.
- $10,000.
Looks like we've hit
the magic number again.
- I think we have a dilemma here.
- Yeah, it's a real dilemma.
What you might call a situation.
- These two fellas owe us money.
And if we let them leave,
they'll never pay us back.
But if we don't let them leave,
they won't have a chance
to come up with the money they owe us.
What do you think, Willie?
Something of a quandary, isn't it?
- There's always the wall.
- The wall?
- The wall.
Someone has to build it.
- Ah... the wall.
That's a brilliant idea, Willie.
By God, I think you've really
surpassed yourself this time.
- You gotta be shitting me.
If you think I'm gonna do that
you're outta your fucking minds.
- Take it easy kid, there's
no harm in listening.
Gotta work out something.
- No harm.
You don't negotiate with mad men.
Once you start to do that,
your brain gets all fucked up.
- I'm glad you brought your brother along.
At least there's one reasonable man
we can talk to.
- Shit, he's not my brother.
He's just some guy I met on Saturday.
I barely even know him.
- Well, whether you're
related to him or not.
You're lucky he's here with you.
And the fact is young man,
you're staring at a heap of trouble.
You and Nashe owe us $10,000.
If you try to walk out without paying,
well, let's just say,
the local chief of police
is a good friend of ours.
- Fuck you, fuck your friends.
- Jack...
I already said we'd listen to you.
You don't have to make threats.
- I'm not making threats.
I'm just presenting you with the facts.
Now either you show some cooperation
and we work out an amicable arrangement,
or we'll take more drastic measures.
Now Willie has come up with a solution,
a perfectly ingenious solution,
as far as I'm concerned.
I think we should get down to brass tacks.
- The specifics, hourly
wage, living quarters, food,
the practical details.
- You can live right
out there in the meadow.
There's a trailer already on the premises.
- It has a kitchen, you can cook there
and eat anything you want.
Calvin will bring the supplies.
Whatever you ask for, he'll bring.
- What are you planning to pay us?
- Five, $6 an hour.
- That's too low.
We won't even consider
it for less than 12.
- This isn't brain surgery Mr. Nashe.
- Still, we're not gonna
do it for $6 an hour.
If you can't do better than that, you might
as well call your friend in the police.
- Stubborn, aren't you?
And what if I went up to 10,
what would you say to that?
- Let's figure it out then we'll see.
- If you put in an average
of 10 hours of work,
you'll be making $200 a day.
That means it'll take you
approximately 50 days,
not so long.
- I have to talk to you in private.
- Excuse me.
- Come on, let's go, time to leave.
- We can't leave, we owe them money.
I'm not in the mood to
get hauled off to jail.
- They're bluffing.
Come on, there's no way they
get the cops involved in this.
- You're wrong, Jack.
Guys with money like that
can do anything they want.
The police are in Flowers' pocket
and we'd be picked up before
we're half a mile from here.
Look, it's less than two months.
No big deal.
We might have even have some fun.
- Fun?
You call lifting 10,000 stones, fun?
- Can't kill us, not 50 days of it.
- I'm telling you, it's a mistake
to trust these sons of bitches.
- Maybe you're right.
Maybe you should go now.
I'm the one that got us into this mess.
- You'd stay here and do it alone.
- Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
- You're crazy, aren't you?
- Look, I've lost everything,
my car, all my money.
Staying here, working off the debt,
that doesn't seem like such a bad option.
You can walk out now,
I won't hold it against you,
that's a promise.
- All right.
Shit.
You really think I'd leave you alone,
old man?
If you did that work yourself,
you'd probably drop
dead of a heart attack.
- I took your stuff outta the car
and put it in the back there,
the bag and all those tapes.
Figured you might as
well have it with you.
They said you're gonna
be here for a while.
- What about the car?
- I took it over to my place.
If you want, we can sign the
registration papers tomorrow.
- No rush.
- You mean they gave the car to you?
- Who else?
They didn't want it.
Seems like a good one to me,
handles real nice.
- Sure, just bring the
papers around to me tomorrow.
Can you add a portable radio
tape player to the list?
- Can do.
- Deck of cards, today's paper, a calendar
and this month's Penthouse.
- I'll put it on the list.
- I wonder if I can make a phone call.
- There's no phone in here,
you can see that for yourself.
- Maybe you could take me
back to the house then?
- What do you wanna make a phone call for?
- Well, I doubt that's any
of your business, Calvin.
- No, I don't suppose it is.
I just can't take you up to the house
without knowing what for.
- I wanna call my sister, she's
expecting me in a few days.
I don't want her to worry
when I don't show up.
- Sorry, I'm not allowed
to take you there.
They gave me special instructions.
- How about a telegram?
If I wrote down the message,
you could call it in yourself.
- No, I can't do that.
The bosses wouldn't like it.
Send a post card, if you want.
Be happy to mail it for you.
- Make it a letter, you
can buy me some paper
and envelopes in town.
- Okay, paper and envelopes, got it.
- If I send it tomorrow,
I suppose it'll reach her in time.
You think he'll mail it.
- I have no idea.
If I had to bet on it,
I'd say there's a good chance,
but it's hard to be sure.
Look at this, our two little friends.
- Where the hell'd they come from?
- Where do you think?
- You didn't steal 'em, did you?
- Of course I did.
How else you think they
wound up in my pocket?
- You're nuts.
- Didn't seem right to walk off
without taking a souvenir.
- They ain't gonna be too happy
when they find out about that.
- Too bad for them.
- Yeah?
Too bad for them.
You can't just plop down stones
and hope for the best.
You've gotta do things right.
- Yeah, we're not building
the fucking Taj Mahal here, are we?
- No, nothing fancy.
Still, there are your basic preparations.
- What? The walls a wall.
- There ain't gonna be no
construction in this meadow
until you drawn your line,
dug out a proper trench
and made it nice and flat.
It's all right here in the plans.
I'll get you boys started, get some twine.
- What's that?
- There's a road ahead.
- Jesus Christ.
I told you before, it was a
mistake to trust these guys.
Why didn't I take off when I could?
- Take it easy, Jack.
Jack, calm down.
Guys like Flower and Stone
don't want people
sneaking onto their property.
That's why they built this fence.
- You're wrong.
It's to keep people from leaving.
- Come on.
Don't get so worked up.
Let's go back.
- You're right.
Let's get back before they
turn the dogs loose on us.
Morning, boys.
- Morning.
- Here's your supplies.
- I don't remember asking for shovels.
You ask for shovels, Jim?
- Might not have asked for 'em son,
but you sure enough got yourself a couple.
- Where are your wheels today, Cal?
- Huh?
- Your Jeep?
- I won't be bringing that here no more.
What are you afraid we're gonna
steal it from you and escape.
- You can come to your own
conclusions about that.
Digging time.
Oh shit,
found another fucking rock.
- It's a big one too.
- Hey, old timer, be a sport will you
and bring a couple of those
crowbars over and a pick too.
- That won't be possible, son.
- Won't be possible?
- You see I'm being paid
to supervise you two,
and you're being paid
to do the physical work,
that's the way the bosses wanted it.
- Well the bosses
probably said to themselves,
"Hey Willie, you know,
we better make certain
"that old potato head stays away
"from the picks and the crowbars."
"I couldn't agree with you more, Bill.
"I mean imagine if that clown, Calvin
"trips on a crowbar and
pales himself on a pick."
All right, hold on.
I got it.
Quitting time, 6:00 p.m.
Gather up your tools
and take 'em over to the shed.
See you in the morning, boys.
- If we get a lost in the woods, Calvin,
what would we do without you.
Asshole.
I spit on that son of a bitch,
pumpkin face,
pork belly rodent.
- He's not my idea of a good time either.
Just don't carry it too far, Jack.
No mail today.
- Lunch is over boys, let's go.
- Where in the hell are Flower and Stone.
- Hiding in their house,
Probably locked in the attic,
marking up brand new decks of cards
to cheat some other guy.
- Still, I'd have thought they'd be
poking around the meadow every day,
wanna see how the work was coming along.
- Monument in the shape of a wall.
- Murks is probably keeping
them up to date, huh?
- Isn't that right, Calvin.
- What's that, son?
- Forget about it.
- Oh, nearly forgot.
This came for you today.
- It's from my sister.
- You can take a break
and read it, if you'd like.
Where are you going?
- You said take a break.
- Not to you, I didn't.
You get back to work.
- Pal, why are you always trying--
- Come on, cut it out,
we both go back to work then.
- Just read your letter, all right.
I'm glad somebody knows we're here.
- Important thing is that
Murks kept his promise.
- So how are things in Michigan?
- Minnesota.
Everybody's fine.
My sister says Juliet misses me.
I miss her.
I hope I'll be back in
time for Juliet's birthday.
- You gotta show up for the kid's party.
- Well, the birthday's in early June,
we won't be outta here by then.
- I won again.
You don't fuck around
when it comes to Solitaire.
- I don't fuck around
when it comes to poker.
But I don't cheat, neither.
- Don't brood on it, Jack.
We do our time, we're outta here.
Don't brood on it.
That's easy for you to say,
I'm the one who lost.
It's my professional
reputation that's at stake.
- My money that's gone.
Guess there's no such thing
as a sure thing.
- You car too.
- The car.
You know, losing that felt almost worse
than losing the money.
- And to Calvin Murks,
king of the numbskulls.
It was new wasn't it?
- Year old, I bought it
brand new last April.
- How come it had 97,000
miles on the odometer?
- I did a lot of driving.
- You'd have to be driving full-time
to clock up that kinda
mileage on a new car.
- I was.
After I quit the Fire Department,
I had this idea that I drift for a while,
travel around from place to
place, see what happened.
Figured I'd grow tired of it
after a bit, but I didn't,
and I just kept driving.
- What about your kid?
- Sent her postcards.
- Must've been pretty expensive,
what with all the gas bills, hotels,
restaurants,
incidentals.
- It was.
I had $200,000 my father left me.
It's all gone?
- All gone.
- Was your old man a
millionaire or something?
- No.
Last time I saw him, I was two years old.
Since then, nothing.
We had no contact at all.
Not one letter, not one phone call.
- I guess he was trying
to make it up to you.
- Here.
- What's that?
- A wagon.
- I know what it is, what's it for?
- I brought my daughter one of
those on her third birthday.
- Well it ain't no birthday present.
From now on, you boys
will be hauling the stones
over to the trench with this here wagon.
- You're not serious, are you?
- I'm serious.
From now on, you'll be using
the wagon in the morning,
in the afternoon, you'll be
cementing the stones in place.
That's the plan.
- So Calvin, where are the bosses?
Where are Flower and Stone?
When are they coming to visit us?
- They're busy.
- Doesn't make any sense.
You'd think they'd wanna come by
and take a look at their investment.
- This means they're guilty.
Fuckers know I'm on to them
and they're too scared
to show their faces.
Oh Jesus.
I'm on to these sons of bitches.
I'm gonna fix those shit birds,
I'm gonna make that gumbo confess.
- Jack, where you going?
Come back.
Jack.
Jack, hey.
- Shit.
- Looks like they're out for the night.
- Oh they're in there, man.
They're just two chicken to answer.
- I think it's time to give up.
If you want to, we'll come back tomorrow.
Come on.
- Hey Flower, that's right
I'm talking to you, fat man.
You're a creep, mister, you know that?
You and your little
friend are both creeps.
You're gonna pay for what you did to me.
- Come on Jack,
let's head back to the trailer,
we'll get some sleep, huh?
Let's call it a night,
think we've had enough.
Come on, come on.
- Assholes.
All this fucking run by... asshole.
Come on, Jack.
- Jim, I can't stand it any longer.
- Only 30 more days.
One little month to go.
- I gotta get laid.
- Penthouse magazine of yours,
not doing the trick?
- I don't know about you,
but I'm used to getting laid a lot.
- No doubt.
- You get laid a lot on the road?
- No.
- Come on, a handsome
stud fireman like you
could certainly get a little action going.
No girlfriends back in the
Boston Fire Department?
It's coed now, isn't it?
Broads in badges, helmets...
big boots.
- No.
No fire women girlfriends.
There was someone I saw
a lot of for a while,
I asked her to marry me.
And?
- That was it, she said, no.
- Tell you the truth,
I don't see a Mrs. Jack Pozzi
in my life real soon.
- Probably worked out for the best.
I was on the road,
on the move a lot of the time.
- Little lady wasn't
worth settling down for.
What exactly were you doing on the road?
- Driving, just driving.
Every night, I'd tell
myself that I'd had enough
and that I'd pack it in and settle down.
Every morning I'd wake up,
crawl back into the car and drive.
And I thought, why not.
Why not just keep driving?
There's no reason to stop.
- You had the money, why not?
- I was on the road for 13 months in all,
I covered just about the
whole of the United States.
It wasn't the places I went
to that were important,
it was the driving.
Feeling you get when you're going fast,
long and empty highway and
everything is flashing past.
You know, nothing lasts
for more than a moment,
nothing to hold you back
or weigh you down.
When I was driving, nothing
could hurt me anymore.
- Then you met me.
- And then I met you.
- Fuck.
- One more storm like this,
and the whole damn wall
will blow away.
- Serve 'em right.
- It's not level there, young man.
Go back and do that again.
- It's level enough.
- No it ain't. Make sure you
pull those weeds out too.
- Listen, big mouth, if you're
such an expert at all this,
then why the fuck don't you
come and do it yourself?
- 'Cause it's not my job.
You boys supposed to do the work,
I'm just here to see you don't screw up.
Yeah? What makes you so high
and mighty Mr. Bumpkin?
How come you get to stand there
with your goddamn hands in your pockets
while we're busting our
dicks in this dung heap, huh?
Come on out with it,
gimme one good reason.
- Well, that's easy, 'cause you
play cards and I don't.
Fuck.
- It don't matter.
Little squirt can't handle
the pressure, that's all.
You don't let it happen again.
Next time I might not be so nice about it.
- Asshole.
All right, I'll leave.
- As I remember, you were
the one playing cards.
The only thing I did
was sit there and watch.
- But you were part of it.
You were breathing life into me, pal.
And every time I felt your breath,
good luck came poring into my bones.
- You didn't expect me to
piss in my pants, did you?
- Sure, fine, go to the bathroom,
I don't have a problem with that.
But how long does it take,
three minutes, five minutes?
Sure, go take a leak.
But Christ, Jimmy, you were
gone for a whole fucking hour.
- I was worn out, I had
a lie down, take a nap.
- But you didn't take a nap, did you?
I mean, you went upstairs
and started prowling around
that dumb ass City of the World.
I mean, why'd you do a crazy like that?
I mean, I'm sitting downstairs,
waiting for you to come back
and little by little I start
to lose my concentration.
And then when things get really bad,
it pops into your head to
steal a chunk of the model.
I mean, I can't believe
what a mistake that was.
It's like committing a sin
to do a thing like that.
It's like violating a
fundamental law, all right.
We had everything in harmony,
we'd come him to the
point where everything
was turning into music for us,
and you have to go upstairs
and smash all the instruments.
You tampered with the universe, my friend.
And once a man does that,
he's gotta pay the price.
I'm just sorry I gotta pay it with you.
- You're starting to
sound like Flower, Jack.
The guy wins the lottery, all of a sudden
he thinks he was chosen by God.
- God has nothing to do with it.
- I don't care what you call it,
God or luck or harmony,
all comes down to the same bullshit.
It's a way of avoiding the facts
or refusing to look at
how things really work.
- You think you're smart, Nashe,
you don't know what goddamn thing.
- That's right, I don't.
Neither do you, Jack.
We're just pair of know nothings,
a couple of dunces,
got in over our heads.
Now we're trying to square the account.
If we don't mess up, we'll
be outta here, 27 days.
- You shouldn't have done it Jim.
Once you swiped those little men,
things went outta whack.
- Take a good look, tell me what you see.
- Christ, you know,
- what do you wanna be playing games for?
- Just look.
Just look. Come on Jack,
you tell me what I'm holding in my hand?
- Flower and Stone.
- Flower and Stone?
I thought Flower and Stone
were bigger than this.
These two guys aren't more than
an inch and a half tall.
- All right, it's not Flower and Stone,
it's what you call a replica.
- You believe this little scrap wood
is stronger than we are, don't you?
You think it's so strong.
- No, no.
- Yes you do,
you think it's so strong,
in fact, it made us lose all our money.
- No, that's not what I said, all right.
I just meant you shouldn't have swiped it.
Some other time, maybe,
but not when we're playing poker.
- Here it is, every time you look at it,
you get a little scared, don't you, huh?
It's like they cast an
evil spell over you.
Remedy for everything kid.
A few minutes, all your
troubles will be over.
See.
There's nothing to it.
Once you know the magic formula,
no obstacle's too great.
- You're outta your mind,
I hope you're realise that.
Howdy.
Morning.
- Oh buddy, looks like you finally
put your cards on the table.
- Cards, I told you
yesterday, I don't play cards.
- Its just a figure of speech.
I'm talking about that fucking
lolly pop you got there,
that ding dong, hanging from your waist.
- Oh that, yeah.
Well I figured I shouldn't
take no more chances.
You're a crazy son of a bitch, little guy,
no telling what you might do.
- That narrows the possibilities
though, doesn't it?
I mean, a thing like that can seriously
hamper a man's ability to express himself.
Curtail his first amendment rights,
if you know what I'm talking about.
- You don't have to get cute, mister.
I know what the first amendment is.
- Of course you do,
you're a sharp customer,
no one can put anything over on you.
- Like I said yesterday,
I'm always willing to give
a man a break, but only once.
After that, you have to
take appropriate action.
- In fact, I'm kinda glad you
put on your dress-up belt today,
it gives my friend, Jim here
a better picture of things.
- That's the idea.
It does have a way of
adjusting focus, don't it?
- Well, my man, get a
load of what we just did.
Whoo!
Whoo!
- Looks like the little bugger's
feeling proud himself, don't it?
- He deserves to,
he's worked hard.
- Ah, it ain't been easy,
I'll grant you that.
But looks like this thing's
finally going up.
- Top of the world, ma!
Whoo!
Just eight more days to go.
- Though we do have a
little problem, don't we.
We'll walk out of here a couple of bums,
we won't even have the
price of a bus ticket.
- I can't write my mother
and ask her for a loan.
- Same with my sister.
Anyway, by the time we send off a letter
or receive an answer,
already be past the 17th.
There is another option.
- No way, Jim.
No way.
We're not gonna stay
unless we get it in writing.
Exact terms, everything spelled out.
- What you call a rider to the contract,
that what you mean?
- Yeah, that's it, a rider,
we don't get one of them,
we walk outta here on the 17th.
- It's all been taken care of.
- You're awfully sure of
yourself, Calvin, aren't you?
- It's just common sense.
I mean, it was only a matter of time
before you asked me about it.
Ain't no other way it could have gone.
So I figured I'd get ready for you
and have the bosses draw up the papers.
Didn't take but a minute.
- We have to have some
kinda celebration on the 17th.
- What for? We're not leaving then.
- You wanna let the day slip by
without doing something special?
I mean, for Christ
sakes, let's whoop it up,
throw a little shindig,
welcome in the new era.
- What do you have in mind?
- We'll be needing champagne,
a half dozen bottles at the least,
lobsters, caviar, party favors...
- Well, jot it down on your list,
I'll see what I can do.
- And we'll be needing a girl.
- Pardon?
- You know, a broad, a juicy babe.
Come on, man, legs, blonde
hair, things like that.
- I'm not exactly sure
I'm following you there.
- Well, it's easy enough, Calvin,
you're jotting down to Atlantic City,
there's pussy for sale on
every corner down there.
- You mean a whore?
Is that what you're trying to tell me,
you want us to get you a whore?
- Well, that's what I'm saying.
- That's a pretty unusual request, son.
It's out of my jurisdiction,
I'll have to take it up with the bosses.
- Good.
- Tiffany, you might as well know,
you're in the presence of two
very distinguished gentlemen.
- Is that a fact?
- Of course, but then
Professor Nashe and I
are distinguished by your own company.
I mean, it's been many
months, years, really
since either one of us
have had the pleasure of
dining with such a
lovely and sophisticated,
talented, intelligent and
supremely beautiful lady
such as yourself.
- Come on, be serious.
- I am dead serious.
In our line of work--
- So what exactly
is your line of work?
- Well, we're building this wall.
- I'll come to that in a moment.
In our line of work, we have occasion
to meet with many different
women, cover girls,
runway models, movie stars,
airline stewardesses,
to name but a few.
But you, sweet Tiffany are
the cream of the cream.
You make all the others seem
like yesterday's mash potatoes.
- Really?
- I assure you.
- And where did a little guy like you
learn how to talk that kinda crap?
- Comes naturally.
- I'll bet.
- Two of us are architects,
came here to Pennsylvania
a couple of weeks ago
to oversee construction on
this castle we had designed.
We're specialists in the art
of historical... reberation.
'Cause so if people can afford to hire us,
we usually, you know, wind up working
for eccentric millionaires.
Now I don't know what the
fat man, little skinny guy
told you about us, but you
can forget about it right now.
They're kidders those two
and they'll just as soon
wet their pants in public,
as give you a straight
answer about anything.
We have a crew, 36 carpenters,
masons coming to the meadow every day.
Jim and I, we live on
the construction site,
you know, 'cause we always do that.
Atmosphere means
everything to us, you know.
The job always turns out better
if we live the life that
we've been hired to create.
This particular job is
a medieval reberation.
So we've been living like monks.
- Tonight's the exception.
Our next job's taking us to Texas,
an old tycoon has hired us to build him
a replica of Buckingham
Palace in his backyard.
Last year we built the Brooklyn Bridge
for a computer magnet
in San Jose, California.
The year before, life-size Eiffel Tower
to fit over a ranch house
in the Jersey suburbs.
- You boys sure have been busy.
- Oh Tiffany, there have been times
when we felt like bagging
it and moving to a condo
in West Palm Beach.
But finding the work is too
damn interesting to stop.
And what with all the
American millionaires
that wanna live in European castles.
Whoops.
Give you a hand here.
- Hey, hey, hey.
- Oh.
- No problem.
Dessert time.
- Encore.
- Braviss.
Bravo.
- I'm retiring.
Good night my friends.
- Was I just invited here for the party.
I mean those two guys, they
shelled out plenty for this
and I came here thinking
I was gonna fuck you both.
- No, I'm just a cook,
I'm finished for the night
and I'm sure you'll have your
hands full with Jack anyway.
- Well that's fine with me.
Maybe another time.
You know, I have a friend you might like.
Why don't I leave you my number,
and you can give me a call,
and we'll both come.
You can always reach me at that number.
- Thanks.
You never know, maybe Jack and I
will come over to Atlantic City
and see you next time.
- Sure, why not.
Anyway, it was nice meeting you.
- Yeah, you too.
Well Jackie.
- Howdy.
- Hello there.
- So, have a good time last night?
- It was all right as parties go.
I didn't stay up very late,
hit the sack before midnight.
- I think the chauffeur drove
off with the girl around 5:30.
- Jack's still sleeping in there.
- Yeah, must've had a busy night.
- I don't think he was disappointed,
the whole thing worked out pretty well.
- Well, I'm afraid I got
some bad news for you.
- I know that.
Wouldn't have come out
here today unless you did.
- Well, I'm awful sorry.
It kinda confused me when
bosses told me about it,
but I guess they're within their rights.
All depends on how you
look at it, I guess.
What's this supposed to be?
- The bosses' figures,
credits and debits, balance
sheet of money spent
and money earned.
- What is this, some kind of a prank?
- I'm afraid not.
- All these things were
supposed to be included.
- Well, I thought so too,
but I guess we were wrong.
What do you mean wrong?
We all shook hands on it,
you know that as well as I do.
- Maybe so.
But if you look at the contract,
there's no mention of food,
lodging, yes, work clothes, yes,
but there's no mention anywhere of food.
- This is a dark and dirty thing, Calvin.
I hope you understand that.
- It's not for me to say.
The bosses have always been fair with me.
I never had no reason for complaining.
I'll come right down to it,
you gotta be glad they're not charging you
for rent and utilities.
- I think it's time, I went
over to the main house,
had a talk with your bosses.
- Afraid you can't do that now.
They're gone.
- Gone, what are you talking about?
- That's right, they're gone.
They left for Paris, France
about three hours ago.
They won't be back to
just before Labour Day.
- It's hard to believe they'd
just take off like that.
Without bothering look at the wall.
- Oh, they saw it all right.
See, I brought them out early this morning
when you and the kid were still asleep.
They thought it was
coming along real nice.
They said, you know, "Good
job, keep up the good work."
They couldn't have been happier.
- Shit.
Shit on them and their goddamn wall.
- No sense of getting angry Nashe.
It's only another two or three weeks.
Cut out the parties and such,
you'll be outta here before you know it.
- Three weeks from now, it will be July.
- You're a tough one, Nashe.
You can handle it.
- What about Jack?
Once he sees this paper,
it's gonna kill him.
- Well, Mr. Fireman, we come to a
parting of the ways.
- You'll be fine.
Just remember brush your
teeth after every meal,
nothing bad can happen to you.
- Yeah.
Hold this, I'll crawl through.
Come on.
Come with me.
Don't be a jerk, come on with me.
- I'll catch up with you
in a couple of months.
Better get moving.
- Yeah.
All right, so uh...
call your sister tomorrow,
tell her you're all right?
- Just beat it.
Go as fast as you can.
- I'm already outta here.
By the time you count to a hundred,
you won't even remember who I am.
- My God.
What have they done to you, Jack.
Morning boys?
- Come in.
- Morning.
What's the matter with him,
he got one on again last night?
Christ almighty, this boy's in trouble.
- Yeah, you're damn right he's in trouble.
Don't get him to a
hospital in the next hour,
he's not gonna make it.
- I'll run back to house and get the Jeep.
This here is Floyd, he's my son-in-law,
he can help us carry the kid.
We'll be back soon as we can.
- What are you talking about,
I'm coming with you.
- Sorry, I can't let you do that.
There's been too much commotion
around here for one day.
I don't want things getting out of hand.
Now don't you worry, Nashe.
Floyd and me can manage on our own.
Hey, hey.
- You're a liar.
And a goddamn son of a bitch.
Shoot me you son of a
bitch, come on, go ahead.
- He don't know what he's saying anymore.
Poor bugger's lost it.
Howdy.
Beautiful weather again, huh?
Took the kid over to Doylestown.
Sister of Mercy's hospital.
- I'm on to you, Murks.
- Pardon?
- You heard me, I'm on to you.
You're not gonna get away with this.
- I don't know what you're talking about.
You're a powerhouse today,
Nashe, that's great.
Don't overdo it,
don't wanna hurt yourself.
This is is my grandson, Floyd Jr.
Hope you don't mind if
he tags along with me?
- Nope, I don't mind.
- I'll keep my on him, make
sure he don't get in your way.
- There's something wrong with me today,
I don't feel like myself.
- Well, maybe it's that flu bug
that's been going around.
- Yeah,
that must be it.
- We'll call it a day then.
Little too moist for
little Floyd Jr. anyway,
he'll ended up catching his death.
Come on, Floyd.
Oh my gosh, I almost forgot to tell you.
- What?
- About Pozzi.
See, I called the hospital last night
to see how he was doing.
The nurse said he was gone.
- Gone?
Gone in what sense?
- Well gone, you know, as in gone bye-bye.
See, he got himself up outta bed,
put on his clothes
and walked outta the hospital.
- You don't have to
make up stories, Calvin.
Jack's dead, he died two weeks ago.
- No, sir, he ain't dead.
It didn't look good there for a while,
I'll grant you that.
But then he pulled through.
Little runt was tougher than we thought.
Now he's got himself all better.
I thought you'd like to know that.
- I only wanna know the truth.
- Well, that's the truth,
Jack Pozzi's gone,
now you don't have to
worry about him no more.
- Well let me call the hospital myself.
- I can't do that son, you know that.
No calls are allowed until you
finish paying off the debt.
But the rate you're going now,
won't be no time.
Then you can make all the calls you want.
As far as I'm concerned, you
can call to kingdom come.
- Hey!
You did it!
You're a free man now.
How'd you like to go out for
a drink with Floyd me tonight?
- What for?
- I don't know, you know, just to get out,
see what the world looks like.
You've been cooped up
here a long time, son.
You told me you wanna
work a couple more weeks
to earn your travelling money.
So, might not be a bad idea do
a little celebrating tonight,
now that the debt's at zero.
- You're forgetting, I
don't have any money.
That's all
right, drinks are on me.
- Thanks, but I think I'll pass.
I was planning on writing
a few letters tonight.
- Well, you can write them tomorrow.
- It's true, then again,
I could be dead tomorrow,
never know what's gonna happen.
- All the more reason
not to worry about it.
- Maybe some other time.
It's nice of you to offer,
I'm just not in the mood tonight.
Well, I'm just
trying to be friendly, Nashe.
- I know you are, I appreciate it.
You don't have to worry about me,
I can take care of myself.
- It's not like you're the only one
that gets set free today.
You know, I've been out here
in this field, same as you,
sweating my butt off seven days a week.
Probably worse damn job
I ever had in my life.
I got nothing personal against you, Nashe,
but it ain't been no picnic.
No sir, no picnic at all.
Maybe we oughta just sit down
and bury the hatchet.
- All right.
I'll go out for a drink with you.
Why the hell not?
- Good.
We'll go in your old car.
Eight o'clock then.
- Did granddad tell you about my new job?
- No.
- The chauffeur that brought the whore
up to your trailer last month,
said his company was
looking for new drivers.
- Boy went down there,
the next day he got the job.
- How you like wearing the uniform, Floyd?
- Well, I like it.
It's kind of nice to have
something special to wear.
It sort of makes me feel important.
And the main thing is I
love to drive, you know.
- Driving is a good thing,
I agree with you about that.
- Well, you ought know,
I mean, look at granddad's car,
now that's a beautiful machine.
- Yeah.
That was the best car I ever owned.
- One thing that puzzles me though,
how'd you put so much
mileage on that thing?
Were you a travelling
salesman or something?
- Yeah, that's it, I was
a travelling salesman.
You know, lugging my
samples around in a trunk,
living out of a suitcase.
Staying in a different city every night.
- I think I like that, it
sounds like a good job to me.
- It's not bad.
Have to like being alone,
but once you've taken care
of that, the rest is easy.
How about $10 a game?
- Sounds good.
50 bucks I owe ya.
- Keep the money Floyd,
doesn't make any difference to me.
Buy your little boy a present.
- That's awfully good of you, Jim.
Most fellas wouldn't let 50 bucks
slip through the fingers that easy.
I guess I owe you one,
anytime you need a favour,
all you got to do is ask.
- Well, now that you mention it.
Maybe there is one thing
you can do for me.
It's a very small thing, really.
- Just you name it.
- Let me drive the car back home tonight.
- Granddad's car?
- Yeah, granddad's car.
The car I used to own.
- I'm afraid that's
not for me to say, Jim.
That's up to granddad.
You'll have to ask him.
But I'll put in a word for.
Seat belt's on your right.
- You damn fool, you're driving too fast.
- Are you okay?
Do you need a ride?
- I'm okay.
I'm going to New York.
Is that all right for you?
Minnesota, I'm going to Minnesota.
Could you get me to a payphone?