The Red Menace (1949) Movie Script
Don't... don't let them.
I am afraid.
Nina, stop it.
It's me, Bill.
They can't get us now.
They will kill us.
- Nina.
Get hold of yourself.
Snap out of it.
That same dream.
Those frightening sadistic
faces chasing me.
Turning guns on me.
There is nothing to worry about.
They can't get us out here.
You don't really believe that?
You know we can't get away.
They haven't caught us yet have they.
No. But they will.
Please, Bill. Let me give myself up.
It isn't you they're after.
They want me. Why don't you?
This is why.
We'll have to stop at
the next gas station.
Bill, I hate to stop for anything.
We can't run without gas.
I was just getting ready to close up.
We're almost out of gas.
Can't you fill it up?
I suppose so.
From California, huh?
Yeah.
Why?
Oh, nothing.
A lot of California cars
pass through here.
I wonder sometimes
where they're heading.
Why did he say that?
Just to make conversation probably.
I don't believe it.
There must be some reason
why he's so curious.
Take it easy, Nina.
We can't suspect everybody.
That will be $3.22.
[ Phone ]
Sit tight. I'll have your
change in a minute.
Hello?
Yeah.
I don't know.
Maybe they are.
Okay. You had better
get over here in a hurry.
Hey, hey. What about your change?
Maybe they are following us.
No. They're not, sweet.
Try to relax.
I do wish I had a cigarette.
Try the compartment.
There might be some in there.
Here.
There is two left.
"Why are these two running away?"
"Bill Jones and Nina Petrovka."
"What is this fear..."
"Which has sent them racing
along a lonely Arizona road?"
"Have they murdered someone?"
"Are the police pursuing them?"
"Is it the Immigration
Department or the FBI?"
"Possibly it is none of these."
"They could be running from
something far more terrifying."
"To understand, we must
go back with Bill Jones."
"Back on the wings of
his tortured memory."
"To his city in California."
I am sorry but...
After you've paid your money down on
a home lot there's nothing we can do.
You meant the government won't act after
I'm fleeced out of my last 2,500 bucks?
We can't do anything.
These real estate firms aren't
controlled by the government.
We tried to warn the veterans
but they're impatient.
Sure, the veterans are always
impatient. Always wrong.
But why don't you change the way real
estate outfits operate and advertise?
So a guy don't end up with a scrubby
lot on a hillside way of town.
We are trying to.
But Jones.
You didn't consult us.
You didn't even read the
small print on your contract.
That's what I've heard every place I go.
So, I'm just stuck.
That's all there is to it, huh?
No.
No. We are investigating these
housing projects but it takes time.
And unfortunately there are
other veterans in the same boat.
Waiting for the same answer I got.
The same old run-around.
I'm going to tell other G.I.s the
kind of a deal they'll get here.
Let's not have a disturbance, fellow.
Move on.
I can move on my own power.
They kinda push you around, don't they.
Who wants to know?
Just another poor sap who's been
given the same routine you have.
They cut and dry it special
for G.I.s up there.
It makes me so hot I...
I'd like to paste somebody.
Getting hot won't do any good but...
I know a nice place to cool off.
Okay. I can stand plenty of cooling.
Never noticed this place before.
- Oh, it's not conspicuous.
Just a sort of a club for
discriminating people.
How are you today, Mr Tyler?
- Just fine, Bill.
How is the bourbon situation?
I may be able to rustle
up a little Kentucky.
That's the spirit.
I'll take mine with water.
The same.
It looks like Tyler has
got another prospect.
Molly.
Please, Henry.
Don't make it more difficult.
Uhuh.
This one is on me.
Got lucky today and
hit a 2-horse parlay.
Jack.
Excuse me.
Hi, Yvonne.
How about bringing big and
brawny over to the table?
He's decidedly my type.
I never saw one yet
that wasn't your type.
Never mind the personalities.
I said I wanted to meet him.
Sure.
To jail with real estate agents.
Life terms.
Who's the criminal?
Two more drinks and you'll be
giving him the electric chair.
Sure, if it isn't Molly O'Flaherty.
Don't you love the way he
kicks that Irish around.
I don't believe I've met
your friend, have I?
I just me him myself.
Try 'Bill'. He'll answer to that.
Bill Jones.
- Jones?
The name is familiar.
I've heard it or seen it somewhere.
You must sit up nights
reading phone books.
Have a drink, Molly?
- You've talked me into it.
Better make that three doubles.
We've got a lot of
important drinking to do.
Bill just got caught in
the same deal that I did.
Another pigeon who
had his wings clipped.
Not that G.I. housing project?
A project without the housing.
A funny thing about those G.I.s.
You hear a lot about them.
But you don't read of it in the papers.
- They don't print that kind of stuff.
It might frighten other suckers away.
All this talk isn't going to help.
When is somebody going
to do something about it?
Somebody is.
They are?
Who?
Friends of mine.
They had me watching that office.
Checking on veterans who had complaints.
We're getting a pretty good list.
Well, you can count me in.
It will stop other G.I.s
from getting hurt.
You are a good Joe, Bill.
I'll speak to my friends about you.
Okay.
Just so you don't say anything
bad that will come back to Molly.
There is no reason why we
should both drink solo.
Why do you waste your time, Yvonne?
You and I can sit together
and still be solo.
You know Henry, I wouldn't be surprised
if you really wrote a great poem.
Why the sudden confidence in my talent?
They say a poet can only produce great
art when his heart is really touched.
And yours is being torn
out and wiped on the floor.
The bar room floor.
Who's the girl you were going to
build a little castle in the clouds for?
Girl?
Don't tell me you were going
to live alone and try to like it?
There was a girl when I built the house.
She.
She settled for something
a little nearer the earth.
Let's hope she lives
unhappily ever after.
Let's leave her out of this.
I hate to break up this cheery little
wake but I have got to meet Partridge.
He's one of those friends
I was telling you about.
Go ahead.
I'll try to get him up
in the clouds again.
Good.
Look, Bill. Meet me here tomorrow.
I'll tell you more about
these friends of mine.
I'll be around.
So, I see whose type he is.
I didn't get a chance to talk to him.
Molly moved right in.
I wouldn't want to compete with Molly.
And lose my amateur standing?
Hi, Sam. How is it going?
Been up all night working on a rewrite.
What's the matter with Holder?
Can't he give you a hand?
He's not here anymore.
- What happened?
Mr Partridge been around?
Yeah. He's in there.
- Thanks, Sam.
Come in.
Hello, Mr Partridge.
Come in. Sit down. Keep quiet.
Continue.
How can I compete with other papers if
my best reporters disappear overnight?
Holder was not only an ace
newspaperman, he was a linguist.
And he talked too much.
About party matters in bars to
his non-communist friends.
We all do that.
Then we'll all get what Holder did.
His party card has been sent
to the State Department.
They will check it against
his immigration papers.
Then he'll be deported to his homeland.
Where they know how to shut mouths.
Permanently.
Well, he'll be a hard man to replace.
Ah, we can all be replaced.
This paper.
Could get a new editor
within an hour's time.
Even I, as the head of the committee.
Could be replaced in no time at all.
And you will be replaced.
Unless you bring some recruits who
are not hobos or stumblebums.
That's what I wanted to talk
to you about, Mr Partridge.
I collared a good one today.
Bill Jones.
A hundred percent American type.
Good war record. Plenty of gripes.
He sounds alright.
Does he know that he's
not joining a tea party?
I don't think we have
to worry about that.
If we promise him justice
for the G.I.s, and...
Maybe a job for himself he'll go for it.
Promise him anything.
When we get him into the party
he'll find it's not so easy to get out.
Pardon me.
I say... well...
Now that you're properly impressed.
You can relax and you
can have a good time.
Remember, you only
came up for one drink.
I have got a very short memory.
Except for pretty faces.
You had better keep your
mind on the drink, Mr J.
You turn on the phonograph
while I do the mixing.
Okay.
Well.
- What's the matter?
Who died and left you the fancy library?
Sir, you are referring
to the books I love.
'The coming dawn'.
Kinda heavy going aren't they?
At first, maybe.
But you get to understand
them if you stick at it.
I always heard Commies peddled bunk.
I didn't know they came as cute as you.
And you're not going to be
shocked and walk out?
What is there to be shocked about?
I just think it's funny. That's all.
There's nothing so funny about it.
Not if you stop to realize that...
The party has been behind every
decent cause in this country.
The war against fascism
and the labor movement.
Look what it's doing today.
Fighting for the minorities,
the Jews and the negroes.
I can't get steamed up
over causes anymore.
Except for the boy scouts.
I still believe in Santa Claus.
I never got to know much
about Santa Claus.
When I was a kid my Dad got starvation
pay in a shop that wasn't organised.
My mother broke her back over the stove
and washtubs trying to make ends meet.
You must have...
Come up on a fast elevator.
I came up the hard way.
Factory jobs and night school.
And then I found out some of
my friends were in the party.
They started helping me.
Giving me a different slant on things.
They showed me it wasn't me or my folks
that were wrong. It was the system.
I'll admit I don't understand all the
ideology and some of the big words.
But I do know what
they are trying to do.
To end once and for all the
exploitation of humanity.
The only cause of poverty and suffering.
A pretty big speech for a little girl.
But I mean it, Bill.
Why do you think we are
so interested in you?
It can't be my money.
It's because you lost your
money in that housing deal.
That's the kind of thing the
party is fighting against.
We are for people, not
for privileges or property.
Sounds good anyway.
We are getting too serious.
May I have this dance, Mr Jones?
Sure.
You didn't learn this in the boy scouts.
Bill.
Maybe you had better go home.
Take this along. Read it.
So.
It has all been just a
come-on for the party.
Don't say that, Bill.
[ Door knocks ]
Who is it?
- It's me, Molly.
Hello, Ma.
Pretty early for you
to be out, isn't it?
I guess so.
I was here last night.
But I heard you had company.
So I went home.
I thought you were
going to stop drinking.
Well, I didn't.
Look, Ma. I'm not a kid anymore and
you're not going to treat me like one.
What's the matter,
didn't you get your check?
Yes, Molly. I got it.
And I brought it back.
Brought it back?
Why? Isn't it big enough?
I don't want that kind of money.
You told me you were a
secretary to a big stockbroker.
You said that's why you
could afford a place like this.
And all those clothes and things.
I suppose you've been listening to those
Micks gossiping over at the church.
And Father O'Leary.
That's what I thought it was.
Just gossip.
It couldn't be true.
Not about my Molly.
And I decided to find out.
For myself.
So, you found out I'm a communist.
What's so wrong in that?
There is no law against it.
Well, if it isn't wrong why should you
lie about it to your own mother?
I don't even know what communism means.
But it can't be good making
you do these things.
What things?
What was the woman in the bible
doing... that was taken in sin?
Look, Ma.
I don't care anything
about that bible junk.
I'm doing alright.
And I belong to a party that's
going to make the world over.
Where people don't get the kind
of a raw deal my father got.
What raw deal?
Your father worked hard and
made a respectable home for us.
He and I tried to bring you
up the best we could.
But it's beginning to look like we
didn't do a very good job of it.
What's the use?
You don't understand.
I guess I don't.
The only thing I can
do is keep on praying.
'Protest meeting. G.I.'s attention'.
'The Hillside Veterans Housing Project'.
'Is defrauding ex-servicemen
by selling them City lots'.
'Which have no public utilities
or building prospects'.
'Demand action from your
District Attorney's office'.
'Your City council and the Grand Jury'.
'G.I.'s Protest'.
That is the idea.
That should stir them up.
You know it's a shame about those poor
boys, the defenders of our country.
Stripped of their pension
and their life savings.
That sounds like one of my editorials.
Well, I'd better be on my way.
Oh. You will have to wait for Nina.
She's in charge of the picketing.
She and Yvonne.
Women in charge of a
demonstration like that?
There might be some rough stuff.
Fistfights. A few broken heads.
I'm afraid that you've
forgotten Nina's background.
She was a communist in Europe.
Years ago. And she knows
strategy and tactics.
Thanks for the kind words.
- Hello, Nina.
Hi, Nina.
How are you today, Miss Nina?
- Fine, Sam.
Very good.
I have arranged to have some students
and professors in the crowd.
And I'm going to have
a flock of G.I.s there.
Spearheaded by some of our
top recruits, like Bill Jones.
He's still playing along?
Getting more steamed up every day.
He's so sore at the housing project and
the government, he'd swallow anything.
Good.
Nina, you might give him
a little special attention.
Alright, Earl.
Let's get on.
"The introduction of Bill Jones
to communist strategy."
"A misguided young man."
"Fallen under the spell of
Marxian hatred and revenge."
"Unaware that he's only the tool of
men who would destroy his country."
"The signs didn't tell of the
worldwide Marxist racket."
"Intent on spreading
dissension and treason."
Give these to the G.I.s over there.
Here you are, Jack.
- Right.
There he is! That's the
guy that got our money.
Okay boys. Let's see some action.
Show 'em what we're here for!
Let 'em see we mean business.
They can't steal our money
and get away with it.
We ought to rush the place.
Let's break up the joint.
Let's pull down them signs.
Come on, tear down the place.
Break it down.
Go on, throw that brick.
Break it.
Stick up for our rights and our money.
Fight for your rights, boys. Fight.
Get rid of these.
- Huh?
Take my arm and start walking.
Okay.
Come on. Let's go.
Alright, break it up now.
Clear the site.
This should be a free country.
It wouldn't be if your kind had
their way. Come on, let's go.
Buy the tickets, darling.
I don't mind being taken for a
ride, but why pick me out?
You seemed to be in such a daze
back there. I had to do something.
What did I do wrong?
You are a novice, aren't you?
You're fortunate you weren't arrested.
I guess you wonder who I am.
You didn't give me time to wonder.
I'm Nina Petrovka.
Glad to know you.
I am...
- I know. You're Bill Jones.
Partridge told me to keep an eye on you.
I didn't think I needed a bodyguard.
You didn't think so? Look.
Some of them might
be on their way to jail.
I don't exactly like the idea
of running out on those guys.
Very noble, Mr Jones.
But not very practical.
We all have a job to do and
you can't very well do it in jail.
One of the first things you learn.
You make me feel like a kid
talking to schoolmarm.
Well, I am a schoolteacher.
Only not the usual kind.
I'm an instructor for the party.
You mean the party runs regular schools?
- That's right.
They want the recruits to learn
the ropes from old hands like me.
I practically grew up in the party.
Well, if you grew up that way I can
understand you being a communist.
But...
You aren't very sure about Bill Jones?
Just suppose I should ask
you what communism means.
Well.
The idea of... everybody
sharing things equally, isn't it?
That's the average American opinion.
You had better get to me classes
and get your eyes opened.
What if a student asks for
a date with the teacher?
Take that up after you're a student.
Goodnight.
Just like that?
The ride is over, Mr Jones.
Well, that's no way to coax
pupils into the party.
Remember, I am not Molly.
The party is getting rough.
Charlie.
All communist doctrine is founded
on the teachings of Karl Marx...
As embodied in his book Das Kapital.
And his later works and pamphlets.
The basis of his doctrine.
"Two nights later at the opening
of class at the Workers School."
"Finds Bill Jones and other Party
recruits studying Marxism."
"Its principles, strategy and tactics."
"Nina Petrovka."
"Chosen for the introductory lecture
because of her charm and personality."
"Explains the basis of communism."
"It teaches that man and his world
are the products of natural forces..."
"That are constantly changing."
"There are no positive values."
"No eternal principles
of right and wrong."
"Actually, it's the old
doctrine of atheism."
"Sugar-coated with highbrow terms."
"It says that men are not
responsible to anyone."
"Except the totalitarian
socialist state."
"Marx. Engels. Lenin."
"Stalin."
"The apostles of the communist gospel."
"These are the words of the
foremost living communist."
"Joseph Stalin."
"And yet the American
communists deny..."
"That they want to overthrow
our government by force."
Fellow workers.
I'm going to ask you a
very important question.
What is democracy?
"As the class advances other lecturers
pound home communist doctrines."
"Partridge sneers at democracy as
a delusion created by Christianity."
"He sings the old Marxian song
that religion is a narcotic."
"Devised to make the
workers endure their chains."
"But Bill and the other
students are not told..."
"That in the true communist state..."
"All forms of disagreement
are forbidden."
"That the freedom which they
are offering to the workers."
"Would immediately be suppressed."
Tonight, we shall begin our
discussion of strategy and tactics.
Let us be frank, comrades.
All around us we see the
bourgeois institutions...
Which are devised to
exploit the workers.
And enrich the capitalistic exploiters.
These institutions.
Of the dollar-dominated press and radio.
The fascistic churches.
The red-baiting senators
and congressmen.
The befuddled and outdated
American laws that stifle progress.
Nothing must stand in the way of
the onward march of democracy.
You have another one of your
questions, comrade Reachi?
Yeah.
Just what do you mean by
democracy, Miss Kraus?
We mean rule by the people. What else?
Rule by all of the people?
Of course.
Well then...
What do our...
Textbooks mean by...
Dictatorship of the proletariat?
Dictatorship by one class ain't...
Ain't democracy.
Those things would all be clear to
anyone with a proper attitude.
But the truth don't change
according to somebody's attitude.
There is only one kind of truth.
That's the Communist Party truth
as seen by Marx, Lenin and Stalin.
But they want to... they want
to overthrow all governments.
Even the American government.
By force and violence.
Then we'll overthrow it
by force and violence.
We'll have our way if it
means bloodshed and terror.
If we have to liquidate a
million milksops like you.
My friends. Is this the kind
of democracy you want?
Is this the kind of world...
- He's worse than a fascist.
He's a Mussolini-spawned Dago.
Who wants to grovel at the feet
of the exploited of his own people.
A Dago, huh?
And you're the people
who preach tolerance.
Peaceful progress.
Respect for civil liberties.
I say this is the greatest fraud ever
perpetrated in a democratic country.
Hey.
Hey, what's the matter with you guys?
Don't you recognise a lot of
phonies when you hear them?
Yeah. Sure.
It would be too bad if you had to
shoot your mouth off about this.
Well, I'm going to tell them
just what I found out.
Hey, wait a minute!
Wait a minute, you guys.
"Is it getting to be too
much even for you, Nina?"
"After all those years in the Party."
"You knew about the communist goon
squads who take care of the Reachis."
"The little men who dared
to raise their voices."
"These are the people who rant about
the injustices of capitalist democracy."
What's the matter with you?
A weak stomach?
Or is it your loyalty?
Hello Earl.
This is Nina.
I don't think I will be able to
make it for the meeting tonight.
Why not?
We are counting on you as usual.
Oh, well.
Take this night off then
and get some rest.
Alright, Nina.
Nina is sick. She has been
working pretty hard lately.
I hope it's nothing serious.
It might be more serious than you think.
I'm beginning to wonder about Nina.
Good evening. Right this way please.
This is a nice little place.
Do you come here often?
When I want to get away
from party members.
I like to do that sometimes.
- Sort-of playing hooky. I know.
The food and wine are very good in here.
Pot-au-feu. You take what you get.
It's what you call 'grabbing a bag'.
A grab-bag.
Comment a va, madame?
- Tres biens, Merci.
Monsieur. Madame.
[ Violin music ]
Who's the guy the song brings back?
It wasn't a song. It wasn't a guy.
I was just thinking.
Are you worried about something, Nina?
Why?
That distant look in your eye.
How is it up there on cloud 7?
It is lonesome.
I guess I should stay
down on terra firma.
You know, this is
kind-of an anniversary.
You took me up in the clouds
three months ago today.
That's very sweet.
Don't tell me you kept track of it.
Yep. Only I wasn't going to mention it.
I was afraid it might sound foolish.
Why should it?
A woman likes to hear
foolish things like that.
See how wrong a guy can be?
I thought you were only a
cold-hearted schoolteacher.
But you've got real flesh and
blood just like anybody else.
Yes.
In the part of Europe I come from,
women learn to be natural.
They say what they think and feel.
I don't have to tell you how I feel.
It has been talked about.
They say that...
You joined the party because
of how you feel about me.
Can I still feel that way if
I don't join the party?
You mean you don't believe in it?
Some of their ideas might be alright.
I can't say I approve of the methods
they use to put them across.
This Reachi thing for instance.
I wouldn't talk about Reachi, Bill.
As to their methods.
My father didn't like them either.
Even though he was a party leader.
Is he still over there?
He was shot by the communists.
I am sorry, Nina.
Yvonne.
What are you doing here?
Just looking around.
A wonderful atmosphere, isn't it.
For curing a sick headache.
Or whatever ails you.
You know darling, you should
be careful what you say.
Others might hear you and not understand
what a loyal party member you are.
Other people might not be eavesdropping.
Of course they might make
an exception in your case.
You and Molly are so
gifted at wooing men.
Into the party.
They tell me Mr Partridge is here.
He is in the office.
Mr Solomon is waiting to see him.
More of your epic poetry
for our next issue I suppose.
Well, I wouldn't call it epic
but at least it's honest.
Honest, safe and sane. It's about
as revolutionary as a tabby cat.
She won't be satisfied until they
start printing the paper in red ink.
Do you know why Nina missed
that meeting? She wasn't sick.
She had a date with Bill Jones.
Oh, well.
We can't object to a little
romance now and then.
In fact I'd recommend it for
some other party members.
It may calm them down a little.
You worry about my
emotions if you want to.
But at least you don't have to
worry about my party loyalty.
That's more than I'll say for Nina.
That's a serious charge, Yvonne.
- It was meant to be.
No wonder she can't stand seeing that
disloyal ingrate Reachi being beaten.
She was defending her
traitor father to Bill Jones.
Would you like me to...
Have the boys keep an eye on her?
- It certainly wouldn't hurt.
Nina wouldn't be the
first foreign communist...
Who came over here and
got a crush on Uncle Sam.
I can't believe that.
Not about Nina.
She's been a party member
since she was a child.
However if she develops
any American loyalties...
Her card can be sent to the State
Department and she'll be deported.
Nina has personal experience of how the
party over there deals with traitors.
People like Nina forget that sometimes.
But I'll be very happy to remind her.
[ Door knocks ]
Hello, Henry.
How did they like the poem?
Oh. Fair, I guess.
Beautiful roses.
Yes. They are lovely.
I don't know who sent them.
I hope you're not going
to be jealous again.
I guess I do get kind-of
possessive at times.
But there are things I believe in as
theories that need work and I have...
We've been through all that, dear.
I've told you I can't believe
one way and act another.
You are just a little kid that doesn't
know what she believes in.
Incidentally.
I am the admirer who sent those roses.
You did?
Oh darling, that was sweet of you.
[ Door knocks ]
Hello, Father.
- Hello, Molly.
I was in the neighborhood seeing the
Mulcahys so I thought I would drop by.
I am glad you did.
Won't you come in?
I am sorry. I didn't
know you had company.
That is alright.
Father O'Leary, this is Henry Solomon.
How are you, lad? I'm glad to know you.
- How do you do.
Mr Solomon is a friend of mine.
If you came for the reason I think I'd
as soon have him here for this sermon.
Confidentially, sermons bore me.
Even my own.
Well, sit down, children. Sit down.
You don't have to stand
on ceremony with me.
Would you care for a cigarette, Father?
Or a drink, then?
I will settle for cigarettes.
I could stand a little nip
but it wouldn't be cricket.
I have just made Mr Mulcahy
sign the pledge.
Poor Mrs Mulcahy.
She has her problems.
Six children and a drinking husband.
If it weren't for Father O'Leary and my
mother I don't know how they would live.
Drinking is caused by frustration
and that can't be cured by charity.
The whole system has to be changed.
Sure, lad.
But what are the children supposed to
eat while you're doing the changing?
Or should I say, waiting
for the revolution?
Revolution.
What does he know about
a revolution, Molly?
There is no sense in even discussing it.
That's right.
You might as well get to the
point of your visit, Father.
My mother sent you here to talk
me out of being a communist.
But I happen to be of age and
I will think the way I please.
And without the dictation
of a prejudiced mother...
Or the funders of an
outworn medieval church.
My, my.
This sounds like a worse
case than Mulcahy's.
It could be settled I suppose by
another pledge. A loyalty pledge.
That might help.
If you folks really understood what
you are pledging yourselves to.
I thought we weren't going
to have any sermons, Father.
We are not. We are
going to let money talk.
Have you got half a dollar, lad?
Half a dollar?
- Yes.
Yeah. I think so.
Thank you.
You see what it says on
this side of the coin?
'E Pluribus Unum'.
And if you remember your school-day
Latin you'll know what it means.
One out of many.
That is the genius of America.
We aren't Irish or English
or Jewish or Russian.
We're all of them.
We've taken the best they had and
forged them into a common bond.
The old melting pot idea. Right. But how
does that solve the problems of today?
Because the melting
pot is still working.
We still absorb anything that
is good from other peoples.
That is where we are different.
The communists say they
have all the answers.
They sound like Mulcahy
talking through his beer.
Now, you see what it
says on the other side?
'In God we trust'.
God isn't very popular
in some circles today.
Just as he wasn't...
In a lot of countries and systems
that are forgotten and buried.
I should that all depends
on what you mean by God?
God is the Being.
That puts something in here.
That makes you want a better world.
The atheistic systems are
always founded on hatred.
Race hatred when they are Nazis.
Class hatred when they are communistic.
There is an old saying.
That the dice of God are always loaded.
Sure they are.
They're loaded on the side of
the people who trust in him.
Here is your coin, lad.
Maybe I had better put
this in the poor box.
Thanks a lot.
Charity covers a
multitude of ideologies.
As you all probably know.
This meeting was called by
the National Committee.
One of the important duties
of the party committee.
Is to study and direct...
The works of communist writers,
scientists and musicians.
And to see that their efforts do not
deviate from the approved party line.
One of the members of this group.
Has been accused of such deviation.
Henry Solomon's poem,
written in honor of Karl Marx.
Has been found objectionable.
That poem was submitted months ago.
Why should the committee
suddenly find it out of line?
Are you pitting your puny mind
up against the committee's?
I just wonder if it was the committee
that found that poem objectionable.
Or whether that decision came from some
higher body outside of this country.
Henry.
Why don't you let Mr Partridge continue
so we can hear what the objection is?
In your poem you spoke of Marx...
'Making the ancient dream of
paradise breathe on earth'.
About 'opening graves
where liberty sleeps'.
'And all ghosts spring forth'.
These praises would indicate that Marx
merely carried on the work of other men.
Instead of originating his own doctrine.
This is ridiculous. Every student knows
that Marx developed the ideas of Hegel.
And his ideas went way back to
Democritus in ancient Greece.
You see, he's a deviationist.
I knew it all along.
Are you conducting this meeting, Yvonne?
Do you mean to tell me that just
because I am a communist...
I have to deny the facts
of biography and history?
You must follow the communist
conception of history, Mr Solomon.
We contend that Karl Marx had no basis
in Hegel or Democritus or anybody else.
I heard of things like this being put
over in communist-dominated countries.
Philosophers being compelled
to deny the facts they uncovered.
Musicians forced to compose the kind of
music that ignorant commissars demanded.
And poets and journalists denied
the freedom of expression.
But I never thought I would find
injustice like this in America.
Solomon.
There is just one issue here.
Will you or will you not...
Publicly retract the opinions
you expressed in this poem?
I'd rather say that the issue is
whether I, as an American citizen...
As well as a communist have the right
to freedom of expression and opinion.
Henry, you should know better than that.
What you call 'freedom' is licensed.
The license to put your own
will against the party line.
In all my years in the party I thought
I could be an American democrat...
And a communist at the same time.
That if it came to an issue some of the
teachings of Marx might be abandoned.
I see now I was wrong.
Under the circumstances.
I find no alternative but to
withdraw from the party.
Now that I'm no longer
fettered by a dictatorship.
I can tell you trained red seals a few
of the things that have been on my mind.
You shout about progress and reforms and
lure young progressives into the party.
Yet behind their backs in your
council meetings you sneer at them...
As weak-minded simpletons for
being stupid enough to join.
I found this committee to be made
up chiefly of psychopathic misfits...
Who are seeking an outlet for
their frustrations and failures.
Only people like that could accept the
party line with its corkscrew tactics.
And its grandstand play to ex-G.I.s.
And its lies about the government that
is trying to help solve their problems.
You crusade for liberalism.
The only liberalism you know is in the
purse strings of the communist party.
It pours money into
the pockets of men...
Who haven't the brains or
sincerity to hold a decent job.
You pretend to fight
racial discrimination.
But you keep reminding me
that I am a Jewish-American.
That Sam down in the office
is a negro-American.
That Molly over here
is an Irish-American.
We are none of us hyphens.
We are just plain Americans.
Go on, sneer at me.
Tell me I'm waving a flag. Alright.
At least that flag has three
colors in it and not one.
Not one bloody one.
Traitor.
Trotskyite.
If I had my way I'd...
The committee will
deal with him, Yvonne.
No-one places themselves beyond
the pale of party discipline...
Merely by tearing up their card.
I think you all understand that...
None of you can associate with him until
we have instructions from the committee.
The meeting is adjourned.
I'm sorry this had to happen in
front of one of your students, Nina.
But at least we are beginning to find
out who the loyal members are.
Come on, Bill. Let's go.
Okay.
What are we going to do about Molly?
Well, I'll have to talk to her tomorrow
and tell her what she can expect...
If she associates with Solomon.
"Over the next weeks Solomon learns what
it means to be boycotted by the Party."
"And shunned by its membership."
"Outcast. Pariah. Taboo."
"He has begun to suffer the real
meaning of those dismal words."
"The walls are crowding in on him."
"The suffocating boredom of the drab
apartment makes him irritable."
"Restless."
"He must get out. Go somewhere.."
"Anywhere."
"For hours he walks the streets."
"Searching for the friendly
face of someone he knows."
"Someone he can talk to and
ease his troubled mind."
"Students from the Workers School..."
"Who once greeted him as
an oracle of the Party."
"Now are deliberately obvious in their
efforts to avoid speaking to him."
"He knows what they're saying."
"The cynical gossip as
they sneer after him."
"Solomon, the libertine."
"Solomon the drunkard."
"Solomon diseased."
"Solomon, the traitor."
"Boycotted by the newspapers
because of his subversive past."
"Solomon is compelled to take
any job that's offered."
"Filing clerk. Stenographer."
"But one after another
he loses those jobs."
"And always for the same reason."
"The boss wants to see Solomon."
"He has been expecting it every hour."
"At first the office manager
had been pleasant."
"Because of Solomon's intelligence
and conscientious work."
"Now, he acts like a different man."
"As though Solomon were his enemy."
"It hounds him wherever he goes."
"Sent by men who never forgive."
"Or forget."
"Wearily, he tries to tell
he has left the party."
"Of his own accord."
"But like the other bosses,
the manager is sorry."
"That it's against the
policy of the firm."
"To employ people who
mix in alien movements."
"Against the United States Government."
"Back to the hopeless round
of the lonely streets."
"Trying to stop the racing thoughts
of a disintegrating mind."
"Back to the pounding
thoughts of Molly."
"Whom he must continue to
avoid for her own welfare."
Henry.
Hello Molly. I got to be going.
- Oh, you can't go, Henry.
I've been looking for you every place.
I've phoned and left messages.
Yes, I know. I have been busy.
No you haven't.
You are just going to pieces.
Darling, you look terrible.
I'll be alright.
Molly, you shouldn't be
seen speaking to me.
You don't know the things they can do.
I don't care what they do.
I'm through with them.
I thought I was too.
It's not so easy.
Goodbye, Molly.
Take care of yourself.
Oh Henry. Wait a minute.
Hello Sam.
Hi.
Where is Partridge?
He's in there.
Waiting for Mr Vejac.
I don't want to get you in
trouble by talking to you, Sam.
But there's a favor you might
do me for old time's sake.
Well, if I can...
I may be going away suddenly.
If I do.
I'd appreciate it if you
would deliver this note.
Come in.
What do you want?
Mr Partridge.
I want to talk to you about this.
It's one thing to ostracise me.
Alright. We have
ideological differences.
But.
Molly?
Molly isn't hurting anybody.
She has been seen fraternizing
with party renegades.
That's nonsense. She just talked
to me for a moment in a doorway.
I'm not interested in the cheap
amours of a common party girl.
I suppose if I answered
that the way I should...
It will only mean more
trouble for Molly.
Very likely.
There is just one favor
that you could do for her.
If you were inclined to be self-reliant.
Then stop bothering her.
Once and for all.
Get out of her life.
Get out of everybody's lives.
Is he dead?
Is something wrong?
That crazy fool Solomon
just jumped out the window.
How did it happen?
Well, I was talking
to him and he jumped.
I had better tell them over
at Party headquarters.
And see how they want to break it.
I...
I can't tell you how sorry
I am, Miss O'Flaherty.
He was always so kind to me.
Such a good friend.
How are you, child?
Glad to see you here.
Hello, Father.
Father, I...
I am sorry for the way I have lived.
But I am not sorry I loved Henry.
You don't have to be
sorry about that, child.
He was a sincere man.
A good man.
The church doesn't condone suicide.
But it realizes that sometimes
when people take their lives.
They are irresponsible.
Temporarily insane.
The people in the party just
hounded him to his death.
You mustn't be bitter
against them, Molly.
They're misguided.
They need our prayers.
The best way.
To defeat communism.
Is for us to embrace Christianity
in American democracy...
Every day of our lives.
I know, Father.
I am... I am glad I've come home.
Molly.
Molly.
Did you check everything?
She didn't take anything but her own
things. She has moved out alright.
Yvonne, you move in here.
And let this be a reminder to you all
about how quickly you can be replaced.
Nina. You have been very quiet.
I hope you won't be sick again.
- No.
I have just been thinking of some work
I should be doing for the council.
Perhaps you had better get busy on it.
She's still acting up.
More so all the time.
Listen, Earl. I was right about Solomon
and Molly, and I'm right about her.
I say you should do something about it.
- I'm going to.
Have her watched from now on.
Hello, Sam.
- Hiya, Bill.
Has Nina been here?
- No. I haven't seen her today.
Sam.
There is...
Something has been bothering me.
I'd like to ask you about it.
What's that?
About Solomon.
Don't you think he got
sort-of a raw deal?
Well.
We aren't supposed
to look at it that way.
To bring about the revolution.
Some people do have to suffer.
But it's what happens to
the masses that counts.
Yeah, I know.
I've been trying to tell myself that.
But it's hard to swallow.
Oh. Hello, Mr Vejac.
They want to see you over at
party headquarters, Jones.
Okay.
So long, Sam.
- See you, Bill.
Headquarters wants us to
give Solomon the works.
How are you coming on
your article about him?
Well, I am having trouble.
Is that all you've written?
Look.
Couldn't somebody else handle this?
Solomon was always pretty fine to me.
What are you doing, getting sentimental?
You know what the party
is doing for your race.
And Solomon was a traitor to the party.
Well, I will do the best I can.
Hello, Dad.
Hello, Sam. Busy?
A little. Come on in.
Just on my way home and dropped by
to see how you was getting along.
Same as usual.
Got something on your mind, Dad?
Anything wrong at home?
It's what's wrong here, son.
There is nothing wrong here.
I'd say a man's suicide was
something wrong. You know it.
Especially because he
was a friend of yours.
Solomon, you mean?
Those things happen.
Yeah. And how come they happen?
That's what I wants to know.
And how come your paper used to say
such nice things about Mr Solomon...
And then suddenly switch?
It seems like they couldn't think
of anything nasty enough to say.
Maybe he deserved what they said.
Sam Wright, what has got into you?
You used to cut out Mr Solomon's
poems and show them to Ma and me.
And say how glad you was
to be working with him.
Well.
Things. Things are different now.
The hardest change is minding the party.
And I... I have to think
the way the party does.
Then it's a pretty poor party.
That's all I got to say.
I'm beginning to believe some of the
things I've been hearing about it.
What kind of things?
Deacon Smith was talking about your
communism in church the other night.
He said it's just using the colored
people just like it's using the G.I.s.
And other folks.
Just to stir up trouble.
Maybe Deacon Smith should
stick to his preaching.
Look here, Sam.
Don't you go upstaging
me and my friends.
Deacon Smith has read a few books too.
I am sorry, Dad.
I didn't mean any offense.
Deacon Smith said slavery ended in the
United States more than 80 years ago.
And right today.
There's more slaves in communist
countries than there are...
Any place or anywhere.
And what you tell me.
About a man having to think
as the party dictates.
It looks like we're having
slaves here again.
Come on. Chuck it all, Sam.
Come on home with me.
That's what Solomon
said in his note to Molly.
Come on, Dad.
Let's go home.
Sam.
Sam?
We're wasting our time
on those African ingrates.
Who is it?
- Me. Bill.
It's a little late I guess
but I've got some news.
Come in, Bill.
I saw Partridge tonight.
He said for me to drop in
at headquarters tomorrow...
And I'll be issued a Party card.
A Party card?
Yes.
What's the matter, Nina?
What's come over you?
It must be something about the party.
You have been trying to
get me in, haven't you?
I have been trying.
It was Tyler and Partridge and Yvonne.
They handed me over to you.
You led me to your lectures.
Took me to meetings. Showed me around.
I have been trying to show you
what communism really is.
Hoping you'd leave it alone.
Instead you are accepting it.
Not completely.
I told you that.
Maybe I wanted to be whatever you were.
To think the way you did.
I don't know what to say.
I came here to fight for
the people's rights.
But then I found that the people here
have everything communism promises.
If ever it seizes power.
Well, they can't seize
power here too easily.
Not with only a few thousand members.
But that's what they want you to think.
In each country communism has conquered,
the party membership was small.
That's what they want. A small and
highly disciplined group of fanatics.
Backed by thousands
of fellow travellers.
You should know if anybody does.
Only I wish you had
told me all this before.
I was afraid to, Bill.
When I signed my immigration papers.
I denied that I was a communist.
And if you try to leave the party
they will tell the State Department.
And have you deported.
I've got so that I don't
care about that anymore.
But I care about you.
And I know what would happen
if you will take that card.
And I don't want it cards
to happen to you, Bill.
Darling, we've got to
get away from here.
I couldn't get away from here, Bill.
Let me show you.
They're suspicious of me already because
I wasn't bitter enough against Solomon.
Because they sense how I feel about you.
Look, Nina. We can go out the back way.
You have got a car and we have
a few dollars between us.
But don't you realize they will
be after us wherever we go?
The party informers, the goon squads.
Listen. I know this country.
We can head for New Mexico. Texas.
We'll find some little place
way off the beaten track.
Bill, it is like learning to hope again.
Hurry, Nina. Pack some clothes.
He should be coming out pretty soon.
Maybe he's staying.
Not with her he ain't.
Hurry Nina. Let's go.
Okay.
Nina, don't.
Hey.
See that?
Let's take a look around the back.
Wait a minute.
- Hello Miss Petrovka.
Going somewhere?
For a ride, maybe.
You don't need a suitcase for that.
We're taking you two to see Partridge.
You're not taking us anywhere.
You will bring in the bag?
- Yes, ma'am.
We're from the immigration
department, Miss Kraus.
We want to have a talk with
you down at headquarters.
Where's your warrant?
An immigration inspector
doesn't need a warrant.
What is this, more Gestapo methods?
Where are our civil liberties?
Let me go. Do you hear me?
Let me go. I'm American.
Listen. I'm an American citizen.
You will pay for this.
- Come on.
Where were you born, Miss Kraus?
I refuse to answer this Gestapo.
I am an American citizen.
That's what we have to determine.
If everything is in order we'll
let you go with an apology.
I have nothing to be afraid of.
I was born in New York City.
When?
May 4th 1920.
Your father's name?
- Friedrich Kraus.
Where was he born?
Hamburg, Germany.
He was naturalised.
You took a trip to Mexico ten years ago,
Miss Kraus. How long did you stay?
Three months.
It all seems to check with our records.
Just sign this statement, Miss Kraus.
Sure. Why not?
Now, we'll just check
this with the old files.
This doesn't check.
What? What doesn't?
The signature you just gave me
is in a different handwriting...
To the signature of Ann Kraus
on her passport application.
But it does check with the
handwriting of one Greta Bloch.
That is a lie!
I'm being framed. I know my rights.
I demand a lawyer.
- Take it easy. You'll get a lawyer.
We've taken a lot of abuse from you.
So suppose you listen for a change.
We've been watching you not only
because of your communist activities.
But because of your loudmouthed
disloyalty to the U.S. Government.
While Inspector Riggs kept
you under surveillance.
We made an exhaustive check.
We found out the real Yvonne
Kraus did go to Mexico in 1938.
To open a pottery business.
Then we lost track of her.
And so did the Mexican authorities.
But the Comintern acquired her passport
and doctored it to fit Greta Bloch.
With your picture and your signature.
That is how you came
into the United States.
Besides that, you made a mistake here.
A mistake that any German might make.
It was the pronunciation you gave to
the names 'Friedrich' and 'Hamburg'.
The real Yvonne Kraus.
Never spoke a word
of German in her life.
You are too late.
You are too late I tell you!
You don't know it.
But the revolution is here!
You're talking to Commissar
Bloch, you fools.
You thought you could arrest me.
Me, Commissar Bloch.
Yes, Yvonne Kraus disappeared.
Because she was murdered.
But you can't touch the
men who killed her.
[ Military marching music ]
Listen.
Hear them.
Hear their drums.
The Red Legions.
They're entering the city.
In a few minutes they will be here.
And then we'll stand you against a wall.
Hear them.
I knew.
I knew they would be here.
I knew they would come!
They will be here to take charge.
To take your jobs.
Commissar Partridge and Commissar Tyler.
They killed Yvonne Kraus in Mexico.
They did it on my orders.
Try and arrest them now.
[ Military marching music ]
Don't you hear them?
You fools! Don't you hear them?
Alright, Norton.
Psychopathic ward.
Well, that's that.
I only wanted her
statement for clarification.
We have files of evidence
tying Partridge and Tyler...
Into the murder of the
original Yvonne Kraus.
Good.
Benson and Schultz were pulled in
for the murder of young Reachi.
Their confessions also
implicate Partridge and Tyler.
You'd better bring them in. While I
go into the case of Nina Petrovka.
"So now we understand what
Bill and Nina are fleeing."
"Why their objective is
an obscure hideaway."
"Halfway across the wide
and sprawling continent."
What's the name of this burgh?
Talbot. But don't ask me where it is.
Well, it's in Texas. We know that much.
Bill.
Why are we stopping?
I've been thinking, Nina.
What are we running away from?
This is the United States.
Not a police state.
Let's go and see that Sheriff.
Have a talk with him.
Try to make him understand.
Alright, Bill.
Whatever you want.
Howdy.
What can I do for you?
- We would...
We would like to come
in and talk to you.
Sure. Come in here.
Have a seat.
Okay?
Shoot.
We want to give ourselves up, Sheriff.
But first, I would like to explain.
Technically we might be guilty
but actually we are not.
We never was...
Nina tried to break with them. They want
her and have tipped off the authorities.
Hey, back up a minute.
Everything you've said so far
is about as clear as a mudhole.
Now, first off. What are your names?
I am...
Bill Jones and... this is Nina Petrovka.
Glad to know you.
You look sort-of tired and troubled.
Now, suppose you start telling
what this is all about and...
Go far enough back so
as I can understand it.
And... take your time.
You know, there's lots of things
we ain't got here in Talbot.
Time ain't one of them.
Well, Sheriff. I...
I guess I had better tell you what
happened back in California.
So.
When we got here we
decided to give ourselves up.
And see what the law had to say.
Do you know what?
You folks have been running
away from yourselves.
From the fear in your own minds.
You've been messing
around so long with...
The intrigues and underhanded
methods of the communists, that...
You've begun to think everybody
acts the same as they do.
You are no more wanted by
the authorities than I am.
But you don't know how they operate.
They must have tipped
off the State Department.
Supposing they did.
The Federal government won't take any
action until they make an investigation.
And when they investigate
they'll find out how things are.
You know, I read a lot of books.
I have to, to keep up with things.
From what I understand, the communists
don't give nobody a second chance.
Now that's where the
United States is different.
We give folks just as many
chances as they deserve.
Suppose this young lady of yours...
Did perjure herself to the
government a few years back.
She wouldn't today.
Why, right now she is probably
a better citizen than lots of us.
As she knows the meaning
of something that...
Bill Jones was trying to throw away.
I guess you got yourself
a little confused, eh Bill?
Not too confused to pick yourself one of
the swell-est dames I've seen in Texas.
That means I am talking about
the prettiest girls in the world.
Well, I don't mean to run
out on you kids but...
I got to drive over to the next
county and pick up Mike Tolliver.
What did Mr Tolliver do?
He got himself drunk.
They gave him thirty days.
The judge agreed to let
him spend it in my jail.
Kinda funny laws you have around here.
Well, Mike has been shooting
off his mouth that...
He can beat me at checkers.
So we are going to find out.
What you two want to do is
get yourselves hitched.
And raise a couple
of real American kids.
And if you ever need a witness.
I'll vouch for you. So long.
So long.
There is a great guy.
Bill, we don't even know his name.
Hey, sonny.
What is the name of that Sheriff?
Oh him? It's some kind of a long name.
But us kids, we call him Uncle Sam.
Well.
You heard what Uncle Sam
said about... getting hitched.
And raising some real American kids.
All in favor, say 'I'.
I... I... I.
I.
[ Singing: ]
"My country, 'tis of thee."
"Sweet land of liberty."
"Of thee I sing."
"Land where my fathers died."
"Land of the pilgrims' pride."
"From every mountainside."
"Let.... freedom.... ring."
Fork 3/22
I am afraid.
Nina, stop it.
It's me, Bill.
They can't get us now.
They will kill us.
- Nina.
Get hold of yourself.
Snap out of it.
That same dream.
Those frightening sadistic
faces chasing me.
Turning guns on me.
There is nothing to worry about.
They can't get us out here.
You don't really believe that?
You know we can't get away.
They haven't caught us yet have they.
No. But they will.
Please, Bill. Let me give myself up.
It isn't you they're after.
They want me. Why don't you?
This is why.
We'll have to stop at
the next gas station.
Bill, I hate to stop for anything.
We can't run without gas.
I was just getting ready to close up.
We're almost out of gas.
Can't you fill it up?
I suppose so.
From California, huh?
Yeah.
Why?
Oh, nothing.
A lot of California cars
pass through here.
I wonder sometimes
where they're heading.
Why did he say that?
Just to make conversation probably.
I don't believe it.
There must be some reason
why he's so curious.
Take it easy, Nina.
We can't suspect everybody.
That will be $3.22.
[ Phone ]
Sit tight. I'll have your
change in a minute.
Hello?
Yeah.
I don't know.
Maybe they are.
Okay. You had better
get over here in a hurry.
Hey, hey. What about your change?
Maybe they are following us.
No. They're not, sweet.
Try to relax.
I do wish I had a cigarette.
Try the compartment.
There might be some in there.
Here.
There is two left.
"Why are these two running away?"
"Bill Jones and Nina Petrovka."
"What is this fear..."
"Which has sent them racing
along a lonely Arizona road?"
"Have they murdered someone?"
"Are the police pursuing them?"
"Is it the Immigration
Department or the FBI?"
"Possibly it is none of these."
"They could be running from
something far more terrifying."
"To understand, we must
go back with Bill Jones."
"Back on the wings of
his tortured memory."
"To his city in California."
I am sorry but...
After you've paid your money down on
a home lot there's nothing we can do.
You meant the government won't act after
I'm fleeced out of my last 2,500 bucks?
We can't do anything.
These real estate firms aren't
controlled by the government.
We tried to warn the veterans
but they're impatient.
Sure, the veterans are always
impatient. Always wrong.
But why don't you change the way real
estate outfits operate and advertise?
So a guy don't end up with a scrubby
lot on a hillside way of town.
We are trying to.
But Jones.
You didn't consult us.
You didn't even read the
small print on your contract.
That's what I've heard every place I go.
So, I'm just stuck.
That's all there is to it, huh?
No.
No. We are investigating these
housing projects but it takes time.
And unfortunately there are
other veterans in the same boat.
Waiting for the same answer I got.
The same old run-around.
I'm going to tell other G.I.s the
kind of a deal they'll get here.
Let's not have a disturbance, fellow.
Move on.
I can move on my own power.
They kinda push you around, don't they.
Who wants to know?
Just another poor sap who's been
given the same routine you have.
They cut and dry it special
for G.I.s up there.
It makes me so hot I...
I'd like to paste somebody.
Getting hot won't do any good but...
I know a nice place to cool off.
Okay. I can stand plenty of cooling.
Never noticed this place before.
- Oh, it's not conspicuous.
Just a sort of a club for
discriminating people.
How are you today, Mr Tyler?
- Just fine, Bill.
How is the bourbon situation?
I may be able to rustle
up a little Kentucky.
That's the spirit.
I'll take mine with water.
The same.
It looks like Tyler has
got another prospect.
Molly.
Please, Henry.
Don't make it more difficult.
Uhuh.
This one is on me.
Got lucky today and
hit a 2-horse parlay.
Jack.
Excuse me.
Hi, Yvonne.
How about bringing big and
brawny over to the table?
He's decidedly my type.
I never saw one yet
that wasn't your type.
Never mind the personalities.
I said I wanted to meet him.
Sure.
To jail with real estate agents.
Life terms.
Who's the criminal?
Two more drinks and you'll be
giving him the electric chair.
Sure, if it isn't Molly O'Flaherty.
Don't you love the way he
kicks that Irish around.
I don't believe I've met
your friend, have I?
I just me him myself.
Try 'Bill'. He'll answer to that.
Bill Jones.
- Jones?
The name is familiar.
I've heard it or seen it somewhere.
You must sit up nights
reading phone books.
Have a drink, Molly?
- You've talked me into it.
Better make that three doubles.
We've got a lot of
important drinking to do.
Bill just got caught in
the same deal that I did.
Another pigeon who
had his wings clipped.
Not that G.I. housing project?
A project without the housing.
A funny thing about those G.I.s.
You hear a lot about them.
But you don't read of it in the papers.
- They don't print that kind of stuff.
It might frighten other suckers away.
All this talk isn't going to help.
When is somebody going
to do something about it?
Somebody is.
They are?
Who?
Friends of mine.
They had me watching that office.
Checking on veterans who had complaints.
We're getting a pretty good list.
Well, you can count me in.
It will stop other G.I.s
from getting hurt.
You are a good Joe, Bill.
I'll speak to my friends about you.
Okay.
Just so you don't say anything
bad that will come back to Molly.
There is no reason why we
should both drink solo.
Why do you waste your time, Yvonne?
You and I can sit together
and still be solo.
You know Henry, I wouldn't be surprised
if you really wrote a great poem.
Why the sudden confidence in my talent?
They say a poet can only produce great
art when his heart is really touched.
And yours is being torn
out and wiped on the floor.
The bar room floor.
Who's the girl you were going to
build a little castle in the clouds for?
Girl?
Don't tell me you were going
to live alone and try to like it?
There was a girl when I built the house.
She.
She settled for something
a little nearer the earth.
Let's hope she lives
unhappily ever after.
Let's leave her out of this.
I hate to break up this cheery little
wake but I have got to meet Partridge.
He's one of those friends
I was telling you about.
Go ahead.
I'll try to get him up
in the clouds again.
Good.
Look, Bill. Meet me here tomorrow.
I'll tell you more about
these friends of mine.
I'll be around.
So, I see whose type he is.
I didn't get a chance to talk to him.
Molly moved right in.
I wouldn't want to compete with Molly.
And lose my amateur standing?
Hi, Sam. How is it going?
Been up all night working on a rewrite.
What's the matter with Holder?
Can't he give you a hand?
He's not here anymore.
- What happened?
Mr Partridge been around?
Yeah. He's in there.
- Thanks, Sam.
Come in.
Hello, Mr Partridge.
Come in. Sit down. Keep quiet.
Continue.
How can I compete with other papers if
my best reporters disappear overnight?
Holder was not only an ace
newspaperman, he was a linguist.
And he talked too much.
About party matters in bars to
his non-communist friends.
We all do that.
Then we'll all get what Holder did.
His party card has been sent
to the State Department.
They will check it against
his immigration papers.
Then he'll be deported to his homeland.
Where they know how to shut mouths.
Permanently.
Well, he'll be a hard man to replace.
Ah, we can all be replaced.
This paper.
Could get a new editor
within an hour's time.
Even I, as the head of the committee.
Could be replaced in no time at all.
And you will be replaced.
Unless you bring some recruits who
are not hobos or stumblebums.
That's what I wanted to talk
to you about, Mr Partridge.
I collared a good one today.
Bill Jones.
A hundred percent American type.
Good war record. Plenty of gripes.
He sounds alright.
Does he know that he's
not joining a tea party?
I don't think we have
to worry about that.
If we promise him justice
for the G.I.s, and...
Maybe a job for himself he'll go for it.
Promise him anything.
When we get him into the party
he'll find it's not so easy to get out.
Pardon me.
I say... well...
Now that you're properly impressed.
You can relax and you
can have a good time.
Remember, you only
came up for one drink.
I have got a very short memory.
Except for pretty faces.
You had better keep your
mind on the drink, Mr J.
You turn on the phonograph
while I do the mixing.
Okay.
Well.
- What's the matter?
Who died and left you the fancy library?
Sir, you are referring
to the books I love.
'The coming dawn'.
Kinda heavy going aren't they?
At first, maybe.
But you get to understand
them if you stick at it.
I always heard Commies peddled bunk.
I didn't know they came as cute as you.
And you're not going to be
shocked and walk out?
What is there to be shocked about?
I just think it's funny. That's all.
There's nothing so funny about it.
Not if you stop to realize that...
The party has been behind every
decent cause in this country.
The war against fascism
and the labor movement.
Look what it's doing today.
Fighting for the minorities,
the Jews and the negroes.
I can't get steamed up
over causes anymore.
Except for the boy scouts.
I still believe in Santa Claus.
I never got to know much
about Santa Claus.
When I was a kid my Dad got starvation
pay in a shop that wasn't organised.
My mother broke her back over the stove
and washtubs trying to make ends meet.
You must have...
Come up on a fast elevator.
I came up the hard way.
Factory jobs and night school.
And then I found out some of
my friends were in the party.
They started helping me.
Giving me a different slant on things.
They showed me it wasn't me or my folks
that were wrong. It was the system.
I'll admit I don't understand all the
ideology and some of the big words.
But I do know what
they are trying to do.
To end once and for all the
exploitation of humanity.
The only cause of poverty and suffering.
A pretty big speech for a little girl.
But I mean it, Bill.
Why do you think we are
so interested in you?
It can't be my money.
It's because you lost your
money in that housing deal.
That's the kind of thing the
party is fighting against.
We are for people, not
for privileges or property.
Sounds good anyway.
We are getting too serious.
May I have this dance, Mr Jones?
Sure.
You didn't learn this in the boy scouts.
Bill.
Maybe you had better go home.
Take this along. Read it.
So.
It has all been just a
come-on for the party.
Don't say that, Bill.
[ Door knocks ]
Who is it?
- It's me, Molly.
Hello, Ma.
Pretty early for you
to be out, isn't it?
I guess so.
I was here last night.
But I heard you had company.
So I went home.
I thought you were
going to stop drinking.
Well, I didn't.
Look, Ma. I'm not a kid anymore and
you're not going to treat me like one.
What's the matter,
didn't you get your check?
Yes, Molly. I got it.
And I brought it back.
Brought it back?
Why? Isn't it big enough?
I don't want that kind of money.
You told me you were a
secretary to a big stockbroker.
You said that's why you
could afford a place like this.
And all those clothes and things.
I suppose you've been listening to those
Micks gossiping over at the church.
And Father O'Leary.
That's what I thought it was.
Just gossip.
It couldn't be true.
Not about my Molly.
And I decided to find out.
For myself.
So, you found out I'm a communist.
What's so wrong in that?
There is no law against it.
Well, if it isn't wrong why should you
lie about it to your own mother?
I don't even know what communism means.
But it can't be good making
you do these things.
What things?
What was the woman in the bible
doing... that was taken in sin?
Look, Ma.
I don't care anything
about that bible junk.
I'm doing alright.
And I belong to a party that's
going to make the world over.
Where people don't get the kind
of a raw deal my father got.
What raw deal?
Your father worked hard and
made a respectable home for us.
He and I tried to bring you
up the best we could.
But it's beginning to look like we
didn't do a very good job of it.
What's the use?
You don't understand.
I guess I don't.
The only thing I can
do is keep on praying.
'Protest meeting. G.I.'s attention'.
'The Hillside Veterans Housing Project'.
'Is defrauding ex-servicemen
by selling them City lots'.
'Which have no public utilities
or building prospects'.
'Demand action from your
District Attorney's office'.
'Your City council and the Grand Jury'.
'G.I.'s Protest'.
That is the idea.
That should stir them up.
You know it's a shame about those poor
boys, the defenders of our country.
Stripped of their pension
and their life savings.
That sounds like one of my editorials.
Well, I'd better be on my way.
Oh. You will have to wait for Nina.
She's in charge of the picketing.
She and Yvonne.
Women in charge of a
demonstration like that?
There might be some rough stuff.
Fistfights. A few broken heads.
I'm afraid that you've
forgotten Nina's background.
She was a communist in Europe.
Years ago. And she knows
strategy and tactics.
Thanks for the kind words.
- Hello, Nina.
Hi, Nina.
How are you today, Miss Nina?
- Fine, Sam.
Very good.
I have arranged to have some students
and professors in the crowd.
And I'm going to have
a flock of G.I.s there.
Spearheaded by some of our
top recruits, like Bill Jones.
He's still playing along?
Getting more steamed up every day.
He's so sore at the housing project and
the government, he'd swallow anything.
Good.
Nina, you might give him
a little special attention.
Alright, Earl.
Let's get on.
"The introduction of Bill Jones
to communist strategy."
"A misguided young man."
"Fallen under the spell of
Marxian hatred and revenge."
"Unaware that he's only the tool of
men who would destroy his country."
"The signs didn't tell of the
worldwide Marxist racket."
"Intent on spreading
dissension and treason."
Give these to the G.I.s over there.
Here you are, Jack.
- Right.
There he is! That's the
guy that got our money.
Okay boys. Let's see some action.
Show 'em what we're here for!
Let 'em see we mean business.
They can't steal our money
and get away with it.
We ought to rush the place.
Let's break up the joint.
Let's pull down them signs.
Come on, tear down the place.
Break it down.
Go on, throw that brick.
Break it.
Stick up for our rights and our money.
Fight for your rights, boys. Fight.
Get rid of these.
- Huh?
Take my arm and start walking.
Okay.
Come on. Let's go.
Alright, break it up now.
Clear the site.
This should be a free country.
It wouldn't be if your kind had
their way. Come on, let's go.
Buy the tickets, darling.
I don't mind being taken for a
ride, but why pick me out?
You seemed to be in such a daze
back there. I had to do something.
What did I do wrong?
You are a novice, aren't you?
You're fortunate you weren't arrested.
I guess you wonder who I am.
You didn't give me time to wonder.
I'm Nina Petrovka.
Glad to know you.
I am...
- I know. You're Bill Jones.
Partridge told me to keep an eye on you.
I didn't think I needed a bodyguard.
You didn't think so? Look.
Some of them might
be on their way to jail.
I don't exactly like the idea
of running out on those guys.
Very noble, Mr Jones.
But not very practical.
We all have a job to do and
you can't very well do it in jail.
One of the first things you learn.
You make me feel like a kid
talking to schoolmarm.
Well, I am a schoolteacher.
Only not the usual kind.
I'm an instructor for the party.
You mean the party runs regular schools?
- That's right.
They want the recruits to learn
the ropes from old hands like me.
I practically grew up in the party.
Well, if you grew up that way I can
understand you being a communist.
But...
You aren't very sure about Bill Jones?
Just suppose I should ask
you what communism means.
Well.
The idea of... everybody
sharing things equally, isn't it?
That's the average American opinion.
You had better get to me classes
and get your eyes opened.
What if a student asks for
a date with the teacher?
Take that up after you're a student.
Goodnight.
Just like that?
The ride is over, Mr Jones.
Well, that's no way to coax
pupils into the party.
Remember, I am not Molly.
The party is getting rough.
Charlie.
All communist doctrine is founded
on the teachings of Karl Marx...
As embodied in his book Das Kapital.
And his later works and pamphlets.
The basis of his doctrine.
"Two nights later at the opening
of class at the Workers School."
"Finds Bill Jones and other Party
recruits studying Marxism."
"Its principles, strategy and tactics."
"Nina Petrovka."
"Chosen for the introductory lecture
because of her charm and personality."
"Explains the basis of communism."
"It teaches that man and his world
are the products of natural forces..."
"That are constantly changing."
"There are no positive values."
"No eternal principles
of right and wrong."
"Actually, it's the old
doctrine of atheism."
"Sugar-coated with highbrow terms."
"It says that men are not
responsible to anyone."
"Except the totalitarian
socialist state."
"Marx. Engels. Lenin."
"Stalin."
"The apostles of the communist gospel."
"These are the words of the
foremost living communist."
"Joseph Stalin."
"And yet the American
communists deny..."
"That they want to overthrow
our government by force."
Fellow workers.
I'm going to ask you a
very important question.
What is democracy?
"As the class advances other lecturers
pound home communist doctrines."
"Partridge sneers at democracy as
a delusion created by Christianity."
"He sings the old Marxian song
that religion is a narcotic."
"Devised to make the
workers endure their chains."
"But Bill and the other
students are not told..."
"That in the true communist state..."
"All forms of disagreement
are forbidden."
"That the freedom which they
are offering to the workers."
"Would immediately be suppressed."
Tonight, we shall begin our
discussion of strategy and tactics.
Let us be frank, comrades.
All around us we see the
bourgeois institutions...
Which are devised to
exploit the workers.
And enrich the capitalistic exploiters.
These institutions.
Of the dollar-dominated press and radio.
The fascistic churches.
The red-baiting senators
and congressmen.
The befuddled and outdated
American laws that stifle progress.
Nothing must stand in the way of
the onward march of democracy.
You have another one of your
questions, comrade Reachi?
Yeah.
Just what do you mean by
democracy, Miss Kraus?
We mean rule by the people. What else?
Rule by all of the people?
Of course.
Well then...
What do our...
Textbooks mean by...
Dictatorship of the proletariat?
Dictatorship by one class ain't...
Ain't democracy.
Those things would all be clear to
anyone with a proper attitude.
But the truth don't change
according to somebody's attitude.
There is only one kind of truth.
That's the Communist Party truth
as seen by Marx, Lenin and Stalin.
But they want to... they want
to overthrow all governments.
Even the American government.
By force and violence.
Then we'll overthrow it
by force and violence.
We'll have our way if it
means bloodshed and terror.
If we have to liquidate a
million milksops like you.
My friends. Is this the kind
of democracy you want?
Is this the kind of world...
- He's worse than a fascist.
He's a Mussolini-spawned Dago.
Who wants to grovel at the feet
of the exploited of his own people.
A Dago, huh?
And you're the people
who preach tolerance.
Peaceful progress.
Respect for civil liberties.
I say this is the greatest fraud ever
perpetrated in a democratic country.
Hey.
Hey, what's the matter with you guys?
Don't you recognise a lot of
phonies when you hear them?
Yeah. Sure.
It would be too bad if you had to
shoot your mouth off about this.
Well, I'm going to tell them
just what I found out.
Hey, wait a minute!
Wait a minute, you guys.
"Is it getting to be too
much even for you, Nina?"
"After all those years in the Party."
"You knew about the communist goon
squads who take care of the Reachis."
"The little men who dared
to raise their voices."
"These are the people who rant about
the injustices of capitalist democracy."
What's the matter with you?
A weak stomach?
Or is it your loyalty?
Hello Earl.
This is Nina.
I don't think I will be able to
make it for the meeting tonight.
Why not?
We are counting on you as usual.
Oh, well.
Take this night off then
and get some rest.
Alright, Nina.
Nina is sick. She has been
working pretty hard lately.
I hope it's nothing serious.
It might be more serious than you think.
I'm beginning to wonder about Nina.
Good evening. Right this way please.
This is a nice little place.
Do you come here often?
When I want to get away
from party members.
I like to do that sometimes.
- Sort-of playing hooky. I know.
The food and wine are very good in here.
Pot-au-feu. You take what you get.
It's what you call 'grabbing a bag'.
A grab-bag.
Comment a va, madame?
- Tres biens, Merci.
Monsieur. Madame.
[ Violin music ]
Who's the guy the song brings back?
It wasn't a song. It wasn't a guy.
I was just thinking.
Are you worried about something, Nina?
Why?
That distant look in your eye.
How is it up there on cloud 7?
It is lonesome.
I guess I should stay
down on terra firma.
You know, this is
kind-of an anniversary.
You took me up in the clouds
three months ago today.
That's very sweet.
Don't tell me you kept track of it.
Yep. Only I wasn't going to mention it.
I was afraid it might sound foolish.
Why should it?
A woman likes to hear
foolish things like that.
See how wrong a guy can be?
I thought you were only a
cold-hearted schoolteacher.
But you've got real flesh and
blood just like anybody else.
Yes.
In the part of Europe I come from,
women learn to be natural.
They say what they think and feel.
I don't have to tell you how I feel.
It has been talked about.
They say that...
You joined the party because
of how you feel about me.
Can I still feel that way if
I don't join the party?
You mean you don't believe in it?
Some of their ideas might be alright.
I can't say I approve of the methods
they use to put them across.
This Reachi thing for instance.
I wouldn't talk about Reachi, Bill.
As to their methods.
My father didn't like them either.
Even though he was a party leader.
Is he still over there?
He was shot by the communists.
I am sorry, Nina.
Yvonne.
What are you doing here?
Just looking around.
A wonderful atmosphere, isn't it.
For curing a sick headache.
Or whatever ails you.
You know darling, you should
be careful what you say.
Others might hear you and not understand
what a loyal party member you are.
Other people might not be eavesdropping.
Of course they might make
an exception in your case.
You and Molly are so
gifted at wooing men.
Into the party.
They tell me Mr Partridge is here.
He is in the office.
Mr Solomon is waiting to see him.
More of your epic poetry
for our next issue I suppose.
Well, I wouldn't call it epic
but at least it's honest.
Honest, safe and sane. It's about
as revolutionary as a tabby cat.
She won't be satisfied until they
start printing the paper in red ink.
Do you know why Nina missed
that meeting? She wasn't sick.
She had a date with Bill Jones.
Oh, well.
We can't object to a little
romance now and then.
In fact I'd recommend it for
some other party members.
It may calm them down a little.
You worry about my
emotions if you want to.
But at least you don't have to
worry about my party loyalty.
That's more than I'll say for Nina.
That's a serious charge, Yvonne.
- It was meant to be.
No wonder she can't stand seeing that
disloyal ingrate Reachi being beaten.
She was defending her
traitor father to Bill Jones.
Would you like me to...
Have the boys keep an eye on her?
- It certainly wouldn't hurt.
Nina wouldn't be the
first foreign communist...
Who came over here and
got a crush on Uncle Sam.
I can't believe that.
Not about Nina.
She's been a party member
since she was a child.
However if she develops
any American loyalties...
Her card can be sent to the State
Department and she'll be deported.
Nina has personal experience of how the
party over there deals with traitors.
People like Nina forget that sometimes.
But I'll be very happy to remind her.
[ Door knocks ]
Hello, Henry.
How did they like the poem?
Oh. Fair, I guess.
Beautiful roses.
Yes. They are lovely.
I don't know who sent them.
I hope you're not going
to be jealous again.
I guess I do get kind-of
possessive at times.
But there are things I believe in as
theories that need work and I have...
We've been through all that, dear.
I've told you I can't believe
one way and act another.
You are just a little kid that doesn't
know what she believes in.
Incidentally.
I am the admirer who sent those roses.
You did?
Oh darling, that was sweet of you.
[ Door knocks ]
Hello, Father.
- Hello, Molly.
I was in the neighborhood seeing the
Mulcahys so I thought I would drop by.
I am glad you did.
Won't you come in?
I am sorry. I didn't
know you had company.
That is alright.
Father O'Leary, this is Henry Solomon.
How are you, lad? I'm glad to know you.
- How do you do.
Mr Solomon is a friend of mine.
If you came for the reason I think I'd
as soon have him here for this sermon.
Confidentially, sermons bore me.
Even my own.
Well, sit down, children. Sit down.
You don't have to stand
on ceremony with me.
Would you care for a cigarette, Father?
Or a drink, then?
I will settle for cigarettes.
I could stand a little nip
but it wouldn't be cricket.
I have just made Mr Mulcahy
sign the pledge.
Poor Mrs Mulcahy.
She has her problems.
Six children and a drinking husband.
If it weren't for Father O'Leary and my
mother I don't know how they would live.
Drinking is caused by frustration
and that can't be cured by charity.
The whole system has to be changed.
Sure, lad.
But what are the children supposed to
eat while you're doing the changing?
Or should I say, waiting
for the revolution?
Revolution.
What does he know about
a revolution, Molly?
There is no sense in even discussing it.
That's right.
You might as well get to the
point of your visit, Father.
My mother sent you here to talk
me out of being a communist.
But I happen to be of age and
I will think the way I please.
And without the dictation
of a prejudiced mother...
Or the funders of an
outworn medieval church.
My, my.
This sounds like a worse
case than Mulcahy's.
It could be settled I suppose by
another pledge. A loyalty pledge.
That might help.
If you folks really understood what
you are pledging yourselves to.
I thought we weren't going
to have any sermons, Father.
We are not. We are
going to let money talk.
Have you got half a dollar, lad?
Half a dollar?
- Yes.
Yeah. I think so.
Thank you.
You see what it says on
this side of the coin?
'E Pluribus Unum'.
And if you remember your school-day
Latin you'll know what it means.
One out of many.
That is the genius of America.
We aren't Irish or English
or Jewish or Russian.
We're all of them.
We've taken the best they had and
forged them into a common bond.
The old melting pot idea. Right. But how
does that solve the problems of today?
Because the melting
pot is still working.
We still absorb anything that
is good from other peoples.
That is where we are different.
The communists say they
have all the answers.
They sound like Mulcahy
talking through his beer.
Now, you see what it
says on the other side?
'In God we trust'.
God isn't very popular
in some circles today.
Just as he wasn't...
In a lot of countries and systems
that are forgotten and buried.
I should that all depends
on what you mean by God?
God is the Being.
That puts something in here.
That makes you want a better world.
The atheistic systems are
always founded on hatred.
Race hatred when they are Nazis.
Class hatred when they are communistic.
There is an old saying.
That the dice of God are always loaded.
Sure they are.
They're loaded on the side of
the people who trust in him.
Here is your coin, lad.
Maybe I had better put
this in the poor box.
Thanks a lot.
Charity covers a
multitude of ideologies.
As you all probably know.
This meeting was called by
the National Committee.
One of the important duties
of the party committee.
Is to study and direct...
The works of communist writers,
scientists and musicians.
And to see that their efforts do not
deviate from the approved party line.
One of the members of this group.
Has been accused of such deviation.
Henry Solomon's poem,
written in honor of Karl Marx.
Has been found objectionable.
That poem was submitted months ago.
Why should the committee
suddenly find it out of line?
Are you pitting your puny mind
up against the committee's?
I just wonder if it was the committee
that found that poem objectionable.
Or whether that decision came from some
higher body outside of this country.
Henry.
Why don't you let Mr Partridge continue
so we can hear what the objection is?
In your poem you spoke of Marx...
'Making the ancient dream of
paradise breathe on earth'.
About 'opening graves
where liberty sleeps'.
'And all ghosts spring forth'.
These praises would indicate that Marx
merely carried on the work of other men.
Instead of originating his own doctrine.
This is ridiculous. Every student knows
that Marx developed the ideas of Hegel.
And his ideas went way back to
Democritus in ancient Greece.
You see, he's a deviationist.
I knew it all along.
Are you conducting this meeting, Yvonne?
Do you mean to tell me that just
because I am a communist...
I have to deny the facts
of biography and history?
You must follow the communist
conception of history, Mr Solomon.
We contend that Karl Marx had no basis
in Hegel or Democritus or anybody else.
I heard of things like this being put
over in communist-dominated countries.
Philosophers being compelled
to deny the facts they uncovered.
Musicians forced to compose the kind of
music that ignorant commissars demanded.
And poets and journalists denied
the freedom of expression.
But I never thought I would find
injustice like this in America.
Solomon.
There is just one issue here.
Will you or will you not...
Publicly retract the opinions
you expressed in this poem?
I'd rather say that the issue is
whether I, as an American citizen...
As well as a communist have the right
to freedom of expression and opinion.
Henry, you should know better than that.
What you call 'freedom' is licensed.
The license to put your own
will against the party line.
In all my years in the party I thought
I could be an American democrat...
And a communist at the same time.
That if it came to an issue some of the
teachings of Marx might be abandoned.
I see now I was wrong.
Under the circumstances.
I find no alternative but to
withdraw from the party.
Now that I'm no longer
fettered by a dictatorship.
I can tell you trained red seals a few
of the things that have been on my mind.
You shout about progress and reforms and
lure young progressives into the party.
Yet behind their backs in your
council meetings you sneer at them...
As weak-minded simpletons for
being stupid enough to join.
I found this committee to be made
up chiefly of psychopathic misfits...
Who are seeking an outlet for
their frustrations and failures.
Only people like that could accept the
party line with its corkscrew tactics.
And its grandstand play to ex-G.I.s.
And its lies about the government that
is trying to help solve their problems.
You crusade for liberalism.
The only liberalism you know is in the
purse strings of the communist party.
It pours money into
the pockets of men...
Who haven't the brains or
sincerity to hold a decent job.
You pretend to fight
racial discrimination.
But you keep reminding me
that I am a Jewish-American.
That Sam down in the office
is a negro-American.
That Molly over here
is an Irish-American.
We are none of us hyphens.
We are just plain Americans.
Go on, sneer at me.
Tell me I'm waving a flag. Alright.
At least that flag has three
colors in it and not one.
Not one bloody one.
Traitor.
Trotskyite.
If I had my way I'd...
The committee will
deal with him, Yvonne.
No-one places themselves beyond
the pale of party discipline...
Merely by tearing up their card.
I think you all understand that...
None of you can associate with him until
we have instructions from the committee.
The meeting is adjourned.
I'm sorry this had to happen in
front of one of your students, Nina.
But at least we are beginning to find
out who the loyal members are.
Come on, Bill. Let's go.
Okay.
What are we going to do about Molly?
Well, I'll have to talk to her tomorrow
and tell her what she can expect...
If she associates with Solomon.
"Over the next weeks Solomon learns what
it means to be boycotted by the Party."
"And shunned by its membership."
"Outcast. Pariah. Taboo."
"He has begun to suffer the real
meaning of those dismal words."
"The walls are crowding in on him."
"The suffocating boredom of the drab
apartment makes him irritable."
"Restless."
"He must get out. Go somewhere.."
"Anywhere."
"For hours he walks the streets."
"Searching for the friendly
face of someone he knows."
"Someone he can talk to and
ease his troubled mind."
"Students from the Workers School..."
"Who once greeted him as
an oracle of the Party."
"Now are deliberately obvious in their
efforts to avoid speaking to him."
"He knows what they're saying."
"The cynical gossip as
they sneer after him."
"Solomon, the libertine."
"Solomon the drunkard."
"Solomon diseased."
"Solomon, the traitor."
"Boycotted by the newspapers
because of his subversive past."
"Solomon is compelled to take
any job that's offered."
"Filing clerk. Stenographer."
"But one after another
he loses those jobs."
"And always for the same reason."
"The boss wants to see Solomon."
"He has been expecting it every hour."
"At first the office manager
had been pleasant."
"Because of Solomon's intelligence
and conscientious work."
"Now, he acts like a different man."
"As though Solomon were his enemy."
"It hounds him wherever he goes."
"Sent by men who never forgive."
"Or forget."
"Wearily, he tries to tell
he has left the party."
"Of his own accord."
"But like the other bosses,
the manager is sorry."
"That it's against the
policy of the firm."
"To employ people who
mix in alien movements."
"Against the United States Government."
"Back to the hopeless round
of the lonely streets."
"Trying to stop the racing thoughts
of a disintegrating mind."
"Back to the pounding
thoughts of Molly."
"Whom he must continue to
avoid for her own welfare."
Henry.
Hello Molly. I got to be going.
- Oh, you can't go, Henry.
I've been looking for you every place.
I've phoned and left messages.
Yes, I know. I have been busy.
No you haven't.
You are just going to pieces.
Darling, you look terrible.
I'll be alright.
Molly, you shouldn't be
seen speaking to me.
You don't know the things they can do.
I don't care what they do.
I'm through with them.
I thought I was too.
It's not so easy.
Goodbye, Molly.
Take care of yourself.
Oh Henry. Wait a minute.
Hello Sam.
Hi.
Where is Partridge?
He's in there.
Waiting for Mr Vejac.
I don't want to get you in
trouble by talking to you, Sam.
But there's a favor you might
do me for old time's sake.
Well, if I can...
I may be going away suddenly.
If I do.
I'd appreciate it if you
would deliver this note.
Come in.
What do you want?
Mr Partridge.
I want to talk to you about this.
It's one thing to ostracise me.
Alright. We have
ideological differences.
But.
Molly?
Molly isn't hurting anybody.
She has been seen fraternizing
with party renegades.
That's nonsense. She just talked
to me for a moment in a doorway.
I'm not interested in the cheap
amours of a common party girl.
I suppose if I answered
that the way I should...
It will only mean more
trouble for Molly.
Very likely.
There is just one favor
that you could do for her.
If you were inclined to be self-reliant.
Then stop bothering her.
Once and for all.
Get out of her life.
Get out of everybody's lives.
Is he dead?
Is something wrong?
That crazy fool Solomon
just jumped out the window.
How did it happen?
Well, I was talking
to him and he jumped.
I had better tell them over
at Party headquarters.
And see how they want to break it.
I...
I can't tell you how sorry
I am, Miss O'Flaherty.
He was always so kind to me.
Such a good friend.
How are you, child?
Glad to see you here.
Hello, Father.
Father, I...
I am sorry for the way I have lived.
But I am not sorry I loved Henry.
You don't have to be
sorry about that, child.
He was a sincere man.
A good man.
The church doesn't condone suicide.
But it realizes that sometimes
when people take their lives.
They are irresponsible.
Temporarily insane.
The people in the party just
hounded him to his death.
You mustn't be bitter
against them, Molly.
They're misguided.
They need our prayers.
The best way.
To defeat communism.
Is for us to embrace Christianity
in American democracy...
Every day of our lives.
I know, Father.
I am... I am glad I've come home.
Molly.
Molly.
Did you check everything?
She didn't take anything but her own
things. She has moved out alright.
Yvonne, you move in here.
And let this be a reminder to you all
about how quickly you can be replaced.
Nina. You have been very quiet.
I hope you won't be sick again.
- No.
I have just been thinking of some work
I should be doing for the council.
Perhaps you had better get busy on it.
She's still acting up.
More so all the time.
Listen, Earl. I was right about Solomon
and Molly, and I'm right about her.
I say you should do something about it.
- I'm going to.
Have her watched from now on.
Hello, Sam.
- Hiya, Bill.
Has Nina been here?
- No. I haven't seen her today.
Sam.
There is...
Something has been bothering me.
I'd like to ask you about it.
What's that?
About Solomon.
Don't you think he got
sort-of a raw deal?
Well.
We aren't supposed
to look at it that way.
To bring about the revolution.
Some people do have to suffer.
But it's what happens to
the masses that counts.
Yeah, I know.
I've been trying to tell myself that.
But it's hard to swallow.
Oh. Hello, Mr Vejac.
They want to see you over at
party headquarters, Jones.
Okay.
So long, Sam.
- See you, Bill.
Headquarters wants us to
give Solomon the works.
How are you coming on
your article about him?
Well, I am having trouble.
Is that all you've written?
Look.
Couldn't somebody else handle this?
Solomon was always pretty fine to me.
What are you doing, getting sentimental?
You know what the party
is doing for your race.
And Solomon was a traitor to the party.
Well, I will do the best I can.
Hello, Dad.
Hello, Sam. Busy?
A little. Come on in.
Just on my way home and dropped by
to see how you was getting along.
Same as usual.
Got something on your mind, Dad?
Anything wrong at home?
It's what's wrong here, son.
There is nothing wrong here.
I'd say a man's suicide was
something wrong. You know it.
Especially because he
was a friend of yours.
Solomon, you mean?
Those things happen.
Yeah. And how come they happen?
That's what I wants to know.
And how come your paper used to say
such nice things about Mr Solomon...
And then suddenly switch?
It seems like they couldn't think
of anything nasty enough to say.
Maybe he deserved what they said.
Sam Wright, what has got into you?
You used to cut out Mr Solomon's
poems and show them to Ma and me.
And say how glad you was
to be working with him.
Well.
Things. Things are different now.
The hardest change is minding the party.
And I... I have to think
the way the party does.
Then it's a pretty poor party.
That's all I got to say.
I'm beginning to believe some of the
things I've been hearing about it.
What kind of things?
Deacon Smith was talking about your
communism in church the other night.
He said it's just using the colored
people just like it's using the G.I.s.
And other folks.
Just to stir up trouble.
Maybe Deacon Smith should
stick to his preaching.
Look here, Sam.
Don't you go upstaging
me and my friends.
Deacon Smith has read a few books too.
I am sorry, Dad.
I didn't mean any offense.
Deacon Smith said slavery ended in the
United States more than 80 years ago.
And right today.
There's more slaves in communist
countries than there are...
Any place or anywhere.
And what you tell me.
About a man having to think
as the party dictates.
It looks like we're having
slaves here again.
Come on. Chuck it all, Sam.
Come on home with me.
That's what Solomon
said in his note to Molly.
Come on, Dad.
Let's go home.
Sam.
Sam?
We're wasting our time
on those African ingrates.
Who is it?
- Me. Bill.
It's a little late I guess
but I've got some news.
Come in, Bill.
I saw Partridge tonight.
He said for me to drop in
at headquarters tomorrow...
And I'll be issued a Party card.
A Party card?
Yes.
What's the matter, Nina?
What's come over you?
It must be something about the party.
You have been trying to
get me in, haven't you?
I have been trying.
It was Tyler and Partridge and Yvonne.
They handed me over to you.
You led me to your lectures.
Took me to meetings. Showed me around.
I have been trying to show you
what communism really is.
Hoping you'd leave it alone.
Instead you are accepting it.
Not completely.
I told you that.
Maybe I wanted to be whatever you were.
To think the way you did.
I don't know what to say.
I came here to fight for
the people's rights.
But then I found that the people here
have everything communism promises.
If ever it seizes power.
Well, they can't seize
power here too easily.
Not with only a few thousand members.
But that's what they want you to think.
In each country communism has conquered,
the party membership was small.
That's what they want. A small and
highly disciplined group of fanatics.
Backed by thousands
of fellow travellers.
You should know if anybody does.
Only I wish you had
told me all this before.
I was afraid to, Bill.
When I signed my immigration papers.
I denied that I was a communist.
And if you try to leave the party
they will tell the State Department.
And have you deported.
I've got so that I don't
care about that anymore.
But I care about you.
And I know what would happen
if you will take that card.
And I don't want it cards
to happen to you, Bill.
Darling, we've got to
get away from here.
I couldn't get away from here, Bill.
Let me show you.
They're suspicious of me already because
I wasn't bitter enough against Solomon.
Because they sense how I feel about you.
Look, Nina. We can go out the back way.
You have got a car and we have
a few dollars between us.
But don't you realize they will
be after us wherever we go?
The party informers, the goon squads.
Listen. I know this country.
We can head for New Mexico. Texas.
We'll find some little place
way off the beaten track.
Bill, it is like learning to hope again.
Hurry, Nina. Pack some clothes.
He should be coming out pretty soon.
Maybe he's staying.
Not with her he ain't.
Hurry Nina. Let's go.
Okay.
Nina, don't.
Hey.
See that?
Let's take a look around the back.
Wait a minute.
- Hello Miss Petrovka.
Going somewhere?
For a ride, maybe.
You don't need a suitcase for that.
We're taking you two to see Partridge.
You're not taking us anywhere.
You will bring in the bag?
- Yes, ma'am.
We're from the immigration
department, Miss Kraus.
We want to have a talk with
you down at headquarters.
Where's your warrant?
An immigration inspector
doesn't need a warrant.
What is this, more Gestapo methods?
Where are our civil liberties?
Let me go. Do you hear me?
Let me go. I'm American.
Listen. I'm an American citizen.
You will pay for this.
- Come on.
Where were you born, Miss Kraus?
I refuse to answer this Gestapo.
I am an American citizen.
That's what we have to determine.
If everything is in order we'll
let you go with an apology.
I have nothing to be afraid of.
I was born in New York City.
When?
May 4th 1920.
Your father's name?
- Friedrich Kraus.
Where was he born?
Hamburg, Germany.
He was naturalised.
You took a trip to Mexico ten years ago,
Miss Kraus. How long did you stay?
Three months.
It all seems to check with our records.
Just sign this statement, Miss Kraus.
Sure. Why not?
Now, we'll just check
this with the old files.
This doesn't check.
What? What doesn't?
The signature you just gave me
is in a different handwriting...
To the signature of Ann Kraus
on her passport application.
But it does check with the
handwriting of one Greta Bloch.
That is a lie!
I'm being framed. I know my rights.
I demand a lawyer.
- Take it easy. You'll get a lawyer.
We've taken a lot of abuse from you.
So suppose you listen for a change.
We've been watching you not only
because of your communist activities.
But because of your loudmouthed
disloyalty to the U.S. Government.
While Inspector Riggs kept
you under surveillance.
We made an exhaustive check.
We found out the real Yvonne
Kraus did go to Mexico in 1938.
To open a pottery business.
Then we lost track of her.
And so did the Mexican authorities.
But the Comintern acquired her passport
and doctored it to fit Greta Bloch.
With your picture and your signature.
That is how you came
into the United States.
Besides that, you made a mistake here.
A mistake that any German might make.
It was the pronunciation you gave to
the names 'Friedrich' and 'Hamburg'.
The real Yvonne Kraus.
Never spoke a word
of German in her life.
You are too late.
You are too late I tell you!
You don't know it.
But the revolution is here!
You're talking to Commissar
Bloch, you fools.
You thought you could arrest me.
Me, Commissar Bloch.
Yes, Yvonne Kraus disappeared.
Because she was murdered.
But you can't touch the
men who killed her.
[ Military marching music ]
Listen.
Hear them.
Hear their drums.
The Red Legions.
They're entering the city.
In a few minutes they will be here.
And then we'll stand you against a wall.
Hear them.
I knew.
I knew they would be here.
I knew they would come!
They will be here to take charge.
To take your jobs.
Commissar Partridge and Commissar Tyler.
They killed Yvonne Kraus in Mexico.
They did it on my orders.
Try and arrest them now.
[ Military marching music ]
Don't you hear them?
You fools! Don't you hear them?
Alright, Norton.
Psychopathic ward.
Well, that's that.
I only wanted her
statement for clarification.
We have files of evidence
tying Partridge and Tyler...
Into the murder of the
original Yvonne Kraus.
Good.
Benson and Schultz were pulled in
for the murder of young Reachi.
Their confessions also
implicate Partridge and Tyler.
You'd better bring them in. While I
go into the case of Nina Petrovka.
"So now we understand what
Bill and Nina are fleeing."
"Why their objective is
an obscure hideaway."
"Halfway across the wide
and sprawling continent."
What's the name of this burgh?
Talbot. But don't ask me where it is.
Well, it's in Texas. We know that much.
Bill.
Why are we stopping?
I've been thinking, Nina.
What are we running away from?
This is the United States.
Not a police state.
Let's go and see that Sheriff.
Have a talk with him.
Try to make him understand.
Alright, Bill.
Whatever you want.
Howdy.
What can I do for you?
- We would...
We would like to come
in and talk to you.
Sure. Come in here.
Have a seat.
Okay?
Shoot.
We want to give ourselves up, Sheriff.
But first, I would like to explain.
Technically we might be guilty
but actually we are not.
We never was...
Nina tried to break with them. They want
her and have tipped off the authorities.
Hey, back up a minute.
Everything you've said so far
is about as clear as a mudhole.
Now, first off. What are your names?
I am...
Bill Jones and... this is Nina Petrovka.
Glad to know you.
You look sort-of tired and troubled.
Now, suppose you start telling
what this is all about and...
Go far enough back so
as I can understand it.
And... take your time.
You know, there's lots of things
we ain't got here in Talbot.
Time ain't one of them.
Well, Sheriff. I...
I guess I had better tell you what
happened back in California.
So.
When we got here we
decided to give ourselves up.
And see what the law had to say.
Do you know what?
You folks have been running
away from yourselves.
From the fear in your own minds.
You've been messing
around so long with...
The intrigues and underhanded
methods of the communists, that...
You've begun to think everybody
acts the same as they do.
You are no more wanted by
the authorities than I am.
But you don't know how they operate.
They must have tipped
off the State Department.
Supposing they did.
The Federal government won't take any
action until they make an investigation.
And when they investigate
they'll find out how things are.
You know, I read a lot of books.
I have to, to keep up with things.
From what I understand, the communists
don't give nobody a second chance.
Now that's where the
United States is different.
We give folks just as many
chances as they deserve.
Suppose this young lady of yours...
Did perjure herself to the
government a few years back.
She wouldn't today.
Why, right now she is probably
a better citizen than lots of us.
As she knows the meaning
of something that...
Bill Jones was trying to throw away.
I guess you got yourself
a little confused, eh Bill?
Not too confused to pick yourself one of
the swell-est dames I've seen in Texas.
That means I am talking about
the prettiest girls in the world.
Well, I don't mean to run
out on you kids but...
I got to drive over to the next
county and pick up Mike Tolliver.
What did Mr Tolliver do?
He got himself drunk.
They gave him thirty days.
The judge agreed to let
him spend it in my jail.
Kinda funny laws you have around here.
Well, Mike has been shooting
off his mouth that...
He can beat me at checkers.
So we are going to find out.
What you two want to do is
get yourselves hitched.
And raise a couple
of real American kids.
And if you ever need a witness.
I'll vouch for you. So long.
So long.
There is a great guy.
Bill, we don't even know his name.
Hey, sonny.
What is the name of that Sheriff?
Oh him? It's some kind of a long name.
But us kids, we call him Uncle Sam.
Well.
You heard what Uncle Sam
said about... getting hitched.
And raising some real American kids.
All in favor, say 'I'.
I... I... I.
I.
[ Singing: ]
"My country, 'tis of thee."
"Sweet land of liberty."
"Of thee I sing."
"Land where my fathers died."
"Land of the pilgrims' pride."
"From every mountainside."
"Let.... freedom.... ring."
Fork 3/22