"Lou, how many times have you had ticket tax trouble when you were promoting?" "Nobody proved nothing'." "Lou, our report is that you spent your last weekend before coming out here with some of your old college chums, the bookmakers." "Well, I can't help it if they come snooping' around." "I told them there was nothin' doin'." "Now, I'm clean, Murphy." "You ain't got nothin' on me." "Not yet." "Okay, sergeant." "That's your man..." "for the next four weeks." "Listening to him." "I kind of like the old cat." "He's an old thief." "Stick close to him." "¶ With my gal Sal ¶" "Come on, now, everybody...drink up." "Now, how about a refill, fellas?" "Come on, drink up." "This is a victory celebration." "Wally, you were never better." "What" " Why is the jab the best punch?" "Well, you ask my boy Joe." "He'll tell you." "Hey, who wants a punch in the" " Uh" "No, no, not in here." "Hey, good evening." "Hey, what's killin' you?" "You still sore because I fired that friend of yours." "Breakin' the bottle was a accident, Lou." "I fired him because he couldn't stop the bleedin'." "After the bottle was broke, how could he?" "He did." "Uh, it was after" "Joe's second year at medical school that he quit." "For the ring?" "Uh-huh." "What would you like?" "Uh...scotch and water." "Same thing." "I, uh, thought he wanted to be a doctor so much." "He did." "He wanted to be a doctor more than anything else in the world." "It's complicated." "That's great, I wish you luck." "Will you pardon me?" "Joe's complicated." "His father was a doctor, you know, in North Carolina." "Oh, then, he was really born to it?" "He was born to boxing too, I guess." "He was on the college boxing team." "That's when we met." "I was ringside, and that same June we were married." "Four years ago now." "He quit med school because of money?" "He didn't like my working to help pay his tuition." "But it was really when Lou came along." "Lou had seen him fight amateur." "Promised him fame and fortune." "Mm-hmm." "I was against it at first, but a little less as the years went by." "What is she doing?" "Boring you with the story of my life?" "Well, it's an interesting story." "How's the cut?" "Oh, fine." "Laura!" "And thanks." "Hey, Joe, let me borrow your wife for a minute." "Come on, Laura, I've got somebody I want you to meet." "That Lou." "Not one cut-man in 100 knows how to mix adrenaline." "Well, where did you learn?" "Uh, Korea." "I was a...medic." "A...corpsman." "Really, a corpsman?" "The food looks good, don't it?" "Come on." "A corpsman, huh?" "Well, that's more medicine than I practiced." "Your, um... wife was telling me how you were, uh, lured away from being a doctor." ""Lured"?" "By Lou?" "You wouldn't say that, uh," "Durocher lured a player onto the Dodgers, would you?" "Well, I got the idea that, uh, medicine was something special for you, uh." "A man's lucky to have a feeling like that." "Breathing's important too." "Do you see all these people?" "Us here?" "We're fight people." "And because we're all in the same game, well, we're just people to each other." "I'm just another guy." "Do you think it would be the same for me on the outside?" "As a doctor?" "Customers." "New customers." "Hey" " Hey, keep that warm for me." "Hut." "What's the password, friend?" "Ring magazine." "They told me down at the gym there was gonna be a big bash." "Oh, you're gonna do a story on Joe." "If there is one." "Of course there's one." "He's gonna be the champ." "Hey, everybody, I want you to meet" "What's your name?" "Hank Stone, Ring magazine." "Right!" "Hank Stone, Ring magazine." "Hi." "Come on, Laura." "Hey, this is Joe's wife Laura." "How do you do?" "How do you do?" "Smile, Joe." "This is my boy, Joe." "Hello." "Glad to meet you." "He's gonna make a cover boy outta you." "Congratulations on the fight." "Thank you." "And this is Ray Miller, our cutman." "The best in the business." "Hi." "Say, we're going up to the training camp tomorrow." "You'll come up and visit us, huh?" "You couldn't shake me if you wanted to." "I want to do a full background story." "Fighter, wife, manager, everybody." "Cutman too." "So after I got stopped eight times in a row," "Lou says, "Wally, you're gonna be better off on the piano."" "But Dan here, he's gonna make it some day." "Ah." "Yeah, Lou's gonna take me out just as soon as Joe takes the middleweight title." "Oh?" "Yeah." "Uh, but he figures maybe I'll make a better light heavyweight." "You know?" "Well, you've got the build for it, Dan." "How about you, Miller?" "You ever do any fighting?" "Hey, Ray, when can I take this off?" "A few days." "Uh, why don't you ride along with Wally, huh?" "What about you, Mr. Stone?" "Like to come along?" "Oh, no thanks." "I'm going to stay here and find out the worst about you from your wife." "Hm." "She won't talk." "Let's go, Danny." "Well, shall we start?" "Isn't there something about a wife not testifying against her husband?" "Whoa-oh-oh!" "Watch it, man." "You want to put me to sleep?" "Hey, Joe... we don't know nothing about this guy as a" "As a- A cutman." "Now, Ed Robbins is the best there is." "Now, quit worrying it, Dan." "Let's run." "Wanna take five, Joe?" "Yeah." "Hey, Joe, how about a little shadowboxing to keep warm." "No, Danny, listen to the radio." "Like to stretch your legs?" "Yeah." "Kinda nice out here, huh?" "Yeah." "Hey, about Korea." "What?" "Korea." "You know, when you were a medic." "Oh!" "What's the most you ever did by yourself." "The closest you came to being a doctor?" "I splinted a lot of fractures." "Come on, you know." "Something really serious." "Well, there was this, uh...one G.I., uh" "A grenade, uh, shattered his shoulder." "almost tore his arm off." "He was bleeding to death, uh" "Going into shock." "Did you have any plasma?" "Yeah, yeah, we had plasma." "What'd you do for the bleeding?" "We applied some pressure pads and called for the helicopter, but he kept on bleeding." "He really moves in, don't he?" "Takes over like Joe really belongs to him." "Well, uh, when we got to the artery, uh, we didn't have any clamps, so I had to reach in and hold it closed with my fingers till the helicopter came." "Did he live?" "Joe." "Hey, Joe!" "He lived." "Joe, you're gonna stiffen up." "Did he keep his arm?" "Uh-huh." "I'm glad." "Joe, Lou ain't gonna like this." "That's what I call being a doctor." "We're supposed to be runnin'." "What's eating you, Danny?" "Nothin'." "Then let's run." "Hey, Ray!" "Ray!" "For his pain, you didn't give him anything for his pain." "Well, I'd run out of morphine." "But you had to give him something." "I, uh" "I praised him for his bravery." "Praise to make a man forget he's hurting?" "Well, sure, why not?" "Remember the magazine writer at the party?" "Uh" "He gave you a lift." "Magazine writer?" "Yeah, the writer at the party." "The one that's gonna do a story on you." "Story?" "Hey, Joe, you need a rubdown." "Why wouldn't praise help?" "Sort of frontline psychiatry." "Come on inside." "Good." "Thanks, honey." "Have a seat, Ray." "I'll be with you in a minute." "Well, how was the workout?" "Oh, fine, fine." "Did Joe feel all right?" "Well, sure." "Why?" "Nothing." "Nothing really." "Joe's been telling me about you." "He thinks a lot of you." "This morning... when he woke up, he thought we were still in the city." "Has it happened before?" "Yes." "How many times?" "At least twice." "As bad as today?" "No." "This morning, he didn't even remember the party at the hotel last night." "And how long does it-?" "Hey, Ray." "There was this gag we pulled at med school." "One of the fellows got a can of ether from the lab." "Now, there was this- This professor of physics..." "That's right, buzz, buzz, buzzing' Joe about bein' a doctor." "Remember what happened last time Joe got... tangled up in that medical stuff, huh?" "So Miller's doin' the same thing, huh?" "I'll take care of him right now." "No, honey, you don't swing on a trapezius." "It's a shoulder muscle." "Lou." "What's all this about you buzzin' Joe about doctoring'?" ""Buzzin'?"" "Well, bothering', buggin', buzzing'!" "About him doctoring'." "Now, Lou- I'll handle this." "Now, I didn't hire you to make trouble." "Look, uh" "Lou, I don't want to make any trouble." "I-I don't know what you're talking about." "Well, let them explain." "You were out on the road with Joe and Dan." "Sure." "You and Joe had a big talk out there, right?" "Yeah, right." "About doctoring'?" "We talked about Korea." "You're fired." "What's the matter with you?" "Are you out of your mind?" "Are you?" "Are you startin' this medical business all over again?" "You remember two years ago in Chicago?" "A week before your fight with Lew Hellner, you went out and bought a load of these cockamamie medical books." "And they bugged you so much, that he almost flattened you" "A second-rate, no-good, washed-out punk almost flattened you." "And why?" "Because you were thinkin' about doctoring' and not fightin'!" "Now, you get outta here." "I'll pay you for a week." "No, Ray, hold it." "Now, Lou, you simmer down and listen." "He wasn't bugging me, he was only answering my questions." "About doctoring'." "Joe, you've got one fight." "One fight and then a shot at the title." "The title." "That's the tops." "Well, I ain't taking' any chances." "He's fired." "No, Lou, he staying." "I say he goes." "He stays!" "Lou'll be bright and sunny in the morning." "That's the kind of guy he is." "Please stay." "It's nice to have you here." "Could be a big help to Joe." "I hope so." "Good." "Well, what do you think of him, boys?" "How do you like that power, snap, speed and control?" "Ha, ha, ha." "That ain't no bag." "That's Kramer's kisser two weeks from tonight." "Oh, that Joe's got everything." "He can box, he can hit, and he can take it." "Heh." "I ain't never seen him better." "Okay, Joe, one for the showers!" "Okay, boys." "Pictures." "A few for the boys, Joe." "How's the cut comin' along?" "Oh, it's comin' along great." "It'll be fine." "I'll get him." "What round you gonna take him in?" "Can't say." "What are you goin' in?" "What weight?" "This afternoon, I'll give you the whole story about Joe." "How I found him in the intercollegiates and everything." "Don't worry, he'll be 100% for the fight." "Whoop, chow time, fellas." "Time to put on the feed bag." "You go ahead over, and I'll meet you there, huh?" "I'll show you where it is." "You, hit the showers." "Dan..." "get Joe's robe." "He don't need no cold come two weeks." "I like the way he's been workin'." "Maybe I made a mistake." "I guess you been good for him." "Thank you." "I gotta post forfeit money in the morning." "You take a good look at that cut." "I'll do it now." "Good." "Come on, Joey, let's have a look at the cut, huh?" "Right." "Oh, here, Dan." "Looks good." "We'll leave the bandage off." "Keep your head back." "I'll, uh... clean it up for you." "How's the scar?" "Oh, it'll, uh" "It'll be fine for the fight." "How did it react to the light?" "The reflex." "The hippus reflex." "That's what you were trying to find wasn't it?" "A symptom of brain damage... from a concussion." "That's so, isn't it?" "It could be, yeah." "You mind?" "Yes, that's what the textbooks say." "Now..." "Did you see any sign of a hippus reflex in my eyes?" "No." "Then there's no brain damage...right?" "I'm not a doctor." "Oh, sure, just an ex-Army medic." "Look, Ray, you didn't answer my question... about the brain damage." "I'm not qualified to have an opinion, Joe." "In spite of my lapses of memory?" "Look, Ray, did my wife tell you to examine me?" "Has she been buzzing you about my memory?" "Joe, uh" "Tension of a big fight, uh... anybody's liable to forget a couple of things." "Then what are you going to tell Laura?" "That with a good, uh, covering of collodion, that scar should take any amount of punishment." "Who you trying to impress, Danny?" "Ah, you look great, Joe." "Five days till Saturday, I'll have you just right to flatten that palooka." "How about me, Lou?" "When you gonna take me on?" "Pretty soon." "You got a lot to learn." "That coat of collodion stand up?" "Yeah, it'll take a lot more punishment than that." "Hey, Miller, gonna have time for a talk with me?" "Joe, hit the shower." "I, uh...got to take the collodion off Joe." "Say, man." "You sayin' I got no punch?" "I won't make no fighter?" "I didn't say that." "No..." "I heard you." "About the cut." "I was talking about the collodion." "Hey, Wally." "Can't a man even get a towel around here?" "Here you go." "Any questions." "Any time." "I got a scrapbook." "Come on, Wally." "That's nice." "Thanks." "What'd that guy want with you, anyway?" "Oh, he just...wants to know about all of us." "He's a very interesting talker." "Hey, Wally, you say he was asking a lot of questions?" "What kind of questions?" "Come on, let's get the collodion off." "Right." "Now, why don't you leave it on?" "See how it wears." "My eyes?" "You starting that again?" "Well, Dan got in a couple of...pretty good ones." "So what?" "I train every day." "I get hit every day." "Why'd you look?" "Laura told me about this morning." "Don't you know anything about women?" "How they're always making something outta nothing?" "Forgetting even for ten seconds that you're fighting Saturday night." "I don't call that nothing." "Joe, see a doctor." "Now, if you do have brain damage, there's a chance it could be cured now." "Only if you stop fighting now." "Okay, let's knock that bogeyman down again." "Pull that shade." "I want you to see." "Anytime." "Are you still going to fight?" "You gonna tell Laura?" "Lou?" "Aren't you?" "No." "The doctor'll find out when he examines you at the weigh-in." "By Saturday, five days of light training, it probably won't be there at all." "No reflex." "Nothing to see." "No doctor in the world could suspect anything." "You want to kill yourself?" "Look, Ray..." "I never asked whether you were ever really a doctor, or why you don't talk like Lou or Wally." "Your business is yours." "Mine is mine." "Oh, hi." "I've been spending your money, Joe." "I bought a new dress." "To wear to the...fight Saturday." "Hi, Dan." "You busy?" "No." "Come on in." "Well, what can I do for you?" "Well, I thought maybe I'd" "Well, this, uh" "This magazine of yours it's, uh" "It's for a pretty clean fight game ain't it?" "Well, that's for sure." "You know that, uh, buzzing a fighter can make him lose." "You know that, don't you?" "What's on your mind?" "My name don't have to come into this, does it?" "Not if you don't want it to." "Miller." "Joe's new cutman." "I think he's trying to make Joe lose the fight Saturday night." "I've got an idea... he's buzzin' Joe right into a knockout." "Sit down, Dan." "Now, let's start from the beginning." "First about Miller." "Joe, there is something wrong, isn't there?" "No." "I was just wondering how I'd be feeling if I'd become a doctor." "It isn't too late, you know." "Quit the ring and go back to medicine?" "It would kill me, Laura." "It would kill me dead." "I know it isn't the applause or the cheers." "Is it the money?" "We've got enough money saved for you to go back to school to become a doctor." "It's funny." "That's the one thing I want, and that's what would kill me." "People pay five dollars to see me fight." "Now, would they pay it for treatment if I were a doctor?" "No, Laura, I couldn't take it." "Not after feeling how nice and warm it is here." "If I had to die, I'd want to die here." "Joe, there's something wrong." "No, no, of course not." "Swear it." "Yeah, I swear." "I swear." "Okay, kids, let's go." "Dan, Laura, drink up." "We weigh-in at noon." "Joe, how do you feel?" "Never better." "Wally, get the bags, huh." "Already sent them on to the hotel, Lou." "Oh, good." "Ah-ah, no more water, Joe." "Well..." "L.A. here we come." "Say, is that cut gonna stand up?" "Guaranteed." "You have your own car, haven't you?" "Right." "We'll see you at the fight." "I'll be there." "Okay, all out." "Wally, Dan, you grab what we need." "Joe, it'll take about a half-hour to weigh in." "Right." "See you later, honey." "Ray, you see that Laura gets settled at the hotel, okay?" "Yeah." "Wait a minute, Ray." "What's the matter?" "Joe thinks you know more about medicine than you let on." "Help me?" "How?" "Is Joe going to... hurt himself if he fights tonight?" "He could." "Then I'm asking for your help." "Laura, Joe knows more about himself than I do." "Is there something else besides the memory lapse?" "Ask Joe." "He says there isn't, but he talks about dying, if he leaves the ring, and I couldn't do that to him." "But the ring could kill him too." "Then get him to leave it." "How?" "I only know that before a person gives up one thing for another... he has to want that other thing more." "Uh-huh." "Well, the rap sheet on Wally Wilson's clean, huh?" "Yeah, we're running the prints on Miller now." "Right." "Oh, only three." "That'll take time, but... let's run 'em and see what comes out." "I'll take these in the bedroom for you." "Would I be doing the right thing?" "Laura, that would depend on whom he loves more." "You or the ring." "Hello." "Honey, I made the weight." "Tell Ray to come over and get set up for tonight." "Lou says tell Ray to come over and get set up." "Joe, I've got to talk to you." "P-please." "Now." "It can't wait." "I can't on the phone, honey." "Please, here." "Hurry." "All right, I-I'll be right there." "Lou, I'm going to the hotel." "That's a good idea." "Relax." "Get a nap." "Lou wants you at the arena." "Yeah." "Go home with you now?" "Laura, it's Saturday." "I'm fighting." "I'm fighting tonight!" "Joe, you mustn't." "What did he tell you?" "He didn't." "I knew." "I've really known ever since that night." "The flashlight, the mirror." "You said you'd tell me." "You swore it." "There's nothing to tell." "Nothing to talk about." "There is no choice." "I'm in the ring, and I'm not going to leave it." "And if you're killed in the ring?" "What about me?" "Without you, I- I'd be alone out there." "Oh, it's different with women." "I'm the one who has to find out if they'll let him into a job or not." "A restaurant, a hotel." "Oh, Laura, Laura." "Can't you understand?" "Here I can hold up my head." "And be killed." "Oh, you're looking at the worst of it." "I can handle this guy." "I can outbox him." "He's got no punch." "Joe..." "I love you." "And I just can't stay here and watch you be killed." "Laura." "Laura, I can't go back." "I'm going home." "I'll- I'll wait there." "Please come." "Dan, you go with me." "Wally, you stay here with Joe." "Now, that's only the second preliminary, so you relax." "I got to take a run up to the office." "Wally, go see the fights." "Lou said to stay here." "Go see the fights." "Okay, Joe." "You told her." "She knew." "You could've denied it." "And be part of a murder?" "Murder?" "What murder?" "You, as a doctor." "I won't go back to that." "I never will." "Then as a fighter one concussion" "He won't touch my head." "Aren't you killing her by staying?" "Can't you see I'd be killing us both, her and me, by going back?" "We'd be choking to death for the rest of our lives." "A Negro doctor in some slum or ghetto?" "Who are you to stand here so high and mighty and tell me I should leave here where they say," ""There goes Joe Smith, the fighter"?" "Now they don't look at me for black or white." "Just Joe Smith, the fighter." "Joe, uh" "Joe Smith, the fighter." "Why?" "Because y-you go in the ring, and you let 'em hit you, and you bleed a little?" "Because you're willing to let 'em kill you?" "Why don't you fight to make 'em accept you?" "Accept you as a doctor!" "Well, maybe you're just too afraid to fight 'em." "Mr. Murphy?" "Mr. Murphy." "Yeah." "Sergeant Stone telephoned." "He got an ID on Miller, Bragan's cutman!" "Bragan's cutman?" "What's he wanted for?" "Yeah." "Those who can breathe always give easy advice to those who are choking." "Where's Miller?" "My cutman?" "Why?" "He's wanted." "What for?" "Murder." "I don't believe it." "You'd better believe it." "Where'd he go?" "Oh, I sent him to find Lou." "Up at the office." "He's with him." "I'll find him." "I've got his description." "I'll give it to the others." "Murder?" "Arrested, tried, convicted." "Innocent." "I believe you." "I'll be your cutman." "Banged up fighters go home early." "You can pass for one." "Get outta here." "Joe..." "Go on, get outta here." "Look, uh" "As one strangling man to another, you give me your skin and your choice..." "I'd go back to be a doctor." "I hope you get away." "I hope you do too." "Joe, what's all this about Miller?" "You all right?" "Let him go, Dan." "That's him?" "Lou... get me a doctor." "What's the matter?" "It's my head, Lou." "I'm hurt." "I've been hurt for a long time." "I'm gonna catch that cutman!" "I said, let him go." "No!" "Oh, Lou." "This was Ray Miller, cutman." "And before that, James Lincoln, bartender." "And how many weary, lonely, heartbreaking identities before that?" "Only if he succeeds in discovering the man who made him an outcast, can he again be Richard Kimble."