"THE GREAT CONSOLER (O. Henry in prison)" "A MEZHRABPOM-FILM Production" "Sound recorded in TAGEFON System" "Screenplay by L. KULESHOV" "Directed by Lev KULESHOV" "Music by Z. FELDMAN" "Cinematography by K. KUZNETSOV" "English subtitles by T. Kameneva" "Cast:" "Dulcie" " A. KHOKHLOVA Annabel" " G. KRAVCHENKO" "Sadie and Annabel's sister - V. LOPATINA" "Valentine's mother - O. RAYEVSKAYA" "Bill Porter (O. Henry) - K. KHOKHLOV" "James Valentine - I. NOVOSELTSEV" "Warden" " V. KOVRIGIN Detective Ben Price" " A. FAIT" "Negro" " V. ROOD Inmate" " A. GORCHILIN" "Banker Adams, reporter - P. GALADZHEV" "Bar owner, prosecutor, inspector" " M. DORONIN" "Guard Cronin - D. WEDENSKY" "Second guard" " S. SLETOV" "The film is set in America in 1899" "Costumes and sets sketched by L. Kuleshov" "It turns out that O. Henry had been a bookkeeper at a Texas bank, where business was done in a slipshod manner." "About $1,000 had disappeared:" "Someone embezzled it, but the blame was laid on O. Henry..." "That American king of literature, the author of incomparable short stories, spent 3 years and 3 months in Ohio State Penitentiary." "That's where he started his literary career..." "THE READER" "Where're you, where're you, my consoler?" "Doing your bewitching again?" "When will you drop your fantasies, Dulcie?" "I'm doing it on purpose..." "When I'm working, I deliberately think of other things." "I'm dreaming." "Dreaming of another life." "But when I wake up, I get scared." "Your dreaming will get you in trouble, my dear." "The inspector has already noticed it, and reported it to the boss." "If only I knew that special word, you say the word, and a true gentleman comes, a wonderful prince." "You say the word, and he kills the inspector on the spot." "You say the word, and you're becoming..." "A bewitched fool!" "Here he is, he came without that word." "I'll wait at the door, Dulcie." "Ben, the girls speak badly of you." "What?" "Tell me who are these girls, and they'll stop." "Ben, don't wait for me, I'm not going out." "What?" "!" "I might as well leave." "I'm tired, Ben." "Try to understand, I'm tired." "Don't be difficult, girl." "There're many like you in this city." "And the price on you never goes up." "Where're you, where're you, my consoler?" "THE WRITER" "Porter." "Here, get your story." "I've read it." "You're a great consoler." "I was right to have appointed you to the dispensary." "Sir, I can write here only thanks to your permission." "If you could do the same justice to James Valentine..." "Porter, this is too much." "You would have got one dead body less in this prison." "He's going to die of tuberculosis." "We get no awards for decreasing the death rate in this institution." "Sir, James Valentine is a wonderful mechanic." "An artist!" "He works with precision mechanisms." "He's got a magic touch!" "He told me..." "That's why he cracked a safe." "As if you don't know, warden, that the authorities fantasize as well as the writers." "James Valentine got involved in some idiotic labor conflict." "He hit his boss, I think." "So they pinned a felony on him." "And he's innocent." "As innocent as I am." "You know that it wasn't me who stole those one thousand dollars." "But I'm serving time here." "You're an intelligent man, Porter, but you reason like a writer." "The law protects the principle." "And the accusation content is just a detail determining the duration of punishment." " I thought..." " You better think about yourself." "Everyone should think about himself." "Goodbye, Porter." "Goodbye, sir." "Who?" "Who filed it?" "Who?" "Who?" "Who?" "Who filed it?" "Don't move!" "Look at me!" "Well?" "It was..." "It was I who did it!" "To the warden!" "The warden!" "I demand the warden!" "Quiet!" "Silence!" "I didn't ask him to do it." "Again!" "The medicine man wanted downstairs." "I must cry about it to the whole world." "My heart is going to burst if I don't cry." "How you doing, Porter?" "Everything's all right, warden." "This is for you from the editorial office." "Thank you." " Sir!" " Yes?" "I would like to tell you about something." "The world is in need of compassion, sir!" "Today I again washed a beaten inmate," "James Valentine." "It's monstrous, sir!" "It is... inhuman!" "If the public comes to know about it..." "Well?" "I took the liberty of putting it in writing." "So far your behavior has been exemplary, Porter." "And you got some privileges." "A clean bed, good food." "You've been transferred to the dispensary." "Just think, warden," "James Valentine did a noble thing." "He took upon himself the blame for someone else's fault." "In our institution, everyone should act for himself." "So far you've experienced no adversities, Porter." "You're even allowed to write your fiction and fill the wastebasket with torn paper." "Porter, come here." "I'll better send you a bottle of whisky." "Why did you do it?" "I've been rotting here for 16 years, Al." "I won't be squeaking for long now." "And you will be let free." "Before I kick the bucket, I wanted to do something consoling." "I wanted to thank you for having passed the word from my old mother." " No complaints?" " No." " No complaints?" " No." " No complaints?" " No." " No complaints?" " No." " No complaints?" " No." " No complaints?" " No." " No complaints?" " No." " No complaints?" " No." "Yes." "Well?" "Why are innocent men beaten here?" "Innocent?" "Who's guilty, then?" "I'm guilty, I filed the railing." "Take him." "And give him 75 hot ones." "Just try to touch me, you damned coward!" "Just try to tie me to that damned trough!" "I swear that if I'm still alive after that," "I'll cut your stinking throat." "Go get your medicines." "Al." "I think you were speaking to the warden like a gentleman to a gentleman." "You forgot that you're not equal." "At large, a Colt-45 makes everyone equal." "Take it at bedtime, Jimmy." "What?" " How are you feeling?" " Thanks, Bill." "Thanks." "Here, guys, read my new story." "Mister Porter, how about writing about this nice residence of ours, to pick the conscience of those suckers outside." "Write about it, Bill, discharge all the six bullets at them." "They say the summer is going to be very hot." "Here's your medicine, Al." "Bill!" "Sir." "I'm not here as a reporter, and I can't take upon myself such a responsibility." "This prison, with all its foulness, is none of my concern." "You're an artist, you must!" "Remember, Al, an artist should write about his dreams and about what he heard a parrot say." "A parrot?" "THE WORK DAY IS OVER..." "Toreador, go forward with no fear..." "Say, Sadie, Ben Price made me a date for dinner tonight." "He never did!" "Ben Price's an awful swell." "He always takes a girl to swell places." "Ain't you the lucky one, Dulcie?" "Have you been to Coney Island lately?" "I don't remember when it was." "You know, 'tis a weary thing to count your pleasures by summers instead of by hours." "Maybe sometime someone else would call at the house," "with a secret sorrow in his eyes." "I'll be a little afraid of that stern yet tender look in his eyes." "And when he comes at this house, his sword will be clanking against his high boots." "I'll send him to you in a carriage... of an ambulance," "as a gallant prince in a white smock." "He will ride looking for you in the jungles of the city, and when he finds you" "in an enchanted attic under the roof of furnished rooms," "he will wake you up with his kiss" "from a hunger" "swoon." "His sword will be clanking against his high boots..." "His sword will be clanking!" "Sometime, sometime" "We'll meet in a faraway land." "Detective Ben Price on an urgent matter." "Come in." "Hello, Price." "Well, how are things going?" "Things are swell, warden." "Bandits are enjoying themselves at villas." "Bankers are stealing money." "Yes?" "Yes, sir." "Yes, there is." "Without dynamite?" "I don't know." "I doubt there's someone." "Price is here." "I'll talk to him." "Well..." "And we need an experienced cracksman to open a safe emptied by an experienced banker." " Isn't it swell." " Without dynamite..." "A big reward is being offered." "Listen, Porter, do you know anyone here who can open a safe?" "What safe?" "A regular bank safe." "A steel vault." "We can find here about 40 artists for this "job"." "A little bit of nitroglycerin will open any lock." "No." "Read this." "Banker Adams ran off with two million dollars." "The prosecutor's office looks for ways to open a safe containing some important documents." "A great subject for a short story." "Yes, but who... but who can open the safe" "so that the papers remained intact?" "James Valentine." "James Valentine." "Is he a professional?" "He told of an unusual method he had devised to open the most intricate mechanisms." "A gruesome method." "It makes me sick just to think and speak of it." "He files his fingernails off and, with a sharpened sense of touch, feels the movement of the hidden mechanism." "Porter, here." "Thank you, sir." "The other day, Porter, you were talking of compassion in the interests of society." "There you are." "The society needs this safe to be opened." "And you can help Valentine." "I'll order to let you into his cell." "He's very embittered, sir." "Promise him a pardon." "And then the prince came up to me, wrapped me in a blanket, and took me out in his arms." "He was so tall, slender and handsome." "Only his face was as rough as a broom, and he reeked of vodka." "He put me on the horse right in front of himself, and we galloped down the road, surrounded by knights." "What a liar!" "It only does good to people." "People should be bashed with truth on their heads, so that they knew what to do." "Yes!" "If only one could invent such a magical instrument." "You put it to the door, and there's no door." "You put it to the guard, and there's no guard." " You come out in the street..." " And there's not a shit." "My dear, I've been coming here for 16 years." "Ask the warden, do it for a mother." "Go away." "My dear, I'm a mother." "I told you, it's not allowed." "My dear, tell him I'm coming to his windows every night, just to be near him." "I told you, he isn't allowed visitors." "Never any visitors!" " Will they pardon me?" " They will, Jimmy." "What do you think, Bill?" "You'd better eat, Jimmy." " What?" " Eat." "Yes, yes, I should eat." "What do you think, Bill?" "Here, eat it, Jimmy." "Plenty of lucky cards in a pack." "Luck is a daughter of a bitch in its right." "Once Jimmy, me boy, found his luck on a beautiful Christmas night." "He welcomed himself into a sleeping house." "Seeing a steel safe," "Jimmy felt happy as a baby mouse." "A baby in pajamas, her eyes from sleep still misty, comes out him to greet." "Good evening, dear mister." "A beautiful weather, isn't it?" "Mom and dad are out for the night." "I'm glad you've dropped by." "There's a couple of burgers to bite, and a bottle of Chablis wine" "I love my mom and dad alright." "Please feel at home, mate." "I'll have you wined and dined, and you will go straight." "The babe then tells him neat:" "I'd like to give you an advice." "Just say that you're going to quit that criminal life of vice." "Valentine, to the warden." "Valentine, to the warden." "Go, Jimmy." "So that angel over there saved our Jimmy the fop." "This is a fact, I swear, and not some Christmas soap." "All right." "So it's settled." "Will 30 minutes be enough for you to prepare?" "Yes." "Cronin, to the dispensary." "Let's go." "You mustn't write with ink." "And you mustn't write with the blood of your own heart." "You must write with the blood of someone else's heart." "The metamorphosis... of James..." "Valentine." "THE METAMORPHOSIS OF JAMES VALENTINE" "BY O. HENRY" "The warden handed Jimmy his pardon, which had been signed that morning by the governor." "Jimmy took it in a tired kind of way." "Now, Valentine, the governor has pardoned you..." "The warden continued." "Brace up, and make a man of yourself." "Stop cracking safes, and live straight." "Me?" "Said Jimmy, in surprise." "Why, I never cracked a safe in my life." ""Oh, no, of course not," laughed the warden." ""You wouldn't prove an alibi for fear of compromising somebody in extremely high-toned society?"" "Me?" "Said Jimmy, still blankly virtuous." "Never in my life!" ""Take him back, Cronin," - smiled the warden." "Better think over my advice, Valentine." "Sorry we couldn't make it sooner, Jimmy, me boy." "The governor nearly balked..." "Going upstairs," "Jimmy unlocked the door of a room at the rear." "Everything was just as he had left it." "There on the floor was still Ben Price's cufflink that had been torn from that eminent detective's shirt when he had overpowered Jimmy to arrest him." "That's how it was, and now..." "He opened it and gazed fondly at the finest set of burglar's tools in the East." "Over 900 dollars they had cost him to have made at... a place where they make such things for the profession." "Then an old-fashioned bank-safe in Jefferson City became active and threw out of its crater an eruption of bank-notes amounting to 5,000 dollars." "Ben Price investigated the scene of the robbery," "and was heard to remark..." "That's Jimmy Valentine's autograph!" "Look at that combination knob." "Jerked out as easy as pulling up a radish in wet weather." "Look how clean those tumblers were punched out!" "Jimmy never has to drill but one hole." "Yes, I guess" "I want Mr. Valentine." "Jimmy Valentine looked into her eyes, forgot what he was," "and became another man." "Ralph D. Spencer" "Glad to meet you, Mr. Spencer, very glad..." "Mr. Adams, I was attracted here..." "Mr. Adams, I was attracted here by an enchanting..." "An enchanting hope to open an exclusive shoe business in your town." "We're at your service, Mr. Spencer." "At the end of a year the situation of Mr. Ralph Spencer was this:" "He had won the respect of the community." "His shoe-store was flourishing." "Annabel's pride in him almost equaled her affection." "Will wait in Little Rock." "Will readily accept the tools." "My regrets." "Congratulations, Michael." "After breakfast Mr. Adams, Annabel," "Jimmy and Annabel's married sister with her two little girls, aged five and nine, went to the bank together." "The Elmore Bank had just put in a new safe and vault." "Mr. Adams was very proud of it, and insisted on an inspection by every one." "By the bank, there stood Jimmy's horse and buggy and the coachman, who was going to drive him over to the railroad station." "The banker sprang to the handle and tugged at it for a moment." "The door can't be opened." "The clock hasn't been wound nor the combination set!" "The mother screamed hysterically." ""Hush," whispered Mr. Adams, raising his trembling hand." "Agatha!" "Listen to me!" "During the following silence they could just hear the faint sound of the child wildly shrieking in the dark vault in a panic of terror." ""My precious darling!" Wailed the mother." ""She will die of fright!" "Open the door!" "Oh, break it open!" "Can't you men do something?"" "Somebody wildly suggested dynamite." "Dad, let's try dynamite!" ""There isn't a man nearer than Little Rock who can open that door!" - said Mr. Adams, in a shaky voice." "Can't you do something, Ralph?" "Try, won't you?" "To a woman nothing seems quite impossible to the powers of the man she worships." "He looked at her with a queer, soft smile on his lips and in his keen eyes." "Annabel, give me that rose you're wearing, will you..." "Hardly believing that she heard him aright, Annabel unpinned the bud from the bosom of her dress and placed it in his hand." "Ralph Spencer passed away." "And Jimmy Valentine took his place." "Get away from the door, all of you!" "No!" "What a beautiful story." "I want to know how it ends." "Stop it!" "Stop it!" "Jimmy is so wonderful!" "What a wonderful writer!" "The great consoler!" " Lies." " No, not lies." " That's how it should be." " That's how it should be!" "Let me go!" "Let me go!" "I don't want to, I don't want, I can't." "I don't want your dinners, your presents." "Try to understand, you animal." "I've never known any happy work," "I've never heard any kind words." "I've never seen men who don't buy women." "Get out!" "I don't want dinners and presents!" "You animal!" "You think life is like your consoler describes it?" "No, Dulcie, it's not like this!" "You'll see." "THE REAL LIFE" "This is it, Valentine." "Get away from the door." "There you go, gentlemen." "May I?" "You can go." "Sir, may I..." "May I ask when I am to be let free?" "Never." "But I was..." "I was promised a pardon, sir." "Why?" "Price, you know me." "We know you, Valentine." "A prison buggy is waiting for you." "A genius!" "Well, haven't you changed your mind, Dulcie?" "No, I haven't." "Go away, Ben." "The inspector is watching." "Go to the office for your dismissal pay, Miss." " What?" " To the office for your dismissal pay." "But why, mister inspector?" "I've never, never..." "To the office, Miss." "Mister inspector!" "Mister inspector!" "Sadie..." "Lower the cot." "One can see it without a doctor." "Call the medicine man." "Have you opened it?" "I have." "Cheer up, guys." "They'll pardon him." "They'll pardon him!" "Hi, Bill." "Cheer up, storyteller." "How did it go?" "All right?" "Perfect." "Would you like to see how I was opening the safe?" "No, no, don't tell me." "You better drink this." "A consoling medicine." "And I've written a good story about you, Jimmy." "I made you a young handsome boy, loved by girls." "Everything goes to a happy end." "A happy end?" "Yes, a happy one." "Everything will be all right now." "You'll get married to a charming girl." "And you'll be a bank's vice-president." "Let's drink, friends." "To my last blood spitting." "May it come as soon as possible." "Come on..." "Yes, Bill." "I read your book from the beginning to the end." "I learned from it for the first time what real life can be like." "I wrote out on this piece of paper what I'd never knew about." "I've never seen the ocean." "I've never sung." "I've never danced." "I've never been to the theatre." "And I've never loved." "Yes, Bill, never in my life have I approached a girl." "And I'm 36." "Don't worry, Jimmy, you'll have it all." "You'll be pardoned, and you'll catch up somehow sometime." "Sometime, sometime we'll meet in a magical land." "No pain, no anguish of heart will scare off our carefree bend." "We'll come together one night in a springtime foreign land." "Into the lap of his darling bride each of us recline his head." "Sometime, sometime we'll meet in a magical land." "No pain, no anguish of heart will scare off..." "Silence!" "Bill, Bill..." "They will never let me out." "They cheated!" "They cheated..." "They cheated?" "Open up!" "Open up!" "Open up!" "What is it?" "It's unthinkable, warden." "It's monstrous!" "What is it?" "Was Valentine really deceived?" "It's against honor and humanity." "You promised him a pardon." "I talked him into it." "Shut up, Porter!" "Have you forgotten about the punishment for violating discipline in this prison?" "I'm a gentleman, sir, and I deceived him!" "There are no gentlemen here." "Or you forgot that when the prison medicine man is taken downstairs, there will be no one to wash him after the operation?" "Calm down, Porter." "You want to be a writer." "You have a different mission." "You still can be a useful member of society." "I want to give you a promotion." "You'll be secretary-steward." "Here." "It's from our suppliers." "THE WRITER!" "The warden sent this for you." "Nothing can be lower than this!" "What a coward I am!" "Damned coward!" "Yes..." "We need the ending." "There goes the ending." "The end, the end, the end, the end, the end..." "James Valentine, without looking" "at anyone, put on his coat," "and walked outside the railings." "Hello, Ben!" "Got around at last, have you?" "Well, let's go." "I don't know that it makes much difference, now..." "And then Ben Price acted rather strangely." "Guess you're mistaken, Mr. Spencer." "Don't believe I recognize you..." "Your buggy's waiting for you, ain't it?" "And Ben Price turned and strolled down the street." "RALPH!" "My love is strong, it knows no bounds, It's stronger than any law." "I love you, but you don't love me, so be wary of my love and more..." " What a wonderful writer, Sadie." " So sleep with him." "And what shall I live on?" "Then sleep with Ben." "How wonderful!" "I love the noble Jimmy." "I love the noble Ben." "Sadie." "I went to the boss, asking him to take me back." "He yelled at me, and said that I'd never get any work anywhere." "Why?" "Because I'm skinny and not pretty." "Sadie, close the door." "Come here." "You changed your mind?" "Yes, I have." "HAPPY ENDING" "There we go, the prince has woken me up with his kiss." "Not enough?" "You want too much!" "Wait!" "Your heart is beating too loudly, Dulcie." "It's too commonplace for true art." "Never... never" "will I be able to write what I know," "what I ought to." "Maybe sometime" "someone else will come, others will come?" "The End"