A Question of Adultery (1958) - full transcript
Mark Loring is madly jealous of his wife, Mary, former American cabaret singer. Due to an automobile accident, she loses her unborn child, and Mark becomes sterile. His father, Brit-stuffy Sir John Loring, has never approved of the marriage and, again, tries to break it up. Believing that a child will hold the marriage together, Mary suggests artificial insemination to Mark, who finally agrees to accompany her to a clinic in Switzerland. However, when she is again pregnant, Mark finds it impossible to reconcile himself to the situation and leaves her. Prompted by his father, Mark sues for divorce, accusing her of adultery. She contests the divorce and a trial concerns itself with whether or not artificial insemination is a question of adultery. The Catholic Church's National League of Decency placed this film on its Condemned" list.
Subtitles: Lu?s Filipe Bernardes
Silence!
Loring versus Loring, part heard.
My lord, I shall continue the
evidence of Mr. Carl Dieter.
Mr. Carl Dieter.
I would remind you, Mr. Dieter,
that you are still under oath.
Yesterday you told the court
that the circumstances...
of your first meeting with
the respondent.
Today there remains only one question
that I need ask you.
On that occasion, did you
or did you not...
...spend the night in your cabin with
the respondent, Mrs. Mark Loring?
It is a little difficult to explain.
Surely, Mr. Dieter.
No more difficult than
a simple yes... or no.
Yes.
Thank you.
Mrs. Loring, is it a fact that you are now
in a state of approaching motherhood?
Yes or no, please.
- Yes or no.
- Yes.
You have sworn on oath
that Mark Loring...
...has legally been your husband
since April 4th, 1955.
Yes.
Is Mark Loring responsible for this
child you carry?
He is my husband and would be
the child's father.
A yes or no answer is what
the court requested.
Did your husband beget this child?
Is your husband the father
of the child you now bear?
No.
Can you tell the court who
the father is?
No.
Because you wish to withhold
evidence from the court?
Because I don't know.
Do you recall the occasion of the
Iberian Grand Prix on September 27th?
Can we have one of you on the hood
of the car, Mrs. Loring?
No, no, Mary.
Alright, Jimmy, take her away.
Buenas tardes, se?ora.
Le gust? la carrera?
No compreendes?
- You do not understand?
- No.
He's a very hard man to beat,
your husband.
Yes.
Alright, Mary, come on.
- Will you sign my book, please, Mr. Loring?
- No, not now.
Do you have to encourage every greaseman
here on the track to make passes at you?
Oh, for heaven's sake, Mark!
Se?or Loring, please, with your wife.
Can't you leave us alone just
for five minutes...
...without sticking your blasted
camera in our faces?
Well, I'm not going to play
this scene to an audience.
Mary!
Not a bad race.
Looks as if I might have a chance
at the championship this year...
...if I can pick up the Grand Prix
at Silverstone.
What's the matter? You've hardly
spoken to me since the race.
Will you please tell me why you
pulled that ridiculous jealousy scene?
I don't like you talking to strangers you
find hanging around the rails, that's all.
He was one of the crew
in the next pit.
- A fan of yours.
- Mine?
He didn't look like that to me.
We were just talking.
I like talking to people.
I was brought up in show business
and we're a friendly crowd.
Yes, too darn friendly.
Mark.
Darling Mark.
I wish you could trust me.
I love you so much.
- You can trust me, you know.
- I want to.
I really do, Mary.
It's just that every time I see
some idiot staring at you, I...
I see red.
Well, I think you should be pleased that
people are attracted to your wife.
I am. It's when they start
circling around you.
Darling, that's beyond my control.
Come on, zip me up.
Of course we could move to
a desert island.
- That's a great idea.
- You wouldn't get much racing, though.
Where are you going?
Downstairs. Otherwise you'll never
get ready and I'm starved.
Meet you in the bar, okay?
Okay.
Buenas noches, se?ora.
- Hello.
- How nice to see you again.
May I offer you an aperitif?
Oh, no, thank you, I'm just waiting
for my husband
- Buenas noches, se?or.
- Good evening.
- Forgive me.
- No, no, don't go.
Oh, Marc, darling, this is the gentleman
I was telling you about.
You were right, darling. It is my
autograph he wants.
Let's have a drink.
There's Mark.
That must be his wife.
Mark!
- Hello.
- Won't you join us?
Well, thanks, we've already
got a table.
Oh, we accept no excuses,
do we, Claire?
Mark, you're caught.
Give up and sit down.
We're so cross. You've been keeping
your charming wife from us far too long.
Well, just one drink.
Darling, this is Mr. Duncan.
We're very old friends of Sir John.
I've known Mark since he was a boy.
Sir John idolizes Martin.
I think he spoiled him.
- Yes, I know.
- Well, it's not surprising, really.
Have you heard about the mother?
They parted Marc was only a baby.
She just walked out.
American. Singer, I believe.
- You're American, aren't you?
- Yes... and a singer.
- It's one of my old songs.
- Oh, do sing it.
Now, please, won't you?
Oh, they've recognized you, my dear.
How simply thrilling!
Well, you can't refuse now.
- You're not going to sing.
- Why not?
I won't have it.
# My strange affair is a lonely one #
# A lonely one that's just a dream #
# And when the sunshine awakens #
# Each weeping willow #
# The man I loved is gone #
# And there's just my empty pillow.
# My strange affair #
# Is too full of tears #
# Tears that know #
# There isn't a chance #
# That someday, somehow #
# Somewhere, someone #
# Will come #
# My way #
# And change my strange affair #
# To a real romance #
Oh, I'm sorry.
Mary!
What are you trying to do to me?
What the devil are you trying to do?
Blast all the people.
Have you been up long, darling?
Good morning, darling.
Forgive me?
For what?
Last night.
Darling, I don't think I could change
you even if I wanted to.
Mark, what are you trying to prove?
That you're a man?
You may have to prove that to your father,
but you don't have to prove it to me.
Oh, Mary!
Hello?
It's for you.
Yes?
Oh...
- It's my fan.
Oh, you're very kind.
Persistent, isn't he?
Oh, no, I'm afraid we can't,
we're busy.
Oh, yes, if you would. Would you please
leave it with the barman?
Thank you.
I dropped my glove at the race.
And a handsome stranger who happened
to be passing by picked it up.
Et cetera, et cetera.
Hm, a bit old-fashioned, isn't it?
Besides, I don't care to share
you this morning.
Oh, Mark.
I never seem to have you
to myself.
There's always something.
Somebody.
Nothing's ever enough for you, Mark.
Not even me.
We've got to move on, Mary,
we're on our way.
What?
We're leaving.
- Where are we going?
- London, home.
Home.
- That's something we don't have.
- I mean my father's house in London.
My home and yours too.
And right now I'm ready to go home.
A trophy in one hand and me
in the other.
Not bad.
I hope he hates me a little
less this time.
- Hate you, he hardly knows you.
- He doesn't need to.
As far as he's concerned I'm just
like your mother.
He hated her.
A home.
You're always talking about a home.
It's what you want most
in the world, isn't it?
Second most.
What's the most?
Something that's going to happen
very soon.
Something that makes the second
very important.
Hm?
I'm going to have a baby.
Ours, I hope.
Mary.
Mary, I'm terribly sorry.
Se?orita, se?orita!
My husband... my husband!
Si, si, si...
Doctor! Doctor!
Si, si, se?ora.
Father.
Would you mind, sister?
Take it easy, boy.
Everything's going to be all right now.
- I'm here.
- Why are you here?
The Duncans heard about the crash.
They called me.
Gently, boy, gently.
You were badly hurt.
How badly?
Badly enough.
But we'll soon have you on the mend.
I've made arrangements for the
convalescent home near London.
Can't seem to remember what happened.
- Mary?
- She's along the corridor.
She's not seriously hurt.
Thank heavens.
She's going to have a baby, Father.
What is it?
I'm sorry, Mark.
Oh, come in, doctor.
Good evening, se?ora.
Ah, it is a shame.
You do not like Spanish cooking.
It's just that I'm not hungry.
Your husband is conscious.
His father is with him.
I do not want you out of bed
now anyway.
It will soon be time enough.
- You haven't told him?
- About the baby?
No, no, about him.
There will be time enough
for that as well.
Couldn't you tell him it was me?
Can't you just say...
your wife can't have any more children?
You could adopt a child.
In your circumstances...
...there are many children.
You don't know Mark.
You will see.
You don't understand.
Maybe I do.
I doubt it.
You try to get some sleep.
We will talk about it tomorrow.
Do you hate me?
No.
Oh, no.
Mary, I've had some time to think.
No, no, please listen to me.
As soon as I'm out of here,
I'll make things up to you.
We'll settle down like ordinary people.
Have another child.
Don't, darling, not now.
We'll talk about it all later.
Everything's going to be fine.
Just fine.
Did they tell you something
they didn't tell me?
- No.
- No wheelchairs?
No wheelchairs.
Am I intruding?
One wouldn't accuse you of
subtlety, my dear.
It's just that Mark and I wanted
to be alone.
- Had you thought of that?
- Constantly.
Mary, please.
I've got some wonderful plans
for you, Mark.
We're going to travel.
We'll take the yacht.
Go to the Far East, or the West Indies.
Oh, there's a lot we can do.
It's time I took some time off.
- Do you mean the two of us?
- It's bound to end, sooner or later.
- These affairs always do.
- This is not an affair.
- It's a marriage.
- Do you really believe that?
Once upon a time I thought that too.
And now I have to stand around and watch
the thing happening all over again.
You're two lovers in the throes
of an affair.
People can't go through life
that way.
- Maybe I want to.
- That's what you think now.
But a man can't want that
for very long.
Well, I'm going back to London.
I'll be waiting for you.
In the meantime they'll move you to the
convalescent home in the weekend.
Goodbye, Mark.
Come in.
Is this a social call?
Oh no, my dear.
Just a little private talk.
You want to buy me off.
Well, I'm not for sale.
I never have been.
- Perhaps I underestimated you.
- Or Mark.
Now it's time that you
faced facts.
You and Mark can never have
a real marriage.
Not now.
He can't have a son, an heir.
- And somebody should tell him.
- No!
He doesn't have to know,
not now, it's too soon.
Maybe after a while,
when he's well again.
We just need a little time.
- By ourselves.
- He belongs with me.
You'll only hurt each other.
I'll take my chances on that.
I'm not worried about you,
my dear.
- Mark is my only concern.
- Mark?
Your property, that's all
Mark is to you.
Just a piece of property,
like your ships or your factories.
And you try to buy him from me
like a piece of real estate.
Well, I'm not selling.
You haven't got enough love
to buy him with.
Sir John.
Even now your son is more
of a man than you'll ever be.
At least he's not afraid of a fight.
What he doesn't know is that
you're the enemy.
Thank you, nurse.
You see? I promised you sun
on your first day out.
You also promised me no wheelchairs.
Just one more week, darling.
Mark.
I want a baby.
Mary... Mary.
Listen to me, please listen
to me, darling.
While you give me a blueprint
of my deficiency?
Oh, Mark.
They told you.
Father did.
Your father?
- But he didn't have the right to...
- That didn't matter!
I had to know sometime that the
accident has left me sterile.
Mary, I can still be a husband
to you but...
...now I can't give you a child.
If you want to leave me,
this is the time.
I'd understand.
Oh, Mark, how could you?
You didn't think me any less a woman when
you thought I couldn't have another child.
Well, I don't think you any less
a man now.
But we can have another
child, darling.
No, no, adopting a child
wouldn't work, not for us.
We'd just be using it to keep
our marriage together.
It wouldn't be fair.
Well, there's another way.
For me to have a child, I mean.
What do you mean, I...
Artificial insemination.
You must be crazy.
No, Mark. I'm not crazy.
We both want a baby,
our own baby.
- This is the only possible way.
- But I wouldn't be ours.
- I wouldn't be the father.
- But I'd be the mother.
It would be born to us.
And if you tried, really tried,
it would be your baby just
as much as mine.
And if I don't agree?
Then I don't see any future for us.
And only your father will be happy.
Let's go away, Mark.
As soon as you're well.
Away from any outside influence.
Then we'll know...
...whatever we decide, it'll will be
our own decision.
I've heard about a clinic
in Switzerland...
It's run by a man named Cameron.
We could go there...
What do you say, Mark?
Yes or no?
Darling?
Yes or no?
It'll be your child.
It's to be your decision.
Schaeffer!
Schaeffer, they're here.
Dr. Cameron!
The new couple have arrived.
Our head clerk said gesundheit.
Ah, the secret signal.
Is Schaeffer pulling up the drawbridge?
They like to see an open door
when they arrive.
It makes them feel much
more welcome.
- I'll show them to their room.
- No, no... don't do that.
Bring them in here.
- Do you have any coffee?
- I've just made some.
Good, good.
I'm nurse Parsons.
Do come in.
- Mrs. Loring, how nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, doctor.
May I take your coat, Mr. Loring?
- Thank you.
Directly on time.
It isn't always like that down here.
Come and sit down, Mr. Loring.
I believe there's some coffee
on the hob, nurse?
Yes, plenty, I'll bring it in.
How long are we going to
be here, doctor?
Quite a little while, several weeks.
The doctor explained in his
letter, darling.
- He did?
- There are certain preliminaries.
Blood tests and things like that.
Then I like to understand the
background of the case.
It all takes time.
Mr. Loring, what's your view
about this?
We want a baby, very badly.
That's the most important thing.
Two people must really want the child.
The medical treatment is not
too complicated.
Many children are born every year
by the same method.
You've got to make sure that the people
involved are in good health,
there's no question of hereditary
diseases,
and that they can fully take care
of the child.
You both obviously understand
all about it.
Or you wouldn't have come here.
- Ah, nurse.
- I think I'll go to our room.
- You don't want any coffee?
- No, thank you.
Well... I'm sure your journey
was very tiring.
Not particularly.
We'll meet after dinner and discuss
everything then.
There's something I want
you to know.
None of my patients are just
cases to me.
I regard you as something
very special.
Both of you.
I think you behaved disgustingly.
If you want to take it out on anybody,
take it out on me, not Dr. Cameron!
I can't stand being humored.
Coffee on the hob.
Comfortable English armchairs.
Humph! For boring English
backsides.
Why the devil did we leave home?
To protect you from people,
why do you suppose?
I don't care about people!
Well, what do you care about, your own
stupid pride? That's about all it could be!
All I'm guilty of is trying to hold
this marriage together.
I don't know what you want me
to do or to say!
I have good news for you, Mary.
You're going to have a baby.
Isn't it wonderful news, Mark?
Say it's wonderful, go on, say it.
Yes, yes, yes, it's wonderful,
it's wonderful.
You know what I'd like
to do today?
I'd love to go right up to the
forest slopes.
- You'll have to go without me.
- On no, Mark, please come.
We haven't been there together
in so long.
Mary, I just don't feel like it.
If you want to go, you can go alone.
- You can manage without me.
- Oh, but I can't.
You seem to have done
pretty well so far.
You idiot!
You fool, you stupid, senseless,
ridiculous fool!
Why do you suppose I did it?
Why do you suppose I strained every nerve
in my body to make this happen?
Because I love you!
Whatever kind of a man you are,
I love you, I love you!
Stay where you are.
Don't move.
So...
Let's see.
All right?
Uh-huh.
You were very lucky.
- No pain?
- No.
Yeah, my ankle... a little bit.
Are you... are you with anyone?
No. No, I'm alone.
Not so good.
You know it's a long way back
to the hotel with that ankle.
Oh, I'm not staying at the hotel.
- I'm at Dr. Cameron's.
- Oh, I see.
- You know him?
- Yes, we are old friends.
Now, you think you can walk?
- Oh, I guess so.
- We haven't to go very far.
Do you mind telling me where
we're going?
- My cabin.
- Oh, you're not a tourist.
No, I, er... I try to write.
- Oh.
- Now let's see.
Isn't Mary back?
No...
She's probably met some of the skiers.
Perhaps at the lodge.
Anyhow... please, please...
Please stay, I'd like to talk to you.
You're angry, very angry.
It's because of Mary's present
condition, isn't it?
- It's none of your blasted business!
- It's pretty much my blasted business.
I assumed that you wanted this child.
I agreed on paper.
It's actually your responsibility.
I'm afraid there's a little more
to it than that.
I'm no quack, Mr. Loring.
The thing I do, I do with sincerity
and humility.
- I admire your dedication.
- I'm not asking for your admiration.
The fact remais that I have already
made you a father.
You made Mary a mother!
Do you have a phone?
Oh, no... No, I'm sorry, I...
I want to call my husband, I'm afraid
he'll be worried.
We'll think about that in a moment, hm?
First I'll make you some coffee.
- You look frozen.
- Yes, I am, my clothes are kind of wet.
- We will dry them.
- Okay.
- Here we are.
- Thank you.
- Behind that curtain.
- All right.
This will be real coffee, not like
the one you drink in America.
As long as it's hot.
Ah, don't worry. You'll be back.
You live here all year round?
- Yes.
- It must be lonely.
No.
- Coffee will be ready in a moment.
- Good.
You know we were lucky, there's
a blizzard coming up.
I'm afraid I... I can't get you
back now.
Well how long do you think
it will last?
Oh, you can't tell with a
mountain storm.
Sometimes it doesn't last long and...
Well?
How do I look?
Very funny.
I'd better have another look, hm?
- It's only a muscle.
- Good.
I'll get a fire started.
- Can I help you?
- No, no. You rest.
Besides, building a fire
is a man's job.
But it's an art all the same.
You know you can tell a man's character
by the way he makes a fire?
- Didn't you know that?
- Really?
I will show you.
Now.
First there is the spendthrift.
Very unreliable.
Then we have the scientific technique.
Beware of such a man.
Mean, insensitive.
Then we have the, er...
the doubter.
Well, which sort of man are you?
I...
I'm the most dangerous of all.
I never start a fire twice the same way.
Mr. Loring.
Mr. Loring!
You can't go out without a guide.
I'll get you one.
Polizei.
Schnell, bitte.
Cameron here. One of out patients
is lost in the mountains.
Could you send out a guide
immediately?
The guide will be here in a few
moments, Mr. Loring.
Was there a reason for all
this solitude?
None, except that I like it.
It's getting awfully late.
You can't go back yet.
It's still snowing heavily.
The coffee's getting cold.
Thank you.
It has stopped snowing.
I'll take you home now.
- Is your ankle all right?
- Oh, yes.
Good. Better get changed.
Thank you.
This is Herr Dieter's house.
Mark!
And I spend the entire night
searching for you.
It doesn't seem any of this holiday
was necessary.
You don't seem to understand,
she hurt her ankle...
Don't insult my intelligence!
You are the one who is
being insulting.
Here... a touch of this.
- Has Dieter lived around here long?
- Yes.
- Let me help you.
- You've been enough help already.
I'm sorry I've caused you
so much trouble, doctor.
You seem to have a bigger problem
on your hands.
Well, you can't blame him too much.
It hasn't been easy for him.
Everyone knows why we're here.
He feels that... he caused it.
I guess he feels like some
kind of freak.
- What are you doing?
- Isn't it obvious?
- I'm not leaving.
- You're not invited.
Mark.
I won't beg you, but someday you'll realize
you're making a terrible mistake.
You're going to be a father.
No, no, you've got it all wrong.
You're going to be a mother.
I shall never be the father.
It'll be anybody but me.
It's a terrible thing we've done
to Dr. Cameron...
...making him believe we wanted
this child.
We wanted the child?
You mean you did.
Is there something you want
to tell me, Mary?
I've been very dishonest
with you, doctor.
I led you to believe that Mark
wanted this child too.
You thought it would hold
you together?
Yes, I did.
It will, you know.
Just give it time.
It's too late now.
Come in.
- You look tired.
- I am.
Make yourself comfortable.
All right.
I've left her.
So it's happened.
Oh, my poor boy.
I've been through this. How I wish
you could have been spared.
- I did try.
- Father, what can I do?
- Another man?
- She's pregnant.
- I'm not the father.
- That should be enough for any judge.
Adultery is quite simple.
And um... I think Stanley's our man.
He's tough. That's the kind of barrister
you want for a case like this.
You think I should divorce Mary.
- Had you any other thought?
- Well...
No, no, I...
No, of course you're right.
- I must divorce her.
- Good.
I'll arrange for you to see Stanley in the
morning and I think I'll come along too.
Now listen, my boy.
Everybody makes mistakes,
even I do.
The important thing is to correct
them as soon as possible.
You do want this divorce,
don't you?
Yes.
There's no going back on
a thing like this, you know.
I've made up my mind.
Of course the press will
crucify me, but...
Oh, that doesn't worry me.
Let's go home.
Be like old days, hm?
Oh, say? Why don't we have dinner
at the club tonight?
It's been a long time since
we did that.
Anything wrong, doctor?
Come and sit down, Mary.
Your case is down for hearing
six weeks from today.
Even my medical statement
can't postpone this.
You could let him have it by default.
And have my child branded
father unknown?
No.
No, I want to go to London.
Will it harm you in any way?
Something was bound to
happen eventually.
Thank you, Jane.
People like the Lorings simply can't be
expected to realize the importance of this.
They'll fight to secure the money,
the blood...
They'll build banks for both...
...but a bank to secure humanity.
Anyhow, so long as it doesn't
harm you.
Komm herein.
Mary! You're just in time
for coffee.
You must be getting strong
to be so early.
- It must be a special occasion.
- I had to come early.
I want to tell you myself.
Karl, I have to leave here.
- When are you going?
- Today, on the afternoon plane from Zurich.
So quickly.
- Is it important then?
- Yes.
Mark's divorcing me.
So you're defending the case.
Of course.
- What did you think?
- You're doing it for the child.
Because I don't want to lose Mark.
You still love him.
There's never been any other way.
I think Mark still loves me.
It's not just him I'm fighting, Karl,
it's his father.
And what if you lose the case?
I don't know.
I'll face that when it happens,
if it happens.
You will face it on your own?
In the end everything's faced
on one's own.
Not always.
Goodbye, Karl.
Thank you for everything.
I've done nothing, except cause
trouble for you.
I'm afraid there's more to it
than that night.
I'm sure Mark's probably forgotten
all about you by now.
Oh, no, he hasn't.
I'm also coming to London.
Your husband has named me
co-respondent.
Now then, Mrs. Loring, how many times
would you say that you saw Mr. Dieter?
Would you say one time...
Two times?
Three times?
- Many times?
- Yes.
Many times.
We became friends.
You became friends, is that what
you said, Mrs. Loring?
Yes.
After or before you spent
the night with him?
- What are you suggesting?
- After or before?
After.
So you became friends that night.
- Intimate friends?
- Friends, but not intimate.
Not in any way?
He didn't even kiss you?
Not that night or any other night.
But you, um... you enjoyed
talking to him, I assume.
As you did the mechanic Mario Firenzo
on the occasion of the Iberian Grand Prix.
It was hardly much conversation
between Mr. Firenzo and myself.
The incident with Mr. Firenzo occurred
before your trip to Dr. Cameron, did it not?
Incident? What incident?
- You met then, before the accident.
- Yes, at the racetrack.
In the evening you met again.
- In the bar at the Hotel Playa.
- By arrangement?
Why, no!
My husband was changing
for dinner, so I...
And you preferred the bar and Mr. Firenzo
to your husband's company.
No! I left my husband alone
deliberately.
He had just driven a hard race,
and I left him to unwind.
- Had you quarreled?
- I'd refused to quarrel with my husband.
About Mr. Firenzo?
- Yes.
- So, knowing that,
you preferred the company of this mechanic
who couldn't even speak to you.
Preferred it enough not to
stop and think...
that you were placing yourself
in a position...
...that your husband could both
misconstrue and be offended by.
It was so very unimportant.
Did you explain or apologize
to your husband?
Apologize?
No, I just laughed it away.
- You laughed it away?
- No... I mean...
- I quite understand.
- No, I don't think you do!
I assure you, Mrs. Loring, your meaning
couldn't be clearer.
- But we both...
- Please, Mrs. Loring.
So after the accident,
when you decided that the only way to save
your marriage was by having a child,
you quite naturally didn't consider
your husband's feelings in the matter.
My husband's feelings were
my main consideration.
Your main consideration.
There were others then.
Possibly you considered the child might
be a guarantee for your future.
My future?
I don't see...
What do you mean?
Were you aware of your husband's
great family wealth?
Yes.
Were you equally aware of your
father-in-law's disapproval of you?
Yes, I was.
Knowing that, it might have occurred to you
that your future was most insecure...
unless you could produce an heir...
...and as such an heir was
no longer possible,
you were obliged to force
your husband...
to do something that was against all
his wishes in a last frantic hope...
My lord!
You were about to ask a question,
Mr. Stanley?
I was simply thinking aloud, my lord.
Unwise, Mr. Stanley.
Most of our private thoughts
are best left unsaid.
I know from up here most of mine are.
Forgive me, my lord.
Now answer me this question,
Mrs. Loring.
Were you as decided and as desperate
to have this baby...
...before the accident as you were
after the accident?
I always believed a child was
necessary to our marriage.
- Always!
- Necessary, why?
My husband...
...was never very sure of himself.
It was very important...
...for him to be a man.
That's why I was so happy when I knew
we were going to have a child.
Then there was the accident...
...and we lost our baby.
After the accident...
I thought another child might...
...compensate.
I find it difficult to follow
your reasoning.
How could you possibly compensate
your husband with somebody else's child?
Because I'm part of my husband.
A child is part of me.
So I thought...
The idea is rather high-flown,
isn't it?
I suggest that your reason for
producing this child...
...was on a far more material basis.
All I want...
All I have ever wanted is
my husband's love.
Nothing else is of any importance.
Stop the examination!
Look at her.
He wants you to stop the examination.
My lord, Mrs. Loring is under very
great physical strain.
My lord, the jury and I,
and doubtless your lordship,
have been admiring the respondent's
performance.
The theatrical profession has lost
a talented actress.
Anything after this would be
an anticlimax.
All I have left to say is...
Thank you, Mrs. Loring.
Um, my lord, if it would please
the court,
I would like to ask for a short adjournment
on behalf of my client.
Yes... yes, I shall rise for
fifteen minutes.
Mark,
I can't stand any more.
It's too horrible.
I'd say give in now...
...if I thought that that was
what you really wanted.
I'm not going to put you in the
witness box again.
The jury are with you, emotionally,
I mean.
But I must have something more
factual to give the judge.
You must give me permission
to reexamine your husband.
- Oh, what good would it do?
- What good?
There are two vital points
I can establish.
And this I must do if you are to have
any chance at all of winning this case.
I don't think I care anymore.
Does it really matter what
you care, Mrs. Loring?
Have you the right to deliberately
bastardize your child?
Thank you.
In fact, Mr. Loring,
you have been jealous of your wife
since the day of your marriage.
I didn't enjoy the attentions my wife
encouraged, if that's what you mean.
No, that is not what I mean.
You did not enjoy them,
or were you jealous of them?
I did not like them.
Because you wanted to be the only
man she was aware of?
Naturally. She was my wife.
Is your wife, Mr. Loring. You may have
arrived at your own verdict,
the court has not.
So we have established...
...that you did not like your wife
being civil to Mario Firenza,
you did not like her accepting a light
from your father's old friend, Mr. Duncan...
I consider she was provoking him.
We've already gone into that.
I am merely summarizing the points we have
established about your likes and dislikes.
You did not like her singing
in a night club.
No, I did not.
And you did not like her accepting
the hospitality of Mr. Carl Dieter,
when it was apparent to everybody
for miles around...
...that the circumstances offered
no alternative.
I put it to you.
That this divorce action was first
motivated by jealousy...
pure and simply by jealousy.
You went back on your word
on your promises...
...because you were jealous of your
wife and Mr. Dieter.
You misconstrued an act of kindness...
as you have misconstrued every
episode I have recalled you...
...because of your unreasonable,
uncontrollable jealousy
It's not true.
What is not true?
That you went back on your word?
Or that you are jealous?
It wasn't a question of going back on
my word. That's got nothing to do with it.
Being jealous of Dieter, I mean.
But I... Well, he put my wife in a most
compromising position.
He put your wife in a most
compromising position.
I see.
Now, I would like to take you back
to the Iberian Grand Prix...
...and the night you seem to recall
so vividly at the Hotel Playa.
Do you also recall the events
that followed?
Yes, I do. She ran out on the beach.
I was annoyed with her.
She sang in a nightclub, made a public
exhibition of herself.
A public exhibition.
I see.
You found your wife alone.
There was no one else with her.
No, no one else.
Were you not aware that the beach
was a public one,
- overlooked by the terraces of the hotel...
- Well...
And that other eyes were watching...
...while you forced your wife into
an act of love?
I never said...
Did you or did you not make love
to your wife...
...on a public beach overlooked
by the hotel?
Yes, I did.
And of course your wife was willing.
No.
But since she was your wife,
this didn't matter?
Nor did it matter that you were
compromising her...
...making a public exhibition of her.
I object, my lord.
Yes, Mr. Stanley?
You allowed Mr. Loring to be recalled
on the grounds of new evidence.
All this is irrelevant, totally
irrelevant.
My lord, with all due respect
to my learned friend,
all this is not in the least irrelevant.
It is necessary, substantiating evidence.
Proceed.
- As I was saying...
- I know exactly what you were saying.
And my answer is I had
the right to.
She was my wife.
Which is to imply that she had
no rights as such?
After the accident...
while you were still in hospital and before
you were aware of your condition,
did you or did you not say
to your wife...
"I will make it up to you."?
Well, I...
I'm not sure.
You do not recall saying
those words?
I don't recall the exact
phraseology, my lord.
But you did say something similar.
Yes, my lord.
Soon afterwards you signed
a document...
...agreeing to your wife's treatment
by Dr. Cameron.
But between signing the document
and its fruition...
you told neither your wife
nor Dr. Cameron...
...that you had suddenly taken a violent
dislike to the whole business.
Do you recall the day of May 27th?
- I'm not sure.
- Then I will refresh your memory.
It was on that day when your wife
first told you that she was pregnant.
Shortly afterwards you made
love to her...
and in so doing accepted the fact of her
condition. You had condoned it!
- Did you or did you not?
- I cannot say that...
Did you or did you not?
Silence in court!
Yes, I did.
Thank you.
That will be all, my lord.
You may be seated, Mr. Loring.
My lord, I would like to call
Sir John Loring.
After luncheon, Dr. Stanley,
don't you think?
It's almost one o'clock.
Here you are, another slice of sering
human drama for the afternoon edition.
- Off you go.
- Okay, sir.
Oh, tell the sports editor not to forget
my ticket for the big fight tonight.
Well, Mark. I got a table
at the Savoy.
So you thoroughly disapproved
of this marriage.
It was a clandestine marriage
and I didn't like that.
Oh, come, Sir John.
Clandestine?
Why, that means something
secret, underhand.
This young couple married on the
spur of the moment,
there was nothing underhand
about it.
I objected to the off-handed
fashion in which...
It was your daughter-in-law
that you objected to, wasn't it?
- I hardly knew my son's wife.
- I mean you objected to her on principle.
She came from show business,
the theater.
A singer in fact.
You weren't prepared to give
her a chance.
The unhappy memory of your own
unsuccessful marriage to an actress.
- I must protest!
- My lord, this is absolutely monstrous!
Yes. I think, Mr. Jacobus,
I need hardly say.
I apologize, my lord.
You had a conversation with
your daughter-in-law...
...in the hospital shortly after
the tragic accident.
I did.
Was it then you made your first attempt
to break up this marriage?
First?
Well, you admit you made an attempt
at that occasion?
Yes, I did.
In fact you tried to buy
Mrs. Loring off.
Oh, put it that way if you want to.
Why did you want to separate
this young couple?
Didn't your son need his wife more
than ever after what had happened?
I know my son. He would soon
have tired of her.
It was nothing more than
a passing infatuation.
So you thought to rid him
of her quickly.
Naturally I was concerned
for my son.
As it turned out, it was for both
their sakes.
She'd lost their child, he was now sterile
and no further use to her.
I thought she'd be pleased
and practical enough...
...to agree to an arrangement.
- But she didn't agree.
- She had more ambitious ideas.
She knew that a child was
her only hope.
- Of what?
- Of having a pemanent hold on my son.
- And of the Loring fortune.
- Exactly.
- You realized this?
- I did indeed.
And I took care of it by informing
my son that he was sterile.
I wished to protect him from
a scheming woman.
And also to protect the Loring estate.
Same thing.
So naturally you weren't very happy...
...when you learned of the outcome
of this visit to Dr. Cameron's clinic.
I was absolutely disgusted.
For any particular reason?
For every possible reason.
You heard your daughter-in-law say
in this court that she loved your son.
- That she would always love him.
- I did.
I believe that was what she said
to you in the hospital.
After you offered her a comfortable
way out of this marriage.
It was.
- Do you think she was telling the truth?
- Do I think?
Look where we are now.
Do you suppose that my son would have
been forced to take refuge here...
...if his wife had really loved him?
I have nothing more to ask you.
Silence!
My lord,
On behalf of Sir John Loring,
may I beg the indulgence of
the court in asking...
Ah, there you are.
Mark, do you hear me?
I'm going back to the office.
The judge was most reasonable about it.
They can always send for me if they
want to but they won't, of course.
Well, I think I've just about
done the trick for us.
They've got that disgusting old quack
Cameron on the box now.
Stanley will deal with him.
During these eighteen years
as a specialist in artificial insemination,
I assume that many couples have
come to you.
Many.
People who would otherwise have led
childless and unhappy lives.
In these cases, who's name is on
the birth certificate as the father?
The husband. I always insist
upon that.
But that is a false statement.
It's the same as an adoption.
The couple assume responsibility
for the child.
But adoption is legal.
But to force your patients deliberately to
sign a fraudulent statement is criminal.
A risk I'm prepared to take.
Would you say that Mark Loring...
at the time of signing the document
agreeing to your treatment...
...was emotionally stable?
It was obvious that he was
under strain.
But I fully believed...
his wife did too,
that having this child would
alleviate that.
And now then, Dr. Cameron.
You were a party to this technical
adultery?
I won't accept that!
It is not adultery!
Oh, no, that's too easy,
far too easy.
At that rate any woman who commits
adultery can say,
"No, I didn't, it was by artificial
insemination, ask Dr. Cameron."
- It's a splendid alibi.
- How dare you!
My lord, this is an attempt on the part
of my learned friend...
to debase an honest man whose treatment
is done openly and decently!
- Decently?
- In order to concieve a child!
Mr. Stanley, the act of adultery is
unrelated to its consequences.
But, My lord, this is adultery.
From a husband it is not regarded
as intercourse.
That has been established by law.
Therefore, from a donor,
it is not adultery!
The law relating to marriage is designed
for the preservation of family life.
It holds that the surrender of
the reproductive power...
...to another man is adultery!
But in this case it is not another man.
It is a test tube.
Therefore, I maintain that men
like Dr. Cameron...
are striking at the very heart
of our civilization.
Conjuring up these phantom fathers to
fill the world with test tube babies.
I maintain it's time the law brought
its ideas up to date.
First of all, Mr. Stanley,
are you cross-examining the witness
or addressing the court?
I do most humbly apologize,
my lord.
And your term will come too,
Mr. Jacobus.
I beg your pardon, my lord.
As for you, Dr. Cameron,
you will restrain yourself and only
answer the questions put to you.
As for your last remark,
it was quite out of order and
most disrespectful.
May I explain.
The court is doing exactly
as you suggest.
In this particular case, as always,
we're all working very hard...
...to bring our ideas up to date.
The court will adjourn until tomorrow
morning at half past ten.
Good afternoon, Mr. Mark.
Give me a minute, my boy. I have something
important here that won't wait.
And I have something important...
...which won't wait either.
Oh, what is it?
Well, a bit of a tussle in there, hm?
Still, I'm quite happy with the way
things are going.
And I'm deeply unhappy.
Oh, come, come, Mark, just because you had
a bit of a trouncing in the witness box?
I mean, we had to expect
something like this.
You were in court. You must have
seen what a fool I've been.
I thought you came out very well.
There's no reason for you
to reproach yourself.
There's every reason to.
- I don't understand.
- Of course you don't.
We've never understood each other.
You and I have spoken a different
language all our lives.
What the devil are you
talking about?
The lousy mess I've made
of my life with Mary.
It is no time for recriminations.
The past is finished.
We've disposed of Mary.
You mean you've disposed of Mary.
I'm not finding it quite that easy.
It's a fine time to tell me this.
After all the trouble and expense I've had
to rid ourselves of this woman.
You know, I'm just beginning to see
what kind of a person you really are.
- Mark!
- I escaped from you when I married Mary.
My accident was your chance
to get me back.
Of course I wasn't an entirely
complete human being,
but that didn't matter to you.
The bits and pieces were enough.
As long as you could have them
all to yourself.
- I wanted to protect you!
- You wanted to possess me!
Just as I wanted to possess Mary.
She said to me once...
"Nothing's ever enough for you,
Mark, not even me."
If only I'd understood her.
If only I'd stayed with her and fought
things out instead of limping back to you.
Some people don't know what's
best for them.
- And there are those who play God.
- How dare you!
Don't shout at me!
I'm looking out for you.
Because you're my son.
A father wants his son...
his only son...
...to be perfect, something
to be proud of.
And am I something to be
proud of?
I don't think so.
Mark... Mark.
You had a trying day.
Let's have dinner at the club
and talk it over?
There aren't going to be any more
dinners at the club.
They won't let me in.
Well, there will be two speeches,
for and against.
- Him and her?
- Sort of, yes.
Then the judge will sum up.
Should be some good stuff there
between the three of them.
You stick around, I may need you.
- Look after that, please.
- Yes, sir.
I think Stanley will leap in and let
her hardly speak at all.
After all, he's got the great big
sentimental world behind him,
it should be easy for him.
- Good morning, Mrs. Loring.
- You'll let me know if I'm wanted?
- Indeed.
- Thank you.
I promised your lawyer I wouldn't speak
to you until the case was over, but I...
Oh, it seems so silly.
- It makes sense really.
- Of course it does.
People... the jury and all the others
are easily misled.
But with Dr. Cameron here it's
most respectable.
I'm not so sure anymore.
Mary, there's something I want
to tell you.
This... this is a bad place to say
these things.
Everything seems to get
twisted around, but...
Mary, I'm not a rich man and I have
very little to offer you...
- Karl...
- No, please, please listen to me.
Whatever happens in court today,
whatever happens,
I want you to know that if there's
anything I can do,
or if you should need any help,
I'll be there.
Don't say anything now.
Just remember what I said.
I will be there.
If it please the court.
Yes, Mr. Jacobus?
My lord.
And members of the jury.
Who has the right to condemn
a woman...
for being a woman...
...and for wanting to give her
husband a child?
The one thing that is truly
hers to give.
What wife should be deserted...
...because she went to every extreme
to save a marriage?
Can a husband call this mental cruelty?
And can the world call Mary Loring's
search for fulfillment..
...a matter of adultery?
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
But what does the word adultery mean?
A voluntary act by a married person
with one to whom they are not married.
There has been no evidence given
in this courtroom...
that either the respondent or
her husband...
...has been guilty of such an act.
Mr. Stanley has spoken of
technical adultery.
One word negates the other.
If a woman is guilty of adultery,
then she is guilty of having been
with another man.
Our co-respondent in this case
is an unknown man.
Unknown to both Mark and Mary Loring.
I do not think that the moral aspect
should be discussed in this courtroom.
The morality of what they have done
must lie with Mark and Mary Loring.
In their hearts, and in their consciences,
and with God above.
Mark Loring agreed to his wife's treatment
in this clinic of his own free will.
By his own admission, he condoned the act
shortly after it took place.
And then, because he was filled
with his own inner doubts,
and governed by his uncontrollable
jealousy,
he left her to go through this
pregnancy alone.
He sued her for divorce.
and in due course accused her
of adultery,
and seeked to label this child,
this child that he had agreed to
of his own free will,
as illegitimate.
Who then is guilty?
Guilty...
...of mental cruelty?
I have only the greatest compassion...
...for Mark Loring.
But he is an adult...
...to whom all civil rights
are availed.
But what of this child, this unborn child,
who as yet has no rights...
civil or otherwise?
Is it to be cruelly victimized
by a man's jealousy?
Harshly dealt with because of
a man's false pride?
The child's status as heir
to the Loring estate...
...is a matter for this court.
But the legitimacy of its birth
cannot be questioned.
I say, that whosoever should be
its father,
it is legally, undisputedly
and clearly Mark Loring's child.
Where then is there a question
of adultery?
That is the case for the
respondent, my lord.
My lord, and members of the jury,
I do not use the authorities
as reference...
...or substantiation in our case.
Instead, I use the Bible.
And so, members of the jury,
you will understand...
...that this is a grave and
serious matter.
For what in fact you are going
to decide in this case...
is whether artificial insemination
resulting in the conception of a child...
...is adultery.
Or alternatively, whether in resorting
to such a method of conception...
...the respondent has been guilty
of treating her husband with cruelty.
The other questions that arise
from this...
---
it is a question of adultery.
You will now retire and consider
your verdict.
Would you like to come outside?
The jury may be gone some time.
No, thank you.
Mr. Loring.
It is perhaps difficult for you
to speak to me, but...
...there is something I want
to say to you.
Something you must believe.
Nothing happened between
Mary and me that night.
She was too much in love
with you...
...for me to have a chance.
And I think she still is.
And if you were not an Englishman,
you would know that yourself.
Please excuse me.
It shouldn't be long now.
Are you sure you won't
come out?
No, thank you.
Do you... do you mind if I
talk to you?
No.
Are you all right?
Oh, yes... yes, thanks.
After all this you must hate me.
Oh, Mark.
I could never hate you.
It all seems so indecent.
Yes... yes, it was.
The child will be taken care of.
I've made all the arrangements.
I've learned a lot about myself in this...
in this courtroom.
- No matter what the jury decides...
- Let's wait for them.
It doesn't seem any more to say.
I shall always love you.
Silence.
Has the jury reached it's verdict?
No. I'm sorry, my lord.
We find ourselves unable to agree.
We will never be able to agree,
my lord.
It's most unfortunate.
A retrial is the only alternative.
I won't! I want to stop this case.
I was completely wrong.
I should never have brought it.
Mr. Stanley, I trust there's
some explanation...
...for the petitioner's extraordinary
behavior.
My lord, I know I would not appeal
to you in vain...
to forgive the impetuosity
of a young man...
...who has suddenly realized that he had
made an almost irreparable mistake.
- Well, Mr. Stanley?
- My lord...
members of the jury.
My client, the petitioner in this
divorce action,
begs the indulgence of the court...
and apologizes most sincerely
for the trouble that he has caused.
But at this time...
he wishes to withdraw the charges
against the respondent...
and ask your lordship to dismiss
the petition.
I find this an eminently satisfactory
ending.
Mary.
Silence!
Loring versus Loring, part heard.
My lord, I shall continue the
evidence of Mr. Carl Dieter.
Mr. Carl Dieter.
I would remind you, Mr. Dieter,
that you are still under oath.
Yesterday you told the court
that the circumstances...
of your first meeting with
the respondent.
Today there remains only one question
that I need ask you.
On that occasion, did you
or did you not...
...spend the night in your cabin with
the respondent, Mrs. Mark Loring?
It is a little difficult to explain.
Surely, Mr. Dieter.
No more difficult than
a simple yes... or no.
Yes.
Thank you.
Mrs. Loring, is it a fact that you are now
in a state of approaching motherhood?
Yes or no, please.
- Yes or no.
- Yes.
You have sworn on oath
that Mark Loring...
...has legally been your husband
since April 4th, 1955.
Yes.
Is Mark Loring responsible for this
child you carry?
He is my husband and would be
the child's father.
A yes or no answer is what
the court requested.
Did your husband beget this child?
Is your husband the father
of the child you now bear?
No.
Can you tell the court who
the father is?
No.
Because you wish to withhold
evidence from the court?
Because I don't know.
Do you recall the occasion of the
Iberian Grand Prix on September 27th?
Can we have one of you on the hood
of the car, Mrs. Loring?
No, no, Mary.
Alright, Jimmy, take her away.
Buenas tardes, se?ora.
Le gust? la carrera?
No compreendes?
- You do not understand?
- No.
He's a very hard man to beat,
your husband.
Yes.
Alright, Mary, come on.
- Will you sign my book, please, Mr. Loring?
- No, not now.
Do you have to encourage every greaseman
here on the track to make passes at you?
Oh, for heaven's sake, Mark!
Se?or Loring, please, with your wife.
Can't you leave us alone just
for five minutes...
...without sticking your blasted
camera in our faces?
Well, I'm not going to play
this scene to an audience.
Mary!
Not a bad race.
Looks as if I might have a chance
at the championship this year...
...if I can pick up the Grand Prix
at Silverstone.
What's the matter? You've hardly
spoken to me since the race.
Will you please tell me why you
pulled that ridiculous jealousy scene?
I don't like you talking to strangers you
find hanging around the rails, that's all.
He was one of the crew
in the next pit.
- A fan of yours.
- Mine?
He didn't look like that to me.
We were just talking.
I like talking to people.
I was brought up in show business
and we're a friendly crowd.
Yes, too darn friendly.
Mark.
Darling Mark.
I wish you could trust me.
I love you so much.
- You can trust me, you know.
- I want to.
I really do, Mary.
It's just that every time I see
some idiot staring at you, I...
I see red.
Well, I think you should be pleased that
people are attracted to your wife.
I am. It's when they start
circling around you.
Darling, that's beyond my control.
Come on, zip me up.
Of course we could move to
a desert island.
- That's a great idea.
- You wouldn't get much racing, though.
Where are you going?
Downstairs. Otherwise you'll never
get ready and I'm starved.
Meet you in the bar, okay?
Okay.
Buenas noches, se?ora.
- Hello.
- How nice to see you again.
May I offer you an aperitif?
Oh, no, thank you, I'm just waiting
for my husband
- Buenas noches, se?or.
- Good evening.
- Forgive me.
- No, no, don't go.
Oh, Marc, darling, this is the gentleman
I was telling you about.
You were right, darling. It is my
autograph he wants.
Let's have a drink.
There's Mark.
That must be his wife.
Mark!
- Hello.
- Won't you join us?
Well, thanks, we've already
got a table.
Oh, we accept no excuses,
do we, Claire?
Mark, you're caught.
Give up and sit down.
We're so cross. You've been keeping
your charming wife from us far too long.
Well, just one drink.
Darling, this is Mr. Duncan.
We're very old friends of Sir John.
I've known Mark since he was a boy.
Sir John idolizes Martin.
I think he spoiled him.
- Yes, I know.
- Well, it's not surprising, really.
Have you heard about the mother?
They parted Marc was only a baby.
She just walked out.
American. Singer, I believe.
- You're American, aren't you?
- Yes... and a singer.
- It's one of my old songs.
- Oh, do sing it.
Now, please, won't you?
Oh, they've recognized you, my dear.
How simply thrilling!
Well, you can't refuse now.
- You're not going to sing.
- Why not?
I won't have it.
# My strange affair is a lonely one #
# A lonely one that's just a dream #
# And when the sunshine awakens #
# Each weeping willow #
# The man I loved is gone #
# And there's just my empty pillow.
# My strange affair #
# Is too full of tears #
# Tears that know #
# There isn't a chance #
# That someday, somehow #
# Somewhere, someone #
# Will come #
# My way #
# And change my strange affair #
# To a real romance #
Oh, I'm sorry.
Mary!
What are you trying to do to me?
What the devil are you trying to do?
Blast all the people.
Have you been up long, darling?
Good morning, darling.
Forgive me?
For what?
Last night.
Darling, I don't think I could change
you even if I wanted to.
Mark, what are you trying to prove?
That you're a man?
You may have to prove that to your father,
but you don't have to prove it to me.
Oh, Mary!
Hello?
It's for you.
Yes?
Oh...
- It's my fan.
Oh, you're very kind.
Persistent, isn't he?
Oh, no, I'm afraid we can't,
we're busy.
Oh, yes, if you would. Would you please
leave it with the barman?
Thank you.
I dropped my glove at the race.
And a handsome stranger who happened
to be passing by picked it up.
Et cetera, et cetera.
Hm, a bit old-fashioned, isn't it?
Besides, I don't care to share
you this morning.
Oh, Mark.
I never seem to have you
to myself.
There's always something.
Somebody.
Nothing's ever enough for you, Mark.
Not even me.
We've got to move on, Mary,
we're on our way.
What?
We're leaving.
- Where are we going?
- London, home.
Home.
- That's something we don't have.
- I mean my father's house in London.
My home and yours too.
And right now I'm ready to go home.
A trophy in one hand and me
in the other.
Not bad.
I hope he hates me a little
less this time.
- Hate you, he hardly knows you.
- He doesn't need to.
As far as he's concerned I'm just
like your mother.
He hated her.
A home.
You're always talking about a home.
It's what you want most
in the world, isn't it?
Second most.
What's the most?
Something that's going to happen
very soon.
Something that makes the second
very important.
Hm?
I'm going to have a baby.
Ours, I hope.
Mary.
Mary, I'm terribly sorry.
Se?orita, se?orita!
My husband... my husband!
Si, si, si...
Doctor! Doctor!
Si, si, se?ora.
Father.
Would you mind, sister?
Take it easy, boy.
Everything's going to be all right now.
- I'm here.
- Why are you here?
The Duncans heard about the crash.
They called me.
Gently, boy, gently.
You were badly hurt.
How badly?
Badly enough.
But we'll soon have you on the mend.
I've made arrangements for the
convalescent home near London.
Can't seem to remember what happened.
- Mary?
- She's along the corridor.
She's not seriously hurt.
Thank heavens.
She's going to have a baby, Father.
What is it?
I'm sorry, Mark.
Oh, come in, doctor.
Good evening, se?ora.
Ah, it is a shame.
You do not like Spanish cooking.
It's just that I'm not hungry.
Your husband is conscious.
His father is with him.
I do not want you out of bed
now anyway.
It will soon be time enough.
- You haven't told him?
- About the baby?
No, no, about him.
There will be time enough
for that as well.
Couldn't you tell him it was me?
Can't you just say...
your wife can't have any more children?
You could adopt a child.
In your circumstances...
...there are many children.
You don't know Mark.
You will see.
You don't understand.
Maybe I do.
I doubt it.
You try to get some sleep.
We will talk about it tomorrow.
Do you hate me?
No.
Oh, no.
Mary, I've had some time to think.
No, no, please listen to me.
As soon as I'm out of here,
I'll make things up to you.
We'll settle down like ordinary people.
Have another child.
Don't, darling, not now.
We'll talk about it all later.
Everything's going to be fine.
Just fine.
Did they tell you something
they didn't tell me?
- No.
- No wheelchairs?
No wheelchairs.
Am I intruding?
One wouldn't accuse you of
subtlety, my dear.
It's just that Mark and I wanted
to be alone.
- Had you thought of that?
- Constantly.
Mary, please.
I've got some wonderful plans
for you, Mark.
We're going to travel.
We'll take the yacht.
Go to the Far East, or the West Indies.
Oh, there's a lot we can do.
It's time I took some time off.
- Do you mean the two of us?
- It's bound to end, sooner or later.
- These affairs always do.
- This is not an affair.
- It's a marriage.
- Do you really believe that?
Once upon a time I thought that too.
And now I have to stand around and watch
the thing happening all over again.
You're two lovers in the throes
of an affair.
People can't go through life
that way.
- Maybe I want to.
- That's what you think now.
But a man can't want that
for very long.
Well, I'm going back to London.
I'll be waiting for you.
In the meantime they'll move you to the
convalescent home in the weekend.
Goodbye, Mark.
Come in.
Is this a social call?
Oh no, my dear.
Just a little private talk.
You want to buy me off.
Well, I'm not for sale.
I never have been.
- Perhaps I underestimated you.
- Or Mark.
Now it's time that you
faced facts.
You and Mark can never have
a real marriage.
Not now.
He can't have a son, an heir.
- And somebody should tell him.
- No!
He doesn't have to know,
not now, it's too soon.
Maybe after a while,
when he's well again.
We just need a little time.
- By ourselves.
- He belongs with me.
You'll only hurt each other.
I'll take my chances on that.
I'm not worried about you,
my dear.
- Mark is my only concern.
- Mark?
Your property, that's all
Mark is to you.
Just a piece of property,
like your ships or your factories.
And you try to buy him from me
like a piece of real estate.
Well, I'm not selling.
You haven't got enough love
to buy him with.
Sir John.
Even now your son is more
of a man than you'll ever be.
At least he's not afraid of a fight.
What he doesn't know is that
you're the enemy.
Thank you, nurse.
You see? I promised you sun
on your first day out.
You also promised me no wheelchairs.
Just one more week, darling.
Mark.
I want a baby.
Mary... Mary.
Listen to me, please listen
to me, darling.
While you give me a blueprint
of my deficiency?
Oh, Mark.
They told you.
Father did.
Your father?
- But he didn't have the right to...
- That didn't matter!
I had to know sometime that the
accident has left me sterile.
Mary, I can still be a husband
to you but...
...now I can't give you a child.
If you want to leave me,
this is the time.
I'd understand.
Oh, Mark, how could you?
You didn't think me any less a woman when
you thought I couldn't have another child.
Well, I don't think you any less
a man now.
But we can have another
child, darling.
No, no, adopting a child
wouldn't work, not for us.
We'd just be using it to keep
our marriage together.
It wouldn't be fair.
Well, there's another way.
For me to have a child, I mean.
What do you mean, I...
Artificial insemination.
You must be crazy.
No, Mark. I'm not crazy.
We both want a baby,
our own baby.
- This is the only possible way.
- But I wouldn't be ours.
- I wouldn't be the father.
- But I'd be the mother.
It would be born to us.
And if you tried, really tried,
it would be your baby just
as much as mine.
And if I don't agree?
Then I don't see any future for us.
And only your father will be happy.
Let's go away, Mark.
As soon as you're well.
Away from any outside influence.
Then we'll know...
...whatever we decide, it'll will be
our own decision.
I've heard about a clinic
in Switzerland...
It's run by a man named Cameron.
We could go there...
What do you say, Mark?
Yes or no?
Darling?
Yes or no?
It'll be your child.
It's to be your decision.
Schaeffer!
Schaeffer, they're here.
Dr. Cameron!
The new couple have arrived.
Our head clerk said gesundheit.
Ah, the secret signal.
Is Schaeffer pulling up the drawbridge?
They like to see an open door
when they arrive.
It makes them feel much
more welcome.
- I'll show them to their room.
- No, no... don't do that.
Bring them in here.
- Do you have any coffee?
- I've just made some.
Good, good.
I'm nurse Parsons.
Do come in.
- Mrs. Loring, how nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, doctor.
May I take your coat, Mr. Loring?
- Thank you.
Directly on time.
It isn't always like that down here.
Come and sit down, Mr. Loring.
I believe there's some coffee
on the hob, nurse?
Yes, plenty, I'll bring it in.
How long are we going to
be here, doctor?
Quite a little while, several weeks.
The doctor explained in his
letter, darling.
- He did?
- There are certain preliminaries.
Blood tests and things like that.
Then I like to understand the
background of the case.
It all takes time.
Mr. Loring, what's your view
about this?
We want a baby, very badly.
That's the most important thing.
Two people must really want the child.
The medical treatment is not
too complicated.
Many children are born every year
by the same method.
You've got to make sure that the people
involved are in good health,
there's no question of hereditary
diseases,
and that they can fully take care
of the child.
You both obviously understand
all about it.
Or you wouldn't have come here.
- Ah, nurse.
- I think I'll go to our room.
- You don't want any coffee?
- No, thank you.
Well... I'm sure your journey
was very tiring.
Not particularly.
We'll meet after dinner and discuss
everything then.
There's something I want
you to know.
None of my patients are just
cases to me.
I regard you as something
very special.
Both of you.
I think you behaved disgustingly.
If you want to take it out on anybody,
take it out on me, not Dr. Cameron!
I can't stand being humored.
Coffee on the hob.
Comfortable English armchairs.
Humph! For boring English
backsides.
Why the devil did we leave home?
To protect you from people,
why do you suppose?
I don't care about people!
Well, what do you care about, your own
stupid pride? That's about all it could be!
All I'm guilty of is trying to hold
this marriage together.
I don't know what you want me
to do or to say!
I have good news for you, Mary.
You're going to have a baby.
Isn't it wonderful news, Mark?
Say it's wonderful, go on, say it.
Yes, yes, yes, it's wonderful,
it's wonderful.
You know what I'd like
to do today?
I'd love to go right up to the
forest slopes.
- You'll have to go without me.
- On no, Mark, please come.
We haven't been there together
in so long.
Mary, I just don't feel like it.
If you want to go, you can go alone.
- You can manage without me.
- Oh, but I can't.
You seem to have done
pretty well so far.
You idiot!
You fool, you stupid, senseless,
ridiculous fool!
Why do you suppose I did it?
Why do you suppose I strained every nerve
in my body to make this happen?
Because I love you!
Whatever kind of a man you are,
I love you, I love you!
Stay where you are.
Don't move.
So...
Let's see.
All right?
Uh-huh.
You were very lucky.
- No pain?
- No.
Yeah, my ankle... a little bit.
Are you... are you with anyone?
No. No, I'm alone.
Not so good.
You know it's a long way back
to the hotel with that ankle.
Oh, I'm not staying at the hotel.
- I'm at Dr. Cameron's.
- Oh, I see.
- You know him?
- Yes, we are old friends.
Now, you think you can walk?
- Oh, I guess so.
- We haven't to go very far.
Do you mind telling me where
we're going?
- My cabin.
- Oh, you're not a tourist.
No, I, er... I try to write.
- Oh.
- Now let's see.
Isn't Mary back?
No...
She's probably met some of the skiers.
Perhaps at the lodge.
Anyhow... please, please...
Please stay, I'd like to talk to you.
You're angry, very angry.
It's because of Mary's present
condition, isn't it?
- It's none of your blasted business!
- It's pretty much my blasted business.
I assumed that you wanted this child.
I agreed on paper.
It's actually your responsibility.
I'm afraid there's a little more
to it than that.
I'm no quack, Mr. Loring.
The thing I do, I do with sincerity
and humility.
- I admire your dedication.
- I'm not asking for your admiration.
The fact remais that I have already
made you a father.
You made Mary a mother!
Do you have a phone?
Oh, no... No, I'm sorry, I...
I want to call my husband, I'm afraid
he'll be worried.
We'll think about that in a moment, hm?
First I'll make you some coffee.
- You look frozen.
- Yes, I am, my clothes are kind of wet.
- We will dry them.
- Okay.
- Here we are.
- Thank you.
- Behind that curtain.
- All right.
This will be real coffee, not like
the one you drink in America.
As long as it's hot.
Ah, don't worry. You'll be back.
You live here all year round?
- Yes.
- It must be lonely.
No.
- Coffee will be ready in a moment.
- Good.
You know we were lucky, there's
a blizzard coming up.
I'm afraid I... I can't get you
back now.
Well how long do you think
it will last?
Oh, you can't tell with a
mountain storm.
Sometimes it doesn't last long and...
Well?
How do I look?
Very funny.
I'd better have another look, hm?
- It's only a muscle.
- Good.
I'll get a fire started.
- Can I help you?
- No, no. You rest.
Besides, building a fire
is a man's job.
But it's an art all the same.
You know you can tell a man's character
by the way he makes a fire?
- Didn't you know that?
- Really?
I will show you.
Now.
First there is the spendthrift.
Very unreliable.
Then we have the scientific technique.
Beware of such a man.
Mean, insensitive.
Then we have the, er...
the doubter.
Well, which sort of man are you?
I...
I'm the most dangerous of all.
I never start a fire twice the same way.
Mr. Loring.
Mr. Loring!
You can't go out without a guide.
I'll get you one.
Polizei.
Schnell, bitte.
Cameron here. One of out patients
is lost in the mountains.
Could you send out a guide
immediately?
The guide will be here in a few
moments, Mr. Loring.
Was there a reason for all
this solitude?
None, except that I like it.
It's getting awfully late.
You can't go back yet.
It's still snowing heavily.
The coffee's getting cold.
Thank you.
It has stopped snowing.
I'll take you home now.
- Is your ankle all right?
- Oh, yes.
Good. Better get changed.
Thank you.
This is Herr Dieter's house.
Mark!
And I spend the entire night
searching for you.
It doesn't seem any of this holiday
was necessary.
You don't seem to understand,
she hurt her ankle...
Don't insult my intelligence!
You are the one who is
being insulting.
Here... a touch of this.
- Has Dieter lived around here long?
- Yes.
- Let me help you.
- You've been enough help already.
I'm sorry I've caused you
so much trouble, doctor.
You seem to have a bigger problem
on your hands.
Well, you can't blame him too much.
It hasn't been easy for him.
Everyone knows why we're here.
He feels that... he caused it.
I guess he feels like some
kind of freak.
- What are you doing?
- Isn't it obvious?
- I'm not leaving.
- You're not invited.
Mark.
I won't beg you, but someday you'll realize
you're making a terrible mistake.
You're going to be a father.
No, no, you've got it all wrong.
You're going to be a mother.
I shall never be the father.
It'll be anybody but me.
It's a terrible thing we've done
to Dr. Cameron...
...making him believe we wanted
this child.
We wanted the child?
You mean you did.
Is there something you want
to tell me, Mary?
I've been very dishonest
with you, doctor.
I led you to believe that Mark
wanted this child too.
You thought it would hold
you together?
Yes, I did.
It will, you know.
Just give it time.
It's too late now.
Come in.
- You look tired.
- I am.
Make yourself comfortable.
All right.
I've left her.
So it's happened.
Oh, my poor boy.
I've been through this. How I wish
you could have been spared.
- I did try.
- Father, what can I do?
- Another man?
- She's pregnant.
- I'm not the father.
- That should be enough for any judge.
Adultery is quite simple.
And um... I think Stanley's our man.
He's tough. That's the kind of barrister
you want for a case like this.
You think I should divorce Mary.
- Had you any other thought?
- Well...
No, no, I...
No, of course you're right.
- I must divorce her.
- Good.
I'll arrange for you to see Stanley in the
morning and I think I'll come along too.
Now listen, my boy.
Everybody makes mistakes,
even I do.
The important thing is to correct
them as soon as possible.
You do want this divorce,
don't you?
Yes.
There's no going back on
a thing like this, you know.
I've made up my mind.
Of course the press will
crucify me, but...
Oh, that doesn't worry me.
Let's go home.
Be like old days, hm?
Oh, say? Why don't we have dinner
at the club tonight?
It's been a long time since
we did that.
Anything wrong, doctor?
Come and sit down, Mary.
Your case is down for hearing
six weeks from today.
Even my medical statement
can't postpone this.
You could let him have it by default.
And have my child branded
father unknown?
No.
No, I want to go to London.
Will it harm you in any way?
Something was bound to
happen eventually.
Thank you, Jane.
People like the Lorings simply can't be
expected to realize the importance of this.
They'll fight to secure the money,
the blood...
They'll build banks for both...
...but a bank to secure humanity.
Anyhow, so long as it doesn't
harm you.
Komm herein.
Mary! You're just in time
for coffee.
You must be getting strong
to be so early.
- It must be a special occasion.
- I had to come early.
I want to tell you myself.
Karl, I have to leave here.
- When are you going?
- Today, on the afternoon plane from Zurich.
So quickly.
- Is it important then?
- Yes.
Mark's divorcing me.
So you're defending the case.
Of course.
- What did you think?
- You're doing it for the child.
Because I don't want to lose Mark.
You still love him.
There's never been any other way.
I think Mark still loves me.
It's not just him I'm fighting, Karl,
it's his father.
And what if you lose the case?
I don't know.
I'll face that when it happens,
if it happens.
You will face it on your own?
In the end everything's faced
on one's own.
Not always.
Goodbye, Karl.
Thank you for everything.
I've done nothing, except cause
trouble for you.
I'm afraid there's more to it
than that night.
I'm sure Mark's probably forgotten
all about you by now.
Oh, no, he hasn't.
I'm also coming to London.
Your husband has named me
co-respondent.
Now then, Mrs. Loring, how many times
would you say that you saw Mr. Dieter?
Would you say one time...
Two times?
Three times?
- Many times?
- Yes.
Many times.
We became friends.
You became friends, is that what
you said, Mrs. Loring?
Yes.
After or before you spent
the night with him?
- What are you suggesting?
- After or before?
After.
So you became friends that night.
- Intimate friends?
- Friends, but not intimate.
Not in any way?
He didn't even kiss you?
Not that night or any other night.
But you, um... you enjoyed
talking to him, I assume.
As you did the mechanic Mario Firenzo
on the occasion of the Iberian Grand Prix.
It was hardly much conversation
between Mr. Firenzo and myself.
The incident with Mr. Firenzo occurred
before your trip to Dr. Cameron, did it not?
Incident? What incident?
- You met then, before the accident.
- Yes, at the racetrack.
In the evening you met again.
- In the bar at the Hotel Playa.
- By arrangement?
Why, no!
My husband was changing
for dinner, so I...
And you preferred the bar and Mr. Firenzo
to your husband's company.
No! I left my husband alone
deliberately.
He had just driven a hard race,
and I left him to unwind.
- Had you quarreled?
- I'd refused to quarrel with my husband.
About Mr. Firenzo?
- Yes.
- So, knowing that,
you preferred the company of this mechanic
who couldn't even speak to you.
Preferred it enough not to
stop and think...
that you were placing yourself
in a position...
...that your husband could both
misconstrue and be offended by.
It was so very unimportant.
Did you explain or apologize
to your husband?
Apologize?
No, I just laughed it away.
- You laughed it away?
- No... I mean...
- I quite understand.
- No, I don't think you do!
I assure you, Mrs. Loring, your meaning
couldn't be clearer.
- But we both...
- Please, Mrs. Loring.
So after the accident,
when you decided that the only way to save
your marriage was by having a child,
you quite naturally didn't consider
your husband's feelings in the matter.
My husband's feelings were
my main consideration.
Your main consideration.
There were others then.
Possibly you considered the child might
be a guarantee for your future.
My future?
I don't see...
What do you mean?
Were you aware of your husband's
great family wealth?
Yes.
Were you equally aware of your
father-in-law's disapproval of you?
Yes, I was.
Knowing that, it might have occurred to you
that your future was most insecure...
unless you could produce an heir...
...and as such an heir was
no longer possible,
you were obliged to force
your husband...
to do something that was against all
his wishes in a last frantic hope...
My lord!
You were about to ask a question,
Mr. Stanley?
I was simply thinking aloud, my lord.
Unwise, Mr. Stanley.
Most of our private thoughts
are best left unsaid.
I know from up here most of mine are.
Forgive me, my lord.
Now answer me this question,
Mrs. Loring.
Were you as decided and as desperate
to have this baby...
...before the accident as you were
after the accident?
I always believed a child was
necessary to our marriage.
- Always!
- Necessary, why?
My husband...
...was never very sure of himself.
It was very important...
...for him to be a man.
That's why I was so happy when I knew
we were going to have a child.
Then there was the accident...
...and we lost our baby.
After the accident...
I thought another child might...
...compensate.
I find it difficult to follow
your reasoning.
How could you possibly compensate
your husband with somebody else's child?
Because I'm part of my husband.
A child is part of me.
So I thought...
The idea is rather high-flown,
isn't it?
I suggest that your reason for
producing this child...
...was on a far more material basis.
All I want...
All I have ever wanted is
my husband's love.
Nothing else is of any importance.
Stop the examination!
Look at her.
He wants you to stop the examination.
My lord, Mrs. Loring is under very
great physical strain.
My lord, the jury and I,
and doubtless your lordship,
have been admiring the respondent's
performance.
The theatrical profession has lost
a talented actress.
Anything after this would be
an anticlimax.
All I have left to say is...
Thank you, Mrs. Loring.
Um, my lord, if it would please
the court,
I would like to ask for a short adjournment
on behalf of my client.
Yes... yes, I shall rise for
fifteen minutes.
Mark,
I can't stand any more.
It's too horrible.
I'd say give in now...
...if I thought that that was
what you really wanted.
I'm not going to put you in the
witness box again.
The jury are with you, emotionally,
I mean.
But I must have something more
factual to give the judge.
You must give me permission
to reexamine your husband.
- Oh, what good would it do?
- What good?
There are two vital points
I can establish.
And this I must do if you are to have
any chance at all of winning this case.
I don't think I care anymore.
Does it really matter what
you care, Mrs. Loring?
Have you the right to deliberately
bastardize your child?
Thank you.
In fact, Mr. Loring,
you have been jealous of your wife
since the day of your marriage.
I didn't enjoy the attentions my wife
encouraged, if that's what you mean.
No, that is not what I mean.
You did not enjoy them,
or were you jealous of them?
I did not like them.
Because you wanted to be the only
man she was aware of?
Naturally. She was my wife.
Is your wife, Mr. Loring. You may have
arrived at your own verdict,
the court has not.
So we have established...
...that you did not like your wife
being civil to Mario Firenza,
you did not like her accepting a light
from your father's old friend, Mr. Duncan...
I consider she was provoking him.
We've already gone into that.
I am merely summarizing the points we have
established about your likes and dislikes.
You did not like her singing
in a night club.
No, I did not.
And you did not like her accepting
the hospitality of Mr. Carl Dieter,
when it was apparent to everybody
for miles around...
...that the circumstances offered
no alternative.
I put it to you.
That this divorce action was first
motivated by jealousy...
pure and simply by jealousy.
You went back on your word
on your promises...
...because you were jealous of your
wife and Mr. Dieter.
You misconstrued an act of kindness...
as you have misconstrued every
episode I have recalled you...
...because of your unreasonable,
uncontrollable jealousy
It's not true.
What is not true?
That you went back on your word?
Or that you are jealous?
It wasn't a question of going back on
my word. That's got nothing to do with it.
Being jealous of Dieter, I mean.
But I... Well, he put my wife in a most
compromising position.
He put your wife in a most
compromising position.
I see.
Now, I would like to take you back
to the Iberian Grand Prix...
...and the night you seem to recall
so vividly at the Hotel Playa.
Do you also recall the events
that followed?
Yes, I do. She ran out on the beach.
I was annoyed with her.
She sang in a nightclub, made a public
exhibition of herself.
A public exhibition.
I see.
You found your wife alone.
There was no one else with her.
No, no one else.
Were you not aware that the beach
was a public one,
- overlooked by the terraces of the hotel...
- Well...
And that other eyes were watching...
...while you forced your wife into
an act of love?
I never said...
Did you or did you not make love
to your wife...
...on a public beach overlooked
by the hotel?
Yes, I did.
And of course your wife was willing.
No.
But since she was your wife,
this didn't matter?
Nor did it matter that you were
compromising her...
...making a public exhibition of her.
I object, my lord.
Yes, Mr. Stanley?
You allowed Mr. Loring to be recalled
on the grounds of new evidence.
All this is irrelevant, totally
irrelevant.
My lord, with all due respect
to my learned friend,
all this is not in the least irrelevant.
It is necessary, substantiating evidence.
Proceed.
- As I was saying...
- I know exactly what you were saying.
And my answer is I had
the right to.
She was my wife.
Which is to imply that she had
no rights as such?
After the accident...
while you were still in hospital and before
you were aware of your condition,
did you or did you not say
to your wife...
"I will make it up to you."?
Well, I...
I'm not sure.
You do not recall saying
those words?
I don't recall the exact
phraseology, my lord.
But you did say something similar.
Yes, my lord.
Soon afterwards you signed
a document...
...agreeing to your wife's treatment
by Dr. Cameron.
But between signing the document
and its fruition...
you told neither your wife
nor Dr. Cameron...
...that you had suddenly taken a violent
dislike to the whole business.
Do you recall the day of May 27th?
- I'm not sure.
- Then I will refresh your memory.
It was on that day when your wife
first told you that she was pregnant.
Shortly afterwards you made
love to her...
and in so doing accepted the fact of her
condition. You had condoned it!
- Did you or did you not?
- I cannot say that...
Did you or did you not?
Silence in court!
Yes, I did.
Thank you.
That will be all, my lord.
You may be seated, Mr. Loring.
My lord, I would like to call
Sir John Loring.
After luncheon, Dr. Stanley,
don't you think?
It's almost one o'clock.
Here you are, another slice of sering
human drama for the afternoon edition.
- Off you go.
- Okay, sir.
Oh, tell the sports editor not to forget
my ticket for the big fight tonight.
Well, Mark. I got a table
at the Savoy.
So you thoroughly disapproved
of this marriage.
It was a clandestine marriage
and I didn't like that.
Oh, come, Sir John.
Clandestine?
Why, that means something
secret, underhand.
This young couple married on the
spur of the moment,
there was nothing underhand
about it.
I objected to the off-handed
fashion in which...
It was your daughter-in-law
that you objected to, wasn't it?
- I hardly knew my son's wife.
- I mean you objected to her on principle.
She came from show business,
the theater.
A singer in fact.
You weren't prepared to give
her a chance.
The unhappy memory of your own
unsuccessful marriage to an actress.
- I must protest!
- My lord, this is absolutely monstrous!
Yes. I think, Mr. Jacobus,
I need hardly say.
I apologize, my lord.
You had a conversation with
your daughter-in-law...
...in the hospital shortly after
the tragic accident.
I did.
Was it then you made your first attempt
to break up this marriage?
First?
Well, you admit you made an attempt
at that occasion?
Yes, I did.
In fact you tried to buy
Mrs. Loring off.
Oh, put it that way if you want to.
Why did you want to separate
this young couple?
Didn't your son need his wife more
than ever after what had happened?
I know my son. He would soon
have tired of her.
It was nothing more than
a passing infatuation.
So you thought to rid him
of her quickly.
Naturally I was concerned
for my son.
As it turned out, it was for both
their sakes.
She'd lost their child, he was now sterile
and no further use to her.
I thought she'd be pleased
and practical enough...
...to agree to an arrangement.
- But she didn't agree.
- She had more ambitious ideas.
She knew that a child was
her only hope.
- Of what?
- Of having a pemanent hold on my son.
- And of the Loring fortune.
- Exactly.
- You realized this?
- I did indeed.
And I took care of it by informing
my son that he was sterile.
I wished to protect him from
a scheming woman.
And also to protect the Loring estate.
Same thing.
So naturally you weren't very happy...
...when you learned of the outcome
of this visit to Dr. Cameron's clinic.
I was absolutely disgusted.
For any particular reason?
For every possible reason.
You heard your daughter-in-law say
in this court that she loved your son.
- That she would always love him.
- I did.
I believe that was what she said
to you in the hospital.
After you offered her a comfortable
way out of this marriage.
It was.
- Do you think she was telling the truth?
- Do I think?
Look where we are now.
Do you suppose that my son would have
been forced to take refuge here...
...if his wife had really loved him?
I have nothing more to ask you.
Silence!
My lord,
On behalf of Sir John Loring,
may I beg the indulgence of
the court in asking...
Ah, there you are.
Mark, do you hear me?
I'm going back to the office.
The judge was most reasonable about it.
They can always send for me if they
want to but they won't, of course.
Well, I think I've just about
done the trick for us.
They've got that disgusting old quack
Cameron on the box now.
Stanley will deal with him.
During these eighteen years
as a specialist in artificial insemination,
I assume that many couples have
come to you.
Many.
People who would otherwise have led
childless and unhappy lives.
In these cases, who's name is on
the birth certificate as the father?
The husband. I always insist
upon that.
But that is a false statement.
It's the same as an adoption.
The couple assume responsibility
for the child.
But adoption is legal.
But to force your patients deliberately to
sign a fraudulent statement is criminal.
A risk I'm prepared to take.
Would you say that Mark Loring...
at the time of signing the document
agreeing to your treatment...
...was emotionally stable?
It was obvious that he was
under strain.
But I fully believed...
his wife did too,
that having this child would
alleviate that.
And now then, Dr. Cameron.
You were a party to this technical
adultery?
I won't accept that!
It is not adultery!
Oh, no, that's too easy,
far too easy.
At that rate any woman who commits
adultery can say,
"No, I didn't, it was by artificial
insemination, ask Dr. Cameron."
- It's a splendid alibi.
- How dare you!
My lord, this is an attempt on the part
of my learned friend...
to debase an honest man whose treatment
is done openly and decently!
- Decently?
- In order to concieve a child!
Mr. Stanley, the act of adultery is
unrelated to its consequences.
But, My lord, this is adultery.
From a husband it is not regarded
as intercourse.
That has been established by law.
Therefore, from a donor,
it is not adultery!
The law relating to marriage is designed
for the preservation of family life.
It holds that the surrender of
the reproductive power...
...to another man is adultery!
But in this case it is not another man.
It is a test tube.
Therefore, I maintain that men
like Dr. Cameron...
are striking at the very heart
of our civilization.
Conjuring up these phantom fathers to
fill the world with test tube babies.
I maintain it's time the law brought
its ideas up to date.
First of all, Mr. Stanley,
are you cross-examining the witness
or addressing the court?
I do most humbly apologize,
my lord.
And your term will come too,
Mr. Jacobus.
I beg your pardon, my lord.
As for you, Dr. Cameron,
you will restrain yourself and only
answer the questions put to you.
As for your last remark,
it was quite out of order and
most disrespectful.
May I explain.
The court is doing exactly
as you suggest.
In this particular case, as always,
we're all working very hard...
...to bring our ideas up to date.
The court will adjourn until tomorrow
morning at half past ten.
Good afternoon, Mr. Mark.
Give me a minute, my boy. I have something
important here that won't wait.
And I have something important...
...which won't wait either.
Oh, what is it?
Well, a bit of a tussle in there, hm?
Still, I'm quite happy with the way
things are going.
And I'm deeply unhappy.
Oh, come, come, Mark, just because you had
a bit of a trouncing in the witness box?
I mean, we had to expect
something like this.
You were in court. You must have
seen what a fool I've been.
I thought you came out very well.
There's no reason for you
to reproach yourself.
There's every reason to.
- I don't understand.
- Of course you don't.
We've never understood each other.
You and I have spoken a different
language all our lives.
What the devil are you
talking about?
The lousy mess I've made
of my life with Mary.
It is no time for recriminations.
The past is finished.
We've disposed of Mary.
You mean you've disposed of Mary.
I'm not finding it quite that easy.
It's a fine time to tell me this.
After all the trouble and expense I've had
to rid ourselves of this woman.
You know, I'm just beginning to see
what kind of a person you really are.
- Mark!
- I escaped from you when I married Mary.
My accident was your chance
to get me back.
Of course I wasn't an entirely
complete human being,
but that didn't matter to you.
The bits and pieces were enough.
As long as you could have them
all to yourself.
- I wanted to protect you!
- You wanted to possess me!
Just as I wanted to possess Mary.
She said to me once...
"Nothing's ever enough for you,
Mark, not even me."
If only I'd understood her.
If only I'd stayed with her and fought
things out instead of limping back to you.
Some people don't know what's
best for them.
- And there are those who play God.
- How dare you!
Don't shout at me!
I'm looking out for you.
Because you're my son.
A father wants his son...
his only son...
...to be perfect, something
to be proud of.
And am I something to be
proud of?
I don't think so.
Mark... Mark.
You had a trying day.
Let's have dinner at the club
and talk it over?
There aren't going to be any more
dinners at the club.
They won't let me in.
Well, there will be two speeches,
for and against.
- Him and her?
- Sort of, yes.
Then the judge will sum up.
Should be some good stuff there
between the three of them.
You stick around, I may need you.
- Look after that, please.
- Yes, sir.
I think Stanley will leap in and let
her hardly speak at all.
After all, he's got the great big
sentimental world behind him,
it should be easy for him.
- Good morning, Mrs. Loring.
- You'll let me know if I'm wanted?
- Indeed.
- Thank you.
I promised your lawyer I wouldn't speak
to you until the case was over, but I...
Oh, it seems so silly.
- It makes sense really.
- Of course it does.
People... the jury and all the others
are easily misled.
But with Dr. Cameron here it's
most respectable.
I'm not so sure anymore.
Mary, there's something I want
to tell you.
This... this is a bad place to say
these things.
Everything seems to get
twisted around, but...
Mary, I'm not a rich man and I have
very little to offer you...
- Karl...
- No, please, please listen to me.
Whatever happens in court today,
whatever happens,
I want you to know that if there's
anything I can do,
or if you should need any help,
I'll be there.
Don't say anything now.
Just remember what I said.
I will be there.
If it please the court.
Yes, Mr. Jacobus?
My lord.
And members of the jury.
Who has the right to condemn
a woman...
for being a woman...
...and for wanting to give her
husband a child?
The one thing that is truly
hers to give.
What wife should be deserted...
...because she went to every extreme
to save a marriage?
Can a husband call this mental cruelty?
And can the world call Mary Loring's
search for fulfillment..
...a matter of adultery?
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
But what does the word adultery mean?
A voluntary act by a married person
with one to whom they are not married.
There has been no evidence given
in this courtroom...
that either the respondent or
her husband...
...has been guilty of such an act.
Mr. Stanley has spoken of
technical adultery.
One word negates the other.
If a woman is guilty of adultery,
then she is guilty of having been
with another man.
Our co-respondent in this case
is an unknown man.
Unknown to both Mark and Mary Loring.
I do not think that the moral aspect
should be discussed in this courtroom.
The morality of what they have done
must lie with Mark and Mary Loring.
In their hearts, and in their consciences,
and with God above.
Mark Loring agreed to his wife's treatment
in this clinic of his own free will.
By his own admission, he condoned the act
shortly after it took place.
And then, because he was filled
with his own inner doubts,
and governed by his uncontrollable
jealousy,
he left her to go through this
pregnancy alone.
He sued her for divorce.
and in due course accused her
of adultery,
and seeked to label this child,
this child that he had agreed to
of his own free will,
as illegitimate.
Who then is guilty?
Guilty...
...of mental cruelty?
I have only the greatest compassion...
...for Mark Loring.
But he is an adult...
...to whom all civil rights
are availed.
But what of this child, this unborn child,
who as yet has no rights...
civil or otherwise?
Is it to be cruelly victimized
by a man's jealousy?
Harshly dealt with because of
a man's false pride?
The child's status as heir
to the Loring estate...
...is a matter for this court.
But the legitimacy of its birth
cannot be questioned.
I say, that whosoever should be
its father,
it is legally, undisputedly
and clearly Mark Loring's child.
Where then is there a question
of adultery?
That is the case for the
respondent, my lord.
My lord, and members of the jury,
I do not use the authorities
as reference...
...or substantiation in our case.
Instead, I use the Bible.
And so, members of the jury,
you will understand...
...that this is a grave and
serious matter.
For what in fact you are going
to decide in this case...
is whether artificial insemination
resulting in the conception of a child...
...is adultery.
Or alternatively, whether in resorting
to such a method of conception...
...the respondent has been guilty
of treating her husband with cruelty.
The other questions that arise
from this...
---
it is a question of adultery.
You will now retire and consider
your verdict.
Would you like to come outside?
The jury may be gone some time.
No, thank you.
Mr. Loring.
It is perhaps difficult for you
to speak to me, but...
...there is something I want
to say to you.
Something you must believe.
Nothing happened between
Mary and me that night.
She was too much in love
with you...
...for me to have a chance.
And I think she still is.
And if you were not an Englishman,
you would know that yourself.
Please excuse me.
It shouldn't be long now.
Are you sure you won't
come out?
No, thank you.
Do you... do you mind if I
talk to you?
No.
Are you all right?
Oh, yes... yes, thanks.
After all this you must hate me.
Oh, Mark.
I could never hate you.
It all seems so indecent.
Yes... yes, it was.
The child will be taken care of.
I've made all the arrangements.
I've learned a lot about myself in this...
in this courtroom.
- No matter what the jury decides...
- Let's wait for them.
It doesn't seem any more to say.
I shall always love you.
Silence.
Has the jury reached it's verdict?
No. I'm sorry, my lord.
We find ourselves unable to agree.
We will never be able to agree,
my lord.
It's most unfortunate.
A retrial is the only alternative.
I won't! I want to stop this case.
I was completely wrong.
I should never have brought it.
Mr. Stanley, I trust there's
some explanation...
...for the petitioner's extraordinary
behavior.
My lord, I know I would not appeal
to you in vain...
to forgive the impetuosity
of a young man...
...who has suddenly realized that he had
made an almost irreparable mistake.
- Well, Mr. Stanley?
- My lord...
members of the jury.
My client, the petitioner in this
divorce action,
begs the indulgence of the court...
and apologizes most sincerely
for the trouble that he has caused.
But at this time...
he wishes to withdraw the charges
against the respondent...
and ask your lordship to dismiss
the petition.
I find this an eminently satisfactory
ending.
Mary.