Awake and Sing (1972) - full transcript

(singing in foreign language)

(honking cars)

- Where's advancement down the place huh?

Work like crazy.

You think they'd see it?

You'd drop dead first.

- Never mind son, merit
never goes unrewarded.

Teddy Roosevelt used to say--

- Rewarded you 30 years
a haberdashery clerk.

- [Ralph] All I want's a
chance to get to first base.

- That's all?



- Stuck down in that
joint on Fourth Avenue,

a stock clerk in a silk house.

Just look at Eddie.

Now I'm as good as he is.

Pulling in 250 a week at 48 minutes a day.

A headliner, his name in all the papers.

- That's what you want, Ralph?

Your name in the paper?

I wanna make up my own mind about things.

I wanna be something.

Didn't I want to take up tap dancing too?

- So take lessons.

Who stopped you?

- On what?



- On what?

Save money.

- Sure, five dollars a week expenses,

the rest for the house.

I can't even save for shoelaces.

- You mean we shouldn't
have food in the house

but you'll go make a jig
on the street corner?

- I need something.

- You also needed
something when you studied

on the drums, Mr. Smartie.

- I don't know.

Every other day you sit alone with blues

and mud in your mouth?

- That's how it is.

Life is like that, a cake walk.

- [Ralph] What's it get you, huh?

- [Bessie] A four-car funeral.

- [Ralph] What's it for?

- What's it for?

If this life leads to a
revolution, it's a good life.

Otherwise, it's for nothing.

- Never mind, Pop.

Pass me the salt.

- It's crazy, I mean, all my life,

I want a pair of black and white shoes

and can't get them, it's crazy.

- In a minute, I'm gonna
get up from the table.

I can't take a bite in my mouth to eat it.

- Now, now, Momma, just
don't excite yourself.

- I'm so nervous I can't lift a knife.

- Is that a way to talk, Ralphie?

Don't Momma work hard enough all day?

- On my feet 24 hours.

- On her feet.

- And what do I do?

Go to nightclubs with Greta Garbo?

Then when I come home, I
can't even have my own room.

Gotta sleep on a day
bed in the front room.

- He's starting that stuff again.

When Hennie here marries,
you'll have her room.

I should only live to see the day.

- Me too.

- This morning, the sink was full of ants.

Where they come from, I just don't know.

I thought it was coffee grounds
and then they began moving.

- You gave the dog eat?

- I gave the dog eat.

- You got dropsy tonight.

- Company's coming.

- You can buy a ticket for
50 cents and win fortunes.

A man came in the store.

It's the Irish sweepstakes.

- What?

- It's like a raffle, only different.

A man came in the store--

- Who spends 50 cent
pieces on Irish raffles?

They threw out a family
on Dawson Street today.

All the furniture on the sidewalk.

A fine old woman with gray hair.

- [Jacob] Come eat, Ralph!

- A butcher on Beck Street won $80,000.

- $80,000.

You'll excuse the expression.

You're bughouse.

- I've seen it in the paper.

On one ticket.

765 Beck Street.

- Impossible.

- [Myron] He did, yes he did.

He says he'll take his old mother

to Europe, an Austrian.

- Europe?

- Six percent on 80,000, 4,800 a year.

- [Bessie] I'll give you money.

Buy a ticket in Hennie's name.

- [Myron] I will.

- [Bessie] You say you can't tell.

Lightning never struck us yet.

If they win on Beck Street,

maybe we can win on Longwood Avenue.

- If it rained pearls, who would work?

- Oh, another county heard from.

- Oh, I forgot beauty.

Sam Feinschreiber sent you a present.

- Oh.

- Since I brought him for supper,

he just can't stop talking about you.

- What's that mockie bothering about?

Who needs him?

- He's a very lonely boy.

- So I'll sit down and burst
out crying 'cause he's lonely.

- He'd marry you one, two, three.

- [Hennie] Too bad about him.

- Chocolate peanuts!

- Loft's week-end special.

Two for 39.

- You could think about it.

Wouldn't hurt.

- To quote Moe Axelrod,
"Don't make me laugh."

- Never mind laughing.

It's time already you had a
serious thought in your head.

A girl 26 don't grow younger.

When I was your age, I had already a

family with responsibilities.

- Maybe that's what ails you mom. (laughs)

- Don't you feel well?

- I feel fine.

'cause I'm laughing?

It's just funny, that poor guy sending

me presents 'cause he loves me.

- [Jessie] I think it's very, very nice.

- [Hennie] Sure.

- Mrs. Marcus' Rose is
engaged to a Brooklyn boy.

A dentist.

He came today in his car.

Such a little dope to get such a boy.

- Tell you what Mom.

I saved for a new dress, but I'll take

you and Pop to the Franklin.

Don't need a new dress.

From now on, I'm planning
on staying in nights.

Hold everything.

- What's the matter?

Bed bug bit you suddenly?

- It's a good bill.

Belle Baker, maybe she'll sing Eli Eli.

- I thought we were going to a movie.

- No, forget it.
Let's go.

- I see in the papers.

Sophie Tucker took off 26 pounds.

Fearful business with Japan.

- Write a book, Pop.

Come on.

Let's go early for good seats.

- Moe said you had a
date with him tonight.

- Axelrod?

- I told him no but he don't believe it.

I'll tell him no for
the next 100 years too.

- Don't break appointments, beauty.

And hurt people's feelings.

- His hands got freewheeling.

- Oh.

I don't know. People ain't the same.

No.

The whole world's changing
right under our eyes.

Presto.

No manners.

Like the great Italian
lover in the movies.

What was his name?

The Sheik.

No one remembers?

- Jake?

- No.

- I can't stand it.

- There is an expression.

Strong as iron you must be.

- It's a cock-eyed world.

- Boys like you could fix it someday.

Look on the world, not
on yourself so much.

Every country with starving millions, no?

In Germany and Poland, the
Jew couldn't walk the street.

Everybody hates.
Nobody loves.

- I don't get all that.

- For years I watched you grow up.

Wait, you'll graduate from my university.

- Good cigars now for a nickel.

- After you take Tootsie on
the roof, what'll you do?

- Don't know.

- You'll go see the
boys around the corner?

- I'll stay home every night.

- [Myron] Ah, Momma don't mean to say--

- Look, I'm flying to Hollywood by plane.

That's what I'm doing.

- [Bessie] I don't like my boy to be seen

with those tramps on the corner.

(doorbell buzzing)

- Schlosser's here, Momma,
with the garbage can.

- Ah, come in Schlosser.

Wait, I'll give him a piece of my mind.

What's the matter?

The dumbwaiter's broken again?

- Mr. Wimmer sends new ropes next week.

I got sore arm.

- He should live so long, your Mr. Wimmer.

For seven years already,
he's sending us new ropes.

No dumbwaiter, no heat, no steam.

In a respectable house, they
don't allow such conditions.

- In a decent house, dogs are not running

to make dirty the hallway.

- Tootsie's making dirty?

Our Tootsie's making dirty in the hall?

I - tell you yesterday again.

You must not leave her--

- Excuse me.

Please don't yell at an old man.

He's got more brains in
his finger than you've got,

I don't know where.

You ever see he should
yell on you, an old man?

- Awful.

- Next time we don't walk
up the stairs no more.

You keep it so clean
we'll fly in the windows.

- I'll speak to Mr. Wimmer.

- Speak, speak.

Tootsie walks behind me like
a lady any time, any day.

So goodbye.

Goodbye Mr. Schlosser.

- I tell you that.

I work very hard here.

My arms is.

- Tootsie should maybe lay
in the kitchen all day.

If he yells on you, you give him back.

What's funny?

- Oh, come.

Come Momma, come.

- Take care, Hennie.

- Okay grandpa.

Bye bye.

(door closing)

- Valentino!

That's the one.

(door closing)

- Never in my life even
had a birthday party.

Every time I went and cried in the toilet

when my birthday came.

- You're going to bed?

- No, I'm putting on a clean shirt.

- Why?

- I got a girl.

And don't you laugh.

- Who laughs?

Since when?

- Three weeks.

She lives in Yorkville,
with an aunt and uncle.

A bunch of relatives but, uh, no parents.

- An orphan girl?

- Ah, but she's got me.

I'm telling you, I could sing.

Jake, she's like stars.

I mean, she's so
beautiful, you look at her

and you wanna cry.

She's like ah, French words.

Went to the park the other night,

heard the last band concert.

- Music?

- Yeah.

Got cold and I gave her my coat to wear.

Just walked along like that.

See?
Without a word, see?

Never so happy in all my life.

Got late.

We just sat there.

She, uh, looked at me.

You know what I mean, how a girl

looks at you right in the eyes?

"I love you," she says "Ralph."

I took her home.

I wanted to cry, that's how I felt.

- It's a beautiful feeling.

- [Ralph] You said a mouthful.

- Her name is, uh?

- [Ralph] Blanche.

- That's a fine name.

Bring her here sometime.

- [Ralph] Huh, she's scared to meet mom.

- [Jacob] Why?

- You know mom ain't letting my 16 bucks

out of the house if she can help it.

Take one look at Blanche
and insult her in a minute.

The kid has got nothing.

- Boychick.

- Eh, what's the difference?

- There's no difference.

Plain bourgeois prejudice.

They find out the girl is
poor, it ain't so kosher?

- Well, they don't have
to know I got a girl.

- What's in the end?

- Out I go.

And I don't mean maybe.

- And then what?

- Life begins, boy.

- What life?

- [Ralph] Life with my girl.

I tell you, I could sing Jake.

Her and me together.

Now that's a new life, huh?

- You're making a mistake.

It's a new death.

- Hey, hey.
Well, what's the idea?

- Me.
I'm the idea.

Once I had in my heart a dream, a vision.

Came marriage and you forget.

Children come and you forget--

- Don't worry, Jake.

- Remember, a woman insults a man's soul

like no other thing in the whole world.

- [Ralph] Why you get so excited?

- Wake up boychick.

Be something.

Make your life something good,

for the love of an old man
who sees in your young days

his new life.

For such a love, take the
world in your two hands

and make it like new.

Go out and fight so life shouldn't

be printed on dollar bills.

A woman waits.

- Hey, I'm no fool.

- From my heart, I hope not. In the mean--

(door buzzing)

- [Ralph] See who that is, will ya?

I don't want Mom to catch
me with a clean shirt.

- Come in.

Moe Axelrod.

(door closing)

- Hello girls.

How's your whiskers?

All dolled up?

What's it, the weekly
visit to the cat house?

- Hey, mind your business.

- Okay, sweetheart.

- If Mom calls--

- I know.

Enjoy yourself.

- Bye bye.

- Bye bye.

- Who's home?

- Me.

- Good.

I'll stick around a few minutes.

Where's Hennie?

She went with Bessie and Myron to a show.

- She what?

- You had a date?

Here.
I brought you some Halavah.

- Halavah?

Thanks.

I'll eat a piece after.

- So Ralph's got a dame, huh?

Hot stuff.

Kid can't even play a card game.

- Moe, you're no good.

You're a bum of the first water.

To your dying day, you'll never change.

- [Moe] Where'd you get
that stuff, a no-good?

- But I like you.

- Didn't I go fighting
France for democracy.

Didn't I get my damn
leg shot off in that war

the day before the armistice?

Uncle Sam give me the
Order of the Purple Heart,

didn't he?

What do you mean, a no-good?

- Excuse me.

- If you've got an orange,
I'll eat an orange.

- No orange.
Apples.

- No oranges, huh?

What a dump.

- Bessie hears you once talking like that,

she'll knock your head off.

- Hennie went with, huh?

Wants to see me squirm, only
I don't squirm for no dames.

- You came to see her?

- What for?

Got a present for our boyfriend Myron.

He'll drop dead when I tell
him that his gentle horse

galloped in 15 to one.

He'll die.

- It really won?

First time I remember.

- Where'd they go?

- A vaudeville by the Franklin.

- What's special tonight?

- Someone tells a few jokes.

They forgot the streets are
filled with starving beggars.

- What'll they do?

Start a war?

- I don't know.

- Well you oughta know.

What the hell you got all them books for?

- It needs a new world.

- That's why they had the last war,

to make a new world, they said.

Safe for democracy.

Sure, every big general
laying up in a Paris hotel

with a half a dozen broads
pinned on his mustache.

Democracy.

I learned a lesson.

- Imperial war.

You know what this means?

- Sure, I know everything.

- By money men, the
interests must be protected.

Who gave you such a rotten haircut?

Here's a penny.

Give me a cigarette.

I didn't have since yesterday.

- Don't make me laugh.

Don't look so tired all the time Jake.

Boy, you're a wow.

Always sore about something.

- And you?

- One thing you got,
you can play pinochle.

Come on, I'll take you over in a game,

then you'll have something to be sore on.

- Who will wash dishes?

- Do 'em after.

10 cents a deal.

- Who's got 10 cents?

- I got 10 cents.

I'll lend it to you.

- Commence.

- First time in two days
I had my hands on a pack.

Let me at these babies,
I'll make 'em talk.

- You should live so long.

- You ever seen oranges grow, Jake?

I know a certain place, one summer I

lay under a tree and I let
them fall right into my mouth.

(gramophone playing L'Africaina)

- From L'Africaina.

A big explorer comes on a new land.

O Paradiso.

From act four this piece,
Caruso stands on a ship

and looks on a Utopia.

You hear?

Oh paradise.

Oh paradise on earth,

of blue skies, of fragrant air.

- Ask him does he see any oranges?

- You came back so soon?

- [Bessie] Hennie got sick on the way.

- Hello Moe!

- Turn off the phonograph, Pop!

Go in bed Hennie, I'll call the Doctor.

(opera on phonograph)

You should see how sick she
got on Prospects Avenue.

Two weeks already she don't feel right.

- [Myron] Moe?

- Go in bed, honey.

I'll call Doctor Cantor.

- I'll sit here.

- Such a girl I never saw.

Now you'll be stubborn?

- It's for your own good Beauty and--

- I'll sit here.

- I never seen a girl
to say no to everything.

She can't stand on her feet so.

- Don't yell in my ear.

I hear.

Nothing's wrong.

I had tuna fish for lunch.

- Canned goods.

- Last week you also ate tuna fish?

- Yeah, I'm funny for tuna fish.

You go to the show.

Have a good time.

- I don't understand what I did to God--

- [Moe] Don't kibitz so much.

- That He should give me such children.

You don't like it?

- No, I don't like it.

- It's too bad Axelrod.

Maybe it's better by
your cigar store friends.

Here we're different people.

- Don't gimme that cigar
store line, Bessie.

I walked up here five flights.

- To take out Hennie but my daughter

ain't in your class Axelrod.

- To see Myron.

- [Myron] Did he?
Did he Moe?

- Did he what?
- Sky Rocket.

- You bet on a horse?

- Paid 12 and a half to one.

- There, you hear that Momma?

Our horse came in.

You see it happens?

- Yeah, I tell you.
Sure thing.

Didn't I tell you that?

- Moe says it's a sure thing.

You couldn't beat a few
dollars instead of 50 cents?

- I'm carrying 600 plunks
in big denominations.

- A banker!

- Uncle Sam sends me 90 a month.

- So you save it?

- Run it up.

Run it up Axelrod.

That's me.

- The police should know how.

- Oh sshh, hey, that's all right.

That's enough of that.

Give me your change, a
20 will you sweetheart?

- Can you make change?

- Don't be crazy.

- All right.

I'll go down to Goldman's downstairs

and I'll meet a guy and
I'll get some change.

I'll come right back.

- You can give it to me
tomorrow in the store.

- He'll come back.

He'll come back.

- Lucky I bet a few bucks myself.

Let's step out tomorrow night Paradise.

- Oh, that's big percentage.

If I picked a winner every day.

- Poppa, did you take Tootsie on the roof?

- [Jacob] All right.

- Just look at that.

A cake walk.

We can make fortune.

- Enough talk already.

I got a splitting headache.

Hennie, go in bed.

I'll call Dr Cantor.

- I'll sit here.

Don't call that old Ignatz
'cause I won't see him.

- [Myron] If you get sick,
Momma can't nurse you.

You don't wanna go to a hospital.

- She don't look sick,
Bessie, it's a fact.

- She's got fever.

I see in her eyes and he tells me no.

Myron, call Dr. Cantor.

- I don't want any doctor.

I ain't sick.

Leave me alone.

- Beauty, it's for your own sake.

- Day in and day out pestering.

Why are you always right and
nobody else can say a word?

- Well, when you have your own children.

- I'm not sick.

Hear what I say.

I'm not sick.

Nothing's wrong with me.

I don't want a doctor.

- What's the matter?

- Nothing I told you.

- You told me but.

- See much?

- Myron, put down the phone.

Tell me what happened.

- Brooklyn Bridge fell down.

- [Bessie] I'm asking a question.

- [Myron] What's happened, Momma?

- Listen to me.

- What the hell are you talking?

- Papa, take Tootsie on the roof.

- If he wants, he can stay here.

- What's wrong Momma?

- Myron, your fine Beauty's in trouble.

A society lady.

- [Myron] Trouble?

I don't understand what
you're talking about.

- Well look in her face.

Who's the man?

- The Prince of Wales.

- My gall is busting in me.

In two seconds--

- Shut up!

Shut up!

I'll jump out of the window in a minute.

Shut up!

- Bessie.

- He's a Bronx boy?

- From out of town.

- You, you know him a long time?

You slept by a friend in
the office Saturday nights?

You slept good, my lovely lady.

You'll go to him.

He'll marry you.

- That's what you say.

- That's what I say.

Believe me, he'll do it.

Take my word for it.

He'll do it.

- Where?

Give her the letter.

- What?

(paper rustling)

Dear Sir,

In reply to your request to the 14th inst,

we can state that no Mr. Ben Grossman

has ever been connected
with our organization.

You don't know where he is?

- No.

- Stop crying like a baby, Myron.

- It's like a play on the stage.

- To a mother you couldn't
say something before?

I'm old fashioned like
your friend, I'm not smart.

I don't eat chop suey and run around

Coney Island with tramps.

Tomorrow night, bring Sam
Feinschreiber for supper.

- I won't do it.

I won't do it.

- You'll do it my fine beauty.

You'll do it.

- No, I'm not marrying any
poor foreigner like him.

Can't even speak an English word.

Not me.

I'll go to my grave without a husband.

- Is that so?

Maybe you'll find for you somewhere

a millionaire with a pleasure boat.

He goes to night school, Sam.

For a boy only three years in the country,

he speaks very nice.

In three years, he put
away enough in the bank,

a good living.

- This is serious?

- What, you think that I'm
speaking for my health?

Tomorrow night he comes for supper.

By Saturday, they're engaged.

- [Jacob] Such a thing you can't do.

- Who asked your advice?

- Such a thing.

- Don't talk.

- The lowest of the low.

- Don't talk, I'm telling you.

A man who don't believe
in God, with crazy ideas.

- So bad I never expected you to be.

- Maybe if you didn't talk so much,

it wouldn't happen like this.

You with your ideas.

I'm a mother.

I raise a family, they
should have respect.

- Respect?

Respect for a neighbor's opinion?

You insult me, Bessie.

- Go to your room, Papa.

Every job he ever had he lost because

he's got such a big mouth.

He opens his mouth, and the whole Bronx

could fall in it.

Everybody said it.

- Momma, they'll hear
you down the dumbwaiter.

- A good barber, not to
hold a job for a week.

Maybe you never heard,
charity starts at home.

You never heard it, Pop?

- Oh, you know I heard and more yet.

But Ralph you don't make like you.

Before you do it, I'll die first.

He'll find a girl.

He'll walk into a fresh world with her.

This is a house.

Marx said it.

Abolish such families.

- Go to your room Pop!

- Ralph, you don't make like you.

Go lay in your room with
Caruso and the books together.

- All right.

- Go in your room.

(door closing)

- Someday I'll come out.

Bessie, some day you'll
talk to me so fresh,

I'll leave the house for good.

- Did you ever see anything like that?

He should just dare.

He should just dare say in
this house those other words.

(Bessie sobbing)

Your gall could bust from such a man

(door buzzing)

Go sleep.

It wouldn't hurt you.

- Sure.

- Cake.

Here's seven bucks.

Give me a quarter change.

Wait a minute.

Who bit him?

- We're losing our Hennie, Moe.

- Oh yeah?

Why, what's the matter?

- She became engaged.

- Is that so?

- [Bessie] Today it happened.

He asked her.

- Oh yeah?

Who?

Who's the corpse?

- [Bessie] A secret.

- It's in the bag, huh?

- [Bessie And Hennie] Yeah.

- Ah.

- [Bessie] When a mother
gives away an only daughter,

it's no joke.

Wait.

You'll get married.

You'll know.

- [Moe] Ah, don't make me laugh.

I'll get married.

When I think of women, take 'em all,

cut 'em in little pieces like
a herring in Greek salad.

This guy in France had the right idea.

He dropped his wife in
a bathtub full of acid.

Right down the pipe.

Not even a corset button left.

- Corsets don't have buttons.

- What's the big idea?

Got a big shot or something?

Christ, it's suicide, Paradise.

Sure, kids you'll have.

Get fat.

Gold teeth.

Big in the tangerines.

- Shut your face!

- Who is it?

Some dope, pulling out 20 bucks a week?

Slit your throat, save time.

- [Bessie] Nevermind
your two cents, Axelrod.

- [Moe] I say what I think.

That's me.

- Yeah, that's you.

A lazy four-flusher who'd steal
the glasses off a blind man.

- Get hot.

- My God do I need to sit
here and listen to this mutt

shoot his mouth off.

- Wait a minute, sweetheart.

Wait a minute.

I don't have to take that
kind of crap from you.

- For two cents, I'd spit in your eye.

- Here's two bits.

- [Bessie] Where you going?

- For my beauty nap, Mussolini.

Wake me up when it's apple
blossom time in Normandy.

- Oh, pretty, pretty.

Whoo.

Fine girl.

Fine girl, your Hennie.

You see the look in her eyes?

- She don't feel well.

- Canned goods.

- So don't start with her.

- A battleship, she's got it.

Not like other dames.

You shove 'em and they lay.

Not her.

Boy, I got a yen for her and
I don't mean a Chinee coin.

- Listen Axelrod, in my house,
you don't talk like this.

Either you have respect or get out.

- You know, when I think about it,

maybe I could marry her myself.

- You could?

What do you mean, Moe?

- You ain't sunburnt.

You heard me.

- Well why don't you do it?

An old friend of the family like you.

- [Moe] You said she's engaged!

- Well maybe she don't know her own mind.

- Yeah, I need a wife like
I need a hole in the head.

What's to know about women, I know.

Even if I asked her, she won't do it.

A guy with one leg gives
her the heebie-jeebies.

I know what she's looking for.

One of them arrow-collar guys, a hero,

but with a wad of jack.

Only the two don't go together.

But I got what it takes, plenty and more

where that comes from.

- [Bessie] That's right.

She wants a millionaire with
a mansion on Riverside Drive.

(opera plays)

So go fight City Hall.

Cake?

- Cake.

- I'll make tea.

(opera plays}

But one thing.

She's got a fine boy
with a business brain.

Caruso.

- No wet smack.

A fine girl.

She'll burn that guy out in a month.

- I remember that song.

Beautiful.

Nora Bayes sang it at the
old Proctor's 23rd Street.

When it's apple blossom time in Normandy.

- Wants to see me crawl, my
head on a plate she wants.

Snowball in hell could
get a better chance.

- Oh, beautiful.

- Match you for a quarter.

Match you for any damn thing you got.

The hell kind of a house is
this that ain't got an orange?

(Morty laughing)

- Dinner will be ready
in half an hour Morty.

- I got time.

- Duck?

Papa, don't get hair on the rug.

What's the matter with the
shades up to the ceiling?

- Since when do I give
a haircut in the dark?

- Well, when you're
finished, pull it down.

I like my house to look respectable.

Ralphie, run down and get two
bottle seltzers from Weiss.

- I'm reading the paper.

- Uncle Morty likes seltzer.

- I'm expecting a phone call.

- So when it comes, you'll be back.

What's the matter?

And bring down the old bottles.

- If that call comes, get it.

- Hey, hey, hey.

Get grandpa some cigarettes.

- What's new in the paper Moe?

- Eh, they're still jumping off the high

buildings like flies,
the big shots who lost

all their coconuts.

- Suicides?

- Plenty can't take it.

They're good at the stock,
they can't take the whip

and the stretch.

- I saw that down my building Monday.

- My hair stood up how they shoveled him

together like a pancake,
a bankrupt manufacturer.

- No brains.

- Enough. All over the sidewalk.

- If someone would tell me
five or 10 years ago that I

couldn't make for myself a living,

I wouldn't believe.

- Duck for dinner?

- The best Long Island duck.

- I like goose.

- A duck is like a goose, only better.

- I like goose.

- Next time you come for
Sunday dinner, I'll make goose.

- Eh, smells good.

I'm a great boy for smells.

- Ain't you shamed?

Once in a blue moon to come
to an only sister's house?

- Bessie, leave me live.

- You should be ashamed.

- Quack, quack.

- No, better to lay down
Mecca Temple playing cards

with the Masons.

- Bessie, can't you see
Pop's giving me a haircut?

- You don't need a haircut.

Look, two hairs he took off.

- Pop likes to give me a haircut.

I say no, he don't forget
for a year, do you Pop?

An old man's like that.

- I still do an A-one job.

- Pop cuts hair to fit
the face, don't you Pop?

- For sure, Morty.

- Yeah.

- For every face, a different haircut.

Custom built.

No ready-made.

A round face needs a different--

- A graduate from the BMT.

Don't forget the shade.

(phone ringing)

Hello?

Who is it, please?

Who is it, please?

Oh, Miss Hirsch?

No, he ain't here.

No I can't say when.

- Ralph?

- A wrong number.

- Excuse me?

- Ralphie took another cut
on the place yesterday.

- Business is bad.

I talked to his boss
Harry Glicksman Thursday.

I, uh, bought some velvets.

They're coming in again.

- Well, do something for him down there.

- What can I do? I
mentioned it to Glicksman

and he told me they squeezed
out half the people.

- Well what's gonna be?

Myron's only working
three days a week now.

- It's conditions.

- Hennie's married with a baby.

Money just don't come in.

I never saw conditions should be so bad.

- Times will change.

- The only thing will
change is my underwear.

- Oh, these last few years,
I had my share of gray hairs.

(Morty laughing)

Popeye the sailor ate spinach
and knocked out four bums.

- I'll tell you the way I see it.

The country needs a great man now,

a regular Teddy Roosevelt.

- What this country needs is
a good five cent earthquake.

- So long labor lives, it
should increase private gain.

- Listen Papa, why don't you
go talk on the street corner?

The government will give
you free board for the

rest of your life.

- I'm surprised.

Don't I send Papa a $5 check every week?

- You can send him a little more.

It wouldn't hurt.

- Tell me jokes.

Business is so rotten, I could lay all day

in a Turkish bath.

- Why did I come in here?

- Hey Moe, I heard the bootleggers

still doing business, huh?

- Wake up.

I kissed bootlegging
bye bye two years back.

- For a fact?

What kind of racket is it now?

- If I told you, you'd know something.

(Morty laughs)
- How do you like that?

- Where's Sam?

- Sam?

In the kitchen.

- Sam, come take the diaper.

- How's the Mickey Mouse?

- Sleeping.

- That's life for a baby.

Sleeps, gets it in the
mouth, sleep some more.

To raise a family nowadays,
you must be a damn fool.

- Never mind, never mind.

A woman who don't raise a family, a girl,

should jump overboard.

What's she good for?

Your leg bothers you bad?

- Eh, it's okay sweetheart.

- It hurts him every time it's cold out.

He has four legs in the closet.

- Four wood legs?

- Three.

- What's the big idea?

- Why not? Uncle Sam gives 'em out free.

- Maybe if Uncle Sam gave out less legs,

we could balance the budget.

- Or not have a war so we
wouldn't have to give out legs.

- I'm surprised at you Pop.

Everybody knows war is necessary.

- Ah, don't make me laugh.

Ask me the first time you pick
up a dead guy in a trench,

you learn that war
ain't so damn necessary.

- You should kick.

Uncle Sam pays you 90 a month
for the rest of his life.

Look, not a worry in the world.

- Don't make me laugh, will you?

Uncle Sam can take his 70
bucks a month and he can.

Nothing good hurts.

- Use a crutch, Axelrod.

Give the stump a rest.

- Mind your business, Feinschreiber.

- It's a sensible idea.

- Who asked you?

- Look, he's ashamed.

- So's your Aunt Fanny.

- Who's got an Aunt Fanny?

- It's a joke.

- Look, I don't want
anybody creasing my paper.

I want it fresh.

Fifty times I said that.

- All right.

Don't get so excited
for a five cent paper.

Our star boarder.

- And I don't want nobody in this house

using my razor either.

I told you that.

Get it straight.

I'm not buying 10 blades a
week for the Berger family.

- Maybe I'm using his razor too.

- Wow.

- You gotta have luck with plants.

I didn't clean off those leaves in a week.

- You keep the house like a pin, Bessie,

and I like your cooking.

If Myron fires you, come work for me.

I'll let the butler go and
you can be my housekeeper.

I don't like Japs so much.

Sneaky.

- Listen, you can't tell.

Maybe one of these days
I'm coming to stay.

- Finished.

- Okay.

How much, Ed Pinaud?

- Five cents.

- Still five cents for a
haircut to fit the face?

- Prices don't change around here.

I can't change.

- Keep the change.

Buy yourself a packet.

- Please, keep this for me.

Put it away.

- What is it?

- My insurance policy.

I don't like it should lay around where

something can happen.

- What could happen?

- Anything.

Robbery, fire.

They took, uh, $50 next
door from O'Reilly.

- Say, lucky it didn't happen to a Berger.

- Put it away in the safe downtown.

Bessie don't have to know.

- It's made out to Bessie?

- No.

To Ralph.

- To Ralph?

- He don't know.

Someday, he'll get 3,000.

- You got good years ahead.

- Behind.

- Cigarette?

Call come for me?

- A few minutes.

She don't let me answer it.

- Did mom say I was coming right back?

- No.

- She starting that stuff again?

A call come for me?

- A wrong number.

- [Jake] Don't say a lie, Bessie.

- Blanche said she'd call me at two.

Was it her?

- I said a wrong number.

- Please, tell me if it was her.

- Listen, you're gonna
call me a liar next.

You ain't got no shame to make a scene

in front of Uncle Morty?

Once in a blue moon he comes.

- What's the shame?

- If my girl calls, I wanna know it.

- You made enough mish
mosh for the day already.

- Bessie, I'm surprised at you.

For the love of life, tell him yes or no.

- I didn't tell him?

No.

No.

- Morty, I didn't tell you.

- What?

- He's running around with a girl.

- Terrible

Should he run around with a foxy-woxie?

- A girl with no parents.

- An orphan?

- I could die from shame.

A year already he's
running around with her.

She came for supper.

Believe me,

she didn't come again.

- Don't think I didn't ask her.

- You hear?

You raise 'em and what do
you get for all your trouble?

- And you'll lay in a
grave, there's no trouble.

- Quack, quack.

- A girl like that, he wants to marry.

A steady consumptive looking.

Six months already she's not working,

taking charity from an aunt.

You should see her.

In a year, she's dead on her hands.

- You'd cut her throat if you could.

- That's right.

Before I let a nice boy ruin his life,

I'd first go to prison.

I'll let Miss Nobody step in the picture

and I should stand by with my mouth shut.

- Miss Nobody?

Well who am I, Al Jolson?

- [Bessie] Fix your tie.

- Look, I'll take care
of my own affairs, huh?

- You'll take care?

You'll excuse my expression,

you can't even wipe your nose yet.

He'll take care.

- I'm surprised at you Bessie.

What are you worried about?

When the time comes to settle down,

he won't marry a poor girl, will you?

I mean, in the long run, common
sense is thicker than love.

I'm a great boy for live and let live.

- Yeah, it's easy for
you to say but meanwhile

he's eating out my heart.

You know, I'm not strong.

- I know, a pussycat. (laughs)

- Yeah, you got money and money talks

but without a dollar who sleeps at night?

- I've been working for
years bringing money in here.

Putting it in your hand like a kid.

All right, I can't get my teeth fixed.

All right that a, a
new suit is like trying

to buy the Chrysler Building.

You never in your life even
bought me a pair of skates.

I mean, things I'd die
for when I was a kid.

But I don't care about that stuff, see?

Only just remember I pay some
of the bills around here, too.

Just a few but if my girl
calls me on the phone,

I'll talk to her anytime I please.

(clapping)

- Don't be so smart, Ms. America.

He didn't have skates
but when he was sick,

a 12 year old boy, who brought
in a big specialist for $25,

the last one in the house?

Skates.

- Looks like snow today.

- It's about time.
Winter.

- And Papa can talk
like Samuel Webster too.

All talk.

Let him go buy a two cent pickle

in the Berlin market without money.

- I'm getting an appetite.

Well, right away we'll eat.

I made chopped liver for you.

My specialty.

- Ralph should be a
success like you Morty.

I would be so happy if
one day he could drive

up to the house in a good car
and a radio and a chauffeur.

I could die happy, believe me.

- Success, she says.

She should see how we
spent thousands of dollars

making up a winter line,
only winter don't come.

Summer in January.

Can you believe it?

- Don't live.

Just make success.

- Ah, chopped liver.

- When they start arguing,
suddenly I'm deaf.

I'm a great boy for the practical side.

- Hands like a raw tater.

- What's the matter?

You don't look so well.

No pep.

- [Hennie] I'm swell.

- You used to be such a pretty girl.

- Maybe I got the blues. You can't tell.

- Hmm.

You could stand a new dress.

- That's not all I could stand.

- Well, come down to the shop tomorrow,

take a couple and pick out a couple

from the eleven-eighty line.

Only don't sing me the blues.

- Thanks.

I could use some new clothes.

- I got 2,000 pieces
of merchandise waiting

in the stock room for winter.

- I never had anything from life.

Sam don't help.

- He's crazy about the kid.

- Yeah, crazy is right.

Twenty-one a week he brings in.

A nigger don't have it so hard.

I wore my fingers off in an Underwood

for six years for what?

Now I wash baby diapers.

Sure I'm crazy about the kid too

but half the night, the kid's up.

Try to sleep.

You don't know how it is Uncle Morty.

- I don't know how it is?

I was born yesterday, huh?

Oh, some day Hennie,
some day I'm gonna leave

you a little nest egg.

You like eggs, huh?

- When, when I'm dead and buried?

- When I'm dead and buried.

- You should know what I'm thinking.

- I know, Hennie. I know.

- I never take a drink. I'm
just surprised at myself.

- I got a pain.

Maybe I'm hungry.

- Come inside, Morty.

Bessie's got some schnapps.

- I'll take a drink.

You know yesterday I forgot
to take my Turkish bath.

- I get so bitter when I take a drink.

It surprises me.

- Myron, Myron look.

Look how fat.

But you live only once.

Quack, quack, Yes.

- [Myron] That's right,
you're right Morty.

(laughter)

- I make Leon's bottle now.

- [Hennie] No Sam, let him sleep a minute.

Take away the diaper.

- That your husband?

- Don't you know?

- Maybe he's a nurse
you hired for the kid.

It looks it how he tends it.

Guy comes howling to
your old lady every time

you look cock-eyed.

Does he sleep with you?

- Don't be so wise.

- Here's a, here's a dame
strangled her hubby with wire.

Claims she didn't like him.

Why don't you brain Sam
with an ax some night?

- Why don't you lay an egg, Axelrod?

I laid a few in my time, Feinschreiber.

Hard boiled ones, too.

- Yeah?

- Yeah. Wanna know what I
see when I look in your eyes?

- No.

- Ted Lewis playing a clarinet,

some of those crazy high notes.

Cripes, you could have
had a guy with some guts

instead of a cluck, stands in
there boiling baby nipples.

- Meaning you?

- [Moe] Meaning me, sweetheart.

- Think you're pretty good?

- Well, you'd know if
I slept with you again.

- I'll slap your face and you know it.

- You do and I'll break your arm.

Here, look at this.

See that?

Ten day luxury cruise to Havana.

That's the kind of stuff
you could have had.

Put up in ritzy hotels,
frenchie soap, champagne.

Now you're tied down to Snake Eyes.

What for?

What's it get you?

Two by four flat up in 108th Street?

Pain in the bustle it gets you.

- What's it to you?

- Oh, I know you from the old days.

How you like to spend it.

What I mean, lizard skin
shoes, perfume behind the ears.

Boy, you're in a mess Paradise.

Paradise, Jesus.

That's crazy to eat a knish
at your own damn wedding?

- I get it.

You're jealous.

You're jealous you can't get me.

- Don't make me laugh will you?

- Kid Jailbird's been
trying to make me for years.

You'd give your other leg.

I'm hooked maybe but
you're in the same boat,

only it's worse for you.

I don't give a damn about no one but you

got a yen makes you--

- Don't make me laugh.

- Compared to you, I'm
sitting on top of the world.

- You're losing your looks.

A dame don't get any younger, you know?

- You're a liar.

I'm only 24.

- When are you coming home to stay?

- Wouldn't you like to know?

- Oh, I'll get you again.

- Think so?

- Yeah, whatever goes up comes down.

You're a pushover.

Remember, two for a nickle.

A pushover.

Ow!

What's the idea?

- Go on, break my arm.

- Listen will you?

- Go on, do something.

- Listen to me.

- You think you're so damn tough.

- You like me.

- Get your hands.

I'll come back when it's a flood again

and they put you in the
ark with the other animals.

Not even then.

If he was the last man.

Baby if you had a dog I'd love the dog.

- Gorilla.

- [Ralph] Were you here before?

- Hmm?

- When the call came for me?

- What?

- The call came.

- No.

- Don't worry, Ralphie.

She'll call back.

- Maybe not.

I think something's the matter.

- What?

- I don't know.

I took her home from
the movies last night.

She asked me what I'd
think if she went away.

- Don't worry, she'll call again.

- Well, maybe not if mom insulted her.

She gets it from both ends, the poor kid.

She spent most of her
life in an orphan asylum.

They shove her around like
an empty freight train.

- [Jacob] After dinner, go see her.

- Huh. Twice they kicked
me down the stairs.

- Life should have some dignity.

- Every time I get near the
place, I get heart failure.

The uncle drives a bus, you oughta see him

like Babe Ruth.

- [Moe] Wake up, will you?

Use your brains.

Stop acting like a kid
who still wets the bed.

Hire a room somewhere.

A club room for two members.

- Not that kind of proposition, Moe.

- Don't be such a bush leaguer, will you?

- Hey, cut it out.

- You ever sleep with one?

Look at him blush.

- You don't know her.

- I seen her.

She's the kind that nobody sees undressed

until the undertaker works on her.

- Why you giving me the
needles all the time?

What'd I ever do to you?

- Not a thing.
Not a thing.

You're a nice kid, but grow up, will you?

Look, in this life, there's two kinds.

There's the guys who got
confidence in themselves

and the one's who ain't.

It's time you quit being a plater

and got into the state's division.

- And you, Axelrod?

- Oh, scratch your whiskers.

Get independent.

Get what it takes and be yourself.

Do what you like.

- Got a suggestion?

- Yeah. Yeah.

Shake down the coconuts.

Pick out a racket and shake
'em down and see what happens.

See what it does.

- We know what it does.

- Puts a pudding on your nose.

Easy money's against the law.

Against the law can't win.

The racket's illegitimate, no?

That it's all a racket,
from horse racing on down.

Marriage, politics, big business.

Everybody plays cops and robbers.

You, you yourself are a racket, too.

- Who me?

Personally, I manufacture dresses.

- Horse feathers.

- [Morty] Don't make such a
monster of me without proof.

I'm a great man for proof.

That's how I made such a
big success of life, proof.

Put up or shut up.

Like a game of cards.

I got a story that a rich man's a crook

who steals from the poor.

Personally, I don't like it.

It's a big lie.

- You don't like it, buy
yourself a fife and drum.

Go fight your own wars.

- Sweatshop talk.

Every Jew and Wop in
the shop eats my bread.

Behind my back, calls me a son of a bitch.

I started a poor boy working
on an ice wagon for $2 a week.

Pop will tell you.

I made it honest.

In the whole industry,
nobody's got a better name.

- [Jacob] It's an exception. Such success.

- Ralphie can't do the same thing?

- No, Morty, I don't think.

In a house like this,

he don't even realize the
possibilities of life.

Economics come down like
a ton of coal on the head.

- Red rover, red rover,
Let Jacob come over.

- In my day, the propaganda was for God.

Now it's for success.

A boy don't turn around without
having it shoved at him,

he should make success.

- Pop, you're a comedian,
a regular Charlie Chaplin.

- He dreams all night of fortunes.

Why not?

Don't it say in the movies

he should have a private steamship,

pajamas for $50 a pair?

A toilet like a monument?

Well in the morning he gets up

and for $10 he can't fix the teeth.

(Morty laughs)

And millions more worse of in the mills

of the South-starvation wages.

- All right Pop.

- Blood from the worker's heart.

Laugh, laugh, tomorrow, not.

- [Morty] A real, a real Boob
McNutt you're getting to be.

- Laugh, laugh my son.

- [Morty] This is the North, Pop.

- North, south, It's one country.

- The country's okay.

A duck quacks in every pot.

- You never heard of man being shut down

because they asked for a bigger wage?

Kentucky 1932.

- That's a pile of chopped liver, Pop.

- Pittsburgh, Passaic, Illinois slavery.

It begins where success begins
in a competitive system.

- Pop, Pop. Why are you bothering?

I bought you phonographs, stick to Caruso.

- Starting up that stuff again?

- Don't bother with Kentucky.

It's full of moonshiners.

- Sure, sure.

- Stay home and cut hair to fit the face.

- It says in the Bible
how the Red Sea opened

the Egyptians went in and
the sea rolled over them.

In this boy's life a Red
Sea will happen again.

I see it.

- [Morty] Pop, I'm getting sore
with all the sweatshop talk.

He doesn't stop for a whole day

a little hard like a ponograph.

I'm surprised at you, Pop.

Without a rich man you don't
have a roof over your head.

You don't know it?

- Now, you can't bite
the hand that feeds you.

- [Ralph] Leave him alone.
He's right.

- Another country heard from.

- Well, it's the truth--

- Be quiet, snotnose.

- Charity, for sure,
a bone for an old dog.

But in Russia an old
man don't take charity

so his eyes turn black in the head.

In Russia, they got Marx.

- Whose Marx?

- An outfielder for the Yanks.

- (laughs)Hey Moe, that's
better than the jokes.

Pop, this is Uncle Sam's country.

Put it in your pipe and smoke it.

- In Russia he says.

Read the papers.

- [Sam] Here is opportunity.

- People can't believe in God in Russia.

The papers tell the truth.
They do.

- So you believe in God?

You've got something for it.

You?

You work for all the capitalists.

You harvested the fruit from you labor?

You've got God.

But the past comforts you,

the present smiles on you, yes?

It promises you a future, something?

Did you find a piece of earth

where you can live like a human being

and die with the sun on your face?

Tell me, yes, tell me.

I would like to know myself.

But on these questions, on this theme,

the struggle for existence,

you cannot make an answer.

The answer I see in your face.

The answer is your mouth can't
talk in this dark corner.

You will sit and you die but
abolish private property.

- Oh, go fight City Hall.

- He's drunk.

- [Jacob] I have been studying
from books a whole lifetime.

- [Morty] That's what it is.
He's drunk.

What the hell does all that mean?

- If you don't know,
why should I tell you?

- Here him goes like all those nuts

they don't know what they're saying.

- [Jacob] I know, I know.

- Like Boob McNutt you know.

Stay out of park, Pop

'cause squirrels'll get you (laughs)

- [Bessie] Don't spoil
your appetite, Morty.

Don't drop the duck.

- Ready to eat, Momma, good.

Shame on you, Papa.
It's your second childhood.

- Come eat.
We had enough for one day.

- Quack, quack.

- Give me five, Jake.

They got you pasted on
the wall like a picture.

- Go eat boychick.

He gives me eat so I
can climb in a needle.

Once I saw an old horse in summer.

He wore a straw hat.

His ears stuck out on top.

An old horse for hire.

Give me back my young days.

Fresh blood arms.

Give me--

(telephone rings}

- Hello?
Blanche.

I went to the store and came right back

right after you called.

- Speak, speak.

Don't be afraid they'll hear.

I'm sorry if mom said something.

You know how excitable she is.

Sure, what?

Sure, I'm listening.

Jake, put on the radio.

Put it on. Yeah?

Yeah?

Yeah?

What's the matter?
Why you crying?

What happened?

She's putting her uncle on.

Yeah.

Listen Mr. Hirsch,
what're you trying to do?

What's the big idea?

Look, I'm in no mood for joking.

Give me Blanche.

Yeah, I wanna talk to Blanche.

Blanche?

Who, who, what is this?

Is this a joke?

Is that true?

I'm coming right down.

I know.

You wanna do that?

I know but, look, I'm coming right now.

Okay, tonight.
9:00, yeah.

Sure.

Sure.
Sure.

- What happened?

- [Morty] Hey, Pop.

- [Jacob] Boychick, what?

(Morty laughs)

- I don't get it straight.

She's leaving.

- Where?

- Out West toCleveland.

Cleveland?

- In a week or two.

Huh, can you picture it?

It's a put up job.

They ain't gonna get away with this.

- We'll find something.

- Sure.

Sure the angels of heaven'll come down

on her uncle's cab and whisper in his ear.

- Come eat, we'll find something.

- Maybe we'll set up for you

your blue plate supper in the garden?

- All right, all right.

- [Morty] Bessie, Bessie. Leave the music.

- Don't cry, boychick.

Why should you make like this?

Just tell me.

Why should you cry?

You mustn't cry.

(tango music)

- [Jacob] They are here to
remind us of the horrors.

Under those crosses lie
hundreds of thousands of workers

and farmers who murdered
each other in uniform

for the greater glory of capitalism.

The new imperialist war will
send millions to their death

and bring greater
prosperity to the pockets

of the capitalists.

Morty. (chuckles)

And will bring greater hunger
and misery to the masses

of workers and farmers.

The memories of the last world slaughter

are still vivid in our minds.

(noise)

Ralphie?

- It's getting pretty cold out.

- You should have steam
until 12 instead of 10.

Go complain to the Board of Health.

- It might snow.

- It don't hurt.

Extra work for man.

- When I was a kid,

I laid awake at nights and listened

to the sounds of trains.

Far off lonesome sounds.

Boats going up and down the river.

I used to think of all the
things that I was gonna do.

What was it, Jake, just a
bunch of noise in my head?

- You wanted to make for
yourself a certain kind of world.

I guess I didn't.
I'm feeling pretty low.

- You're a young boy.

For you life is all in front,

like a big mountain.

You've got feet to climb.

- I don't know how, Jake.

- You'll find out.

Never a young man had such
opportunity like today.

You could make history.

- 10:00 PM and all is well.

Where is everybody?

- They went.

- Uncle Morty too? Hennie
and Sammy drove down.

- I saw her.

- Yes?

Yes, tell me.

I waited in Mount Morris
Park till she came out.

So cold I had to do a
buck'n wing to keep warm.

She's scared to death.

- They made her?

- Oh sure.

So she wants to go.

They keep on yelling at her.

They want her to marry a millionaire too.

- You told her you love her?

Sure, "Marry me," I said.

"Marry me tomorrow."

On 16 bucks a week.

On top of that I had to admit

Mom'd have Uncle Morty
get me fired in a second.

Two can starve as cheap as one, right?

- [Jacob] What happened?

- I, I made her promise
to meet me tomorrow.

- [Jacob] Now she'll go in the West?

I'd fight the whole damn world with her.

But her.

No guts.

Well, the hell with her.

She don't,

she wants to go it's all right.

I'll get along.

- Sure, sure.

Other important things than girls.

- [Ralph] You said a mouthful.

Maybe I don't see it,

but she's gonna see what I can do.

Nobody stops me when I get going.

- Electric clippers never
do a job like by hand.

- Why won't mom let us live here?

- Why? Why?

Because in a society like this today,

people don't love.

Hate.

- I'm not bum that hangs
around pool parlors.

I got the stuff to go ahead.

I don't know what to do.

- Look at me and learn
what to do boychick.

. Here sits an old man polishing tools.

You think maybe I'll use them again?

Look at this old failure
and see why for 70 years,

he talked good ideas but only in the head.

It's enough for me, I
should see your happiness.

This is why I tell you, do.

Do what is in your heart

and carry in yourself a revolution.

But you should act not like me.

A man who had golden opportunities.

I drank instead a glass of tea.

(aircraft engine roaring)

You hear him?

- It's the Boston air mill.

It's 10 minutes late.

I get a kick the way it cuts
across the Bronx every night.

(doorbell rings)

- Came back so soon?

- Where's mom?

- Mom?
Look on the chandelier.

- Nobody's home?

- Sit down, they'll be back right away.

You went out on the street without a tie.

- Maybe it's a crime.

- Excuse me.

Have a fight with Hennie again?

- She'll fight once, someday.

In my day the daughter came home.

Now comes the son-in-law.

- Once too often she'll
fight with me, Hennie.

I mean it.

I mean it like anything.

I'm a man with a bad heart.

I sit quiet but inside I got a--

- What, what happened?

- I'll talk to mom.

I'll see mom.

- Take an apple.

- Please, he tells me apples.

- Now why hop around like a billiard ball?

- Even a joke she should dare say it.

- My grandchild said something?

To my father in the old
country they did a joke.

I'll tell you.

One day in Odessa,

he talked to another Jew on the street.

They didn't like it.

They jumped on him like wild wolf.

- Who?

- Cossacks.

They cut off his beard.

A Jew without a beard.

He came home.

I remember like yesterday
how he came home.

Went in bed for two days.

Put like this the cover on his face.

No one should see.

On the third morning he died.

- [Ralph] From what?

- From a broken heart.

No, some people are like this.

Me too.

I die like this from shame.

- Hennie told you something?

- Straight out she said it.

Like lightning from the sky she said it.

The baby ain't mine.

She said it.

- Oh, don't be a dope.

- For sure, a joke.

- She's just kidding you.

- She should kid a policeman,
not Sam Feinschreiber.

Please, you don't know her like me.

I wake up at night she sits watching me

like I don't know what.

I make a nice living in
the store but it's no use.

She looks for a star in the sky.

I'm afraid like anything.

Could go crazy from less even.

What I should do?

I'll ask mom.

- "Go to sleep," she'll
say. "It's a bad dream."

- It don't satisfy me more, such remarks,

when Hennie could kill
in the bed.(Jacob laughs)

Don't laugh.

I'm so nervous.

Look.

Two times I weighed myself
in the subway station.

- A hundred and thirty-eight?

Also a fortune.

You're inclined to deep thinking

and have an excellent
desire for higher education.

Also inclined to be very exclusive

in the selection of friends.

Correct.

Ah, I think maybe you got mixed up

with the wrong family, son.

- [Bessie] I laughed
so much, I nearly bust.

- We should go more.

- You know?

- Little colder than I thought.

- Oh, boy. What a good time.

- Oh look, a guest.

What's the matter?

Something wrong with the baby?

- No.

- You?

- I wash my hands from everything.

- Take off your coat.

Have a seat.

Excitement don't help.

Myron, make tea.

We'll have a glass tea,

we'll sit and talk like civilized people.

What is it Ralph?

You're all dressed up for a party?

We went saw a very good
movie with Wallace Beery.

He acts like life,

very good.

- Polly Moran too.

It's so funny.

- Polly Moran too.

A woman with a nose
from here to Hunts Point

but a fine player.

Papa, take away the tools and the books.

- [Jacob] Right.

- No Sam.

Why do you look like a funeral?

- I can't stand it.

I came home she said--

- Wait, wait.

You took Tootsie up on the roof?

- In a minute.

- What can't you stand?

- She said I'm second
fiddle in my own house.

- Who?

- Hennie.

In the second place.

It ain't my baby, she said.

- What?

What are you, what are you talking?

- From her own mouth.

Went like knife in my heart.

- Sam, what are you saying?

- [Sam] Please.

I'm making a story?

I fell in the chair like dead.

Such a story you believe?

- I don't know.

- How you don't know?

- She even told me the man.

- Impossible.

- I can't believe myself, but she said it.

She said I'm second fiddle.

She said it.

She made such a yelling
everybody heard for 10 miles.

- [Bessie] Such a thing Hennie should say.

Impossible.

- What should I do?

With my bad heart such a remark kills.

- Oh, Hennie don't feel well Sam.

You see she's tired.

- What then?

A sick girl.

Believe me a mother knows.

Nerves.

Our Hennie has a bad temper.

You let her, she'll say anything.

She takes after me, nervous.

You ever hear a remark like
that in your whole life.

She should make such a statement.

Bughouse.

- The little one's been
sick all these months.

Hennie needs a rest no doubt.

- Sam don't think she means it.

- Oh, I know he don't, of course.

- I'll tell you the truth Sam.

Half the time we didn't
understand her ourselves.

A girl with her own mind.

Once she makes up her mind
wild horses can't stop her.

- She don't love me.

- This is sensible, Sam?

- Not for a nickel.

- Well, what do you think she married you?

For your money?

For your looks?

You ain't no John Barrymore, Sam.

No, she likes you.

- Please, not for a nickel.

- We stood here the
first time she said it.

"Sam Feinschreiber is a fine boy."

She said it.

"A boy with good common sense
and a fine business head."

Right here in this room, she said it.

You sent her two boxes of
candy together, you remember?

- Loft's candy.

- This is when she said it.

- You were just the
only boy she cared for.

- So she married you.

Such a world.

Plenty of boyfriends she had, believe me.

- Popular girl.

- Oh, yes.

- I'll tell it plain out.

Moe Axelrod offered her plenty.

A servant, a house, she
don't have to lift a hand.

- And Moe, just wild about her.

- Moe Axelrod?

- Yes.

- He wanted to give her all these things?

A house?

- But she didn't care.

A girl like Hennie, you don't buy.

I should never live to see
another day if I'm telling a lie.

- She was kidding me.

- [Bessie] Oh, what else.

Don't be foolish.

The baby looks like my family.

He's got Feinschreiber eyes.

- A blind man could see it.

- [Jacob] Sure, sure.

- The baby looks like me.

- You can believe me.

- Any day.

- She tells me the man.

She made up his name too?

- It's, Sam, look in the phone book.

A millions names.

- Tom, Dick, and Harry.

- Papa, don't stand around.

Take Tootsie on the roof

and don't let her get under the rug again.

- Schmah Yisroeal, behold.

- I won't stand he should make insults.

A man eats out his--

- He's an old man.

A second childhood.

Myron, bring in the tea.

And open a jar of raspberry jelly.

- Mom, you talk to Hennie.

- I'll talk to Hennie.
It'll be all right.

- Tomorrow, I'll take her by the doctor.

- Stay for a little tea.

- No, I'll go home.

I'm tired.

Already I caught cold in such weather.

- Going home?

- I won't dare.
I caught cold.

- Teddy Roosevelt used to say,

"When you have a problem, sleep on it."

- And my Sam's no problem.

- Oh, I don't mean,

I mean he said, he said.

- I'll talk to you in the morning.

- Come sir.

- I'll phone supper time.

- Take TR's advice. Sleep on it.

- Sometimes, I think there's
something funny about me.

- A bargain.

Second fiddle. By me he
don't play in the orchestra.

A man like a mouse.

Maybe she should lay down and
die because he makes a living?

- Can I talk to you about something?

- What's a matter, I'm biting you?

- Something about Blanche.

- Don't tell me.

- Oh, listen Momma. I got--

- I don't wanna know.

- She's got no place to go.

- I don't wanna know.

- Momma, I love this girl.

- So go knock your head against the wall.

- I want her to come here.

I want you to let her
live here for a while.

- You got funny ideas my son.

- What's the matter?
I'm as good as anyone else.

Don't I have any rights in this world?

Listen Ma, if I don't do
something she's gonna go away.

Come on, why don't you do it?

- Maybe you want she should--

- No.

- Why don't you let her
live here a few, few weeks.

- Maybe you want that we
should keep her fresh on ice

for her wedding day?

- No, no, no, no. I only mean--

- Or maybe you want to sleep together

in the same bed without marriage?

- Don't say that mom.

What you mean I know and
what I mean I also know.

Make up your mind, Ralphie.

For your own good.

If she drops in the ocean,
I don't lift a finger.

- That's all, I suppose.

- There's only one thing that's important.

A boy should have respect
for his own future.

Go to bed.

You're tired.

Tomorrow morning you'll forget.

- Awake and sing,

ye that dwell in dust and the
earth shall cast out the dead.

It's cold out?

- [Myron] Yes.

- I'll take out Tootsie now.

- [Myron] He'll come at us like
the wild man of Borneo, Sam.

I don't think Hennie was fool enough

to tell the truth like that.

- Myron!

- What'd he say?

- Never mind.

- You trapped that guy.

- Don't say another word.

- Just have respect.
That the idea?

- Don't say a word. I'm warning you.

- You won't let Blanche here, huh?

Well, I'm not sure I want her here now.

You really pulled one
over on that little shrimp

didn't you?

The cat's whiskers, Mom?

- I'm telling you something.

- I get the idea.

I get it so quick, my head spins.

What a laugh this is.

Did you know about this Jake?

- Yes.

- Why didn't you do something?

- I'm an old man.

- What's that got to do
with the price of bonds?

Sits around and lets a
thing like this happen?

You make me sick too.

- Let me say something, son.

- Get your hand away from me.

Go sit in a corner and wag your tail.

Keep on boasting how you went
to law school for two years.

- I want to tell you--

- You never in your life
had a thing to tell me.

- Don't tell him. Don't say a word.

Let him.

Let him run and tell Sam.

Publish in the papers.

Make a broadcast on the radio

and what does he care
if the family sits here

with tears streaming from the eyes.

What are you waiting for?

You sit around all day you and
Caruso and make a bug house.

It ain't enough all day long.

15 times I said.

I'll break every record in the house.

Every--

Next time I say something,

maybe you'll believe it.

Now, maybe you learned a lesson.

- Bessie, new lessons?

Not for an old dog.

- You didn't have to do it, Momma.

Talk to your son Mr. Berger.

Me, I don't lay down and die for him.

No Papa, no more.

Work like a nigger?

For what?

Wait, the day will come
when you'll be punished.

When it's too late,

you'll remember how you
sucked away a mother's heart.

Talk to him.

Tell him how I don't sleep at night.

- We will talk about the war in Yama Yama.

That's the place where good fellows go.

- Yes.

Momma's a sick woman, you know?

- We'll be out of the
trenches by Christmas.

Putt, putt, putt, putt, putt, putt, putt

putt, putt, putt, putt, putt, putt, putt

Come here stinker.

That a girl.
Come over here.

Ah, if there's any such
thing as reincarnation,

in the next life, I wanna be a dog

and lay in a fat lady's lap.

Barrage over?

How about a little Pinochle, Pop? No.

- [Ralph] I'll take her up.

- No, uh, I'll do it.

- Pop, it's cold out.

- I was cold before in my life.

A man's 67.

Tootsie is my favorite lady in this house.

- She cried all last night, Tootsie.

I heard her in the
kitchen like a young girl.

- Eh, I could do something, I don't know.

I got a yen.

Oh, my scalp's impoverished.

- Mom bust all his records?

She didn't have to do it.

- Tough tit.

Now I can sleep in the morning.

Who the hell wants to hear a wop air

his tonsils out all day long?

- Oh, Paradiso.

- It's snowing out, girls.

- There's no more big
snows like in the old days.

I think the whole world's changing.

I see it right under our very eyes.

No one hardly remembers
anymore when we had gas light

and all the dishes had
little fishes on them.

- It's the system, girls.

- I was a little boy when it happened,

the great blizzard.

It snowed three days
without a stop that time.

Yes, and the horse car stopped.

A silence of death was on the city

and little babies got no milk.

They say a lot of people died that year.

- Lights are blinking
while you're drinking.

Funicalo, funicalee.

- What can I say to you, big boy?

- Not a damn word.

- I know how you feel
about all these things.

I know, and your girl--

- Don't try to soft
soap me all the sudden.

I'm not foreign born.

I'm American and yet I
never got close to you.

It's an American father's
duty to be his son's friend.

- Who said that, Teddy R?

- You're breaking his heart, Litvak.

- It just happened the other day.

The moment I began losing my hair,

I just knew I was destined
to be a failure in life

and when I grew bald, I was.

Now isn't that a funny Big Boy?

- Yeah, it's a pisscutter.

- I believe in destiny.

- You got what it takes

then they don't catch
you with your pants down.

King of spades.

- I really don't know.

I sold jewelry on the
road before I married.

It's one thing to,

now here's the thing the druggist gave me.

The model cosmetic girl of
Hollywood is going on the air.

Give this charming little radio singer

a name and win $5,000.

- Your old man still
believes in Santa Claus.

- Well, someone's got to win.

The government doesn't allow
everything to be a fake.

- It's a fake.

There ain't no prizes.

It's a fake.

- It says--

- Pop! Pop!

Grow up, will you?

Forget it.

Jake's right.
Everybody's crazy.

This house is like a zoo.

- Funicalee, funicalo--

- I'm going to bed.

- Don't think life's easy with Momma.

No, but she means for your own good.

All the time.

I tell you, she's nuts.

- Maybe, but I'm going to bed.

(doorbell rings violently)

- Enemy barrage begins on sector 875.

- It's downstairs.

- We ain't expecting anyone
this hour of the night.

- Who's ringing means it.

- [Schlosser] Open up!

- It was all about the war in Yama Yama.

- What's the matter?

- What's the matter?

- Momma.

- What's the matter?

- What's the matter?

- Well?

Well?

- Papa.

- What happened?

He slipped, maybe in the snow.

- Who?

- Your father,

he fall off the roof.

- Morty, Myron, call Morty on the phone.

- Yeah.

- Call him.

No.

I'll do it myself.

I'll do it.

- Since I was in this country,

I was putting out the ash cap.

The snow was red maybe to--

- Scram.

- He slipped.

- Slipped?

- I can't see the numbers.

Make it, Moe.

Make it.

- Make it yourself.

- Riverside seven.

- Don't make me laugh.

(train honks)

- He'll come tonight, the insurance man?

- Why not?

Shtupped him a $10 bill.

Everything's hot delicatessen.

- Why must he come so soon?

- Because he had a big expense

and I would settle once and for all.

I'm a great boy for making
hay while the sun shines.

- Stay 'til he comes, Morty.

- I can't.

I got a strike downtown.

Twice already in the last week.

Those bastards threw stink
bombs in the show room.

Wait, we'll give 'em strikes

in the kishkas we'll give them.

- But I'm a woman.

I don't understand about policies.

- Bessie, sweetheart, leave me live.

I'm afraid, Morty.

- Be practical, Bessie.

They made an investigation.

Everybody knows Pop had an accident.

Now we'll collect.

- Ralphie don't know Papa left
the insurance in his name.

- It's not his business and I'll tell him.

- But he'll do something
crazy the way he feels.

He thinks Papa jumped off the roof.

- Be practical, Bessie.

Ralphie will sign when I tell him.

Everything is peaches and cream.

- Wait a few minutes.

- I'll show you in black and
white what the policy says.

For God's sake, Bessie, leave me live.

- What's the letter say?

- Blanche will see me no more she said.

I couldn't care very much, she says

if I didn't come like I said.

She'll phone before she leaves.

- [Moe] She don't know about Pop?

- She'll never forget me she says.

Look what she sends me.

A little locket on a chain, huh?

If she calls, I'm out.

- You mean it?

- All week, I've been
trying to go in that room.

I know he'd like me to have it.

But I can't.

- Wait a minute.

Trying to rook you.

A freeze-out.

- Who?

- That bunch stuffing their
gut with hot pastrami.

Morty in particular.

Jake left the insurance,
3,000 bucks for you.

- For me?

- Aye.
You got wings, kid.

Pop figured you could use it.

That's why--

- That's why what?

Well, it ain't the only reason he done it.

- He done it?

- What do you think?

A breeze blew him off the roof?

- No.
I'm not sure what I think.

- The insurance guy's coming tonight.

Morty shtupped him.

- Oh, yeah?

- Wait a minute.

I'll back you up.

You grab a sleep for yourself.

You're dead on your feet.

Come on.

- No.

Come on.

- Morty wants the paper.

- So?

- You're sitting on it.

We could go home now, Hennie.

Leon's alone by Mrs
Strasberg's a whole day.

- Go home if you're so anxious.

A full tub of diapers is waiting.

- Why should you act this way?

- Cause there's no bones in ice cream.

Don't touch me.

- Please, what's the matter?

- She don't like you.

It's as plain as the face on your nose.

- To me, my friend, you
talk a foreign language.

- A quarter, you're lousy.

Give me a dollar.

I'll run it up to 10.

- Don't do me any favors.

- Take a chance.

- I'm a pushover.

- Ah, right.
I say lots of things.

You don't know me.

- I know you.

When you knock them down you're through.

- You still don't know me.

- I know what goes in your wise guy head.

Now wait a minute.

Don't run away, will you.

I ain't got no hydrophobia.

Wait a minute.

I wanna tell you something,
I'm leaving.

- Leaving?

Yeah.
Tonight. I'm already packed.

- My car goes through
snow like a dose of salts.

Where's Ralphie?

- [Moe] In his new room.

- Hennie, go eat.

- I didn't have a piece of hot pastrami

in my mouth for years.

- Take a sandwich, Hennie.

You didn't eat all day.

A whole week, it rained cats and dogs.

- Rain, rain, go away.

Come again some other day.

- Where's my gloves?

- I'm sorry the old man lays in the rain.

- Uh, personally, Pop was a fine man

but I'm a great boy for an honest opinion.

He had enough crazy ideas for a regimen.

- Papa never had a
doctor in his whole life.

- He had Caruso.

Who's got more from life?

- Who's got more?

- Marx he had.

- Marx.

Some say Marx is the new God.

Maybe I'm wrong.

Personally, I counted my
10 million last night.

I came up 16 cents short.

So today I'll go to Union Square

and yell there's no equality.

Ah, it's a new generation.

- You said it.

- What's the matter, Ralphie?

You look funny.

- I hear I'm left the insurance
and the man is coming?

- Papa didn't leave no insurance for you.

- What?

In your name, but not for you.

- Is my name on the paper?

- Who said so?

- The insurance man coming tonight?

- What's the matter?

- I'm not talking to you.

Why?

- I don't know why.

- He don't come in this house tonight.

- That's what you say.

- I'm not talking to you, Uncle Morty,

but I'll tell you too.

He don't come in this house tonight

while there's still mud on the grave.

Why couldn't you give the house
a chance to cool off first?

- Is this a way to talk to your mother?

- Was that a way to talk to your father?

Don't be so smart with
me, Mr Ralph Berger.

- Don't be so smart with me.

I say he's coming. Who says no?

- Me.

- Go ahead, take a backseat Axelrod.

When you're in the family, you can talk.

- I got a little document here.

I found it under his pillow that night.

A man who slips off a roof don't leave

a note before he does it.

- Let me see this note?

Not if you crawled.

- [Bessie] Don't touch it Morty

- That's a fake, Papa
wouldn't leave a note.

- Get the insurance guy here.

We'll see what kind of fake it is.

Speak of the devil.

Well go ahead, answer it.

Go ahead.

We'll see what happens.

- Morty, don't.

- Be quiet, Bessie.

- Sometimes you don't collect on suicides

if they know about it.

You should let,

you should let him.

- Well, we're waiting.

- Give me this note.

- I'll give you the
head off your shoulders.

- Bessie, you'll stand for this?

Take down his pants and
get him with a strap.

- How 'bout it?

- Don't be crazy.

It ain't my fault.

Morty said he should come tonight.

It's not nice so soon.

- I said it?

Me?

- Who then?

- You didn't sing a song
in my ear a whole week,

we should settle quick?

- I'm surprised.

Morty, you're a big liar.

- Momma's telling the truth, she is.

- In two shakes of a lamb's tail,

there's gonna be a real fight

and then nobody won't talk to nobody.

Where's my fur gloves?

I'm going downtown.

You coming?
I'll drive you.

- Don't look at me.
Go if you want.

- If you're coming soon, I'll wait.

Don't do me any favors.

Night and day pestering me.

- You made a cushion.
Sleep.

- I'll go home.

I know.

To my worst enemy I
wouldn't wish such a life.

- Sam, be quiet.

- No more free speech in America?

I'm a lonely man.

Nobody likes me.

- I like you Sam.

- Sam, go home.

I'll stay here.

I'm tired and I, I'm nervous.

I'll, I'll come home tomorrow.

I love you.

I mean it.

I would die for you.

- A bird in your hand is
worth two in the bush.

Remember, I said it.

Good night.

- Yesterday,

a man wanted to sell me a
saxophone with pearl buttons

but I--

- It's a beautiful picture.

In this land,
nobody works, nobody worries.

Come to bed, Myron.

Please don't be foolish about the money.

- Let's call it a day.

- It belongs to the whole family.

You'll get your teeth fixed.

- And a pair of black and white shoes?

- Hennie needs a vacation.

She'll go to the mountains for two weeks

and I'll mind the baby.

- Look, I'll take care of my own affairs.

- A family needs for a rainy day.

Time's is getting worse.

Prospect Avenue, Dawson, Beck Street.

Every day the furniture's on the sidewalk.

- Ah, forget it mom.

- Ralphie,

I worked too hard all these
years to be treated like dirt.

There's no law

we should be stuck together
like Siamese twins.

Summer shoes you didn't have.

Skates you never had but I
bought a new dress every week.

A lover I kept was the gigolo.

Did they ever play a game
of cards like Mrs. Marcus?

It was Bessie Berger's children

are the cleanest on the block.

Here, I'm not only the
mother but also the father.

First two years, I worked in

a stocking factory for $6 a week

while Myron Berger went to law school.

If I didn't worry about
the family, who would?

In the calender, it's a
different place but here,

without a dollar you don't
look the world in the eye.

So talk from not till next year.

This is life in America.

- Then it's wrong.

It don't make sense.

If life made you this
way, then it's wrong.

So maybe you want me to
give up 20 years ago?

And where would you be now?

You'll excuse the expression,
a bum in the park.

- Mom, I'm not blaming you.

Sink or swim, I see it.

But it can't stay like this.

- Foolish boy.

- No, I, I see every house
lousy with lies and hate.

He said it, Grandpa.

Brooklyn hates the Bronx.

Smacked on the nose twice a day.

Boys and girls can't get
ahead like that, mom.

We don't want life
printed on dollar bills.

- So go out and change the
world if you don't like it.

I will.

And why?

'Cause life's different in my head.

I'm strong.

Give me the world with two hands.

(aircraft engine fades)

There.

You hear him?

That's the Boston air mail.

Day or night, he flies away.

A job to do.

That's us and it's no time to die.

- [Myron] Momma.

- Mom, what does she know?

She's old fashioned.

But I'll tell you a big secret.

My whole life, I wanted to go away too.

For the children, a woman stays home.

A fire burned in my heart too

but now it's too late.

I'm no spring chicken.

The clock goes, Bessie goes.

(alarm rings)

Only my machinery can't be fixed.

Good night.

- I guess I'm no prize, then.

- Come to bed, Myron.

- Oh.

- [Ralph] Dragging after
her like an old shoe.

- Punch drunk.

That's for me.

Huh?
Oh, hold on a second.

Your girl.

- Geez.

I don't know what to say to her.

- Hang up?

- Hello? Blanche?

Yeah, I wish.

I don't know what to say to you.

Hello? Hello?

She hung up on me.

- Sorry?

- No.

No girl means anything to me until I--

- [Moe] Till when?

- Until I can take care of her.

Until we don't have to
work out of an air shaft.

Until we can take the world in both hands

and polish off the dirt.

- That's a big order.

- Once upon a time, I,

I thought I'd drown to death
in bolts of silk and velor

but I grew up these past few weeks.

Jake said a lot.

- [Moe] Your memory's okay?

- Take a look at this.

His books.

I got 'em too.

The pages ain't cut in half of 'em yet.

- Perfect.

- Does it prove something?

Damn tooting it does.

A 10 cent nail file cuts 'em.

Up town, downtown.

I'll read 'em on the way.

Get a big lamp over the bed.

My eyes are good.

Oh sure, sure inventory tomorrow.

Colletti to Driscoll to Burger.

That's how we work.

It's a team down in the warehouse.

Driscoll's a, a showoff.

A wise guy and, uh, Joe talks
to pigeons day and night

but they're like me.

They're looking for a chance
to get to first base too.

Joe asked me about my girl.

He don't know why but
I'm gonna tell him why.

Hell, he might even tell
me something I don't know.

But get teams together all over,

spit in your hands and get to work.

Maybe with enough teams
down in the warehouse,

we'll get it so we get steam

so our fingers don't freeze off.

Maybe we'll fix it so life won't
be printed on dollar bills.

- Graduation day.

- Can I have Grandpa's note?

- You sure you want it?

- Please.

- It's blank.

- That's right.

- Thanks.

- Your kid brother's a fighter.

What are you crying about?

- I never cried in my life.

- You told Sam you love him.

- If I'm sore in life

Why take it out on him?

- You won't forget me.

I was the first guy part of your insides.

You won't forget me until your dying day.

I wrote my name on you in delible ink.

- One thing I won't forget how you left

me crying on the bed like
I was two for a cent.

- Why, do you think it was easy for me?

- Sure, wait till the family
goes to the open air movie.

He brings me perfume,

he grabs my arms.

- You won't forget me.

- How you left the next week?

So I made a mistake.

Don't act like the Queen of Romania.

- Don't make me laugh.

- What the hell do you want?

My head on a plate?

Is my life so happy?

Cripes, my old man was a bum.

I had to support the whole damn family.

Five kids and a mom.

They grew up, they beat it
the hell away like rabbits.

Mom died, I went to the war,

got clapped down like a bed bug,

woke up in a room without a leg.

But what the hell do you think

anybody's got it better than you?

I never had a home either.

I'm looking too.

- So what?

- So you're it.

You're home for me.
A place to live.

That's the whole parade.

Sickness eating out your heart sometimes,

you need a girl, she stops it.

That's love.

So take a chance.

Be with me, Paradise.

What's to lose?

- My pride.

- What the hell do you want?

Say the word and I'll tango on a dime.

Don't give me that face
when your heart's on fire.

- Let me go, Moe.

Where?

- Oh what do you want?

- You.

- You'll be sorry you ever started.

- You.

- Oh, let me go.

I'm getting up early.
Let me go.

- No, I've got enough bad steam in

me to blow the town apart.

All right,

you wanna go back to him,

say the word and I'll know what to do.

- I, I don't know what to say.

- Listen to me.

Come away a certain place
where it's moonlight and roses.

Lay down, count stars,

hear the big ocean making noise.

You lay down under the trees.

Champagne flows.

Yeah?

Just a minute.

- Who is it?

- Sam.

- I'm sleeping.

- She's sleeping.

Okay.

Wants you to know he got home okay.

What's on your mind?

- Nothing.

- Sam? They say it's a
palace on those Havana boats.

What's on your mind?

- Moe, I don't care for Sam.

I never loved him.

- [Moe] But your kid?

- All my life, I waited for this minute.

- Me too.

Made believe I was just
talking bedroom golf

but me and you forever was what I meant.

There's just one life to live.

Live it.

- Leave the baby?

- Yeah.

- I can't.

- You can.

- No.

- But you don't know.

You're not sure.

I, I don't know.

- Make a break or spend the
rest of your life in a coffin.

- God, I don't know where I stand.

Paradise, listen.

You're on a big boat headed south.

No more pins and needles in your heart.

No snake juice squirted in your arm.

The whole world's green grass

and when you cry, it's
because you're happy.

- I don't know.

Well nobody knows but you
do it and take a chance.

When you're scared, the answer is zero.

- [Hennie] You're hurting my arm.

The doctor said it.

Cut off your leg to save
your life and they done it.

One thing to get another.

- I didn't hear a word but do it Hennie.

Do it.

- Sure. Mom can mind the kid.

- She'll go on forever, Mom.

We'll send money back and Easter eggs.

- I'll be here.

- Get your coat and hat.

- Moe.

- I know but get your coat and hat

and kiss the house goodbye.

- The man I love.

- I left my coat in mom's room.

- Don't wake her up, Beauty.

Momma fell asleep as soon
as her head hit the pillow.

I can't sleep.

Oh, it was a long day.

I was reading the other day,

a person with a thick
tongue is feeble minded.

I can do anything with my tongue.

Make it thick, flat.

No fruit in the house
lately, just a lone apple.

Must be something wrong with me.

I say I won't eat, but I eat.

Where you going Little Red Riding Hood.

- Nobody knows, Peter Rabbit.

You're looking very pretty tonight.

You were a beautiful baby, too.

1910.

That was the year you was born.

The same year Teddy Roosevelt
came back from Africa.

- Gee, Pop.

You're such a funny guy.

- He was a boisterous man, Teddy.

Good night.

- I look at him, I'm sad.

Let me die like a dog if I
can't get more from life.

- Where?

- Right here, in the house.

My days won't be nothing.

Let mom have the dough.

I'm 22 and kicking.
I'll get along.

Did Jake die for us to fight over nickels?

Awake and sing he said.

Right here, he stood and said it.

The night he died, I saw
it like a thunderbolt.

I saw that he was dead and I was born.

I swear to God, I'm one week old.

I want the whole city to hear it.

Fresh blood, arms. We got 'em
and we're glad we're living.

- I wouldn't trade you for two
pitchers and an outfielder.

Hold the fort.

- So long.
- So long.

(slow music)