Anna Christie Page #7

- Do you hear what I'm telling you?|- No, stay here, Anna!

You can go to blazes, both of you.

You'd think I was a piece of furniture.|I'll show you. Sit down.

Sit down, do you hear?|Let me talk for a minute.

You're all wrong, see?

I'm gonna tell you two something,|and then I'm gonna beat it.

I've been meaning|to turn it loose on you...

...every time you get my goat|with your crazy talk...

...about wanting to keep me safe inland.

I wasn't going to tell you,|but you've forced me into it.

Oh, what's the use?

It's all wrong anyway. You might as well|get cured this way as any other.

Don't forget what you said about it not|mattering to you what reason I got...

...as long as I wasn't married already.

That's me word, and I'll stick to it.

You make me laugh, honest.|Wanna bet you will?

You wait and see.

You was going on as if|one of you had to own me.

But nobody owns me, see,|excepting myself.

I'll do what I please. And no man,|I don't give a darn who he is...

...can tell me what to do.|I ain't asking either of you for a living.

I'll make it myself, one way or another.

I am my own boss. Now, put that|in your pipe and smoke it.

- You and your orders.|- I wasn't meaning it that way at all...

...and well you know it.

You've no call|to raise this rumpus with me.

- It is him, you've a right.|- I'm coming to him.

But you, you did mean it that way.

You sounded just like all the rest.

It is queer, rough talk, that,|for a decent girl the like of yourself.

Decent. Who told you I was?

I'm talking to you now.

I don't want to hear.|You go out your head, I think.

Well, living with you is enough|to drive anyone off their nut.

Your bunk about the farm being so fine.

Didn't I write you, year after year,|how rotten it was...

...and what a dirty slave|them cousins made out of me?

What did you care? Nothing. Not even|enough to come out and see me.

Your crazy stuff about wanting|to keep me away from the sea...

...don't go down with me.

You just didn't want|to be bothered with me.

- Oh, that ain't so, Anna.|- But one thing I never wrote you...

...it was one of them cousins|that you think is such nice people...

...that started me wrong.

And it was none of my fault.|I hated him and he knew it.

But he was big and strong, like you.

That's why I ran away from the farm.

That's what made me get a job|as a nurse girl in St. Paul.

You think that was a nice job|for a girl, too, don't you?

With all them nice inland fellas|just looking for a chance to marry me.

They weren't looking for marrying.

You don't say nothing.

Either one of you.|But I know what you're thinking.

You're just like all the rest.

And who's to blame for it? Me or you?

If you'd been a regular father|and had me with you...

...things would've been different.|- Don't talk that way.

- I go crazy. I won't listen to you.|- You will listen.

You, keeping me safe inland.|I was no nurse girl the last two years.

I lied when I wrote you.|I was in a house, that's what.

Yes, that kind of a house.

The kind that sailors like Matt and you|go to in port...

...and your nice inland men too.

And all men.

I hate them, I hate them...

- Oh, it's a lie, Anna, it's a lie...|- So...

...that's what's in it.

I suppose you remember your promise.

No other reason was to count with you|as long as I wasn't married already.

You want me to get dressed|and go ashore, don't you?

Oh, yes, you do.

I suppose if I tried to tell you|that I wasn't that no more...

...you'd believe me, wouldn't you?

And if I told you that just getting out|on this barge and being on the sea...

...had changed me and made me|feel different about things...

...as if all that I've been through|wasn't me, didn't count...

...it was just like it never happened...

...you'd laugh, wouldn't you?

And you'd die laughing,|I'm sure, if I told you...

...that meeting you that funny way|that night in the fog...

...and afterwards, seeing that you were|straight good stuck on me...

...had got me to thinking|for the first time in my life.

And I sized you up as different from|the ones on land, as water is from mud.

I couldn't marry you|with you believing a lie.

And I was ashamed to tell you the truth.

And now, give me|a bawling-out and beat it...

...like I can tell you're going to.

Will you believe it...

...if I tell you that loving you|has made me clean?

It's straight goods, honest.

Oh, yes, you will.|You're just like all the rest.

The rest, is it?

My curse on you. Clean, is it?

Oh, don't, Matt. Get out of here.|Let me alone. Get out of here!

I'll be going. And I'll be|drinking slews of whiskey...

...so to wash that|black kiss of yours off me lips!

And I'd be getting dead, rotten drunk|so I'll not remember you at all!

I'll ship away on a boat to the end of the|world, where I'll never see your face again!

- Oh, don't go. It's better Anna marry you...|- Let go of me, you old ape!

Marry her, is it?|I'd see her dead at me feet first.

I'm shipping away out of this,|I'm telling you.

My curse on you,|and the curse of all the saints.

- I go ashore too.|- Not after him, I tell you.

Don't you dare.

Oh, I go for get drink.

I'm driving you to drink too, huh?

You wanna get drunk|so you can forget, like him.

Aye. You think I like hear|them things? Oh, Anna.

Anna, I think you wasn't that kind of girl.

You want me to beat it, don't you?

You don't want me here|disgracing you, I suppose.

Oh, no, no, Anna. You stay here.|It ain't your fault, I know that.

It's that old devil do this to me.

It was all right on barge,|with just you and me.

Then she bring that Irish fellow in fog.

That fella, he don't|never come, you don't...

...never tell me them things.

I don't never know.

Then everything is all right.

Oh, that dirty devil sea.

Oh, what's the use?

Go ashore and get drunk.

You wait here, Anna?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Maybe I'll get drunk too. Maybe I'll...

0h, what do you care what I do?|Go on and beat it.

It's foggy outside.

Oh, God.

- What's the trouble? Feeling sick?|- Inside my head feels sick.

Oh, Anna, you think maybe sometime|you forgive me, Anna?

- I'll forgive you right now.|- Oh, Anna lilla.

Oh, don't bawl about it.|There ain't nothing to forgive anyway.

It ain't your fault, it ain't mine.|It ain't his, neither.

I fix everything all right|for you and me, Anna.

Yes?

Then you and me will stick together?

We'll work for each other|and help each other, huh?

- What is it you fixed?|- Well, I sign on steamer Londonderry.

Sail for Cape Town tomorrow.

Oh, Anna, I only bring you bad luck.

That's how you fix me, is it?

Well, I think that old devil get me back...

...maybe she leave you alone, then.

Oh, can't you see that you're doing|the same thing that you've always done?

Can't you see that?

Oh, what's the use of talking?

You ain't right.|I'll never blame you anymore.

Oh, Anna.

You forgive me, sure?

Surely I do. You ain't to blame.

You're just what you are, like me.

And you, you let me|kiss you once again, eh?

Rate this script:1.3 / 3 votes