Clash by Night Page #7

I could get good money for her.

Yes, you could.

Sure, why not?

Sell her, go away.

Mae, Mae, I love you.

Don't you understand I love you?

Jerry, let go of me. You're hurting me.

- Hey, you're my wife.

- I don't want to make you any unhappier.

- Please give me that much credit.

- I want my wife in my arms.

I don't love you anymore, I can't.

Will you try to understand?

I don't want to understand!

I got as much right...

...to make love to my wife

as any man alive.

Jerry, let go of me or I'll smash your face

with the first thing I can lay my hands on.

You're no good.

You're rotten.

I know, Jerry.

I know.

I'm leaving tomorrow.

And the baby, where does the baby go?

- With me.

- You think Gloria belongs to Earl too?

She's my baby, Mae.

Don't forget that.

- Don't forget it, she's my baby.

- Certainly...

My baby, mine!

Now, go to your lover! Get out!

He's waiting for you, go on.

Get out, get out!

Get out. Get out.

Well, the house smells all steamed up.

- Did you have a fight with her?

- She don't love me.

Jerry, that's a lot of liverwurst,

that love business.

Make her see the light of day.

Use the whip.

Had a bad toothache all day.

She'll go away. With Earl.

The whip. Have one, nephew.

Oh, if I only had your strength,

your arms, your muscles, your hands.

Don't the world belong to the strong,

to them what can protect themselves?

I ain't half the size,

and I wouldn't take it.

With my own hands, like that:

Oh, he'd struggle,

but no mercy. No, no.

Toss him away,

let the rats nibble on him.

You only say that.

Jerry, your uncle's not a man

who only says it.

That heartless man connives,

that blowhard Pfeiffer.

And the innocent pays

the good of heart.

Run yourself down with remorse. Can't

sleep, can't bite your food. What's this?

Why don't God stop them? Why don't he?

That's my point.

That's just my point, Jerry boy.

He wants you to stop them.

- How?

- Two bawdy thieves stealing your happiness.

Toss you away like a banana skin.

Leave you all alone...

...with a disagreeable, squalling infant.

No, they wanna take her away from me.

That's what I say.

No respect for a father's feelings.

Take your beautiful, lovely child away...

...like that?

And laughing at you.

All the time, laughing at you.

Yeah, laughing.

Shove the vinegar sponge

in your mouth and laughing.

In the house,

sipping coffee you give him.

Coming in the house like

a true friend and laughing.

- Laughing.

- Yeah, laughing.

- At me.

- Yeah, at you.

- At me.

- Yeah, that's right.

- I can't stand it. I can't stand it!

- Batter his brains out. Batter his brains out.

Batter his brains out.

Batter his brains out.

You went away.

Why didn't you stay away?

- Why'd you marry Jerry?

- Don't you ever make a mistake?

Jerry wasn't smart enough.

He wasn't enough of a man.

How much of a woman

do you think you are?

Why discuss that now?

It's too late.

- You don't have the right to judge her.

- Don't I?

You're thinking like her.

That little head's starting to buzz too.

- Don't talk to me like that.

- The world, it ain't big enough.

Your life, it ain't interesting enough.

That's the way she thinks.

- We're two different people.

- Different is right.

Thanks for everything, Peggy.

Mae, where are you going?

To Earl. I'll write you where

to send the rest of my things.

Maybe you'd like to go with her?

- Maybe.

- That ring on your finger.

What did you put it there for,

a decoration?

She has the right to do what

she wants, she's in love.

In love.

Listen to me, blondie.

The woman I marry, she don't

take me on a wait-and-see basis.

I ain't a dress she's brought home from the

store to see if it fits and if not, back it goes.

In my book, marriage

is a two-way proposition.

You're just as much

responsible as I am.

So if that little eye is gonna roam...

If what you think is, "Joe's all right until

something better comes along"...

...honey, you'd

better take another streetcar.

Now, what's it gonna be?

Mae?

What are you doing here?

I wanna talk to you.

This is no place to talk to me.

All night, I've been thinking...

...you'll go away...

...live in another town. You, Mae, Gloria.

I won't have nothing.

- Stay where you are.

- I won't have nothing left, nothing.

- That ain't right, is it?

- Now, you listen to me.

You always thought I was dumb.

You could tell me anything,

and I'd believe it.

- I'm not listening.

- I love Mae, Mae loves me...

...and you can't change it. No law can.

- Get out of here.

- You used to imitate Chinese, Earl.

Let me see your Chinese imitation.

Imitate Chinese, Earl.

- Imitate Chinese.

- Jerry.

Jerry, stop it!

Jerry. Stop, you're killing him!

Jerry, stop it!

You wait in the car.

Jerry.

Jerry?

Jerry!

Where's Jerry? Where's Gloria?

Jerry, he come home.

Is his baby, Gloria.

He take her.

What are you talking about?

Where did he take her?

He take her away.

He come home, Jerry.

Never I see him look like that.

What did he say?

"I almost kill somebody," he says.

Never in his life

he hurt somebody, my Jerry.

Is not your house anymore.

Is not your baby.

Earl. Earl.

- What's the matter?

- He took her.

- What?

- He took Gloria.

- Where?

- I don't know.

It's all your fault. You are no good.

Okay, pop, cut the Latin.

Where'd he take the kid?

Someplace, who knows?

Maybe on the boat.

- Where are you going?

- The boat.

Come here.

What good will going to the boat do?

There's nothing to worry about.

He's not gonna knock himself off

or hurt Gloria.

What am I going to do, Earl?

Don't you see, Mae? It's a club.

First he tries strangling me,

and then he takes the kid.

That's just to scare you.

You know he thinks more of that kid

than his own right arm.

That kid?

She's my child too.

Honey, I know what Gloria means to you.

The world wrapped up

in a cotton blanket.

I can't leave her.

You won't leave her.

Just give Jerry time to cool off.

He'll let you have her.

What's he gonna do with a baby?

And if he doesn't, we'll go to court.

You're the mother.

Am I?

What is it, do you feel guilty?

That's the way they want you to feel.

- They?

- The world.

All the people who haven't got guts enough

to do what they wanna do.

Listen, Mae...

...you walk out of this house now,

and we're free.

Just the two of us?

Just the two of us.

All my life I've walked away from things.

Then what's stopping you now?

Responsibility?

I'll spell it for you.

T-R-A-P.

You don't want the baby with us,

do you, Earl? Not really.

I didn't say that.

The baby would be a burden,

wouldn't it? A drag.

All I said was go away

for a while without her.

Listen, Mae, don't make

no mistake about kids.

They grow up. They have their own lives

to lead. They'll walk out on you.

Don't we owe a child some happiness?

It isn't a question of the kid's happiness.

It's a question of yours.

- And Jerry's.

- I told you somebody's throat has to be cut.

But it's never ours, is it, Earl?

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