House Of Strangers Page #2

No money?

Then why you fight?

- It's sport, Pa.

- You fight too?

- I'm his manager.

- Is also a sport, huh?

Ah, go to work.

Two sports I got.

- Here.

- But this is too much.

Well, so I make a mistake.

- Oh, grazie. Grazie.

- Oh, no, no, no.

Pa, will you

come here a minute?

I wanna show you something.

You gotta make Max

get an office somewhere else.

Look at those characters hanging around.

They're getting worse and worse all the time.

- They give the bank a black eye.

- Max bring good business.

Bail bonds for criminals.

After all, we're running a bank, Pa.

What do you mean we?

I am the bank.

Go on, go back to your cage.

Momento.

No free ink here.

You wanna fill the fountain pen,

you go to post office.

Post office.

- Oh, uh, Pietro.

- Yeah, Pa.

- Go see what the lady wants.

- Yeah, Pa.

- Yes, ma'am.

- Where will I find Mr. Monetti?

We got lots of Monettis here.

My father, my brother Joe-

Which one is the attorney?

Oh, the lawyer. Max.

Thank you.

That son of a gun.

Come on.

Come on in.

Yes, go ahead. You told me that.

Did he have a gun?

That's bad. Any witnesses?

Very bad.

Has he got any money?

Good. Yeah.

Doors are made to knock on.

I haven't got time.

Whoever it is, say you'll call them back.

Moe, I'll call you back.

- Where do your clients sit?

- They don't. Period.

- My name is Irene Bennett.

- What's your story?

You were recommended to me

by the firm of Hanford, Sloan and Elliott.

Oh, that's a very high-class firm.

I used to work for them.

They don't recommend

many clients to me, unless-

- Unless what?

- Unless they're low class.

A friend of mine

is in trouble with the police.

- What did he do?

- What makes you say "he"?

You don't look like you go to all this trouble

for a woman, so what did he do?

Oh, a lot of things-

bad checks...

took some jewelry.

sold someone else's car.

- What's he to you?

- I said he was a friend.

- Hmm. This car and jewelry

are yours, weren't they?

- Yes.

So all you gotta worry about

are the bad checks.

- Why don't you make them good?

- It's too late.

- They were turned over

to the district attorney.

- What do you want me to do?

I'll give you my check to cover them

and your fee. That should clean things up.

Money is a great cleanser.

- Mm, expensive.

- He was worth it.

Maybe to you, but not to me.

- What's wrong?

- I'm a lawyer, not a garbageman.

You think you can skip

through life with a checkbook,

opens and closes all the doors.

I'm not that hard up.

Take your business someplace else. Period.

- That was a pretty insulting little speech.

- That's what I had in mind.

But it didn't take. You can't insult women.

You're not the type.

- No?

- No. From you they love it.

Nothing touches you.

Everything bounces off that chromium finish.

The chromium's wearing thin.

Look, I'm tired and I'm bored with this mess.

Will you take my case?

- After what I said?

- Especially after what you said.

- Say please.

- I'll pay my way, thanks.

- Say please.

- Please.

All right.

I'll take your case,

Miss, uh-

Bennett.

I'm not very good

at remembering names.

You'll remember my name.

- You busy?

- Come on in.

Smell the air in here.

- Perfume.

- They sell it a drop at a time.

You gotta have

a doctor's prescription.

Like chloroform,

it gets in your brain.

- Who was it?

- A dame.

- How's things at home? How's Elaine?

- Okay.

What's on your mind?

You remember Pa promised

to raise my salary after I was married.

- Well, hasn't he done it?

- No.

Elaine's getting pretty sore.

She says she thought she married a banker.

Some banker.

How can I entertain

on $65 a week?

- You married her.

Do you have to entertain her?

- Her friends.

After all, she comes from

a fine Philadelphia family. Very social.

Take her downtown, buy her a new dress.

Charge it to me.

No, no, that won't do any good.

Elaine's proud.

First time she came into the bank...

and saw me behind the cage

like a common clerk, she almost cried.

- She's sensitive.

- You mean, she's impatient.

Slow her down, Joe.

You're gonna take over someday.

The bank's gonna be yours.

Who else? All you gotta do is wait.

It's the way he treats me now

in front of everybody.

"Go back to your cage. "Shut up."

"Drive me home." Do this, do that.

How do you think I feel, Max.

He don't talk to you like that.

- Nobody talks to me like that.

- I'm the oldest, and I'm a married man.

- He don't have to treat me

like a servant.

- All right. I'll talk to him.

- Tell him to talk to me like he talks to you.

- Okay. What else?

Thanks.

Hello. Yes, Elliott.

Okay, go.

Okay, don't go.

Sure I like you.

I'm talking to you.

No, not tonight, it's Wednesday.

My mother cooks supper

on Wednesday. I eat at home.

I'll buy you a drink.

Five minutes, one drink. Period.

Gino Monetti.

Who? Silvio?

Uh, look, Silvio,

you gotta talk more loud.

Oh, it's a phonograph.

Well, I like it loud.

Now, uh, look, Silvio, if you want I hear,

you gotta speak more strong.

That's better.

How much I give?

Who give the most?

Domenico, huh?

Well, how much he give?

Well, I give 5,000 more than him.

Yeah, and my name goes on top.

Oh, yeah, okay, okay.

You come to the bank tomorrow.

- Doesn't he ever turn that phonograph off?

- He likes it.

- How much longer do we have to wait?

- Till Max gets here.

Max, Max. Why aren't we ever late?

Why doesn't he ever wait for you?

- What do you want me to do, start a fight?

- Yes.

Uh, Pa, do we have to

wait for Max?

Well, what's your hurry?

We're expecting

after-dinner guests at our place.

Why don't you bring them here?

We got plenty to eat. Lots of room.

- My friends don't happen to like spaghetti.

- No?

- I'm getting a little tired of it myself.

- Me too.

Make you feel bad,

your stomach, huh?

- Make you feel sick, huh?

- Frankly, yes.

- You too?

- Yes, Pa.

Well, you come here

every Wednesday.

You eat your mama's spaghetti,

you get sick...

or you go find job

in some other bank.

Hey, Pietro!

You wait for Max.

Spit out the bread.

Some wine, Maria?

Please, Antonio.

Hey, Pa, can I give

Maria some wine?

Maria? Anything.

Maria can have

anything she wants.

I don't like a man coming late for supper

before he's married.

Max is busy, Mama.

Pietro, change the record, dumbhead.

Sorry I'm late, everybody.

Pa. Mama Domanico...

you're looking bigger and better every day.

- Maria. Carissima, Maria.

- Max.

Maria!

We're engaged, aren't we?

- Maria!

- Oh, Helena. It's fun to get kissed.

- You don't remember?

- Not till after you're married.

Oh, then it's no more fun.

Oh, Max, did you-

What we talked about this morning?

Forgot. We'll get it

over with right now.

- No, no, not here.

- Why not? We're all family.

Pa, how about giving Joe a raise?

The bank's doing good.

He works hard.

Oh, you want a raise?

Well, we don't have to talk about it now, Pa.

We'll talk about it tomorrow.

No, Max is quite right. We might as well

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