Manhattan Melodrama Page #8

Not a thing.

Edward J. Gallagher,

the judgment of the court is that you,

Edward J. Gallagher, for the murder

in the first degree of one Richard Snow,

whereof you are convicted to be sentenced

to the punishment of death,

and it is ordered that you be delivered

to the warden of the Sing Sing prison

at Ossining, New York,

where, during the week beginning

Monday, February the 15th next,

the said warden is commanded

to do execution upon you.

Wait a minute, lady, that's not allowed.

Let me talk to him, please. Blackie.

Hello, boss.

Be a sport, leave a pal talk to him,

will you?

- So long.

So long, boss.

I do solemnly swear that I will support

the constitution of the United States.

And the constitution

of the State of New York.

And I do further solemnly swear

that I will permit no concern

other than the good of the state

to influence me in the exact performance

of those duties

which herewith I undertake.

I was getting to like that cell.

Why do I have to move to another one

for just 12 hours?

You ought to be happy, Blackie.

Them 12 hours

is all you got left to move in.

Cheerful little fellow, isn't he?

Does he crack jokes like that all the time?

So long, Blackie.

So long, boy.

So long, Blackie.

Goodbye, black boy,

don't take no wooden pork chops.

No, sir.

You better take these with you.

Give you something to do

in these next 12 hours.

Down there in that dance-hall cell,

all by yourself.

You can't miss with them

any way you shoots them.

Thanks.

So long, Blackie.

So long, kid.

Shorty. Hey, Shorty, music.

Keep your chin up

and your nose clean, kid.

Forget about that commutation.

You don't want it anyway.

Die the way you lived, all of a sudden.

That's the way to go.

Don't drag it out.

Living like that doesn't mean a thing.

So long, Blackie.

- So long, big boy.

- Hello, Blackie.

- Hiya, Warden.

Anything I can do?

You can order whatever you want to eat,

you know.

Yes, so I read in the papers. No, thanks.

How about a drink?

Well, I'm not supposed to give you a drink.

They got laws in the death house, too?

- But if it will help, I'll bring you one.

- Thanks.

Yeah, look, there is something

you can do for me.

Call up Hattie Carnegie and tell her

to send over a black lace nightgown

to Toots Malone, Mammoth Hotel.

She's been wanting one.

Kind of a going away present. You know.

I ask you to commute Blackie Gallagher's

sentence to life imprisonment.

First, because no really sufficient motive

has ever been discovered for this crime,

and secondly,

because you yourself were elected

to your present high office mainly

through the public acclaim you received

through the conviction of your own friend.

Certainly, more than any other governor

in the history of this state, you,

Your Excellency,

can afford in this case to be merciful.

No one can be more conscious

than I am of my present position here.

It has troubled me more deeply

than it could anyone else.

The men and women

of this state elected me

partly because I was instrumental

in the sentencing

of Blackie Gallagher to the electric chair.

Those men and women

have a right to expect

that I will not be corrupted

by money, influence,

or even by my own personal feelings.

The defendant has been tried

according to the laws of this state.

He has been found guilty

and sentenced to death.

This decision has been upheld

by the Court of Appeals.

You have presented no new evidence,

no cause to change

the verdict of the court.

The application for commutation of

the death sentence of Edward J. Gallagher

for the crime of murder in the first degree

is herewith denied.

Hello, dear.

What are you going to do about Blackie?

Nothing, there's nothing I can do.

You can save his life.

He's guilty. The jury says so.

Please stop talking like the governor

of a great state.

Talk to me as my husband,

as the man I love,

about another man we both love.

Jim, are you going to kill Blackie?

Can you kill him?

You couldn't do that to Blackie.

Not Blackie.

I can't commute his sentence

because of our feeling for him,

the fact that we both love him,

the fact that I'll never understand

why he killed Snow,

if he did.

Suppose I told you why he killed Snow.

Suppose I told you he did it for you,

would that mean anything to you?

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

I met him at the Belmont races.

I told him Snow had threatened you,

and I asked him to help us.

Blackie didn't care anything about

laws or verdicts or right or wrong.

You were in trouble,

and that was all that mattered to him.

He wouldn't even let me tell you.

He thought that if you knew,

you'd ruin your own chances

of being elected.

Do you realize what this means?

It means

that if it weren't for Blackie Gallagher,

you wouldn't be governor today.

It means that the state

has finally found a motive

for the killing of Snow.

There isn't a chance now.

I can't convince myself that anyone,

least of all you, could be so hard and cold.

Anyone who's loved me,

who's been so tender...

Darling, please.

I tried to stop Blackie. I told him.

I warned him at the time

of the Manny Arnold case.

You must realize I have my sworn duty.

Sworn duty?

Could you put yourself in Blackie's place?

Could you apply all your fine

and honorable rules to yourself,

punish yourself as calmly

and completely as you have Blackie?

I don't think you could, Jim.

- I know you couldn't.

- That has nothing to do with it.

I must do what I believe is right.

Then I must, too.

I think it's right to leave you,

if you let Blackie die.

We've no chance

of ever being happy again.

Jim, doesn't that mean anything to you?

You can't leave me. You mustn't.

Well, then, keep me here.

Jim, do you realize what you're sacrificing

for the sake of some principles?

Blackie's life, my love, our happiness,

are they worth that to you?

Eleanor.

Don't go.

I need you.

Will you save Blackie?

No.

Get me a car. I'm going to Sing Sing.

I want a motorcycle escort.

I got to be there before midnight.

Listen, I tell you

it was me croaked that guy!

Blackie Gallagher didn't do it!

You got it all wrong!

Say, you ain't the guy that bumped off

the Archduke of Austria, are you?

No, that wasn't me.

I guess I ought to know who I bumped off.

I tell you,

Blackie didn't know nothing about it!

There was thousands of people there

that night! Everybody seen me!

He didn't know nothing about it, I tell you!

I swear it!

You dummies!

Listen, it was like this,

it was during the intermission, see,

and I'd been drinking

too much lemonade...

You dirty so and so's.

You haven't shown me a natural

since I've been in here.

Already?

No. Someone to see you.

Well, I'm not dressed for company.

Well, hello, Jim.

- When you're ready, Governor, just call.

- Thank you, Warden.

Come on, come on, sit down here.

Here, take this nice easy chair.

Well, so I'm going to have

the Governor to see me off, huh?

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