The General Died at Dawn Page #2

you know.

Didn't like smacking

other kids around, so I quit.

Dock walloper for a year,

road construction,

then I joined

an aviation outfit.

A bunch of us came over here

in '29 to fly planes,

and some of the fellows

are still flyin' planes

and dropping bombs

on the same people

I'm working for.

You ask me

why I'm for oppressed people?

Because I've got a background

of oppression myself,

and O'Haras and elephants

don't forget.

What's better work

for an American

than helping fight

for democracy? Do you know?

No, I don't.

But do you believe all that?

That's like asking

do I believe I'm alive.

I hope to spit, I believe it.

If I believed like that

in anything,

I'd do a dance.

Why do you look at me

like that?

Can't I look?

Can't I kiss you?

Ask my mother.

Mrs. Perrie,

may I kiss

your daughter, huh?

Thank you.

What did she say?

She said it's okay.

Very soon, Herr General.

Isn't that marvelous?

They're playing hooky

from a padded cell.

Look at him.

You're full of jokes, aren't you?

Why not? I don't meet

a good girl in 10 years,

and you expect me

to be dumb.

So eat your cabbage

and don't stick pins in papa.

Dinner and hurry it.

Quiet, Sam.

Are you hungry?

Not very.

You're pretty delicate.

Waiter.

Oh, hello, O'Hara.

Hello.

Who's that?

A Shanghai journalist.

Writes on an

English-speaking paper.

You can buy him

for a bag of salt.

How you been?

Fine.

Chiseler.

What's the time?

My watch has stopped.

Ten minutes to 8:00.

Can I tell you

something?

Something I can

write down in my diary?

Why won't you

be serious?

Why? What for?

The Lord made the world

in six days,

and on the seventh...

Oh-oh. The moles are

working underground.

Don't go out there.

Why not?

You're in trouble.

Am I?

They're waiting.

Who is?

I say, do you know

what it is?

Cloudburst.

I'm a newspaperman,

General Yang.

With newspapermen,

me all the time gentle.

Caught yourself

a public enemy, huh?

That's a fact.

Very bad man, et cetera.

Mind if I tell

our readers?

No, I don't mind.

Also print my picture?

Sure.

Front page stuff.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Nice friends you got.

Don't blame me for this,

young man.

I'm a plain passenger

on the train.

Sorry what they're

doing to you.

Awful,

but don't blame me.

Good, I won't have

to remember your face.

Come on, Sam.

Greetings.

Breath purifier?

Thanks. I have got

a bad taste in my mouth.

What's on your mind,

Yang?

General Yang.

General Yang, Sam.

Very sweet.

Aw!

Sad.

Mr. O'Hara,

you are

a big bother on me.

Looks pretty black for you

from where I sit, Yang.

Real opposition begins.

The old days are through.

For my money,

sweetheart,

you're sitting

on a porcupine.

Mr. Buddha.

That's a fact.

That's the only way

they ever leave me.

They do

shameful thing,

lose face,

then kill self.

Someday even

they'll get wise,

your fanatics,

and cut you down

like the rice is reaped.

Huh!

My guards faithful.

Stay with General Yang

until each one himself

becomes General,

and I

biggest General

of all 12 provinces.

Yang Incorporated,

merchants of war

with 12 dummy partners,

huh?

I don't like you

to interfere.

Why you help

my enemy, hmm?

I'd do anything I could

to give you

a kick in the pants.

To my jaundiced eye,

you're a social disease.

I don't like your disposition,

I don't like your friends,

I don't like your politics,

and I don't like your hat.

Your faithful dozen

may stick to you,

but you're still a small noise

at the end of a parade.

Mr. O'Hara seems

so little interested

in his life.

You'd take chances, too.

I have a great destiny.

So have I,

but mine is tied up

with millions of people.

Yours is tied up

with yourself,

and the power of machine guns.

Your belief is in your own

very limited self.

Mine is in people.

One day, they will all

walk on earth, straight, proud.

Men, not animals, with no fear

of hunger or poverty.

That's not so bad to die for,

sweetheart.

The time has come

when even,

even peasants

dare to laugh

in the face

of officer and General.

Pal, my nose

bleeds for you.

Give me the money.

Couldn't Wong

find it?

He's saying no money

in your place.

Cough up, Sam.

Give me the money.

The eight characters

of destiny are against you.

No money tonight.

Eight characters say

you are a liar.

Come and get it.

Fight?

Give me.

All right.

This is

the money.

You don't have

to worry an iota.

I'll take it

right to him.

Uh, Brighton.

That's his name?

Yes,

Brighton.

He is waiting

at the Mansion House,

Shanghai.

And

B- R-l-G-H-T-O-N.

Now I got it all in my head,

every word of it.

No mistake?

Oh!

General Yang never

forgets mistakes.

Say, am I honest

or am I not?

After all,

I...

I keep Mr. O'Hara

for now.

Maybe his Shanghai friends make trouble,

et cetera, maybe.

You're

a running dog.

Thanks.

Very good man.

Teaches my men discipline

and how to make war.

We will float down the river

to Shanghai together,

me and O'Hara.

Pick up ammunition also together.

Two days from now, we arrive.

If Mr. O'Hara's friends

make trouble,

if I don't get ammunition,

Mr. O'Hara don't arrive.

No hummingbird

can fight 15 wolves,

Mr. O'Hara.

Now, was that so terrible

as you thought?

The Mansion House.

Mr. Brighton.

Mr. Brighton.

Paging Mr. Brighton.

Paging Mr. Brighton.

Paging Mr. Brighton.

Paging Mr. Brighton.

Paging Mr. Brighton.

"I'll be glad when you're dead,

you rascal you"

"I'll be glad when you're dead,

you rascal you"

Paging Mr. Brighton.

Paging Mr. Brighton.

Paging Mr. Brighton.

I'm Mr. Brighton.

Thank you.

No news?

No.

I am very worried.

Something

is very wrong.

Drink hearty, my friend.

Oh, no, you don't.

You can't get away

with that.

I won't even

drink this drink.

You're trying

to get me drunk,

so I'll wait here

for your man O'Hara.

But I won't.

Now, look here, Woozy.

Don't you know

I can't lay around this harbor

with that

load of guns?

Any minute, the gitchie-witchies

are liable to hop on us

and we're sunk.

What do you think

I'm doin'?

Waitin' till the kids

get out of school

to sell them

lollipops and pretzels?

No, it's munitions.

It's illegal.

Plenty guns.

Plenty bullets.

Plenty noise.

And you, none of your

philosophical remarks.

Get me, Chennie?

Is he comin' or not?

No philosophy.

Have a drink,

my friend.

Oh! Take the wax

out of your ears.

Don't you hear me?

You can't get me tight.

Mr. Brighton,

it is no such intention

in my mind.

But we are expecting

an information

from Mr. O'Hara

this morning.

What was in that wire

you got?

Oh! Smart,

very smart.

Well,

you get six more hours

and then I sell

to the first comer.

That's what was

in that wire.

Get me?

Got you.

You forget the glass.

Oh.

I'll be under

that moose head

and a stuffier piece

of stuffin' I've never seen.

"I'll be glad when you're dead"

"You rascal you"

"I'll be glad

when you're dead"

"you rascal you"

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes