The Great McGinty Page #5

- Now you're gonna get me in wrong.

Where are you?

You'll be sorry for this when I find you.

Hello, George. I'm sorry I'm not dressed.

Those little brats!

You haven't seen them, have you?

Uh? Well, just...

How do you mean that? Er...

You have seen them.

- You little monkeys. Come out of there.

- Catherine...

I don't think they meant any harm.

Stop that and you too, Mary.

- For heaven's sake, what's going on?

- Bessy, thank you.

Ten times they've played it

and this time they're gonna get a spanking.

Stop it, Donnie. Mary, stop it.

Now, stop it, both of you.

- I'll tell Mr McGinty on you, then you'll see.

- They'll see what?

Oh, good evening, Mr McGinty.

I'm sorry you had to walk in on this.

I seem to be always apologising for them.

I just used your name

to F-R-I-G-H-T-E-N them.

Oh.

Good evening.

- I think you could be more polite, George.

- Why should I be? I don't like him.

Well, you are in his home.

Bessy, put them to bed

and I'll dress as quickly as I can.

Come on, Donnie.

Playing pool tonight, Your Honour?

A funny thing happened to me the other day.

I'm playing the 12 ball for the side pocket

and the blue ball's right in the way.

I look over behind the 8 rock, and do you

know what happened to the 8 rock?

Come in.

Come in.

Put it on the bed, Bessy.

- Did you wash out those other stockings?

- No, I was bakin' a cake.

Oh, my. Mr McGinty.

What are you doing in my room?

Who's this lug that gives me

the "good evening" every night?

- Just George.

- What does he do, room here?

Of course he doesn't, Mr McGinty.

He wanted to marry me and since I'm still

free in a way, he takes me out to dinner.

We always go to very quiet places

where I won't be seen, or up to his flat.

Oh, yeah? Tell him to hand me just one

more "good evening" like he give me tonight,

and I'll hand him something

that will take his mind off marriage for good.

Where does that bozo get off

to be propositioning my wife, anyway?

You mean proposing, Mr McGinty,

and he doesn't any more.

He just takes me out to dinner.

Can't you eat home once in a while? Is there

anything the matter with the grub here?

Well, if there were, Mr McGinty,

you wouldn't know it.

What have I got to do with it?

I don't think you have anything to do with it,

Mr McGinty.

I'm running your house as best I can.

I go to clubs and meetings,

I'm photographed all the time...

You've already got the women's vote.

If I choose to go out quietly with an old friend

instead of sitting alone in the evenings,

I don't really see that...

I...

- I'm sorry.

- It's all right.

No hard feelings.

Course not.

You know, why don't you er...

Why don't we have dinner together

sometime?

I'd be glad to, Mr McGinty.

Any time except tonight.

You know, if you told anybody

we'd been living like this,

just down the hall...

for six months,

neither one of us

ever giving the other one a thought...

...they wouldn't believe it.

That's right.

Even if it was true, they wouldn't believe it.

Here it is, Miss Catherine.

It took them a little longer than...

- Put it on the bed.

- Yes, sir, Mr Mayor.

You know that john in the front parlour?

- Yes, sir, Mr Mayor.

- Mr McGinty.

Tell him he's barking up the wrong tree.

Yes, sir, Mr Mayor.

Daniel.

Say that again.

Daniel.

I must have been blind.

"But they had to get up pretty early

to be smarter than Willie Rabbit

"because he was as full of brains

as a dog is full of fleas.

"Just as he got to the edge of the field

by the old, split-rail fence,

"a shadow fell across his path.

"And who do you suppose it was?

"I'll give you three guesses

and then three more, and three other ones.

"But you could try all night

without guessing who it really was,

- "because it was none other than... "

- Darling.

Hm?

Just a minute.

"... none other than our friend,

"Mugley Wugg the tortoise. "

That's who I thought it was.

They love you so.

To think I used to use you

as the boogeyman.

I don't feel no different towards them

than if they was mine.

They're so proud of you, it hurts sometimes.

They think you're George Washington and

Abraham Lincoln rolled together, only finer.

Donnie had a fight on your account today.

He did, eh? The little son of a gun.

What about?

One of the boys heard his father say

you're a grafter. Shouted it out at recess.

Donnie didn't know just what it meant,

but he hit him anyway.

Too bad, isn't it?

I thought you didn't care about that.

What's that slogan of yours?

"You can't rob the people because what

you rob, you spend" and something or other.

I wasn't married to you, then, Dan.

I think you're a fine man, Dan,

Who? Me?

Yes, you. I think you're a fine, honest man

with decent impulses and everything else.

I couldn't have been as close to you

and been mistaken.

I don't think I could love you so much.

I know I couldn't admire you so much.

What have you been drinking?

You're a tough guy, McGinty.

You're not a wrong guy.

If you were on the other side,

you'd play just as hard.

- You mean a dick?

- I don't mean anything in particular.

I just mean that to have all the power

you have to do things for people,

and never to do anything

except shake them down a little,

seems like a waste of something,

doesn't balance.

Do you understand?

What are you trying to do? Reform me?

I'm just being dull. I guess

I went to one lunch too many this week.

I heard so much about sweatshops and

child labour and firetraps, the poor people...

I couldn't do anything about those things

if I wanted to, honey.

Those are the people he works with,

they're the people that put me in.

You've got to understand

how those things work.

You mean you would do something

if you could?

- What?

- Something about the tenements, maybe.

- Why? You got relatives living down there?

- You know I haven't.

Oh. You just like that stuff, huh?

Don't you know those people just wanna be

let alone? They wanna be dirty.

They don't like people fooling with them.

Give them a bathtub, they keep coal in it.

You gotta understand, honey,

no man is strong enough to buck the party.

No matter how much

he wants to make his wife happy.

You'll be strong enough someday, Dan.

And then you'll wash clean of all graft

and crooks and thieving politicians,

and really deserve your title,

the Honourable...

- You liked the kids, hmm?

- Why shouldn't he like them?

Sure I liked them.

The guy with the red hair

says not so much lemon in his.

Tell him to go soak his red hair.

She always used to say,

"You'll be strong enough someday. "

I knew it was wrong, see, but I liked the way

it made me look in her eyes and the kids.

So...

One day I said,

"All right. I'm strong enough now. "

In a pig's ear I was strong enough.

Look what he done to our lake front,

look what he done to our city.

For our city.

Look what he done for you and you and you.

The worst crook we've had

since the year of the big win.

The least you can do, friends,

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