The Prisoner Page #3

Synopsis: A cardinal is arrested for treason against the state. As a prince of his church, and a popular hero of this people, for his resistance against the Nazis during the war and afterward his resistance when his country again fell to another totalitarian conqueror. In prison, his interrogator is determined to get a confession of guilt against the state from the strong willed man, and thus destroy his power over his people. The verbal and psychological battles are gripping and powerful - not even the increasing pressures put upon the Cardinal can force him to weaken; not even solitary confinement, continuous blazing light in his cell, sleeplessness, efforts to persuade him he is going mad. And yet, in the deepening conflict, the superb indomitable prisoner, creates a tremendous pity on his tormentor, the interrogator.
Genre: Drama
Director(s): Peter Glenville
Production: Sony Pictures Entertainment
  Nominated for 5 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
7.1
Rotten Tomatoes:
67%
NOT RATED
Year:
1955
91 min
216 Views


You shouldn't be seen reading that.

Banned this morning.

Oh, there you are.

I was afraid you

weren't coming after all.

We're all on extra duties.

There's some trouble boiling up.

They brought in more guards.

Well.

Well.

I hate your being

in the prison service.

Makes it seem worse somehow.

Not just unfaithful...

...but we're the enemy.

That's treachery.

I can't get out, I've tried.

You don't...

...do things yourself, do you?

Things are done.

Like forcing the cardinal to confess to

treason so that they can have a trial?

I don't know how I can love you,

being even near such work.

He could be right.

You want to believe he

stands for things that are fine.

That you can trust him.

But what can people

like you and me really know?

I do know that he's not a man

you can force to anything.

If they get him to confess...

...you can believe it's true.

- But you can't want it to be true.

If you're in the prison service, you'd

rather think the police were right...

...than that the prisoners were.

You're saying that to justify

yourself working for them.

Well, it won't justify you to me.

He is innocent.

It will only prove this isn't a

country anyone can live in.

If they can twist a man that far

and he confesses...

...then I'd have to join my husband.

Please.

Don't talk about it.

We've got us to talk about.

The journalist on the paper

banned this morning.

General, this is lunacy.

You'll admit now

that there's a certain urgency?

The prisoner is not ready.

It'll destroy weeks of work.

I have my orders, I have faith in them.

You're a brilliant man, but conceited.

- Conceit is dangerous.

- Conceit!

So is sentiment.

He's here, sir.

It has been decided to confront you

with some evidence of your guilt...

...before you are brought to trial

so that you may see...

...that the only course is to appeal

to the mercy of the government...

...by pleading guilty.

A street map of the centre of the

capital, circles, secret arsenals...

...crosses on strong points, such as

the church of St. Nicholas there...

...dominating the central

railway viaduct.

Surely a good revolutionary

would blow up a viaduct...

...not build a strong point

to dominate it.

I must have lost my touch

since I worked for the Resistance.

- This is your handwriting, isn't it?

- It does look like it.

But this word appears

to be spelled in the Italian way.

Possibly from a letter of

mine to the Vatican...

...and thick nibs, thin nibs.

Almost as if someone had cut odd

words out of old papers of mine...

...and stuck them on the margin

of the map and photographed it.

A photograph of the cathedral crypt.

Marked on the map is an arsenal,

if you remember...

...and dated in the corner.

The place was searched

and photographed...

...the day you were arrested.

- The day I was arrested?

The feast of St. Fontanelle,

the one day in the year...

...when the crypt

is open to the public.

Next, Steven, please.

What did you steal?

Money given for the church to start

sabotage and fomenting unrest...

... against the government.

Do you not at least admit that the

whole weight of your authority...

... must logically be directed

against the government?

Of course.

You must admit that a gramophone

record cannot be tampered with.

I imagine not. You simply edit

the tape recording, don't you?

And then re-record on disk.

Sound levels weren't too good,

though, were they?

I've never seen a general,

four ministers and a judge look silly...

...at the same time.

- Is that for the record?

- No.

How odd it is.

They're just shadows.

You're real.

You're beginning to feel that.

I don't know.

I'm tired.

Oh, God.

- How could I forget?

- Go on forgetting, my friend.

This must end in tragedy.

They lack the leadership that...

...we had in the Resistance.

Your world now...

...is here.

Sir, the general's on the telephone.

Oh, what now?

This is the final idiocy, I'll stop this.

Oh, the fools!

Eminence.

Look.

If thou, O Lord, shall be extreme

to remark what is done amiss.

I never learned to pray for her.

Shouldn't you...

...bless her?

- I?

Bless?

She's still quite warm.

You had her killed.

You were the doctor

to whom my body was so sacred!

Pride?

- Well?

- My body and hers are one.

I am admitting it to you here!

Look how I kiss her hand!

She's alive.

Yes, she's only anaesthetised.

Anaesthetised?

Why?

I have the right to know.

I am her son.

She's supposed to be someone I love.

Supposed?

Someone I love.

What do you expect

to get from this?

The confession is ready

for your signature.

And if I refuse to sign?

She will be sent to the...

...research hospital.

Is she ill?

She will be ill.

No signature, no confession.

I could have her left in your cell...

...until she comes around.

She wouldn't

even try to plead with me.

You don't know us...

...my mother and I.

You have an unnatural monster

on your hands.

I do not love my mother.

I never have.

I thought all this...

...would lose me the foothold

I'd gained with you.

I didn't think that it would be I

that would be disgusted.

If she must...

...your mother may die of pain

to save your immortal soul.

I was beginning to dislike my work.

I shan't dislike it now.

You're a hard man, Eminence.

You're a hard man.

We'll leave you alone

with your thoughts for a while...

...Your Eminence.

Consider and hear me, O Lord, my

God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep...

Lest I sleep the sleep of death.

Lest mine enemy say,

I have prevailed against him.

Rejoice not against me, O,

mine enemy...

...when I fall I shall rise.

When I sit in darkness...

...the Lord shall be a light unto me.

- What's this?

- To sleep on.

Interrogator's moving in...

...thinks we're running an hotel.

Thank you, warder.

You see, I want to watch every phase

of his solitary confinement.

I suppose you'll be wanting

shaving water and things?

Yeah, that's right.

I don't want to lose touch

with his frame of mind.

I suppose the solitary confinement

can go on as long as we like...

...now that the trouble

outside's calmed down.

It can go on until he wants to talk.

We're up against a good man.

He's got to show us where his

weakness lies before we can use it...

...to destroy him.

Meanwhile...

...we must wait.

Shall I take over from him

for a bit, sir?

Not on your life.

He'll lose, in the end.

I've doctored those recordings

within an inch of their lives, sir.

We shan't need them.

Every living soul

in that sleeping city down there...

...could be broken if they had to be.

The subtler the mind,

the more sensitive the conscience...

...the more surely they

must be broken.

That's the fascination...

...and the pity of it.

Three sevens are 21, four sevens

are 28, five sevens are 35...

...six sevens are 42,

seven sevens are 49, nine...

Sevens.

Six sevens are 42, seven sevens

are 49, eight sevens are 56...

What day is it?

How long is it since you

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Bridget Boland

Bridget Boland (13 March 1913 – 19 January 1988) was an Irish-British sceenwriter, playwright and novelist. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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