The Prisoner Page #5

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
228 Views


That's it, isn't it?

Let them see me in

the weakness of the flesh...

...and the meanness of the spirit!

That would be degradation.

That would be shame enough

to burn the past...

...and come through the fire free.

That's hysteria.

No. No, God...

Forgive me a moment.

I can't hypnotize you into saying

anything you think is wrong.

Remember that.

Do you believe that this is

what you must do?

Only this way.

Not drugged nor hypnotized...

...nor hysterical.

Sane and whole.

And with the courage,

with the grace of God.

To make restitution in my own way.

I can't believe he'll

confess to anything.

He won't, you wait.

He would never have staged a trial

if he wasn't ready to confess.

I knew him in the war.

He may have let them think

they've got him...

...but they will find he can put

this bullring to his own use.

It's better than the pulpit, you wait.

Has the prisoner read

the charges against him?

Yes, I have heard the charges,

and I confess.

Well?

He hasn't yet said what

he's confessing to.

First, we will take your

personal life as a priest.

You became a priest, did you not,

for your own glory?

Yes.

And all your service to the church

was to your own ambition?

Yes, my ambition.

How can you make people

understand that?

As a priest, did you misuse

money given to the church?

Yes, I confess to that.

The secrets of the confessional,

did you use those to extort blackmail?

Yes.

And did you sell such

information to the police?

Yes.

So all your life as a priest was a fake?

- Yes.

- Now, to make us understand that...

...tell us about your public life.

Tell us about your war record.

I worked for the Resistance.

Oh, yes, you worked for

the Resistance.

And in the end, you betrayed us.

Tell the court, Your Eminence...

...did you betray the Resistance

to the Gestapo?

The links with the Allies,

the chain that led out of the country.

In the end, I betrayed them all.

No one knew what kind of

a man you were, did they?

No one knew that you were

reporting to the Gestapo...

...did they?

You were still able to go on keeping

in touch with the Allies, weren't you?

Yes.

Do you deny that, since the war,

you have still kept secretly in touch...

...with foreign governments?

- No.

Have you received money from them

to foment sabotage and unrest?

Have you?

- Yes, I...

- Look at the people!

Your own people!

Before, during and since the war,

have you deserved their faith?

Have you betrayed them?

I have betrayed them.

It isn't true.

It isn't true.

Madness.

Do you want to start again,

as low as the gutter you came from?

Throw in enough politics...

... they'll eat it.

So you have confessed to every

charge of personal corruption...

...and public treason

brought against you?

I have confessed enough.

And that you aimed to set up

a government with yourself at its head.

The worst you can find to say.

Is it not enough?

Counsel for the defence?

After such a confession...

...the prisoner can only throw himself

on the mercy of the court.

Not on the mercy of this court.

Upon the mercy of God.

Oh, God...

...let me go mad.

Let me go mad.

How does he seem?

Interesting.

He was broken by a half-truth...

...a distorted truth.

He was too humble.

He believed it when I told him his

whole world was built on pride.

A proud man would have

been more sceptical.

Have you seen the press, sir?

Congratulations.

Yes...

...l've trained you well.

I suppose, in time, you will

come to drive a brilliant mind...

...to pray for madness.

- It had to be done, sir.

- Oh, yes, it had to be done.

You're just feeling the

reaction after the trial.

Mustn't let a little squeamishness

spoil your triumph.

Been good as gold

these last few days.

Hey, you get back to your

murderer in number eight...

...leave my cardinal alone.

Not that he'll be anybody's

cardinal after 8:00.

Yours goes before mine, doesn't he?

Yes.

Double damask.

Patterned, both sides.

- You like it?

- Very handsome.

That's an expert's opinion.

Like altar linen, eh?

When I was a choirboy...

...if you used so much as a corner to

wipe your nose on, they'd murder you.

Appetite?

- I'll try and do it justice.

- That's the spirit.

Of course, there's a lot of waste

with these breakfasts...

...but we finish it up after.

My mate, he said,

"Let's give him kippers.

We've got to eat it, we might as well

have what we fancy."

I said, " No, he's gonna have what he

fancies for his last meal on earth.

Kidneys, that'll be his taste."

- You're a good soul.

- Oh, I don't know, a job's a job.

You've got to go to bed at night

with your mind easy.

What time is the execution?

Oh, no orders yet.

How long, as a rule, after breakfast?

Oh, half an hour maybe.

But there's another to go before you.

Since the war, we've been so busy,

everything's gone to pot.

You swallow all right?

We had a young chap once...

...he'd killed three sailors

with a handspike...

...in a fight on the docks.

He was a nice, quiet kid,

but he couldn't swallow.

Nervous stricture, the doctor said.

Hanging, you see?

I put that right. I said, " Lad...

...they've changed your sentence.

They've brought one of them

electric chairs from America."

He ate like a wolf after that.

Standing up, you know?

You don't want to waste

them good kidneys.

Shall I be allowed a priest

before I die?

Must tell the lads that.

Oh, you're a good sport.

I hate a man who can't

take it with a grin.

"Shall I be allowed a priest?"

Oh, I'll miss you when you're gone.

You've never been any trouble.

Well, hardly any.

What's this?

- Look here...

- Your instructions.

He's got to have time for his breakfast,

the man got kidneys.

- That's civilization, it always has been.

- Read them, outside.

Well?

I find it hard to forgive my enemies,

and I haven't long.

Have you forgiven yourself?

Oh, no.

But I believe I shall be forgiven.

He who will judge us

is he who made us.

You've found peace of mind.

Perhaps you should thank me.

The doctor who diagnosed

the weakness?

Perhaps I should.

Shall I be allowed

a priest before I die?

There'll be no need.

I beg of you, let me see a priest.

You're not to die.

No.

I am to be hanged.

Your sentence has been commuted.

What are they afraid of, martyrdom?

No one can make the world

see me as a martyr now.

It has been commuted.

I had so eased my mind

with the thought of death...

...I can't see beyond it.

You're free to go.

The gates will be opened,

you have only to walk out.

No, no, they wouldn't risk it.

- What I might say.

- What, that you were talked into it?

That you used my mother?

She was already in the hospital

when you were arrested...

...you haven't kept in very close touch.

Is there news of her,

is the disease fatal?

- They think not.

- Thank God.

Nothing you can say

can harm the government.

Dead, you might be a martyr.

In prison, you'd be an enigma.

But free, sane, walking the world...

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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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