- Are you in for life? - It looks like it.
- How long you been here? - Almost a month.
- Well, I feel like I've been here 10 years. - Seems to agree with you.
- Do you like boys? - I love them.
Yeah?
Come with me. There's something I wanna try.
- All my life I've wanted to do that. - Oh, poor little city boy.
Hey, you know something?
I never really understood...
...the reason for haystacks before. - Yeah.
That crazy smell gives us all those problems we hear about.
- And the softness. - Yeah.
You know, I can't remember us ever feeling like this before.
- Except after a couple of drinks. - Yeah.
Was the other better?
Can't see how it would be.
Caught you drinking.
No harm in one beer, Joe. Or two or three.
Matter of how much, huh?
- Sanders says he'll pay you Monday. - With Sanders it's always Monday.
- And then Friday. - Yeah.
Hey.
Remember Mrs. Michel, where you delivered those roses about a month ago?
Two months ago exactly. My second day as a trusty.
She phoned in a big order this afternoon.
Said she remembered us because of the nice man who delivered the roses.
All part of public relations, Pop. Kirs upstairs?
Joe.
You want a beer?
You're starting to trust me again.
Well, thanks anyway, Pop.
Hi-ho!
A tasty little neck.
- I'm glad you like it. Have some more. - No, not right now.
My, we have been good the last couple of months. Just perfect.
- We sure have. - Much too good.
Because you are much too beautiful to be so good, and I was thinking...
...being good is better than being bad, yes? But being too good is worse than death.
- There are times when I agree with you. - Well, how would you like to spice up...
...your exemplary life by just slipping a teeny-weeny bit?
- A teeny-weeny bit? - Just a modicum, a jot, a minim.
A drop?
- Where is it? - No, it all starts with a striptease.
Oh, well, I thought you were talking about something more tangible.
Please, you're interrupting a performance.
Joe!
Oh, you're a genius!
Nothing at all, my dear.
Of course, getting this tape off is gonna be a major operation.
Okay, now, here we go. Fast, right?
Next time I do this...
...I'm gonna shave my legs.
- No, Joe, we can't. - What do you mean?
- It'll ruin everything. - Now, just a darn minute, lady.
I'm not suggesting an all-out orgy.
I think we've learned better than that, I hope and trust.
We've been working hard.
Behaving ourselves. Just a wee little drop in the privacy of our own little room...
...isn't gonna hurt us. Who's to know?
We just lie back in bed like civilized people and sip it through a straw.
May I expect your cooperation?
Well, now, how could I not vote for someone who dances so divinely?
Hold on.
Twinsies.
And there is another. In the greenhouse.
It is in the fourth pot and the fifth table...
Fourth pot, third table, fifth row. Yeah, that's it.
Fourth pot, third table, fifth row. Four, five, three.
Now, remember the combination, because if I die before I wake, that's your legacy.
- You are depraved. - Yeah, flattery will get you everywhere.
Magic time.
Here.
- Step on it. - What?
Here.
Kirsty.
Kirsty?
Must have had a nightmare.
You all right?
I'm fine, Daddy, just go back to bed.
Come up now.
We ain't fighting.
Gulp.
It's all gone.
- Oh, it's all gone. - Four thirty-five.
Get the other one. Get the other one.
You'll wake up Daddy. He'll hear you.
- What? - I'm gonna go out the window...
...and down the tree, as silent as a squirrel.
- Don't fall, then. Hurry up. - Four, three, five.
- No, no. Wait a second, Joe. - What?
- You said... - I'll be quiet as a squirrel.
- Three, five, four. - No.
- Yes. - No. Four, three, five. Hold that.
Hurry back.
Four, five, three.
Here we go!
What was it?
Fourth, was it? One. Two. Three.
Fourth row! Third table.
Two. Fifth pot. One, two, three, four, five...
...and come to Papa!
What...?
Five, four, three.
Fourth, fifth row. Third table, fourth pot.
One, two, three, four.
Wait a minute. What...?
What happened?
Wait a minute.
Don't get excited. Wait a minute.
Start it all over. Wait a minute. One.
Two. One. Five, four, three...
One. It's the fifth pot!
One more. Third.
Where is it?
What?
Who took it?
Where is it? Red flower!
It's a red flower!
Lights! Where are the lights?
Who took it? Who took it?
Where? Where? Where is it?
Who took it? Who took it?
Somebody stole it! They stole it! They stole it!
Who took it?
They took it!
Took it! They took it!
Daddy?
- I'm drunk as a skunk. - Kirsty!
I'm plastered and Ionely. I want you to kiss me good night.
- Dirty Joe brought whiskey. - Kiss me good night.
- You get back to your room. - What's the matter, Daddy?
I just want you to kiss...
Granddaddy?
- Go to bed, Debbie! - You get out of here! Get out of here!
- You leave my daddy alone, leave him alone! - Debbie! Go ahead!
- You come along with me, now. - I'm not a kid.
- Get in the tub. - No, I don't wanna.
- Get in the tub! - Daddy!
Get in there!
What are you doing?
One-sixty-eight, Ed.
Ed, give me a hand!
How you feeling, fella?
Rotten.
- Who are you? - I'm Jim Hungerford.
Nurse says you want help.
I'm from Alcoholics Anonymous.
- Honey, please read the book. - No.
Hungerford says the AA meetings are terrific.
Just a bunch of alcoholics keeping each other sober, and it works.
- Now, please read the book. It makes sense. - No!
I don't know why you took it. They must think you're a bum.
I asked for it. I must have needed help, I was in the hospital.
- You didn't belong there. - I was there. Nobody belongs there.
I passed out on Mission Street. I didn't belong there, but...
All right, you had too much. Doesn't mean you're an alcoholic.
Look, dear. What's wrong with just going to a meeting? Now, what could we lose?
You can go if you want, I don't care, but I'm not gonna go.
I am not an alcoholic and I refuse to say I am.
I refuse to ask for help in something...
...that is just a matter of self-respect and willpower.
I refuse to get up in front of a bunch of people and degrade myself.
I know I can't drink, because it gets the best of me, so I...
I will just use my willpower and not drink, and that's the end of it.
- We got time for a cigarette. - You nervous?
No, I...
- Button came off my jacket. - Leave it open.
- Yeah. - Oh, yeah. Here.
I used to be a pretty fancy dresser.
I wouldn't have been caught dead with a button off me.
- You're scared? - No, this is natural complexion. Pale green.
- Nobody will notice. Come on. - Well, wait a minute. Just, you know...
Hey, you know, you are turning pale green. Now, will you come on?
It's facing all the people.
- You sure? - What do you mean?
- It's facing yourself, isn't it? - I don't mind sharing my life.
Even the most embarrassing parts of it. That's not what bothers me.
The idea of standing in front of everyone and saying:
- "I am an alcoholic." - Are you?
- Yes, l... - So are we! Now, you've heard us...
...night after night saying, "I am an alcoholic." It's a big step forward.
But it's funny that four months ago you saw me in the violent ward...
...and you told me about AA. I went to the meetings, I listened...
...and I've been sober ever since. Kirs has been sober too, just as sober as I am.
And she has never said, "I am an alcoholic." She hasn't been near a meeting.
She claims she can do it on willpower alone.
Can you?
My name is Jim Hungerford.
And I'm an alcoholic.
I'm your chairman for tonight.
Now, all I have to do to qualify myself is to say that I drank too much...
...too often over too long a period of time.
Welcome to the meeting of the Mason Street group of Alcoholics Anonymous.
"Alcoholics Anonymous is a group of men and women who share their experience...
...strength and hopes that they may solve their common problem...
...and help others to recover from alcoholism.
The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking.
There are no dues or fees for AA membership.
We are self-supporting through our own contributions. AA is not allied...
...with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution.
Does not wish to engage in controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes.
Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety."
Now, we got a couple of speakers tonight I know you're gonna enjoy hearing.
To start, we're gonna hear from a man who came just four months ago.
Now, this will be his first talk at an AA meeting.
Joe.
My name...
My name is Joe Clay.
I'm an alcoholic.
Honey?
Debbie?
Come in.
Oh, hi, Jim.
- I'm sorry to... - No, you should've called sooner.
Any word?
Two days and two nights and l... I had to call you. I was afraid I might...
- Yeah, I know. Did you tell the police? - Yeah.
I just... I can't see how this could be happening to us.
- You drank too much. - A lot of people drink as much...
...as Kirs and I and they're not alcoholics. - Yet.
A lot of them never are.
It's a lottery, Joe.
- And you lost. - Yeah. Well, how?
No way to find out before it's too late.
Joe, you remember how you told us about Kirsten's obsession...
...with chocolate candy when you first met?
A psychologist might have told you then she was a potential alcoholic.
You wouldn't have believed him. And he might have been wrong.
How many strawberries does it take to start an allergy? And which one gives you hives?
Alcoholism is an illness. It's pretty hard to diagnose an illness until you've got it.
- Come on, Joe. She'll turn up, honest. - Why did she do it, why did she leave?
- That's... - She wanted a drink.
She had to drink, she could drink right here, and she knows it.
You're sober. It's no fun to drink around you.
It's worse! Your sobriety would be an accusation to her.
She'd be miserable. She's lost her playmate.
And Joe...
Listen, don't be too surprised if she finds another one.
She loves me. You just don't understand, there's no trouble between us.
There wasn't any trouble. Joe, don't forget.
For a long time, booze has been an integral part of your relationship.
If she drinks and you don't, you gotta find a new meeting ground...
...a different basis for a relationship. It takes adjusting.
I find it hard to believe this. There was one thing about us...
...we always knew we were in love. There was no doubt about it. We knew.
Do you understand what I'm saying? We had something.
Things like that don't just evaporate.
Joe, the night you tore up your father-in-law's flowers...
...Iooking for the bottle?
- What'd you do with it? - I drank it.
You didn't take it back and drink it with Kirsten?
No.
There comes a time for every alcoholic when the bottle is God.
Nothing matters but the next drink. You know that.
I know I know it, I just...
I can't believe that this is happening to me, that's all!
Two people. Seven years.
Booze, no booze, drunk, sober.
Isn't love... Iove?
I don't know.
I was drunk for 12 years, I've been sober the last 14.
All I know is the drunk world is one world and the sober world is another.
Such a Ionely person.
Oh, God, keep her safe.
- Is your little girl all right? - Yeah, she's...
...on the peninsula with her grandfather.
Hello?
Yes, this is Mr. Clay.
Yes, Kirsten Clay, that's right, yes.
- Where? - Police?
Where is...? Shore Motel, where is that?
I see... Who is...? Mr. Turning? Is she all right?
She alone?
I'll be there as fast as possible. Thanks for calling.
She's in a motel. Mr. Turning owns the motel.
He said that she came in a cab and checked in drunk and she's been drunk ever since.
- Want me to go with you? - I better go alone.
- Here, take my car. - Thanks.
Joe, listen, listen. At the risk of sounding preachy...
- I know. Easy does it, first things first... - No, no. Something else.
She may resent your being sober. It separates you.
- I know that. - But Joe!
If you're not sober, you're not worth a damn to her or anybody else, are you?
No.
- Yes, sir? - Hello, I'm Mr. Clay.
- She's in the last bungalow, Mr. Clay. - Thank you.
One sliced turnip, two stalks of celery, add pepper and salt...
... and a dash of Worcestershire sauce.
My, my, what nobility has to put up with just to have dinner.
- I'm glad I'm a rabbit. - Now place rabbit into oven...
... and heat oven to 350 degrees.
Three hundred and fifty degrees? Too hot for me.
I just remembered another commitment. Give my regrets to His Majesty.
I bid you farewell, arrivederci, sayonara and all that sort of jazz.
Oh, no, you're not. You're staying.
- I insist. - Okay, okay. If it's that important.
Cook! Cook! Where's my hasenpfeffer?
Coming right up, Royal Highness.
Bon appétit, O gracious Majesty.
You bonehead, that...
Have about a drink, honey?
- Not now. - Come on, have a drink.
No, I don't want one.
I do.
You think...?
Honey, do you think you're about ready to come home?
It's you.
- What do you want? - I want my wife.
Sober Joe.
Milkman's friend.
Well, now you got me, what do you want to do?
I was hoping to take you home.
I like it here.
My friends are here.
You have your friends, I have mine.
Have a drink.
Excuse me, I forgot.
Shame, I'm all out of...
...milk...
...coffee, tea and orange juice, those...
...non-alcoholic beverages.
- Honey, if you'd just come home. - No!
Well, you laid in a good supply.
- We could take it home and have a... - No!
- You have your friends, you don't need me. - Oh, honey.
Joe. Kiss me, Joe.
I taste like gin.
You never did like gin, so I didn't drink it, but...
...now I'm alone, so I drink it because I like gin.
Together in heaven.
Likely story.
Now he doesn't even like...
...the taste of me anymore.
Honey...
- Let me get you some food. - No.
- You're gonna get sick, you know... - I don't care!
I don't care, just go away and leave me alone. I don't care about anything.
I'll be back.
Don't bother.
Joe.
I'm Ionely, Joe.
Have a drink with me, please.
I can't.
- I'm Ionely! - I'll stay with you, but I can't.
Don't do me any favors!
Can't have a drink, too good to have a drink with me.
What'd they do to you down at that AA place, anyway?
Aren't you a man anymore? Can't you hear a woman calling you?
I'm a woman, can't you hear me?
- I hear you. - What're you gonna do about it?
- But we've got our own little apartment... - No, we haven't.
I'm not going back there. Never, never.
I want to be where people live. I don't want any of your...
...mealy-mouthed...
...holier-than-thou, do-gooder Boy Scouts with their...
...with their hot coffee and their cold feet.
I don't want anybody who doesn't have the guts to take a drink. Now, go away.
I want a cigarette.
Keep the pack.
You're not giving me anything.
They're community property.
So's the gin, 50-50. Here.
I'm not coming back, Joe. You're too good.
And there's no bore in the world like a goody-good.
Want some of mine, honey?
Hello!
We're closed, buddy.
- I said, we're closed. - No, come on, please!
- We close at 11. Go on home. - Oh, please.
Now look, you. Get out of here before I call the cops. Now, beat it.
No, please, please...
Please.
Oh, please.
What is it, what's happening?
Go on inside, I'll take care of this. Go on!
So you like booze, hey, buddy?
I didn't know you wanted it that bad.
Why didn't you ask?
I'll give you all the booze you want.
Why?
Joe, who am I?
- Joe. - What?
Who am I?
- You're... - Say it. Come on.
Jim.
- What happened? - What happened? You took a drink.
You're drying out now.
For two days there was a little green man chasing you around with pruning shears.
No, no, no, no, no.
Gotta...
- Gotta get my wife. - No, let her stay with her dad for a while.
I want...
I want her with me.
Joe.
Joe, you gotta stay sober.
Even if it means keeping away from her.
I can't hear you, Joe.
I love her!
Joe, if you really love her, I mean if you really love her...
...then you help her.
- How? - You set an example.
Show her that an alky can beat the rap. Give her something to aim at.
Come on, will you do that?
Oh, boy. I should have never told you about that guy with the pruning shears.
Hello, Pop.
I told you before, Joe.
Don't come here.
I've got something important, Pop, something I have to talk to you about.
Really, this means a lot to me.
- Kirs gone out someplace, or...? - She's gone to the movies.
She okay?
- You come here to talk about Kirsty? - No, I didn't.
Tell you what I came to talk about, Pop.
I've come to square accounts with you.
First of all...
...the $500 that you lent us that time to try and get started again.
We spent it, most of it, on a couple of benders.
Really didn't make much effort to get straightened out.
I just stayed drunk as long as the money lasted.
We lied to you about that.
- I know you worked hard for that. - You started my daughter drinking.
- Pop, please listen, I'm... - You started my daughter drinking.
When she lived here with her mama and me she never drank.
We never gave her even one beer.
- You started her! - Pop, what are you...?
Pop! Don't! Are you nuts? Now, what are you trying to do?
Pop?
Sure, we drank together.
And we did right from the start, but...
Where is she?
She's been gone three days!
My girl.
- My girl. - Pop...
She went off with another bum.
Not the same one, another one.
It's always another bum.
It's always:
"Good night, Dad. I'll be home early."
"Good night, Kirsty. I'll leave the light on in the kitchen."
I always turn it off in the morning, Joe.
I thought you told me she was getting better.
Two weeks ago she was in the hospital three days. Sick to death from drinking.
Can't you tell her that...?
Tell her how well I'm doing. Tell her all about the new apartment.
- Tell her I'll take her back any time. - She wouldn't have listened.
Well, tell her... Debbie cries for her.
Then she'd get drunk for sure.
I don't know what to do.
I don't know what to tell Debbie.
Well, Pop...
...there's some things we can be thankful for. Now...
...I'm working steady and I'm sober. And I'm starting to pay you back, Pop.
The $500, there's the first installment. I'll pay for her hospital bill too.
- No. - Yes, I am.
I'll pay you board as long as she stays here and for the potted plants I ruined that time.
I don't need for you to do that, Joe.
Pop, you don't understand.
I need for me to do it.
Kirs.
Debbie asleep?
Yes, it's after 11.
I didn't want her to see me.
- You don't look so... - So bad?
Not as bad as you imagined I would.
Well, thanks for trying, but I know how I look.
This is the way I look when I'm sober.
That's enough to make a person drink, wouldn't you say?
Joe...
...I haven't had a drink in two days.
Well, that's wonderful.
It wasn't easy.
But I wanted to talk to you, so I...
I thought I'd try and deserve it, at least a little. Sort of a penance, you might say.
You'd be surprised how much fun you can have sober, when you get the hang of it.
And you've got the hang of it?
Think so.
Believe me, it's the greatest.
Joe, wouldn't it be wonderful to begin again?
Just erase everything in between, start all over?
Getting excited over a chocolate bar?
I wanna come home.
I know what you're thinking about.
A lot's happened, lots of...
...detours.
There were plenty of them, but they were nothing. I never looked at them.
They had no identity. I never gave anything out of myself to them.
I thought they'd help me from being so Ionely.
But love is the only thing that keeps you from being Ionely and I didn't have that.
Kirs...
There's a little girl asleep in there that would love to wake up and see you here.
All you've gotta do is say the right words.
I don't know if I have the right words, that's why it took me so long to get here.
You see, the world looks so dirty to me when I'm not drinking.
Remember Fisherman's Wharf? The water when you look too close?
That's the way the world looks when I'm not drinking.
I don't think I could ever stop drinking completely, not like you.
- You could! - Lf I really wanted to?
Well, I don't. I know that now.
I want things to look prettier than they are.
But I know I could be all right, if you'd help me. I know I could.
If we were together and things were like they used to be...
...and I wasn't so nervous.
I need to be loved. I get so Ionely from not being loved I can't stand it.
I love you.
I'm afraid of you.
I'm an alcoholic, I can't take a drink. I'm afraid of what we'd do.
If you'd just say that you'd try.
But I can't face the idea of never having another drink.
- Just one day at a time. - I can't. I can't. I can't!
Doesn't it impress you that I have been sober for almost a year and I'm happy?
I'm working steady. I feel great.
Debbie and I are living in a decent place again, all because I'm sober.
Yes.
- There's plenty of room. - You're strong. I know you can help me.
- Lf we only had it back like it was. - Back like it...?
Do you remember how it really was?
You and me and booze. A threesome, do you remember?
- Not that it wasn't great. - We can have it back that way again, if...
If I'll drink with you. But I'm not gonna drink with you. It's finished!
I wouldn't ask you to drink with me. I'd control myself.
You can't control yourself, you're an alcoholic, the same as I am.
No, no.
You and I were a couple of drunks on the sea of booze, and the boat sank.
I got ahold of something that kept me from going under. I'm not letting go.
Not for you, not for anyone.
If you want to grab on, grab on.
But there's just room for you and me, no threesome.
I can't get over how dirty everything looks.
Try it one more day.
- Why? - For her.
Come and look at her.
I can't.
You better give up on me.
Not yet.
Thanks.
Good night.
Kirs?
Take care of yourself?
Kirs!
Daddy?
I thought I heard you call Mommy.
You must have been dreaming, honey.
Let's go back to bed.
When is Mommy coming home?
Honey, Mommy's sick.
And she has to get well before she can come home.
Is she going to get well?
I did, didn't I?
Go to sleep.
Okay.
Night-night.
Good night, honey.
[ENGLISH]