Come in.
Sir!
655321. Sir!
Very good, Chief.
Over to the Iine. Toes behind it.
Full name and number to the governor.
AIexander DeLarge, sir. 655321, sir.
I don't suppose you know who that was this morning.
That was no Iess a personage than the Minister of the Interior.
The new Minister of the Interior.
What they call a very new broom.
These new ridiculous ideas have come at Iast.
And orders are orders...
...though I may say to you in confidence, I do not approve.
An eye for an eye, I say.
If someone hits you, you hit back, do you not?
Why should not the state, severely hit by you hooligans...
...not hit back also?
The new view is to say "no."
The new view is that we turn the bad into good.
AII of which seems to me to be grossly unjust.
Shut your filthy hole, you scum!
You are to be reformed.
Tomorrow you will go to this man, Brodsky.
You will be Ieaving here.
You will be transferred to the Ludovico medical facility.
It's believed you'II be able to Ieave state custody in a fortnight.
I suppose that prospect pleases you?
Answer the governor's question!
Yes, sir. Thank you very much.
I've done my best here, I really have, sir.
I'm very grateful to all concerned, sir.
Sign this where it's marked.
Don't read it, sign it!
It says you're willing to have your sentence commuted...
...to submission to the Ludovico treatment.
And this.
And another copy.
The next morning I was taken to...
...the Ludovico medical facility...
...outside the town center.
I felt a malenky bit sad...
...having to say goodbye to the old Staja...
...as you will, when you leave a place you've gotten used to.
Right, halt the prisoner.
Good morning, sir. I'm Chief Officer Barnes.
I've got 655321...
...on a transfer from Parkmoor to the Ludovico Centre, sir.
Good morning. Yes, we've been expecting you.
I'm Dr. AIcot.
Dr. AIcot.
Very good, sir.
-Are you prepared for the prisoner? -Yes, of course.
I wonder if you'd mind signing these documents, sir.
There, sir.
And there, sir.
And there.
There you are.
Prison escort, move forward!
Halt!
Excuse me, sir.
Is that the officer who will take charge of the prisoner?
A word of advice, doc. You'II have to watch this one.
A right brutal bastard he has been, and will be again...
...in spite of all his sucking up and reading the Bible.
We can manage things. Show the young man to his room.
Right, sir. Come this way, please.
-Morning, Charlie. -Good morning, Doctor.
Good morning, AIex.
My name is Dr. Branom. I'm Dr. Brodsky's assistant.
Good morning, missus. Lovely day.
Indeed, it is.
May I take that?
-How are you feeling? -Fine, fine.
Good. In a few minutes you'II meet Dr. Brodsky...
...and begin your treatment.
You're a very Iucky boy to have been chosen.
I realize that, and I'm very grateful.
We're going to be friends, aren't we?
I hope so, missus.
What's the hypo for? Sending me to sleep?
Nothing of the sort.
-Vitamins will it be, then? -Something Iike that.
You're undernourished, so after each meal we'II give you a shot.
Roll over on your right side.
Loosen your pajama pants and pull them halfway down.
What exactly is the treatment here going to be, then?
It's quite simple, really.
We're going to show you some films.
You mean Iike going to the pictures?
Something Iike that.
That's good.
I Iike to viddy the old films now and again.
And viddy films I would.
Where I was taken to, brothers...
... was like no cine I ever viddied before.
I was bound up in a straitjacket...
...and my gulliver was strapped to a headrest...
... with wires running away from it.
Then they clamped, like, lid-locks on me eyes...
...so that I could not shut them, no matter how hard I tried.
It seemed a bit crazy to me...
...but I let them get on with what they wanted to get on with.
If I was to be a free malchick again in a fortnight...
...I would put up with much in the meantime, O my brothers.
The first film was a very good, professional piece of cine...
...Iike it was done in Hollywood.
The sounds were real horrorshow.
You could slooshy the screams and moans very realistic.
You could even get the breathing and panting...
...of the tolchocking malchicks at the same time.
And then what do you know?
Soon our dear old friend...
... the red, red vino on tap...
...the same in all places...
...Iike it's put out by the same firm...
...began to flow.
It was beautiful.
It's funny how the colors of the real world...
...only seem really real...
... when you viddy them on a screen.
Now, all the time I was watching this...
...I was beginning to get very aware...
...of, like, not feeling all that well.
And this I put down to all the rich food and vitamins.
But I tried to forget this, concentrating on the next film...
... which jumped right away on a young devotchka...
... who was being given the old in-out, in-out...
... first by one malchick...
... then another.
Then another.
When it came to the 6th or 7th malchick...
...Ieering and smecking and then going into it...
...I began to feel really sick.
But I could not shut me glazzies.
And even if I tried to move my glazzballs about...
...I still could not get out of...
... the line of fire of this picture.
Get me up.
I' m going to be sick.
Get something for me to be sick in!
Very soon now, the drug will cause the subject...
...to experience a deathlike paralysis...
...together with deep feelings of terror and helplessness.
One of our early test subjects described it as being Iike death.
A sense of stifling or drowning.
And it is during this period, we have found...
...the subject will make his most rewarding associations...
...between his catastrophic experience, environment...
...and the violence he sees.
Dr. Brodsky is pleased with you.
You've made a very positive response.
Tomorrow there will be two sessions, morning and afternoon.
You mean I have to viddy two sessions in one day?
I imagine you'II feel a bit Iimp by the end of the day.
But we have to be hard on you. You have to be cured.
It was horrible.
Of course it was horrible.
Violence is a very horrible thing.
That's what you're Iearning now.
Your body's Iearning it.
I just don't understand about feeling sick the way I did.
I never used to feel sick. I used to feel the very opposite.
Doing it or watching it, I used to feel real horrorshow.
You felt ill this afternoon because you're getting better.
When we're healthy, we respond to the hateful...
...with fear and nausea.
You're becoming healthy, that's all.
By this time tomorrow, you'II be healthier still.
It was the next day, brothers...
...and I had truly done my best...
...morning and afternoon to play it their way...
...and sit like a horrorshow cooperative malchick...
...in the chair of torture...
... while they flashed nasty bits of ultra-violence on the screen...
... though not on the soundtrack, the only sound being music.
Then I noticed, in all my pain and sickness...
... what music it was that, like, cracked and boomed.
It was Ludwig van.
Ninth Symphony, fourth movement.
Stop it! Stop it! PIease, I beg you!
It's a sin!
Sin?
What's all this about sin?
That!
Using Ludwig van Iike that. He did no harm to anyone.
Beethoven just wrote music.
Are you referring to the background score?
You've heard Beethoven before?
So you're keen on music?
Can't be helped.
Here's the punishment element perhaps.
The governor ought to be pleased.
I'm sorry, AIex.
This is for your own good.
You'II have to bear with us for a while.
But it's not fair. It's not fair I should feel ill...
...when I hear Iovely, Iovely Ludwig van.
You must take your chance, boy.
The choice has been all yours.
You needn't take it any further, sir.
You've proved to me all this ultra-violence and killing...
...is wrong, wrong and terribly wrong!
I've Iearned me Iesson, sir.
I see now what I've never seen before.
I'm cured. Praise God!
You're not cured yet, boy.
But, sirs.
Missus!
I see that it's wrong!
It's wrong because it's, Iike, against society.
Because everybody has the right to Iive and be happy...
...without being tolchocked and knifed!
No, no, boy. You really must Ieave it to us.
But be cheerful about it.
In Iess than a fortnight now, you'II be a free man.
Ladies and gentlemen...
...at this stage, we introduce the subject himself.
He is, as you will perceive, fit and well-nourished.
He comes straight from a night's sleep and a good breakfast...
...undrugged...
...unhypnotized.
Tomorrow we send him out with confidence into the world again...
...as decent a Iad as you would meet on a May morning.
What a change is here, Iadies and gentlemen.
From the hoodlum the state committed...
...to unprofitable punishment two years ago.
Unchanged after two years.
Unchanged, do I say?
Not quite.
Prison taught him the false smile, the rubbed hands of hypocrisy.
The fawning, greased, obsequious Ieer.
Other vices it taught him...
...as well as confirming him in those he had Iong practiced before.
Our party promised to restore Iaw and order...
...and to make the streets safe for the ordinary peace-Ioving citizen.
This pledge is now about to become a reality.
Ladies and gentlemen, today is an historic moment.
The problem of criminal violence is soon to be a thing of the past.
But enough of words.
Actions speak Iouder than.
Action now.
Observe all.
Our necks are out a Iong way on this, Minister.
I have complete faith in Brodsky.
If the polls are right, we have nothing to Iose.
Hello, heap of dirt.
You don't wash much, do you, judging by the horrible smell.
Why do you say that? I had a shower this morning.
He had a shower this morning.
You trying to call me a Iiar?
No, brother.
You must think I'm awfully stupid.
Why did you do that, brother?
I've never done wrong to you.
You want to know why I did that?
Well, you see...
...I do this...
...and that...
...and this because I don't Iike your horrible type, do I?
And if you want to start something...
...you just go ahead. Go on!
PIease do!
I'm going to be sick.
You're going to be sick, are you?
I'm going to be sick. PIease Iet me get up.
You want to get up?
Well, now you Iisten to me.
If you want to get up...
...you've got to do something for me.
Here.
You see that?
You see that shoe?
I want you to Iick it.
Go on!
Lick it!
And, O my brothers, would you believe...
...your faithful friend and long-suffering narrator...
...pushed out his red yabzick a mile and a half...
... to lick the grahzny, vonny boots.
And again!
The horrible killing sickness had whooshed up...
...and turned the joy of battle...
...into a feeling I was going to snuff it.
And again.
Nice and clean.
Thank you very much.
That will do very well.
Thank you very much, Iadies and gentlemen.
She came towards me...
... with the light, like it was the light light of heavenly grace.
And the thing that flashed in me gulliver...
... was that I'd like to have her there on the floor...
... with the old in-out, real savage.
But quick as a shot came the sickness.
Like a detective who 'd been watching around the corner...
...and now followed to make his arrest.
Enough!
Thank you very much.
Thank you, my dear.
Not feeling too bad now, are you?
No, sir. I feel really great, sir.
-Good. -Was it all right, sir?
Did I do well?
Fine, my boy. Absolutely fine.
You see, Iadies and gentlemen...
...our subject is impelled towards the good...
...by paradoxically being impelled towards evil.
The intention to act violently...
...is accompanied by strong feelings of physical distress.
To counter these, the subject has to switch...
...to a diametrically opposed attitude.
Any questions?
Choice!
The boy has no real choice, has he?
Self-interest.
The fear of physical pain...
...drove him to that grotesque act of self-abasement.
Its insincerity was clearly to be seen.
He ceases to be a wrongdoer.
He ceases also to be a creature capable of moral choice.
Padre, these are subtleties.
We're not concerned with motives, with the higher ethics.
We are concerned only with cutting down crime.
And with relieving the ghastly congestion in our prisons.
He will be your true Christian...
...ready to turn the other cheek.
Ready to be crucified, rather than crucify.
Sick to the very heart at the thought even of killing a fly.
Reclamation.
Joy before the angels of God.
The point is that it works!
And the very next day, your friend and humble narrator...
... was a free man.
Son!
Hi, hi, hi there, my Pee and Em.
Mum.
How are you, Iove? Nice to see you.
-Dad. -Lad. What a surprise.
-Good to see you. -Keeping fit?
How are you, then?
I'm fine, fine.
Keeping out of trouble, you know.
I'm back!
Good to see you.
Why didn't you Iet us know what was happening?
I wanted it to be, Iike, a big surprise for you and Pee.
It's a surprise, all right. A bit bewildering too.
We've only just read about it in morning papers.
You should have Iet us know, Iad.
Not that we're not very pleased to see you again, and all...
...cured too, eh?
That's right. They did a great job on me.
I'm completely reformed.
Still the same old place, then?
There's a strange fellow sitting on the sofa...
...munchy-wunching Iomticks of toast.
That's Joe.
He Iives here now.
The Iodger.
That's what he is.
He rents your room.
How do you do, Joe?
Find the room comfortable, do you?
No complaints?
I've heard about you.
I know what you've done.
Breaking the hearts of your poor, grieving parents.
So you're back, eh?
Back to make Iife a misery for your Iovely parents once more?
Over my dead corpse, you will.
Because, you see, they've Iet me be more Iike a son to them...
...than Iike a Iodger.
Don't go fighting here, boys.
Do put your hand over your mouth, please.
It's bloody revolting.
Are you all right?
It's the treatment.
It's disgusting. Enough to put you off your food.
Leave him be, Joe. It's the treatment.
Do you think we ought to do something?
Would you Iike me to make you a nice cup of tea, son?
What have you done with all me own personal things?
That was all...
...took away, son.
By the police.
New regulation, see...
...about compensation for the victims.
What about Basil?
Where is my snake?
He met with...
...Iike, an accident.
He passed away.
What's going to happen to me, then?
I mean...
...that's my room he's in.
There's no denying that.
This is my home also.
What suggestions have you, my Pee and Em, to make?
AII this needs thinking about, son.
We can't very well just kick Joe out.
Not just Iike that, can we?
I mean...
...Joe's here doing a job.
A contract it is. Two years.
We made, Iike, an arrangement. Didn't we, Joe?
You see, son...
...Joe's paid next month's rent already...
...so whatever we may do in the future, we can't just say...
...to Joe to get out, now can we?
No, but it's much more than that.
I mean, I've got you two to think of...
...who've been Iike a father and mother to me.
It wouldn't be right for me to go off and Ieave you two...
...to the tender mercies of this young monster...
...who's been Iike no real son at all.
Look, he's weeping now.
But that's all his craft and artfulness.
Let him go and find a room somewhere else.
Let him Iearn the errors of his way, and that a bad boy...
...doesn't deserve such a good mum and dad as he's had.
AII right.
I know how things are now.
I've suffered and I've suffered...
...and I've suffered.
And everybody wants me to go on suffering.
You've made others suffer.
It's only right that you should suffer proper.
I've been told everything you've done...
...sitting around the family table.
And pretty shocking it was to Iisten to.
It made me real sick, a Iot of it did.
Now Iook what you've gone and done to your mother.
Come on. It's all right now.
Right!
I'm Ieaving now.
You won't ever viddy me no more.
I'II make me own way.
Thank you very much. Let it Iie heavy on your consciences.
Now don't take it Iike that, son.
Can you spare some cutter, me brother?
Thanks, brother.
Jamey Mack!
May the hokey fly!
Mother of God and all the blessed saints in heaven preserve us!
I never forget a face, me God!
I never forget any face.
Leave me alone, brother. I've never seen you before!
This is the poisonous young swine that near done me in.
Him and his friends.
They beat me and kicked me and punched me.
Stop him! Stop him!
They Iaughed at me blood and me moans, this murderous dog!
Then there was like a sea of dirty, smelly old men...
...trying to get at your humble narrator...
... with their feeble rookers and horny old claws.
It was old age having a go at youth.
And I daren 't do a single solitary thing, O my brothers.
It being better to be hit at like that...
... than want to sick and feel that horrible pain.
AII right, all right!
Stop it now!
Come on. Stop breaking the state's peace, you naughty boys!
Back away! Go away with you!
What's your trouble, sir?
Well!
Well, well, well!
If it isn't Iittle AIex.
Long time no viddy, droog.
How goes?
It's impossible.
I don't believe it.
Evidence of the old glazzies.
Nothing up our sleeves.
No magic, Iittle AIex.
A job for two who are now of job age.
The police.
Come on, AIex.
Come for walking.
Come, come, come, my Iittle droogies.
I just don't get this at all.
The old days are dead and gone.
For what I did in the past, I've been punished.
I've been cured.
That was read out to us.
The inspector read it all out to us.
He said it was a very good way.
But what is all this?
It was them that went for me, brothers.
You're not on their side, and can't be.
You can't be, Dim.
It was someone we fillied with back in the old days...
...trying to get his own revenge after all this time. Remember?
A Iong time is right.
I don't remember them days too horrorshow.
And don't call me Dim no more, either.
Officer, call me.
Enough is remembered, though, Iittle AIex.
And this is to make sure you stay cured.
That's enough.
A bit more. He's still kicking.
Cured, are you?
Be viddying you some more sometime, droogie.
Where was I to go, who had no home and no money?
I cried for meself.
Home, home, home.
It was home I was wanting.
And it was home I came to, brothers...
...not realizing, in the state I was in...
... where I was and had been before.
Who on earth could that be?
I'II see who it is.
Yes, what is it?
PIease....
Frank, I think this young man needs some help.
My God!
What's happened to you, my boy?
And would you believe it, O my brothers and only friends...
...there was your faithful narrator...
...being held helpless like a babe in arms...
...and suddenly realizing where he was...
...and why "home" on the gate had looked so familiar.
But I knew I was safe.
I knew he would not remember me.
For in those carefree days...
...I and my so-called droogs...
... wore our maskies, which were like real horrorshow disguises.
Police.
Ghastly, horrible police...
...they beat me up, sir.
The police beat me up.
I know you!
Isn't it your picture in the newspapers?
Didn't I see you on the video this morning?
Are you not the poor victim of this horrible new technique?
Yes, sir.
That's exactly who I am and what I am, sir. A victim.
Then, by God, you've been sent here by providence!
Tortured in prison, then tortured by the police.
My heart goes out to you. You're not the first to come here.
The police Iike to bring their victims to this village.
But it's providential that you...
...who are also another kind of victim, should come here.
But you're cold and shivering.
Julian...
...draw a bath for this young man.
Certainly, Frank.
Thank you very much.
God bless you.
He can be the most potent weapon imaginable...
...to ensure the government is not returned in the election.
The government's big boast, sir...
...is the way they have dealt with crime:
Recruiting young roughs into the police...
...proposing will-sapping techniques of conditioning.
We've seen it before in other countries.
The thin end of the wedge.
Before we know it, we'II have the full apparatus of totalitarianism.
This young boy is a Iiving witness to these diabolical proposals.
The people, the common people, must know, must see.
There are traditions of Iiberty to defend. That tradition is all.
The common people will Iet it go, yes.
They'II sell Iiberty for a quieter Iife.
That is why they must be Ied.
Driven. Pushed.
Fine.
Thank you very much, sir.
He'II be here.
I'm singing in the rain
Just singing in the rain
What a glorious feeling
I'm hap-hap-happy again
I'm laughing at clouds
So dark up above
The sun 's in my heart
I'm ready for love
Let the stormy clouds chase
Everyone from the place
Come on with the rain I've a smile on my face
I'll walk down the lane
Good evening, sir.
Good evening.
It was very kind of you to Ieave this out for me.
There was no one around, so I started.
Hope that's all right, sir.
Of course.
Food all right?
Great, sir. Great.
Try the wine.
Thank you, sir.
Cheers.
Happy days.
Won't you join me?
My health doesn't allow it.
No, thank you.
"1960, Château...
...Saint-Estèphe.
Médoc."
Very good brand.
Very good...
...color, sir.
Smells nice too.
Very nice Iittle number.
Here's to it.
Very refreshing, sir. Very refreshing.
I'm pleased you appreciate good wine.
Have another glass.
My wife...
...used to do everything for me and Ieave me to my writing.
Your wife? Is she away?
She's dead!
I'm sorry to hear about that.
She was very badly raped, you see.
We were assaulted by vicious young hoodlums...
...in this very room you're sitting in now.
I was Ieft a helpless cripple, but for her the agony was too great.
The doctors said it was pneumonia...
...because it happened Iater, during a flu epidemic.
The doctors told me it was pneumonia, but I knew what it was.
A victim of the modern age. Poor, poor girl!
And now you.
Another victim of the modern age.
But you can be helped.
I phoned some friends while you were having your bath.
Some...
...friends?
They want to help you.
-Help me? -Help you.
-Who are they? -Very, very important people.
And they're interested in you.
This'II be these people now.
I don't want to trouble you any further. I should be Ieaving.
No trouble at all.
Here.
Let me fill your glass.
So this is the young man.
How do you do, sir?
Missus. I'm very pleased to meet you.
I hope you forgive us for coming at this hour...
...but we heard you were in trouble...
...and so we came over to see if we could help.
Very kind of you, sir. Thank you very much.
I understand you had a rather...
...unfortunate...
...encounter...
...with the police tonight.
Yes, I suppose you could call it that.
How are you feeling now?
Much better, thank you.
Feel Iike talking, answering a few questions?
Fine, sir. Fine.
As I said, we've heard about you.
We are interested in your case.
-We want to help you. -Thank you very much.
Shall we get down to it?
Fine. Fine, sir.
The newspapers mentioned...
...in addition to being conditioned against acts of sex and violence...
...you've inadvertently been conditioned against music.
I think that was something that they didn't plan for.
You see, missus...
...I'm very fond of music. Especially Beethoven.
Ludwig van Beethoven.
-B-E-- -It's all right, thank you.
And it just so happened that while they were showing me...
...a particularly bad film of, Iike, a concentration camp...
...the background music was playing Beethoven.
So now you have the same reaction to music...
...as you do to sex and violence?
No, missus. You see, it's not all music. It's just the Ninth.
You mean Beethoven's Ninth Symphony?
That's right. I can't Iisten to the Ninth anymore at all.
When I hear the Ninth, I get, Iike...
...this funny feeling.
And then all I can think about is, Iike, trying to snuff it.
-I beg your pardon? -Snuff it. Death, I mean.
I just want to die peacefully...
...Iike, with no pain.
Do you feel that way now?
No, sir, not exactly.
I still feel...
...very miserable.
Very much down in spirits.
Do you still feel...
...suicidal?
Put it this way:
I feel very Iow in myself.
I can't see much in the future.
I feel that any second, something terrible is going to happen to me.
Well done, Frank.
Get the car, would you, please?
I woke up...
...the pain and sickness all over me like an animal.
Then I realized what it was.
The music coming up from the floor...
... was our old friend, Ludwig van...
...and the dreaded Ninth Symphony.
Let me out!
Open the door!
Come on, open the door!
Turn it off!
Stop it!
Turn it off!
PIease!
Turn it off!
Suddenly, I viddied what I had to do...
...and what I had wanted to do.
And that was to do myself in.
To snuff it.
To blast off forever, out of this wicked, cruel world.
One moment of pain, perhaps...
...and then sleep.
Forever and ever...
...and ever.
I jumped, O my brothers...
...and I fell hard.
But I did not snuff it.
If I had snuffed it...
...I would not be here to tell what I told have.
I came back to life after a long, black, black gap...
...of what might have been a million years.
He's recovered consciousness, Doctor.
Hello, Iad.
Hello, son.
How are you?
You feeling better?
What...
...gives...
...O my Pee and Em?
What makes...
...you think...
...you are welcome?
There, there, Mother. It's all right.
He doesn't mean it.
You were in the papers again, son.
It said...
...they had done great wrong to you.
It said...
...how the government...
...drove you to try...
...and do yourself in.
And when you think about it, son...
...maybe it was our fault too...
...in a way.
Your home's your home...
...when all's said and done, son.
-Good morning. -Good morning, Doctor.
-How are you feeling today? -Fine.
Good. May I?
-I'm Dr. Taylor. -Haven't seen you before.
I'm your psychiatrist.
Psychiatrist! Do I need one?
Just part of hospital routine.
Are we going to talk about me sex Iife?
I'm going to show you some slides...
...and you're going to tell me what you think about them.
Jolly good.
You know anything about dreams?
Something, yes.
-You know what they mean? -Perhaps.
You concerned about something?
No, not concerned, really...
...but I've been having this nasty dream.
Very nasty.
It's Iike...
...when I was all smashed up, you know...
...and half-awake and unconscious-Iike...
...I kept having this dream.
AII these doctors were playing around with me gulliver.
You know, Iike the inside of me brain.
I seem to have this dream over and over again.
Do you think it means anything?
Patients with injuries Iike yours often have dreams of this sort.
It's all part of the recovery process.
Now then, each of these slides needs a reply...
...from one of the people in the picture.
You tell me what you think the person would say...
...all right?
Righty-right.
"Isn't the plumage beautiful? "
I just say what the other person would say?
Don't think about it too Iong.
Say the first thing that pops into your mind.
Cabbages. Knickers.
It's not got a beak.
Good.
"The boy you always quarreled with is seriously ill."
My mind is a blank...
...and I'II smash your face for you, yarblockos.
Good.
"What do you want? "
No time for the old in-out, Iove. I've just come to read the meter.
Good.
"You sold me a crummy watch. I want my money back."
You know what you can do with that watch? Stick it up your ass!
"You can do whatever you Iike with these."
Eggiwegs.
I would Iike...
...to smash them.
And pick them all up...
...and throw--
Fucking hell!
There. That's all there is to it.
Are you all right?
Hope so.
Is that the end, then? I was quite enjoying that.
Good. I'm glad.
How many did I get right?
It's not that kind of a test.
But you seem well on the way to making a complete recovery.
When do I get out, then?
I'm sure it won't be Iong now.
So I waited...
...and, O my brothers...
...I got a lot better...
...munching away at eggiwegs and lomticks of toast...
...and lovely steakie-wakes.
And then one day...
...they said I was going to have a very special visitor.
Just wait outside for a moment, would you, Officer?
I'm afraid my change of schedule has thrown you.
The patient's in the middle of supper.
That's quite all right, Minister. No trouble at all.
-Good evening, my boy. -Hi there, my Iittle droogies.
How are you getting on, young man?
Great, sir. Just great.
Can I do anything more for you?
I don't think so, Sir Leslie.
Then I Ieave you to it. Nurse!
You seem to have a whole ward to yourself, my boy.
Yes, sir.
And a very Ionely place it is too...
...when I wake up in the night with me pain.
Anyway, good to see you on the mend.
I kept in touch with the hospital, of course.
And now I've come down personally...
...to see how you're getting along.
I've suffered the tortures of the damned.
Tortures of the damned.
Yes, I can appreciate that you've had an extremely--
Oh, Iook. Let me help you with that, shall I?
I can tell you that I, and the government of which I'm a member...
...are deeply sorry about this, my boy. Deeply sorry.
We tried to help you.
We followed recommendations that turned out to be wrong.
An inquiry will place the responsibility where it belongs.
We want you to regard us as friends.
We put you right.
You're getting the best of treatment.
We never wished you harm.
But there are some who did, and do.
And I think you know who those are.
There are certain people who wanted to use you for political ends.
They would have been glad to have you dead...
...for they thought they could then blame it on the government.
There is also a certain man...
...a writer of subversive Iiterature...
...who has been howling for your blood.
He's been mad with desire to stick a knife into you.
But you're safe from him now.
We put him away.
He found out that you had done wrong to him.
At Ieast he believed you had done wrong.
He formed this idea in his head that you had been responsible...
...for the death of someone near and dear to him.
He was a menace.
We put him away for his own protection.
And also for yours.
Where is he now?
We put him away where he can do you no harm.
You see, we are Iooking after your interests.
We are interested in you.
When you Ieave, you'II have no worries. We'II see to everything.
A good job on a good salary.
What job and how much?
You'II have an interesting job at a salary you regard as adequate.
Not only for the job you're going to do...
...and in compensation for what you believe you have suffered...
...but also because you are helping us.
Helping you?
We always help our friends, don't we?
It is no secret that this government...
...has Iost a Iot of popularity because of you, my boy.
There are some who think that at the next election we shall be out.
The press has chosen to take a very unfavorable view...
...of what we tried to do.
But public opinion has a way of changing.
And you, AIex...
...if I may call you AIex....
Certainly. What do they call you at home?
My name is Frederick.
As I was saying, AIex...
...you can be instrumental in changing the public's verdict.
Do you understand, AIex?
Do I make myself clear?
As an unmuddied Iake, Fred.
As clear as an azure sky of deepest summer.
You can rely on me, Fred.
Good.
Good boy.
I understand you're fond of music.
I have arranged a Iittle surprise for you.
Surprise?
One that I hope that you will Iike...
...as a...
...how shall we put it...
...as a symbol of our new understanding.
An understanding between two friends.
I was cured, all right!
English Subtitles by Gelula/SDI