no. who'd he shoot?
what's so special about him?
why, you promised me a vacation.
yeah.  but there's a.  a girl i know.
the question is.  can i?
right. oh.  uh.  what did you say his name was?
the fellow's name.
willie stark.
i found him in kanoma city. a typical, hot, dusty, backwoods county seat.
where can i find tiny duffy?
uh, they told me i could get my camera back here.
people. can i?
are you tiny duffy?
chronicle.
that's true.  only my boss on the paper can't see it that way.
whose business is it?
you a commissioner?
who isn't a commissioner?
then you're in a position to know where --
i thought you said he was head man?
burden's my name.  jack burden. can we go somewhere where we can talk?
i know your side. what happened to the plate your men took from my camera?
you've been talking for a long time, mr. stark.
how old is the boy?
how long have you been married?
and now you, mrs. stark?
how did you meet?
is that the only reason?
when did they fire you, mrs. stark?
if you don't mind the truth, mr. stark, you haven't much of a chance.
oh, you studying law too?
here you are.  the last of the willie stark articles. now can i go?
i do.
i hadn't been home in a long time. only a hundred and thirty miles from kanoma city. it was separated from the mainland by a body of water. for the first time i wondered if it wasn't separated by more than that.
hello, mother.
you look beautiful, mother.
two or three weeks. if that's all right with you.
stepfather, mother.
yes, mother.
excuse me.  i.
dr. stanton, i presume.
good to see you, judge. how have you been? what have you been doing?
do you mind if i kiss your niece, sir?
thank you, mother. thank you very much.
i like what i'm doing, mother.
a lot of people like them.
what are you afraid of?
you think you can buy anything, don't you?
apologize? i'd rather die.
well, i don't. neither do you. you don't love him, mother. you never did.
i can get along without him. you need this house. and the parties. and the cars and the clothes and the lies. i don't. it's the truth, mother, face it. for once in your life, face it.
anne, burden's landing is a place on the moon. it isn't real. it doesn't exist. it's me pretending i live on what i earn. it's my mother trying to keep herself young, and drinking herself old doing it. it's you and adam living in this house as though your father were still alive. it's an old man like the judge dreaming of the past.  anne, come away with me.
and live in a shack and eat red beans. anne, what do you want me to do?
are you afraid i can't make a living?
what is it you want me to be?
like your father. all right. i'll run for governor. anne, i'm sorry. i'm sorry i said that.
anne, i've wanted you to say that more than anything in the world, and now that you've said it.  anne, i guess you were right. i'm not sure of anything, including myself. i'm not sure i could live up to the.  anne, wait for me. please wait for me.
yeah.
yeah?
well, i guess that's the end of willie stark.
no more politics, eh, willie?
the question i'd like to know is, why all the speeches you're making around the countryside?
fine, willie, fine.
do you mind if i sit with you, sadie?
thanks.  tell me, what are you on this merry-go-round for?
for whom?
which is.
smart people.
you don't have to be smart to frame a guy like willie stark.
it is a frame, isn't it?
to split the vote and win the election for harrison, huh?
i just want to make sure.
look, why don't you tell the boys back home to save their money. willie couldn't steal a vote from.  from abe lincoln in the cradle of the confederacy.
i don't know, sadie. i really don't know.
fine, willie, fine.
shut up yourself! listen, willie, try it on your feet this time.
all right.  look, willie, you tell 'em too much. just tell 'em you're going to soak the fat boys and forget the rest of the tax stuff.
but it's the way you say it. willie, make 'em cry. make 'em laugh, make 'em mad, even mad at you. stir 'em up and they'll love it and come back for more. but for heaven's sake don't try and improve their minds.
what?
well, they haven't counted up the votes yet.
come in.
help yourself.
nothing.  except willie here has been saying as how he's not going to be governor.
i don't tell anyone anything.  i just listen.
sadie! that's enough.
that's what they tell me.
hey, lay off that. you're not used to it.
why don't you lay off of him, sadie?
well, things seem to have quieted down.
yeah. how was he? noisy?
his wife.
well, i'll take him from here on in. they're waiting for him at the barbecue.
hey, willie, willie.  come on, wake up, willie. come on, willie.
never touches the stuff. lucy doesn't favor drinkin'.
hair of the dog that bit him.
shut up!
sadie, he's wonderful.  wonderful.
i thought the chronicle line was --
how do you square that?
well, i don't.  not any more.
if you had any guts you'd print this.
i know. you've got a wife and three kids and your boy goes to princeton.
i'm too rich to work.
we didn't do so good.
you heard wrong, willie. i quit.
how do you feel, willie?
yeah.  what?
i didn't see willie again until his second campaign.  four years later.
i drifted from job to job.
that is, whenever i could find one.
but always further and further away from anne, and the life at burden's landing.
but willie wasn't drifting. he knew where he was going.
he had his foot in the door and he kept right on pushing to get in. he had lost the election but he had won the state.  and he knew it.  and the people knew it.
they were all hopping on his bandwagon.  even tiny duffy.
yep, willie came back like he said he would.
willie was right -- he'd learned how to win.
he spent a lot of money doing it.  an awful lot of money.  i was beginning to wonder where he got it from.
there were rumors throughout the state that willie was making deals with all kinds of people.  strange deals.  for willie stark.
the second time out, it wasn't a campaign.  it was a slaughter. it was saturday night in a mining town.
he came back and he took me with him.
it looks like everybody works for you.
if they all look like them i'd hate not to take one.
how is tom?
oh. and lucy?
sadie!
doing what?
three hundred dollars a month.
for a bag of salt.
you throw money around like it was money.
why?
i was going home again. but this time it was different. now i had a feeling that maybe the waiting was over.  for me, and for anne.
are there any questions? mr. mcevoy.
judge?
adam, you know how rumors start.
you've got to say yes. with you in the race.
what if it was his bribe! he swept the old gang out of office. what if they hollered like stuck pigs? he jammed through bill after bill and the people got what they wanted.
he started to build the roads, the schools, the power dams, to change the face of the state from one end to the other.  his methods?
politics is a dirty game.  and he played it rough and dirty. willie's little black book was a record of sin and corruption. and me, jack burden? i kept the book and added up the accounts.
clown, show-off, playboy, they yelled at him. building football stadiums. fiercely proud of his son who played in them.
they said he was building up a private army. but he was building, always building.
always playing up to the crowd. letting them trample on tradition. well, tradition needed trampling on.
the crowd loved it.  willie loved it.  and so did i.
what goes on here?
why, sadie, i'm surprised at you.
if i met her on the street i'd never recognize her.
how should i know? i wasn't looking at her face.  look, if it's going to cause all this grief, why don't you let him go?
just because a guy's sitting with a couple of girls on his knees in public.
you could always bleach your hair.
he's been two-timing lucy. so there's another kind of arithmetic for what he's doing to you.
you seem to think lucy's on her way out, don't you?
you ought to know.
hey, you got the wrong guy. i'm not the hero of this piece.
he's right, judge. can't you see that he's right?
i've known the judge all my life. he's always meant everything he's said.
but we beat the pillsbury rap.  it's over.
you're crazy. there's nothing on the judge.
what if i won't do it?
what are you going to do? have me shot?
i tell you there's nothing on the judge.
it's a waste of time.
i kept saying to myself that willie was wrong about the judge. if there was anything left at burden's landing, it was honor. i had to believe that.
anne, i want to ask you a question. was the judge ever broke? really broke?
i don't want to know, but i've got to.
did who tell me?
me, i'm on the thirsty side. bring some glasses, anne, quick.
another glass, anne, for a ghost.
shall we dance?
no, no.  keep playing. anne and i want to hear this, don't we, anne? adam.  ghost.  and me.
to the ghost?.  to adam, to the director of the new medical center.
i'm sorry, adam.
why? because your uncle resigned?
anne, if adam doesn't want to discuss it, let's not.
because you're the best man for the job.
it could have. let's grant that.
no, it's not. if that were the only answer i wouldn't be with him any more. there's another side of it. i've learned something from him. you can't make an omelet without cracking eggs.
at any price.
i really believe that stark wants to do good. you do too. it's a matter of method. many times out of evil comes good. well, pain is an evil. as a doctor you should know that.
the people of the state don't think so.
will i find anything, judge? will i? i didn't find it all at once. it takes a long time to go through old courthouse records and musty deeds.  a very long time. but it wasn't too hard for me. i was well trained in research, especially this kind.
i found what i didn't want to find.
have some photostat copies made of these. i'll be back tomorrow for them.
who is it?
wait a minute.
all right, come in.
stone.
i'm not. i've been sleeping.
willie knows everything.
willie's boy is worried about willie's boy.
that's not my problem.
i'll be with you in a minute.
what do you mean?
what are you talking about?
answer me!
what are you talking about?
you're crazy, sadie. you're out of your mind.
shut up!
shut up!
he's off today.
yeah. i figured if you needed me you'd yell.
thinking.
things.
nothing.
yeah, i'm sure.
if you want me to.
what? bucket boy? towel slinger? what?
what else do you want me to do?
what do you want me to do?
oh? how did you hear it?
i just wanted to know.
how did you hear he turned it down, willie?
i'd like anne to see you now. i'd like anne to see you now, you drunken sot! come on.
you can never tell about a head injury. maybe the boy's hurt.
tom.  cut it out!
there isn't a plane flying.
i still think dr. stanton should operate.
about what?
about what?
he doesn't know a thing.  not a thing.
the boy?
he'll live.
willie?
he'll find someone else to blame in a few days.
anne.  anne, why did you do it?
you mean he wasn't like me.
everybody loves him.
are you going to?
his career!
what willie needs, willie's got.
what about adam?
well, you don't have to worry about him. if adam finds out it'll be easy to prove a stanton is no different than anybody else. just show him these. willie was right.  a man is conceived in sin and born in corruption. even judge stanton. show them to him, anne. change the picture of the world that adam has in his head, just like our picture of it has been changed.
wipe out everything he's ever believed in. it'll be good for him. there's no god but willie stark. i'm his prophet and you're his.  oh, anne.  anne, i'm sorry. i didn't mean.  anne!
it's all right, officer.  we both work for willie stark.
now he had us all.  me, anne, and adam. now we all worked for him.
if you don't mind, mrs. stark.  the boys have to get back to make the morning editions. set 'em up on the porch, fellows. we'll take some pictures out here, first.
mrs. stark, please.  all right, fellows, take one down there, will you please.  shoot it up this way.
i'll wait outside.
who do you mean?
if and when you need it.
i'm going to give him a break. if he can prove it isn't true, i won't spill it.
i promised two people i'd do it this way.
myself.  and someone else. it doesn't matter who. i'm going to give him a break.
that's the way it's going to be.
i'll be around.
the chips were down, and willie knew it. he was fighting for his life. he roared across the state making one speech after another. and all of them added up to the same thing.  "it's not me they're after, it's you!"
willie hollered foul. willie knew if you hollered long enough, hard enough, and loud enough, people begin to believe you. just in case they didn't, he organized spontaneous demonstrations.
in case anyone hollered back, he organized spontaneous slugging. willie pulled every trick he ever knew -- and added a few more.
hey, sugar! you'll never live to be impeached!
and always the trail led to one place.  burden's landing.  and the judge.
i'm sure.
judge, i beg you, as a favor to yourself, to me.  call up, release your votes.
judge, you know what stark is capable of. think it over. i'll leave now. i'll come back tomorrow and we'll talk about it again. you can give me your answer then.
i told you not to come in here.
you'll get your answer tomorrow.
how did you find out?
for me too, judge.
i asked you.  how did you find out?
judge, i beg of you, call and release your votes, for your sake.
how did you find out?
you know we're through, don't you?
did you give him --
answer me. did you give --
no.
yeah. i know. well, i kept my promise.
come in. the door's open.
what do you want?
no, i want to see you cry.
stop it!
i know. i was here.
tell him what?
about you and willie?
how was it, anne? you tell me.
your brother is an old-fashioned man. he believes in his sister's honor. me, i'm a modern man. the twentieth-century type. i run.
for who? your brother, or willie?
who's through with who?
better for who? him.
did he tell you that too when he asked you to betray the judge? at least i walked out on him.
if i ever loved you. i'll go find adam.
do you know who dr. stanton is?
did he try to come through here today?
well, can you check the other entrances?
no, thanks. i'll wait out here. if dr. stanton shows up, let me know. pass the word along to the boys, will you?
anne, anne.  where are you going?
to do what?
no, that's too easy.
i do.
no, no more.
we're alive.
we've got to go on living.
so that adam's death has meaning, so that it wasn't wasted. anne, our life has to give his death meaning. don't you see that? look at those people.
look at them! they still believe in him. and we've got to make them see willie the way adam saw him, or there's no meaning in anything.  anything.
will you wait here?
will you wait here?