TITLE: Bonjour! Parlez-vous francais?
Casti-Piani laughingly makes way for the two.]
Lulu, sitting in her compartment, looks up and shrieks in delight. She holds out her arms to welcome Schigolch and Rodrigo as they push their way into her compartment and excitedly begin talking to her.
The train starts to move.
Alwa is standing morosely in the corridor. Casti-Piani comes up to him, taking out an expensive cigarette-case and offering him a cigarette. [Alwa hesitates for a moment, but Casti-Piani's face darkens with menace, so he takes a cigarette and accepts a light from the Marquis, who now benevolently puts his arm through Alwa's and draws him to the window. Here he takes a thoughtful puff on his cigarette, then says suddenly:]
TITLE: May I prove my friendship by offering you some good advice?
Alwa looks at him in silence. Then Casti-Piani pushes himself closer to Alwa, whispering almost in his ear:
TITLE: Don't go to Paris. Too many eyes there. Come with me instead. I know a place where the people are hospitable and know how to keep their mouths shut
We are on the Deck of a Ship. Over the remoter part of the harbour of a southern European city, the night sky glitters with stars. Close beside one another, sailing ships are lying at anchor, pointing their masts like fingers to the sky. On them, too, darkness reigns. Only the light buoys warn the few occasional boats of the obstruction.
On the deck of one of these ships there is a group of sailors. They squat together, inert, without a word. One is thoughtfully smoking a pipe, another cuts himself off a quid of chewing tobacco and shoves it in his mouth. The third tries to carve a sailing ship in the scanty light of a deck lantern. Somewhat apart from them, another man is sitting, weather-tanned and sporting a full beard. He is playing a plaintive mouth organ, while his right foot rocks a cradle. Under the thick bedding, the child is hardly visible. Behind him, a fat woman is taking a child's washing from a line.
None of these people takes any notice of a man, wearing a weather beaten naval uniform, who is climbing over the ship's rail towards them. He helps a woman climb up onto the deck of the sailing ship from a small rowing-boat lying close alongside. Behind them a sailor bends over the rail to hoist up two or three suitcases. The couple stand on deck looking around them.
Meanwhile the sailors encourage the harmonica player to go on with his plaintive song.
The woman stands on the deck and looks round wonderingly. We can now see that it is Geschwitz. She turns to the uniformed sailor beside her in astonishment:
TITLE: And Lulu's been living here for three months?
The sailor nods eagerly, his face creasing into friendly folds. Grinning, he bends his face to hers:
TITLE: It's a nice hotel comfy and discreet!
Meanwhile the sailor now has all the luggage out of the rowing boat, and has come up on deck. He takes the suitcases and follows Geschwitz and the uniformed sailor diagonally across the deck to a companion-way which leads into the interior of the ship.
A sailor in wide bell-bottomed trousers comes along the gangway. In one of his muscular arms he is holding a valuable champagne bottle carrier. As he disappears down the next flight of stairs, Geschwitz and the sailor come down from the deck. It is dark [but the sailor has an electric torch with which he lights the way]. They walk down the gangway to the second companion-way, which leads still deeper into the ship. And here, the astonished eyes of Geschwitz encounter a smiling figure coming up the steps from below. It is Schigolch. He comes up to them and shakes hands, first with Geschwitz, then with the sailor who has brought her. Then he guides them back down the next companion-way, the way he himself has just come. Camera holds on them as they go down the second flight of steps, then tilts down to view them through the openings in the wooden steps. At the foot of the second companion-way we see for the first time a narrow passage. In the darkness, several doors show dimly on right and left.
The light of an open doorway shows two people coming from the other direction a lady in evening dress, a gentleman in tails. They go happily through the open door into the warm light of the room within. The sailor with the suitcases follows them into this room. But Schigolch leads Geschwitz farther down the gangway towards a door at the end.
He opens this door and suddenly Geschwitz is blinded by the brightness of the light. She stands in the doorway, looking round. We are in a Large Saloon. Once, it may have served as a hold. The cross-beams and wall-ribs have remained raw and unpainted. The ceiling is low and heavy. In the middle of this room, flooded with bright light, men and women are crowding round a big gaming table. They are elegant, the women overloaded with jewellery. All races are represented: black, brown, yellow. And they are all concentrating, veiled in smoke, on the table and the game.
In the background a bar is installed. Among shining metal and cut glass and bottles, the barman is mixing cocktails. He is an old sailor, a fisherman from Iceland. The manager is leaning against the bar. His cap bears a captain's gold stripes. With brief looks he is directing the waiters of this room all honest-looking sailors. Schigolch points someone out to Geschwitz. She follows his gaze, nods happily and begins to move towards the crowd. Schigolch pushes her gently by the arm through the people who are standing squeezed around the table.
Among the crowd standing over the gaming table we can now see Lulu. She has changed her appearance. Like the others, she is in full evening dress and her hair is carefully arranged, but her only jewellery is a simple pearl necklace about her neck. She is standing intently over the seated Alwa as he concentrates on the game. His face is pale, his hair disordered, his eyes flickering feverishly about him. Geschwitz comes up and stands silently behind Lulu, watching. The game ends; Alwa has clearly lost again. Lulu turns round heavily, her eyes downcast.
She looks up to push her way past the obstructing crowd, and at first cannot believe it is true. She cries out in pleasure, stretching out her hand to Geschwitz to embrace her stormily. In the violence of this greeting there is more than just joy at seeing her again. It is like a sigh of relief, like a liberation from lasting strain.
Without letting go of Geschwitz, Lulu turns back to the table and jogs Alwa out of his infatuation with the game. He only turns and looks up at the two women with restless disquiet. He holds out his hand to Geschwitz, while turning back with feverish interest to watch the further progress of the game. Geschwitz sees with dismay the complete change in Alwa, then turns questioningly to Lulu. Lulu can only shrug her shoulders with a short, bitter laugh:
[TITLE: What do you expect? It's what we live on.]
They refrain from continuing the conversation, [while Lulu helps Geschwitz out of her fur coat and hands it over to Schigolch, who then takes it away with the hat which Geschwitz also hands him]. Geschwitz puts her arm round Lulu's bare shoulder and leads her across to the bar, leaving Alwa to go on with the game. The other guests rapidly crowd round to fill the space thus left by Lulu and Geschwitz. [A young man is sitting on a high bar-stool in the company of one or two pretty cocottes. He is in tails like all the rest].
At a table across the room, Schigolch and Rodrigo are celebrating magnificently with champagne. [Surrounded by a. throng of spectators, a tall, powerful woman stands with her legs planted widely apart, and her arms stretched out. In each hand she is balancing a chair. With the chairs still in her outstretched hands, she begins slowly to kneel down.]* {*Although we do not see this display in the film, it has clearly taken place, and the crowd is congratulating the powerful woman.} When she stands up again, Rodrigo leaps with his arms wide to embrace her. As he kisses her, groups of men are seen sitting on the chairs, pouring out champagne and drinking toasts to the enthusiastic, tumultuous, merry, half-drunken circle of spectators. But now, breaking away from this exuberant kiss, Rodrigo looks up and notices Lulu and Geschwitz, their arms round each others' waists, coming towards him. Flamboyantly, Rodrigo greets Geschwitz and kisses her hand. And, his breast swelling with pride, he points to the woman, goes and takes her in his arms and kisses her again before saying:
TITLE: My fiancee! We're going to do a sensational variety act!
Lulu laughs, looks at the woman again and congratulates Rodrigo. He takes Lulu aside and, holding onto her arm, mysteriously whispers:
TITLE: All we need is 20,000 francs to set the act up.
[When Lulu tells him, with a shrug of the shoulders and a laugh, that she hasn't got a penny, he becomes ill-tempered and pesters her, barring her way and saying:
TITLE: You must get me the money!
But she hasn't got it! Rodrigo becomes angry; he must have it! Lulu is already trembling with agitation; can't he leave her in peace? She almost pleads with him, but he won't give way; he presses her, now almost threatening. Then she says, to get rid of him:]
TITLE: Ask Alwa: maybe he won a lot of money today
[Rodrigo looks over to Alwa, but he is forced to make a sour face.] Alwa has just got up from the gaming table. From the distracted way he leaves his place and detaches himself from the crowd, it is clear that he has lost everything.
[Rodrigo takes angry note of this and turns to Lulu, who laughs bitterly and tries to leave him. But he seizes her by the arm again and points stealthily. The young man at the bar-table is still staring at her, despite the fact that one of the girls, who is sitting next to him, is prodding him with her fork. But the young man clearly isn't paying her any attention, so she turns back, despondently, to the bar-table. Rodrigo whispers to Lulu:
TITLE: The boy is stuffed full of money be nice to him and you can easily borrow the 20,000 from him
All at once Lulu becomes agitated and angry. Let me alone! She tries to tear herself free, and catches hold of Geschwitz's arm so that they may sit down at a table.]
Then Alwa comes up to Lulu, who forgets about Rodrigo as she looks urgently into Alwa's face. He draws her aside, trying to tell her something. Rodrigo's eyes show his smouldering anger as he watches them go. Geschwitz remains standing by the bar, biting her lip with excitement as she sees how Lulu is attacked from all sides. She stares at Rodrigo, alarmed by his inner violence and brute strength.
Alwa, and Lulu come out into the gangway, where they stand illuminated by the light streaming out from the saloon. Alwa asks Lulu if she has any money. But she has none; he knows she has none! She couldn't give any to Rodrigo either! Alwa is unhappy. Staring hopelessly before him, he murmurs:
TITLE: Damned bad luck If I had some money to keep at it, I'm sure I could win it all back
For a moment Lulu just stands there looking at him, perplexed. Then she thinks of something. Her hand reaches for her pearl necklace and with a sigh of resignation, quickly, before she can find time to change her mind, she takes it from round her throat.
Just as she is doing so, Rodrigo's great hulking figure appears in the doorway; he looks on angrily as
Lulu runs the pearls through her fingers, and, smiling as bravely as she can, holds them out to Alwa. Rodrigo's great hand comes down on her bare shoulder.
Roughly, he pulls her round and pushes her aside, reaching out at the same time for the pearls.
TITLE: That scoundrel will pocket the lot!
Lulu gets out of his way as he reaches again for the pearls. But Alwa resists angrily, putting them behind his back. So Rodrigo turns his anger on Lulu, repeating his words harshly to her. But she throws him an angry look: Stop that! She knows who she can trust! Before a full-scale row has had time to develop, Schigolch comes up to them from the companion-way; if he had not come between them Rodrigo would certainly have taken the jewellery. But Schigolch's black look works on Rodrigo like a hypnotic spell and the huge man slips back into the saloon, cowed by the powerful personality of the little man. Alwa can keep the pearls! [Joyfully, with renewed hope, he takes them, and is about to hurry back into the room] when Schigolch seizes him, draws him aside and
Leads him into the half-darkness of the gangway.
There he whispers to him with a tempter's smile:
[TITLE: A clever man only gambles on certainties . .]
And secretively looking around him, he takes a pack of cards out of his pocket and tries to pass them into Alwa's hands. But Alwa repulses him with determination and tears himself free. Schigolch smiles confidently and puts the cards back in his pocket.
In a Small Cabin aboard ship, a photograph of an Oriental woman, stunningly dressed and posed, fills the screen. Suddenly, we realise that it is Lulu. A hand removes the photograph. Beneath it there is a similar photograph; this time, Lulu is posing in a low-cut, backless evening dress. The same hand removes this to show a third picture: Lulu as a belly dancer, her arms raised provocatively above her head.
We are in a sort of discreet alcove. An Egyptian is leafing through these photographs of Lulu. He makes a disdainful face and shakes his head, like a buyer who is trying to beat the price down. Casti-Piani is drinking a cocktail through a long straw, looking up unconcernedly at the Egyptian. Coolly he raises his eyebrows:
TITLE: What will you pay me if I persuade the girl to dance in your cabaret in Cairo?
The Egyptian smiles shrewdly, as if to say: 'How much do you want ? '
TITLE: £300.
The Egyptian makes a grandiose gesture, as if to say, with Oriental exaggeration: What! Yes, £300, says Casti-Piani. The Egyptian jumps up, makes a demonstration:
[TITLE: Not a first-class article, my friend You are forgetting, the guests in my Cairo establishments are very fastidious]
The Egyptian protests: 'No, no; it's out of the question.' Casti-Piani lets him rant and rave; he doesn't give way. The Egyptian tries appealing to him as a friend, but no, Casti-Piani won't be swayed. Without losing his composure, and without taking his attention from his cocktail, he shakes his head, saying:
TITLE: £300. Not a penny less. The police will pay me £250 any day I want it.
The Egyptian flings himself back in his chair and ill-humouredly breaks off negotiations. He takes out a cigar and throws down the photographs. Casti-Piani gets up and leaves the cabin, leaving the Egyptian angrily striking a match.
At the gaming table in the Large Saloon, Lulu is standing behind Alwa; he is losing again.
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