The Salamander

~ The Salamander (1981) ~

It is a sad day for Italy.

General Pantaleone, Chief of Staff of the Italian Army,

has just died of natural causes in his bed.

General Pantaleone was a devoted apostle of tyranny,

but today, we must honor him as a fallen hero of democracy

who died in his sleep.

The slightest hint of suicide or assassination would mean chaos.

And chaos, Italian style,

would mean a circus of terror and bloodshed.

In true Roman tradition, the General was the victim of conspirators.

Which one?

General Leporello and his wife Elena.

He has a consuming passion for law and order.

Prince Baldasare, the Director of Counterintelligence and my boss.

The Polish Vice Consul of Milan,

a very good friend of the dead General's Mistress Lili Anders.

The indecently wealthy Bruno Manzini of Bologna.

The most powerful industrialist in Italy.

A charming cross between Caesar Borgia and Nicola Machiavelli.

Dante Alighieri Matucci, Colonel in the Counterintelligence Service.

That's me.

A little part of the sunshine, when we speak of sunny Italy,

my colleague and best friend Captain Stefanelli.

This is Japanese stock

in the design obviously a salamander.

This adorable legendary little beast that stands for justice and survives even fire.

Poetic, isn't it?

It was attached to a folder of blackmail, probably sent by the killer.

Let's leave the poetry to my namesake.

Anyway, this won't be difficult to trace. The design could have been a coat of arms.

I don't know, but I know someone who does know.

I thought you know everything, Steffi.

Knowing who knows is not everything, little brother?

The salamander card, keep it between us for now.

No files, no talk. Not even with the Director.

I understand, Colonel. He's only saw Pantaleone once before.

That was when Hitler was here.

I saw Pantaleone walking to the lobby of the hotel Excelsior with Göring.

Arm in arm, just like us.

I hear rumors, little brother. I hear whispers.

- Why Manzini? - There's a waiter in chess club

would carry the message to Pantaleone the night he died.

- We found ways to make him talk. - And?

The message was from Manzini. End of chapter.

Must have been some talk.

You've done better, I suppose.

The paper in Pantaleone's safe.

The General unloaded about 100 million Lira worth of stock this month.

He was selling off his property like overripe tomatoes.

Now, the General was running.

The money?

- Safe deposit box. - No... Empty safe deposit box.

All of Pantaleone's papers, gone. The work of one Gianni Bandanelli.

The lawyer for Pantaleone and other fascists.

But don't despair, little brother. We have a file on Bandanelli.

You'll find ways to make him talk.

- B? You know it comes after A. - Your salamander card.

I was right about the coat of arms.

You know it has been used one way or the other all through Europe there since

Charlemagne was only a Charles.

My friend is sure he can trace him. But I tell you, little brother, I'm scared.

This is a country with no state.

We have parties, we have factions, we have waring interests.

But the little man in the street is being screwed.

You are from the Carabinieri ?

Hmm, a Colonel.

Please, sit down.

And the point of the visit?

I'm sorry to have to tell you, Miss Anders, General Pantaleone was murdered.

You will tell this to no one.

For the rest of Italy, he died of natural causes.

I see.

- You were with the General that night? - Must we do this now, Colonel? - Yes.

We had dinner at the Chess Club.

He brought me home early. Ten o'clock.

He didn't come up. He said he was tired.

Were the two of you alone all evening?

Yes. Except...

A waiter brought him a message that someone wished to see him.

I don't know who. He... left the dining room for a few minutes.

Said nothing when he returned.

- We spoke of roses coming back to season. - May I?

Coffee?

- Who is this Salamander? - Who's the Salamander?

- My dear Colonel... - Matucci.

I was the woman in Massimo's life.

When he came here, he... left his other life at the doorstep.

I gave him affections, he gave me comfort.

I am a professional mistress,

out of a job, you might say.

- Would there be anything else, Colonel? - Only one more thing.

This room is bugged.

Please, step out here.

How is it possible? How do you know?

It's possible because you bugged it, Lili Anders.

I know because you set me in a very special way.

And the only time I got up, you repeated my question.

You're rather amateurish, Lili. Not at all like your codename.

"Falcon," is it not? Call me Dante, colleagues.

You made your point. It's chilly. Can we go back inside?

I'd like to live as long as you let me, Dante.

Maybe a hundred years more and a day.

Treacherous, treacherous, Miss Lili Anders.

- What else do you know, Dante? - I know you inside out.

Down to your latest dispatch to codename "Pigeon."

All the members of your ring are girls. Are they not?

- Interrogation time, isn't it? - I'm not the interrogator.

The real interrogator is a monster.

He has a sort of codename too, by the way. We call him "The Surgeon."

And he's never even been to medical school.

- Do something Italian, Lili. Change sides. - Can you protect me, Colonel?

That's God's job.

But as long as you're useful, I put in a good word for you.

- You son of a bitch! - That's not useful.

My directive...

report warnings of any potential takeover with government by neo-fascist elements.

In other words, rightward shifts in the high command.

Now, we can go inside.

What are your orders, Miss Anders?

What will you report on Pantaleone's death?

Somebody is preparing a fascist coup in this country.

Pantaleone, the fascist, has fallen from grace.

Enter man on white horse.

- And... the Salamander? - Never heard of him.

The Woodpecker, Stanislas Stanislow, Polish Vice Consul in Milan.

That's all he says, other than protests his diplomatic immunity.

Not one question, says he. Just one, I say,

and you'll be released immediately.

Expelled the whole flock of you.

- All right, one. - Tell me, Woodpecker,

why was Lili Anders ordered to develop a file on General Leporello?

Well, where has General Leporello been the last five months?

Italians! He has been south.

South America, South Africa, South Asia.

And of course, the United States,

studying state terror, torture and treason...

for what the Americans call counterinsurgency.

Maybe he would have done better studying in Poland.

- Quite unnecessary, Colonel. - Who's this Salamander?

We made a deal, Colonel. One question.

And now if you're a man of your word, I expect to be released immediately.

Expel, sir. Expelled.

And see to the arrangements immediately.

Matucci here. I want the file on General Leporello on my desk in 5 minutes.

What?

I see.

It's classified. Director's eyes only.

- Since when? - Yesterday.

We have to take care of our own, don't we?

Do you know why I joined this service?

Because, I thought, if what happened before would happen again,

I would know before anyone else.

That was 35 years ago.

What a mistake!

General Leporello.

Yesterday, it was Mussolini.

Today, the ghosts are climbing out of their graves

in a training camp for law and order.

Riot control, a classic answer to the forces of anarchy.

Hold on! Hold on everybody! Now we are to go through this again.

Get in line. That's it. Okay, now get ready.

I trust this won't take more than a minute, Colonel.

It is my duty to inform you, sir,

that you've been under surveillance by foreign agents

as possible successor to General Pantaleone.

In what capacity?

As a military leader of a righteous coup.

Colonel, I'm accustomed to such surveillance,

both foreign and domestic.

Pantaleone was a fascist and an opportunist. I'm neither.

It is my urgent hope that you'll find out why my name was brought up at all.

There are certain documents the General was being blackmailed.

Where are those documents?

In his lawyer's office, but in our custody.

The blackmailer uses the symbol of a salamander.

Does that mean anything to you, sir?

During the war, one of the partisan bands in the north, Communists, I'm sure,

was led by a man who called himself The Salamander.

He would always leave his calling card,

whenever they struck against the Fascists or the Germans.

- His name? - No one had names in those days.

I wish you luck, Colonel.

Thank you for your time, sir.

By the way, Colonel,

I assume you discussed this matter with your director.

- No, sir. - You should.

An agent named Rigoli, he was making an inventory of Pantaleone papers,

he hasn't called in.

I sleep in the basement and know when there's cats on the roof,

and I heard nothing.

37 years in this building and you will like a coat.

You have a hole in your coat.

Mace! Anybody in here should be asleep, to say the least.

Bandanelli!

You wait here.

- Warm. - The safe, empty.

The Pantaleone's papers are gone.

What I fail to understand, Matucci,

is why you did not take immediate possession of the Pantaleone papers?