King Creole

Next week, baby.

Songbird! Come here tonight and I'll dance with you free.

No, you don't. You gotta pay me.

Danny, come on. Your breakfast. Come on.

Don't let pop catch you talking to that.

Just being neighborly. He picked the neighborhood.

Lay off. He went broke. The neighborhood picked him.

Sit down and eat your breakfast.

It don't feel like the last day of school. Everything's so quiet.

Were you expecting a 21-gun salute?

Why not? At 3:00, it's all over. Don't that make it kind of special?

Tomorrow they call my name and give me a piece of paper.

It's for sure, isn't it, Danny?

- This time? - Sure, kid. I'm a cinch.

You said that last year.

Pop bought all this junk for a graduation party,

and there was no graduation.

Old Mrs. Pearson is the one that flunked me, but I showed her.

I showed the old man, too. He's been waiting a year to have this party.

Now he can stop bugging me.

He doesn't mean to bug you, he wants to be proud of you.

Sure.

I've been thinking a lot about the old house, Mimi, and about mom.

I wish she could be here for the graduation. I really miss her.

I miss her, too. He misses her the most.

It's terrible to lean on someone so hard, you don't know you're leaning.

Never finding out until she isn't there anymore.

It's been like stumbling around in the dark for him ever since.

When he sits there and watches you graduate,

he'll have eyes again for the first time in three years.

Then I'd better hurry.

Got a whole day's work ahead of me before Mrs. Pearson.

How do you think that's been eating at him?

You working in a joint like the blue shade.

One man in the family's gotta have a job.

Who cares where you sweep up? It looks the same in the garbage truck.

- Danny, you got pa all wrong. - Me and the world.

Look, sis, why are we fighting? It's the last day of school.

- Yeah. - Bye.

- Morning, chico. - Hi, Danny.

- Who's that? - Maxie's friends.

They've been here all night. Try to work around 'em. See you.

Ok. See you tonight.

Don't be like that. Come on, Ronnie, maxie said to be nice.

I am being nice to you. I haven't spit in your eye yet.

That's very funny.

You better do what maxie says. He's the boss around here.

Hey, kid! What happened to the music?

- The band went home. - Can you play the piano?

Leave him alone. He's just a busboy.

This joint's got a cabaret license. I paid, I want to be entertained.

Let's dance, honey. That's enough entertainment.

- The band went home. - Busboy here will sing us a song.

Hey, kid. Sing us a song and I'll buy you a drink.

Mister, I've gotta sweep up.

I appreciate it, but I'll be late for school.

School? The kid goes to school. Ain't that nice?

I went to school once. Bartender's school.

Ronnie, you ever go to school?

I said, you ever go to school? Wake up, stupid, I'm talking to you.

No, they never had to give you lessons.

Why, you...

- Let go of me, will you? - Forget it.

Ok, ok, take it easy. I'll sing.

You hear that, Ralph? The kid is gonna sing.

Don't ever try that again.

All right, what are you gonna sing?

Sing your school song. You gotta have a school song.

An Alma mater. The one with the words about loyal and true.

You heard the lady. Go ahead.

Come on, kid. Jazz it up!

- Attaboy, kid. - That's real nice, kid, real nice.

Here. What do you do for an encore?

Never mind.

Come on, honey, let's finish the dance. We don't need no music.

Hop it! What do you think I am?

I know what you are. Come here and be quiet.

You know what? It's a lifetime study

to find out who you are!

To thine own self be true, and it follows as the day...

To thine own self be true...

If you can afford it.

If you'll excuse me, my mother is waiting for me.

You never had a mother. Sit down! You looking for trouble, too, kid?

No. I'm just looking to get out of here.

- Let me go with you. - Get out and mind your own business.

- Get up! You're not a baby. - Leave her alone.

Come on. Get out of here.

Oh, boy. You're a pretty fancy performer, kid.

Now you know what I do for an encore.

Go on, get out of here.

Taxi!

Come on, baby, have a drink.

I guess I'll lose the job for this.

No, you won't. They won't tell maxie.

Maxie doesn't like to have his merchandise manhandled.

He'll loan me out to be mauled a little bit,

but when it comes to a sock in the eye,

that pleasure is for maxie fields alone.

- Nice fella. - Maxie? Yeah.

He wouldn't like you. You know why? Because I like you.

Maxie hates everything I like. Maxie's my benefactor.

He's the circus master, the cheese, the big cheese.

Big and green and moldy.

You're drunk. It's 8:00 in the morning.

I had to be home by midnight, I forget whose,

or my convertible turns into a pumpkin.

Maxie turns everything into a pumpkin.

Danny, why don't you kiss me? All the wrong people try to.

We're almost to the school. Tell me where you live.

I want to go to school with you.

I used to love to go to school. I was gonna be everything.

A nurse, and... a bus driver.

You know what I am? You're in the circus.

That's right. I'm in the circus.

I'm going in and explain everything.

You're going home, wherever that is.

Danny, Mrs. Pearson marked you absent.

We'll show Mrs. Pearson. Where'd you pick that up?

Go on. You never seen anybody with a few too many?

- Tell him where to take you. - I'll be a good girl.

If you'll give me a kiss, I'll tell the man where I live.

- How about that chick? - Go on.

Danny, you're blushing.

One second, Danny. Go ahead, Mrs. Pearson.

Late on the last day of school, your mouth smeared with lipstick.

- How do you explain that, Mr. Fisher? - I don't think I can, Mrs. Pearson.

You see, sir, this morning I went in...

I usually go in to sweep up, see?

- But... well, look, honey... - Mr. Fisher!

I have been instructing for 20 years,

- and no one ever called me "honey". - I believe you.

Mrs. Pearson, let me talk to the boy.

Forgive me, sir, I've talked to the boy many times, and to what avail?

In an unprovoked display of violence, he attacked two of his classmates.

The boy has no conception of respect and discipline.

Under the circumstances, regretfully, perhaps, I have no choice.

Mr. Fisher will not be graduating tomorrow.

Danny, wait a minute. I'd like to talk to you.

You know I'll have to go along with her?

- I want you to know that I'm sorry. - Thanks.

- I'll be seeing you next year. - No, you won't.

Now, wait a minute. Sit down, Danny.

Sit down, I said.

You've just been told that you're not graduating.

Doesn't that mean anything to you?

I'm not graduating. That's it. Now what do you want?

I once had a son, Danny. He lived 13 years.

Some hoodlums jumped him and he died.

What's that got to do with me?

Because you have all the earmarks of being a hoodlum,

- or whatever you want to call it. - This isn't principal talk.

The more difficult the student, the more I try to lean over backwards.

Mr. Evans, we moved into this neighborhood three years ago.

In those three years I've shined shoes and dusted in a barbershop.

I've done towel duty in four different men's rooms.

I've stacked chairs, swept floors in every joint on bourbon street.

It's got so I look longer at a dame with clothes on than one without.

I'm not a hoodlum, but I am a hustler.

I've had to be for a very simple reason. My old man.

My mother was killed in an accident three years ago.

It might as well have gotten the old man, too,

because he took himself right out of the line-up. He quit cold.

He lost the drugstore he owned, he lost the house,

and then finally what few little jobs he's had since.

Maybe I could have liked school, Mr. Evans,

but every time I wanted to play ball, I had to work.

Somebody had to. Anyway, now I'm through. I'm through.

I wasn't aware you worked after school, Danny.

It's not the working after school, it's the working before.

It's been nice talking to you.

I'm sorry I said what I did, Danny.

That's all right. My life's a long way from over yet,

and you never know, you may be right.

That's him.

- Excuse me. - You Danny Fisher?

- What about it? - Let's take a walk.

What's the beef?

They call me shark. This is sal, and that's dummy.

- L... - All right.

You beat up my brother in school today,

and I believe in an eye for an eye.

You go for the knife, I'll bash his brains out.

You go real fast. All right.

You're right about my brother. He should learn a little manners.

So would you like to hang out with us?

Why not? Wait a minute.

Wait. We get money. Sometimes we get a lot.

We got something cooking for us tomorrow.

If you change your mind, we'll be right here.

I said no.

Thanks.

Good boy.

Fights real dirty.

Well?

What's the matter?

Old lady Pearson flunked me. I'm not graduating.

- Danny, no. - Danny, yes.

For the second year in a row, yes.

If this keeps up much longer, I'll be a freshman again.