You made it. The final episode.
The thrilling end to my lost masterpiece,
"The Spoils Before Dying."
I'm Eric Jonrosh, writer, musician, wino.
If you think tonight's subject matter
is somewhat tame by today's vulgar standards,
try and remember I originally shot
"The Spoils Before Dying" in 1959.
Those were different days.
Jazz and art and sexual freedom
was under attack from all powers.
Artists like Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams
made veiled attempts to speak to the evil being done to the human soul,
but they lacked the raw courage I had.
If Tennessee Williams had written what was really on his mind,
he would have been thrown out of the country, as was I.
I was exiled from my own country.
I financed my movies with my own money
and I went broke doing both.
Where am I now? Well, I can't find a job.
I can't shoot a commercial in this town.
A commercial for cat food, anything.
They won't let me touch a camera.
But, then, perhaps they are right.
If they gave me a cat food commercial,
I would turn it, if not into a work of art,
then at least something approximating
an illumination of the human soul,
a reminder that life is to be lived,
loved and enjoyed.
L'chaim! To life!
Is that what that means? Hmm.
Hey, P.S., that's who I am.
Banyon's voice: My name is Rock Banyon,
and I've been accused of murder.
For three days now, I've been looking for a gold cigarette case
to clear my name.
Was it hidden in an old tenor sax case?
Or was it in that sculpture once owned by Adolf Hitler?
I found the saxophone.
Now all I needed was that sculpture.
Salizar! What happened, buddy?
I don't know. I came, maybe to find my cigarette case.
Let me guess... a crazy doctor stuck a long needle in you
then off you went to Looneyland without a map.
Yes, again, my friend!
It was terrible.
- You're lucky to be alive. - (groaning) Very lucky!
Salizar!
(groaning)
Do you have my cigarette case?
I don't figure you in all this, Salizar.
It was a very special cigarette case.
That case was very important for our family.
It was made specially for my grandmother
by the F.W. Woolworth Company.
F.W. Woolworth?
When my grandmother was dying, I came to her,
and she handed me the cigarette case and said,
"Salizar, you must guard it with your life."
I didn't understand.
She told me it was a gift from Mr. Woolworth himself.
From the F.W. Woolworth Company.
F.W. Woolworth gave your grandmother
a cigarette case?
Oh, no, of course not!
She slept with an American businessman
and he gave her a two-dollar cigarette case!
Oh...
And I lost it to Stygamian in a poker game.
You weren't looking for what was inside of the cigarette case?
Inside? (laughing)
(choking)
But you knew the cost. Why'd you care?
You live for the truth, Rock Banyon.
I live for the lie.
- (groaning) - Salizar.
- (grunting) - Stay with me, Salizar.
Salizar! Salizar.
Ripped By mstoll
Farewell, Salizar Vasquez
Saint Germain Vasquez DeLeon.
Banyon's voice: I felt bad leaving
the Mexican Salizar dead in the casa of horrors,
but there wasn't much I could do for him now.
But there was a hell of a lot I could do for myself.
(whispering) F... W... Woolworth...
Company.
Banyon's voice: I raced up to my cabin
to meet with Delores and Alistair.
I had the sculpture,
and Delores was bringing the saxophone case.
Who killed Fresno and Stygamian?
It wasn't me, I knew that.
Somewhere in that sax case or in that sculpture
was the identity of the real killer.
Time was running out.
I sat down to read the latest Eric Jonrosh novel
about two hippie bikers looking for kicks
in Mexico called "The Spoils Over the Border."
Not his best, but it passed the time
while I waited for Delores and Alistair.
(door opens, closes)
Brr! Baby, it's cold outside.
I dare say, old bean, you sure know how to throw a party!
But what's with all the cloak-and-dagger business?
I was beginning to worry about you two.
Did you bring the saxophone case?
- Got it right here, Rock. - Okay.
There's some biscuits on the table if you're hungry.
Biscuits!
And a spot of brandy. Don't mind if I do.
Hey, if we're gonna have brandy and biscuits,
- looks like we're about to have... - Together: Briscuit!
Item number one, Wardell's saxophone case.
Every saxophone player has a hidden compartment.
He was supposed to deliver something to Stygamian,
something he got paid a lot of money for,
but Bebop stole the case, hoping to cash in.
(mumbling) Is that so?
Are you choking?
Here.
It's like a paste, it turns into it.
- Bebop Jones. - Yeah.
Bebop got Wardell killed,
and then the killers caught up to him.
Whatever's in this envelope, a lot of people died for.
What is it, Rock? Open it!
Photographic negatives.
It's a group of naked men
in some sort of sexual activity.
This one's of a famous American actor.
Is that a garden rake?
It's a whole bunch of actors,
politicians, novelists,
Olympic gold medalists, the police commissioner?
These were taken in that secret room
under Stygamian's house.
They were blackmailing Stygamian and his friends.
If these pictures got out, it could ruin lives.
But why kill Stygamian? Why not blackmail him?
Stygamian must've had something dangerous
on these blackmailers,
something more dangerous than pictures.
Perhaps it's hiding in that hunk of art over there.
Go, go.
(gasps)
Looky there!
Salizar was right. It's a beauty!
I mean, for a cheap cigarette case
from the F.W. Woolworth Company.
It's the Nazi swastika.
I mean, it predates its usage in Hitler's Germany,
but it's known to mankind
as the tyrannical symbol
of repression and fear.
Open it, Rock.
Aw, that scotches it. It's in German.
Anybody here speak German?
Let me take a crack at it.
Okay, uh, "Eich... bein... herlacher."
Eich... bein... my bike...
her locker... my bike and her locker.
Oh, who am I kidding? I don't speak German.
I dare re-re-re-re-say let me give it a crack.
Yes, it says, "Friends of the Reich."
And then right here it goes on to list hundreds of names.
There's a section called "Amerikaners."
It's a virtual who's who of American leaders.
Senators, generals, industrialists,
tennis stars, Errol Flynn... the list goes on and on.
Isn't that the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation?
"J. Edgar Hoover."
And there's a star next to his name.
I can't ask you two to go any further on this ride.
Well, I already bought my ticket, Rock.
You in the cabin! Rock Banyon,
you have ten seconds to come out,
or we start shooting.
- Let's make a deal. - No deal! We want the book.
We should just give him the book, Rock.
We give him this book, and we're all dead.
What's it gonna be, Banyon?
No deal! The book is my way out of here.
Would this be a bad time to mention that I booked you
at the Western Sound Studios tonight for a string session?
I didn't agree to no string section.
Rock, as your agent, it's my duty to impress upon you
that doing a strings album won't ruin your career as an artist.
In fact, more people than ever will hear your music.
That's a sellout and you know it.
Look, Alistair, I don't expect you to understand.
- Most people wouldn't. - (bullets ricocheting)
But when a man dedicates himself to his art,
there's only one person he has to answer to
and that's himself.
And that's not pride, it's not selfishness.
It's not arrogance. It's the higher power.
It's a suicide pact with the truth.
That's right, Alistair, the truth.
Now, for the last couple of days,
this town has shown me men who are scared to be who they are,
hiding in the shadows, knowing only the twilight
because their truth is too dangerous
for a world that does not accept the truth.
The men in that German book, the powerful Americans,
they secretly collaborated with the Nazis,
and now they're among us ruling our lives,
making sure that we never know who we are,
making sure that we hide in the shadows,
making sure that we don't know our truth.
Guess what, though?
I'm a jazz musician, and music is my truth!
It's the highest vibration. It's freedom.
You put strings on my music,
and you might as well put me in the gas chamber.
Because somebody's gotta fight.
Might as well be me.
Ah!
Oh!
You pick up that gun and you're dead!
I'm warning you. I'm a crack shot.
How do you want to play it?
You tell your boss, Mr. Hoover, I've got his book.
And if he wants it back,
he's gotta meet me at Kenton Price's beach house.
I'll tell him.
Take care, now.
(engine starts)
- Bye, now. - Toodle-oo!
Delores: Oh, Rock, can't we just go to a part of the world
where no one ever goes?
You can play the piano, and I can make cakes and pies
and sing a little,
and no one will ever find us.
What do you say?
I got 'em on the run, lover.
For the first time, I'm calling the shots.
You two take the back roads out of here.
I'll catch up with you later.
Where, Rock? Where?
I don't know, lover. I don't know. But I will.
I love you, Rock.
I don't know how or which or when or where
or when it happened, but I know that I do.
Save it, cupcake. You save it for later.
We'll have all the time in the world for lovemaking then.
All the time in the world?
And more.
Banyon's voice: J. Edgar Hoover
killed Wilbur Stygamian.
He killed Fresno Foxglove and Wardell, too,
all because they knew he had been collaborating
with the Nazis during the war.
He thought he could push around a bunch of homosexuals
the way he pushed around everyone else.
But Wilbur Stygamian pushed back with Hitler's secret book.
Hoover killed him to get the book.
And now I had the book,
and it was my turn to push back.
Man: Sit down, Mr. Banyon.
You've done your country a great service.
I know who you are.
Yes. I am the bogeyman, J. Edgar Hoover,
and you have something that belongs to me.
How you figure that?
I made a trade for it and I want it.
Stygamian's book, huh?
The one with your name in it?
Yes. I made a deal.
A trade for some photos I had.
Photos I believe you have seen.
Yeah, I've seen 'em.
I was going to expose
the Hollywood "homosesual" community to the world
because it is my duty as an American.
But Stygamian discovered you were working with the Nazis.
Of course, I collaborated with the "Nazies."
Hitler was right.
The strongest societies are built on fear and repression.
After the war, I cleaned up Washington, D.C.
I kicked all the Communists and the "homosesuals"
out of our government.
Hollywood was next.
Don't you understand, Mr. Banyon?
America can be strong if it can be policed.
And who's policing you?
People who like their jazz with strings?
Would it surprise you to hear I like my jazz with strings?
I want my book, Mr. Banyon.
While American Gls were dying for this country,
you were helping Hitler.
- I want that book! - You're never getting that book.
- I want that book! - I'm not giving it to you.
You hand it over now.
I give you that book, and there's no stopping you.
That book is the only thing between you
and your twisted ambition.
I give you that book and a lot of lives will be ruined.
I just can't let that happen.
Then I guess you'll have to join your friend,
Fresno Foxglove.
(clicks)
(gunshots)
(groans)
Good work, gentlemen.
You should clear out, Mr. Hoover. You can't be seen here.
I must leave at once.
- Is he dead? - They don't come any deader.
- That man has something of mine. - No time, sir.
- You must leave now. - The book!
You don't want your name mixed up in this, sir.
- We'll take it from here. - (sirens wailing)
- Don't delay. - Skedaddle, sir.
- I'm leaving. - It's an honor to have met you, sir.
(jazz playing)
Dizzy: Hey, Rock.
Remember, it's about three things.
All: Vibrations,
vibrations,
vibrations. (echoing)
Did it work?
(chuckles)
Oh.
(chuckling)
He bought it, all right.
He bought it. Rock Banyon is dead.
And I can vouch for that.
You know what this means, right? No more jazz piano for you.
You're a whole new man without a country, without a name.
Why'd you do it? Why'd you help me?
We knew Hoover was behind the murders,
but we couldn't figure out why.
No one from the mayor down would let us work on it,
so we used you.
Like an old pair of pants.
- Ah, the pants are back. - So, what do you do now?
Go after Hoover?
J. Edgar Hoover? No. We are no heroes.
So why not just kill me?
Why not let me take the fall for everything?
Frankly, I wanted to. Thought about it a lot.
Still not against it, but he wouldn't let me.
- Why the soft spot? - Chip: One simple reason.
No man should live in fear.
You wouldn't happen to be a homosexual, would you?
You take that back.
This is Chip Donwelly you're talking about,
a real man's man.
Do you have any idea how much time this guy spends at the health club?
Why, I've never seen him with the same woman twice.
And with the fellas, he's the leader.
He's a real top bear.
Tell him, Chip. Tell him you're not.
I think you'd better get going.
(sighs) You'll need these.
- Also have these. - Oh, thank you, thank you.
Oh...
I believe this belongs to you.
Guard it like your life depended on it.
Who did it, Rock? Who killed me?
The world killed you.
The world always kills the artist.
I'll see you around, lover.
Good-bye.
Dunhill: See you later, Rock.
Au revoir, Rock.
Think you can do it, Rock?
Think you can give up the one thing you love most?
(scoffs) What makes you think I have?
Hey, Rock.
Now, go get her, my man.
♪... you're gone, anyway ♪
♪ We had true love ♪
♪ But then what's true? ♪
♪ That's how I am ♪
♪ That's me ♪
♪ Without ♪
♪ You. ♪
(chittering)
Man: Yeah.
Ripped By mstoll