:16:02
The Burgomaster
and his inhospitable villagers?
:16:04
I think I can guarantee to control
their animosity, but not their fears.
:16:09
What are they afraid of, ghosts?
:16:14
Perhaps.
:16:16
I'm afraid I don't believe in them. Do you?
:16:19
When they commit murder, yes.
:16:24
- You're referring to the monster.
- Perhaps.
:16:27
My dear Inspector,
he was destroyed years ago.
:16:33
Perhaps.
:16:36
Can we stick to facts, Inspector?
:16:39
That my father instilled life into a dead man
is perfectly true.
:16:42
But I'm also convinced
that stories of this creature...
:16:44
have been so greatly exaggerated
in the telling and the retelling...
:16:48
that the simple folk of this neighbourhood
now believe him to have been...
:16:52
the most fiendish monster
that ever walked this earth.
:16:55
Do you honestly know of one criminal act
that this poor creature committed?
:17:00
Did you ever even see him?
:17:03
The most vivid recollection of my life.
:17:06
[Solemn instrumental music]
:17:08
I was but a child at the time,
about the age of your own son.
:17:14
The monster had escaped
and was ravaging the countryside...
:17:18
killing, maiming, terrorising.
:17:23
One night, he burst into our house.
:17:26
My father took a gun and fired at him...
:17:29
but the savage brute
sent him crashing to a corner.
:17:33
Then he grabbed me by the arm.
:17:38
[Thud]
:17:39
[Tense instrumental music]
:17:41
One doesn't easily forget, Herr Baron,
an arm torn out by the roots.
:17:47
No, I...
:17:49
My lifelong ambition
was to have been a soldier.
:17:52
But for this...
:17:54
I, who command seven gendarmes
in a little mountain village...
:17:59
might have been a general.