:47:02
Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Bijou.
:47:05
There will be a cornet solo
on Saturday night.
:47:12
Well, you remember
what happened.
:47:15
The trial drew more people
than "Madame X", and played better.
:47:19
Maria hired the best lawyers
in Spain. She never slept.
:47:23
You'd think it was her own life
she was fighting for.
:47:26
Harry and Jerry flew over. They
couldn't help much, but they were there.
:47:31
Nobody asked me and I wasn't anybody's
friend especially, but I stuck around.
:47:37
You couldn't help feeling
sorry for the old man.
:47:40
You could tell just by looking at him
:47:42
that half the time
he didn't know where he was.
:47:45
And you wouldn't give
a bent kopeck for his chances,
:47:48
the way he kept admitting, over
and over, that he killed the old lady.
:47:53
Things picked up for the home team
when Maria's brother,
:47:56
a ganef if ever I saw one, took the stand.
:47:59
He testified that his mother had
beaten up the old man many times,
:48:03
and how, on the night of the murder, she
not only smashed his radio, but hit him.
:48:09
But if I had to write down what
no actress should ever make public,
:48:14
I would copy Maria's testimony
in her father's defence.
:48:18
She left out nothing.
:48:20
She told about the squalor and filth
into which she and her brother were born,
:48:24
and how they grew up like animals.
:48:27
She told about a mother
who was full of hate,
:48:29
and how she got back the hate she gave.
:48:32
Maria handed Mom a rough time
on that witness stand.
:48:36
I couldn't help wondering how
this would go in box-office heaven,
:48:39
where Mom is the commanding saint.
:48:42
But that courtroom
was with her all the way.
:48:45
Some of them cried, even the judges.
:48:48
They must be appointed in Spain,
because I don't know of anybody
:48:51
ever getting elected
whose mother was not an angel.
:48:55
And, as it turned out,
:48:57
the audiences of the whole world
could have been sitting in that courtroom.