Journey Into Fear

---

Dearest Stephanie,

If this letter is found on me,

if this ever reaches you,

I want you to believe every word of it

and try to understand.

It all began that night

we arrived in Istanbul.

Oh, there's a gentleman waiting to see you.

- Oh?...

Mr. Graham? Mrs. Graham?

Put it there.

It's a pleasure!

Kopeikine is the name.

- How do you do...

You doubt that I am Kopeikine?

- No...

You think perhaps that I am not he?

My credentials!

Stephanie,

take my word for it,

I didn't want to go out

with that fellow Kopeikine,

he's a pest!

I didn't even want him to join us for dinner,

he just talked his way into it...

Mrs. Graham,

I am going to deprive you of your husband for awhile.

Aren't we, Mr. Graham?

We got some business to talk over...

Official.

Oh, can't we talk right here?

And bother your charming wife?

Oh... Well don't mind me. If you have to talk to Mr. Kopeikine, dear...

Sure, we can go downstairs in the bar.

- The bar...

Well, go to the bar if you want to, dear.

Maybe we will have a couple of drinks, too!

Well... the sooner you go, the sooner you'll be back.

Have a good time...

It's not a good time, it's business, he says.

Time is fleeing, Howard!

The company representative!

I'll be right back.

- Be careful.

Howard, where are you going?

I thought you said we're going in the bar?

I know a much better place! Come on.

Oh, I haven't got my hat and coat.

It's just around the corner.

Kopeikine is our company's representative

in Turkey.

And I guess he thought

he ought to show me a good time...

I didn't want a good time.

I wanted to stay with you!

He just took it for granted I didn't.

He dragged me off to that nightclub.

That's how

I happened to meet that woman,

Josette.

I can't stay here very long,

I've got to get back to the hotel.

Some number, huh?

I'd better get on back to the hotel.

You might take a shine to Josette!

After all, this little girl is very stupid.

Of course Josette is stupid too, but she has it!

Pardon me, Howard, I will be back very briefly.

You give me money?

What for?

Tip.

- Oh.

You excuse me.

If you like me, I come back!

I want you to meet my friend. He's American.

Howard, I will present Josette and Gogo Martel.

- How do you do?

You will sit please?

- Thank you.

I enjoyed your dancing very much, Mamselle.

Nonsense to say that Americans are not polite.

They are so clever in business and yet so generous and sincere.

You hear that, Howard?

The champagne here is filthy.

I do not wish to leave Istanbul with a headache.

How long do you stay here Mr. Graham?

Why, he leaves here tomorrow, too.

Yes, I'm leaving on the morning train.

I'm going as far as Batoumi by boat.

Pardon me sir.

What kind of cigarettes do you smoke?

He is good, ain't he, Howard?

You, sir.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I will now present to you

an unbelievable miracle

that I learned in the mountain vastness of India.

And for this illusion, I will require

the assistance of some kind and gracious

gentleman from the audience...

Perhaps you, sir, the gentleman of the duck,

if you would be so good?

And now ladies and gentlemen,

I will join my ancestors...

Don't worry, Howard!

Ah... there you are, Howard!

That was a good trick!

What happened?

The boy didn't fire his gun,

someone else did!

The magician is dead.

I didn't admit it, Stephanie,

but I knew then that shot was meant for me...

You know how many months I spent

for the company on the Turkish navy.

Well, time counts in this war,

and now with me out of the way,

it'll take all that time and more

with somebody else out here before Turkey

can get any new guns.

That's why they're after me.

This is terrible!

You've got me involved in a dirty nightclub shooting!

I've got to call my wife.

You've got to keep this out of the paper.

Howard, you are lucky. Just think what happened to that magician, suppose the trick hadn't worked?

It's entirely beside the point!

I've got no business in here.

Howard... they are only doing their official duty for your own good.

Official duty!

The whole thing's so stupid!

I can forgive almost anything but stupidity.

Wish I'd brought my topcoat...

This is a scandal!

We have no business with the police.

Maybe we won't get our pictures in the papers.

Who's that?

That's Colonel Haki.

This is his office.

He's the head of the secret police.

- Secret police?!

He was a deputy in the Provisional Government in 1919. One of Ataturk's men.

There is a legend he can drink two bottles of whisky without getting drunk.

There is also a legend that he killed prisoners by tying them together in pairs

and throwing them in the river to save food and ammunition. But I don't believe it.

He is a great patriot!

But I wouldn't trust him with a woman...

Colonel Haki will see Mr. Howard Graham now!

That's us, Howard. Come!

You are Howard Graham?

Yes. What of it?

You are employed by a munitions company in America?

What?

You are employed by a munitions company in America?

An armament manufacturer!

Bainbridge and Sons.

- No, thank you!

This man can tell you all about it. He's the local agent.

- We know that.

- Then why ask me?

You're a naval ordinance expert.

- Expert!

- Pardon?

- I'm an engineer, and naval ordinance just happens to be my subject.

Your government has assigned you through your company to do some important work here.

- Now look...

I've got my instructions. I've been ordered back to the States at once.

I'm only stopping here overnight!

I'm doing my best to steer clear of trouble.

You realize no doubt that you carry some valuable information?

Whatever that information is, it's safe enough: I've got it in my head.

That's precisely why you were brought here, Mr. Graham.

It's your head our government is so interested in.

Suppose you had been shot instead of that magician. What do...

Don't be silly!

The Turkish navy can get along perfectly well without me. The company would send out another man.

I'm not indispensable! There are dozens of men with my qualifications.

- Howard!

Somebody could be sent out from America.

- Meanwhile...

Or England!

To do my work over again.

Meanwhile the spring will be here.

And the Russian winter will be over,

and those ships will still be lying in the dockyards at Izmir and Gallipoli,

still waiting for their new guns and torpedo-tubes.

You are our military objective.

I don't understand you.

Mr. Howard Graham,

you are a careful driver

and an imaginative pedestrian.

You never ride horses nor climb mountains.

You do not hunt big game.

You never felt the slightest inclination to leap before an approaching express train.

I'm sure you never think of death.

If so, only on those occasions

that you take out an insurance policy.

Mr. Graham,

Mr. Graham, as your excellent brain grasps what I am trying to say to you,

it's perfectly simple.

Someone is trying to kill you.

You see?

Kanapen... Kopeikine.

Kopeikine.

why did you take him to that cabaret?

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes