Boy, oh boy, oh boy.
Willy?
It's all right.
I came back.
Why, what happened?
Did something happen, Willy?
- Nothing happened.
- You didn't smash the car?
I said nothing happened!
- Didn't you hear me?
- Don't you feel well?
I'm tired to the death.
I, uh, I couldn't make it.
I just couldn't make it, Linda.
Where were you all day?
You look terrible.
Oh, I got as far
as a little above Yonkers.
I stopped for a cup of coffee.
- Maybe it was the coffee.
- What?
I suddenly couldn't drive anymore.
The car kept going off
onto the shoulder.
Maybe it's the steering.
I don't think
Angelo knows the Studebaker.
No, it's me. Suddenly I realise
I'm going 60 miles an hour
and I don't remember
the last five minutes.
I can't seem to keep my mind to it.
Maybe it's your glasses.
You never went for new glasses.
I see everything.
I came back ten miles an hour.
It took me nearly four hours
from Yonkers.
You just gotta take a rest.
You can't continue like this.
Aw, I just got back from Florida.
But you didn't rest your mind.
Your mind is overactive
and the mind is what counts, dear.
I'll start out in the morning.
Maybe I'll feel better in the morning.
Oh, these... these arch supports
are killing me.
Take an aspirin.
Should I get you an aspirin?
Lt'll soothe you.
I was driving along, understand?
I was fine.
I was even observing the scenery.
You can imagine me looking at scenery
on the road every week of my life.
But it's so beautiful up there, Linda.
The trees are thick and the sun is warm.
I just open the windshield
and let the warm air bathe over me.
And then all of a sudden I'm...
...l'm going off the road.
I'm telling you,
I absolutely forgot I was driving.
If I'd have gone the other way
over the white line
I might have killed somebody.
So, I went on again and five minutes
later I'm dreaming again and I nearly...
I have such thoughts.
I have such strange thoughts.
Talk to them again, Willy.
There's no reason
why you can't work in New York.
I'm the New England man.
I'm vital in New England.
You're 60 years old. They can't expect
you to keep driving every week.
I'll have to send a wire to Portland.
I'm supposed to see Brown and Morrison
tomorrow morning to show the line.
- Oh, I could sell them.
- Now, Willy.
Go down to that place again.
Talk to Howard.
Tell him you gotta work in New York.
You're too accommodating.
If old man Wagner was alive,
I'd have been in charge of New York now.
That man was a prince.
He was a masterful man.
That boy of his, Howard,
he don't appreciate.
When I went north the first time,
the Wagner Company didn't know
where New England was.
Why don't you
tell these things to Howard?
Oh, I will. I definitely will.
- Oh, is there any cheese?
- I'll make you a sandwich.
Go to sleep. I'll take some milk.
Geez.
Maybe he smashed up the car again.
He's gonna get his licence taken away
if he keeps that up.
I'm getting nervous about him, you know.
- His eyes are gone.
- No, I've driven with him.
He sees all right.
Just, he doesn't keep his mind on it.
I drove into the city
with him last week.
He stops at a green light.
It turns red and he goes.
- Maybe he's colour blind.
- Pop?
He's got the finest eye for colour
in the business.
- The boys in?
- They're sleeping.
- Happy took Biff on a date tonight.
- Is that so?
It was so thrilling,
seeing them shaving together,
one behind the other in the bathroom
and going out together.
- Did you notice?
- Hm?
The whole house smells
of shaving lotion.
Figure it out.
Work a lifetime to pay off a house.
You finally own it.
There's nobody to live in it.
Life's a casting off.
It's always that way.
No, no, some people
accomplish something.
Did Biff say anything
after I went this morning?
You shouldn't have criticised him,
after he just got off the train.
- You must not lose your temper at him.
- When did I lose my temper?
I simply asked him
if he was making any money.
- Is that criticism?
- Willy, how could he make any money?
There's such an undercurrent in him.
He became a moody man. Did he apologise
when I left this morning?
He was crestfallen, Willy.
Now, you know how he admires you.
I think when he finds himself you'll
both be happier and you won't fight.
How can he find himself on a farm?
Is that a life?
A farmhand in the beginning
when he was young,
I thought, a young man, it's good
for him to travel, take differentjobs.
It's more than ten years and
he has yet to make 35 dollars a week.
He is finding himself, Willy.
Not finding yourself at the age of 34
is a disgrace.
- Shh!
- The trouble is, he's lazy!
- Willy, please, they are sleeping.
- Biff is a lazy...
...bum!
- Go down!
Get yourself something to eat
and be quiet.
Why did he come home?
I would like to know
what brought him home.
Well, I don't know.
I think he's still lost, Willy.
I think he's very lost.
Biff Loman is lost
in the greatest country in the world.
A young man with such
personal attractiveness gets lost?
And such a hard worker.
There's one thing about Biff.
He's not lazy.
Never.
I'll see him in the morning, have
a talk with him, get him a job selling.
He'd be big in no time.
Remember the way they used to
follow him around in high school?
Oh, when he just smiled at them
their faces lit up.
When he walked down the
street with a crowd of kids behind him.
Will you ever forget that?
- You smoking?
- You want one?
I can never sleep when I smell it.
It's funny, Biff, you know... us.
Sleeping in here again, huh?
The old beds.
All the talk that went across
those two beds, huh?
- Our whole lives.
- Yeah.
A lotta dreams and plans.
About 500 women would like to know
what was said in this room.
- Remember that big Betsy something?
- Mm-hmm.
What the hell was her name?
Over on Bushwick Avenue.
- With the collie dog.
- Yeah, that's the one.
- I got you in there, man.
- That was my first time, I think.
Boy, there was a pig.
You taught me everything I know
about women. Don't forget that.
I bet you forgot how bashful
you used to be, especially with girls.
Oh, I still am, Biff.
I just control it, that's all.
I think I got less bashful.
You got more so.
What happened, Biff?
Where's your old humour?
The old confidence?
What's the matter?
- Why does Dad mock me all the time?
- He's not mocking you, Biff.
Everything I say there's mockery
on his face. I can't get near him.
I think the fact
that you're not settled,
that you're still up in the air.
I think there's other things
depressing him.
- What do you mean?
- Never mind. Don't lay it all to me.
But I think if you just got started...
I mean, is there any future
for you out there?
I don't know what the future is.
I don't know what I'm supposed to want.
What do you mean?
I spent six or seven years after
high school trying to work myself up.
Shipping clerk, salesman,
business of one kind or another.
It's a measly manner of existence.
To get on that subway
in the hot mornings in the summer,
to devote your whole life
to keeping stock or making phone calls.
And the selling, the buying.
To suffer 50 weeks of the year
for the sake of a two week vacation,
when all you really desire
is to be outdoors with your shirt off.
And always to have to get ahead
of the next fellow.
Still, that's how you build a future.
I bought a new kind
of American type cheese. It's whipped.
Why do you get American?
I like Swiss.
- I thought you'd like a change.
- I don't want a change.
- Why am I always being contradicted?
- I wanted it to be a surprise.
- Why don't you open a window in here?
- They're all open.
They boxed us in here.
Bricks and windows, windows and bricks.
We should have bought
the land next door.
There's not a breath of fresh air
in the neighbourhood.
The grass don't grow anymore.
You can't raise a carrot.
They should have had a law
against apartment houses.
Remember those two beautiful elm trees?
When I and Biff
hung the swing between them, huh?
Like being a million miles
from the city.
They should have arrested the builder
for cutting those down.
They massacred the neighbourhood.
More and more I think of those days,
Linda, this time of year.
It was lilacs and wisteria
and then the peonies
would come out... daffodils.
What fragrance in this room.
- People had to move somewhere.
- There's more people now.
- I don't think...
- There's more people!
That's what's ruining this country!
Population is getting out of control!
The competition is maddening!
Smell the stink from that apartment
house and another on the other side!
How can they whip cheese?
Go down, try it and be quiet.
You're not worried about me,
are you, sweetheart, huh?
No, you've got too much on the ball
to be worried about, my darling.
You're my foundation
and my support, Linda.
Oh, just try to relax.
You make mountains out of molehills.
I won't fight with him anymore.
If he wants to go to Texas, let him go.
- He'll find his way.
- Sure.
Certain men just don't get started
till later in life.
Like Thomas Edison, I think,
or B.F. Goodrich.
One of them was deaf.
I'll put my money on Biff.
And Willy, if it's warm Sunday
we'll drive in the country.
We'll open the windshield,
we'll take lunch.
The windshields don't open
on the new cars.
- But you opened it today.
- Me?
I didn't.
Now, isn't that peculiar?
- Isn't that remarkable?
- What, dear?
That is the most remarkable thing.
What, darling?
I was thinking of the Chevy.
1928, when I had that red Chevy.
Isn't that funny?
I could have sworn
I was back in that Chevy today.
That's nothing.
Something must have reminded you.
Remarkable.
Remember those days, huh?
The way Biff used to simonise that car?
Dealer refused to believe
there was 80,000 miles on it.
Close your eyes.
I'll be right up.
Now, you be careful on the stairs.
- The cheese is on the middle shelf.
- Eighty thousand mi...
Eighty-two thousand.
No, I've always made a point
of not wasting my life.
Whenever I come back here I know that
all I've done is to waste my life.
You're a poet, Biff.
You know that?
- You're an idealist.
- No, I'm mixed up very bad.
Maybe I ought to get married, right?
Maybe I ought
to get stuck into something.
Maybe that's my trouble.
I'm like a boy.
I'm not married, I'm not in business.
I'm just like a boy.
Are you content, Hap?
You're a success, aren't you?
Are you content?
- Hell, no.
- Why not? You're making money.
All I can do now is wait for
the merchandise manager to die.
Listen, kid, why don't you
come out West with me?
And you and I?
Maybe we can buy a ranch,
raise cattle, use some muscles.
Men built like we are
should be working in the open.
- The Loman brothers?
- We'd be known all over.
Biff, Biff, that's
what I dream of sometimes.
Sometimes I want to rip my clothes off
and outbox the merchandise manager.
I can outbox, out lift,
outrun anybody in the store
and I have to take orders
from those sons of bitches.
If you were with me I'd be happier.
Everybody around me is so false
that I am constantly lowering my ideals.
Together we'd stand up for one another.
We werert brought up to grub for money.
I don't know how.
- Neither can I.
- Let's go.
The only thing is,
what can you make out there?
Hap!
I got to show some
of those pompous executives there
that Hap Loman can make the grade, huh?
Then I'll go with you, Biff.
We'll be together yet.
I swear, huh?
But take those two we had tonight.
Werert they gorgeous creatures?
Yeah, most gorgeous I've had in years.
I get that any time I want, Biff.
Whenever I feel disgusted.
The only trouble is,
it gets like bowling or something.
I just keep knocking them over.
It doesn't mean anything.
- You still run around a lot?
- Nah.
I'd like to find a girl steady,
somebody with substance.
- Mm-hmm. That's what I long for.
- Go on.
- You'd never come home.
- I would.
Somebody with character, like Mom.
You're gonna call me a bastard
when I tell you this.
That girl Charlotte I was with,
engaged to be married.
- No kidding.
- Sure.
Guy's in line
for the vice-presidency of the store.
I don't know what gets into me.
Maybe I have an overdeveloped
sense of competition.
I went and ruined her.
Furthermore, I can't get rid of her.
He's the third executive
I've done that to.
Isn't that a crummy characteristic?
And to top it all,
I go to their weddings.
Don't get your sweater dirty!
Biff!
Doesrt he know Mom can hear that?
Oh, what a simonising job. Huh?
Look, Biff, don't leave again, will you?
You'll find a job here, Biff.
- You gotta stay.
- Hey, Biff-o!
I don't know what to do.
It's getting embarrassing.
Oh, boy, what a simonising job.
Look, you go to sleep now but
talk to him in the morning, will ya?
- With her in the house?
- We should have a good talk with him.
- That selfish, stupid...
- Shh. Sleep, Biff.
No kidding, Biff.
You got a date?
Listen, um, you just want
to be careful with those...
...those girls, Biff.
That's all.
Don't make any promises,
no promises, Biff.
No promises of any kind.
'Cause the girls, you know,
they always believe what you tell them.
You're very young, Biff.
You're too young
to be talking seriously to girls.
You want to watch your schooling first.
Stand where you were.
When you're all set, though,
there will be plenty of girls
for a boy like you.
That so?
The girls pay for you?
Boy, you must really be making a hit.
I've been wondering why
you polished the car so careful there.
Uh...
Don't leave the hubcaps.
Get the chamois to the hubcaps.
Happy, use newspaper on the windows.
It's easy.
Use it like a pad.
That's it, good work.
You're going all right.
Biff, um...
First thing we gotta do
when we get time,
we gotta clip that big branch
over the house.
I'm afraid it's gonna fall on the roof.
Tell you what, we get a, uh...
We get a rope and sling her around,
we climb up there with saws
and take her down.
Soon as you finish the car, boys,
I want to see you.
I got a surprise for you, boys.
- What do you got, Dad?
- No, no, you finish first.
Never leave a job till you finish.
You remember that.
Biff?
Up in Albany I saw a beautiful hammock.
I think I'll buy it next trip
and we'll hang it
between those two elms there, huh?
Wouldrt that be...
Huh?
Wouldrt that be something?
Just hanging... Just swinging there
under those branches?
Oh, boy, that would be something.
How's that, Pop? Professional?
Terrific. That's a terrific job, boys.
- Good work, Biff. - Where's the
surprise? - In the back seat of the car.
What is it? Tell me. What did you buy?
-Never mind, something I want you to have.
- What is it, Happy?
- It's a punching bag.
- It's got Gene Tunney's signature.
- How'd you know?
- The finest thing for the timing.
- I'm losing weight.
- Jumping rope is good, too.
- See the football I got?
- Where'd you get a new ball?
- Coach told me to practice passing.
- He gave you the ball?
- I borrowed it from the locker room.
- I want you to return that.
- I told you.
- I'm bringing it back.
- He's gotta practice with a ball.
Coach will congratulate you
on your initiative.
- He keeps congratulating my initiative.
- He likes you.
Somebody else took that ball,
there'd be an uproar.
What's the report, boys?
What's the report?
Where'd you go this time, Pop?
We were lonesome for you.
I'll tell you a secret, boys.
Don't breathe it to a soul.
Someday I'll have my own business
and I'll never have to leave home.
- Like Uncle Charley?
- Bigger than Uncle Charley.
Charley is not liked.
He's liked but he's not well liked.
- Where'd you go this time?
- I went to Providence. Met the mayor.
- The mayor of Providence?
- He was in the hotel lobby.
- What did he say?
- He said, "Good morning".
I said, "You got a fine state here".
He had coffee with me,
then I went to Waterbury.
Waterbury is a fine city, a big clock
city. The famous Waterbury clock.
Sold a nice bill there. And then Boston.
Boston was the cradle of the Revolution.
A fine city.
A couple other towns in Mass,
on to Portland, Bangor
and straight home.
- Love to go with you.
- As soon as summer comes.
- Promise?
- You, Hap and I, I'll show you.
One thing, boys, I have friends.
I can park my car on any street
and the cops protect it like their own.
This summer we'll take
our bathing suits...
- We'll carry your bags.
- That'd be something,
coming to the Boston stores
with you boys carrying my bags!
A sensation.
- You nervous about the game?
- Not if you're gonna be there.
What do they say
now that you're captain?
There's a crowd of girls around him
when classes change.
This Saturday, just for you,
I'm gonna break through for a touchdown.
- You are supposed to pass...
- I'm doing one play for Pop.
When I take off my helmet
that means I'm breaking out.
- Watch me cross that line.
- Wait till I tell this in Boston.
- Biff, where are you?
- Hey, look at Bernard!
What are you looking so anaemic about?
Gotta study, Uncle Willy.
He's got Regents next week.
Come on, let's box.
I heard Mr. Birnbaum say
if you don't start studying math
he's gonna flunk you and you won't
graduate. -You better study with him.
- Pop, you didn't see my sneakers.
- A beautiful job of printing.
Just because he prints University of
Virginia doesn't mean they gotta graduate him.
With scholarships to three universities
they're gonna flunk him?
- I heard Mr. Birnbaum say...
- Don't be a pest.
What an anaemic.
I'm waiting for you in my house, Biff.
Bernard is not well-liked, is he?
He's liked but he's not well-liked.
Bernard can get
the best marks in school,
but when he gets out to the business
world you'll be ahead of him.
That's why I thank Almighty God
you're both built like Adonises.
The man who makes an appearance
in the business world,
the man who creates personal interest,
is the man who gets ahead.
Be liked and you will never want, hm?
Take me, for instance. I never
have to wait in line to see a buyer.
Willy Loman is here,
that's all they have to know.
- I go straight through.
- Did you knock 'em dead?
Knocked them cold in Providence,
slaughtered in Boston.
- I'm losing weight, Pop.
- Hello, dear. - Sweetheart.
- How'd the Chevy run?
- Chevrolet's the greatest car ever.
Since when do you
let your mother carry wash?
Where to, Ma? -Just hang it on the
line. Biff, you gotta go to your friends.
- The cellar is filled with boys.
- When Pop comes home they can wait.
- Better go tell them what to do, Biff.
- Sweep out the furnace room.
- Good work, Biff. - The way they
obey him. - That's the training.
I was selling thousands,
but I had to come home.
The block will be at that game.
You sell anything?
I did 500 gross in Providence,
700 gross in Boston.
Wait, wait, I got a pencil.
That makes your commission 200...
My God!
- Two hundred and twelve dollars!
- I didn't figure it yet.
- How much did you do?
- A hundred eighty gross in Providence.
It comes to roughly 200 gross
on the whole trip.
See, three of the stores
were half closed for inventory.
I would have broke records.
It makes 70 dollars and some pennies.
Very good.
- What do we owe?
- Well...
- Sixteen dollars on the refrigerator.
- Why 16?
- The fan belt broke. It was $1.80.
- It's brand new.
Well, it's like the man says.
It's got to work itself in.
I hope we didn't get stuck
on that machine.
It's got the biggest ads of any of them!
It's a fine machine.
What else?
Well, there's $9.60
for the washing machine,
for the vacuum cleaner there's three and
a half due on the 15th, then the roof.
- You've got 21 dollars. - It don't
leak? - They did a wonderful job.
- You owe five for the carburettor.
- I'm not gonna pay that man.
That lousy, rotten Chevrolet, they ought
to prohibit the manufacture of that car.
Well, you owe him three and a half.
And odds and ends comes to
around 120 dollars by the 15th.
A hundred and twenty dollars?
If business don't pick up I don't know.
- Next week you'll do better.
- I'll knock them dead.
I'll go to Hartford.
I'm well-liked in Hartford.
You know what the trouble is, Linda?
People don't seem to take to me.
- Don't be so foolish.
- I know it when I walk in.
- They seem to laugh at me.
- Why would they laugh at you?
- Don't talk like that.
- They just pass me by.
- You're making 70 to 100 dollars a week.
- I gotta be at in 10, 12 hours a day.
Other men, I don't know why,
they do it easier.
I don't know why I can't stop myself.
I talk too much.
- Oh! - A man ought to come
in with a few words.
Charley, he's a man of few words
and they respect him.
You don't talk too much.
You're just lively.
Well, I figure, what the hell.
Life is short.
A couple of jokes...
- I joke too much.
- Why, you're...
I'm short.
I'm very foolish to look at, Linda.
I didn't tell you, but at Christmastime
I happened to be calling on F.H. Stewarts,
another salesman I know
as I was going to see the buyer.
I heard him say something
about "the shrimp".
And I cracked him...
I cracked him right across the face.
I won't take that.
I simply will not take that.
But they do laugh at me.
Oh, I know that.
- Darling?
- No, I gotta overcome it.
- I know I gotta overcome it.
- Darling?
I'm not dressing to advantage, maybe.
Willy, darling, you're
the handsomest man in the world.
You're the best. You're a pal.
On the road I want to grab you sometimes
and just kiss the life out of you.
I get so lonely,
especially when business is bad,
I get the feeling
I'll never sell anything.
I want to make a living for you.
Or business. Business for the boys.
There's so much I want to make for them.
Me? You didn't make me, Willy.
I picked you.
- You picked me, huh?
- I did.
I'm sitting at that desk, watching all
the salesmen go by, day in and day out.
You got such a sense of humour.
And we do have a good time together.
- Sure, sure. Why do you have to go?
- It's 2:00.
- Come on.
- My sisters will be scandalised.
- When will you be back?
- Two weeks. Will you come up?
Sure thing. You do make me laugh.
That's good for me.
And I think you're a wonderful man.
- You picked me, huh? - I did, 'cause
you're so sweet and such a kidder.
I'll see you next time I'm in Boston.
- I'll put you through to the buyers.
- Right. Well.
Well, bottoms up.
Willy! You just kill me, Willy!
You just kill me!
And thanks for the stockings.
I love a lot of stockings.
- Well, good night.
- Good night.
Oh, and keep your pores open.
Willy!
You are, Willy, the handsomest.
I'll make it all up to you, Linda.
There's nothing to make up.
You're doing fine.
- What's that?
- I'm mending my stockings.
- They're so expensive.
- I won't have you mending stockings!
- Willy...
- Where is he? If he doesn't...
- Give him the answers.
- I do, but I can't on a Regents.
- It's a state exam.
- Biff! Where is he?
You better give back that football.
- Biff, where is he?
- He's too rough with the girls.
- He's driving without a licence.
- Shut up.
Willy.
- Get out of here.
- If he doesn't buckle down he'll flunk.
- You gotta do something about that boy.
- There's nothing the matter with him.
You want him to be a worm like Bernard?
Aw, he's got spirit, personality.
He's loaded with it, loaded.
What is he stealing?
He's giving it back, isn't he?
Why is he stealing?
What did I tell him?
I never in my life told him anything...
Come on up, Pop.
Let's go up.
Huh?
Why did she have
to wax the floors herself?
Every time she waxes the floors
she keels over.
- She knows that.
- Take it easy, Pop.
- Hey, what brought you back tonight?
- I got an awful scare.
I nearly hit a kid in Yonkers.
Why didn't I go to Alaska
with my brother Ben that time?
Ben, that man was a genius.
That man was success incarnate.
What a mistake.
He begged me to go.
The man started with the clothes on his
back and ended up with diamond mines.
I'd like to know how he did it.
The man knew what he wanted, got it.
Walks into a jungle, comes out
the age of 21 and he's rich.
The world is an oyster, but
you don't crack it open on a mattress.
Pop, I told you,
I'm gonna retire you for life.
You're gonna retire me for life
on 70 dollars a week
and your women and your car
and your apartment. You retire me?
I couldn't get past Yonkers today.
Where are you guys? Where are you?
The woods are burning. I can't
drive a car. - Everything all right?
- What's the matter?
- Everything's fine.
- I thought something happened.
- No. - Can't we do something about the walls?
You sneeze in here, in my house hats
blow off. - Come on, let's go up, huh?
- You go ahead. I'm not tired.
- All right. Take it easy.
- What are you doing up?
- I couldn't sleep. I had a heartburn.
- You don't know how to eat.
- I eat with my mouth.
You gotta know about vitamins
and things like that.
- Come on, let's shoot. Tire you out.
- All right.
- You got cards?
- I got them someplace.
What is it with those vitamins?
They build up your bones. Chemistry.
- There's no bones in a heartburn.
- What are you talking about?
- You don't know about it.
- I'll get insulted.
Don't talk about something
you don't know anything about.
- What are you doing home?
- A little trouble with the car.
Oh.
- I'd like to take a trip to California.
- Don't say.
You want a job? - I got a job, I told you
that. What are you offering me a job for?
- Don't get insulted.
- Don't insult me.
- You don't have to go on this way.
- I got a good job.
- What do you keep coming in here for?
- You want me to go?
I can't understand it.
He's going back to Texas again.
- What is that?
- Let him go.
I've got nothing to give him.
I'm clean.
- I'm clean.
- He won't starve. None of them starve.
- Forget about it.
- Then what have I got to remember?
You take it too hard. When a deposit bottle
is broken you don't get your nickel back.
- That's easy for you to say.
- That ain't easy for me to say.
You see the ceiling
I put up in here, hmm?
Yeah, that's a piece of work.
Putting up a ceiling is a mystery to me.
How do you do it?
What's the difference?
- Huh?
- Well, talk about it.
- You gonna put up a ceiling?
- How can I?
- What are you bothering me for?
- You're insulted.
A man who can't handle tools
is not a man.
- You're disgusting.
- Don't call me disgusting, Willy.
Oh, I'm getting...
- I'm getting awfully tired, Ben.
- Keep playing. You'll sleep better.
Did you call me Ben?
That's funny. For a second
you reminded me of my brother, Ben.
- I only have a few minutes.
- You never heard from him again?
Didn't Linda tell you? A couple weeks ago
we got a letter from his wife in Africa.
- He died. - Is that so?
- This is Brooklyn, huh?
- Maybe you're in for some of his money.
- He had seven sons.
There was one opportunity
I had with that man.
There are several properties
I'm looking at.
If I'd have gone with him to Alaska
everything would have been different.
- You'd have froze to death.
- What are you talking about?
Opportunity is tremendous in Alaska.
I'm surprised you're not up there.
There's the only man I ever met
who knew the answers.
- How are you all?
- Fine.
- Fine.
- Pretty sharp tonight.
- Is Mother living with you?
- She died long ago.
- Who?
- Fine specimen of a lady, Mother.
- I'd hoped to see the old girl.
- Who died?
- You heard from Father?
- What do you mean, who died?
- What are you talking about?
- What are you talking about!
- It's half past eight.
- That's my bill.
- I put the ace.
- If you don't know how to play...
- It's my ace, for God's sake.
- I'm through!
- When did Mother die?
- Long ago.
- You never knew how to play cards.
- All right.
Next time I'll bring a deck
with five aces.
- I don't play that kind of game.
- You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
- Yeah?
- Yeah!
- Ignoramus.
- So, you're William?
Oh, Ben.
I've been waiting for you so long.
What's the answer?
How did you do it?
There's a story in that.
- Is this Ben?
- How do you do?
Where have you been?
Willy's been wondering...
Where is Dad?
How did you get started?
- I don't know how much you remember.
- I was just a baby, 3 or 4 years old.
- Three years, eleven months.
- What a memory.
I have many enterprises
and I've never kept books.
I was sitting under the wagon.
What was it, Nebraska?
South Dakota and I gave you wildflowers.
- I remember you walking down some road.
- I was going to find Father in Alaska.
In those days
I had a very faulty view of geography.
I discovered after a few days
I was heading south.
Instead of Alaska I ended up in
Africa. - Africa? - The Gold Coast!
- Principally, diamond mines.
- Diamond mines!
Yes, but I'm afraid
I only have a few minutes.
Boys, boys, listen to this!
This is your Uncle Ben!
A great man!
Ben, tell my boys.
Why, boys, when I was 17
I walked into the jungle.
When I was 21, I walked out.
- And by God, I was rich!
- See what I've been talking about?
- The greatest things can happen.
- I have an appointment in Ketchikan.
Tell about Dad.
I want my boys to hear.
I want them to know
the stock they spring from.
All I remember is a man with a big beard.
I was sitting on Mama's lap around the fire.
- There was some kind of high
music. - He played the flute.
- The flute, that's right. - Father was
a very great, very wild-hearted man.
He'd start in Boston
and toss the whole family in the wagon,
and he'd drive the team
right across the country.
Through lowa, Michigan, Illinois
and all the western states.
We'd stop in the towns and
he'd sell the flutes he made on the way.
A great inventor, Father.
With one gadget he made more in one week
than a man like you makes in a lifetime.
That's the way I'm bringing them up,
rugged, well-liked, all around.
- Yeah? Hit me, boy, hard as you can.
- No.
Oh, come on, get to me.
Go ahead, show him.
Like I taught you.
Give him the old shoulderjab.
Hey!
- How's that?
- Very good, Willy, very good.
- Shake hands, boys. Attaway.
- Look out, Biff.
Never fight fair with a stranger, boy.
You'll never get
out of the jungle that way.
It was an honour and a pleasure
to meet you, Linda.
Have a nice trip.
Oh, and good luck with your, uh...
What do you do?
- Oh, uh, selling.
- Oh, yes, really?
I don't want you to think...
It's Brooklyn, but we hunt too.
- Really, now?
- There's snakes and rabbits
That's why I moved out.
Biff can fell any one of these trees.
Go over to where they're building
the apartment and get some sand.
We're gonna rebuild the front stoop.
Watch us.
I lost weight, Pop, you notice?
They steal more
they'll put the cops on them.
- Don't let Biff take any more.
- The load they brought last week,
at least a dozen six by tens,
won'th all kinds of money.
If that watchman sees them...
I got a couple of fearless characters.
Willy, the gaols are full
of fearless characters.
- And the Stock Exchange.
- Uncle Willy!
Uncle Willy,
the watchmars chasing Biff!
Shut up.
He's not stealing anything.
Where is he?
Oh, there's nothing wrong.
What is the matter with you?
Nervy boy, good.
Nerves of iron, that Biff.
I don't know what it is.
My New England man comes back
and he's bleeding.
- Couldrt sell a nickel for five cents.
- It's contacts, Charley.
- I got important contacts.
- Glad to hear it, Willy.
Come in later,
we'll shoot a little casino.
I'll take some of your Portland money.
All business is bad, it's murderous.
But not for me, of course.
- I'll stop by on my way
back to Africa. - Ben, wait.
Can't you stay a few days, huh?
You're just what I need, Ben.
You know, I have a fine position here,
but Dad left when I was such a baby,
I never had a chance to talk to him.
I still feel
kind of temporary about myself.
- I'll be late for my train.
- Ben, my boys. Can't we talk?
See, they'd go
into the jaws of hell for me, but I...
You're being first-rate with your boys.
Outstanding, manly chaps.
Ben, that's good to hear
because sometimes I'm afraid
I'm not teaching them
the right kind of...
How should I teach them?
William, when I walked
into the jungle, I was 17.
When I walked out I was 21.
And by God, I was rich!
Was rich!
That's just the spirit
I want to imbue them with,
to walk into a jungle...
Oh, boy.
I was right. I was right. I was right!
- I was right!
- Willy?
Willy, dear, did you get some cheese?
It's awful late, darling.
Come to bed.
You gotta break your neck
to see a star in this yard.
Are you coming up, Willy?
Whatever happened
to that diamond watch fob?
When Ben came from Africa that time,
didn't he give me a watch fob
with a diamond in it?
You pawned it, dear, 12, 13 years ago
for Biff's radio correspondence course.
That was a beautiful thing.
I'll take a walk.
But in your slippers, Willy?
What a man, huh?
Now, there was a man won'th talking to.
- But in your slippers!
- I was right.
I was, I was right!
- I was right.
- What is he doing out here?
- Shh!
- God Almighty, Mom.
- How long's he been doing this?
- Don't. He'll hear you.
What the hell is the matter with him?
- It'll pass by morning.
- Shouldn't we do anything?
Oh, my dear,
you should do a lot of things.
There's nothing to do.
Go to bed.
- I never heard him so loud, Mom.
- You'll hear him.
- Why didn't you write me about this?
- How would I?
For over three months
you've had no address.
I was on the move.
I thought of you all the time.
But he likes to have a letter
just to know there's still
the possibility of better things.
- He's not like this all the time.
- When you come home he's the worst.
When you write you're coming,
he's all smiles, he talks about
the future, he's wonderful.
The closer you come the more shaky
he gets and by the time you get here,
he's arguing,
he seems to be angry at you.
I think it's just because he can't
bring himself to open up to you.
- Why are you so hateful to each other?
- I'm not hateful.
Oh! You no sooner walk through
that door than you're fighting.
I don't know why.
I mean to change, Mom. I'm trying.
- Are you home to stay now?
- I don't know.
- I'll look around.
- You can't look around all your life.
I just can't take hold.
I can't take hold to some kind of life.
Biff, a man is not a bird
to come and go with the springtime.
Your hair.
Your hair's getting so gray.
It's been gray
since you were in high school.
- I just stopped dying it.
- Well, dye it again, Mom.
I don't want my pal looking old.
You are such a boy!
You think you can go away for a year?
You've got to get it into your head now.
One day you'll knock on this door,
there will be strange people here.
What are you talking about?
You're not even 60 yet.
What about your father?
- Well, I meant him, too.
- He admires Pop.
If you don't have feeling for him,
you can't have feelings for me.
- Sure, I can.
- No, Biff.
You can'tjust come to see me!
Because I love him.
He's the dearest man in the world to me
and I won't have anyone making him feel
unwanted and low and blue.
You have got to make up your mind now.
There's no leeway anymore.
Either he's your father,
and you pay him that respect,
or else you're not to come here.
- Hey, Biffo!
- What the hell is the matter with him?
- Don't go near him.
- Stop making excuses for him.
He always wiped the floor with you.
He never had an ounce of respect.
- He always had respect for her.
- What do you know?
- Don't call him crazy.
- He's got no character.
Charley wouldn't do this,
not in his house.
- Peeling that vomit from his mind.
- Charley never had what he's got.
People are worse off than Willy Loman,
I've seen them.
Then make Charley your father.
You can't do that, can you?
I am not saying he's a great man.
Willy Loman never earned a lot of money.
His name was never in the paper.
He's not the finest character.
But he's a human being.
And a terrible thing is happening
to him. So attention must be paid.
He must not be allowed
to fall into his grave like an old dog.
Attention! Attention must
finally be paid to such a person.
- You called him crazy?
- Mom, I didn't...
Wait a minute. A lot of people think
he's lost his balance,
but you don't have to be very smart
to know what his trouble is.
- The man is exhausted.
- Sure.
A small man can be
just as exhausted as a great man.
He works for a company
36 years this March,
he opens up uneard of territories
to their trademark,
and now, in his old age,
they take his salary away!
- I didn't know that, Mom.
- You never asked, my dear!
Now you get your spending money
somewhere else
- you don't trouble your mind with him.
- I gave you money.
Christmastime, 50 dollars.
To fix the hot water it cost $97.50!
For five weeks
he's been on straight commission,
like a beginner, an unknown.
Those ungrateful bastards!
Are they any worse than his sons?
He drives 700 miles,
and when he gets there no one
knows him anymore, no one welcomes him.
And what goes through a mars mind
driving 700 miles home
without having earned a cent?
Why shouldn't he talk to himself?
Why not, when
he has to go to Charley every week
and borrow 50 dollars from him,
and pretend to me it's his pay.
How long can that go on?
How long?
And you tell me he has no character?
The man who never worked a day
in his life but for your benefit!
And when does he get the medal for that?
Is this his reward?
To turn around at the age of 63
and find his sons,
who he loved better than his life,
- one a philandering bum...
- Mom!
That is all you are, my baby.
And you! What happened
to the love you had for him?
You were such pals.
How you used to talk every night
on the phone,
how lonely he was
till he could come home to you.
All right, Mom.
I'll live in my room, I'll get a job,
I'll just keep away from him.
No, Biff, you can't stay here
and fight all the time.
He threw me out of this house.
Why did he do that?
- Because I know he's a fake.
- A fake!
- In what way? What do you mean?
- Just don't lay it all at my feet.
It's between me and him.
That's all I have to say.
I'll chip in from now on.
He'll settle for half my paycheque.
- He'll be all right.
- He won't be all right!
I hate this city and I'll stay here.
Now, what do you want?
- He's dying, Biff.
- Why is he dying?
He's been trying to kill himself.
How?
Do you remember I wrote you that
he smashed the car again in February?
Well?
The insurance inspector came.
There's evidence that all the accidents
in the last year werert accidents.
How can they tell?
That's a lie.
- It seems there's a woman...
- What woman?
What?
- Nothing.
- What did you say?
- I said, "What woman?"
- What about her?
She was walking down the road.
She saw his car.
She said he wasrt driving fast at all.
He didn't skid, she said.
He came to that little bridge and
deliberately smashed into the railing.
It was the shallowness of the water
that saved him.
Mom, he probably just fell asleep again.
- No. I don't think he fell asleep.
- Why not?
Last month...
Oh, boys, it's so hard
to say a thing like this.
I was looking for a fuse, the lights
blew out, I went down in the cellar.
Behind the fuse box,
it happened to fall out,
was this length of rubber pipe,
just short.
No kidding.
There was an attachment
on the end of it.
I knew right away, and sure enough.
On the bottom of the hot water heater
there's a new nipple on the gas pipe.
- Thatjerk.
- Did you have it taken off?
I'm ashamed to.
How can I mention it to him?
Every day I go down
and I take away
that little rubber pipe.
But when he comes home
I put it back where it was.
How can I insult him that way?
It sounds so silly and old-fashioned,
but I tell you,
he's put his whole life into you.
And you've turned your backs on him.
Biff, his life is in your hands.
I feel like a damn fool.
All right.
All right.
It's settled now.
I've been remiss, I know that.
But now I'll stay and I swear to you,
Mama, I'll apply myself.
It's just that, see,
I don't fit in business.
Not that I won't try.
I'll try and I'll make good.
The trouble was,
you never tried to please people.
It's like when you worked
for Bob Harrison.
He said you were tops.
Then you go and do some damn fool thing
like whistling songs in the elevator.
So what? I like to whistle.
You don't raise a guy
to a responsible job who whistles.
Don't argue about it.
You'd go for a swim
in the middle of the day.
You don't take off?
You run off sometimes, on a nice day.
- Sure, but I cover myself.
- Oh, boys.
I'll tell you something.
In the business world
some of them think you're crazy.
- Screw the business world.
- Right. Great. But cover yourself.
I don't care!
They've laughed at Dad for years.
You know why? Because we don't belong
in this nuthouse of a city.
We should be mixing cement somewhere
on some open plain, or carpenters.
A carpenter's allowed to whistle.
Even your grandfather was better
than a carpenter.
You never grew up.
Bernard does not whistle
in the elevator, I assure you.
- I bet you do.
- I never whistled in an elevator.
And who in the business world
thinks I'm crazy, hmm?
I didn't mean it like that.
Don't make a thing out of it.
Go back to the West.
Be a carpenter or a cowboy.
- Enjoy yourself.
- He was just saying things.
- I heard what he said.
- Come on.
They laugh at me, huh?
Go to Filene's, go to the Hub,
go to Slattery's, Boston
and call out the name Willy Loman.
- See what happens. Big shot. Big.
- All right, Pop.
All right.
Why do you always insult me?
Dad, I didn't say a word.
- Did I say a word?
- He didn't say anything, Willy.
No.
- All right, good night.
- Willy! He's decided...
If you get tired hanging around
tomorrow, paint the ceiling I put up.
I'm leaving early tomorrow.
He's gonna see Bill Oliver, Pop.
Oliver?
For what?
Well, he always said he'd stake me
and I'd like to go into business,
so maybe I'll take him up on it.
- Isn't that wonderful?
- What's wonderful about it?
There's 50 men in the city of New York
that would stake him.
- Sporting goods?
- I guess so.
- I know something about it.
- He knows something about it!
You know sporting goods
better than Spalding, for God's sake.
- How much is he giving you?
- I don't know. I haven't seen him yet.
- Then what are you talking about?
- All I said was I was gonna go see him.
- You're counting your chickens again.
- Jesus.
- Don't curse in this house.
- Since when did you get so clean?
Don't use that language to me.
I won't have it!
I got an idea, a feasible idea. Let's
talk this over. Let's talk sense.
When I was in Florida last time I thought
of a great idea to sell sporting goods.
It just came back to me.
We have a line, the Loman line.
- We put on a couple of exhibitions.
- That's an idea. - Wait!
We form two basketball teams,
two water polo teams.
We play each other.
It's a million dollars of publicity.
Two brothers, see?
The Loman brothers.
- We could sell sporting goods.
- That is a one million dollar idea.
Marvellous.
I'm in great shape
as far as that's concerned.
It wouldn't be like a business at all.
We'd be out playing ball again.
- That's what I was talking about.
- You won't get fed up. It'd be family.
Lick the world. You guys together could
absolutely lick the civilised world.
I'll see Oliver.
If we could work that out...
- I think everything is...
- Stop interrupting!
Don't wear a sports jacket and slacks.
A business suit
and talk as little as possible.
- And don't crack any jokes.
- Hey, he did like me.
- He always liked me.
- Oh, he loved you.
Will you stop!
Walk in very serious.
You're not applying for a boy's job.
Money is to pass.
Be quiet, fine and serious.
Everybody likes a kidder
but nobody lends them money.
- I'll try to get some myself.
- I see great things for you.
I think your troubles are over.
Start big, you'll end big. Ask for 15.
How much you gonna ask for?
- Gee, I don't...
- Don't say gee. Gee is a boy's word.
A man walking in for $15,000
does not say "gee".
- Ten would be top.
- Don't be so modest.
You always start it too low.
Walk in with a big laugh.
Start off with a couple of your
good stories to lighten things up.
It's not what you say
but how you say it,
because personality always wins the day.
- Oliver always thought...
- Will you let me talk!
Dad, stop yelling at her.
I was talking, wasrt I?
I just don't like you
yelling at her all the time.
- I'm telling you.
- You taking over this house?
- Willy, he didn't mean...
- Don't take his side all the time!
Stop yelling at her.
Give my best to Bill Oliver.
- He may remember me.
- Why did you have to start that?
Did you see how sweet he was
as soon as you talked hopefully?
Go up.
Say good night to him.
- Don't let him go to bed that way.
- Biff, let's buck him up.
Please, dear.
It takes so little to make him happy.
Come.
Your pyjamas are hanging
in the bathroom, Willy.
What a woman.
They broke the mould when they made her.
You know that, Biff?
He's off salary.
My god, working on commission.
Let's face it.
He's no hotshot selling man.
Sometimes you gotta admit
he's a sweet personality.
Lend me ten bucks.
I'm gonna buy some new ties.
I'll take you to a place I know.
Wear one of my striped shirts.
Mom got so gray.
She got awful old.
I'm gonna go in and see Oliver tomorrow
and I'm gonna knock him...
Come on up and tell Dad.
Let's give him a whirl.
With ten thousand bucks... boy.
That's the first time
I've heard the old confidence.
You're gonna live with me, kid,
and I'm telling you, any babe you want.
You say the word.
Can you do something about the shower?
It drips.
Oh, all of a sudden
everything falls to pieces.
That damn plumbing.
They ought to be sued, those people.
- Hardly finished putting it in...
- I'm wondering if Oliver will remember.
- You think he might? -Remember him?
What's the matter with you? Are you crazy?
If he'd have stayed with Oliver,
he'd be on top now.
Wait till Oliver gets a look at him. You
don't know the average calibre anymore.
The average young man today
has got a calibre of zero.
The greatest thing for him
was to bum up...
Willy.
- Glad to hear it, boy.
- He wanted to say good night to you.
Oh, yeah, you knock them dead, boy.
What do you want to tell me?
Take it easy, Pop, good night.
If anything falls off the desk
while you're talking to him,
like a package or something,
don't you pick it up.
- They have office boys.
- I'll make a big breakfast.
Will you let me finish, hmm?
Tell him you were in business
in the West, not farm work.
- All right, Dad. I will.
- I think everything's gonna be...
And don't undersell yourself.
No less than $15,000.
- OK. Good night, Mom.
- Because you got a greatness in you.
Biff!
Remember that.
- You got all kinds of greatness.
- Sleep well, darling.
- I'm gonna get married, Mom. I wanted
to tell you. - Go to sleep, dear.
I just wanted to tell you.
Keep up the good work.
Do you remember that Ebbets Field
game, the championship of the city?
Hmm?
Just rest, dear.
- Should I sing to you?
- Yeah, you sing to me.
You know, when that team came out,
he was the tallest.
You remember?
- All in gold.
- Oh, like a young god.
Hercules, something like that. And
the sun, the sun all around him.
Remember how he waved to me?
Right from the field, with the representatives
from three colleges standing by,
and the buyers I brought.
Oh, the cheers when he came out.
Loman! Loman!
Loman!
God Almighty, he'll be great yet.
A star like that, magnificent,
can never really fade away.
- Oh, boy.
- Willy?
Dear?
What has he got against you?
I'm so tired. Don't talk anymore.
Will you ask Howard
if he'll let you work in New York?
First thing in the morning.
Everything will be all right.
Gee.
Look at the moon
moving between the buildings.
Oh, oh, wonderful coffee!
- A meal in itself.
- Can I make you some eggs?
- Take a breath.
- You look so rested, dear.
I slept like a dead one.
First time in months.
Imagine sleeping till 10
on a Tuesday morning.
- Boys left nice and early? - They
were out of here by 8:00. - Good work.
It was thrilling, them leaving together.
I cannot get over the smell
of shaving lotion in this house.
Biff was very changed this morning.
His attitude seemed to be hopeful.
- He couldn't wait to see Oliver.
- He's heading for a change.
- Certain men take longer to get...
- Solidified.
- How did he dress?
- His blue suit.
He looked so handsome.
He could be anything in that suit.
Boy, there's no question.
No question at all.
Gee, on the way home tonight
I'd like to buy some seeds.
Wonderful, but not enough sun
gets back there. Nothing will grow.
Before it's over
we'll get a place in the country,
- I'll raise vegetables, chickens.
- You'll do it.
They'll get married and visit.
I'll build a guest house.
I've got so many tools. All I'd need
would be lumber and peace of mind.
- I sewed the liner.
- I could build two houses
- so they'd both come.
- Yes.
- He decide how much he's gonna ask for?
- He didn't, but I imagine ten.
Fifteen thousand.
You're gonna talk to Howard today?
Oh, yeah, I'll, uh...
I'll put it to him straight and simple.
- He'll have to take me off the road.
- Ask for a little advance.
We've got the insurance premium.
It's the grace period.
It's $108.68 because
we're a little short this month.
- Why are we short?
- You had the job done on the car.
- That damn Studebaker.
- One more payment on the refrigerator.
- Itjust broke again.
- It's old, dear.
We should have bought
a well advertised machine.
Charley bought a General Electric.
It's 20 years old and it's good.
- Willy, please! - Whoever heard
of a Hastings refrigerator?
Once in my life I'd like to buy
something outright before it's broken.
I am always in a race with the junkyard.
I just finished paying for the car.
It's on its last legs.
The refrigerator consumes belts.
- Willy.
- They time those things!
They time them so when you finally
pay for them they're used up.
All told, about 200 dollars
would carry us dear,
but that includes the last payment
on the mortgage.
When we've made that payment, Willy,
the house belongs to us.
- That's 25 years.
- Biff was nine when we bought it.
Well, that's a great thing,
to weather a 25 year mortgage.
It's an accomplishment.
All the cement, the lumber. The
reconstruction I put in this house.
There ain't a crack
to be found in it anymore.
- Well, it served its purpose.
- What purpose?
Some stranger will come along,
move in, and that's that.
If only Biff would take this house
and raise a family.
- Good-bye. I'm late.
- I forgot to tell you.
You're supposed to meet them for dinner.
Frank's Chop House, near Sixth Avenue.
Is that so? How about you?
Just the three of you.
They are gonna blow you to a big meal.
- Who thought of that?
- Biff came to me this morning.
He said, "Tell Dad we're gonna blow
him to a big meal. Be there 6:00".
You and your two boys
are gonna have dinner.
- Gee whiz, that's really something.
- Yeah.
I'm gonna knock Howard for a loop, kid.
I'll get an advance
and I'll come home with a New York job!
- I'm gonna do it!
- That's the spirit, Willy!
I will never get behind the wheel
the rest of my life!
It's changing, Willy.
I can feel it changing.
- Beyond a question.
- Oh!
- You got your glasses?
- Yeah.
And your handkerchief?
And your saccharine?
- And my saccharine.
- Be careful on the subway stairs.
Will you stop mending stockings?
It gets me nervous. I can't tell you.
And don't forget,
Frank's Chop House.
- Maybe beets would grow out there.
- Oh, Willy, you tried so many times.
- Yeah, well, don't work hard.
- Now, you be careful.
Come on, give me a little something.
- Good-bye.
- Bye.
- Psst.
- Hello, Willy.
- I'd like to talk to you, Howard.
- I'll be with you in a minute.
- What's that?
- Didrt you ever see one of these?
- It's a wire recorder.
- Can we talk a minute?
It records things.
I just got delivery yesterday.
It's the most terrific machine
I ever saw in my life.
- I was up all night with it.
- What do you do?
I bought it for dictation
but you can do anything with it.
Listen to this. I had it home.
Listen to what I picked up.
The first one is my daughter.
Get this.
Listen to that kid whistle.
That is lifelike, isn't it?
- Seven years old. Get that tone.
- I'd like to ask a little favour.
It's your turn now, Daddy.
She's crazy for me.
- That's me. - You're very
good. - Now this is my son.
The capital of Alabama is Montgomery.
The capital of California is Sacramento.
- Five years old.
He'll make an announcer someday.
- The capital of Colorado...
- That is alphabetical order.
- The maid kicked the plug.
- That certainly is...
Shh! For God's sake.
It is 9:00 so I have to go to sleep.
- It really is...
- Wait. The next is my wife.
- Talk!
- I can't think of anything.
- It's time.
- Hello. Howard, I can't talk.
- That was my wife.
- That is a wonderful machine. Can we...
I'm gonna take my camera and my bandsaw
and all my hobbies and out they go.
- This is the most fascinating
relaxation ever. - I think I'll get one.
They're a hundred and a half.
You can't do without it.
Supposing you want to hear Jack Benny,
see. But you can't be home at that hour.
You tell the maid to turn the radio on
when Jack Benny comes on,
and this automatically comes on
with the radio.
- When you come home...
- You come home any time you like.
You get yourself a Coke,
sit down, throw the switch,
and there is Jack Benny's programme,
in the middle of the night.
I'm gonna get one,
'cause lots of times I'm on the road,
and I think, "What I must
be missing on the radio".
- Don't you have a radio in the car?
- Yeah. Whoever thinks of turning it on?
- Arent you supposed to be in Boston?
- That's what I want to talk about.
- You got a minute?
- What happened?
- You didn't crack up again, did you?
- Oh, no.
Oh!
Geez, you got me worried there
for a minute.
- Well, what's the trouble?
- Well, to tell you the truth,
I've come to the decision
that I'd rather not travel anymore.
- Not travel? Well, what would you do?
- Remember Christmastime at the party
you said you'd think
of a spot for me here in town?
- With us? - Sure. - Oh,
yeah, yeah, I remember.
I couldn't think of anything for you.
I'll tell you, Howard, the kids
are all grown up now, you know.
I don't need much anymore.
If I could take home $65 a week
I could swing it.
- Yeah, but Willy...
- I'll tell you why.
Speaking frankly
between the two of us, you know,
I'm just a little tired.
Oh.
I can understand that, Willy.
But you're a road man, Willy.
We're a road business.
We've got half a dozen salesmen here.
God knows, Howard,
I never asked a favour of any man,
but I was with the firm when
your father used to carry you in here.
- I know.
- Your father came to me
the day you were born and asked me
what I thought of the name Howard.
I appreciate that, Willy,
but there just is no spot here for you.
If I had a spot I would slam you
right in there, but I just don't.
- All I need is 50 dollars a week.
- Where am I gonna put you, kid?
It's not a question
of whether I can sell, huh?
No, but it's a business and
everybody's gotta pull his own weight.
- Let me tell you a story.
- Business is business.
This is definitely business.
Listen. You don't understand this.
When I was a boy, 18, 19,
I was already on the road.
There was a question in my mind
whether selling had a future for me.
In those days
I had a yearning to go to Alaska.
There were three gold strikes
in one month in Alaska.
I felt like going out,
just for the ride, you might say.
- You don't say?
- My father lived many years in Alaska.
He was an adventurous man.
We got quite a streak of self-reliance
in our family.
I thought I'd go out with
my older brother, try to locate him,
maybe settle in the North.
I was almost decided to go...
...when I met a salesman
in the Parker House.
His name was Dave Singleman.
He was 84 years old and
he'd drummed merchandise in 31 states.
Old Dave would go up to his room,
put on his green velvet slippers,
pick up the phone and call the buyers.
Without ever leaving his room
at the age of 84,
he made his living.
When I saw that, I realised that selling
was the greatest career a man could want
because what could be more satisfying
than to be able to go at the age of 84
into 20 or 30 different cities
and pick up a phone
and be remembered and loved
and helped by many different people.
You know, when he died...
And by the way, he died
the death of a salesman,
in his green velvet slippers
in the smoker of the New York,
New Haven and Hartford
going into Boston.
When he died, hundreds of salesmen
and buyers were at his funeral.
Things were sad on a lot of trains
for months after that.
You see, in those days there was
personality in it, Howard.
There was respect and comradeship and...
...and gratitude.
Today it's all cut and dry.
And there's no chance for bringing
friendship to bear or personality.
You see what I mean.
- They don't know me anymore.
- That's just the thing, Willy.
If I had 40 dollars a week,
that's all I need.
- I can't take blood from a stone.
- Howard!
The year Al Smith was nominated
your father came to me...
I'm talking about your father!
There were promises made
across this desk!
You mustnt tell me
that you got people to see!
I put 34 years into this firm,
Howard! Now I can't pay my insurance!
You can't eat the orange
and throw the peel away!
A man is not a piece of fruit!
Pay attention.
No, your father...
Howard...
In 1928 I had a big year.
I averaged 170 dollars a week.
- You never averaged 170 dollars a week.
- No, no, no!
I averaged 170 dollars a week
in the year 1928!
And your father came to me, Howard,
right across this desk,
put his hand on my shoulder...
You have to excuse me, Willy!
I have got to see some people.
Pull yourself together.
I'll be back in a little while.
Ah, pull myself together!
What did I say to him?
Oh, my god.
I was yelling at him.
Frank, Frank, don't you remember
what you told me that time?
You put your hand on my shoulder...
The capital of Delaware...
Oh, Howard!
Howard!
Howard, Howard, shut it off!
Shut it off!
- Look, Willy...
- I gotta get myself some coffee.
- I'll get coffee.
- Willy, look...
Look, Willy,
you can't go to Boston for us.
- Why can't I go?
- I don't want you to represent us.
I've been meaning to tell you
for a long time now.
- Howard, are you firing me?
- I think you need a good long rest.
When you feel better come back
and we'll try to work something out.
I gotta earn money, Howard.
Where are your sons?
Wort your sons give you a hand?
Oh, they're working on a very big deal.
This is no time for false pride.
Go to your sons
and tell them you're tired.
You got two great boys there.
- No question.
- That's that, huh?
In the meantime. All right.
I'll go to...
I'll go to Boston tomorrow.
No!
No.
I can't throw myself on my kids.
I'm not a freeloader.
- Kid, I am busy this morning.
- Let me go to Boston.
I have got a line
of people to see this morning.
- Sit down. Sit.
- What?
Oh.
Take five minutes
and pull yourself together.
And then go home, will you?
I need the office.
Whenever you can this week,
drop off the samples.
You'll feel better, Willy,
and then come back. We'll talk.
Pull yourself together, kid.
There's people outside.
Oh, Ben!
How did you do it, huh?
What's the answer?
Did you wind up the Alaska deal already?
Doesrt take much time if you know what
you're doing. I wanted to say good-bye.
- I gotta talk to you.
- I haven't the time.
Nothing's working out.
I don't know what to do.
I bought timberland in Alaska. I need
a man to look after things for me.
God, timberland!
Me and my boys and those grand outdoors!
A new continent on your doorstep.
Get out of these cities. They're full of
talk, time payments and courts of law.
- You can fight for a fortune up there.
- Linda! Linda!
- Linda.
- You're back.
- I haven't much time.
- Wait.
He's got a proposition for me in Alaska.
- But you've got a job here.
- But in Alaska, kid, I could...
- You are doing well enough.
- Enough for what, dear?
Don't say things like that to him.
Enough to be happy right here, now.
Why must everyone conquer the world?
You're well-liked, the boys love you.
The other day old man Wagner told him
he'll be a member of the firm.
- Didn't he, Willy?
- I'm building something with this firm.
If a man is building
he must be on the right track.
- What are you building? Where is it?
- That's true, Linda, there's nothing.
Why, there's a man 84 years old, Willy.
That's right, Ben, that's right!
When I look at that man
I say what's there to worry about?
All he has to do is go into any city,
pick up a phone
and he's making his living. Know why?
- I gotta go.
- Oh, look at this boy.
Without a penny to his name, three
great universities are begging for him.
From there the sky's the limit! It's
not what you do, Ben, it's who you know!
And a smile on your face.
It's contacts, Ben, contacts!
The whole wealth of Alaska passing over
the lunch table of the Commodore Hotel.
And that's the wonder,
the wonder of this country,
that a man can end with diamonds
on the basis of being liked.
That's why, when you get
on that field today, it's important,
'cause thousands of people
will be rooting for you, loving you.
When he walks into a business office,
his name will sound out like a bell,
and all the doors will open to him.
I seen it, Ben.
I seen it a thousand times. You can't
feel it in your hands, but it's there.
- Good-bye.
- Don't you think I'm right?
- I value your advice.
- A new continent at your doorstep.
You could walk out rich.
Rich!
We're gonna do a hit, Ben, you hear me?
We're gonna do a hit!
Gee, I was afraid you left already.
- What time is it?
- Ten past one.
Oh, come on everybody,
Ebbets Field, next stop.
- Where's the pennants?
- Did you pack fresh underwear?
- I want to go. - I'm
carrying your helmet. - I am.
You promised me.
How am I gonna get in the locker room?
Let him carry the shoulder guards.
Can I? I told everybody
I was gonna be in the locker room.
- It's the Clubhouse.
- I meant the Clubhouse.
- Let him carry the shoulder guards.
- Stay close to us.
- Wave when Biff comes out on the
field! You set, boy? - Ready to go, Pop.
- Every muscle is ready.
- You realise what this means.
You're coming home this afternoon
captain of the All-Scholastic
Championship - of the city of New York.
- That's right, Pop, and remember,
when I take off my helmet,
that touchdowrs for you.
Let's go over.
I got no room for you, Charley.
- Room for what?
- In the car.
Going for a ride?
I want to shoot some casino.
Don't you realise what today is?
Oh, he knows, Willy.
He's just kidding you.
That's nothing to kid about. I'm
not kidding, Linda. What's going on?
He is playing at Ebbets Field today.
- Baseball in this weather?
- Don't talk to him. We're late.
- Didn't you hear the news?
- What?
Don't you listen to the radio?
Ebbets Field just blew up.
You go to hell! Everybody in?
Knock a homer, Biff.
Knock a homer!
I don't think that was funny, Charley.
Did you hear me, huh?
This is the greatest day in his life.
When are you gonna grow up?
When this game is over
you won't be laughing anymore.
They'll be calling him
another Red Grange, 25,000 a year.
- That so?
- Yeah!
- Wait a minute, Willy. I'm sorry.
- Yeah?
But tell me something.
Who is Red Grange?
Put up your hands.
Put up your hands, come on.
Put up your hands. Who do you think
you are, better than everybody?
Put up your hands! Put up your hands!
Put up your hands.
Who the hell do you think you are?
You don't know everything,
you big ignorant stupid...
Put up your hands.
What are you walking away for?
Don't walk away. You gonna say
something to me, say it to my face.
I know you laugh at me behind my back.
You'll be laughing out of the other
side of your face after this game.
The woods are burning.
Touchdown! Touchdown!
Eighty thousand people!
Right between the goal posts.
Touchdown! Touchdown!
Hello, baby! Touchdown!
Touchdown! Ah, Jenny.
Jenny, good to see you.
How are you?
- Working? Or still honest?
- Fine.
- How you been feeling?
- Not much any more.
- Oh!
- Hello, Uncle Willy.
Bernard.
- Look who's here.
- How are you?
- What are you doing here?
- I just stopped by to see Pop.
To get off my feet till my train leaves.
I'm going to Washington.
- Is he in?
- He's with the accountant.
Sit down. What are you
gonna do in Washington?
- Just a case I've got there.
- That so? You gonna play tennis there?
I'm staying with a friend
who's got a court.
You don't say.
Their own tennis court?
- Those are fine people, I bet.
- They're very nice.
- Dad tells me Biff's in town.
- Yeah.
Biff's in. He's working
on a very big deal, Bernard.
- What's Biff doing? - He's been
doing very big things in the West,
but he decided
to establish himself here.
Very big. We're having dinner.
Did I hear your wife had a boy?
That's right. Our second.
Two boys.
- What do you know?
- You still with the old firm, Willy?
I'm overjoyed to see how
you made the grade, Bernard, overjoyed.
It's an encouraging thing to see.
A young man really... really...
Ah, it looks very good for Biff.
Very good.
- Bernard. - What is it, Willy?
- What... What's the secret?
- What secret?
- How did you...?
- Why didn't he ever catch on?
- Willy, I wouldn't know that.
Oh, you were his friend,
his boyhood friend.
It's something I don't understand.
His life ended
after that Ebbets Field game.
From the age of 17
nothing good ever happened to him.
- He never trained himself for anything.
- He took correspondence courses.
Radio mechanics, television...
He never made the slightest mark.
- Do you want to talk candidly?
- Bernard.
I regard you as a very brilliant man.
Bernard, I value your advice.
The hell with advice.
I couldn't advise you.
There's one thing
I have always wanted to ask you.
When he was supposed to graduate
and the teacher flunked him...
Ruined his life.
All he had to do was go
to summer school, make up that subject.
- That's right. That's right!
- Did you tell him not to go?
Me? I begged him to go.
I ordered him to go.
- Why wouldn't he go?
- Why? Why, Bernard!
That questiors been trailing me
like a ghost for 15 years.
He flunked the subject and he laid down
and died like a hammer hit him.
Let me talk to you, Bernard.
I got nobody to talk to.
It wasn't my fault. It keeps going
around in my head, maybe I did something.
I got nothing to give him.
Don't take it so hard.
Why did he lay down?
- What is the story there?
- Willy...
You're his friend. Come on.
Willy, I remember it was June.
Our grades came out. He'd flunked math.
That son of a bitch ruined his life.
Then Biff just got very angry and
he was ready to enrol in summer school.
- He was?
- He wasn't beaten by it at all.
But then, Willy, see...
What?
He disappeared from the block
for almost a month.
I got the idea that he'd gone
up to New England to see you.
Did he ever talk with you then?
- Willy?
- Yeah.
Yeah.
He came to Boston.
What about it?
Well, it's just
that when he came back...
I'll never forget this.
It always mystifies me
because I thought so well of Biff.
I loved him, Willy, you know.
He came back after that month
and took his sneakers.
Remember those sneakers with the
University of Virginia on them?
He was so proud of them.
Wore them every day.
He took them down into the cellar,
burned them up in the furnace.
We had a fistfight.
It lasted at least half an hour,
just the two of us,
punching each other down in the cellar,
crying right through it.
I often thought how strange it was
that I knew he'd given up his life.
What happened in Boston, Willy?
I just bring it up because you asked me.
What's that got to do with it?
- Don't get sore.
- What are you trying to do, blame me?
If a boy lays down is that my fault?
- Don't take it...
- Don't you talk to me that way.
What does that mean,
huh, what happened?
Hey!
- You're gonna miss that train.
- Yeah, I'm going.
Good-bye, Willy.
- Don't worry about it. If at first you
don't succeed... - Yes, I believe in that.
Sometimes, Willy, it's better for a man
just to walk away.
- Walk away?
- That's right.
What if you can't walk away?
I guess that's when it's tough.
Good-bye, Willy.
Good-bye, boy.
How do you like this kid?
Gonna argue a case in the Supreme Court.
- Pop!
- No.
- The Supreme Court?
- I gotta run.
- Bye, Dad.
- Knock 'em dead, Bernard.
The Supreme Court.
And he didn't even mention it?
He don't have to.
He's gonna do it.
And you never told him what to do.
You never took any interest in him.
My salvation is that I never
took any interest in anything.
Here's some money, 50 dollars.
I got an accountant inside.
Uh, Charley, look, uh...
I got my insurance to pay.
If you could manage it, I...
I need 110 dollars.
- I'd draw from my bank, but...
- Sit down, Willy.
I'm keeping an account of everything.
- Listen to me.
- I'll pay every penny back.
- I want you to know I appreciate...
- What's going on inside your head?
- Why? I'm simply...
- I offered you a job.
You can make 50 dollars a week
and I won't send you on the road.
- I got a job.
- Without pay?
What kind of a job is a job without pay?
Now, look, kid. Enough is enough.
I'm no genius, but I know
when I'm being insulted.
- Insulted?
- Why don't you want to work for me?
What does it matter with you?
I got a job.
What do you walk in here every week for?
Well, if... if you don't
want me to walk in here...
- I am offering you a job.
- I don't want your job.
When the hell are you gonna grow up?
You big ignoramus! If you say
that to me again I'll rap you one.
I don't care how big...
...how big you are.
- How much do you need, Willy?
- Ah, Charley, I'm strapped.
I'm strapped. I don't know
what to do. I was just fired.
- Howard fired you?
- That's not no...
Imagine that. I named him Howard.
I named him! I named him Howard!
Willy, when are you gonna realise
that them things don't mean anything?
You named him Howard
but you can't sell that.
The only thing you got in this
world is what you can sell.
The funny thing is, you're a salesman
and you don't know that.
I always try to think otherwise,
I guess. I always felt...
...if a man was impressive
and well-liked then nothing...
Why must everybody like you?
Who liked JP Morgan?
Was he impressive? In a Turkish bath
he looked like a butcher.
With his pockets on
he was very well-liked.
Now, listen, Willy,
I know you don't like me.
And nobody can say I'm in love with you.
But I'll give you a job
just for the hell of it.
- What do you say?
- No. No, I just...
No, I just can't work for you, Charley.
- What are you, jealous of me?
- No!
I can't work for you, that's all.
Don't ask me why.
You've been jealous of me
all your life, you damn fool.
Here.
- Pay your insurance.
- I'm keeping strict accounts.
I got some work to do. Take care
of yourself. And pay your insurance!
It's funny, after all the highways
and the trains and the appointments
and the years...
...you end up worth
more dead than alive.
Willy, nobody's worth nothing dead.
You hear what I said?
Willy!
Oh, apologise to Bernard for me
when you see him.
I didn't mean to argue with him.
He's a fine boy.
They're all fine boys. And they'll
end up big, all of them someday.
They'll all play tennis together.
Wish me luck, Charley.
He saw Bill Oliver today.
Good luck.
Oh, Charley,
you're the only friend I got.
Isn't that a remarkable thing?
Jesus.
In the front
you're in the middle of noise.
Whenever you've got a party, Mr. Loman,
tell me, I'll put you back here.
You look French.
How's it coming, Stanley?
It's a dog's life. I only wish that
during the war they took me in the Army.
- I could have been dead.
- You got lobsters?
- A hundred percent big. - With the claws.
- Don't worry, I don't give you no mice.
How about some wine?
Put a hat on the meal.
No, the recipe I brought you from
overseas with the champagne in it
I still got that in the kitchen,
but it'll cost you a buck a piece.
- That's all right.
- You hit a number?
My brother, I think
he pulled off a deal today.
- I think we're going into business.
- That's the best, family business.
- That's the best.
- That's what I think.
What's the difference?
Somebody steals, it's in the family.
Shh. Strudel.
- Ma'am?
- I'm expecting someone.
Oh, look at that mouth. Oh, God,
and the binoculars. Wait on her.
- Would you like a menu?
- I'd like a...
Why don't you bring her...
Do you mind?
I sell champagne and I'd like her
to try my brand. Bring her a champagne.
- That's awfully nice of you.
- It's all company money.
That's a charming product
to be selling, isn't it?
Like everything else,
selling is selling.
- I suppose? - You don't happen
to sell? - No, I don't sell.
Would you object to a compliment?
You ought to be on a magazine cover.
- I have been. -W hat did I say before?
See, Stanley, she's a cover girl.
- Oh, I could see, I could see.
- What magazine?
A lot of them.
Thank you.
You know what they say in France?
Champagne is the drink
of the complexion.
- Hiya, Biffo.
- Sorry I'm late.
- No. No, no, I just got here.
Miss, um...? - Forsythe.
Miss Forsythe, this is my brother.
Is Dad here?
You might have heard of him.
He's a great football player.
- Really? What team?
- You're familiar with football?
- I'm afraid I'm not.
- Biff's with the New York Giants.
- Well, it is nice, isn't it?
- Good health.
- Happy to meet you.
- That's my name.
It's Harold, but at West Point
they called me Happy.
I see. How do you do?
- Isn't Dad coming?
- You want her?
- What? - You want her?
- I could never make that.
I remember the time that idea
would never come into your head.
- I just saw... - Wait, please. I've
got to see the old confidence.
If you want her she's on call.
I'm telling you, watch this.
Honey, are you busy?
Well, I am
but I could make a phone call.
Go and do that, will you, honey,
and see if you can get a friend.
We'll be here for awhile. Biff,
one of the greatest football players.
- I'm certainly happy to meet you.
- Come back soon.
- I'll try.
- Don't try, honey. Try hard.
Isn't that a shame?
Beautiful girl like that.
- That's why I can't get married.
- Hap, look...
- I told you she's on call.
- Cut it out.
I want to say something.
- Did you see Oliver?
- I saw him, all right.
I want to tell Dad a couple of things.
I want you to help.
- Is he gonna back you?
- Are you crazy?
You're out of your head,
do you know that?
Why, what happened?
I did a terrible thing today, Hap.
It's been the strangest day
I ever went through.
- I'm a little numb.
- What, he wouldn't see you?
I waited six hours for him, see.
All day I kept sending my name in.
Even tried to date his secretary
so she got me through. Not so.
You're not showing the confidence.
But he remembered you?
Finally at 5:00 he comes out,
didn't remember who I was or anything.
Biff, did you tell him my Florida idea?
Hap, he walked away.
I saw him and for one minute I got
so mad I could have torn the walls down.
How the hell did I ever get the idea
that I was a salesman there?
I believed myself
that I'd been a salesman for him.
Then he gave me one look and I realised
what a ridiculous lie my life's been.
We have been talking in a dream
for 15 years.
- I was a shipping clerk.
- What did you do?
Well, he... he left, see.
His secretary went out
and I was alone in the waiting room.
And next thing I know,
I was in his office.
Panel walls and everything.
I can't explain it, Hap.
I took his fountain pen.
Geez. Did he catch you?
I ran out. I ran down all 11 flights.
I ran and ran and ran.
Boy, that was dumb, Biff.
Why did you do that?
I don't know.
I just wanted to take something.
You gotta help me, Hap.
I want to tell Pop.
Are you crazy? What for?
He's gotta understand I'm not the man
somebody lends that kind of money to.
He thinks I've been spiting him
all these years.
Tell him something nice.
Say you got a date with Oliver tomorrow.
- What do I do tomorrow?
- Dad is never so happy
as when he's
looking forward to something.
Gee, I haven't been here in years!
- Sit down. You want a drink?
- Sure, I don't mind.
- You look worried.
- No.
Uh, Scotch all around.
Make it doubles.
You had a couple already, didn't you?
Did everything go all right?
- I had an experience today, Pop.
- That so? What happened?
I wanted to tell you everything
from first to last.
It's been a strange day.
I had to wait quite a while.
- Oliver?
- Yeah, Oliver.
All day, as a matter of cold fact.
And a lot of instances, Pop,
facts about my life came back to me.
Who was it, Pop, whoever said
I was a salesman with Oliver?
- Well, you were.
- No, I was a shipping clerk, Dad.
I don't know who said it first
but I was never a salesman for Oliver.
- What are you talking about?
- Hold onto the facts.
I was a shipping clerk.
- Listen to me...
- Dad, let me finish.
I'm not interested in stories
about the past.
The woods are burning, boys.
There's a big blaze going on all around.
I was fired today.
How could you be?
And I'm looking for a little good news
to tell your mother
- because the woman has suffered.
- Dad!
I haven't got a story left in my head
so don't give me a lecture about facts.
I am not interested.
Now, what have you got to say to me?
Did you see Oliver, huh?
- Geez, Dad.
- You didn't go up there?
- Sure, he went up there.
- I saw him. How could they fire you?
- What kind of welcome did he give you?
- He won't let you work on commission?
- I'm out! He gave you a warm welcome?
- Sure, Pop.
I was wondering if he'd remember you.
A man doesn't see him in ten years,
he gives him a welcome.
You know why he remembered?
- You impressed him in those days.
- Dad, can we talk and get this down?
What happened? Did he take you in
his office or talk in the waiting room?
- He came in...
- I bet he threw his arms around you.
- He's a fine man, a hard man to see.
- Oh, I know that.
- Is that where you had the drinks?
- Yeah.
- He told him my Florida idea.
- Don't interrupt.
- How'd he react to the Florida idea?
- Give me a minute to explain.
I've been waiting for you to explain
since I sat down here. What happened?
- I talked, he listened to me.
- Oh, the way he listens.
- What was his answer?
- An... Answer...
You're not letting me tell you
what I want to tell you.
- You didn't see him.
- I did.
- You insult him or something?
- Dad! Will you let me out of it?
- Will you just let me out of it?
- What happened?
- I can't talk to him.
- Tell him.
- Shut up and leave me alone.
- No, no. You had to go and flunk math.
- Dad, what are you talking about?
- Math, math, math.
- Take it easy, Pop.
- If you hadrt of flunked you'd be set.
I'm gonna tell you what happened
and you're gonna listen to me.
I waited six hours and I kept sending
my name in but he wouldn't see me.
- Finally he came.
- Biff flunked mathl
- They won't graduate him.
- Where is he?
He ran off.
He went to Grand Central.
Is Uncle Willy in Boston?
See, so I'm washed up with Oliver,
Pop, do you understand that?
- Are you listening?
- If you hadrt have flunked...
- Dad, what are you talking about?
- I didn't flunk math. What pen?
- That was dumb, Biff.
- You took Oliver's pen.
- I just explained it.
- You stole Bill Oliver's fountain pen.
I didn't exactly steal it.
I was trying to tell you.
He had it in his hand,
Oliver walked in, he got nervous.
- My god, Biff.
- I never intended to do it...
- I'm not in my room. I'm not there.
- Ringing Mr Loman.
- Now, stop it.
- Mr Loman does not answer.
- I'm not there.
- Shall I page him?
- You're no good, no good for anything.
- I am, Dad.
I'll find something.
Don't worry about anything.
- Talk to me.
- Paging Mr Loman.
- No! No!
- He'll strike something, Pop, please.
- No!
- Dad, I'm telling you something good.
Oliver talked to his partner
about the Florida idea.
- You listening, Dad? Dad?
- Yeah.
He talked to his partner and he came
to me and I'm gonna be all right, Pop.
He said it's just a question
of the amount.
- Then you... Then you got it?
- It's gonna be terrific, Pop.
Aw, then you got it, haven't you?
- You got it, haven't you? You got it!
- No.
I'm supposed to have lunch
with him tomorrow.
I'm telling you so you'll know
I can make an impression.
I'll make good somewheres,
but I can't go tomorrow.
- Why not? You simply...
- The pen, Pop.
You give him the pen,
tell him it was an oversight.
- You have lunch.
- I can't.
You were doing a crossword puzzle,
you used his pen.
No, listen, kid,
I took those balls years ago, Pop,
and now I walk in with this fountain pen
that clinches it.
Don't you understand? I can't face him.
I'll try elsewhere.
- Don't you want to be anything?
- How can I go back?
Pop!
You don't want to be anything,
that what's behind it?
Don't take it that way! You think
it was easy walking into that office?
A team of horses couldn't
have dragged me to Oliver.
- Then why did you go?
- Why did I go?
Why did I go? Dad, look at you.
Look at what's become of you.
- You're gonna go to that lunch.
- I can't. I've got no appointment.
- Are you spiting me?
- Don't take it that way!
You rotten little louse.
Are you spiting me?
Dad. I'm no good.
Can't you see what I am?
You're in a restaurant.
Cut it out, both of you!
- Someone's at the door.
- Hello, girls. Sit down.
Yes, we might as well.
This is Letta.
- What do you drink?
- Letta might not be able to stay.
I gotta get up very early
tomorrow. I've got jury duty.
I'm so excited.
Were you fellas ever on a jury?
No, I've been in front of a jury.
- This is my father.
- Isn't he cute. Sit down with us, Pops.
- Biff, sit him down.
- Come on, sit down.
- Drink us under the table.
- Willy, are you coming?
Willy, I'm waiting.
- Where are you going?
- To open the door.
- What door?
- The washroom. Where is the door?
Just go straight down.
Will you stop laughing. Stop. Shh.
Will you stop!
Shh!
Will you stop!
I think it's sweet you bring your daddy.
Oh, he isn't really your father.
Miss Forsythe, you've just seen
a prince walk by.
A fine troubled prince. A
hard-working, unappreciated prince.
A pal, do you understand,
a good companion.
Always for his boys.
- That's so sweet.
- Girls, we're wasting time here.
What's the programme?
Biff, gather round now.
Where would you like to go?
- You do something for me?
- Me?
- Don't you give a damn for him?
- What are you talking about?
- I'm the one...
- You don't give a damn about him.
Look what I found in the cellar, Hap.
- How can you bear to let that go on?
- Me? Who goes off? Who runs away?
He doesn't mean anything to you.
You could help him, I can't.
Don't you understand what he's gonna do?
He's gonna kill himself.
- Don't you know that?
- Don't yell at me.
Hap, help him.
Help him!
Help me.
Help me!
I can't bear to look in his face.
Biff...
- Biff, where you going?
- What's he so mad about?
We're gonna catch up with him.
- I don't like that temper of his.
- He's overstrung.
- Do you want to tell your father?
- That's not my father, just a guy.
Come on, we're gonna catch up with Biff
and honey, we'll paint this town.
I love those bedroom eyes.
- That's how I knew you were friends.
- Mr Loman! Mr Loman! Mr Loman!
Hey! Mr Loman!
- Willyl
- What?
Oh.
No.
Willy, aren't you gonna answer the door?
Willy...
Willyl
- Arert you gonna answer the door?
- Sure.
Oh.
Someone's at the door, Willy.
Are you gonna answer the door?
He's gonna wake up the whole hotell
I'm not expecting anybody.
Why don't you have another drink, honey?
- Stop being so damn self-centred.
- I'm so Ionely.
You know you ruined me, Willy. From
now on, when you come to the office,
I'll see you
go right through the buyers.
No waiting at my desk anymore.
Willy, you ruined me.
Oh, that's nice of you to say that.
Oh, gee, you're self-centred.
Why so sad?
You're the saddest, self-centredest soul
I ever did see-saw.
Oh, boy, huh? What?
Boy, oh boy, oh boy.
Oh, to be dressing
in the middle of the night.
Arert you gonna answer the door?
They're knocking on the wrong door.
But they're knocking
and hear us talking.
- Maybe the hotel's on fire.
- It's a mistake.
- Tell them to go away.
- There's nobody there.
Willy!
There's somebody standing out there
and it's getting on my nerves.
All right. Stay in the bathroom
and don't come out.
There's a law in Massachusetts,
so don't come out.
It may be the new room clerk.
He looked mean. It's a mistake.
There's no fire.
- Dad. Why didn't you answer?
- Biff.
- What are you doing in Boston?
- Why didn't you answer?
I was knocking for five minutes.
I called you.
I just heard you. I was in the bathroom
and had the door shut.
Did anything happen at home, huh?
- Dad, I let you down.
- Excuse me?
Biffo, what's this about?
Come on, let's go get you a malt.
Dad, I...
- I flunked math. - Not for the term? -
I haven't got enough credits to graduate.
- Bernard wouldn't give you the answers?
- He did. He tried. I only got a 61.
They wouldn't give you four points?
Birnbaum refused absolutely.
I begged him to give me those points
but he won't listen.
You gotta talk to him.
Dad, before they close the school.
'Cause if he saw the kind of man you are
and you talked to him in your way,
I'm sure he'd come through for me, Pop.
The class came right before practice,
so I didn't go enough.
Would you talk to him?
He'd like you, the way you can talk.
- I'm gonna drive right back.
- Dad, good work.
- I'm sure he'll change it.
- Tell the clerk I'm checking out.
Go right down.
The reason he hates me
is one day he was late for class,
so I got up at the blackboard
and imitated him.
- Crossed my eyes, talked with a lisp.
- You did?
- Yeah.
- The kids like it?
- They nearly died laughing.
- Yeah, what did you do?
The square root of 63 is...
In the middle of it he walks in.
He walked in! All right.
- Is somebody in there?
- That was next door.
- Somebody got in your bathroom.
- In the next room there's a party.
Can I come in?
There's something in the bathtub, Willy,
and it's moving.
Uh, you better go back to your room now.
They must be finished painting by now.
See, they're painting her room,
so I let her shower here.
- Go back.
- I gotta get dressed, Willy.
You get out of here.
This is Miss Francis. She's a buyer.
She lives down the hall
and they're painting her...
- Go back, go back!
- My clothes, Willy!
- I can't go naked.
- Will you get out of here.
Where's my stockings?
You promised me stockings.
- I have no stockings.
- You had 2 boxes of sheers. I want 'em.
Yeah, here, here, here.
Here.
For God's sake, now get out of here.
I just hope there's nobody in the hall,
that's all I hope.
You, uh, football or baseball?
Football.
That's me, too.
Good night.
Well, better get going.
I want to get to the school
first thing in the morning.
So, get my suits out of the closet
and I'll get my valise.
What's the matter?
She's a buyer, Biff.
She buys for...
She lives down the hall.
She buys for J.H. Simmons
and you know, they're painting...
Oh, now, you don't imagine that I...
Now, look, pal, she's just a buyer!
She sees merchandise in her room and
they have to keep it looking just so.
- Come on, now, get my suits.
- No.
You stop crying and do as I say.
I gave you an order, Biff.
Biff, I gave you an order.
Is that what you do
when I give you an order?
Is it?
Then how dare you cry!
Oh, now.
Look, Biff, when you grow up
you'll understand about these things.
No, you mustrt overemphasise
a thing like this.
Come on, III see Birnbaum
first thing in the morning.
- Never mind.
- Never mind?
He's gonna give you those points.
I'll see to it.
- He won't listen to you.
- He certainly will!
You need those for the U of Virginia.
- I'm not going there.
- What? - I'm not going there.
If I can't get him to change that mark
you'll make it up in summer school.
- You got all summer to...
- Dad.
My... my boy.
She's nothing to me, Biff.
I was Ionely. I was terribly Ionely.
Dad, you gave her Mama's stockings.
I gave you an order!
- I gave...
- Don't touch me, you liar!
- You apologise for that.
- You fake!
I gave you an order!
I gave you an order!
- Now, you come back here.
- You phoney little fake.
- Come back here!
- You fake!
I gave you an order!
Come back or I'll beat you. I'II...
- Hey.
- I'll whip you.
I gave you...
Pick it up, Mr Loman.
Your boys just left with the chippies.
They said they'd see you home.
We were supposed
to have dinner together.
- Can you make it?
- Oh, yeah. Sure, I'll make it.
- Mr Loman.
- OK.
I'll make it.
- I look all right.
- Sure, you look all right.
Uh... Uh...
Here. Here. Here's a dollar.
- Your son paid. It's all right.
- You're a good boy.
- You don't have to.
- Here's more. I don't need it anymore.
Tell me, is there a seed store
in the neighbourhood?
Seeds?
- You mean, like to plant?
- Yes, like carrots, peas.
There's a hardware store
on Sixth Avenue.
- It may be too late now.
- I better hurry.
I gotta get some seeds.
Gotta get some seeds right away.
Well, what are you looking at?
Nothing is planted right.
I don't have a thing
in the ground right now.
"Carrots.
Quarter inch apart,
one foot rows..."
One foot.
Beets.
Lettuce.
One foot.
Oh, what a proposition.
Terrific, terrific,
'cause she's suffered, man.
The woman has suffered.
A man can't go out the way he came in.
A man has got to add up to something.
You can't...
You can't. You gotta consider now.
Don't answer so quick.
Remember, it's a guaranteed
$20,000 proposition, huh?
Now, look, Ben, I want you to go through
the ins and outs of this thing with me.
I got nobody to talk to. And the
woman has suffered, you hear me?
- What's the proposition? - It's $20,000
on the barrel head, guaranteed.
Gilt edge, you understand?
You don't want
to make a fool of yourself.
- They might not honour the policy.
- How can they refuse? I worked.
I met every premium on the nose
and now they don't pay off? Impossible.
It's called a cowardly thing.
Why does it take more guts to stand here
the rest of my life ringing up a zero?
That's a point, William.
And 20,000. That is something
one can feel with their hands.
That's the whole beauty of it, Ben.
I see it like a diamond
shining in the dark
that I can pick up and touch in my hand.
Not like an appointment.
This would not be another appointment
and it changes all the aspects.
Because he thinks I'm nothing,
so he spites me.
But the funeral.
Oh, Ben, that funeral will be massive!
Oh, they'll come
from Maine, Massachusetts,
Vermont, New Hampshire.
All the old-timers
with the strange licence plates.
That boy will be thunderstruck, Ben,
because he never realised I am known.
Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey,
I am known, Ben!
He'll see it with his eyes!
Once and for all,
he'll see what I am, oh!
He's in for a shock, that boy.
He'll call you a coward, William.
Oh, no, no, that would be terrible.
- Yes, and a damn fool.
- No, no!
He'll hate you, William.
He mustn't. Oh, I won't have that.
Mom, what are you doing up?
Where's Pop? Is he sleeping?
- Where were you?
- We met two girls, very fine types.
We brought you some flowers.
Put 'em in your room.
What did you do that for?
I want you to have flowers.
Don't you care whether he lives or dies?
- Biff, let's go up.
- Go away from me.
What do you mean, lives or dies?
Nobody's dying around here, pal.
Get out of here!
Get out of my sight!
I want to talk to the boss, Mom.
- You're not going near him.
- Where is he?
You invite him for dinner,
he looks forward to it all day.
- And then you desert him there?
- Dad?
There's no stranger you'd do that to.
He had a swell time with us.
When I desert him I hope I do it...
- Get out of here!
- Ma!
- Mom?
- Did you have to go to women tonight?
You and your rotten, lousy whores!
Mom, all we did was follow Biff around
trying to cheer him up.
- Boy, what a night you gave me.
- Get out of here.
Both of you, and don't come back.
I don't want you tormenting him anymore.
- Dad, are you down there?
- You can sleep in his apartment.
And pick up this stuff!
I'm not your maid anymore.
Go on, pick it up, you bum, you!
You're a pair of animals.
There's not one, not a living soul,
who would have the cruelty
to walk out on that man
in a restaurant.
- Is that what he said?
- He didn't have to say anything.
He was so humiliated,
he nearly limped when he came in.
- Look, Mom, he had a great time.
- Shut up!
You! Didn't even go to
see if he was all right.
No, Mom, I didn't. I didn't do
a damn thing. How do you like that?
I left him babbling in a toilet.
- You louse, you.
- You hit it on the nose.
The scum of the earth.
You're looking at him.
- Get out of here.
- I want to talk to the boss, Mom.
You're not going near him. Get out.
We're gonna have
an abrupt conversation, him and me.
You're not talking to him.
Please, leave him alone.
What is he doing out there?
He's planting the garden.
Now?
Oh, my god.
Never even let me carry
the valises in the house.
And simonising, simonising...
...that little red car.
Why?
Why can't I give him something
and not have him hate me, huh?
Let me think about it.
I still have a little time.
A remarkable proposition.
Oh.
You gotta be sure
you're not making a fool of yourself.
Dad?
Where is that seed?
You can't see nothing here, boxed in.
Dad, there are people all around.
- Don't you realise?
- Don't bother me.
- I'm saying good-bye to you, Pop.
- Huh?
I'm not coming back anymore.
- You're not gonna see Oliver?
- Dad, I've got no appointment.
- He put his arm around you.
- Dad, get this now.
Every time I've left
it's been a fight that's sent me out.
Today I realise something about
myself. I tried to explain it to you.
I think I'm just not smart enough
to make sense out of it for you.
To hell with whose fault it is
or anything like that.
Let's just wrap it up.
- Come in and we'll tell Mom.
- I don't want to see her.
- Come on.
- I don't want to see her.
Don't bother me, will ya?
Dad, what do you mean?
You don't want to see her?
Pop, you don't want them
calling you yellow, do you?
Dad, it's not your fault.
It's me. I'm a bum.
Now, come on inside.
Dad, did you hear what I said to you?
Did you plant, dear?
All right, Mom.
We had it out.
I'm going and I'm not writing anymore.
I think it's best, Willy.
There's no use drawing it out.
You two will never get along.
If people ask where I am,
what I'm doing, you don't know or care.
That way it'll be off your mind
and you can start brightening up again.
All right?
That... That clears it, then, huh?
- You gonna wish me luck, scout?
- Shake his hand, Willy.
What do you say?
There's no necessity to mention...
He put his arm...!
Dad, you're never gonna see what I am,
so what's the use of arguing?
If I strike oil I'll send you a cheque.
Meantime, forget I'm alive.
Spite, see?
- Shake hands, Dad.
- Not my hand.
Dad?
- I was hoping not to go this way.
- This is the way you're going. Bye.
May you rot in hell
if you leave this house!
Exactly what is it
that you want from me?
I want you to know on the train,
in the mountains, in the valleys,
wherever you go,
that you cut down your life for spite!
- No, no!
- Spite!
When you are rotting somewhere
beside a railroad track, remember.
- Don't you blame it on me.
- I'm not blaming you.
I'm not taking the rap for this, hear?
- That's what I'm telling you.
- You're putting a knife in me.
Don't think I don't know
what you're doing.
All right, phoney.
Leave it there. Don't move it.
- What is that?
- You know damn well.
- I never saw that.
- You saw it, all right.
Mice didn't bring it into the cellar.
Is that supposed to make you a hero?
That supposed to make me sorry for you?
There will be no pity for you.
- Hear that? No pity.
- Hear the spite?
You're gonna get the truth,
what you are, what I am.
- Spite!
- Cut it out!
The man don't know who we are.
The man is gonna know.
We never told the truth
for ten minutes in this house.
- We always told truth.
- Are you the assistant buyer?
You're one of
the two assistants to the assistant.
- I'm practically...
- You are practically full of it.
- We all are. I'm through with it.
- Yeah.
- Hear this, Willy. This is me.
- I know you.
Do you know why I had no
address for three months?
I stole a suit in Kansas City
and I was in gaol.
- I suppose it's my fault.
- Stop crying, I'm through with it!
I stole myself
out of every good job since high school.
Whose fault is that?
I could never get anywhere
'cause you blew me so full of hot air
that I could never stand
taking orders from anybody.
- I hear that.
- Stop it!
I had to be boss big shot
in two weeks and I'm through.
- Then hang yourself for spite!
- No! No!
No, nobody is hanging himself, Willy.
I ran down 11 flights with a pen
in my hand today.
And suddenly I stopped.
Do you hear me?
In the middle of that office building...
Do you hear this?
I stopped...
...in the middle of the building
and I saw the sky!
And I... I... I saw the things
that I love in this world.
The work and the food
and the time to sit and smoke.
I looked at that pen in my hand and
I said, "What am I grabbing this for?
Why am I trying to become
what I don't want to be?
What am I doing in an office?
Making a contemptuous begging
fool of myself,
when all that I want
is out there waiting for me?"
The minute I say it, I know who I am.
Why can't I say that, Willy?
The door to your life is wide open!
Pop, I am a dime a dozen and so are you.
I am not a dime a dozen!
I am Willy Loman and you are Biff Loman!
I am not the leader of men, Willy!
And neither are you!
You were never anything
but a hard-working drummer
who landed in the ashcan
like all the rest of them.
I am one dollar an hour, Willy!
I am not bringing home
any prizes anymore,
and you're gonna stop waiting for me!
- You vengeful, spiteful mutt!
- Yeah, Pop!
Pop, I'm nothing.
I'm nothing, Pop.
Can't you understand that?
There's no spite in it anymore.
I'm just what I am, that's all.
What are you doing?
Aw, what are you doing?
- Why is he crying?
- Dad...
Will you let me go, for God's sake?
Will you take that phoney dream
and burn it before something happens?
I'll go in the morning.
Put him to bed.
Isn't that...
Isn't that remarkable?
Biff, he...
He likes me.
- He loves you, Willy.
- Always did, Pop.
Aw, Biff, he...
He cried. He cried to me.
Aw, that boy.
That boy, he's going to be magnificent.
Yes, outstanding,
with 20,000 behind him.
Come to bed, Willy.
It's all settled now.
Oh, yes, we'll sleep.
Come on, let's go to sleep.
It takes a great man
to crack thejungle.
I'm getting married.
Don't forget. I'm changing everything.
I'm gonna run that department
before the year is up.
Thejungle is dark
but full of diamonds.
Be good. You're both good boys.
Just act that way, that's all.
- Night, Pop.
- Night, boy.
- Come, dear. -S hh. One must
go in to fetch a diamond out.
I just want to get settled down
for a little while.
- I want you upstairs.
- A few minutes. I couldn't sleep now.
- Go. You look awful tired.
- Not like an appointment.
- A diamond is rough and hard to touch.
- I'll be right up.
- I think it's the only way.
- Sure, it's the best thing.
Best thing. The only way.
Everything is gonna be...
Aw, go on, kid. Get to bed.
- You look so tired. - Now, you
come right up. - Two minutes.
Loves me. Always loved me.
Isn't that a remarkable thing?
- Ben, he'll worship me for it.
- It's dark there.
But full of diamonds, Willy.
Can you imagine that magnificence
with $20,000 in his pocket?
Willy, come up.
Yes, yes, coming, coming!
It's very smart,
you realise, don't you, sweetheart?
Even Ben sees it.
I gotta go, baby.
Bye-bye.
When the mail comes
he'll be ahead of Bernard again.
- A perfect proposition all around.
- Did you see how he cried to me?
- Aw, I could kiss him, Ben.
- Time, William, time.
Ben, I always knew one way or another
we were gonna make it, Biff and I.
Boat! We'll be late.
Now, when you kick off,
I want a 70 yard boot.
And get right down the field
under the ball.
And when you hit,
hit low and hit hard,
because it's important, boy.
There's all kinds of
important people in the stands.
The first thing that you know...
Willy?
- Ben? Ben, where do I...?
- Willy?
- Ben! Ben!
- Willy!
Shh. Shh.
Shh! Shh!
- Willy, please come up.
- Oh.
- Willy!
- Shh!
Willy?
- Pop?
- Willy, answer me!
Willy!
- Willy!
- Pop! No!
- No!
- No!
It's getting dark, Linda.
How about it, Ma? Better get
some rest. They'll be closing the gates.
He had no right to do that.
There was no necessity.
- We would have helped him.
- Come on.
- Why didn't anybody come?
- It was a very nice funeral.
Where were the people he knew?
Maybe they blame him.
It's a rough world, Linda.
They wouldn't blame him.
I can't understand it.
First time in just about 35 years
we were almost free and clear.
He only needed a little salary.
He was even finished with the dentist.
No man only needs a little salary.
I can't understand it.
There were a lot of nice days when he'd
come home from a trip or on Sundays,
making the stoop,
finishing the cellar
when he built the extra bathroom
and put up the garage.
You know, Charley, I think there was
more of him in that front stoop
than in all the sales he ever made.
Yep. He was a happy man
with a bunch of cement.
He was wonderful with his hands.
He had the wrong dreams.
AII, all wrong.
Don't say that.
The man didn't know who he was.
Nobody dast blame this man.
You don't understand.
Willy was a salesman.
For a salesman,
there is no rock bottom to the life.
He don't put a bolt to a nut,
he don't tell you the law,
don't give you medicine.
He's a man way out there in the blue,
riding on a smile and a shoeshine.
When they start not smiling back,
that's an earthquake.
You get yourself a couple of spots
on your hat and you're finished.
Nobody dast blame this man.
A salesman has got to dream, boy.
Comes with the territory.
- The man didn't know who he was.
- Don't say that!
Why don't you come with me, Happy?
I'm not licked that easily.
I'm staying right in the city
and I'm gonna beat this racquet.
- Loman brothers.
- I know who I am, kid.
All right, boy,
I'm gonna show you and everybody
that Willy Loman did not die in vain.
He had a good dream.
It's the only dream you can have,
to come out number one man.
He fought it out here and this is where
I'm gonna win it for him.
Oh, I'll be with you in just a minute.
You go on, Charley.
Just... just a minute.
I never had a chance to say good-bye.
Help me, Willy.
I can't cry.
Seems to me you're just away on
another trip and I keep expecting you.
Why did you do it?
I search and I search,
and I search,
and I can't understand it, Willy.
I made the last payment
on the house today.
Today!
And there'll be nobody home.
We're free and clear.
We're free.
We're free.
We're free.