|
Voutas tells Katerina and Paul about the car
|
The Plot:
Paul's racing partner Pete Gaffney is in North Africa trying to set a world speed record in the car belonging to Greek magnate Alex Staphos who is using the event to promote other industrial ventures he is involved in.
His car has just left the garage when Paul arrives with Katerina Ghiatis, life-long friend of Staphos. Pete's trials have been good, and Staphos' associate, Oreste Voutas tells them that Pete might even achieve the record on this attempt.
|
|
Pete reports on the fish-tailing
|
However, before getting to his highest speed, Pete deploys his parachute, and aborts the run. The press surrounds him as he comes into the compound, and he confides to Staphos and chief engineer Bracci that the vehicle had started fish-tailing dangerously when he got into the mile.
Staphos wants to know if the testing can go on despite the setback, and Pete says it can only because he stopped the car before it was damaged, but when Staphos asks if they can run the test again immediately, Pete insists on having the problem investigated first.
|
|
Pete says that he tried to reach Paul about the test
|
Pete is about to go into the garage to check on his times when Paul asks him if he's all right, and he casually answers before realizing who had spoken.
Thrilled to see Paul, they embrace, and Pete says that he sent messages to four or five places to advise of the test, but Paul was in none of them.
When he asks how Paul managed to get into the test without his invitation, he says that he came with Katerina. Pete says that he knows of her [ probably as Staphos' girlfriend ].
|
|
Pete walks out of the dining room
|
That evening at dinner, Staphos tells Pete that he's brought in Greek wine to toast their efforts. The two compare racing on a track with going for a speed record as they're now doing, and, as a result of the challenging nature of Staphos' questions, the sense of tension between them in all their exchanges eventually breaks out completely when Staphos asks Pete whether he simply lost his nerve that afternoon, rather than there being something wrong with the car.
In reply Pete thanks Staphos for the dinner and gets up. He makes a toast to the glory of Greece, and leaves the room.
|
|
Katerina says Staphos should drive the car
|
After he's left Katerina says tauntingly that if driving the super car requires more courage than skill, perhaps Staphos should go for the record himself.
He takes the pointed question seriously, and replies in detail that he no longer has the skills a younger man would possess at the wheel.
Then he rises from the table, and as everyone is leaving the room, Paul excuses himself, and tells Staphos that he will join the party a little later.
|
|
Pete and Paul toast one another
|
He goes to Pete's room, and his friend offers him a drink, adding that it's not Greek, nor likely to produce any glory. Pete says that he's leaving, and wants to know whether Paul will join him, but Paul says no. Pete asks if the reason is Katerina, but Paul replies that's only part of it. Pete gives Paul a vague warning about Katerina, saying he has a strange feeling about the relationship between the woman and Staphos. He adds that it wasn't easy to walk away from the record run, but he'd made up his mind to leave despite the generous payment involved.
|
|
Paul asks Pete about driving the car himself
|
Paul asks Pete what he thinks about Paul taking the car out, and he replies that he'd be worried, but thinks Paul could do it, adding that Staphos was right about the machine requiring more courage than skill. Then he says that it even scares him sometimes to watch Paul drive. Pete says that he's quit because he wasn't sure that he had control over the car. When Paul says he'll go for the drive, Pete asks him if he's gotten tired of living. Paul quotes a driver who compared eight hours at Le Mans to living eight years, adding that he'd like to live the time it takes to set a new world record - and then walk away from it.
|
|
Paul proposes driving the Olympus
|
When Paul returns to the others, Staphos says that he'll be releasing Pete from his contract, but Paul informs him that Pete's quit and that Paul would like to drive the car.
Staphos objects that the car is too valuable, but Paul says that he and Pete own a Formula 1 car together and that Paul has driven at length in a major endurance race. Staphos says that there's no comparison in the speed of the two vehicles, but Paul points out that he was also pilot of a jet fighter which went down the runway at a similar speed to Staphos' Olympus.
|
|
Katerina says she might fall in love with Paul
|
Later that night Paul and Katerina walk the course together, and she tells him not to drive the Olympus the next day.
He asks her why she has a less deferential approach to Staphos, and Katerina replies that they'd known one another many years, and had fought in World War II together.
She speaks of him with great admiration, but says that their romantic relationship ended a year ago, and expresses feelings for Paul. He kisses her, and she says she's falling in love.
|
|
Paul receives good wishes before the drive
|
After Paul returns to his room, Oreste brings in Paul's driving contract, and then advises him not to get too close to Katerina. When Paul asks if the message comes from Staphos, Oreste says no, and that Staphos wouldn't approve his having said anything to Paul.
The next morning Paul takes the car out for an official record, but has to open its parachute just as he has achieved 400 mph. Afterwards Braccio discovers that a clamped oil line has damaged the engine, and it will take up to a week to make the repair.
|
|
Katarina again tells Paul not to drive the Olympus
|
While the repairs are being carried out, Staphos plans to sail his yacht back to Athens, and Paul accepts an invitation to be his guest. Katerina sails with them as well, and once again advises Paul not to drive the Olympus. Meanwhile, Staphos orders a complete dossier on Paul. Days later Staphos shows Paul the dossier, saying that though he is able to judge people quickly, he likes to have facts to back them up. He says that the report confirmed all the qualities he respects in Paul, but doesn't explain why he leads such an aimless life, and what kind of man Paul is has become very important to him.
|
|
Paul looks at Staphos' dossier on him
|
He says that he wants to reveal something to Paul that he has to no other man - that from a very young age, he was part of a childless and unfortunate marriage, one contracted before he joined the partisans and met Katerina, with whom he shared love that had never existed between him and his wife. After the War he and his wife separated, but didn't divorce, something that Katerina understood and accepted. A year earlier something came between them, which he believes will be overcome, and some months earlier, his estranged wife died. Staphos says that he now wants to marry Katerina, and believes she still loves him.
|
|
Staphos says he wants to marry Katerina
|
When Paul asks what this has to do with him, Staphos answers that Katerina has just informed him that the break between them is final.
She's announced to him that she is in love with Paul whom she believes loves her and will marry her.
Paul says whatever the situation may be, it is between him and Katerina, but Staphos says that he's making the matter his business because he does not intend to lose Katerina to Paul - or to anyone - and he has a proposition for him.
|
|
Staphos hands Paul a check to leave Katerina
|
Staphos has noted that the dossier indicates Paul to have $172,000, and with no source of income, the amount will finance no more than two years of the lifestyle he's currently been living. He then offers Paul a check for $100,000, in exchange for which, Staphos wants him to leave Katerina.
Staphos believes that she will return to him, that what they have shared is too great for her to turn away from. Paul replies that he wishes he could help, but tears up the check, adding that he hopes he lives to regret the action.
|
|
Paul tears up the check
|
Not vindictively, but sounding desperate, Staphos then warns Paul that if he plans to marry Katerina, he should be aware of the fact that, though a woman of expensive tastes, she has no money of her own. “How could two people be so wrong about each other?” Paul asks, mystified, saying that he thought that he and Staphos had gotten to know one another well. Then he walks out the door.
Staphos stops him. He tells Paul that he lied, and Katerina actually has all the money she wants - because she is blackmailing him.
|
|
Paul says that he was going to leave Katerina anyway
|
“Are you that desperate?” Paul asks, but Staphos replies that it's the truth - and an ugly one.
“You made a big mistake, Alex,” Paul says, adding that a moment before he was going out the door to tell Katerina that he didn't love her, and say goodbye, but now Staphos won't know whether it was what he was going to do anyway - or in response to Staphos informing him that she was a blackmailer.
Paul then leaves the yacht, and goes to Katerina in Athens, and they drive out into the countryside.
|
|
Katarina tells Paul of Staphos' heroism
|
In the hills some distance away she points out the enormous history of the place, and shows Paul where she and Staphos hid and also fought their last great battle during the Second World War.
Katerina goes on to speak dramatically of his heroism in that time, and how the dam Staphos will now build in the same area will power so much industry in her country for the future.
“Thank you,” says Paul when she's concluded a long speech.
|
|
Paul tells Katerina that she doesn't love him
|
“For what?” Katerina asks him, and he responds, “for making it easier to say goodbye.”
She asks him why, and Paul says that it's something he can't explain, but Katerina presses him, and declares that he owes her that much. He asks why she does, and she answers, because she loves him.
“No you don't,” Paul tells her, “you just spent the last two hours telling me you didn't,” adding that she spoke of nothing but Alex since they left Athens.
|
|
Staphos still wants Paul to drive the Olymppus
|
Katerina responds passionately that the reason for her discourse was that this was the place where each of them fought together in the War, something very important. “But it's done now. You know that,” she adds.
“No,” says Paul, “Alex loves you, and you love him.” That evening Paul goes back to the yacht to get his things and say goodbye to Staphos. The magnate tells him they have a contract, but the only reason he's holding Paul to it is because he believes that's what Paul wants.
|
|
Staphos offers Paul a high-level position
|
Staphos declares that he can find no better driver or man. He says that he just called Katerina, and she told him that Paul had said goodbye, but didn't mention the conversation the men had earlier. Staphos apologizes, and says that when Paul drove the Olympus, he knew he was a man of courage. Now he knows that Paul is also a man of honor.
He tells Paul that he has been looking for someone like him for a long time, and wants Paul to work with him at the highest level to complete the goals of Staphos Enterprises. Paul says that he can't.
|
|
Paul takes the Olympus to a record time
|
Staphos asks if it's because of what he did earlier in the day that Paul is unable to forgive him. Paul says that he has, and forgotten it too, but can't accept the offer. Staphos responds that he doesn't understand Paul, but they still have a driving contract, and will sail for North Africa in the morning. The Olympus goes out for a test run with Paul at the wheel, and it fish-tails dramatically at the end, causing Paul to deploy the parachute, but not before his speed broke the record. However, he tells Staphos that he'll need to get another driver to set the official one.
|
|
Staphos again asks Paul to join him
|
Later in the day Staphos admits that he let Paul risk his life in the Olympus, but Paul reminds him that he asked for the drive.
Staphos says that he has much to do, and that, in the next 20 years, his work will change the face of a large part of the earth, but the work will still be unfinished. He tells Paul that he can't refuse his offer to join Staphos Enterprises, someone he trusts and respects, who will carry on the work beyond him.
Paul says that he isn't able to explain, but cannot accept.
|
|
Paul listens to Staphos' story
|
Staphos asks if it's because he's being blackmailed - and has to pay for secrecy, but when Paul says no, Staphos volunteers to tell him what he did.
Paul replies that he doesn't want to hear, but Staphos says that to the Greek people, he is a hero and a symbol. Then he begins his story. At the end of World War II, the British were about to land, and the partisans knew there country would be free again. His group were holding a battalion of Nazis, and their general came to Staphos, and offered him $50,000 to allow him to escape with his officers.
|
|
Staphos asks if Paul despises him now
|
Staphos knew that there was no real escape, and took the cash - money with which he built his empire.
The only person who knew was Katerina's father who, a year earlier, when he was dying, told her the story. That is why she left him. Staphos asks if it is a reason to be despised, but Paul replies that he doesn't know, but it has nothing to do with his rejection of the offer to join Staphos.
Paul tells him that changing the face of the earth in the next 20 years will require someone who will be there for 20 years.
|
|
Staphos asks Paul's forgiveness
|
“If I had them to live, I'd be proud to take your offer,” he declares, “but I don't.”
Staphos says that he doesn't understand, and Paul says that the industrialist had told him that he'd be dead broke in two years, and a couple doctors made the same observation. They say goodbye, and Staphos asks Paul's forgiveness for making him reveal something he didn't want to say.
Paul agrees only on the condition that Staphos wouldn't feel sorry for either of them, both of them having too much to do. as Paul leaves, Katerina arrives.
|