The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress

Every newspaper seems to be reporting on the Crater story. Maria takes a cab to the Morosco Theatre and waits outside the stage door for Ritzi, who tugs out a trunk full of costumes she needs altered. Maria tells Ritzi that she wants a baby, while Ritzi doesn’t want hers, and she offers to take the child when it’s born. Maria says she can pay Ritzi’s medical bills and rent. She explains she has $500 and that Ritzi can keep whatever’s left. 

Just then, the reporter, George Hall, enters the alley. He immediately recognizes Ritzi from the park and Maria as Crater’s maid. Another chorus girl, Elaine, walks out and starts talking to Hall. While Elaine distracts him, Ritzi whispers that she’ll find a way to give Maria what she wants. They plan to meet the next day, and Maria is to bring the costumes and money.

The next day, Ritzi takes a cab to the bank to withdraw all her money, but the bank’s male manager doesn’t trust her, a woman, with it. Ultimately, he insists that the bank won’t be responsible for whatever happens once she leaves the building. 

When Maria meets Jude for lunch, she tells him she’s been “let go” by the Craters, as Mrs. Crater is out of money. Jude gets the address where Stella is staying in Portland from the letter, and he insists that no one he works with should learn that Maria ever worked for the Craters. Jude notes that Maria hardly eats nowadays, is getting thinner, and is always tired. After he eats, she goes to meet Ritzi.

Maria remembers six months ago, when Crater told her she didn’t help Jude by allowing him to think that he earned his promotion. The commissioner told Crater that Jude was questioning orders, and that made Crater look bad; he told Maria that Jude needed to toe the line.

Maria meets Ritzi with the costumes, assuring the performer of another three months’ worth of fit, if she keeps wearing the corset. Maria hands over the money, and Ritzi guesses she stole it from Crater. Ritzi says she never expected to be in such a position, and Maria says she didn’t either.

George Hall asks at the front desk for Stella, and the concierge alerts her. She realizes that Emma put the letter to Maria in a hotel envelope, which led the reporter right to her. Stella feels Joe has ruined her life. She fears that if Tammany Hall learns that she knew about Joe’s business dealings, they’ll prosecute her and she’ll take the fall. She’s not willing to do that.

Elaine didn’t show up for the show last night, so she’s been replaced. Owney arrives, and everyone but Ritzi clears out. He says he’s not fooled by her corset, and he admits that he shot Elaine for being too mouthy about Crater. He tells Ritzi to terminate her pregnancy, that she was stupid to let it happen. She points out that everything she’s done—everything she stole, every man she slept with—was because Owney told her to. He says to be ready after the show. After the penultimate number, Ritzi runs backstage, cutting off the corset and the cash. Shorty stops her.

Maria goes back to the obstetrics office. The doctor says he knows why she’s been unable to conceive. That night, Jude finds Maria in the bathtub, crying. She tells him she can’t have children, but she cannot bring herself to discuss her “diseased” ovaries.

Owney waits in the Cadillac, and Shorty drives them to a brick warehouse. Owney says he’s paying to terminate the pregnancy because Ritzi is his “property.” He tells Ritzi they already found her replacement for the Cole Porter show. Inside, Owney introduces “John,” the man who will terminate the pregnancy. Ritzi threatens Owney with her knowledge of what he did to Crater, but Owney tells her no one would believe her. He leaves her with John, and Ritzi bribes the man.

In 1969 at Club Abbey, Stella slides an envelope across the table to Jude, saying it’s the confession he’s been waiting for. She’s going to leave, however, because she doesn’t want to watch him read it. Stella claims that her life now is her penance for enabling Joe’s corruption, and she knows she won’t survive until next year. Jude thinks that only fools underestimate Stella’s strength.

Back in 1931, Emma and Stella are traveling back to New York, as the grand jury in Joe’s case has been dismissed. Emma tells her to walk straight down the platform with her head high, hail the first cab, and Emma will handle the rest. Stella is shocked by her mother’s protective assertiveness. A short while later, Emma and Stella walk into the Craters’ apartment, and Stella deposits the envelopes back into the drawer where she found them.

Jude tells Maria that he regrets taking Crater’s case, and Maria admits that she saw him plant the envelopes in Stella’s bureau. She says she knows that Lowenthall and Mulrooney make him do things like that, and that she found Ritzi in Crater’s bed before he disappeared. She confesses that she took some of the money and gave it to Ritzi in exchange for the baby. Jude tells her Ritzi’s been missing for a month.

Stella calls the DA and leaves a message that she found important evidence, and she’ll await his arrival at her apartment. She tells Emma to say that Stella was “bewildered” when she opened the drawer and found Joe’s will and the cash.

Ritzi’s stomach is huge, and her body aches. John took every dollar she had, then let her go. Shorty found her and told her to be quiet, then they listened to John tell Owney that he killed Ritzi and dropped her body down the trash chute. Shorty said this was the second time he had saved Ritzi: The first time was in Coney Island, when he saw her hiding in the cabinet. He tells her that, as far as he’s concerned, she is dead. When Ritzi gets home, she calls Maria.

Now, Ritzi is in hiding at Maria’s mother’s house. Vivian visits and tells Ritzi that Owney came by and took all her things away, everything except the knotted sock that Vivian hid. She gives it to Ritzi, and Ritzi pushes the wedding band back onto her finger. She hopes she can return to her old life, but she fears her husband won’t take her back.

Last August, Ritzi went to Club Abbey and told Owney that Crater was summoned to testify before the Seabury Commission and that Crater was purposely avoiding Owney. Owney said he had to make a call, that it was time for Crater to cut his vacation in Maine short.

Maria tells Father Donnegal that she cannot have children, calling it a “fitting punishment” for what she’s done. He assures her that God doesn’t mete out cancer to punish. She confesses that she got Jude his promotion, that she’s kept secrets, that she stole money and used it to bribe Ritzi for her baby, that Ritzi is hidden at her parents’ house right now, and she’s kept that from Jude. She says there’s more but that the priest would never think her capable of it.

Back in August of 1930, Maria went to Club Abbey and anonymously left an envelope for Owney. Stan said he’d deliver it, but he warned her that Owney always figures things out.

Simon Rifkind tells Stella that Joe will have to remain missing for seven years before he can legally be declared dead. He represents Stella, stating that she’d like to be able to execute her husband’s estate. The court grants her this.