Original subtitles

♪♪ [ trumpet ]

Howdy. I'm the Old Ranger,

and Death Valley's my stamping ground.

Many's the tale of adventure I'm going to tell you

about the Death Valley country.

True stories, mind you. I can vouch for that.

OLD RANGER: This is a story that's as old as the desert

in which it took place.

Every woman who hears it will say to herself,

"I know just how Cynthy felt,"

and every man will wonder a little uneasily,

"Am I like Zeb?"

For as long as Cynthy could remember,

her mother had looked the same.

Let's go tell your Ma, Cynthy,

and find out how soon we can get married.

Married? I'll start building the house right away.

I know just the spot for it--

a little mesa facing the Funeral Mountains.

And I know where I can get a second hand cook stove that's--

No, Zeb. No. It's a good stove, Cynthy.

Almost good as new.

I don't mean the stove.

I can't marry you. I can't!

But Cynthy, you just said that--

I said I loved you, that's all.

I do.

I can't marry a desert man.

What's wrong with the desert?

Cynthy?

You better get on with your washing.

Yes, Ma.

There's your answer, Zeb.

If I stay here, I'll be just like her.

Old before my time,

and faded and tired,

with nothing to look forward to or remember.

Nothing to make me want to keep on living.

I couldn't bear.

Your Pa is just played in bad luck, that's all.

He's been lucky as most prospectors.

How many make more than a scratching living?

I'm going to. I'm going to strike it rich.

Things will be different with us.

All my life,

I dreamed of marrying a city man

with lots of money who'd take me away

from the desert,

buy me pretty things.

Do you know, I've never had one pretty dress

in my whole life?

Just these old calicos.

You couldn't look more beautiful

if you was dressed up like the Queen of Sheba.

Once I saw a picture of a dress

in the San Francisco newspaper.

The lady wore it to a ball.

The dress was silk,

lavender silk,

like the shadows on the hills at sundown.

It was all trimmed in real lace.

That's the kind of dress I'm going to have.

Oh, Zeb.

I don't want you to think I'm one of them selfish grabby girls.

I don't mind plain living and hard work.

I was brought up on it.

It's only that I want something else besides.

A few pretty things.

Some fun.

Just to go to a dance once in a while,

see bright lights and hear music,

folks laughing.

Whoa, boy.

How are you, Zeb?

Howdy, Doc.

How's prospecting? All right.

Hello, Doctor Harper. How are you, Cynthy?

Fine.

I thought I'd drop by and see how your mother

was getting alo-- [door closing]

Howdy, Doctor.

I didn't expect you back so soon.

Evidently.

When I ordered you to rest, I meant it.

I've been resting, Doctor. Honest.

And I'm feeling good.

You're a long way from good, Martha Lane,

and I didn't want you to even think of working

until I tell you.

What should I think about, then?

Things like this.

Flowers.

Well, I declare.

You bought them?

In town?

They're beautiful.

But you shouldn't be spending your hard earned money

on trifles, Doctor.

Trifles?

You know the poet's advice.

"If thou of fortune be bereft,

"and in thy store there be but left two loaves,

"sell one, and with the dole,

buy hyacinths to feed thy soul."

I don't think I've ever seen any hyacinths.

Doesn't have to be hyacinths.

Doesn't even have to be flowers.

Can be anything.

Anything that feeds the soul.

Puts me in mind of a wedding bouquet.

That's why I brought them. This is your anniversary.

It is?

How'd you know?

I stood up with your father.

So you did.

I better put these in water.

Flowers wilt fast in the desert.

Doctor Harper? Yes?

Do you think, if somebody loves somebody,

she ought to marry him,

even if he hasn't got any money?

Love is really the important thing, Cynthy.

If you have that, everything else

will take care of itself.

Zeb!

Zeb! Zeb!

I'll strike it rich, Cynthy. I'll strike it rich.

And, when I do, I'll give you all the things

you ever wanted.

OLD RANGER: But it wasn't as easy as all that.

For weeks, months, for so long a time

that he almost lost track,

Zeb tromped the desert

following the tail of his burro,

the prospector's compass...

but finding nothing but disappointment

and discouragement.

While Cynthy, in a home of her own

and a new life, found them both

so much like the old that it was pretty hard

to tell the difference.

Then, one day in a canyon in the Death Valley region...

[ laughing ]

Ah, we made it, baby!

Oh, Cynthy, I'm so happy for you.

When Bill and me heard about Zeb's strike,

we just had to come over and tell you how tickled we was.

Didn't we, Bill? Sure did.

I still have to pinch myself to believe it.

A mine owner. Just imagine.

That won't be for long.

Zeb's selling the claim.

In fact, he rode over to Tecopa this morning to close the deal.

He ought to be back pretty soon.

Oh, I hope he gets a good price for it.

If it's enough, we'll be able to move away,

leave the desert.

We'll be sorry to lose you.

You've been good neighbors.

Well, if you can call good neighbors

folks who live nine miles away.

Where you thinking about going?

We ain't decided yet.

San Francisco's the place. Oh, Los Angeles has got it beat a mile.

Don't you believe it. It has, too.

Well, I won't argue with you,

seems how we've had a high old time in both places.

I'll say.

Me and Bill head for the bright lights

every time we scratch up a little money.

And do we do the town up brown.

Well, we've got to go get them supplies

so I can do some more scratching.

Giddy-up!

Give Zeb our congratulations.

I will.

Hello there, sweetheart.

Did you sell it? You bet I sold it.

How much? Guess.

5,000? No.

10,000?

$25,000.

Zeb, no. 25,000!

I told you I'd strike it rich, didn't I, Cynthy?

All I got to do now is go to Los Angeles

and sign the papers.

We'll leave first thing in the morning. We?

You'll go with me, of course.

Cynthy, we'll do the town.

We'll stay at the best hotels and we'll eat

at the best restaurants. Oh, no, Zeb. I couldn't.

I thought you was aching to go?

I am, but I can't. I haven't any clothes.

Oh, we'll buy some.

Can you imagine me walking into a hotel

wearing a calico dress that's been washed and turned

so many times, I don't know one side

from the other?

Oh, I'll go next time, Zeb.

This time, you buy me something I can hold my head up in.

I'll buy you the finest outfit

they've got in the stores, honey.

Will you buy me that lavender silk dress

trimmed in real lace that I've always wanted?

You bet I will.

Oh, you just bet I will. Oh, Zeb.

Haven't you got anything smaller

than a hundred dollar bill, Mister?

Afraid not.

This is too big for me.

Well, I don't know what I'm going to--

Here, I can change it for you. Ah, don't bother.

The drink's on me. Oh, no, no. I won't hear of it.

I'm well heeled.

I just sold a gold mine.

Is that so?

Well, congratulations.

This calls for a celebration.

Set up another round, Johnny.

And none of that cheap belly-wash.

Break out that stuff we serve important men from out of town. Yes, sir.

When Zeb gets here, I'm going to put on

my new clothes, pile our stuff in the wagon,

turn right around, and head back for Los Angeles.

I'm glad you're going to settle

in the city. It's what you need

after all your years on the desert.

It's all so wonderful. I can just hardly believe it.

Didn't I tell you, if there was love, Cynthy,

your dreams would come true?

Zeb!

I'm so glad to see you. I thought you was never coming.

I've been packed for two days.

Did you get the money?

Yeah.

I got it.

Did you get my lavender silk dress?

No, I didn't, Cynthy.

You didn't?

Oh, I'm sorry, Cynthy.

I was counting on buying it for you.

Counting on giving you all the things

you've been wanting.

Zeb, what's wrong?

I...

I lost the money.

Lost it?

All of it.

The whole 25,000.

No.

No.

I cashed the check

just to see how it would feel to carry around $25,000

after never having enough even to rattle in my pocket.

I was gonna put it in the bank the next morning,

and then...

I got drunk.

I didn't mean to.

I was merely aiming to take a couple of drinks.

Then I met two fellas.

When I come to,

I was in a hotel room, and all my money was gone.

Didn't you tell the police?

They couldn't do nothing.

I didn't even know the fellas' names.

They got me drunk.

They deliberately got me drunk.

And then they took my money.

Every last cent of it.

If I could just get my hands on them once!

But it's my own fault anyway.

I should never have tooken up with them.

Oh, Cynthy,

Cynthy, will you ever be able to forgive me?

I'll make another strike.

Honest, I will.

I'll start looking for it today.

There's lots of gold out there, and I'll find it.

I'll find it just for you.

And, when I do,

I'll buy you a dozen silk dresses.

Poor sap.

Poor sap.

OLD RANGER: The search went on.

Relentlessly, Zeb drove himself,

stopping only to rest his burro

or when he himself was staggering

with exhaustion.

His reward was meager.

A few nuggets, a little yellow dust.

Just enough to keep body and soul together,

then starting again on the tantalizing,

heart-breaking trail.

I don't suppose there's a day goes by

but what he doesn't think about that 25,000 he lost.

It wasn't lost.

It was stolen.

You're pushing yourself too hard, Zeb.

You ought to take it easier.

Not till I make my strike.

What's your-- Bad luck can't last forever.

Even the famine in Egypt only lasted seven years.

Ours is going on eight.

I'll make it this time.

This time, I'll make it.

OLD RANGER: And make it, Zeb did.

By no means as big as the first strike,

but, even so.

$10,000.

It ain't as much as I'd hoped for,

but it's something to tide us over.

WOMAN: Cynthy, Zeb!

Look at you two, all dressed up in new clothes.

Oh, we had a little luck

just about the same time you did.

Not quite so much, though. Just a couple of thousand.

Me and Bill blew it

on the biggest time we ever had.

Didn't we, Bill? We sure did, Old Lady.

All we got left is just what we got on our backs.

Well, got to be moseying along,

do some more scratching.

Stop by and see us when you can.

You do the same. Bye.

Bye.

Crazy fools

spending all their money.

Lord knows when he'll make another strike.

Come on. Better be starting for home.

Zeb, aren't we gonna celebrate?

What's there to celebrate for?

10,000.

How long do you think that'll last?

With prices sky-highing every day.

We could...

We could spend a little of it.

We've spent plenty as it is.

But these things are just necessities.

It's all we can afford.

Zeb, we've always managed somehow to get what we needed,

but we've never had anything that was really pretty,

made you happy just to look at it,

like maybe a lavender silk dress.

Are you still harping about that?

What would you do with such a dress if you had it?

You ain't got no place to wear it.

Cynthy, I'm scared.

Scared I won't make another strike

for another seven years.

This money'll keep us going.

It'll give me a chance.

Why, this is just a drop in the bucket

to what's out there in the desert,

and I'll find it.

I know I will.

And when I do, I'll buy you

a carload of silk dresses

and take you to Europe.

Honest, I will.

You're right.

If I had the dress, I wouldn't have

nowhere to wear it.

That's my Cynthy.

But I could look at it once in a while.

Cynthy!

Cynthy?

Cynthy, I made it! I made a strike!

The one we've been waiting for.

Cynthy?

Cynthy, where are you?

Cynthy!

Cynthy.

Where you going?

Cynthy.

There's nothing over there but desert and mountains.

Where you going?

I'm going over to those shadows.

They're so pretty and laughing.

How is she?

Doc, she'll be all right, won't she?

Cynthy will be all right.

She's a very sick woman, Zeb.

What's the matter with her?

The heat? Partly.

Something else?

Nothing organically wrong with her

that I could discover.

She's just worn out.

She's never complained of being tired.

Women like that don't complain.

The work ain't been hard. There's only been the two of us.

It isn't only the work, Zeb, it's the monotony,

the emptiness,

the loneliness of the life out here.

Loneliness?

But she will get well, won't she, Doc?

I don't know.

It's up to her... and you.

CYNTHY: Zeb? Zeb?

How you feeling, honey?

Like I'd like to sleep forever and ever.

Cynthy!

Don't you talk like that.

You're going to get well.

You've got to, honey.

Zeb, if it don't cost too much,

would you buy me that lavender silk dress

with the real lace

to be laid away in?

I'd like to think I was going to spend eternity

in something pretty

instead of one of my old calico prints.

You ain't going to die, honey baby.

You're going to live.

You just stay here and rest.

I'll be back in a little while.

Soon as I can.

You stay with her, Doc.

I'll be gone maybe a couple of days.

You stay with her until I get back.

Don't let her die, God.

Please, God.

Give me just another chance.

Please, God?

How is she? Just about as you left her.

Cynthy?

Zeb, you've been away.

I rode into town.

Look what I brung you.

Zeb!

Maybe it ain't exactly what you've been wanting,

but it's the nearest thing they had.

Look, it got real lace.

Just like I dreamed it'd be.

Feels smooth, don't it?

Kind of like cool water.

It's beautiful.

I can see us sailing into the Palace Hotel

in San Francisco wearing it, Cynthy.

No other woman will be able to hold a candle to you.

How soon can we go, Zeb?

That's up to you, honey.

Then it won't be very long.

Oh, Cynthy.

"If thou of fortune be bereft,

"and in thy store there be but left two loaves,

"sell one, and with the dole,

buy hyacinths to feed thy soul."

♪♪ [ trumpet ]