Original subtitles

Good evening and welcome to Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Please excuse me if I speak rapidly. I have a very short fuse.

Tonight's play is a period piece which takes place during the war between the

states when space travel was limited to this primitive means.

I shall be in orbit during the next minute, so I'm afraid I shall miss the

commercial. However, my sponsor has arranged matters.

so that as I go through the sky, I shall spell out his product.

He thinks of everything.

I'd known Owl Creek all my life.

As a boy, I'd learned to swim it.

As a young man, I'd brought my horses to it to drink.

And now, in this year of 1862, I was to die on.

Farther out, another foot.

That's better.

Now tie down the other end.

I'm sorry, Mr. Parkour, we're not quite ready.

Well, I expect I can wait.

Thank you, Mr. Parkour.

You ain't touched your soup?

No. No, I'm not really hungry, Hattie. Well, you got to eat anyhow. First thing

you know, you won't have strength enough to get out of bed in the morning.

It isn't any good being here on my own.

I know what it is.

I felt the same way after Josh went.

And I tell you, there's only one way to get through it.

You got to make up your mind you're going on, just like you always did.

Thank you, Annie.

I'm fighting a powerful drive. Well, I expect we can fix that.

Where'd you get that game leg?

Shiloh. Home for keeps?

I expect so.

Unless the army gets awful hungry for men.

Is your place here?

Yeah. 150 acres.

Got a dispatch for General Van Dorn. Can't seem to run him down. Well, you're

the wrong neighborhood.

Left here a week ago.

Old Caton Caboodle? Yeah.

Headed for Harley Springs last I heard.

What about the Yankees?

The only thing a man can say about them is they ain't heading north. Not if they

can help it.

Yeah, they're strung out from Myoka to Memphis.

Every one of them snows pointed towards Dixburg. What about their

communications?

Railroad? Yeah, but I heard the railroad was out.

Well, they're fixing it.

They got 2 ,000 men working, pushed all the way to Owl Creek Bridge.

Owl Creek Bridge? Boy, that's only five miles away.

Yeah, within a week, you're likely to have a whole yard full of them here

pestering you for a drink like me.

Now, they ain't gonna get the same kind of service.

Yankees don't need no service.

They just help themselves.

Sergeant, uh...

Suppose someone was to burn down that bridge at Owl Creek.

Well, that'd put them out all right.

Likely to hold a move up on Vicksburg till they got it fixed.

They don't intend on letting anybody do it, though. You got a whole company of

men guarding that bridge alone.

Yeah, but suppose someone was to figure a way to get past that company.

Somebody who knew the country. Now, look, mister.

You find something else to occupy your mind.

It's a notice nailed on every tree for a quarter mile around that bridge.

Any civilian caught prowling around the railroad is going to be hanged on the

spot.

Now you take my advice and stay home. Take care of that bad knee.

No offense, mister.

You get out of the scrap with a bad knee, you're a lucky man.

What all he want?

Eddie, you remember when I was a boy?

He used to take me to the piney woods around Owl Creek.

With Josh.

First you'd pick me a bunch of wildflowers.

Then you and Josh would go down to the creek to catch crawfish.

There was an old trail that used to lead past the turpentine still.

Do you remember that, Hattie?

Of course I do.

It seems to me a man could go up that trail without ever coming near the road.

Then he'd come out of the woods just below the railroad bridge.

Wouldn't he, Hattie? What's going on in your head? Oh, nothing. I just got to

wondering if that trail would still be there.

Well, of course it is.

The field hands from the comedy place still use it.

Thank you, Hattie.

I wouldn't give you a pass through our lines for $1 ,000.

In gold.

If we walk that bridge, we'll holler for Bedford Forest and get it done right.

And not call in some amateur. Now, sit down and have a drink and let's talk

about something sensible. Now, look, Jeff. Bedford Forest couldn't get near

bridge. 40 ,000 Yankees flung out along the railroad.

You figure you're better at burning bridges than we are. I didn't say that.

I reckon I could get through where a regiment of cavalry couldn't.

You always were a dreamer.

I'll tell you I'm going to try it, Jeff. And I tell you I'm not going to let

you. Jeff, will you listen to me? No, let me finish!

That country's swarming with federal troops. You told me so yourself.

The odds are much too great for me to let you take a risk.

Besides, you did your part at Shiloh.

And Melissa needs you worse than we do.

By the way, does she know about this?

No, Jeff. You never let me explain. You didn't tell her.

Don't you think you owe it to her?

Don't you think you owe her that much?

What do you think she'll do? Kiss you on both cheeks and wish you luck? Send you

off with maybe one chance in Paris? Shut up! Shut up!

What about Melissa?

What about that young one of yours she's carrying?

Seems to be your time's almost here.

Why ain't it?

The time's come and gone. What do you mean?

She died a week ago. The baby, too.

Oh, Peyton, I'm sorry.

I don't just see. I have to do something.

I can't just live out the war in that empty house.

I plan to take the Rienzi Road.

There's a trail that leads off through the piney woods that... You want to be

killed.

Is that it?

Because you would be, you know.

I've had to send so many of my friends to be killed already.

I told you to stay at home. You should have listened to me.

He grieved himself sick. Yes, Mr. Parker.

Josh, you've got to hide me.

Josh, please.

They're coming for me. Who's that? The Yankees. What do they want with you?

want to kill me. That don't make no sense at all. Men wanting to kill each

other. That most nonsensical idea I ever heard of. Men wanting to kill all the

time. What for?

No, Josh, please. They're right over there.

Nobody's going to kill nobody if I've got anything to say about it. You come

along with me, Mr. Parker.

Where to? Never mind. Just follow me.

I've seen it before.

Let's stop and listen.

See there?

Downs and gone.

You just trust old Joyce.

I'll get you home safe and sound.

Feel death inside me.

mean it's no harm, Mr. Barker?

Josh, those are federal troops.

You remember when Musk Connelly caught you in his apple tree?

You thought he was going to tear your eye, remember?

What did he do?

He just laughed.

Now you unruffle your feathers. Just keep going along with Josh.

My experience with the cannon turned out to be a humiliating one.

How would you like to be publicly labeled a dud?

Here, among the other war surplus, I have found this.

It contained the plans for the defense of Atlanta and was given to a Union spy

with instructions to eat it if he were captured.

Those were formidable men.

Now here's a message for you to decode, after which I shall return.

I have discovered that the art of espionage was a highly developed one,

back in Civil War days.

As you may remember, this is what the spy had to chew up and swallow.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake for 20 minutes and serve.

Now, until next week, good night.