Original subtitles

Good evening. I thought you might enjoy seeing this ghost town.

These towns sprang into being overnight, and prospectors flocked here, enticed

by the lure of easy riches.

Everyone wanted to get rich quick, and for a while it looked as though everyone

would.

Then the bubble burst.

No one even took the time to turn off the ticker tape.

Unless I keep on running too long also.

Perhaps we should begin tonight's show.

In keeping with the theory that we shall have nowhere to go but us, we begin

with the following.

Sure, the whole world's full of problems, Miss Naomi.

And all of us.

We all got a puzzle over what we're supposed to think.

None of us.

If nobody's got a puzzle over what we're supposed to do.

Oh, that's so clear to me, Robbie.

You know what to do and to do it.

I feel so free.

No more aches and pains.

Well, that's the way you're supposed to feel. What's the matter with you? And

that's the way I want everybody to feel. I want the whole world to feel just

free and lighthearted.

Just kind of moving easy.

Of course, I'm not so sure about you. I think you're feeling good because you've

been belting that wine bottle on the side when I haven't been looking, have

A little bit too much juice of the grape.

Mercy, no.

No, I'm waiting.

You're waiting for me, are you?

Oh, you got the patience of an angel.

And I'll tell you, you look like one, too, sitting there with all those

around you. Well, now, what about the juice of the grape?

Wine's got your tongue, Robbie.

Wine's got your tongue.

No, no, no. That's got nothing to do with it. I just have an eye for a pretty

girl and always have.

Oh, well, now, leave the dishes, just this once.

I just want to get them out of the way. But the maid will take them up when she

comes in the morning.

No, I just want to get them out of sight. You see, you don't understand.

Dirty dishes and delicate women, they just don't mix.

So thoughtful.

We've got wine.

We've got the candlesticks. We've got everything we need for a proper

celebration except one thing. One thing's missing.

Now let me see if you can guess what it is.

Let me see it. Oh, let me see.

We're here all night. Let me see.

What we need is music.

Music.

Let me see if we can find a few twist records here.

They're all twists.

Will you put them on?

And they twist around and around and around.

Well, it's a bad joke, but it is a joke.

What a difference in this old house.

You deserve it. You do.

Now, listen.

Don't you go giving me all the credit.

Oh, I know.

I know how tired you must be at your own work all day long. And here you come,

visiting me.

I appreciate it, Robbie. I appreciate all your visits.

That's why I want so much to show you how much.

Listen, why don't you let me thank you instead of you always thanking me?

But I am grateful.

All right, we're going to have a new rule around here. From now on, we're

to cry when we peel onions, but we're going to laugh when we drink wine.

You know, I think I am getting a little drunk.

Well, you better take it easy, because you know what the book says.

Book says drink your wine, but it also says all things in moderation.

Guess who I'm going to ask to dance?

Oh, no.

Oh, no. Oh, no.

No. No, Robbie.

Robbie,

I've forgotten.

Oh, I'll bet you have.

Ah, you're a graceful one.

Ah, when I was a girl.

You were the belle of the ball, weren't you?

Well, I never wanted for bows.

Robbie, you know, I used to wear blue.

The most heavenly shade of blue.

And I'd wear it very often. And my partners would say it matched my eyes.

I'd pretend I didn't know.

Oh, no, dear. No, no, that's too fast, really. I'm getting giddy. No, really.

Robbie, really.

No!

I'm getting giddy. No, I'm giddy. No!

No!

Dr. Stanford?

This is Robert Evans. I'm calling from Miss Freshwater's home. I wish you'd get

out here as quick as you can. I think she's had another heart attack.

No, sir.

No, I think the poor old lady's dead.

Wait a minute, Evan. See you in church, brother.

Are you in a hurry?

No sense wasting time.

Would you like to know where you're taking me?

All right.

The old freshwater place.

Let's try it.

I don't remember a gospel mission here in town before.

Well, it's here now.

Do you mean people are more religious now than they used to be?

More anxious, ma 'am. More anxious.

Anxious?

Yes, there's been a mighty coming to the Lord around here.

Are you religious?

Yes, ma 'am.

Matter of fact, back there at the gospel mission, I'm a preacher.

long since you lived here, Miss Laura.

Should I know you?

Oh, no, ma 'am. I've only lived in town a little bit in a year.

But you seem to know me.

Oh, not really.

Just a few of the facts.

I know you're Miss Naomi Freshwater's niece. I know your name is Laura. I know

she left you the house and the will.

There's one thing about this town that hasn't changed.

Well, I wouldn't say it was all just gossip, ma 'am.

See, your aunt and me, well, uh, we were kind of close.

Close?

Oh, yes, ma 'am. Your aunt, she was the finest woman. She, uh, she used to toil

right there beside me.

At the mission?

Yes, ma 'am.

That's odd.

I don't remember Aunt Naomi as being, well, actively religious.

The Lord found her as he finds all of us.

I see.

You didn't by any chance assist him in the search?

Yes, ma 'am, a little.

Sort of pointed the way.

You see, people change.

Prince.

You're not the same girl that left here 15 years ago are you?

No.

Would you mind opening a window?

This house smells of... Death?

No, the past, which is worse.

Do you by any chance know an agency in town where I could hire a girl to help

clean up this place?

Pretty big job for a girl.

Or some man, then.

I might know one.

I told him to get a lock for this door and keep it shut.

I beg your pardon?

Oh, that Gardner fella. He comes here every week to mow the lawn, him and his

boy.

Boy always leaves the door open.

I'll tell you kids today, they're some good boot now and then, and a dose of

scripture wouldn't do them any harm.

Hey, wait a minute.

$1 .50.

You can keep the flowers.

I don't know your name.

Robert Evans.

Did you have some kind of an arrangement with my aunt?

Arrangement?

Well, you seem to know the house so well, I... Tell me, um...

Did your aunt ever write to you about me?

We didn't correspond very much.

Why?

I don't think that's any of your business, Mr. Evans.

I was with your Aunt Naomi when she passed away.

Oh?

I didn't know.

You see, nights when she'd be out here alone in this great big house, I'd drive

out.

Light a fire and sit with her read to her breathe the scriptures

That was very kind of you I'm sure my aunt was grateful

She meant for me to have this house for the mission it didn't work out that way,

but it was in her heart She promised it to me Not to bring that up you

understand, but well you mentioned how grateful the last word she said was my

name

Good afternoon, Miss Laura.

Where did you come from?

Downstairs. What are you doing here?

I brought along a lock for that shed out in the back. I didn't mean to scare

you.

Well, you did a little.

What are you going to do with all this junk?

Burn it.

Burn it?

Oh, you're going to need an awfully big fire.

Yeah, I guess it will.

Did you find a man downtown to help me?

Yes, ma 'am.

Well, when's he coming? I'd like to get started.

He's here, ma 'am.

You?

You need a man. I looked around. All I could find was me.

What about your taxi?

My afternoons are free.

Don't you have a home to go to or a wife?

Ma 'am, my wife's dead and my home's wherever my heart is and my heart's

wherever there's work to be done.

Now, if you want to take advantage, you're welcome.

Now, we'd better hurry up because, well, you're going to need a fire pit, I

figure, oh, four or five feet deep.

Bye.

That's deep enough to burn Sodom and Gomorrah.

You must be exhausted.

Who may not?

Work's good for you.

People ought to do more of it.

Well,

how many souls did you save this week?

Seven.

Really?

In this town?

Right here.

Think you could save mine?

Does it want to be saved?

Perhaps. Perhaps it's too late.

To be safe, that is. Fifteen years too late.

Robert, where were you born?

Me?

I was born... I was born in a Pennsylvania mining town.

I've never been in a coal town.

Must be interesting.

Yeah, it's interesting. Your life, dear, it's interesting. Every evil.

Every sin, every sin you've ever seen or even heard of, we had it there and we

did it there.

Did it in spades.

Perhaps that's my trouble.

I don't believe in sin.

You believe in anything? In independence, mainly.

Did you ever find it?

Oh, to a degree, I have.

Find religion.

You'll find it all the way.

How did you find it, Robert?

Did someone...

Convert you?

I had a vision.

A vision?

Not really.

A genuine vision.

It's down in the mines.

Very bottom of it.

You see, Laura, I was bad.

But I mean rotten. I was a drunk, liar, a hypocrite.

Married at the time, went around with other women.

Boy, I spent a lot of time just running around grabbing women.

I was a fool.

There was no sin that the devil didn't lead me into, but what I didn't know was

the word was waiting for me.

What about the vision? Tell me about the vision.

Oh, that was a miracle.

I was 23 at the time.

I was working in what's known as the lowest gallery of the mind, just kind of

working and digging, thinking.

You know what I was thinking about?

I was thinking about a girl named Alice Davies. She was a...

Good -looking, long -legged thing around town. I was thinking how I'd like to

take her up on a mountain.

Remind about Alice Davies. What about the vision?

Don't worry about her. She's doing all right. She's married now.

But at any rate, as I was saying, I was digging and thinking, and I suddenly

heard a rumble, and a louder one, and then a roar, and then there was a

form of rock, and the men were hollering and screaming. There was kind of dust

and thunder, everything shaking, and everything tearing loose, and just as

dead silence.

I realized they'd been a cave in.

I was trapped, and I was alone.

Were you hurt?

No, I wasn't hurt.

I wasn't even scratched.

I was alone.

Twelve hours.

Twelve hours I was alone in this little black hole, and I... Yeah, I could hear

them digging for me, trying to get to me, but there was a second cave in after

the first, and then... And then I thought I was finished.

Well, what did you do? I stared into the blackness.

I could feel my own fear.

I could feel it jumping around inside of me.

I started to pray.

The more I prayed, the more I could feel this fear, and it got worse.

And I remember trying to control it. I remember trying to keep it down because

thought it was going to go mad.

And I thought... I saw a picture.

I saw my mantelpiece at home.

I saw a photograph, a photograph of my family. I saw my mother, my father, my

sisters.

Four sisters, my brother.

They were staring at me. Just staring, that's all.

I stared back.

I started thinking about them.

I couldn't think about anything else.

Everything else went out of my mind.

And that saved me.

And that's all you saw?

That photograph?

That's what the vision was?

I swore to my family that if I ever got out of that mine alive, I was going to

cleanse my soul.

And later you did cleanse your soul.

And if I did it, you can do it.

I can help you, Laura.

I can give you faith.

I've got a power in me.

to talk to you tonight, my friends, about the riches that's all around us.

I'm talking about the wealth of unveiled glories that we most of us here are

just too blind to see.

Because when you look for the riches that count, you've got to search with

eyes of the soul.

Now listen to this.

You can seek the world over for gold and diamonds, and even after you find them,

You can read this in the Proverbs.

Surely your gold will take wings and fly away to heaven.

Fly away.

And what's going to fly down to you from heaven? What's going to fly down to you

light as a feather, sweet as honey, everlasting as the moon?

The power.

The power.

The power!

making you humble.

And the power opening up the eyes of your soul to the riches all around you.

what kind of riches am I talking about?

Not talking about earthly riches.

Not talking about riches in the bank.

Not talking about a shiny automobile. I'm talking about a peace

and a happiness inside you.

So that wherever you look, whatever you see, everything's beautiful.

We now pause for a moment. This is the last chance our local stations have to

identify themselves before we plunge on into our story. At the conclusion of the

identification, I shall reappear.

Two stations did not have the proper identification and were arrested for

vagrancy. For the others, we now continue our show.

here a minute i need you all right i'll be right there

give

me a hand with this trunk when you're stuck under the shelf

Old trunk's really been around, hasn't it?

Around the whole world.

What's in it?

My past.

You with it?

Years ago.

We at a party?

I suppose.

Put it on.

Don't be silly.

Never seen ghost slippers on a woman.

I remember once back home, my sister borrowed a pair.

She wanted to go dancing.

Go ahead, put it on.

All right.

Let me.

Small foot.

It's funny.

What? It's too fit.

We really must get this attic cleaned up.

What else is in there?

Everything I once owned.

I shipped it all back here after I got divorced.

I'd forgotten half the stuff that was in it.

What's this?

Oh, it's an album.

Oh, is there a picture of your husband in here?

Nope.

Why not?

No, it just isn't.

Strange. It all seemed so unhappy then, but...

No. Your marriage turned out to be mistaken.

Yes, but at least it got me out of this house and out of this town.

A few years later, we were divorced, and now I travel.

Just travel?

Mm -hmm.

Never got married again?

I never found it necessary.

Laura, you weren't cut out for that kind of life.

You want something that really counts, something you can hold on to.

Like the right man?

Why not?

Meet in time, Robert.

Saved by the bell.

Saved from what?

I'm answering my question.

Think it over, sister, because you just may be called upon to testify.

Glory be.

Don't you ever knock.

Well, I did. I guess you just didn't hear me. And I'll tell you, ma 'am, I

blame you, because I wouldn't hurt the devil himself if I was up here watching

you parade around in that dress.

I found it in the trunk.

It's what I wore with these gold slippers.

I wanted to see what I looked like then.

You were beautiful then, you're beautiful now.

What's that?

I'd have to say that was a bottle.

Matter of fact, uh...

I'd have to set up a champagne.

Are you about to celebrate something?

Yes, ma 'am. That's a general idea.

Bet you $5 you haven't had supper.

I wasn't very hungry.

You say that, I want $5. Now, I'll tell you what we're going to do.

You finish up what you're going to do here, and I'm going downstairs.

I'm going to make a little supper, and then who knows, you and me, we just, uh,

I'm going to have a little champagne together.

That's what I was like when I was 19.

We were staying in Athens.

See, there's the Acropolis.

Well, what's that thing you're wearing? What's that supposed to be? Is that a

nightgown?

That's a Greek costume.

Where was this one taken, this one here?

Oh, that was Paris.

Is that you in front of the cafe?

Mm -hmm.

Your hat's so big, I can't even see your face.

They certainly wore big hats that year.

No pictures of your husband, huh?

You got any pictures of your wife?

No. Well, I guess there's some people you just soon forget.

What was she like?

Who? Your wife.

Kind of big.

Kind of stubborn.

She just didn't believe in me.

When did she die?

Spring, I left the mines.

Was she ill?

No, Gorham.

No, she wasn't ill. She had an accident.

She fell.

Oh.

I'm sorry.

And the Providence.

She wanted me to get back in the mines.

What are we talking about this for?

What are we doing here talking about all those things? We're supposed to be

having a party.

To have the wine, we've got candlelight.

Let's use it.

Here's to the next lady that's willing to dance.

Oh, Robert.

I wonder if you realize how you brightened this deadly wound.

Well, why don't you stay on a while, then?

Better still, why don't you just stay?

I'm a wanderer, Robert, I told you.

I can't stay in any one place for any length of time.

Well, there has to be the right place.

Something to stay for.

This could be it right here.

A woman with a house like this, she's lucky.

No, it's a fine house.

Oh, I can just see it.

See it painted and fixed up. You can hear the sounds of it, too.

Natural sounds, a kid yelling, a man calling out if dinner's ready.

I can see a woman in that house.

Cheeks bright with happiness because she's worked, she's clothed and fed,

done something for others, she's not just living for herself alone or self

-involved.

She's got no need to go wandering off across half the world because her home's

right here.

Right in this house.

Another vision, Robert?

Yes, maybe.

But not for mortal danger from being down in the mines, but... I'm having my

hopes up high.

I'll make you a good husband, will I?

Robert, I swore I'd never marry again.

Burn it, burn it. Take your whole past and burn it out there in that fire pit.

Start a new life with me.

I don't have your faith in you lives, Robert.

No, but I told you once.

I got the faith.

Where are you? In the attic.

Thank goodness, girl. I thought you'd be finished up here.

Look what I brought you.

Oh, Robert, they're lovely.

How sweet of you.

Dressed up.

Did you work today?

Yes, I carried down everything I could.

There's still some things in the kitchen, though. Perhaps you wouldn't

burning them before you cover the fire pit.

What's the matter, Lou?

Mad because I'm late?

No, I'm glad, really. It's given me a chance to think.

Think about what?

Robert, we've had some good times together.

And you've helped me put an unpleasant part of my life behind me.

So I'm going to do you a favor.

I'm leaving.

Leaving?

Oh, you can't. You promised. No, I didn't really.

But you have a right to think I did.

But now's the time to set things straight.

Well, they're straight now, they are. You can't change anything now.

We're not changing anything. We're simply facing facts.

Oh, I was tempted.

You're a very attractive man.

And I would have had some roots, I suppose, but... Robert, I can't change.

what I am.

You're lying.

Oh, Robert.

You're lying. I know women.

I don't like being told I'm a liar and I don't like being compared with other

women. Well, you better get used to it because you're like all the rest of

Tell a man to go when you want him to stay. You tell him to stop when you want

him to go on.

I didn't know you were a psychiatrist as well as a preacher.

You want me to make love to you, don't you?

Perhaps.

Well, then.

Oddly enough, if I say no, it's your fault.

Why mine?

You're right about me, Robert.

I drift.

My heart's, well, empty, like that trunk.

But you've made me think about myself.

You see, I really have sinned.

Oh, not enough to be stoned in the village square, perhaps, but I've

And now I've decided that I must put my life in some order.

But not with me.

No, Robert.

Not with you.

I'm going to sell this house.

I'm going to go somewhere. I don't know exactly where yet.

Leaving.

You know, it's all so quick.

It's hard to believe.

It won't make sense.

I know.

It's hard for me, too.

You see, I really was safe.

You saved me. The house. What about the house?

Robert, let's not talk about that. No, but the house is important.

She promised it to me. Oh, Robert. You don't understand. My wife tried to stop

me. She tried to keep me back in the mines.

She wanted to send me back. The devil had made her obstinate. And I said to

kneel down. We're going to pray.

I said, we're going to ask for guidance. Now, kneel, Laura.

We'll ask for guidance.

Ask.

Ask who has a right to this house.

Ask why you were sent here.

Ask for help.

Hi, Mr. Evans.

What are you doing here today? It's supposed to be tomorrow.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow, sir.

Oh.

Anyhow, I guess you put a padlock on the tool shed.

And I need to get a wrench out so as I can check them sprinklers, sir.

Door was open.

I'm sorry.

Hey there, son.

Listen, son, I've got a little job for you. I want you to help me out. I'll

you half a dollar.

Go in the shed, get the wheelbarrow, bring it around front, and I'll meet you

there.

Yeah, sure.

A lot of trash.

The house is full of trash.

Hey, Mr. Evans.

You said something about half a dollar, sir?

Oh, yeah.

Thank you.

That's all right. I got it.

Boy, you sure must be burning a lot of junk back there.

Hey, uh, is that lady gonna stay here?

No, she's leaving.

She left me more or less in charge.

Boy, she sure is a good looker, huh?

Uh, I'll be seeing you.

Folks, take your seats. The meeting's about to start.

Come on in, brother. You won't regret it.

We're going to begin the meeting tonight, my friends, with a song.

We're going to begin with Shall We Gather by the River.

it's a blitz.

We've all been blitzed by the rain.

But it's when things go wrong that that's when a man is tested.

Do you have to tell him I left the shed door open?

Why not?

Well, see, that always makes him mad.

I mean, if he found out that I left the shed door open and had to go back and

lock it, that's how come I saw the trunk.

Well, that'd just make him awful sorry.

You needn't worry. I don't think he'll be bothering you for quite a while.

I've seen a couple of things in my life I haven't.

I've been down deep in the mines and I've seen me a vision there.

I've seen my wife made up by the devil.

Yes, I have.

To the point where I have to set us straight with these two hands.

Well, I'll tell you this.

Whenever you make a promise, you've got to...

I'm going to have me a temple.

A wonderful place.

I'm going to have loudspeakers up on all the corners.

So I can shout them down.

So I can shout down their noises.

You're going to hear about Robinette.

I ain't the earth.

I ain't the earth.

That is the end of our... Dory, next week we hope to bring you another one.

Next for you is a commercial.

Meanwhile, I shall see if I can turn off this thicker tape.