Original subtitles

[ theme music playing ]

[ piano playing ]

[ people chattering ]

And what would you be doing in town on a Saturday night?

Well, I've got a book that's overdue at the library, and Trampas here is going to

a temperance lecture down at the Odd Fellows Hall.

How's that?

I was telling Georgia all about your crusade.Didn't know it showed.

[ chuckles ] It's none of my business, right?

Day and night worker for temperance, Trampas is.

Always looking for disciples.

If you'll help me clear the floor, we'll get on with the meeting.

Hiya, Charlie!

Bad place to stargaze on Saturday night,

unless you're a doormat.

You hit it.Huh?

All my life.

What's chewing on him?

Nothing we can fix.

Let's go.

Good evening.

It's a nice evening, huh?

[ glass shatters ]

[ all clamoring ]

I'll get some buckets!

Feisty little varmint. What do you figure got into him?

I don't know.

He's gonna need a doctor. Give me a hand with him.

What'd you hit him with, anyway?

Banged his head on a wagon.

Concussion. No kidding about that.

He'll want watching all night long.

Fire's all out.

That boy puts his mind to a thing, he can do it up brown. How is he?

The Virginian here

might've hit him with something smaller than a wagon.

Well, the object was, I expect, Doc,

was to keep the boy from burning down the town.

What was it all about, anyway?

Tolliver fired him is all I know.

What for?I wouldn't know.

If that's what it was, seems to me like he'd take it out on the saloon,

not the whole town.

Scrappy little rascal.

Well, right now he's just a boy

with a man-sized concussion.

He'll need a place to bunk tonight.

Well, if we go by the rules, I hold him here.

Out of the question.

I got a cell at the end of the line

with a pretty good cot in it, Doc-- I slept on it.

You throw him in with a crowd of Saturday night drunks,

and he's liable not to be with us in the morning.

You want to take responsibility for that?

Only a suggestion.

I'd put him up at my place if I...

had any guarantee that I'd be there myself.

What about Shiloh?

You'd take him?

I kind of feel responsible.

Shiloh would be fine.

I could look in on him easy enough there.

How about bail?

May as well bust all the rules at once.

You'd better figure on keeping him for three or four days.

This is a pretty sick kid.

MAN: Find what you want?

Shakespeare.

[ chuckles ] Funny kind of kid.

"Funny"?

Well, I mean you don't expect to find a saloon swamper

curled up with "King Lear."

Ned Buntline, maybe.

Is that why you fired him?

Now, look.

How long had he been working here?

About a year.

Ever have any trouble with him?

I mean, before tonight.

No. Almost never.

He did his work, kept his hands off the girls, stayed sober.

But you fired him. Told him he had to get out tonight.

I guess I've got that right.

Why?

I gave the kid all the money he had coming

and threw in $20 besides.

I don't see as I've got any apologies to make.

No one's asking you to apologize.

I did that kid a big favor

by giving him a job in the first place.

He dragged into town last summer

scrawny as an orphan calf,

bare to the four winds, broke, hungry.

Why'd he pick Medicine Bow?

Oh, that's easy. His Aunt Emily.

Oh, you wouldn't know her by that name.

WOMAN: You might try her as Lily Duvall.

Lily.

Miss Duvall.

Aunt Emily.

Say, they told me Johnny'd been hurt.

He's over at Ryker's office right now.

Well, can I talk to him?

Not for a while. Sit down.

What in the world got into him?

I was hoping you could tell me that.

I-I don't know nothing, mister.

I haven't seen him since the first day he got to town.

He got a family?

Well, you're... you're looking at it.

You see, uh, his mother was my sister,

and his father, he was a carnie drifter back East,

and he got into some kind of a shooting scrape,

and he killed this politician, see, and they hung him for it.

And then his mother, she drank herself to death

when the kid was just 14 years old.

After that, I don't know what happened to him.

I tried to find him. I heard he was knocking around

somewhere in New Mexico or someplace.

And then all of a sudden, one night last summer,

one Saturday night, it was,

the bell rings and I come on down and...

there's the kid. I didn't even know him.

Well, he just stood there

looking at me for a long time,

and finally he said,

"Aunt Emily"?

And, well, I knew, of course, who it was,

and I said, "Well, yeah, I'm Aunt Emily.

Why don't you come on inside?"

But he... But he didn't. He, uh...

He just picked up his bags

and he walked off into the night.

That's all there was to that.

Oh, I understand it.

I...

Well, actually, I just thought maybe tonight

he might need some money or something, you know?

What he needs is a place to stay.

Well, why don't you take this money and get him a hotel room?

He don't need to know where it came from.

Well, I'll let you know if he needs any money.

As a matter of fact, Tolliver gave him some when he let him go tonight.

Now, you listen to me. This is perfectly good money.

It's as good as yours or Tolliver's.

I know that. I know how you feel.

In a pig's eye, you do.

You know, he's an awful good kid.

I don't know where it come from, but he is.

If they'll just give him a chance.

That's all he needs.

Some sun to grow

and a little bit of sky to fly in.

Oley?

How do you spell your last name? With an "O" or an "E"?

Oley? I got to fill out this complaint now.

You Swede or Norwegian?

"Olson" or "Olsen"?

Oh, probably can't spell it himself.

Yeah, you run into all kinds.

Like Big Charlie Hennessey. I ever tell you about Big Charlie?

MAN: O-L-S-I-N.

You see? He can't spell it himself.

You could always tell when Big Charlie Hennessey

took up residence.

You know, he could've been the greatest stagecoach robber

ever lived.

Knock off a bank every other week regular as clockwork.

Every other week.

Thing about him,

he'd dump the money out and run off with the box.

When we finally caught up with him, he had boxes piled up in his shack

clean up to the rafters.

He just had an unquenchable thirst for Wells Fargo boxes.

[ door opens ]

I was just telling him about Charlie Hennessey.

What become of him?

Oh, he did his time.

And when he come out-- You won't believe this, but when he come out,

the Wells Fargo company put him to making boxes.

Last I heard, he was happy as a clam.

He's pulling your leg.

No, that's the plain truth, so help me.

How's your head?

Rattles some.

Shouldn't have tried to bust up that wagon.

You know, Big Charlie Hennessey has got nothing on you, boy.

I can figure him out easier than I can a kid who tries to

burn up a perfectly peaceable town.

My business.

Not entirely.

Seems to me there was a storekeeper

or two involved, not to mention myself

as sheriff and the circuit judge when he passes through here.

What do you want me to say?

For a start, you might say you're sorry.

And after that, you might try working on

a couple of logical reasons for doing what you did.

You see, the truth is, I want to look good in front of the judge when he comes here.

I want to make him think I've got a ferocious criminal here,

not a kid who likes to bust out windows and burn up buildings.

I reckon that's pretty much what you've got.

You know, you're facing a $50 fine and who knows how much more in damages,

plus whatever else the judge wants to make of it.

Talked to your Aunt Emily tonight.

I wouldn't be too hard on her.

She offered to give you some money.I don't need hers.

Where I'm sitting, it looks like you need all the help you can get.

And what I don't need most of all is somebody sitting over me

offering me their good advice!

Change your mind?About what?

Taking him back to Shiloh.Doc says he can't stay here.

That's not your worry.

I gave him the concussion.

Yeah. He might've come off worse with some of the others.

When does he stand trial?

Circuit court sits in two weeks.

Fifty dollars, maybe a hundred dollars in fines.

Maybe twice that in damages.

Could go as high as double that.

He runs off, you're standing bond.

You're stuck.

Wouldn't be the first time,

and it won't be the last.

I'd like to talk to him. Hire me a buggy, will you?

Head still rattle?

Some.

You're, uh...

You're just full of prattle tonight, aren't you?

What would you like? Marc Antony's funeral oration?

Sassy too.

You had no call to do this, you know.

I'm sitting here asking myself why.

You're gonna get chewed out, I expect, for taking me home with you.

Naturally.So what are you doing it for?

My conscience would bother me, throwing you in with a bunch of Saturday night drunks.

I've done it a time or two.

Where?

What you got against Medicine Bow anyway?

Got to pressing in on me.What?

Miss Jennifer, this is--Johnny!

Johnny, this is Miss Jennifer Sommers.

Jenny.

Sit down right there.

Johnny got himself a whack on the head tonight.

Take some watching. He's got a concussion.

Here, let me.

What happened?

Well, it isn't near as bad as it looks.

Doc just thinks he ought to have someone keeping an eye on him.

Put your head back.

I'll be sitting up with him for a while.

Well, it looks to me like what's needed is a woman's touch.

Let me stay with him.

Jenny, I don't know.

I hate to put you to all this trouble, Jenny.

For a fellow who hates it, you're sure doing a good job of it.

How'd you get the whack on your head?

He, uh, hit me.

It's a long story.

Well, you'd better spare me the gruesome details.

You sure you want to take care of him?

Don't worry. If I need any help, I'll holler.

Johnny,

if you don't like this place, don't burn it down.

Just tell us what's wrong, and we'll try to fix it.

What does he mean, "Don't burn it down"?

That's, uh, part of the gruesome details.

Oh.

I-I expect you know about me.

I expect I do.

I don't expect she told you everything.

We don't keep secrets.

None at all?

None.

Well, some things she wouldn't tell you.

Yes, she would.

Jenny, what am I gonna do?

I don't know, Johnny.

There's got to be a way. There's just got to be a way.

Well, the first thing for you to do is to heal up.

Get some rest.

Plenty of time to think about what to do in the morning.

Thanks, Jenny.

More coffee?

Thirteen years to build. My!

1,595 feet long.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk.What is?

That new bridge in Brooklyn.

Don't look like you much care.

Where's Susan?

Upstairs.

Isn't it about time she came down for breakfast?

Oh, I reckon she's waiting for you to leave.

Tell her I want her down now.

Things too peaceable for you?

Please, Mother.

I have a right to expect some sense out of you. You're a grown-up woman.

So is Susan.

That is open to question.

She has a notion she's going to go with him to the Founders' Day dance,

flaunt him in front of the whole town.

Well, she'd better...

Oh, I'll get you some breakfast, honey.

No, thank you. Coffee's just fine.

You ain't eating enough to hold you down in a four-mile wind.

I want to talk to you.

I know what you're gonna say.

Well, let me say it anyway. Please?

Daddy, I don't want to talk about Johnny this morning.

I don't want to talk about him either.

I want to talk about us.

Thing is, it keeps getting harder and harder

for you and me to talk about anything.

I guess it does.

You wake up one morning and find

your little girl has grown up into a young lady.

You're on the outside looking in.

Trying to climb over a wall or bust a hole through it.

I don't mean to be a trial.

What's happened to us, Sue?

We don't talk anymore.

We just yammer and snap at each other,

but we don't talk.

Because it's hopeless, that's why.

I've tried to tell you about Johnny!

I've tried to tell you how much I love him!

You don't know what love is.

At your age, you ought to be back in school.

How can you be so sure?

I don't know how to answer that question.

But one thing I know-- I've been there myself.

Part of being young is falling in love forever.

Well, couldn't it be true? Just accidentally?

Oh, Susan.

Is it so impossible? Well, is it?

I'm trying to think how your mother would've answered that question.

One of the last things I promised her was that this would not happen to you.

But it did, didn't it?

Oh, I want in the worst way to tell you about it,

but I don't know how!

Come in, come in, young man. Glad you could make it.

Sit down.Thanks.

[ chuckles ]

Two signs of bad luck: a black cat and a cheerful sheriff.

I don't know which is worse.The sheriff, sheriff.

What have we got?I have a revised estimate of the damages.

In the light of day, it revised upward.

Looks bad for the kid, huh?

Yeah, or the man standing bond for him.

And there's more.

Year before last, uh,

there was a bank robbery in Rock Springs.

There were three of 'em. $700 haul.

They caught two of the kids, and a third got away and headed up this way.

Do you think it was Johnny?

Well, it could be.

He'd have been 17 at the time.

I don't think so.

Why?

I don't think he's that stupid.

It wasn't exactly a smart thing he did last night, was it?

Breaking windows isn't robbing a bank.

Yeah, well, it's your money.

You're so right.

Hurt?

No.

I can't understand it.

If it was me whacked that wagon, I'd be an accomplished harpist by now.

Or a coal shoveler. I don't know which.

You seem to be as good as new.

This kind of thing ever happen to you before?

Are you asking me if I'm sane, Doc?

Are you?

I'm sane as you.

That ain't saying much.

But it does for me.

Any reason why I can't get up?

Well, there ought to be, but there ain't.

You can go right back to burning up the town,

for all the harm it's done you.

Now, wait. I ain't suggesting that you go right out and do this.

Look, is there any reason why I can't ride a horse?

Well, no medical reason, if that's what you mean.

That's what I mean.

Johnny?

Johnny?

In here.

He wanted to work off his room and board. All right?

Dandy.

With old Nero,

it wasn't so much the fire as it was the fiddling.

Oh, he done a fair job with the burning part,

but his "E" string was out of tune

and the high notes like to drove the firemen crazy.

'Course, there's been a world of improvement in the fiddle since then,

what with the... the "Stradihoovius" and all,

and some modern touches to burning down a town.

Why, with an oil lantern...

Poof!

You don't have to be an emperor no more, neither.

Any man that applies hisself can be an expert in no time at all.

Leave me alone.

Look, I don't ask for nothing.

Just let me do my job.

Talk all you want.

I got it coming.

Just let me do my job.

Here. Let me spell you for a while.

[ whistling ]

What are you looking at?

[ whistling continues ]

[ coyote howls ]

Coyote.What's he say?

[ howling continues ]

He's not talking.

He's singing.

They do that at this time of year.

Happy?

Mm-hmm.

It's a fine time of year for coyotes.

Warm nights,

big moon to hunt in,

plenty of jackrabbits

and prairie dogs.

Batch of frolic-y little cubs to tussle with.

[ chuckles ]

I'm happy too.

I love you so much.

Mm. Should've had better sense.

Johnny? What are we gonna do?

It's not your responsibility. It's mine.

Just let me work at it.

Someday I'm gonna drive up in a buggy

with a bouquet in my hand, and I'm gonna knock at your door.

You're gonna come out and take my arm,

and we're gonna go dancing for the whole town to see.

[ buggy approaching ]

Sue?

The meeting just broke up. We'd better hurry.

Thanks.

[ knocking ]

Mr. McDevitt.Where is he?

Who?Johnny Younce.

I've been told he's staying here.

He's upstairs.

He's asleep, Mr. McDevitt.

He had a bad day yesterday, and I think he overdid it today.

Then give him this message for me.

Tell him if he tries to see my daughter, I'll have him horse-whipped.

And if that doesn't stop him, I'll put a bullet in him.

Of all the girls in town, Susie McDevitt.

A saloon swamper and Eben McDevitt's daughter.

You don't understand.

I reckon that's why you lost your job in the saloon.

A little pressure from McDevitt on Tolliver.

He's got you beat two ways, you know.

He's the biggest man in town

and he's a father.

Isn't a father made can think clearly where his daughter's concerned.

The most likely young man in town

would have his troubles with Eben,

much less...Lily Duvall's kith and kin?

May as well face up to it.

If I had my choice of who I was gonna court...

Who says I got a choice?

There are 117 other pretty girls in this town.

Don't make no difference.

That's the burr under the saddle, you see? I got no choice.

She's mine and I'm hers, and that's all there is to it.

Son, I want you to realize that was not just talk last night.

You push McDevitt too far, he'll... Where are you going?

Into town...

to look at store windows.

Johnny?

Hello.

Well, how you doing?Fine.

Just fine.

Listen, now, if there's anything at all I can do for you...

No, but...

thanks anyway.

Morning.

I, uh... I see you got a new window.

I just put it in.

There's a big, fat rock by the hitching post.

Well, what are you waiting for?

Uh, please, Jake--

Don't "Jake" me, sonny. And you'd better run along

before I lose what little patience I have left.

Maybe you didn't understand.

I've come to say I'm sorry, Jake.

Thank you very much. It's nice to know you're sorry.

Now that makes two of us that are sorry.

So the subject is closed, and go about your business.

The subject ain't closed, Jake. That's what I come about.

So what's on your mind?

This is for the window.

Tolliver gave it to me to get out of town.

I hope it's enough.

You know, you're full of surprises. You've got a conscience.

I've done some crazy things in my life,

but this one... takes the prize, I guess.

Nobody's giving out any prizes.

Anyway, I'm sorry.

Wait a minute.

How about some lunch? Come on and eat with me.

Look, I didn't mean--I know you didn't mean to.

I've got some roast beef and some fresh bread.

There's water in the pot boiling for tea.

I've got some cookies that I made myself.

Is that so bad?That sounds fine.

Sit down. I could use the company.

You know, young man,

it was an inspiration you picked my window to smash.

I've got a lot of first-hand experience

with busted windows in the old country.

You could've picked a Swede

or even a Polack and gotten yourself killed.

But you had the good sense to pick me.

I learned long ago to live with busted windows.

They used to help us celebrate Rosh Hashanah--

that's our new year-- by busting our windows.

Slice the bread.

You know, it got so we used to miss it

when they didn't come by with rocks on Rosh Hashanah.

Not just on the edge of the ghetto, either.

Smack in the middle sometimes.

You don't think I did it because of...

I didn't know what to think.

Most of the people around here have left that behind.

But once in a while you run into an outstanding exception.

Now we'll have some meat.

[ speaking Hebrew ]

That's a Jewish motzi. We say it at mealtimes.

Now, let's have some meat.

It was that sign.

Huh?

"Clothes make the man."

I used to

stop outside your store

and stare at that suit you've got in the window.

Picture myself in it.

How different I'd feel in a suit like that

with a white shirt and a nice necktie.

Like I could just, uh,

shuck off what I was

and become something else.

Walk down the street proud

and...

know that I belonged.

I was going to, uh,

save my money and, uh,

buy a suit like that.

Well,

you can't change what you are with a suit of clothes.

And I finally realized that...

I am what I'm always gonna be...

forever.

I know what you mean.

No, Jake, you... you don't know.

Look, boy, you're talking to an experienced outcast.

You're an amateur. You've got to laugh.

You're lost if you forget how to laugh.

You've got to laugh, you've got to keep the faith, you've got to make the best of things.

I tried that, Jake.

It's just that the other night, I just got tired of being--

I know. I know.

I learned the tailoring trade when I was a young man,

before I became a rabbi.

You're a rabbi?

You see, I'm a shepherd looking for a flock.

And I'll tell you something-- Sheep are scarce in this country

but Jews are even scarcer.

[ laughing ]

That's the idea.

You've got to learn how to laugh.

You don't think clothes make the man, huh?

[ chuckles ] Nope.

Well, if you're right,

then I'm out of business tomorrow.

You don't change what you are inside with a suit.

It just makes it look better.

What do you think you are inside?

Does it matter?

I think so.

What you believe you are, really--

that's what you are in the eyes of God.

Now go in the shop

and pick out the cloth, and I'm gonna make you that suit.

Now, go on. I mean it.

Hurry before I change my mind.

[ chuckles ]

Oh, just set them down inside, please.

Susan, come on. I've got a lot to tell you.

That's fine.

All right, gentlemen. All right.

What am I offered for this delicious box supper?

You, cowboy, you with the leather vest on, what do you say?

You elected?

Well, I guess it goes with my job.

I'd like to talk to you, Sheriff.

It's about the boy.

I want him out of town by tomorrow.

Well, that may be a little difficult, Mr. McDevitt.

You see, he's in technical custody,

and he's waiting for the circuit judge.

I'll pay his fine and all his damages.

Why don't you talk directly to him, Mr. McDevitt?

It's a waste of time.

I tried to talk some sense into him, man to man.

Made him a proposition. Tried to be fair to him.

What kind of a proposition?

I offered to pay his fare anyplace he wanted to go,

and his keep for three months after he'd got there.

He turned his back on me and walked out.

So you put the screws on Tolliver.

Now, look, Sheriff,

I don't like to work that way.

I'll face up to a man and tell him where I stand straight off.

But this boy gave me no choice.

Now it's going to be your job.

Put that boy on the next stage out of town tomorrow, or--

Or what?

This boy wasn't swamping out saloons

before he came here.

You can check with the Pinkerton man down in Denver.

They have a file on a kid-- could be him.

You think he's on the run?

That's my guess.

I can push it if I have to.

I hope I don't.

He's really after that boy.

Nine out of ten young men can't wear a suit of clothes today.

It's the truth.

You're not a turtle. The collar fits snug.

So...

Come in, come in. Turn around. Show him the back.

What do you think?

It's fine, fine.

Make yourself at home.

We've got to hustle if we're gonna finish it before the dance.

JAKE: My brother Benjamin and his bride

in the old country.

I performed the ceremony.

And that wedding was something to remember.

All the relatives and friends.

Must've been a hundred there.

Such a feast.

Such eating you never saw.

And afterwards, the sher.

[ humming dance music ]

Wait, wait a minute.

Johnny, I don't want you to waste your money.

What money?

No point his buying a suit if he doesn't have a place to wear it,

and you haven't.

He's not buying it. It's a gift from me.

That's very nice of you, but it doesn't matter.

He's still crazy if he goes to that dance.

I'll worry about that.

You might have a nice, quiet place to do your worrying in too--

the territorial prison.

Prison?Rock Springs, Johnny.

I-I don't know nothing about--

Look, I don't want to argue with you about it now.

Three young men and a bank and a $700 haul.

It'll stay just the way it is

unless you push McDevitt over the line.

If you feel like fighting him, you might wind up with five years.

Well,

I told you once,

I don't have a choice.

[ door shuts ]

[ dance music playing ]

Who's that dancing with Susan?

Will Rountree.

He's a clerk in Mr. McDevitt's office.

I'll get us some punch.

That's it. The red one.

RYKER: Seventy-five cents for this beautiful,

beautiful box supper.

Now, anybody want to bid a dollar, gentlemen?

Just one dollar? No?

All right, 75 cents, 75 cents going once,

75 cents going twice...

Seventy-five! Sold to George Allenby

for 75 cents!

Give him a hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right, wait, wait, wait. Who did he get? Who did George get?

There she is!

All right, what have we here? Mm-hmm.

Mm! Yeah.

Oh![ crowd laughs ]

There are no clues on the outside here, gentlemen.

No clues at all, but I have a feeling about this particular box supper.

I have a feeling that this was put together

by the best cook in all of Medicine Bow.

Yes, also the prettiest. Look at the care and attention

this young lady gave to this beautiful package.

And it sounds delicious. Oh, mm.

Do I hear a bid? Do I hear a bid?

Seventy-five cents for the sumptuous feast

inside this gorgeous receptacle?

Do I hear a bid? Gentlemen, who's gonna start the bidding?

One dollar.

Ooh. "One dollar" says Will Rountree.

One dollar.One dollar and 25.

RYKER: A dollar and a quarter.

A dollar 50.

One-fifty.One dollar and 75.

RYKER: Dollar, six bits.Will!

Dollar, six bits going once...Two dollars.

Two dollars! Two dollars, two dollars.

Two dollars. Two dollars, going once.

Two dollars. Two dollars going once.

Two dollars going twice.

Two dollars going twice...

Uh, Two-fifty.

Three dollars.

Four dollars.

Will, please!

Four-fifty.

Five dollars!

Twenty dollars.

[ people clamoring ]

How could you?

Sue! Sue, honey!

It's no use! It's no use!

Susan?

Why did you do it?

Because somebody has to stop you from making a public fool of yourself.

Up to this point I've tried to reason with you, but you won't listen.

Now I'm telling you.

You're never to see that boy again. You're never to mention his name again.

No!

And you're not to step out of this house without my permission!

[ door shuts ]

Bandy cock!

Nineteen years old

and still swamping saloons.

Well, as I recall, you hadn't cut much of a furrow in the wheat

when you was 19.

He has a good head and a strong back.

That's all most young men have for a start.

Now, Mother,

I can't fight my own family and the boy too.

Then why fight him?

Because he's trash.

Is he?

Maybe that's why I feel for him.

I was the trashy half of my marriage too.

Mother, please.

Eben, I never told you,

but my father, your grandfather,

died with his lungs shot full of coal dust before he was 40.

Your father's family blew sky high when he brought me home.

There was threats and yells

and hysterics all over the place.

You know what kind of a marriage it was.

There ain't a night I don't go to bed remembering him.

I'm sorry, Eben, but I think it's time

you started remembering him too.

Whoa.

Mr. McDevitt, I'd like to speak to you about something--

If it's about that boy--It is.

I'm afraid we've pretty well exhausted the subject.

If you don't mind.

You're holding his life in your hands.

I think you're too big a man for that.

What happens with Johnny Younce is between him and me.

I've got a stake in him now.

Well, hurrah for you.

His Aunt Emily said something the other night--

"Give him a piece of sky, and he'll fly."

That boy's never had a nickel's worth of sky in his life.

He's done everything he knows how to pull himself up by his bootstraps.

Taught himself business arithmetic and Shakespeare

in that grubby little hole in the cellar of the saloon...

Well, hurrah for him too.

I'll pay for his schooling if he wants it,

I'll pay his fines and I'll make good on the damages.

All I want is for him to stop seeing my daughter.

And what if he can't?

No sky.

If Johnny--

He was 17!

Seventeen-year-old kid's got no sense.

I'm glad you said that.

That's just what I've been telling my 17-year-old girl.

Did you see her?Yes.

Did you give her the letter?Yes.

Johnny, what are you going to do?

How'd she look?

Bad. Like the end of the world.

Johnny...

Johnny, don't do anything foolish.

[ footsteps ]

[ knock at door ]

Well, what do you want?

I decided to take your advice.

I can't fight you no more.

I'm leaving.

Let's talk about it tomorrow.No. Right now.

I hope you're not going to do anything foolish.

And I hope you ain't either.

I'm through talking.

I'm ready to move now. Turn around.

Which one is to your office?

What do you got in mind?

Money.

All right.

Now, let's take a walk.

What's that for?

Well, I'm gonna be moving pretty fast.

When you make your living robbing banks,

you, uh, learn a trick or two.

Now, go into that alley.

When we get in there, you drop your hands.

And you don't make a sound, you understand?

All right. Now, go on.

The safe.

$1,200, more or less.

That's all I have in the office.

That's a thousand dollars more than I need.

Two hundred dollars.Two hundred dollars?

Count it out.

Put the rest back in the safe.

What kind of a bank robber are you?

Here's my note.

Uh, $200,

three years, six percent.

The book I got says that's the way it's done.

I would've taken my business down to the local bank,

but I'm short on collateral.

Oh.

Here's something else for you.

Apprentice papers.

Service two years to a blacksmith

down in Santa Fe before I run off.

That's what I had on my conscience when I come here.

I reckon that man would like to have me back.

Be pretty hard for me to stick up a bank in Rock Springs

when I was grinding out a forge bellow in Santa Fe.

Now you get in that closet over here.

Thanks for everything.

We'll write you directly.

"We"?

I'm taking Susan with me.

McDEVITT: Leave her alone!

Stay away from my daughter!

[ shot fires ]

[ clicking ]

Get him! He robbed me!

I'll pay a thousand dollars to the man who brings him in!

Straight up or flat on his back!

The boy robbed me.

I'm offering a thousand dollars for Johnny Younce,

dead or alive.

You could've made it a lot cleaner, Eben, by putting a bullet in him yourself.

I tried.

The boy held me up at gunpoint. Took money from the safe.

A man is robbed, Eben, he comes to the sheriff.

He doesn't turn a mob of kill-crazy men loose in a town here.

The boy's got it coming.

Oh, he does? All right. Then let's put this in the record too.

If that boy's brought in dead,

you'll answer to me.

What happened?Shot. In the leg.

Get back inside.

Let me help you.No. Best not to get down. I might not get up.

How bad is it?It's bleeding some, but I can ride.

What happened?I got the money, but I made a mess of it.

[ hoof beats ]Shh!

We got to get out of here. The whole town will be after us.

Johnny!

I can't make it. That's all there is to it.

Oh, Johnny.

Go home, Sue.

They'll come for me. You might get hurt.

No, I'm staying.It's no good, Sue.

Come sunup, all they have to do is follow the bloodstains.

[ hoof beats ]

What time is it?

It's almost 2:00.

Only one place to go. Help me.

You can't move.I've got to!

She'll be down in a minute.

[ door shuts ]

It's about Johnny, isn't it?

He held up McDevitt at gunpoint.

Took some money from his safe.

Did he get hurt?

We don't know.

There was some shooting, and there may be more.

The sheriff here thinks you can stop it.

He's holed up somewhere. I think you may know where.

McDevitt has put a price of a thousand dollars on his head,

dead or alive.

Johnny's best chance is if we get to him first.

Jennifer, if you know where he is, you'd better tell us.

I'll get dressed.

Johnny?Over here.

He's been here.

He's lost a lot of blood.

Can't have gone far.

Yeah, but where?

[ knock at door ]

Johnny! What-What happened?

He got shot in the leg.

Sit down. Easy, now.

Easy. Easy.

Easy.

Easy.

Easy.

Easy.

I'll get something to bind it. Stay right there.

[ groaning ]

I'll bind it until we can get the doctor.

No. No getting the doctor.

Johnny!

What is it? What did you do?

We-We were gonna run away tonight.

I messed it up.

Nothing much we can do now.

In a couple hours, it'll be over, I expect.

They'll come for us, and that'll be that.

Jake, do something for us.

Anything.

Marry us.

JOHNNY: No!Johnny...

I don't want to leave you a widow!

You're not gonna die!

Well, maybe, but... there's time.

There's no time.

I want your name.

He'll need your name.

Susan!

Susan's gone.

"Gone"? What do you mean, "gone"?

Where I come from, "gone" means only one thing.

Well, where'd she go?With her man.

"Man"-- Don't you ever use that word again.

Sit down, Eben.I want to know where they went!

I don't know, and if I did, I wouldn't tell you.

I got something else I want to get off my chest. Now, sit down!

All right. I'm through talking.

Well, I ain't. I'm just beginning.

And you're gonna hear what I have to tell you, Eben McDevitt.

Now, sit down!

Susan told me something before she left here tonight.

That's why I let her go.

She said she couldn't talk to you.

There was no way of punching a hole in that-that

wall of yours, so she talked to me.

If it's about that kid...

I wouldn't call him a kid.

Eben McDevitt, I don't know how you measure a man,

but in my poor old ignorant mind,

a boy cuts off and a man begins

when he understands his responsibilities,

when he takes 'em upon his shoulders without whimpering or whining

and without any thought of running out.

When he does that, and takes on a whole town full

of stupid louts who want to wipe their boots on him,

and takes on you with all you've got back of you,

when he does that and doesn't back down,

then to my way of thinking, he's a man.

Susan saw it.

She saw something glowing in that boy,

and that, I expect, is why she gave herself to him.

And he saw something in her

that he was willing to fight the whole town to keep

and to... to love

and to protect and to cherish.

And that's why he took what she had to give.

Now, don't ask whether it was right or wrong

or how it happened-- it did, and that's enough.

There's no backing down now.

The point is,

they're a family.

Or they will be,

God and Eben McDevitt willing.

Mr. McGill!

Reverend! Mr. McGill!

Wake up! Please!

Mr. McGill!

[ reading aloud ]

[ footsteps ]

Have you found them?

"Them"? What do you mean, "them"?

Susan's with him. You've got to find them.

He's been hit. He can't go far.

By my bullet. God help me.

A gang of un-deputized riders out beating the bushes for him.

So help me, McDevitt, he comes in dead, I'm gonna charge you with murder.

It's worse than murder.

He... Susan...

Come on.

I got an idea where they are.

JAKE: Blessed are you, O Lord our God,

who has made us holy through your commandments.

Blessed are you, O Lord our God,

who makes your people Israel holy

through this rite

and this sacred bond of marriage.

"Behold, you are made holy unto me." Say it.

"Behold,

you are made holy unto me."

JAKE: "According to the law of Moses and of Israel."

"According to the laws

of Moses and of Israel."

JAKE: Blessed are you, O Lord,

king of all the world, who brings to life

joy and gladness,

bridegroom and bride,

love, brotherhood,

peace and good fellowship.

Blessed are you, O Lord,

who makes the bridegroom joyful with his bride.

Break it.

Stomp on it.

We remember the happy times and the sad ones too.

This symbolizes

the destruction of the Temple.

Now... [ speaking Hebrew ]

In the eyes of many, what these two children--

and they are children--

what these two have done is wrong.

Their sins were done

in the name of... of love.

But there is no excuse for disobedience,

for the breaking of the laws.

It is not for those of us

who love them to judge them.

It is for us to understand them

and to forgive them.

May God look with favor

upon this union and give it peace.

So, I pronounce you

husband and wife.

[ chuckles ] It isn't legal

because I'm not a practicing rabbi

and I haven't found my flock,

but in the eyes of God...

Susan...

I want to...

Stupid.

Blind stupid.

Everything's going to be all right, son.

You'll see.

I'll make it up to you.

You just did.

I'll get the doctor.

I got meat and fish and fresh fruit and a homemade cake.

We've got the feast.

All we need is the music to the sher.

[ humming dance music ]

Hey! [ humming continues ]

[ theme music playing ]