The Night of the Hunter Page #3

PEARL HARPER:

You, Pearl. You swear too.

CLOSE SHOT -- PEARL

PEARL HARPER:

(giggling)

Who's them Blue Men yonder?

HEAD CLOSE-UP -- JOHN

JOHN HARPER:

(under breath)

Blue men.

GROUP SHOT -- TROOPERS IN BACKGROUND

A TROOPER:

Ben Harper!

BEN HARPER:

I'm goin' now children. Goodbye.

BEN backs away from his CHILDREN, raising his hands, gun in

one hand. We PULL BACK a little, enlarging the GROUP SHOT

and the role of the TROOPERS in it.

TROOPER:

Drop that gun, Harper. We don't want

them kids hurt.

TWO TROOPERS approach BEN from behind.

BEN HARPER:

Just mind what you swore, son. Mind,

boy!

GROUP SHOT -- JOHN

He runs forward and clasps his stomach, with his mouth open.

MEDIUM SHOT -- BEN AND TROOPERS -- JOHN'S VIEWPOINT

One TROOPER smacks the back of BEN'S head with a pistol

barrel.

CLOSE SHOT -- JOHN

JOHN HARPER:

(shouting; a sickly

smile)

Don't!

MEDIUM SHOT -- BEN AND TROOPERS -- AS BEFORE

Another TROOPER, with a pistol barrel, knocks the pistol

from BEN'S lifted hand.

CLOSE SHOT -- JOHN

JOHN HARPER:

(shouting)

Don't!

BEN sinks to his knees as both men, and two others from the

front, close in on him.

HEAD CLOSE-UP -- JOHN

JOHN HARPER:

Dad!

He takes in the GROUP with his mouth open. o.s. we hear the

slamming of car doors, and car starting away.

FULL SHOT -- JOHN'S VIEWPOINT -- THE CARS

They drive away fast in road dust.

THREE-SHOT -- THE CHILDREN AND WILLA HARPER

Carrying a shopping bag, their mother, WILLA, runs up from

BACKGROUND between the CHILDREN, looking always to cars o.s.

CLOSE SHOT -- WILLA

She has a rich body.

RESUME THREE-SHOT

PEARL comes to her and she picks up PEARL and the doll; JOHN,

laden with his oath, walks quickly into the house. WILLA

does a bewildered take, then looks again towards the cars

o.s.

LAP DISSOLVE TO:

INT. COURTROOM -- CLOSE THREE-SHOT -- JUDGE AND CLERK, OVER

BEN:

JUDGE:

Ben Harper, it is the sentence of

this Court that for the murder of Ed

Smiley and Corey South, you be hanged

by the neck until you are dead, and

may God have mercy on your soul.

LAP DISSOLVE TO:

FULL SHOT -- THE MOUNDSVILLE PENITENTIARY SAME VIEW AS

BEFORE; BUT NOW IT IS NIGHT

LAP DISSOLVE TO:

INT. BEN'S CELL -- NIGHT -- CLOSE DOWN-SHOT -- BEN

He lies on his back, chuckling and murmuring indistinctly in

his sleep.

BEN HARPER:

I got you all buffaloed! You ain't

never gonna git it outen me; not

none o' you!

PREACHER'S VOICE

(o.s., very low)

Where, Ben? Where? Where?

BEN HARPER:

(distinctly)

And a little child shall lead them.

CLOSE TWO-SHOT -- NEW ANGLE -- BEN, THEN PREACHER

BEN lies in profile. From the bunk above, the face of PREACHER

stretches down into the SHOT, upside down, snake-like.

PREACHER:

(softly)

Come on, boy:
tell me.

BEN wakes, sees PREACHER, and hits him so hard in the face

that he falls from bunk to floor. PREACHER collects himself

into a squat, nursing his face. BEN sits up in bed.

PREACHER:

(with wholesome dignity)

Ben, I'm a Man of God.

BEN HARPER:

Tryin' to make me talk about it in

my sleep!

PREACHER:

No, Ben.

BEN HARPER:

What'd I say?

(he grabs Preacher's

throat and shakes

him)

What? What? What? What?

PREACHER:

(choking)

You was quotin' Scripture. You said --

you said, "And a little child shall

lead them."

BEN HARPER:

Hm!

He lies back, amused. PREACHER sits on the bedside; manner

of a parson visiting the sick.

PREACHER:

(gravely)

You killed two men, Ben Harper.

BEN HARPER:

That's right, Preacher. I robbed

that bank because I got tired of

seein' children roamin' the woodlands

without food, children roamin' the

highways in this year of Depression;

children sleepin' in old abandoned

car bodies on junk-heaps; and I

promised myself I'd never see the

day when my youngins'd want.

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