The Night of the Hunter Page #4

PREACHER:

With that ten thousand dollars I

could build a Tabernacle that'd make

the Wheeling Island Tabernacle look

like a chicken-house!

BEN HARPER:

Would you have free candy for the

kids, Preacher?

He picks up and wads a sock.

PREACHER:

Think of it, Ben! With that cursed,

bloodied gold!

BEN HARPER:

How come you got that stickknife hid

in your bed-blankets, Preacher?

PREACHER:

I come not with Peace but with a

Sword.

BEN HARPER:

You, Preacher?

PREACHER gets and pockets the knife.

PREACHER:

That Sword has served me through

many an evil time, Ben Harper.

BEN HARPER:

What religion do you profess,

Preacher?

PREACHER:

The religion the Almighty and me

worked out betwixt us.

BEN HARPER:

(contemptuously)

I'll bet.

PREACHER:

Salvation is a last-minute business,

boy.

BEN HARPER:

(sock near mouth)

Keep talkin', Preacher.

PREACHER:

If you was to let that money serve

the Lord's purposes, He might feel

kindly turned towards you.

BEN HARPER:

Keep talkin', Preacher.

He wads the sock into his mouth and lies back, sardonic.

PREACHER:

(his voice fading

into Dissolve)

You reckon the Lord wouldn't change

his mind about you if...

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. PENITENTIARY COURTYARD -- NIGHT

DISSOLVE TO:

INSERT -- PREACHER'S HANDS

They rest on sill of cell window, the lettered fingers

legible. The right hand is lettered L-O-V-E. The hands open,

disclosing his open knife. They close over it.

CLOSE SHOT -- PREACHER, AT CELL WINDOW

His eyes lift from his hands, heavenward. Moonlight on his

face. He prays, quietly.

PREACHER:

Lord You sure knowed what You was

doin' when You brung me to this very

cell at this very time. A man with

ten thousand dollars hid somewheres,

and a widder in the makin'.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. PENITENTIARY COURTYARD -- NIGHT

Same SHOT as before, but now, prison lights are on; and a

man, a prison GUARD, waits close inside door. BART the HANGMAN

joins him with a silent salute. BART wears a hard derby.

EXT. PENITENTIARY -- THE DOOR -- (REVERSE)

They walk in silence into MEDIUM, MOVING SHOT, the GUARD

talkative, BART reluctant to talk.

The Penitentiary recedes in b.g.

GUARD:

Any trouble?

BART:

No.

GUARD:

He was a cool one, that Harper. Never

broke.

BART:

He carried on some; kicked.

EXT. BART'S HOUSE -- MEDIUM SHOT -- BART AND GUARD

On porch, by door, is a doll's perambulator. BART and GUARD

walk into the SHOT.

GUARD stops, BART starts up his front steps.

GUARD:

He never told about the money.

BART:

(walking up steps)

No.

GUARD:

What do you figure he done with it?

BART:

(turning, at door)

He took the secret with him when I

dropped him.

The GUARD leaves the SHOT; BART goes in.

INT. BART'S HALLWAY -- CLOSE SHOT -- BART

He hangs up his coat and hat. Across this his wife speaks

o.s.; a lighted door is ajar at rear of hall. A clatter of

dishes and pans o.s.

BART'S WIFE

(o.s.)

That you, Bart? Supper's waitin'.

BART just nods, and, tiptoeing, walks into a door next the

kitchen and snaps on a light and turns on water o.s. His

wife comes out of the kitchen and goes in.

INT. BART'S BATHROOM -- CLOSE TWO-SHOT -- BART AND WIFE

He is washing his hands in thick lather. Passing, she pecks

his cheek and, as we PAN, looks into the next room. He looks

past her, and we see two small CHILDREN asleep in a big brass

bed. BART registers, turns again to the basin, and we PAN

them back into the original TWO-SHOT.

BART:

(low)

Mother:
sometimes I think it might

be better if I was to quit my job as

guard.

His WIFE'S eyes go sharp and quiet.

WIFE:

(low)

You're always this way when there's

a hangin'. You never have to be there.

BART rinses his hands. A sigh; he takes up the towel.

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