Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) (script) PDF
Preview Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) (script)
520 “Drums Along the Mohawk” FADE IN CLOSE SHOT – page of an open book. A man’s hand writing with a quill pen: “June 10, 1776. Married this day Gilbert Martin of Deerfield Settlement, Tryon County, the State of New York, North America, to Magdelana Borst of Fox’s Tryon County, by the Reverend Daniel Gros.” The hand closes the book which is a big, much-u sed, metal- clasped Bible.11 DISSOLVE TO: INT. PARLOR – THE BORST HOME – A prosperous German interior, spot- lessly clean and provincial. The wedding party, Lana in a veil, etc., Gilbert in his Sunday clothes. Laughter and jollity as the bridesmaids insist on kissing Gilbert, much to his embarrassment. The older people are in the b.g., men and women in stiff Sunday, countrified clothes, drinking a German toast in beer to the bride and groom. Lana runs toward the stairs, mounts a few steps, and turns. CUT TO: CLOSE SHOT – LANA ON THE STAIRS – She throws her bouquet and runs up the stairs, exits. CUT TO: CLOSE SHOT – A MIDDLE- AGED COUPLE – man and wife. 11 This shot comes directly from Meredyth’s January treatment (“Treatment,” by Bess Meredyth. January 9, 1937. Twentieth Century-F ox Collection at the Cinematic Arts Library, University of Southern California, 16) and the text is lifted straight from Edmonds’s novel (Walter D. Edmonds, 520 Drums Along the Mohawk [Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997], 4). 521 Drums Along the Mohawk } 521 THE WOMAN Let her laugh while she can. She may not feel like laughing this time next year, up there in the wilderness. 2. THE MAN Nonsense, woman! The wilderness is safe. None of the Six Nations can make war on us unless the others agree. And the Reverend Kirkland to keep the Oneidas quiet and Sir John Johnson giving his parole not to excite the Mohawks and Senecas – this war will be settled back among the cities. It will never reach this valley. It is the city people’s war, not ours. All we want is to cultivate the land.12 THE WOMAN War, or no war, the frontier is bad enough. No neighbors, no servants, when she has been used to both. She don’t know what she’s getting into. THE MAN Fiddlesticks! She’s in love. To be young and to be in love – there is no wilderness then. Then even a desert would be filled with the songs of birds and the odor of flowers, a bare crust – the bread of paradise. CUT TO: BEDROOM – Lana, in her traveling dress, is packing a small trunk. Enter Mrs. Borst and gives her a peacock feather.13 LANA (looks at the feather) Not the feather, Mama. You’ve already given us so much – the churn, the clock, the rocking chair – and on the frontier - - 12 This speech provides the narrative with its political context. Perhaps more significantly, it also introduces one of the most important concerns of Faulkner’s treatment: the conflict between the frontiersmen—t he Mohawk Valley farmers— and the Continental Congress. The latter is here invoked by reference to the city. 13 The motif of the peacock feather appears in Edmonds’s novel, Meredyth’s treatment (in which it functions as a symbol of Lana’s association with settlement and civilization) and Faulkner’s earlier treatment. In this dialogued treatment, Faulkner instills it with some kind of fertility significance— we learn later from Lana that “It came from the old country. My grandmother had five of them. She gave one to each of her daughters when they married. Mama gave hers to me on my wedding day.” 522 522 { William Faulkner MRS. BORST Yes, but they were just things everybody needs to keep strength in their muscles and flesh on their bones. There are times in a woman’s life when she needs a peacock feather more than she needs bread or fire either. LARA Even in the wilderness? MRS. BORST Maybe more in the wilderness. 3. LANA Not more than - - ? MRS. BORST Yes. Even more than that. LANA If there is anything I could ever need that Gilbert couldn’t give me, or that Gilbert could need which I couldn’t give him, I don’t think I want to know what it is. MRS. BORST You take the feather anyway. And finish your packing. You have twelve miles to go before dark, and you can’t hurry the cow. DISSOLVE TO: EXTERIOR – A NEAT PROSPEROUS COTTAGE – CLOSE SHOT OF THE DOOR – A slightly comic country fiddler comes out, strutting and fiddling a gay tune. Lana and Gilbert run out. Flowers begin to fall across the scene. Lana, laugh- ing, ducks her head and runs off. One of the flowers falls on Gilbert’s coat. He catches it, pauses. It is an ordinary wild field flower. He runs out after Lana. Behind him the wedding party is following; Mr. Borst and the Reverend Gros in f.g. Men and women follow, men carrying beer mugs. CUT TO: EXT. THE HOUSE – ANOTHER ANGLE – The cart is in the f.g. It is loaded with household goods. The horse is hitched to it, a cow is tethered behind. The cow, horse, and cart are decorated with garlands. Flowers are still falling about 523 Drums Along the Mohawk } 523 it, thrown by children carrying baskets of them. Lana is in the cart, laughing and dodging, as the flowers fall. The wedding party is emerging from the door in the b.g. Enter Gilbert. He springs into the cart. The fiddler is still playing to one side. Lana waves her hand. The men lift their mugs. 4. The cart exits. The fiddler struts after it, fiddling. The children run after it, throwing flowers. CUT TO: CLOSE SHOT – MR. BORST AND REVEREND GROS GROS He is taking a young bride into the wilderness to endure its hardships. Let us hope they keep God with them there. BORST Where else would He be? What could be more pleasing to Him than the sight of the young and the strong going into the wilderness in order to redeem it from wilderness. (he raises his stein) Come! Drink! Not to one Gilbert Martin and one Lana Borst, but to peace, productivity, a heritage for the generations and contentment for old age. DISSOLVE TO: EXTERIOR – An Inn on the valley highway. It is sunset. The cart stops before the door, Lana driving, Gilbert leading the cow behind. The flowers and garlands are missing from the cart and the horse. A withered garland still hangs over the cow’s harness. Gilbert removes this and drops it. The host comes out of the door. GILBERT (to the host) Good evening. We can lodge here for the night? HOST (he examines the outfit swiftly, closely) Why not? The world and his wife stop here. What part of the world and his wife pass here at sunset? What part of the world and his wife have the price of lodging? Also the cow. 5. 524 524 { William Faulkner GILBERT We’ll want a room to ourselves. HOST Oh, well, I can’t guarantee as to that. This isn’t Albany. Gilbert takes out his purse. The host watches the purse. GILBERT Would two fips be worth a guarantee? HOST (watching the purse) Seeing that the world and his wife are a little late tonight, I’ll guarantee it. CUT TO: CLOSE SHOT of the purse. Gilbert opens it. It contains a thin, tightly folded sheaf of bank notes and a few coins. Gilbert’s hand removes two of the coins, closes the purse. CUT TO: FULL SHOT of Gilbert and the host, the cart in the background. The host takes the coins, then he looks at the cart. He examines Lana. PAN WITH the host’s glance to a single withered flower still caught in the harness of the horse. CUT TO: FULL SHOT – Gilbert, host and cart. HOST What did you say the name was? Martin? Mr. and Mrs. Martin? Right this way, Madame and Esquire. He goes to the cart. In an exaggerated manner, he takes Lana’s hand while she descends and bows her toward the door. CUT TO: 6. 525 Drums Along the Mohawk } 525 INTERIOR the tap room. Helmer and Captain Small stand before the bar. Caldwell sits at a table alone, smoking. He has a black patch over one eye. Gilbert and Lana enter. Lana is timid. Helmer and Captain Small look up. Helmer slaps Gilbert on the back. Gilbert turns. HELMER Do you bring news from the East, or do you want some from the West? They shake hands. Helmer gives Lana a bold up and down look. HELMER (continuing) I see you brought some with you. GILBERT This is my wife. HELMER Your what? GILBERT This is Mrs. Martin. This is Adam Helmer, Lana. You’ll be hearing about him from now on. CAPT. SMALL Yes, every time there’s a tavern brawl between Herkimer and Stanwix, you’ll hear of him. GILBERT (to Lana) And this is Captain Small of our militia company. Small makes an exaggerated, countrified bow to Lana. GILBERT (continuing) You’ll hear of him now and then, too. HELMER There’s still another old friend of yours here. He ain’t able to make a bow now though, even if he knew how. 526 526 { William Faulkner Helmer leads the way across the room. Gilbert follows and stumbles over Caldwell’s foot. 7. GILBERT Excuse me, friend. CALDWELL (removes the pipe from his mouth and speaks in a level tone) Certainly friend. Caldwell replaces the pipe. Gilbert looks at him a moment, then goes on. CUT TO: CLOSE SHOT OF Blue Back, drunk and snoring, lying against the wall on the floor, Helmer and Gilbert in the f.g. standing over him.14 GILBERT It’s Blue Back! The host enters. HOST Yes, it’s Blue Back. The host kicks Blue Back heavily. Blue Back merely snores. HOST (continuing) Been lying here since three o’clock with a dispatch from Albany eighteen days old in his pocket. GILBERT I hope nobody’s waiting for it. 14 For an account of the complexity of Faulkner’s portrayal of Blue Back, see Gleeson- White, “William Faulkner, Screenwriter.” Faulkner’s treatment belongs with his Indian stories: “Red Leaves” (Saturday Evening Post, 1930), “A Justice” (These Thirteen, 1931), “Courtship” (Sewanee Review, 1948), and “Lo!” (Story, 1934), as well as the Ike narrative of Go Down, Moses, some of which was composed as discrete entities before the book’s 1942 publication: “The Old People,” Harper’s, 1940; and “Delta Autumn,” Story, 1940. Although apparently malodorous, Blue Back is mostly sympathetically por- trayed in Meredyth’s treatment, where he is also given an Indian wife (“Treatment,” by Bess Meredyth. January 9, 1937, 30, 80). 527 Drums Along the Mohawk } 527 HELMER Who would be waiting for a dispatch from Albany? Herkimer could have written “No” on the bottom of his own letter without sending it out of the fort. CALDWELL’S VOICE (offscene) Herkimer still asking Albany for troops, eh? Gilbert, Helmer and the host look out of the scene. CUT TO: 8. Caldwell at the table, lazily smoking, Helmer, Gilbert and the host watching him. CALDWELL Your trouble isn’t your army, nor its winged Mercuries like that one. (jerks his head toward Blue Back) It’s your Continental Congress.15 HOST You said your trouble, your Continental Congress. Caldwell looks at the host lazily smoking. HOST (continuing) In this part of the country, we are accustomed to say our Continental Congress and our army. CALDWELL Doubtless. I am a little more precise if not so specific in my terminology. I’m not waiting on troops which I shall not get. And you need not, either. Because you won’t get them. Because you don’t count to them for votes. I understand there are seven hundred British troops moving up to Oswego this Fall. But do you think that will worry them at Philadelphia? 15 While the Tory Caldwell is tasked, of course, with criticizing the Continental Congress, his views do not differ much from those of the Mohawk Valley patriots. 528 528 { William Faulkner HELMER What is your business, friend? CALDWELL My business is to go where my affairs take me and to pay my score as I go, which reminds me – (he puts his hand into his pocket) HOST I wish somebody would pay his score, too. Then I could throw him out. He turns to Blue Black, Helmer and Gilbert follow. GILBERT How much is it? 9. HOST A shilling. He’s a Government messenger, after all. I thought that -- - GILBERT How do you know he can’t pay you if you can wake him up? HELMER Don’t embarrass Mr. Rose. Didn’t he already tell you Blue Back has a dispatch from Herkimer in his pocket? GILBERT (looks down at Blue Back for a moment) All right. I’ll pay it. He stoops to lift Blue Back. The host stoops, also. GILBERT (continuing to Helmer) Give us a hand. He is an Oneida. HELMER (not moving) What do you think that matters to him with a scalp or soul in sight – yours, mine, anybody’s? Senecca, Mohawk, Oneida, they’re all alike. (to the host) Call your stable boy in and have him dragged out. 529 Drums Along the Mohawk } 529 GILBERT No. He’s a friend of mine. A neighbor of mine. I don’t aim -- CALDWELL (entering) I’ll help you. Gilbert looks at Caldwell a moment. Then they pick Blue Back up from the floor. CUT TO: EXTERIOR – a horse pond. The host counts one, two, three, as he, Gilbert and Caldwell swing Blue Back and fling him into the pond. Helmer has followed, watching. CUT TO: 10. Blue Back from their angle, as he struggles in the pond, then wades out, dripping. He recognizes Gilbert. BLUE BACK (to Gilbert – holds out his hand) How! One moon no see.16 GILBERT I’ve been away. But I’ll be home tomorrow. You go on. I’ll pay Mr. Rose. BLUE BACK Rum maybe? GILBERT No, you’ve had enough. You go on. Blue Back exits. Gilbert turns. He pauses, looks out of scene. CUT TO: 16 This is just one example of the offensive “Hollywood Indian” dialogue Faulkner assigns Blue Back.
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