Paladin, Chapter 14

INT. SHERIFF'S OFFICE - DAY

PALADIN arrives at SHERIFF's office on time.

PALADIN: Morning, Sheriff.  Reporting for duty.

SHERIFF ROGERS: Great!  Raise your right hand and repeat after me.

PALADIN raises his right hand.

SHERIFF ROGERS: I do solemnly swear that I will uphold the laws of the State of Nevada and the Town of Windfall, so help me God.

PALADIN: I do solemnly swear that I will uphold the laws of the State of Nevada and the Town of Windfall, so help me God.

SHERIFF ROGERS: Okay.  You're deputized.  Put on the badge.  I'm gonna get my prisoner. 

PALADIN puts on the badge and waits.  Shortly, the Sheriff reappears with his hand-cuffed prisoner ready for the trip to Reno to stand trial for murder.

SHERIFF ROGERS: See ya in a couple of days, PALADIN.  Good luck.

PALADIN: Thanks.  Good luck to you.

EXT. STREET - DAY

PALADIN, SHERIFF ROGERS and his prisoner exit sheriff's office.  SHERIFF ROGERS and his prisoner mount their horses and head out of town.  PALADIN slowly walks down main street of Windfall.  He enters various stores and business establishments to introduce himself: barber shop, doctor's office, the bank, feed store, land office and the horse stable.  He makes a second visit to the general store.

INT. GENERAL STORE - DAY

PALADIN enters General Store as one female customer leaves.  GRACE is there alone.

PALADIN: Good morning, GRACE.

GRACE: Good morning, PALADIN.

PALADIN: (pointing to his badge) I wanted to let you and your husband know I will be deputy sheriff while SHERIFF ROGERS is away in Reno.  He said he should be back in a couple of days.  If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know.

GRACE: Thank you for your service to Windfall.  I wish you good luck.

PALADIN: Is your husband here?

GRACE: No...and I don't know where he is.  He sometimes leaves without telling me where he's going or when he'll return.  My situation worsens every day.  I blame POLLYANNA.  I believe she lures him away.  I don't know what to do.

PALADIN: Do you want some advice?

GRACE: Yes.  

PALADIN: It takes two.  Maybe she lures, but he catches the bait.  Do you want to keep your husband?

GRACE: Of course.

PALADIN: Then fight for him.  A relationship is not static.  It changes over time.  Both parties have to adapt to the changes or they can drift away from each other.    

GRACE: How can I compete with her?  She's more beautiful, more accomplished, more aggressive.  She's everything I'm not.  All I have with CHARLES is a piece of paper.

PALADIN: Then you have to adapt.  Why do you dress as you do?  Perhaps you need to wear prettier clothes, put on some makeup to get his attention.  If you want to keep him, you must be willing to compete with her.

GRACE: (shaking her head) Just clothes and makeup?  Do you think that's enough?

PALADIN: I don't know what you see when you look in the mirror, but I see an attractive woman in front of me.   

GRACE: You're making fun of me.  Please, don't.

PALADIN: No, I'm not making fun of you.  I'm trying to bring you to appreciate yourself and help you keep your husband.  I'm telling you the truth.  You must believe in yourself.

Tears come to GRACE's eyes.

GRACE: You are a very kind man, PALADIN.  Is there a Mrs. PALADIN?  

PALADIN: Because of the work I chose a long time ago, I could never ask a woman to care for me while I continually risk my life.  

GRACE: Perhaps a woman, the right woman, would be willing to do such a thing, care for you while you continually risk your life.  There are wives of military men and police officers who do such.

PALADIN: You are correct, but I choose otherwise.  As such, I have no wife, never had.  But, I find women, in general, to be very desirable creatures.  Back in San Francisco, I have many...female friends.  I'm not monogamous.  I treat them all with great respect.

GRACE: I'm sure many women love you, PALADIN.  

PALADIN: And I love them, too.

GRACE: You are a very unusual man.  Very admirable.  And very desirable.

PALADIN: Enough about me, GRACE.  Think of what I said.

GRACE: I will.

PALADIN: Well, I should be going.  Please tell your husband I'll be a deputy sheriff for the next couple of days until the SHERIFF returns.  Good day.

GRACE: Come back when you can, PALADIN.  I enjoy your company.

PALADIN leaves the store.

Aunt Frances

 My Aunt Frances was born in the Russian Empire in 1904.  That same year, she was carried by her mother, my grandmother, all the way to the United States, arriving at Ellis Island where they were met by my grandfather who came a year earlier.

They settled in Oswego, New York where they had family.  My mother was born three years later in 1907.

Aunt Frances graduated from Oswego High School.  One of her classmates was Matt Barkley who became my gym teacher at Kingsford Park School.

Aunt Frances graduated from the Oswego Normal School (now the State University of New York at Oswego).  

After graduation, she received two job offers as a teacher: in Amsterdam, New York and on Long Island.  As the former was closer to her family in Oswego, she chose it.  I once asked her if she thought about how her life would have been different had she chosen the latter.  She hadn't.

Aunt Frances stayed on in Amsterdam for most of her life, retiring from her teaching position.  Some of her friends there were the older sisters of the actor, Kirk Douglas (born Izzy Demsky), whom she never met.

Occasionally, during my youth, my parents would drop me off with Aunt Frances in Amsterdam on their way to spend a weekend in New York City.  I was very happy when this happened.  

My aunt was much more easy going than my mother.  Besides, I got to play with her beautiful miniature collie, Ginger.  Also, she introduced to me root beer floats, which I unfortunately don't get to experience at all in Brazil.

Some time after my grandmother died in 1976, Aunt Frances moved to south Florida.  In 1993, an expansion baseball team was created there called the Florida Marlins.  She became a fan, often listening to their games on the radio.

Aunt Frances eventually moved into a senior citizen assisted living facility in Florida where I visited her once.  On our last contact, I called to wish her a happy birthday.  I was impressed by the fact she recognized my voice before I could identify myself.

Aunt Frances died in 2004 at age 100.

    

Lee Remick

Lee Remick, the actress, was born December 14 1935 in Quincy, Massachusetts.  She made her Broadway debut at age 18.

Remick made her film debut in Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd (1957).  She portrayed Betty Lou, a teenage baton twirler, who marries the protagonist, played by Andy Griffith.

Remick came to prominence portraying a rape victim whose husband is tried for killing her attacker in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959).  I consider this to be the best courtroom drama.

When her husband goes to bed early one evening after work, Laura (Remick), feeling bored and lonely, goes to a local bar to drink and play pinball.  Leaving, she is offered a ride by the proprietor who had previously befriended her and her husband.  On their way, he rapes and assaults her.

After arriving home, Laura tells her husband what happened.  He then goes to the bar and kills the rapist.  

Laura has several key scenes both before the trial and during it.  She flirts with her husband's attorney, Paul Biegler (James Stewart), and is intimidated by the prosecutor, Claude Dancer (George C. Scott).

In 1962, Lee Remick stars in the thriller, Experiment in Terror, opposite Glenn Ford.

Also in 1962, Lee Remick stars opposite Jack Lemmon in the romantic drama film Days of Wine and Roses.  They portray a couple who become alcoholics.  

There is a line in the movie that alcoholics often demonstrate obsessive behavior, pointing out that Kirsten's (Remick) previous passion for chocolate may have been the first sign of an addictive personality.  That doesn't apply to me.

Remick was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the above film, but it was won by Anne Bancroft for The Miracle Worker.  

Remick died of kidney cancer in 1991 at the age of 52.  Que pena!    

 

Behold a Pale Horse

Behold a Pale Horse is a 1964 American drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif and Anthony Quinn.  The story relates to the period in Spain and France twenty years after the Spanish Civil War.

Artiguez (Peck), a member of the defeated Republican forces, lives in exile in France and formerly conducted raids against the Franco government in Spain.  Vinolas (Quinn), a Spanish police officer, desperately wants to capture or kill Artiguez.  

A message is sent to Artiguez to come visit his dying mother in Spain.  It is a trap.  A priest (Sharif) is sent by the mother to tell her son not to come.  Artiguez comes any way.

On Saturday night, September 26, 1964, my brother Paul and I attended a screening of Behold a Pale Horse at a movie theater in Center City Philadelphia.  Just before the movie began, four large men sat down in the row directly in front of us.

Directly in front of me was Dick Modzelewski, a member of the Cleveland Browns football team that would play the hometown Eagles the next day.  Even though I only saw him from the back, I recognized him from his brush hair cut.  I was familiar with Modzelewski from his time with the New York football Giants, my favorite team.

The Browns beat the Eagles that Sunday.  I was in attendance at Franklin Field and saw Modzelewski a second time.  The Browns went on to win the NFL championship that year, 1964, the last time they did so.

I did not know that Modzelewski and I shared the name Blair, my first, his middle.  I also didn't know that he went to the University of Maryland, class of 1953, where my son Bret went, class of 2007.

Modzelewski died in 2018 at the age of 87.

I was reminded of all this when I saw Behold a Pale Horse recently on YouTube for the first time in more than 60 years.