Paladin, Chapter 22

 INT. INSIDE RANCH HOUSE - NIGHT

POLLYANNA arrives at her ranch and quietly enters house and goes to bedroom separate from BIG DAN's.  She enters bedroom and quickly locks door behind her.  Soon, BIG DAN arrives at bedroom door and tries to open locked door, but can not.  He is angry and frustrated.  He yells, but to no avail.

EXT. STREET  - DAY

PALADIN walks the streets of Windfall till he comes to the store of GRACE and CHARLES.  He enters store.

INT. STORE - DAY

PALADIN enters store.  GRACE is busy with customer.  PALADIN and GRACE make eye contact.  She gives him a big blushing smile.  He nods.

GRACE: I'll be with you soon, Deputy.

PALADIN: Take your time.

PALADIN looks around the store for a minute till customer leaves store.

GRACE: Good morning, PALADIN.  I'm so happy to see you.  I was hoping you would come.

PALADIN: Good morning, GRACE.  How are you?

GRACE:  Wonderful.  I'm so full of hope today.  And it's all your doing.  Thank you.

PALADIN:  Don't thank me.  You deserve to feel good about yourself.   

GRACE:  And I do.

CHARLES comes out of his office and sees PALADIN and GRACE talking.

CHARLES (to PALADIN):  I thought I heard your voice.  What are you doing here?  

PALADIN:  Just doing my rounds as Deputy Sheriff.  GRACE tells me there has been no trouble.  Glad to hear.

CHARLES:  So you'll be leaving now.  I'm sure you have responsibilities elsewhere.

PALADIN:  Just tell me there has been no trouble.

CHARLES:  None.  Now please go.

Just then, BIG DAN enters store.  He goes up to CHARLES and punches him in the face, knocking him to the floor.  GRACE screams in terror.  PALADIN races to intervene.

BIG DAN (to CHARLES):  Don't go near POLLYANNA again or you'll get worse.

PALADIN (to BIG DAN):  That's enough.  Now, get outta here.

BIG DAN (to PALADIN):  Maybe I oughta hit you for what happened in San Francisco.

GRACE, while tending to CHARLES, shows curiosity about what BIG DAN meant by reference to San Francisco.

PALADIN (to BIG DAN):  I would not advise that.  Now, get going before I decide to arrest you for assault.  

BIG DAN grudgingly heads for door.  CHARLES gets to his feet.

CHARLES (to BIG DAN):  Next time, you'll not be able to walk away, you oaf.  They will have to carry you out.

PALADIN (to CHARLES):  Shut up.  Do not make this any worse.

PALADIN pushes BIG DAN out the door before he can respond.  

CHARLES (to PALADIN):  Now you can leave, too.  I can take care of myself.

PALADIN follows BIG DAN out the door.  GRACE helps CHARLES.

GRACE (to CHARLES):  Are you all right?  What can I do for you?

CHARLES:  I'm okay.  What's with PALADIN?  I heard you talking to him.

GRACE:  Oh!  He is such a nice man.  I like him very much.  I wish he would stay in Windfall.  

CHARLES:  Don't you know he is just a travelling gunfighter...a killer.

GRACE:  He's a gentleman.  He has culture...an education.

CHARLES:  You seem awfully fond of him.

GRACE:  What of it.  Do you care?

CHARLES:  I am suspicious.

GRACE:  Jealous?

CHARLES:  Not at all.

GRACE:  Really?

Hebron

Today, no Jews live in Hebron on the West Bank of the Jordan River.  In 1922 under the British Mandate, 430 Jews (2.5% of the total population) lived there.

In August 1929, at least 67 Jews were massacred in Hebron by Arabs.  Many more Jews suffered injuries.  Jewish homes were pillaged.  Synagoges were ransacked.

The massacre was instigated by false rumors that Jews were going to seize control of Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  The surviving Jewish families were evacuated from Hebron by the British authorities.

Hebron holds special significance to Jewish people.  It is the site of the Tomb of the Patriarchs.  

The majority of Jews in Hebron had rented homes from Arab owners.  Some of the Jewish families (Sephardic) had lived in Hebron for at least 800 years.

Newer Jewish immigrants from Europe (Ashkenazi) started to arrive in Hebron in the 19th Century.  Zionism (Jewish self-determination) started to take root.  

A key source of tension between Arabs and Jews was Temple Mount.  To the Jews, the Western Wall of the Second Temple is very sacred.  To the Arabs, the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque is very sacred.  

The massacre in 1929 had been caused by religious intolerance...and false rumors.  

Boxing again

In my youth, I became enamored with sports.  And other than three years of Little League Baseball (1956-1958), my interest in sports involved spectator sports rather than as an athlete.  

In Little League, I suffered from fear of the baseball, either to be hit by a pitch (which I was once) or by a batted ball.  I have come to believe that we should never let fear control our behavior.  We need to have the courage to overcome our fears.  

Spectator sports in my youth mostly was what was on TV.  

Saturday was a Major League baseball game and/or a college football game depending on the time of the year.

Sunday in the fall was the New York Football Giants.

Friday night at 10 PM was boxing.  A ten round bout was perfect for a one hour TV program.  Gillette razor blades was the sponsor and the venue was usually Madison Square Garden in New York City.

I came to admire boxers, especially Floyd Patterson, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Rubin Carter and Carmen Basilio.  But all boxers (now including women) deserve my respect. 

They face the challenge of one on one combat in which they suffer pain and the possibility of injury or even death.  

Boxing is a violent and dangerous sport.  It is a complicated sport.  When you go on offense, you open yourself up to being attacked.  

I have never been punched in the face...except once...by my brother Ted.  As avid movie goers, we discovered that actors did not really hit each other with a closed fist.  It was what we called fake boxing.  

Ted and I played at that many times and once it wasn't fake.  I received a bloody nose.

Ted told me of an experience he had while a student at Michigan State University.  He took a boxing class in which he sparred with another student.  Once, he was punched in the head and saw stars.  I wish I had had a boxing experience.  

At Penn, during a phyical education class, I was assigned to wrestle another student, much bigger than I.  I was able to evade him for  whatever the time limit was.  We were both exhausted.

It would have been nice to box once...for at least one round...to face a challenge, overcome my fears and survive...to prove something to myself.  

Nagasaki

Nagasaki, Japan is located on the island of Kyushu.  Its current population is approximately 400,000.

It was founded by Portuguese explorers in 1543.  Nagasaki became the sole port used for trade between Japan and both the Portuguese and the Dutch from the 16th through the 19th century. 

In the beginning, the little village of Nagasaki was where the Portuguese introduced such products as tobacco, bread and textiles into the Japanese marketplace.  

In 1663, a fire destroyed much of Nagasaki.

In 1720, a ban on Dutch books was lifted.  As a result, scholars flooded into Nagasaki to study European science and art.  

In 1889, Nagasaki was officially proclaimed to be a city.  Christianity was legalized, allowing it to become a center for Roman Catholicism in Japan.

During World War II, Nagasaki was an important industrial city.  Factories produced steel, arms, engines and ships.  90% of Nagasaki's work force was employed in such factories.  

Nagasaki was rebuilt after the war ended.   

Brute Force

Brute Force is a 1947 film noir produced by Mark Hellinger and starring Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Howard Duff and Yvonne DeCarlo.  

Before his untimely death at age 44 also in 1947, Hellinger produced other memorable films such as The Killers (starring Lancaster) and The Naked City (starring Duff).

The film was directed by Jules Dassin.  He also directed other films noir such as Night and the City and The Naked City.

In this film, Lancaster plays the leader of a group of prison inmates plotting an escape.  I can think of at least three other of his films in which he was in prison: The Killers, Birdman of Alcatraz and Judgment at Nuremburg.

Cronyn here portrays a sadistic prison warden, rival of Lancaster.  He played a very positive character in the Alfred Hitchcock film, Lifeboat.

In Brute Force, Duff is another prison convict.  In The Naked City, he is a jewel thief.  Years later, he is the lawyer of Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer.

DeCarlo played opposite Lancaster in another film noir, Criss Cross.

Paladin, Chapter 21

 INT - GRACE & CHARLES HOME - NIGHT

CHARLES starts to enter their bedroom.  GRACE sits on edge of bed wearing a nightgown pulled down to reveal her breasts.  When CHARLES sees her, he stops for a moment, then retreats closing door behind him.  His face shows disappointment.

INT - PALADIN'S HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT

PALADIN is sleeping when there is a knock on his door.  He rises quickly and grabs his gun.  He slowly opens the door and is surprised to see GRACE standing there.  

PALADIN:  GRACE, what are you doing here?  What time is it?

GRACE:  It's very late.  May I come in?

PALADIN:  Certainly.

PALADIN quickly puts on more appropriate clothing.  GRACE enters and sits in only chair in room.  Door is closed.

GRACE:  You said I was an attractive woman.  My husband doesn't think so.

PALADIN:  Your husband's a fool.

GRACE:  I threw myself at him tonight and he wasn't interested at all.  I need to reassure myself that I'm really a woman a man would want.

PALADIN:  You are.

GRACE:  You seem to be the only man who thinks so.

PALADIN:  You're a married woman.  Most men won't attempt to show you how they feel.

GRACE:  Most men?  What about you?  Are you only a talker?

PALADIN, upon reflection, approaches GRACE.  He holds her face in his hands and gently kisses her lips.  The kiss lasts for several seconds.

PALADIN:  I find you a very desirable woman, GRACE.  Unfortunately, you're married and in my line of work I cannot commit myself to a woman.  

GRACE:  CHARLES never kissed me like that.  Nobody ever kissed me like that.

The door is flung open and POLLYANNA is standing there wearing riding clothes as if she is on her way back to her ranch.

POLLYANNA:  Well, PALADIN, you are some hypocrite.  GRACE, strange to find you here.  CHARLES will be very interested to hear this.

POLLYANNA leaves.  PALADIN and GRACE look at each other and start to laugh.

George McGovern

George McGovern was born July 19, 1922 (104 years ago) in Avon, South Dakota.  The McGovern family lived on the edge of poverty for much of the 1920s and 1930s.  

Growing up so close to privation gave young George a lifelong sympathy for underpaid workers and struggling farmers.  He was influenced by the currents of populism and agrarian unrest, as well as the teachings that sought to fight poverty, injustice, and ignorance.

McGovern was listening to a radio broadcast of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra  for a music appreciation class when he heard the news of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.  In January 1942, he drove with nine other students to Omaha, Nebraska and volunteered to join the United States Army Air Forces.

As a B-24 pilot, McGovern flew 35 missions over German occupied Europe from an air base in Italy.  He received a Distinguished Flying Cross for making a hazardous emergency landing and saving his crew.

After the war, McGovern earned degrees from Dakota Wesleyan University (DWU) and Northwestern University.  Later, he returned to DWU as a professor of history and political science.

In 1956 and 1958, McGovern was elected to the US House of Representatives from South Dakota.  In 1962, 1968 and 1974, he was elected to the United States Senate.

In 1972, McGovern won the Democratic Party's nomination for president of the United States.  He lost to the incumbent Richard Nixon by one of the biggest landslides in US history.  However, I voted for McGovern, the first time I voted for a Democrat.

On October 15, 2012, McGovern died at the age of 90 in his native South Dakota.