ROCK [offering him only the most fleeting glance]: Does, doesn’t it.
ARCHIE: You all must have done some mighty fast repairs.
ROCK: No repairs—put in a new saw-cylinder.
ARCHIE: From where? Out of a cloud? Why, I checked every supply outfit between Memphis and Greenville and nobody’s got a new saw-cylinder ready for installation before next Wednesday.
ROCK [tersely]: Boss had one at our place. I put it in.
ARCHIE: How do you like that? How come I wasn’t let in on this piece of information before I lit out of here on the wild-goose chase that just about killed me? Where is that wop Vacarro? I want to get some explanation of this.
[At this precise moment the whistle blows, announcing the end of the day and the gin machinery stops work. The Negroes, who have been working as porters and mechanics, line up for pay.]
ROCK [meantime]: You seen the boss-man, Norm?
[A Negro shakes his head.
[Rock notices Archie looking at the line a little worried.]
ROCK [to Archie]: Don’t worry. Vacarro is meeting the payroll for tonight.
ARCHIE: Where is he?
ROCK [to another Negro]: Moose, you seen the boss?
MOOSE: No time lately, Capt’n.
94] THE GIN. (ANOTHER ANGLE)
Meighan retreats from the gin uncertainly. Camera follows.
Halfway across the road he hears laughter, evidently directed at him. His back stiffens. Something has happened, he feels, that has somehow made him the patsy of whatever occasion this is.
95] CLOSE SHOT. MEIGHAN.
Suspicious, angry, something violent and dangerous is growing up in his heart. He mutters to himself. Hears the laughter again. Curses to himself.
96] MEIGHAN ENTERS THE BIG FRONT YARD AND STARES AT THE HOUSE.
97] THE HOUSE.
Silent. Not a move. Not a sound.
98] MEIGHAN NOTICES VACARRO’S DISCARDED SHIRT.
He picks it up and lifts his head and calls into the house.
ARCHIE: Hey! Anybody living here? Anybody still living in this house?
99] UPSTAIRS. THE NURSERY.
Baby Doll, considerably disarrayed, has heard Archie’s shout from below and is just making her way on hands and knees to the window. Now she crawls on the floor over to the crib.
BABY DOLL: It’s Archie Lee.
[Downstairs screen door slams. Vacarro gurgles, murmurs, whimpers, all of which mean “don’t bother me, I want to sleep.”
[There is a sudden shout from downstairs as if a cry of pain.]
100] DOWNSTAIRS.
What Meighan sees is the debris of the ceiling. He looks up at the gaping hole in the roof over his head at the top of the stair well and down the stairs. Baby Doll appears on the staircase in a silken wrapper.
ARCHIE: What happened here?
[Baby Doll doesn’t answer. She stares at him with blank insolence.]
ARCHIE: Hunh? I said what the hell happened here?
BABY DOLL: You mean that mess in the hall? The plaster broke in the attic.
ARCHIE: How’d that—how’d that—happen?
BABY DOLL: How does anything happen? It just happened.
[She comes on lazily down, avoiding his look.]
101] INTERIOR. NIGHT. DOWNSTAIRS. FRONT HALL.
ARCHIE: Ain’t I told you not to slop around here in a slip?
[She gives a faint indifferent shrug which enrages him; he senses something openly contemptuous, a change in her attitude towards him. He grabs her bare shoulder.]
What’s the matter with your skin? It looks all broke out.
[Inspects the inflamed welts.]
What’s this?
BABY DOLL: What’s what?
ARCHIE: These marks on you?
BABY DOLL: Mosquito bites, I scratched them. . . . Lemme go.
ARCHIE [bellowing]: Ain’t I told you not to slop around here in a slip???!!!
[Aunt Rose Comfort, alarmed by the shout, appears in door to kitchen, crying out thin and high.]
AUNT ROSE: Almost ready, now, folks, almost ready!!
[She rushes back into the kitchen with her frightened cackle. There is a crash of china from the kitchen.]
ARCHIE: The breakage alone in that kitchen would ruin a well-to-do man! Now you go up and git some decent clo’se on yuh an’ come back down. Y’know they got a new bureau in Washington, D.C. It’s called the U.W. Bureau. Y’know what U.W. stands for? It stands fo’ useless women. They’s secret plans on foot to round ’em all up and shoot ’em. Hahahaha!
BABY DOLL: How about men that’s destructive? Don’t they have secret plans to round up men that’s destructive and shoot them too?
ARCHIE: What destructive men you talkin’ about?
BABY DOLL: Men that blow things up and burn things down because they’re too evil and stupid to git along otherwise. Because fair competition is too much for ’em. So they turn criminal. Do things like arson. Willful destruction of property by fire. . . .
[She steps out on the porch. Night sounds. A cool breeze tosses her damp curls. She sniffs the night air like a young horse. . . .
[The porch light, a milky globe patterned with dead insects, turns on directly over her head and Archie Lee comes up behind her and grips her bare shoulders, his face anxious, cunning.]
ARCHIE: Who said that to you? Where’d you git that from??
BABY DOLL: Turn that porch light off. There’s men on the road can see me.
ARCHIE: Who said arson to you? Who spoke of willful destruction of. . . YOU never knew them words. Who SAID ’em to yuh?
BABY DOLL: Sometimes, Big Shot, you don’t seem t’ give me credit for much intelligence! I’ve been to school, in my life, and I’m a—magazine reader!
[She shakes off his grip and starts down porch steps. There is a group of men on Tiger Tail Road. One of them gives a wolf-whistle. At once, Archie Lee charges down the steps and across the yard towards the road—crying out—]
ARCHIE: Who gave that whistle?? Which of you give a wolf-whistle at my wife?
[The group ignores him except for a light mocking laugh as they continue down the road. The camera returns to Baby Doll blandly smiling.
[We hear the rattle of the cistern pump being vigorously exercised in the side yard. Archie Lee stalks back up to the porch, winded, like an old hound. . . .]
ARCHIE: Men from the Syndicate Plantation! White an’ black mixed! Headed fo’ Tiger Tail Bayou with frog gigs and rubber boots on! I just hope they turn downstream and trespass across my property! I just hope they dast to! I’ll blast them out of the Bayou with a shotgun!
BABY DOLL: Small dogs have a loud bark.
ARCHIE: Nobody’s gonna insult no woman of mine!!
BABY DOLL: You take a lot for granted when you say mine. This afternoon I come to you for protection. What did I git? Slapped! And told to go home. . . . I, for one, have got no sympathy for you, now or ever. An’ the rasslin’ match between us is over so let me go!
ARCHIE: You’re darn tootin’ it’s over. In just three hours the terms of the agreement will be settled for good.
BABY DOLL: Don’t count on it. That agreement is canceled. Because it takes two sides to make an agreement, like an argument, and both sides got to live up to it completely. You didn’t live up to yours. Stuck me in a house which is haunted and five complete sets of unpaid-for furniture was removed from it las’ night, OOHH I'm free from my side of that bargain!
ARCHIE: Sharp at midnight! We’ll find out about that.
BABY DOLL: Too much has happened here lately. . . .
[She descends into yard. Archie Lee eyes her figure, sweating, licking his chops.]
ARCHIE: Well. . . my credit’s wide open again!
BABY DOLL: So is the jailhouse door wide open for you if the truth comes out.
ARCHIE: You threatenin’ me with—blackmail??
BABY DOLL: Somebody’s drawin’ some cool well water from the pump back there.
[She starts back. He foll
ows. The full frog-gigging moon emerges from a mackerel sky, and we see Vacarro making his ablutions at the cistern pump with the zest and vigor of a man satisfied.]
BABY DOLL [with unaccustomed hilarity]: HEIGH-HO SILVER. . . HaHa!!
[Archie Lee stops dead in his tracks.]
ARCHIE: Him?! Still on the place?
BABY DOLL: Give me another drink of that sweet well water, will yuh, Mistuh Vaccaro? You’re the first person could draw it.
ARCHIE [advancing]: YOU STILL HERE?
BABY DOLL: Archie Lee, Mr. Vacarro says he might not put up a new cotton gin, but let you gin cotton for him all the time, now. Ain’t you pleased about that? Tomorrow he plans to come with lots more cotton, maybe another twenty-seven wagonloads. And while you’re ginning it out, he’ll have me to entertain him, make lemonade for him. It’s going to go on and on! Maybe even next fall.
SILVA [through the water]: Good neighbor policy in practice.
[Having wetted himself down he now drinks from the gourd.]
I love well water. It tastes as fresh as if it never was tasted before. Mrs. Meighan, would you care for some, too?
BABY DOLL: Why thank you, yes, I would.
[There is a grace and sweetness and softness of speech about her, unknown before. . . .]
SILVA: Cooler nights have begun.
[Archie Lee has been regarding the situation, with its various possibilities, and is far from content.]
ARCHIE: How long you been on the place?
SILVA [drawling sensuously with eyes on girl]: All this unusually long hot fall afternoon I’ve imposed on your hospitality. You want some of this well water?
ARCHIE [with a violent gesture of refusal]: Where you been here???
SILVA: Taking a nap on your only remaining bed. The crib in the nursery with the slats let down. I had to curl up on it like a pretzel, but the fire last night deprived me of so much sleep that almost any flat surface was suitable for slumber.
[Winks impertinently at Archie Lee, then turns to grin sweetly at Baby Doll, wiping the drippings of well water from his throat. Then turns back to Archie.]
But there’s something sad about it. Know what I mean?
ARCHIE: Sad about what??
SILVA: An unoccupied nursery in a house, and all the other rooms empty. . . .
ARCHIE: That’s no problem of yours!
SILVA: The good neighbor policy makes your problems mine—and vice versa. . . .
AUNT ROSE [violent and high and shrill, from the back steps]: SUPPER! READY! CHILDREN. . . .
[She staggers back in.
[Now there’s a pause in which all three stand tense and silent about the water pump. Baby Doll with her slow, new smile speaks up first. . . .]
BABY DOLL: You all didn’t hear us called in to supper?
ARCHIE: You gonna eat here tonight?
SILVA: Mrs. Meighan asked me to stay for supper but I told her I’d better get to hear the invitation from the head of the house before I’d feel free to accept it. So. . . What do you say?
[A tense pause. . . then, with great difficulty. . .]
ARCHIE: Stay!. . . fo’ supper.
BABY DOLL: You’ll have to take potluck.
SILVA: I wouldn’t be putting you out?
[This is addressed to Baby Doll, who smiles vaguely and starts toward the house, saying. . .]
BABY DOLL: I better get into mu’ clo’se. . . .
ARCHIE: Yeah. . . hunh. . . .
[They follow her sensuous departure with their eyes till she fades into the dusk.]
ARCHIE: Did I understand you to say you wouldn’t build a new gin but would leave your business to me?
SILVA: If that’s agreeable with you. . . .
ARCHIE [turning from his wife’s back to Vacarro’s face]: I don’t know yet, I’ll have to consider the matter. . . . Financing is involved such as—new equipment. . . . Let’s go in and eat now. I got a pain in my belly, I got a sort of heartburn. . . .
102] INTERIOR. HOUSE.
They enter the kitchen and then to the dining room. Archie Lee’s condition is almost shock. He can’t quite get with the situation. He numbly figures that he’d better play it cool till the inner fog clears. But his instinct is murder. His cowardly caution focuses his malice on the old woman and the unsatisfactory supper she’s prepared.
ARCHIE: Hey! Hey! One more place at the table! Mr. Vacarro from the Syndicate Plantation is stayin’ to supper.
AUNT ROSE [with a startled outcry, clutching her chest]: Oh—I had no idea that company was expected. Just let me—change the silver and. . .
ARCHIE: Another place is all that’s called for. Have you been here all day?
AUNT ROSE: What was that, Archie Lee?
ARCHIE: HAVE YOU BEEN IN THE HOUSE ALL AFTERNOON OR DID YOU LIGHT OUT TO THE COUNTY HOSPITAL TO EAT SOME CHOCOLATE CANDY????
[Aunt Rose gasps as if struck, then she cackles. . .]
AUNT ROSE: I—I—visited!—an old friend in a—coma!
ARCHIE: Then you was out while I was—.
[He turns to Vacarro—fiercely.]
I work like the hammers of hell! I come home to find the attic floor has fell through, my wife bad-tempered, insulting! and a supper of hog slops—. Sit down, eat. I got to make a phone call.
[He crosses somewhat unsteadily into the hall and picks up the telephone as Baby Doll descends the grand staircase and goes past him with face austerely averted. She is clad in a fresh silk sheath and is adjusting an earring as she passes through the hall. We go with her into the dining room.]
BABY DOLL: He’s at the phone about something and if I was you, I wouldn’t hang around long.
SILVA: I think I’ve got the ace of spades in my pocket.
[He pats where he’s stashed the confession by Baby Doll.]
BABY DOLL: Don’t count on a law court. Justice is deaf and blind as that old woman!
[Aunt Rose Comfort rushes out to cut roses for a vase to set on the table.]
BABY DOLL: I’m advising you, go! —while he’s on the phone.
SILVA: I find you different this evening in some way.
BABY DOLL: Never mind, just go! Before he gits off the phone.
SILVA: Suddenly grown up!
BABY DOLL [looking at him gratefully]: I feel cool and rested, for the first time in my life. I feel that way, rested and cool.
[A pause.]
Are you going or staying???
[They are close together by table. Suddenly she catches her breath and flattens her body to his. The embrace is active. She reaches above her and pulls The beaded chain of the light, plunging the room in dark. We hear two things: The breath of the embracing couple and the voice of Archie Lee on the phone.]
ARCHIE: A bunch of men from the Syndicate Plantation are out frog-giggin’ on Tiger Tail Bayou and I thought we all might join the party. How’s about meeting at the Brite Spot in halfn hour? With full equipment.
[A few more indistinct words, he hangs up. The light is switched back on in the dining room. Aunt Rose rushes in.]
AUNT ROSE: Roses! Poems of nature. . .
[Archie Lee enters from the hall. His agitation is steadily mounting.]
ARCHIE: Never mind poems of nature, just put food on th’ table!
AUNT ROSE: If I’d only known that company was expected, I’d. . .
[Her breathless voice expires as she scuttles about putting roses in a vase.]
AUNT ROSE: Only take a minute.
ARCHIE: We ain’t waitin’ no minute. Bring out the food. . . .
[Baby Doll smiles, rather scornfully, at Archie Lee bullying the old woman.]
ARCHIE: Is that what they call a Mona Lisa smile you got on your puss?
BABY DOLL: Don’t pick on Aunt Rose. . . .
ARCHIE [shouting]: Put some food on the table!! [Then muttering dangerously.] I’m going to have a talk with that old woman, right here tonight. She’s outstayed her welcome.
SILVA: What a pretty blue wrapper you’re wearing tonight, Mrs. Meigh
an.
BABY DOLL [coyly]: Thank you, Mr. Vacarro.
SILVA: There’s so many shades of blue. Which shade is that?
BABY DOLL: Just baby blue.
ARCHIE: Baby blue, huh!
SILVA: It brings out the blue of your eyes.
ARCHIE [screaming]: Food! Food!
AUNT ROSE: Immediately! This instant!
[She comes through the door from the kitchen, holding a big plate of greens, which she sets on the table with great apprehension. They are not really cooked. Archie stares at them.]
103] CLOSE SHOT OF GREENS, WHICH ARE ALMOST RAW.
104] CLOSE SHOT OF ARCHIE SWEARING UNDER HIS BREATH.
105] GROUP SCENE.
BABY DOLL: This wrapper was part of my trousseau, as a matter of fact. I got all my trousseau at Memphis at various departments where my daddy was known. Big department stores on Main Street.
ARCHIE: WHAT IS THIS STUFF??!! GRASS??!!
BABY DOLL: Greens! Don’t you know greens when you see them?
ARCHIE: This stuff is greens?!!
[Aunt Rose comes nervously from the pantry.]
AUNT ROSE: Archie Lee dotes on greens, don’t you, Archie Lee?
ARCHIE: No, I don’t.
AUNT ROSE: You don’t? You don’t dote on greens?
ARCHIE: I don’t think I ever declared any terrible fondness for greens in your presence.
AUNT ROSE: Well, somebody did.
ARCHIE: Somebody did—sometime, somewhere, but that don’t mean it was me!
[He lurches back in his chair and half rises, swinging to face Vacarro—who has taken Baby Doll’s hand under the table.