American Playhouse (1981–…): Season 4, Episode 15 - Displaced Person - full transcript
Displaced Person is the story of a post World War II black German boy orphan who seeks his father. Until now, he has never met or seen another black person in his life. When he reaches American soldiers, he attaches himself to the African American Seargent in charge. Instead, the boy calls him "Papa" and he becomes attached to the boy. He is the consciousness of the film. While it is a short story and old after-school special, it did win an Emmy award for outstanding children's program. It certainly deserved it. This short story is excellently done with a fine cast including one of my favorites, Rolf Saxon, in a small role. It should be studied and seen in classes especially in urban cities and even in the rural areas. Children can learn to identify easily with these characters.
[music playing]
[music playing]
--[inaudible] is going tobe impossible [inaudible].
-Goodness.
-They'll be going to schoolpretty soon. [inaudible].
[door opening]
-Oh, there's Ms. Shortley.
Mr. Shortley is my dairy man.
The children are called
Rudolph and Sledgewig.
Where is Mr. Shortley?
I want him to meet the Guicazs.
-Chancey's in the barn.
He don't have to rest
hisself in the bushes
like them niggers over there.
[peacock cooing]
-Ah, what a New beautiful bird.
[giggle]
-Another mouth to feed.
-But he rears his splendid tail.
-Just when it suits him.
There used to be 20 or 30of these things on the place
when my first husband,Judge McIntyre, was alive.
But I let em die off.
I don't want to hear them screamin the middle of the night.
-So beautiful.
Tail full of suns.
-Nothing but a pea chicken.
-Father Flynn, we must showthe Guizacs their new home.
-Yes, uh.
[peacock cooing]
[car engine starting]
-Well, you all have
looked long enough.
What you thinking about?
-We has been watching.
Who they now?
[cat meowing]
-They come from over the water.
Only one of them seems
like they speak English.
They're what is called
displace persons.
-Displaced persons.
Well, now I declare.
What do that mean?
-It means they ain't
where they were born at.
And there's nowhere
for 'em to go.
Like if you was run out ofhere and would nobody have you.
-Seems they had though.
If they had, they're somewhere.
-Sho is.
They here.
-You all better look out now.
There about 10 billion
more just like 'em.
And I know what
Miss McIntyre said.
-Say what?
-Places are not easy to getnowadays for white or black.
But I reckon I know
she stated to me.
-You liable to
hear most anything.
-I heard her say this goin'put the fear of the Lord
into those shiftless niggers.
-She bees like
that now and then.
[chuckle]
-Yes, indeed.
[peacock cooing]
-You better get back in thatbarn and help Mr. Shortley.
What you reckon
she pays you for?
-He the one sent me out.
He the one give me
something else to do.
-Well, you better get
to doing it, then.
[peacock cooing]
[music playing]
I have come to take your place.
You'll have to find another.
Go on now.
I warned you.
-You girls, you get in
that house, you hear?
-Chancey, if she see or heardof you smoking in this barn,
she'd blow a fuse.
-You going be the
one to tell her?
-Got a nose of her own.
[laughter]
-Well, the guy looked surprised.
She wants you to meet 'em.
Says, where's Mr. Shortley.
And I said.
-Do up them weights.
-She don't call them the
gobble gooks no longer.
-What does she call them?
-Whatever their last name is.
She can say it just asplain as that priest can.
The boy's Rudolph and
the girl's Sledgewig.
I'd just as soon name a child ofmine boll weevil as Sledgewig.
You reckon he can
drive a tractor
when he don't know English?
She ain't no better offthan if she had no niggers.
-I'd rather have
niggers if it's me.
-She says there's
10 million more just
like 'em, displaced persons.
She says that their priestcan get her all she wants.
-You better quit messing
with that there priest.
-Yeah, looks smart.
Trying to prove it.
-I ain't going to have
no boat [inaudible]
tell me how to run no dairy.
-Well, they ain't Italian.
They're Pole, from Poland, whereall them bodies was stacked up
at, like we seen at the newsreel at the picture show.
Remember all them bodies?
-I give 'em three weeks.
-I want to see that cut
I just bought in action.
For the first time, I havesomebody can operate it.
Mr. Guizac's a wonder
He can drive a tractor,
use the rotary hay baler,the combine, the mill,
or any other machine I'vegot around the place.
-Well, I hope they
don't all break down.
-I don't worry about that.
He's an expert mechanic,
carpenter, a mason.
He's thrifty and he's energetic.
He will save me $20 a monthin repair bills alone.
He can work milking machines.
He's the cleanest
thing I ever saw.
And he doesn't smoke.
[birds chirping]
-[inaudible].
-Look there.
Nobody's picking up on thatniggers make him nervous.
At last I've gotsomebody I can depend on.
For years, I've beenfooling the sorry people.
-Sorry people?
-Well, white trash and niggers.
They drain me dry.
Before you all came, I hadRingfields and Collinses
and Gerald and Perkinsand Pinkings and Herrings
and God knows what all else.
-Well, I don't approve
of trash neither.
Never have.
-I've been running
this place for 30 years
and always just
barely making it.
People think you're
made of money.
Well, the taxes to pay.
I have insurance to keep up.
I have the repair bills
I have the feed bills.
Ever since the judge died, I'vebarely been making ends meet.
And they all takesomething when they leave.
Niggers don't leave.
They stay and steal.
Niggers think anybody's
rich he can steal from.
And white trash
thinks anybody's rich
who can afford to hirepeople as sorry as they are.
And all I've got is
the dirt under my feet.
But at last I'm saved.
One fellow's misery is
another fellow's gain.
That man there, he has to work.
He wants to work.
That man is my salvation.
-I would suspicion salvationgot from the devil.
-Now what do you mean by that?
-I know what that
girl told Annie Maude.
Said they wouldn't be able tolive long, the four of them,
on $70 a month.
-He's worth raising.
He saves me money.
-Is Mr. Shortley better today?
-No.
No, he ain't.
Doctor says he was sufferingfrom over exhaustion.
-If Mr. Shortley
is over exhausted,
then he must have a
second job on the side.
-And what is
furthermore, Sledgewig
said when her papa
saved the money,
he was going to buy
them a used car.
-I can't pay him
enough to save money.
I won't be worrying about that.
Of course, if Mr. Shortleyshould get incapacitated,
of course, I'd have
to pay him more.
He doesn't smoke.
-It's no man who works
as hard as Chancey
or is as easy with a cow,or is more of a Christian.
-Think of how long that would'vetaken with many mules to do it.
He gets the whole
bottom cut in two days.
--[inaudible] got notterrible accident occurred.
-What'd you say?
-I said, I don't trustmachines like that myself.
Never did.
[chuckle]
-Chancey, that
displaced person prowls.
Prowls!
Now who's to say what
he knows and don't know.
Who is to say if he
found your still,
he wouldn't go right toher and tell her about it?
Maybe he wants that
still for hisself.
Answer me.
-Don't worry me now.
I'm a dead man.
-It's them little eyesthat he has that's foreign.
-If everybody was
as dead as I am,
nobody would have no trouble.
-In Europe, they're
full of crooked ways,
with fighting amongst
each other, disputin'.
Then they get us into it.
Ain't they got us
into it twice already,
and we ain't got no moresense but to go over there
and set in the forum.
Chancey, do you hear me?
-No.
-I tell you another thing.
I wouldn't be at all surprisedif he don't know everything
you say, whether it be inEnglish or some other language.
-I don't speak no
other language.
-I expect that fore
long, there won't
be no more niggers on the place.
And I tell you what, I'd ratherhave niggers than them Poles.
Tell you another thing, Igot a heap out of Sledgewig.
Sledgewig said in Poland,they lived in a brick house.
And one night a man come andtold them to get out of it
fore daylight.
You believe they lived
in a brick house?
As, that's just as
I hate to see niggers
run out and mistreated.
When the time comes, I'llstand up for the niggers.
And that's that.
I ain't going see the priestdrive out all the niggers.
-He did that yesterday.
Ah.
Been done beautifully.
-I still say he ain't going towork forever for $70 a month.
-Well, I may have to get ridof some of the other help
so I can pay him more.
I ain't saying the niggersdidn't have it coming to 'em.
But they do the
best they know how.
You can always
tell a nigger what
to do and stand by
him til he does it.
[chuckle] That's what
the judge always said.
Devil you know betterthan the devil you don't.
Judge always said that too.
When the hands were here, chooseto come out here all the time
and look at the angel
on the judge's grave.
She thought it was
pretty, she said.
When they left, the
angel left with them.
They stole it right
off the judge's grave.
-How come they left the toes?
-I guess the axe old man Heronused to break it off with
struck too high.
I've never been able toafford to have it replaced.
[music playing]
-I wouldn't want nobody
but you to hear this.
I know what that displacedperson's really up to.
Astor told me.
-Shut your mouth.
-Yeah.
-No!
-Oh, yes.
-Wow.
-The Pole don't know any better.
I reckon the priest is
putting him up to it.
I blame the priest.
First he's going to get
her into the church.
Then he's going to get hishand inside her pocketbook.
Then he's going to try andget her to fire the niggers
and bring another Polish
family on the place.
You watch.
When you get two of them
families on this place,
there won't be nothing
spoken but Polish.
Then they'll all gang
up on the Shortleys.
That's why I'm reallystudying my Bible these days.
I believe the Lord God Almighty
created us strong people
to do what has to be done.
And I know I'll be
ready when he calls me.
And the word of the Lord cameinto me saying, son of man,
set thy face toward
the mountains
of Israel and
prophesy against 'em.
Prophesy.
The children of
wicked nations shall
be butchered, legs wherearms should be, foot to face,
ear in the palm of hand.
Who will remain whole?
Who will remain whole?
Who?
[music playing]
[animal noises]
Here again, come to destroy.
[distant voices]
[peacock cooing]
-Look at the little biddies.
-Do you think the
Guizacs will leave me?
Do you think they'll go toChicago or someplace like that?
-Well, why would they
want to do that now?
-Money.
-Give them some more then.
They have to get along.
-So do I. Means
I'm going to have
to get rid of some
of these others.
-And are the Shortleys
satisfactory?
-Five times in the
last month I have
found Mr. Shortley
smoking in the barn.
Five times.
-Are the Negroes any better?
-They lie and steal and haveto be watched all the time.
-So which will you discharge?
-I'm going to give Mr. Shortleyhis month notice tomorrow.
[music playing]
-Annie Maude, Sarah Mae,get busy helping me pack.
[music playing]
Help me.
And you, start emptying
out that closet.
You ain't waiting to be fired.
Bring the car around.
[music playing]
-Grab that bed.
We'll build it over yonder.
[music playing]
-Nice.
Certainly I'm going to
take a switch to you.
[music playing]
-Give me that book.
[music playing]
-Where are we going?
-Hm?
-Where are we going?
[car tires screeching]
-[inaudible].
-Good God Almighty, woman.
What are you trying
to do, kill us?
-Let go.
Quit it!
Let go!
Quit it, Ma.
Let go, Ma.
Quit it.
-Come on now.
-Let go, Ma.
-Come on!
-Where we going, Ma?
-Where we going, Ma?
Where we going?
[voices fade]
-Well, we can get
along without them.
We've seen them come and we'veseen them go, black and white.
Miss Shortley was a good woman.
And I'll miss her But as
the judge used to say,
you can't have your
pie and eat it, too.
I'm glad the
[inaudible] owner called
so I didn't have to fire him.
People I hire always leave.
These are those kind of people.
Now, we've seen
them come and go.
-Me and you, we still here.
-I spent half my lifefooling with trashy people.
But now I'm through.
I don't have to put with
foolishness anymore.
I have somebody now
who has to work.
-We've seen them come
and we've seen them go.
-However, those Shortleyswere not the worst by far.
I will remember those Garretts.
-It was before them Collinses.
-No, before the Ringfields.
[laughter]
-Sweet Lord, them Ringfields.
-Or the Herons.
Even robbed the judge's grave.
None of that kind
were born to work.
-We've seen 'em come
and we seen 'em go.
But we never had one beforelike what we got now.
-He can wash out the
dairy in the time
it took Mr. Shortley to makeup his mind he had to do it.
-He's from Pole.
-From Poland.
-In Pole, it don't
be like it bes here.
They've got different
ways of doing.
And, and I don't, I--
-What are you saying?
If you have anything
to say against him,
say it and say it aloud.
If you know anythinghe's done he shouldn't, I
expect you to report it to me.
-It wasn't like what heshould ought or oughtn't.
It's like what
nobody else don't do.
-You don't have anything
to say against him.
He's here to stay.
-We just ain't never had nobodylike him before, that's all.
-Well, things are changing.
Don't you know what's
happening to the world?
It's smelling up.
It's getting so full of peoplethat only the smart, thrifty,
and energetic ones
are going to survive.
-How come there's so many extra?
-Because they're selfish.
They have too many children.
There's no sense to it anymore.
What you colored
people don't realize
is that I'm the one around herewho holds all strings together.
If you don't work, I don't makeany money and I can't pay you.
You're all dependent on me.
But you, each and every
one, act like the shoe
was on my other foot.
-The judge say the devil he knoware better than the devil he
don't.
-The judge has long since ceasedto pay the bills around here.
[cat meow]
I'm sorry that poor man hasbeen chased out of Poland
and run across Europe andcome to live in a tenant
shack in a strange country.
But I'm not responsible
for any of it.
I know what it is to struggle.
People ought to struggle.
I've had a hard time myself.
But I've survived.
[distant voices]
[car starting]
-Why aren't you in the field?
What's that?
-It ain't nothing.
-Who is this child?
-She his cousin.
-Well, what are
you doing with it?
-She going marry me.
-Marry you?
-I pays half to
get her over here.
I pays him $3 a week.
She bigger now.
She his cousin.
She don't care who
she marries, she's
so glad to get away from there.
I don't reckon she
going come no how.
-I'll see you get every
cent of your money back.
[music playing]
[gasping]
-They're all the same.
It's always been like this.
20 years I've been
beaten and done in.
They even robbed his grave.
[crying]
[music playing]
[sounds of tractor]
-I want to talk to you.
Mr. Guizac, you would bring thispoor, innocent child over here
and try to marry her to a halfwitted black fever nigger?
What kind of a monster are you?
-My cousin, she 12 here,
first communion, 16 now.
-Mr. Guizac, that nigger cannothave a white wife from Europe.
You can't talk to
a nigger that way.
You'll excite him.
And besides, it can't be done.
Maybe it can be done in Poland,but it can't be done here.
And you'll have to stop.
It's all foolishness.
That nigger don't
have a grain of sense.
And you'll excite him.
-She'll come three year.
-Your cousin cannot come overand marry one of my Negroes.
-She's 16 year, for Poland.
Mama die.
Papa die.
She waiting come, three come.
She mama, she die in two come.
-Mr. Guizac, I will not
have my niggers upset.
I cannot run this place
without my niggers.
I can run it without you.
But I cannot run
it without them.
And if you mention the
girl to Sulk again,
you won't have a job with me.
Understand?
I cannot understand how a manwho calls himself a Christian
could bring a poor,
innocent girl over here,
marry her to
something like that.
I cannot understand it.
-She no care black.
She come three year.
-Mr. Guizac, I don't want tohave to speak to you about this
again.
If I do, you'll have tofind another place yourself.
Do you understand?
This is my place.
I say who will come
here and who won't.
-Ya.
-I'm not responsible
for the world's misery.
-Ya.
-You have a good job.
You should be
grateful to be here.
But I'm not sure you are.
-Ya.
[birds chirping]
[tractor starting]
-They're all the
same, whether they
come from Poland or Tennessee.
I've handled Herrings andRingfields and Shortleys.
And I can handle a Guizac.
All my life I've beenfighting the world's overflow.
And now I have it in
the form of a Pole.
You're just like all therest, only smart, and thrifty,
and energetic.
But so am I. And
this is my place.
[music playing]
-I'm under no moral
obligation to keep him.
I'm under no moral
obligation to keep him.
-We were talking
about purgatory,
the souls in purgatory.
Thank you.
-I'm under no
obligation to keep him.
-What did you say?
Dear lady, have anyquestions about all this,
the souls in purgatory?
-Lester, I'm not theological.
I'm practical.
I'm going to talk to youabout something practical.
Mr. Guizac's not satisfactory.
He's extra.
He doesn't fit in.
I have to have
somebody who fits in.
-Give him time.
He'll learn to fit in.
Where is that beautiful
bird of yours?
Ah, I see it.
-Mr. Guizac's very efficient.
I'll admit that.
But he doesn't understand howto get on with my niggers.
And they don't like him.
I can't have the
niggers run off.
And I don't like his attitude.
He's not in the least
grateful for being here.
-I have to be off now.
-I tell you, if I had a whiteman who understood the niggers,
I'd have to let Mr. Guizac go.
-He has no place to go.
I know you well enough,
dear lady, to know you
wouldn't turn him
out for a trifle.
-I didn't create this
situation, of course.
-Christ will come like that.
-It's not my responsibility thatMr. Guizac has no place to go.
I don't find myself responsiblefor all the extra people
in the world.
-Transfiguration.
-Mr. Guizac didn't have tocome here in the first place.
He didn't have to come
in the first place.
-He came to redeem us.
I have to go, dear lady.
Goodbye.
[peacock cooing]
[sound of car]
-Well, where's Miss Shortley.
She was God's own angel.
She was the sweetest
woman in the world.
-Where is she?
-Dead.
-No.
-She had herself a stroke onthe day she left out of here.
-You don't say so.
-I figure that Pole killed her.
She seen through
him from the first.
She known he come
from the devil.
She told me so.
-Get another place now?
-No.
-Want your job back?
-Is the Pole still here?
-Yes.
But I'm going to fire himon the first of the month.
I'll give him his
30 days notice.
And then you can have yourold job back in the dairy.
In the meantime, you
can do farm work.
-I just as soon have my jobback in the dairy right off.
But uh I'll be willing
to wait a month.
It will give me satisfaction tosee the Pole leave the place.
-It will give me a great
deal of satisfaction.
I made a mistake
bringing him here.
I should have been content withthe help I had in first place
and not been reaching intoother parts of the world.
-I never cared for foreignerssince I was in the war
and seen what they were like.
I recall the face of one man whothrowed a hand grenade at me.
That man had round little eyesexactly like Mr. "Gwee-zacks."
-Mr. Guizac is a Pole.
He's not a German.
-It ain't a great deal ofdifference in them two kinds.
[birds chirping]
[tractor sounds]
-Hand me that there.
-Where?
-Right there.
-Oh.
-Why don't you go
back to Africa?
That's your country, ain't it.
-I ain't going there.
They might eat me up.
-Well, if you behave
yourself, ain't
no reason you can't stay here.
Cause you didn't run
away from nowhere.
Your grandaddy was bought.
He didn't have a thing
to do with coming.
It's the people
run off from where
they come from I
ain't got no use for.
But I never felt
no need to travel.
Well, if I was going
to travel again,
it'd either be China or Africa.
You go to either
of them two places,
and you can tell rightaway what the difference is
between you and them.
You go to those other placesand the only way you can tell
is if they say something.
Then you can't always tellbecause about half of them
knows the English language.
That's where we
made our mistake,
letting all them people
learn the English.
There'd be a heap lesstrouble if everybody only
knew their own language.
My wife said knowing
two languages
was like having two eyesin the back of your head.
Shoot.
You couldn't put
nothing over on her.
-Sho couldn't.
She was fine.
She was sure fine.
I never known a finer
white woman than her.
[music playing]
-I've had a hard time gettingover Miss Shortley's death.
[chuckle] Anyone would
think she was kin to me.
I've been tricked
by that priest.
When I agreed to bring
the Guizac's here,
he said there was
no legal obligation
to keep them here if theyweren't satisfactory.
But [inaudible] yesterdaywith a moral obligation.
My moral obligation
as I see it is
to Mr. Shortley who foughtin the war for his country,
not for Mr. Guizac,
who's only come
over here to take advantageof whatever he can.
But I'm going to have tohave it out with that priest
before I can fire him.
[sigh]
[footsteps]
-The first has come and gone.
-I know.
But the priest
hasn't called again.
-Well, I still ain't
got my dairy job back.
I should have known
all along no woman was
going to do what she said shewas when she said she was.
I don't know how
long I can afford
to put up with
her shilly-shally.
Come on in here and give
me a hand, will you?
[mooing]
-When God sent his
only begotten son,
Jesus Christ our
Lord as a redeemer
to mankind, as a
redeemer to all.
-Father Flynn, I want to talkto you about something serious.
As far as I'm concerned,Christ was just another DP.
I'm going to let this man go.
I don't have any
obligation to him.
My obligation is
to the people who
have done something
for the country,
not to the ones
who just came over
to take advantage of
what they can get.
I've been hanging on to
this place for 30 years
ever since the judge
died, always just
barely making making it
against the people who
came from nowhere, and
were going nowhere,
and didn't want anything
but an automobile.
And I found out that
they are the same
whether they come from
Poland or Tennessee.
When the Guizacs get ready,they won't hesitate to leave me.
The people who look
rich are the poorest
of all, because theyhave the most to keep up.
How do you I pay my feed bills?
I'd like to have my house doneover, but I can't afford it.
I can't even afford to
restore the monument
on my husband's grave.
Would you like to guess what myinsurance amounts to in a year?
Do you think I'm made of money?
[chuckling]
[clanging noises]
[distant voices]
-Mr. Shortley.
-Up.
-I decided to give Mr.Guizac his 30 days notice
the first of next month.
You notice that the Pole andhis family are getting fat?
The hollows have allcome out of their cheeks.
And they save every
cent they make.
-Yes'm.
And one of these days, he'll beable to buy and sell you out.
-I'm just waiting for the first.
-There's nothing for me
to do but to wait too.
But I ain't going wait
with my mouth shut.
-I'm worried to death about allthe bills I've got facing me.
I want help.
I don't sleep at
night, and when I do,
I dream about that
displaced person.
One night I dreamed Mr.
Guizac and his family
were moving into the house.
And I was moving in
with Mr. Shortley.
I didn't sleep forseveral nights after that.
And one night I dreamed that
the priest came to call.
And he said to me, dear lady,I know that your tender heart
won't suffer you to
turn the poor man out.
Think of the ovens, and thebox cars, and the camps,
and the sick children,
and Christ the Lord.
But I said to him, he's extra.
He upsets the
balance around here.
And I'm a logical,
practical woman.
And there are no ovens
here, and no camps,
and no Christ our Lord.
And when he leaves,
he'll make more money.
Just one too many, I said.
[peacock cooing]
-Ya good?
-Mr. Guizac, I can hardlymy obligations now.
I have bills to pay.
-I too, much bills,
little money.
-This is my place.
All of you are extra, each andevery one of you are extra.
-Ya.
-Sometimes a man who's
fought, and bled,
and died in the service
of his native land
don't get the considerationof one of them
like he was fighting.
I ask, is that right?
I gone over there.
And I fought and bled and died.
And I come back over here andfind out who's got my job,
just exactly who
I've been fighting.
It was come that
near to killing me.
And I seen who throwed it.
It was a little man witheyeglasses exactly like his.
He might have bought
them in the same store.
Small world.
I been telling my story toone and all who will listen.
And everybody, black andwhite, thinks I'm in the right.
[music playing]
-I've never had to
discharge anyone before.
They all left me.
[clanging metal]
-Screw.
[clanging metal]
[birds chirping]
[tractor noises]
[birds chirping]
[background voices and wailing]
[music playing]
[footsteps]
-Has she had any visitors?
-No, sir.
You about the only one evercomes to see the poor thing.
-Now, where did we
leave off last week?
Purgatory?
Yes, I think by now we havea clearer idea of that.
Do you know I'm 80 years old?
I've been a priest for 55 years.
How many prayers I've saidfor the souls in purgatory?
Yes, I think we have
a clearer idea now
about the souls in purgatory.
Although, I wish I could
question you sometimes
and see what you
know and don't know.
Still, we were
speaking of purgatory,
a temporary state which
can go on for centuries,
and souls which have notyet been cleansed by hell
or doomed to hell.
Souls have not yet attaineda non-corporeal state.
Therefore, purgatory must be aplace where one thinks clearer.
And purgatory may besouls that have benefitted
from the prayers of the living.
[voice fading]
[music playing]
[music playing]
--[inaudible] is going tobe impossible [inaudible].
-Goodness.
-They'll be going to schoolpretty soon. [inaudible].
[door opening]
-Oh, there's Ms. Shortley.
Mr. Shortley is my dairy man.
The children are called
Rudolph and Sledgewig.
Where is Mr. Shortley?
I want him to meet the Guicazs.
-Chancey's in the barn.
He don't have to rest
hisself in the bushes
like them niggers over there.
[peacock cooing]
-Ah, what a New beautiful bird.
[giggle]
-Another mouth to feed.
-But he rears his splendid tail.
-Just when it suits him.
There used to be 20 or 30of these things on the place
when my first husband,Judge McIntyre, was alive.
But I let em die off.
I don't want to hear them screamin the middle of the night.
-So beautiful.
Tail full of suns.
-Nothing but a pea chicken.
-Father Flynn, we must showthe Guizacs their new home.
-Yes, uh.
[peacock cooing]
[car engine starting]
-Well, you all have
looked long enough.
What you thinking about?
-We has been watching.
Who they now?
[cat meowing]
-They come from over the water.
Only one of them seems
like they speak English.
They're what is called
displace persons.
-Displaced persons.
Well, now I declare.
What do that mean?
-It means they ain't
where they were born at.
And there's nowhere
for 'em to go.
Like if you was run out ofhere and would nobody have you.
-Seems they had though.
If they had, they're somewhere.
-Sho is.
They here.
-You all better look out now.
There about 10 billion
more just like 'em.
And I know what
Miss McIntyre said.
-Say what?
-Places are not easy to getnowadays for white or black.
But I reckon I know
she stated to me.
-You liable to
hear most anything.
-I heard her say this goin'put the fear of the Lord
into those shiftless niggers.
-She bees like
that now and then.
[chuckle]
-Yes, indeed.
[peacock cooing]
-You better get back in thatbarn and help Mr. Shortley.
What you reckon
she pays you for?
-He the one sent me out.
He the one give me
something else to do.
-Well, you better get
to doing it, then.
[peacock cooing]
[music playing]
I have come to take your place.
You'll have to find another.
Go on now.
I warned you.
-You girls, you get in
that house, you hear?
-Chancey, if she see or heardof you smoking in this barn,
she'd blow a fuse.
-You going be the
one to tell her?
-Got a nose of her own.
[laughter]
-Well, the guy looked surprised.
She wants you to meet 'em.
Says, where's Mr. Shortley.
And I said.
-Do up them weights.
-She don't call them the
gobble gooks no longer.
-What does she call them?
-Whatever their last name is.
She can say it just asplain as that priest can.
The boy's Rudolph and
the girl's Sledgewig.
I'd just as soon name a child ofmine boll weevil as Sledgewig.
You reckon he can
drive a tractor
when he don't know English?
She ain't no better offthan if she had no niggers.
-I'd rather have
niggers if it's me.
-She says there's
10 million more just
like 'em, displaced persons.
She says that their priestcan get her all she wants.
-You better quit messing
with that there priest.
-Yeah, looks smart.
Trying to prove it.
-I ain't going to have
no boat [inaudible]
tell me how to run no dairy.
-Well, they ain't Italian.
They're Pole, from Poland, whereall them bodies was stacked up
at, like we seen at the newsreel at the picture show.
Remember all them bodies?
-I give 'em three weeks.
-I want to see that cut
I just bought in action.
For the first time, I havesomebody can operate it.
Mr. Guizac's a wonder
He can drive a tractor,
use the rotary hay baler,the combine, the mill,
or any other machine I'vegot around the place.
-Well, I hope they
don't all break down.
-I don't worry about that.
He's an expert mechanic,
carpenter, a mason.
He's thrifty and he's energetic.
He will save me $20 a monthin repair bills alone.
He can work milking machines.
He's the cleanest
thing I ever saw.
And he doesn't smoke.
[birds chirping]
-[inaudible].
-Look there.
Nobody's picking up on thatniggers make him nervous.
At last I've gotsomebody I can depend on.
For years, I've beenfooling the sorry people.
-Sorry people?
-Well, white trash and niggers.
They drain me dry.
Before you all came, I hadRingfields and Collinses
and Gerald and Perkinsand Pinkings and Herrings
and God knows what all else.
-Well, I don't approve
of trash neither.
Never have.
-I've been running
this place for 30 years
and always just
barely making it.
People think you're
made of money.
Well, the taxes to pay.
I have insurance to keep up.
I have the repair bills
I have the feed bills.
Ever since the judge died, I'vebarely been making ends meet.
And they all takesomething when they leave.
Niggers don't leave.
They stay and steal.
Niggers think anybody's
rich he can steal from.
And white trash
thinks anybody's rich
who can afford to hirepeople as sorry as they are.
And all I've got is
the dirt under my feet.
But at last I'm saved.
One fellow's misery is
another fellow's gain.
That man there, he has to work.
He wants to work.
That man is my salvation.
-I would suspicion salvationgot from the devil.
-Now what do you mean by that?
-I know what that
girl told Annie Maude.
Said they wouldn't be able tolive long, the four of them,
on $70 a month.
-He's worth raising.
He saves me money.
-Is Mr. Shortley better today?
-No.
No, he ain't.
Doctor says he was sufferingfrom over exhaustion.
-If Mr. Shortley
is over exhausted,
then he must have a
second job on the side.
-And what is
furthermore, Sledgewig
said when her papa
saved the money,
he was going to buy
them a used car.
-I can't pay him
enough to save money.
I won't be worrying about that.
Of course, if Mr. Shortleyshould get incapacitated,
of course, I'd have
to pay him more.
He doesn't smoke.
-It's no man who works
as hard as Chancey
or is as easy with a cow,or is more of a Christian.
-Think of how long that would'vetaken with many mules to do it.
He gets the whole
bottom cut in two days.
--[inaudible] got notterrible accident occurred.
-What'd you say?
-I said, I don't trustmachines like that myself.
Never did.
[chuckle]
-Chancey, that
displaced person prowls.
Prowls!
Now who's to say what
he knows and don't know.
Who is to say if he
found your still,
he wouldn't go right toher and tell her about it?
Maybe he wants that
still for hisself.
Answer me.
-Don't worry me now.
I'm a dead man.
-It's them little eyesthat he has that's foreign.
-If everybody was
as dead as I am,
nobody would have no trouble.
-In Europe, they're
full of crooked ways,
with fighting amongst
each other, disputin'.
Then they get us into it.
Ain't they got us
into it twice already,
and we ain't got no moresense but to go over there
and set in the forum.
Chancey, do you hear me?
-No.
-I tell you another thing.
I wouldn't be at all surprisedif he don't know everything
you say, whether it be inEnglish or some other language.
-I don't speak no
other language.
-I expect that fore
long, there won't
be no more niggers on the place.
And I tell you what, I'd ratherhave niggers than them Poles.
Tell you another thing, Igot a heap out of Sledgewig.
Sledgewig said in Poland,they lived in a brick house.
And one night a man come andtold them to get out of it
fore daylight.
You believe they lived
in a brick house?
As, that's just as
I hate to see niggers
run out and mistreated.
When the time comes, I'llstand up for the niggers.
And that's that.
I ain't going see the priestdrive out all the niggers.
-He did that yesterday.
Ah.
Been done beautifully.
-I still say he ain't going towork forever for $70 a month.
-Well, I may have to get ridof some of the other help
so I can pay him more.
I ain't saying the niggersdidn't have it coming to 'em.
But they do the
best they know how.
You can always
tell a nigger what
to do and stand by
him til he does it.
[chuckle] That's what
the judge always said.
Devil you know betterthan the devil you don't.
Judge always said that too.
When the hands were here, chooseto come out here all the time
and look at the angel
on the judge's grave.
She thought it was
pretty, she said.
When they left, the
angel left with them.
They stole it right
off the judge's grave.
-How come they left the toes?
-I guess the axe old man Heronused to break it off with
struck too high.
I've never been able toafford to have it replaced.
[music playing]
-I wouldn't want nobody
but you to hear this.
I know what that displacedperson's really up to.
Astor told me.
-Shut your mouth.
-Yeah.
-No!
-Oh, yes.
-Wow.
-The Pole don't know any better.
I reckon the priest is
putting him up to it.
I blame the priest.
First he's going to get
her into the church.
Then he's going to get hishand inside her pocketbook.
Then he's going to try andget her to fire the niggers
and bring another Polish
family on the place.
You watch.
When you get two of them
families on this place,
there won't be nothing
spoken but Polish.
Then they'll all gang
up on the Shortleys.
That's why I'm reallystudying my Bible these days.
I believe the Lord God Almighty
created us strong people
to do what has to be done.
And I know I'll be
ready when he calls me.
And the word of the Lord cameinto me saying, son of man,
set thy face toward
the mountains
of Israel and
prophesy against 'em.
Prophesy.
The children of
wicked nations shall
be butchered, legs wherearms should be, foot to face,
ear in the palm of hand.
Who will remain whole?
Who will remain whole?
Who?
[music playing]
[animal noises]
Here again, come to destroy.
[distant voices]
[peacock cooing]
-Look at the little biddies.
-Do you think the
Guizacs will leave me?
Do you think they'll go toChicago or someplace like that?
-Well, why would they
want to do that now?
-Money.
-Give them some more then.
They have to get along.
-So do I. Means
I'm going to have
to get rid of some
of these others.
-And are the Shortleys
satisfactory?
-Five times in the
last month I have
found Mr. Shortley
smoking in the barn.
Five times.
-Are the Negroes any better?
-They lie and steal and haveto be watched all the time.
-So which will you discharge?
-I'm going to give Mr. Shortleyhis month notice tomorrow.
[music playing]
-Annie Maude, Sarah Mae,get busy helping me pack.
[music playing]
Help me.
And you, start emptying
out that closet.
You ain't waiting to be fired.
Bring the car around.
[music playing]
-Grab that bed.
We'll build it over yonder.
[music playing]
-Nice.
Certainly I'm going to
take a switch to you.
[music playing]
-Give me that book.
[music playing]
-Where are we going?
-Hm?
-Where are we going?
[car tires screeching]
-[inaudible].
-Good God Almighty, woman.
What are you trying
to do, kill us?
-Let go.
Quit it!
Let go!
Quit it, Ma.
Let go, Ma.
Quit it.
-Come on now.
-Let go, Ma.
-Come on!
-Where we going, Ma?
-Where we going, Ma?
Where we going?
[voices fade]
-Well, we can get
along without them.
We've seen them come and we'veseen them go, black and white.
Miss Shortley was a good woman.
And I'll miss her But as
the judge used to say,
you can't have your
pie and eat it, too.
I'm glad the
[inaudible] owner called
so I didn't have to fire him.
People I hire always leave.
These are those kind of people.
Now, we've seen
them come and go.
-Me and you, we still here.
-I spent half my lifefooling with trashy people.
But now I'm through.
I don't have to put with
foolishness anymore.
I have somebody now
who has to work.
-We've seen them come
and we've seen them go.
-However, those Shortleyswere not the worst by far.
I will remember those Garretts.
-It was before them Collinses.
-No, before the Ringfields.
[laughter]
-Sweet Lord, them Ringfields.
-Or the Herons.
Even robbed the judge's grave.
None of that kind
were born to work.
-We've seen 'em come
and we seen 'em go.
But we never had one beforelike what we got now.
-He can wash out the
dairy in the time
it took Mr. Shortley to makeup his mind he had to do it.
-He's from Pole.
-From Poland.
-In Pole, it don't
be like it bes here.
They've got different
ways of doing.
And, and I don't, I--
-What are you saying?
If you have anything
to say against him,
say it and say it aloud.
If you know anythinghe's done he shouldn't, I
expect you to report it to me.
-It wasn't like what heshould ought or oughtn't.
It's like what
nobody else don't do.
-You don't have anything
to say against him.
He's here to stay.
-We just ain't never had nobodylike him before, that's all.
-Well, things are changing.
Don't you know what's
happening to the world?
It's smelling up.
It's getting so full of peoplethat only the smart, thrifty,
and energetic ones
are going to survive.
-How come there's so many extra?
-Because they're selfish.
They have too many children.
There's no sense to it anymore.
What you colored
people don't realize
is that I'm the one around herewho holds all strings together.
If you don't work, I don't makeany money and I can't pay you.
You're all dependent on me.
But you, each and every
one, act like the shoe
was on my other foot.
-The judge say the devil he knoware better than the devil he
don't.
-The judge has long since ceasedto pay the bills around here.
[cat meow]
I'm sorry that poor man hasbeen chased out of Poland
and run across Europe andcome to live in a tenant
shack in a strange country.
But I'm not responsible
for any of it.
I know what it is to struggle.
People ought to struggle.
I've had a hard time myself.
But I've survived.
[distant voices]
[car starting]
-Why aren't you in the field?
What's that?
-It ain't nothing.
-Who is this child?
-She his cousin.
-Well, what are
you doing with it?
-She going marry me.
-Marry you?
-I pays half to
get her over here.
I pays him $3 a week.
She bigger now.
She his cousin.
She don't care who
she marries, she's
so glad to get away from there.
I don't reckon she
going come no how.
-I'll see you get every
cent of your money back.
[music playing]
[gasping]
-They're all the same.
It's always been like this.
20 years I've been
beaten and done in.
They even robbed his grave.
[crying]
[music playing]
[sounds of tractor]
-I want to talk to you.
Mr. Guizac, you would bring thispoor, innocent child over here
and try to marry her to a halfwitted black fever nigger?
What kind of a monster are you?
-My cousin, she 12 here,
first communion, 16 now.
-Mr. Guizac, that nigger cannothave a white wife from Europe.
You can't talk to
a nigger that way.
You'll excite him.
And besides, it can't be done.
Maybe it can be done in Poland,but it can't be done here.
And you'll have to stop.
It's all foolishness.
That nigger don't
have a grain of sense.
And you'll excite him.
-She'll come three year.
-Your cousin cannot come overand marry one of my Negroes.
-She's 16 year, for Poland.
Mama die.
Papa die.
She waiting come, three come.
She mama, she die in two come.
-Mr. Guizac, I will not
have my niggers upset.
I cannot run this place
without my niggers.
I can run it without you.
But I cannot run
it without them.
And if you mention the
girl to Sulk again,
you won't have a job with me.
Understand?
I cannot understand how a manwho calls himself a Christian
could bring a poor,
innocent girl over here,
marry her to
something like that.
I cannot understand it.
-She no care black.
She come three year.
-Mr. Guizac, I don't want tohave to speak to you about this
again.
If I do, you'll have tofind another place yourself.
Do you understand?
This is my place.
I say who will come
here and who won't.
-Ya.
-I'm not responsible
for the world's misery.
-Ya.
-You have a good job.
You should be
grateful to be here.
But I'm not sure you are.
-Ya.
[birds chirping]
[tractor starting]
-They're all the
same, whether they
come from Poland or Tennessee.
I've handled Herrings andRingfields and Shortleys.
And I can handle a Guizac.
All my life I've beenfighting the world's overflow.
And now I have it in
the form of a Pole.
You're just like all therest, only smart, and thrifty,
and energetic.
But so am I. And
this is my place.
[music playing]
-I'm under no moral
obligation to keep him.
I'm under no moral
obligation to keep him.
-We were talking
about purgatory,
the souls in purgatory.
Thank you.
-I'm under no
obligation to keep him.
-What did you say?
Dear lady, have anyquestions about all this,
the souls in purgatory?
-Lester, I'm not theological.
I'm practical.
I'm going to talk to youabout something practical.
Mr. Guizac's not satisfactory.
He's extra.
He doesn't fit in.
I have to have
somebody who fits in.
-Give him time.
He'll learn to fit in.
Where is that beautiful
bird of yours?
Ah, I see it.
-Mr. Guizac's very efficient.
I'll admit that.
But he doesn't understand howto get on with my niggers.
And they don't like him.
I can't have the
niggers run off.
And I don't like his attitude.
He's not in the least
grateful for being here.
-I have to be off now.
-I tell you, if I had a whiteman who understood the niggers,
I'd have to let Mr. Guizac go.
-He has no place to go.
I know you well enough,
dear lady, to know you
wouldn't turn him
out for a trifle.
-I didn't create this
situation, of course.
-Christ will come like that.
-It's not my responsibility thatMr. Guizac has no place to go.
I don't find myself responsiblefor all the extra people
in the world.
-Transfiguration.
-Mr. Guizac didn't have tocome here in the first place.
He didn't have to come
in the first place.
-He came to redeem us.
I have to go, dear lady.
Goodbye.
[peacock cooing]
[sound of car]
-Well, where's Miss Shortley.
She was God's own angel.
She was the sweetest
woman in the world.
-Where is she?
-Dead.
-No.
-She had herself a stroke onthe day she left out of here.
-You don't say so.
-I figure that Pole killed her.
She seen through
him from the first.
She known he come
from the devil.
She told me so.
-Get another place now?
-No.
-Want your job back?
-Is the Pole still here?
-Yes.
But I'm going to fire himon the first of the month.
I'll give him his
30 days notice.
And then you can have yourold job back in the dairy.
In the meantime, you
can do farm work.
-I just as soon have my jobback in the dairy right off.
But uh I'll be willing
to wait a month.
It will give me satisfaction tosee the Pole leave the place.
-It will give me a great
deal of satisfaction.
I made a mistake
bringing him here.
I should have been content withthe help I had in first place
and not been reaching intoother parts of the world.
-I never cared for foreignerssince I was in the war
and seen what they were like.
I recall the face of one man whothrowed a hand grenade at me.
That man had round little eyesexactly like Mr. "Gwee-zacks."
-Mr. Guizac is a Pole.
He's not a German.
-It ain't a great deal ofdifference in them two kinds.
[birds chirping]
[tractor sounds]
-Hand me that there.
-Where?
-Right there.
-Oh.
-Why don't you go
back to Africa?
That's your country, ain't it.
-I ain't going there.
They might eat me up.
-Well, if you behave
yourself, ain't
no reason you can't stay here.
Cause you didn't run
away from nowhere.
Your grandaddy was bought.
He didn't have a thing
to do with coming.
It's the people
run off from where
they come from I
ain't got no use for.
But I never felt
no need to travel.
Well, if I was going
to travel again,
it'd either be China or Africa.
You go to either
of them two places,
and you can tell rightaway what the difference is
between you and them.
You go to those other placesand the only way you can tell
is if they say something.
Then you can't always tellbecause about half of them
knows the English language.
That's where we
made our mistake,
letting all them people
learn the English.
There'd be a heap lesstrouble if everybody only
knew their own language.
My wife said knowing
two languages
was like having two eyesin the back of your head.
Shoot.
You couldn't put
nothing over on her.
-Sho couldn't.
She was fine.
She was sure fine.
I never known a finer
white woman than her.
[music playing]
-I've had a hard time gettingover Miss Shortley's death.
[chuckle] Anyone would
think she was kin to me.
I've been tricked
by that priest.
When I agreed to bring
the Guizac's here,
he said there was
no legal obligation
to keep them here if theyweren't satisfactory.
But [inaudible] yesterdaywith a moral obligation.
My moral obligation
as I see it is
to Mr. Shortley who foughtin the war for his country,
not for Mr. Guizac,
who's only come
over here to take advantageof whatever he can.
But I'm going to have tohave it out with that priest
before I can fire him.
[sigh]
[footsteps]
-The first has come and gone.
-I know.
But the priest
hasn't called again.
-Well, I still ain't
got my dairy job back.
I should have known
all along no woman was
going to do what she said shewas when she said she was.
I don't know how
long I can afford
to put up with
her shilly-shally.
Come on in here and give
me a hand, will you?
[mooing]
-When God sent his
only begotten son,
Jesus Christ our
Lord as a redeemer
to mankind, as a
redeemer to all.
-Father Flynn, I want to talkto you about something serious.
As far as I'm concerned,Christ was just another DP.
I'm going to let this man go.
I don't have any
obligation to him.
My obligation is
to the people who
have done something
for the country,
not to the ones
who just came over
to take advantage of
what they can get.
I've been hanging on to
this place for 30 years
ever since the judge
died, always just
barely making making it
against the people who
came from nowhere, and
were going nowhere,
and didn't want anything
but an automobile.
And I found out that
they are the same
whether they come from
Poland or Tennessee.
When the Guizacs get ready,they won't hesitate to leave me.
The people who look
rich are the poorest
of all, because theyhave the most to keep up.
How do you I pay my feed bills?
I'd like to have my house doneover, but I can't afford it.
I can't even afford to
restore the monument
on my husband's grave.
Would you like to guess what myinsurance amounts to in a year?
Do you think I'm made of money?
[chuckling]
[clanging noises]
[distant voices]
-Mr. Shortley.
-Up.
-I decided to give Mr.Guizac his 30 days notice
the first of next month.
You notice that the Pole andhis family are getting fat?
The hollows have allcome out of their cheeks.
And they save every
cent they make.
-Yes'm.
And one of these days, he'll beable to buy and sell you out.
-I'm just waiting for the first.
-There's nothing for me
to do but to wait too.
But I ain't going wait
with my mouth shut.
-I'm worried to death about allthe bills I've got facing me.
I want help.
I don't sleep at
night, and when I do,
I dream about that
displaced person.
One night I dreamed Mr.
Guizac and his family
were moving into the house.
And I was moving in
with Mr. Shortley.
I didn't sleep forseveral nights after that.
And one night I dreamed that
the priest came to call.
And he said to me, dear lady,I know that your tender heart
won't suffer you to
turn the poor man out.
Think of the ovens, and thebox cars, and the camps,
and the sick children,
and Christ the Lord.
But I said to him, he's extra.
He upsets the
balance around here.
And I'm a logical,
practical woman.
And there are no ovens
here, and no camps,
and no Christ our Lord.
And when he leaves,
he'll make more money.
Just one too many, I said.
[peacock cooing]
-Ya good?
-Mr. Guizac, I can hardlymy obligations now.
I have bills to pay.
-I too, much bills,
little money.
-This is my place.
All of you are extra, each andevery one of you are extra.
-Ya.
-Sometimes a man who's
fought, and bled,
and died in the service
of his native land
don't get the considerationof one of them
like he was fighting.
I ask, is that right?
I gone over there.
And I fought and bled and died.
And I come back over here andfind out who's got my job,
just exactly who
I've been fighting.
It was come that
near to killing me.
And I seen who throwed it.
It was a little man witheyeglasses exactly like his.
He might have bought
them in the same store.
Small world.
I been telling my story toone and all who will listen.
And everybody, black andwhite, thinks I'm in the right.
[music playing]
-I've never had to
discharge anyone before.
They all left me.
[clanging metal]
-Screw.
[clanging metal]
[birds chirping]
[tractor noises]
[birds chirping]
[background voices and wailing]
[music playing]
[footsteps]
-Has she had any visitors?
-No, sir.
You about the only one evercomes to see the poor thing.
-Now, where did we
leave off last week?
Purgatory?
Yes, I think by now we havea clearer idea of that.
Do you know I'm 80 years old?
I've been a priest for 55 years.
How many prayers I've saidfor the souls in purgatory?
Yes, I think we have
a clearer idea now
about the souls in purgatory.
Although, I wish I could
question you sometimes
and see what you
know and don't know.
Still, we were
speaking of purgatory,
a temporary state which
can go on for centuries,
and souls which have notyet been cleansed by hell
or doomed to hell.
Souls have not yet attaineda non-corporeal state.
Therefore, purgatory must be aplace where one thinks clearer.
And purgatory may besouls that have benefitted
from the prayers of the living.
[voice fading]
[music playing]