- You up mighty early,
Miss Willow.
- I haven't been to bed yet.
- Stay in there. Stay.
- Hey.
- I noticed your car
was headed in.
- Yes, I'm still
in my party dress.
See?
- Let me out.
Ow!
- Come on out, Mr. Dobyne.
Don't let him bully you
that way.
- Come on out here, Dad.
Fisher wants to see you.
- Okay, okay.
- Careful, careful.
- Good morning.
- Miss Willow,
you know my father,
Mr. James Dobyne.
He's in charge
of your father's commissary.
Held the job
nearly two weeks now,
and that's a record for him.
That's the longest
he's held a job
since the Spanish-American War.
- Well, here he is
bright and early on a Monday.
- Yes, ma'am.
This here's my boy,
a Mr. James Dobyne V.
- I know your son,
Mr. Dobyne.
- That's good, Dad.
Blow your stinkin' hooch breath
in her face
so she can give
a complete description
of your condition
at 8:00 this morning
to her father,
Mr. Alex Willow.
That'll fix everything up
real good.
- Mr. Dobyne,
I think your condition is fine.
I wish my condition this morning
was half as good.
- Jimmy, get in the car
and drive up to the house
with me.
I want you to do something
for me.
Will you let him go,
Mr. Dobyne?
I'll bring him back
in one hour.
- Why, sure, sure, Fisher.
Yeah, okay.
What I want tell you
is that I think
that I found out why
small planters in this country
don't like your daddy.
It's 'cause last spring,
he blown up the south end
of his levee
so the rest wouldn't break,
and consequently,
all the planters south
of his place were underwater.
Whew.
Your father's not popular
with them.
In fact, they hold him
personally responsible
for the drowning
of two white men
and one old crippled white lady
and five or six negroes.
- Mr. Dobyne,
my father knows about that,
but he didn't dynamite
that levee
without a telephone warning
to every place south of here.
Jimmy, come on.
Get in the car.
- Oh, I can't go car riding now,
Fisher.
- Just up to the house.
Will you, please?
I've got to ask you something.
Let's stop here.
I can't smoke in the house.
Apparently, my father's
selfish action last spring
with its...
tragic consequences
to a number of helpless persons
south of here
is very well known
in Memphis.
I wonder
if their moral objections
are as strong as mine.
I barely speak
to my father anymore.
But they find it convenient
to hold it against me, you see.
Oh, I'm sure they also resent
other things about me
probably even more:
my foreign education,
my tendency
to make sharp remarks
about things that strike me
as stupidly provincial.
I'm considered sarcastic.
I want to escape,
but since I have now supposedly
completed my education,
Aunt Fisher's determined
that I have this...
debut,
even though I am older than most
of the other debutantes,
who would never dream
of going to college.
And I have to go through with it
to please Aunt Fisher
so she won't leave $5 million
to the Episcopal Church
when she dies
but to me.
- Don't you have
enough money already?
- A person of my kind
never has enough money.
- Well, you don't mean
you're greedy, do you?
- No, I just know
that I'll have to buy
most everything that I want.
Why don't you look at me?
- I don't know what you want.
- You.
- Me?
- Yes.
- Why?
- To take me out in Memphis,
to escort me
to these agonizing parties.
- How can I take you
to these agonizing parties
and run the commissary
and watch out for Dad?
- I just need you nights,
two or three nights a week.
The rest of the time,
Aunt Fisher's lawyer will do.
- Well, surely he's not
your only prospect, Fisher.
- Auntie Fisher
would never permit me
to be seriously involved
with anyone outside
her circle of acquaintances,
either direct
or by reputation,
Jimmy.
I could have married
a titled Italian in Venice.
When I intimated
my infatuation with him,
Aunt Fisher cabled me,
"Come home at once. "
I started not to,
but, um...
practical considerations
seem to run in my blood
as well as...
sensual.
I hope you've listened to me
and understood me.
- Oh, yes.
I had a scholarship
to Ole Miss.
- I know.
Now, drive us
up to the house.
Jimmy.
Up here.
- Who's gonna measure me?
- I shall,
with your assistance.
Hold your arms out
for the tape.
Oh, take off
that sloppy old shirt.
Of course,
you're gonna need shirts,
evening shirts.
And, Jimmy, don't hold your arms
over your head
like this was a holdup.
Hold them straight out
to your sides like a cross.
Only don't suffer on it
so much.
- Fisher, there's one thing
I want you to know
about my old man.
He's a sincere,
honest person,
a stinker, yeah,
a real stinker,
but what he told you
about the local attitude
towards your father was meant-
it was meant good.
- Jimmy, will you please help me
measure your legs?
Hold the end of the tape
at the inside top
of your thigh while I-
- Yeah.
Were you listening to me,
Fisher, about my old man?
- Yes.
You said
that he was a stinker.
- Well,
I said he was a stinker,
but I said he was
a sincere, honest man.
Know what she done?
Measured me for clothes
to take her to Memphis parties.
- Garden pilgrims.
Garden pilgrims with dogs
not admitted.
No dogs can enter the gardens.
- Excuse me.
I am very sorry, madam,
but Miss Cornelia Fisher
cannot allow dogs
to enter her gardens,
because last fall,
a dog was very, um...
destructive.
I'm so sorry.
- Susie,
will you please take
this beast upstairs,
and will you please bring me up
a steaming-hot glass of milk
and a hot water bottle
and tell Auntie Fisher
I'm gonna sleep for hours
and to get Miss Grace
to cancel any engagements
on my list for today?
Say I'm dead
or something else to amuse them.
- You've still got
your party dress on.
- Fisher.
Was that Fisher?
Fisher.
- Hello, Mama.
How are they treating you?
I need to talk to you.
It's about a girl.
She made this proposition,
and I just wanted to know
what you would think.
Mama, it's Jimmy.
- A young man
just arrived in a truck,
says he's expected by you.
- Fisher.
- In here, Jimmy.
I nearly despaired
of your arrival.
The party's been on
for an hour.
Look, all of your dress clothes
are laid out on the bed.
Please, get into them
lickety-split.
Jimmy, you look dazed.
Is something wrong?
- I visited mother today.
She didn't know who I was.
- Jimmy,
she'll soon be out.
- Mama was committed.
- There are better places.
Arrangements can be made.
It's just a question of time.
Get out of those wet things.
Susie, bring Jimmy a brandy,
or would you like champagne?
You've had a shock.
Make it champagne
laced with brandy.
- I'm undressing
right in front of you
as if you weren't a girl.
- Propriety is a waste of time.
We don't have time to waste.
Get right into the tuxedo.
- This thing looks complicated.
- Oh, Susie will help you,
or would you accept help
from me?
- Susie, please.
- I see.
Well, Susie,
make sure he comes down
to be presented to Aunt Cornelia
impeccably dressed
in the contents of that box.
This is going to be the first
debut party of the season
at which I will shine
with pride.
- Fisher,
Mr. Van Hooven's waiting.
- What?
Oh, my goodness.
Did I forget to tell him
that my escort tonight
is James Dobyne V?
- What?
- What?
- Oh, Van, don't get up.
- You're relieved
of duty tonight.
I have another escort.
So you and Aunt Cornelia
can spend the evening together
discussing old times.
- I don't understand this
at all.
- I don't understand.
- The explanation
is about to enter.
Mr. James Dobyne,
Aunt Cornelia Fisher
and her attorney,
Craig Van Hooven.
Well...
- Dobyne?
- Dobyne?
- Oh, Aunt Cornelia,
surely you remember
Governor Dobyne.
- Governor Dobyne.
- And this young man is-
- His grandson.
Good night, Auntie.
We're terribly late.
Have fun together.
Play cards
or discuss litigations
or consummate
the long romance between you.
Aunt Cornelia,
may I wear the teardrop
diamond earrings tonight?
- Those earrings
are worth $10,000, Fisher,
and the clasps
are getting loose,
and you're so careless
with things.
- It's such a special occasion.
Please, Auntie?
- Oh.
Jimmy,
fasten them for me?
My fingers are shaky tonight,
too much black coffee.
The receiving line's
breaking up.
- What do I do?
- Wait till the lady
extends her hand.
Then just take it and smile.
Why, Caroline.
Why, you've got that band
that played so divinely
at Jessie Strutt's.
I bet when I walk in,
they'll strike up
my favorite number.
- Which is what?
- One moment.
Let me appear.
Fats!
Fats, my song.
Come on, let's dance.
- She tips that band leader $50
for every dance
he plays for her.
- I wonder what she tips
the governor's grandson.
- Shall I inquire?
- I dare you.
- Accepted.
Mr. Dobyne,
I've been released
for the waltz.
- I'm sorry, Miss...
- Caroline.
- But I'm not employed by you.
Excuse me.
- Thank you.
Jimmy.
Where on Earth were you?
What were you doing?
- I promised Dad I'd call him
about Mama's condition.
- Did you?
- It was a promise.
I said I found her fine.
- Your instincts
are infallible.
And you're the cynosure
of all female eyes at the party.
Let's, uh...
- Yes?
- Cool off on the terrace.
- Whatever you say.
- Fisher.
- Yes?
- What lovely earrings.
- Thank you,
my teardrop diamonds.
- Your ears
are weeping diamonds.
- Where'd you get them?
- Naturally, from Woolworths.
Will you let us get through?
This room is suffocating.
How cool,
the river wind.
- Music is so much nicer
from a distance.
See the boat
go round the bend
Good-bye, my lover,
good-bye
All loaded down
with boys and men
Good-bye, my lover,
good-bye
Bye, oh, my baby
Bye
Jimmy?
- Jimmy!
- Murderer's daughter.
- Shut up.
Are you hurt, Fisher?
- Where'd you go?
- If I said, "To pee,"
would it be embarrassing to you?
Oh, Lord, Jimmy.
I'm not sure if embarrassment
is still an emotion
I could feel.
- Let's go.
Come on, Dad.
Let's go.
Come on.
- Lead the way.
- I got you.
- Is this my mail?
- Go through it
right after breakfast.
- I have to go through this
right now.
Another, please.
- Fisher,
you shouldn't begin the day
with two cups of black coffee.
- What should I begin it with,
Auntie?
I must have missed it.
This is the latest
that it could have arrived
if it was ever going to.
- What are you referring to,
Fisher?
- My invitation
to Susie Bracken's party,
the most important
coming-out party of the season.
- Let me go through
the mail for you.
- You wouldn't find it either.
She ignored me completely
last night,
so I'm not surprised.
- I am.
- It's not the end
of the world.
- Nor the beginning.
- Who knows?
I have
an excellent alternative,
an invitation
to a Halloween party
at Julie Fenstermaker's place
next month.
- Where is her place?
- North of Father's, of course,
and so less affected
by the incidents surrounding
last spring's floods.
- Thank you, dears,
for coming today
to support
the Memphis Park Commission.
I have invited a precious group
of Memphis youths to my garden
to perform one of their
darling little pageants.
And this one, I believe,
is entitled
The End of Summer.
- I'm sorry, Mr. Dobyne,
but your mother says
she does not wish to see you
this afternoon.
Come back some other time.
I'm sure she'll be feeling...
differently soon.
Oh!
- Son.
- Yeah, Dad?
- If your mother
don't recognize you anymore,
wouldn't it be better
not to visit her anymore?
Your mother got pride,
you know?
And I think maybe
it might be a relief to her
if you stopped
going out there...
like I did.
She don't want to be seen
by her son
in her present,
awful condition.
- Somebody's got to check
on her present, awful condition
to see that it doesn't
get worse.
- How could it get any worse?
- There are very few conditions
in life that can't get worse
if nothing's done
to at least try to...
check 'em.
Dad, you know
what I could do?
I could serve Fisher Willow
as more than an escort
to parties.
She's hinted repeatedly
that she'd like...
intimacy with me.
- Well...
I just...
- The intimacy would have
to end up in marriage,
maybe not soon
but eventually.
Here comes the Pierce-Arrow.
- Well,
I'll just step inside.
I'll just step inside.
- Take your bottle, Dad.
- Light a cigarette for me,
will you, please?
Am I crowding you?
- No.
No.
- What?
Camels?
- Yeah.
- Good.
I'm gonna test your powers
of observation.
Describe to me
the scene on the package.
Tell me what's all in the
picture on the camel package.
- A camel, man on a camel,
palm tree,
pyramid in the background...
That's all I can remember.
- Most people forget
the figure behind the camel,
the man on foot
behind the camel rider.
- I hadn't noticed him either.
It's so lovely,
so peaceful here.
I almost never feel
really peaceful, you know?
When I accepted
Julie's invitation
to this Halloween party,
I was killing two birds
with one stone.
- Which two birds do you mean?
- Julie was really
my only good friend
at All Saints' College before
I went to the Sorbonne in Paris.
The other bird, well...
I've missed you,
Jimmy,
my only attractive escort
to Memphis parties.
Don't.
Don't go yet.
Why are you so anxious
to leave?
- I'm not anxious.
- Fisher,
you're shivering.
You must be chilly.
- People don't always shiver
because they're chilly.
And how could I be chilly
in my leopard-skin coat?
Really, you are silly, Jimmy.
Isn't that why I like you?

- Hey,
why'd you do that?
- What?
- Jumped out
before the car stopped.
You could have got hurt.
Hurt? Me?
Never, but thanks
for your solicitude.
Oh, Lord.
Do you know what's happened?
One of my teardrop diamonds
has fallen off.
I mustn't move.
Oh, I-I think it fell off
right here where I'm standing.
Look in the car.
It must have come loose
in the car.
I'll stand here
where I stopped.
It may be under the gravel
that you kicked around.
- Who's there?
- It's me.
- Fishy.
- It's us, I mean.
- They seem to be looking
for something?
- It might be a good idea
to turn the car lights on,
don't you think,
Jimmy?
- Did you lose something,
Fisher?
- Nothing less than a $5,000
teardrop diamond, honey.
- My Lord. Where?
- Somewhere between the car
and where I'm standing.
- You see it on the drive,
Fisher?
- No.
Do you see it in the car?
- Looking,
still looking.
- Is that Jim Dobyne
in the car?
- Yes, but that's scarcely
my concern at the moment.
- It's nowhere
in the front of the car.
- I had it on
when I got in the car.
And I didn't get out of the car
anywhere on the way here, did I?
- You're out of the car now,
Fisher.
- Well, look around
where I'm standing.
- Fisher, you walked
halfway to the house
before you discovered
you lost it.
- I guess I know how far
from the car I walked.
Will you please borrow
a flashlight from the house?
Is that too much to ask of you?
- Fisher,
don't get hysterical.
I'll bring you a flashlight.
- Who is that common-looking
tramp talking to my escort?
- Vinnie, my cousin.
Now, excuse me.
I'll go get you
that flashlight.
- I've never been
to Julie's before.
- You look good.
I've never seen you
in a suit before.
- Fisher, I thought you said
you were gonna stay
where you thought
you dropped it.
- I'm retracing my steps
to the car.
- Never expected
to see you again in my life.
- God, I'm glad
you're here, Vin.
- I don't want to interrupt
your reunion.
Old friends, are you, Jimmy?
- I'm Julie's cousin,
Lavinia McCorkle.
- How do you do?
Julie's gone for a flashlight.
Obviously...
- What?
- The earring dropped off
before I got out of the car.
- Well, now,
just where was that?
You were out before we stopped
like a jumping flea.
- A charming simile.
So you are Julie's cousin?
- Didn't I say so?
- Sometimes
there's no resemblance
between relations.
- I'm gonna go back up the car
since you did jump out
before we stopped.
- I did not.
- You did.
- Don't move the car.
I'll go look for it.
- Oh, she's very cross
with you, Jimmy.
I hope she doesn't think
you're responsible for the loss.
- I'm gonna go back up
that goddamn car.
She did jump out
before it stopped.
Mad at me.
Yeah, mad as hops,
and I think I know why.
- Flashlight.
- I doubt somehow
that it's gonna be recovered.
You did back up the car.
- You did jump out
before I stopped.
- Are you calling me a liar?
- I saw her jump
out of the car too.
- How about you, Julie?
- Oh, it's so terribly dark,
I just saw the car lights
as you entered the drive.
- This young lady
who says she's your cousin
must have exceptional vision.
- Jimmy, I think I know
what happened.
It fell in a pocket
of your jacket.
- You think I got it on me?
- Jimmy.
Where do you think you're going,
Jimmy Dobyne?
- Well,
if your accusation is right,
to the county jail.
- What accusation?
I made no accusation.
- Here's my jacket.
Search the pockets.
I will do no such thing.
You misunderstood me.
I only meant
it could have dropped
in your pocket by accident.
You know it.
Don't you remember?
I...
I leaned my head
on your shoulder on the levee.
That's probably when...
oh, this is absurd.
I'm ruining my slippers
on this gravel drive.
- Well, you go back
and enjoy the party.
I couldn't go now.
- I can't go back
without a date.
- Well, wouldn't it be better
than going back
with a suspected thief?
- You've got to go back
with me.
Think of the talk
if you don't.
- Look through the pockets
of the jacket.
- If you insist.
- Of course, I ought to be
searched to the skin.
That's what I'll demand
if I go back there with you.
- You don't understand me yet,
Jimmy.
- Does anybody?
- Nobody I know of,
to tell you the truth.
I'm an only child
and the heiress of two fortunes.
- Do you always talk so much
about your financial prospects
depending on death?
- In Memphis,
it's not necessary.
It's too well known.
- And has it made you
popular there?
- With some kinds of people,
yes.
- The kind of people you like?
- I don't like people,
but sometimes I like one person.
- And do I have the honor
of being the one you liked
till you lost
your teardrop diamond?
- Why else would I be here
with you?
Come on.
Please.
- Haven't I seen you before?
- Not that I recall.
- Oh, I know.
It was just a photo of you
as debutante of the season
in Memphis.
- Julie.
- We came out last season,
still go to the important
parties in Memphis,
such as Susie Bracken's.
- Yes, her debut's tonight.
We were invited,
of course, but we-
- Didn't want
to disappoint Julie.
- You seem to be alone here.
Did you come here alone?
- I don't see
how that concerns you.
- We just thought
if you're here alone,
we'd gladly introduce you
to some of the-
- Guests, yes.
- Since I'm a close friend
of Julie's,
I'm sure she'll introduce me
to anyone present
that I care to know.
Excuse me.
- Now, you turn
these damn pockets out
and put everything you find
in it on this table.
Come down here
from a social debut in Memphis
and accuse me
of stealing a diamond.
I liked that girl,
Fisher Willow.
I really did.
- Drink your drink, son.
- I tell you,
that damn girl
thinks I stole a diamond
off her,
and that's why I got
to be searched.
Now, I'm gonna take off
all my clothes,
and I want you fellows to go
through every single pocket,
any place on me
that I could hide a diamond.
- Now, now, son,
everybody knows
you never stole anything,
nobody that knows the Dobynes,
and I had the honor
of knowing your granddaddy
as well as I knew
my own father.
Why, nobody
with a grain of sense
would possibly imagine
Mr. Dobyne-
- No, Mr. Fenstermaker,
you don't understand.
My father was accused
by the Hobsons of stealing
when he worked for them.
- Keep your clothes on, son.
Just set down
and have a drink with me, huh?
You got yourself
all worked up over nothing,
nothing.
- Mr. Fenstermaker,
I am asking you
to go through the pockets
of this tuxedo.
In insist on being searched.
- Julie?
Julie?
- Miss Willow.
- What?
- Julie's aunt
wants to see you.
- Oh, please make
some excuse for me.
- Fisher,
Fisher Willow.
- Oh, Lord.
- Just for a moment,
Miss Willow.
She's determined to see you.
- Why?
- I don't know why,
Miss Willow,
but she positively refuses
to go to sleep
till she's seen you.
- Fisher.
- Hello.
How are you,
Miss Addie?
- Thank you for coming in.
I know how unpleasant it is
to enter
this chamber of horrors.
- Why do you call it a chamber
of horrors, Miss Addie?
- 'Cause that's
just what it is.
Would you please
close this door?
Would you please lock it?
I want to have a completely
private talk with you.
Now come over here
so I don't have
to raise my voice.
I have the use of my voice.
My heart and my lungs
and the other internal organs
that one can't control
remorselessly continue.
As for the rest of me,
it's stone dead, Fisher.
Are you in a hurry
to get back down to the party?
- No.
- We met only once before.
Your Aunt Cornelia and I
had had a brief
but memorable encounter
in Hong Kong.
Two years ago when I was here
for a short visit,
she brought you along
when she paid me a call at my-
- Of course, I remember.
You had a little-
- Yeah, cottage
on Sand Island.
- She said
you wrote travel books.
- My base was Hong Kong.
There's much tolerance there.
And here?
- I would say none at all.
- Yes.
So I elected to spend my life
in the tolerant Orient.
But things that one elects
are often circumvented
by others.
I think you know about that.
Yes.
I know about that.
- I had a stroke in China.
It was a slight one,
but I knew-I was told-
there'd be others.
And unfortunately...
Fisher?
- Oh, you're being called
back downstairs.
I have to get on
with this quickly.
I had to stay in China
because I'd become addicted
to something
that I could only have there.
- What to?
To what, Miss Addie?
- To a drug
that made it bearable
for me to live
when living
became unbearable for me.
You see,
I'd quit my travels
and settled down
in one place
and, needing something so badly
to make life bearable,
I found something:
the poppy,
the smoke
of the burning poppy.
And then early last summer,
the terrible thing
that was coming,
that the drug made me forget
was coming,
happened.
I had the strokes that caused
my present condition.
My brother Jack was told,
and I was brought back here
by force,
as I am kept living in agony
by force.
And then I was...
withdrawn from my...
my comfort.
- Miss Addie, why are you
telling me this story?
- Because I remember
the last time I saw you,
the impression you made on me.
There was something
hard and honest about you.
I thought you could
do something for me,
the only thing that can
be done for me now.
You see, I see nobody
but people that can't imagine.
You can.
You can imagine, Fisher.
Oh, they give me something,
but it's not enough.
You see that bottle
over there on the mantel?
You could get it for me,
and I could resume
my travels.
Do you know what I mean?
Have I made myself
perfectly clear?
Nobody could possibly guess
that you gave it to me.
They'd think I just had
my last stroke...
in my sleep.
- How many?
- All.
All.
Well, that's not all,
Fisher.
- Fisher, open this door.
- I'll come back later.
- You promise?
- Swear on my word of honor.
- Fisher.
- I'll come back up
for this other diamond earring
and my leopard-skin coat.
- Fisher, Jimmy was searched
to the skin before witnesses,
and all he had on him
was three sticks
of peppermint gum,
a few cigarettes,
$3.47,
and...
- "And"?
And what?
- And something
in a small unopened package
almost completely flat
and the keys
to your car.
- What is this all about?
- It's all about
Fisher Willow's attempt
to buy an escort for her
debut parties in Memphis,
provide him with clothes,
and now accuse him
of stealing a diamond from her.
Why?
Not easy to guess.
- Oh, have you guessed,
Miss McCorkle?
What have you guessed?
- He hasn't responded to your
courtship as you'd expected.
- I must be getting drowsy.
I don't understand
all of this.
Julie, take your
loud-voiced cousin out of here,
would you, please,
so I can finish my talk
with Fisher?
You know excitement
is not allowed in sickrooms.
- Fisher, you will say
that the earring
fell down your dress.
- I will say whatever I can
without lying.
I'm not a liar, Julie.
- Julie, will you
please take yourself
and this other girl
out of here?
Good night, Miss Addie.
- You know, I really did lose
the other one
of this pair
of teardrop diamonds.
- Well, I know you lost it,
Fisher,
but you have handled
the situation
in a terrible way.
You must have done it
in a way
that made that boy
feel like you
were accusing him
of stealing it.
- How could he think
such a thing?
He's been acting so peculiar
ever since we left
the levee tonight.
I asked him to drive me up
on the levee
to see the mist
rising off the river.
Because I love to see
the river mist rising,
because I like nothing better.
Nothing's more beautiful
to me.
Of course, that's peculiar
of me too, I suppose.
- What happened
on the levee?
- Nothing at all,
to speak of.
We stopped there awhile.
I laid my head
on his shoulder for a moment.
- He didn't kiss you
when you parked on the levee
to see the river mist rising?
- Now, Miss Addie.
Do you suppose I have
to beg for kisses?
- Of course you're attractive.
That's not the issue, is it?
- Hear that?
I've made up my mind
about something.
I won't go back to Memphis
to continue
this ridiculous pretense
of being interested
in the society of that city
when it bores me to blazes.
I'm gonna catch the very next
boat back to Europe.
And I think
that Aunt Cornelia
will be glad to see me set sail
from these shores.
I disgraced her in Memphis.
Oh, well.
I'm out of my element here.
Yes.
I'm gonna catch the very next
boat back to Europe
and take an apartment
on the Rive Gauche in Paris
and establish a salon...
Like Gertrude Stein's.
I'll commission Pablo Picasso
to do a portrait of me
all in blue.
I'm not gonna lose my mind,
not crack up again.
I'm going to develop
my interest in the arts.
I must be with people
who do things,
paint, write,
compose music,
and so forth.
- Well, you do have character.
Maybe even talent.
But I do shudder for you.
- Why do you shudder for me?
- Because you want somebody
to love you that you love,
and you don't know
how to arrange that.
And not all the teardrop
diamonds of this world,
lost or found,
can arrange that for you.
Now, you go on back downstairs
and make an announcement.
You say that the teardrop
diamond has been found.
- Why should I
discard my honesty,
all that I've got, really?
- Oh, nonsense.
Strong people with character
like you, Fisher Willow,
don't care about losing
a teardrop diamond.
They have
more important problems.
Now, go.
Just remember your promise
to come back.
- Yes.
Soon, Miss Addie.
- Are you gonna make
the announcement?
- You will make
the announcement.
I will not contradict it.
- Are your slippers dry now,
Fisher?
- Uh, yes,
uh, sufficiently, thank you.
- Hey, everybody.
Listen.
Isn't it wonderful?
Fisher found her diamond.
- Where'd you find it, Fisher?
- She found it
inside her dress.
It had just slipped
down the front of her dress.
- That dress?
- Must have been one those
tiny little chip diamonds.
Jimmy?
May I speak to you a minute?
Will you excuse him,
Miss McCorkle?
Did you really have yourself
searched in the kitchen, Jimmy?
Don't turn your back on me.
- Excuse me.
- You told them
I bought you clothes.
I want to know why you told them
I bought clothes for you.
- Well, why did you, Fisher?
- Because I...
I felt sorry for you.
- Oh?
- And because
you're a gentleman,
grandson of a governor
of this state.
And you dress like a-
like a field hand.
- Well, not so much
of a gentleman
that you wouldn't suspect me
of stealing.
Stand up.
Or are you too drunk too?
- I had some liquor
in the kitchen
when they were searching
my clothes
for your teardrop diamond.
- Are you gonna drink
like your father?
Jimmy, don't-don't walk away
when I'm talking to you.
- What do you want, Fisher?
You say you found your diamond.
- I did not say
that I found it.
Julie said that I did.
I agreed to let her say it
so there'd be no more talk.
- Hey!
Turn off that Victrola!
I have an important announcement
to make,
a very important announcement.
Fisher Willow did not find
her diamond,
never said she found it,
had Julie say it for her.
Jimmy, you misunderstood.
I was there when she found it.
- Under the circumstances,
I think I'd like to go home.
I- I don't feel well.
I- I don't want to stay
and spoil the party.
- Fisher, stay.
Look, it's all forgotten now.
I'm gonna get Mama to bed
so we can play Post Office.
- Play what?
- Your mama is guarding
that punch bowl like a hawk.
Nobody's had a chance
to spike it,
so the boys are drinking
straight moonshine in the yard.
- I'll get Eddie Peacock
to dance your mama
away from the bowl.
- Tommy, will you dance
with Fisher?
She's decorating the wall.
- She'll decorate walls
all her life.
- Not the walls
at this party.
- Walls in Memphis?
- No, much, much further
than Memphis.
- Aw.
- Oh, Fisher.
- I dare you
to go up and ask her
if she'd like a good lay.
- All right.
- Pull her back
in the bushes.
- Mama's gone upstairs.
- Oh, well, good for Mama.
I'll get the cards.
Are they gonna play
some kind of kids' game?
- Haven't you ever played
Post Office?
- Why, no.
- It's a kissing game.
- Oh.
You mean we're all gonna kiss
each other like-
like New Year's Eve?
- No, it's more private.
- I don't understand
this game.
- Just watch.
You'll catch on.
- Hey.
- Julie, I don't know
what's going on.
- Oh, we're dealing the cards
for Post Office.
Here, take this.
And keep it out of sight.
It's the ace of spades.
It's the highest card
in the deck,
which means that you
are the postman
and you are gonna send Jimmy
a letter.
- Julie, really,
isn't this sort of silly?
- Well, no more than life is.
Turn that record off.
Mama might catch on.
- Whoops.
- What record was that
you broke, Hank Ellis, you fool?
- Eh, it's just some old one.
Blues.
- Oh, the Basin Street Blues?
That is a classic.
- Julie, a classic
is something by Beethoven
or Brahms-
- Naturally,
I meant a modern classic.
And I do not retract
my statement
that you are a fool.
Now, has everybody got cards?
- We don't have any cards,
Julie.
- Take 'em.
Draw a card each.
Whoever turned that lamp off
better turn it back on.
- Shine on
Shine on, harvest moon
Up in the sky
I ain't had no lovin'
Since January, February
June and July
Snow time
Ain't no time to stay
"Warning: Contains
a small amount of opium
"and could be habit-forming.
One or two teaspoons
at bedtime. "
- Almost forgot the costumes.
My heavens, Fisher, what are you
doing with that bottle?
- Oh, I-I noticed it in the-
What is it?
- It's one of Aunt Addie's
fake remedies with opium in it.
- It had rather
a nice bitter taste.
- Oh, Fisher,
you took some of it?
Let me put some ice
on your forehead at once.
You stay right here.
- Well, Fisher...
We thought you'd be gone.
- I hope you'll all excuse
my fit of nerves.
I've spent some time
in a mental clinic in Zurich.
And you never completely...
return.
- Oh, there you are, Fisher.
Mama has finally
gone to sleep.
So who has the highest card?
- Jimmy has an ace.
- Of what, spades?
- No, hearts.
- Well, that can only be beaten
by the ace of spades.
Has anybody got
the ace of spades?
Anybody?
Well, Jimmy,
you're the postman.
Go out to the post office
on the veranda
and deliver someone a letter.
Remember, the time limit
is three minutes.
Be smart.
Whoa!
- Will you hush
so I can hear
who the letter
is gonna be delivered to?
- I have a letter
for miss Vinnie McCorkle.
- For me?
- Remember, three minutes.
That is the strict time limit.
Who's got a watch?
- May I supply the music
on the piano?
- Your eyelashes,
I feel them on my cheek.
- We've only got
three minutes.
- According
to Julie's kissing game.
Kissing is where I start.
Follow me.
Hurry.
- Many men.
Of course, some were
just kids with pimples,
but others who were
responsible men with positions
have said to me,
"I love you, Vinnie. "
But only one has ever said,
"Will you marry me, Vinnie?"
- And you turned down
the proposal
from the responsible man?
- Yes.
He had a position,
a good one,
as an officer
of the Delta Planters Bank.
- You turned him down?
- It was just-
Well, I couldn't
consider marriage
with a man
I wasn't attracted to...
physically, Jimmy.
Like-like back
in the car there,
it took my breath away.
It did.
Didn't you hear me
gasping for breath?
- Yeah, so was I.
- Not as loud as me.
I don't want to keep
any secrets from you, Jimmy.
None.
I have a-
Mm.
Something happened tonight.
And I want to tell you
about it.
I want to show it to you.
Follow me, quick.
- Jimmy! Vinnie!
- Don't answer those calls.
- What you digging for,
Vinnie?
Oh, my God.
I wonder if it was here.
I counted down five bushes.
This is-
oh, oh, this the fourth.
It's the next one.
Here
Here it is.
- What?
- Release. Release.
Release.
- God, is that the-
- Shh, don't say it.
This is our secret now.
- Vinnie, you can't be serious,
are you?
- Of course I'm serious.
That's worth $5,000.
- And I know
where the other one is.
I saw Fisher take it off
in Aunt Addie's bedroom
and put it beside the clock
on the mantel.
I'm going up there
and get it too.
$10,000.
It's a fortune.
Why, a pretty girl
with a fortune
is more than just
sexually desirable.
She's someone even a Dobyne V
might accept as a wife.
- You must have gone crazy.
- To love you.
To want you.
To run away with you anywhere
for life.
- Vinnie.
This is all wrong.
This is a terrible mistake.
You got to think about pride,
think about honesty.
- A girl who works
at the cosmetic counter
of Liggett's Drug Store
on a side street in Memphis
does not think about pride
and honesty
standing between her
and release,
to life and-
and to love.
- All I can say is...
give it back to her.
- Not on your life, boy.
Finders are keepers
and losers are weepers,
if she's human enough to weep.
Go back in the parlor.
I'm gonna go upstairs
and get the other one.
- Vinnie-no, Vinnie,
I'm poor.
You're poor.
And that's hard,
especially for a beautiful girl.
But you got a moral decision
to make.
- Don't talk to me
like a preacher.
Why, just a minute ago,
you were having me,
and we were gasping
for breath.
- That's not the point.
That's-
- Common.
In your opinion.
All right.
I'm common as dirt.
But I'm gonna
wash myself clean.
- By giving that diamond back.
- Oh, no.
This teardrop diamond
will wash me clean
as the sharecroppers
her father drowned last spring
when he blasted
the south end of his levee.
- Vinnie.
Vinnie, is that you
and Jimmy out there?
- Yes.
- My heavens.
You two have been gone
half an hour at least.
- Julie, will you call Fisher
out here?
- For what?
- Vinnie has something
she wants to give her,
something she just now
accidentally found.
- Uh, what are you
talking about?
- Fisher!
Fisher!
- Jimmy,
call her.
- Fisher!
Fisher Willow!
Hey.
Why didn't you answer me?
Didn't you hear me shouting?
- Call that shouting?
It sounded to me like a scared
little boy in the dark.
Well, what shall we do?
Go now?
I'm ready to go if you are.
It's an awfully dull party.
- I'd like to stay
a little while longer.
- Why?
- I like the people at it.
- Especially one of the people?
Julia's little cousin
who works in a drugstore?
- Now, what's that
against her?
- Nothing.
Not a thing in the world.
You want me
to leave you with her.
- Now, you know that if you go,
I got to go with you, don't you?
Don't be so conventional.
It doesn't suit you
or me.
I swallowed my pride.
- Fisher, I don't think you have
ever had to swallow your pride.
- Oh, no?
You really don't think so?
- Pride is something that
poor people have to swallow.
- How naive you are.
I don't think anyone's ever
had to swallow their pride
or choke on it
as often as I have.
For instance...
it wasn't easy for me
to come back downstairs
to that party
after you insisted
on being searched
in the kitchen.
- That wasn't easy for me.
- Well, that's over.
That's over.
Shall we forget about it?
Get in the car.
- Let's go back to the party.
- I'm not going back
to the party.
Get in the car.
- I'm going back to the party.
- Are you?
- Yes. I have to.
- You mean you'd go back
to the party
when I asked you not to?
- You're coming too.
- Are you telling me
what I'm gonna do,
Jimmy Dobyne?
- Yep.
Get out of your car.
- I believe you're serious.
- Come on.
Get out of your car.
- Make me.
- Come on.
Get out of your car.
- Let go of my arm,
or you'll get kicked.
- Get out of your car.
- Fisher.
Fisher.
I, uh-I found
your diamond earring.
- What did you say?
- I said I found
the teardrop diamond
that you lost.
- Oh?
Where'd you find it?
- On the veranda.
- How could you find it
on the veranda
when I discovered I'd lost it
before I got to the veranda?
- Well, maybe it fell out
of your dress or something.
Will you please take it back?
It's burning my hand
like a hot coal.
- You won't take a reward?
- I just want to forget it.
- That's very...
magnanimous of you
or something.
I'm not sure what.
- Now, will you shut up
about it?
You got it back!
Get in the car.
- Without my coat?
I- I left it upstairs.
- I'll get it for you.
- Never mind.
Tell Miss McCorkle
good night.
- Thank you for doing that,
Vinnie.
- Did I have any choice?
Since I'm gonna marry
that officer in the bank,
I don't suppose we'll ever
see each other again.
Will we?
Good-bye, Jimmy.
- Good-bye, Vinnie.
- Miss Addie?
- I knew you'd come back.
- I promised I would.
- Lock the door,
until you've fulfilled
the promise completely.
You know what I mean?
- All?
- All.
You are honest and brave.
Put the bottle back
where it was.
Collect your things.
Now, go quick,
with God.
- With Jimmy Dobyne.
- Well, isn't he?
- Yes.
The same to me.
- Turn up the road
to the levee.
- Again?
- It's so lovely up there,
with the moon
on the river.
- Fisher, the moon
is not on the river.
The moon is in the sky.
- Which is reflected
on the river.
Turn out the lights
so we can see the moon better.
Jimmy?
Did you know
that I'm the postman
and have a letter
for someone?
The letter is for you.
- Fisher, I think
you can do better than me.
- I don't agree,
since it's only you
that I want.
- But you don't belong here.
- I can't keep running away.
I've got to stay here...
and somehow make amends
for what my...
father has done
and let this river flow
where it wants to.
Jimmy, your mother...
could be removed
from that dreadful place.
And your father...
he could remain
in charge of the commissary
as long as he lives,
no matter how drunk.
And as for me, well...
no one will ever love me.
But you could
get used to me, Jimmy.