Original subtitles

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen

and welcome to what we modestly call

"The Greatest Show on Earth."

Becoming an animal trainer is not difficult at all.

Anyone who has raised children

already possesses the proper humility.

Our star performer, Gordon,

will now jump from this stool to this one.

I think you will appreciate his performance more

when you realize that Gordon is a flea.

He’s getting ready. By the way, Gordon

is the one in the blue trunks.

-[knock, knock, knock] -There he goes.

-[knock] -Well done.

As for those trunks,

he can pick them up when he returns.

Now, for a riddle:

What has no legs,

is a bit thick,

definitely does not fly

and is one minute long?

Here is the answer.

[engine stalling]

Howdy.

You got a sick car there.

Don’t get out, leave the engine running.

We’re 60 miles from a special meeting, and late.

It’s the carburetor.

You can shut it off now.

Seems like it was just worked on but whoever did it, sure messed it up.

How long will it take to fix?

I can do it while you wait.

How much will it cost?

Oh, about... $2 should do it.

$2?

[mechanic] I hope I didn’t upset you.

It’s rare indeed to be upset by honesty.

$2 indeed!

Why, most mechanics usually hit me for $8, $10.

Sure, because they don’t like their work.

They gotta charge more.

Me, I love engines.

Look in here now.

-[groans] -What’s wrong?

Nothing.

Least wise, nothing to be helped.

[groans]

It’s an ulcer.

Ah! I’m on milk, potatoes

and prayer to heal it, but...

I don’t believe you really know who I am, do you?

Otis Jones.

Healer Jones, they call me.

Two hundred radio and TV stations,

Coast to Coast, carry my Faith Meetings.

I don’t hold with radio and TV.

From what I hear, there’s a load of sinful stuff on ’em.

[groans] Drinking and killing, and sinful women.

There is no sin or temptation on my show,

just healing, brother.

Do you have faith, brother?

I’ve prayed, yes.

I’ve prayed till my knees were skinned raw.

Take my hand. Go on, take it.

Now let the power pour into you!

Let it pour!

There.

There.

Well, I’ll be...

You’ve got faith, brother.

You come to my meeting tonight

and I’ll turn all my power on you,

and heal you from this day henceforth.

Daughter! The address, please.

Emily Jones, this is...

Aaron Menefee.

Aaron Menefee,

come along, you hear?

You’ve got to have faith, sister.

Oh, I do, I do.

Turn around.

Now let me soothe with the power of love.

Now, hold your head high.

Hold it proud, sister, in faith.

Now let me unbind

and set you free of this agony.

Do you feel power, sister?

[woman] Oh, I do!

Say: The power is in me.

[woman] The power is in me.

[Jones] Say: I am healed.

[woman sobbing] I... am... healed.

Walk tall, sister.

Show them your pain-cleansed face!

Show them! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah!

[Jones] Sister, thank you.

Next!

Now, is brother Menefee in the house?

Aaron Menefee?

Aaron Menefee, that’s me!

Come forward, brother.

Come, right along.

What is your affliction?

Ulcers.

Do you hear that?

This big, good-looking young man,

in the prime of life is being eaten away

by a sickness that defies man’s medicine,

and yet he has the faith

to come before me and seek deliverance.

Do you believe he can be healed?

Yes.

Aaron Menefee,

do you believe you can be healed?

I can be healed.

Then bend your head. Bend your head

and make sure that your faith is as strong as my power.

Do you believe?

I believe.

Then seize this hand, seize it!

We will let the other hand descend

to drive the evil out!

Drive it out!

[panting] I’m healed.

I’m healed.

Say it again, brother!

Cry it aloud in your jubilation!

-It’s gone, it’s a miracle! -[murmurs]

-Do you hear that! -I’m healed.

-I’m healed. -Do you hear that, brothers and sisters?

-[chattering] -I’m really healed.

Oh, sister, by the power of the Healer,

my affliction is cured. It’s gone.

My pain is gone.

I’m healed.

I’m healed, I’m really healed.

[Jones] My, my!

All these faith offerings!

Dump it, brother! Dump it.

-[chuckles] -Did you see him, Daddy?

First time a healed person ever got so grateful

he just took the basket out of my hand

and run through the audience asking for faith offerings!

Look!

You’re really grateful, huh?

I’m healed.

So is my car! You did a fine job.

How would you like to go to work for me?

Be my chauffeur.

You mean, really? All the time?

All the time.

I bet he’s the kind of young man would get back half his salary

each week as a faith offering to help some sinner.

Oh, I will! I will!

What kind of a life is that?

An auto mechanic for a traveling tent show?

-Chauffeur. -Mechanic.

Working day and night

and for less money than Abe Nolan pays you at the gas station.

Making a holy show of yourself at those meetings,

and living with a bunch of swindling strangers!

You’ll find out what it’s like, boy.

Dr. Buckles, I’ve been called.

And I’m following the call.

Called?

You were called to rid yourself of lustful thoughts

by rolling around naked in the snow one night,

so that I had to pull you through pneumonia.

You were called to bust up Glenn Lyman’s rabbit traps every time he set them out.

So you had to go to jail twice already for doing that.

Seems like every time you’re "called" it means trouble for you, Aaron.

-My body was healed. -Bunk.

You never had an ulcer!

And you ain’t got one now.

Trouble is, ever since you were a kid, your dad’s filled you

so full of his hellfire and speaking in strange tongues and fear of the devil

that no wonder he’s got your stomach all tied up in knots.

This Otis Jones is no better than your pop.

He can’t cure anything.

Whatever I got,

could you ever cure it, Doc?

[clicks tongue]

Good-bye, Aaron.

Good-bye, Doc.

If I pass this way again, I’ll drop by and say hello.

[Aaron] We moved along town by town,

and the faith offerings kept pouring in

like the great flood itself.

From people who wanted the Healer’s good work carried on.

It was a fine time.

But then, the trouble began.

What trouble?

Emily Jones, the Healer’s daughter.

She was everywhere.

The devil rose up terrible in my mind.

I broke into sweats.

I had to take cold baths to rid the devil from my mind.

Aaron Menefee, what are you doing?

That’s three times today you’ve been soaking!

Y-y-you keeping count?

[chuckles] Aaron,

you’ll catch your death a cold! Get out!

Get out, you hear?

It’s a fine afternoon.

You’re gonna take me for a row in a boat.

Or you’re fired.

The Healer’s daughter, speaking.

Fired, unless!

Well?

I’ll b-be right there.

[laughs]

Miss Emily?

The devil is in me.

The devil’s in us all, Aaron.

Yes, but he says to me

"Feel that wind."

It’s a fine wind.

"Listen to them birds."

Fine singing.

Yes, but then he says,

"Hold her hand,

touch her hair."

-I’ll help you, Aaron. -Oh, thank you.

Miss Emily, that’s no help at all!

The Good Book says

"Arise my love, my fair one, and come with me!"

There’s a legal and holy way of doing it.

You mean get married?

Do you have any objections to matrimony, Aaron?

I don’t guess I have.

But, I never thought that I was ready for it.

Aaron, you’re 25 and long overdue.

That’s what those thoughts have been trying to tell you.

Emily, what’s the Healer gonna think about this?

Everything I am, I owe to him.

We must ask his blessing.

Aaron, I’m Pa’s only child.

Let’s skip off first and get married and then ask for his blessing.

No, that would be sharper than a serpent’s tooth.

We can’t do it that way.

We can’t?

No!

Now it’s got to be done right or not at all.

Testing! One, two, three. One, two.

Isn’t that fine, Brother Fish?

Fine new microphone!

Brand spanking new loudspeakers.

Brother Menefee!

How do you like the new equipment?

You may-- You may leave, Brother Fish.

Emily.

Child,

what have you two been up to?

Sit down, Emily.

You got something to say, brother?

Sir, could we talk, private?

I can hear you fine.

Now, stay where you are.

Well?

Well...

The fact is we’re going to be married.

No, sir.

That is not a fact, that is a desire.

The fact is you want to get married.

Well, y-yes.

There is a lot of difference between wanting and having, brother.

Sir, I leave it up to you whether I’m worthy or not.

Although I have hopes that you’ll see it in the way Miss Emily and I do.

Brother Menefee,

you are one of the worthiest souls that I know.

But there’s a lot more to it than that.

Emily, my only begotten child,

is heir to all that has come my way.

And believe me,

a lot has come my way this past year.

If you’re saying Aaron wants to marry me for my money,

you can take my word for it he doesn’t.

I do not say that.

What I do say is that I got a mighty big proposition on my hands here,

a mighty big proposition.

What with the offerings from the meetings,

the national hookups and the book sales.

It will take a big man to step into my shoes.

If you’re talking about Charlie Fish,

I wouldn’t marry him if he were the last man on earth!

He makes my skin crawl!

All right.

All right, not Charlie Fish.

But someone with his talents.

When the power came down to me,

I reaped a mighty harvest.

Tax-free.

Now, some day, Emily, that will be yours.

Worthy as Brother Menefee may be,

he is not the right man for your wedded mate and partner.

I cannot give my blessing.

I have faith in you, Healer,

but it’s a tough row you’ve given me to hoe.

No woman ever made me feel the way Miss Emily does.

As long as I am on earth,

I reign over Emily.

When I’m gone to glory,

then she is free to walk her own path.

But that won’t be for a long time, Brother,

a long time.

Not with the way my health is

and the Power that is in me.

So, I suggest

that you hoe that long row,

and keep your eye peeled for another woman.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.

[Jones] Brother Fish, come back in here, please!

[murmuring] I believe in him.

I believe, I do believe in him.

I believe in him!

I believe in him!

I believe in him.

Aaron, I’ll never marry anyone else.

I’ll wait for you all my life if I have to.

[Jones over speakers] Emily!

Come in here, Emily.

[Aaron] So, we traveled the circuit.

And at last came full around again to my old home town.

Doc?

-[Doc] Who is it? -Aaron Menefee.

Oh, hello, Aaron.

[chuckles] What do you mean "Hello"? I come to visit.

Not tonight, Aaron.

"Not tonight"?

I-I’ve been away a long time, I come here special now.

Doc, I got problems.

[Doc] We all got problems.

I don’t know what yours is,

but this is mine.

Doc, what’s going on?

You sure picked a fine time to come barging in, Aaron.

[Aaron] Who’s he?

What does he want here?

He’s a friend, let him be.

No good making trouble for everyone just because you’re messed up.

I examined you.

Told you God’s honest truth.

Your legs are paralyzed.

-[man sobbing] Shut up! -Your legs are paralyzed

and nothing can be done for it.

Not by me, nor anyone.

Is there another doctor in this jerk-water stop?

-No. -[man] You lie! You lie!

Mister, I wouldn’t risk my ever-lasting soul by one lie.

All right, all right!

But who do you go to around here if you’re hurt bad?

Don’t tell me everybody uses this old quack?

You can’t walk?

-You can’t-- -I can’t walk! I can’t! No!

You think I’d be sitting here if I could? I can’t! No!

And you really want to?

Want to? Want to!

Oh, Doc... Doc, sometimes I think it’s fore-ordained.

-What’s with him? -Oh, Aaron is just--

Excuse me, Doc. Oh, do excuse me.

Brother, Doc is a good man

even if there are lots of things outside his powers.

But I can take you to someone whose power has never failed.

-[Doc] Aaron. -Shut up!

He healed me when Doc couldn’t.

I’m sorry, Doc.

He heals all those who come to him,

no matter what their affliction.

-It’s true. -Do you realize who this is?

This is Vern Byers! He’s been shot by the police, he’s a killer!

-Where is this guy, this friend of yours? -Five minutes away.

Here’s $1,000.

Pick it up.

That’s to bring this doctor friend of yours here.

Tell him there’s another thousand waiting for him when he gets here.

All right?

Brother Byers, the Healer won’t take payment for his work.

But if this is a faith offering--

Well, call it what you want! Bring him here!

Aaron, I told you. There’s nothing anyone can do to help.

He can’t be cured! His spine’s been damaged!

You keep out of this, Aaron! And you keep this Healer friend of yours out of it, too.

Al! Lock this quack up!

Go on now!

Wait a minute!

Come here, shut the door.

-[door closes] -Now listen.

I killed the doctor at Crescent City that operated to take the bullet out of me

and left me so I can’t walk.

Brother Byers, he heals all those who come to him.

[Byers] Listen again.

I’ll kill any man

that takes my money and doesn’t put my legs right again.

-Do you hear? -Have faith, brother.

Healer? Healer Jones!

Healer Jones.

Oh, praise glory, you’re here!

Healer, there’s a man who needs your help for a friend of his.

At this hour? It must be mighty serious.

It is serious! Look at this faith offering! $1,000.

And there’s more where that came from.

Wow!

-Brother Fish, add this to the tally. -Yes, Healer.

I guess this is about the biggest single evening we’ve ever had!

-$1,000! -Now, where is this sinner?

I’ve got the car. We’ll take you there, Healer, but you better hurry.

Yes, yes, I’ll hurry. Thank you, daughter. Thank you.

-Healer? -Yes, yes?

There’s a worrisome thing about that sinner up there.

Now, brother, you’re not gonna tell me my business, are you?

Oh no, sir. It’s just this sinner.

Though he needs your power, he’s short on faith.

He smell of fire and brimstone, Healer.

He’s a fearful sinner all the way.

Brother Menefee, you’re ignorant.

Anyone who can make a faith offering like the one you just gave me

is ready, ready for my power to enter him.

[Emily] What Aaron means--

-Healer? -Oh, thank you, brother,

but I don’t figure to need your company along this mission.

Well, well.

Now, brother, just...

What is your affliction?

So much for life and death under the big top.

By the way, the police finally caught up with Vern Byers

but not before he had done in Otis Jones.

My final appearance in a moment.

But first, to convince the cynical that Gordon does exist,

he will now jump through this hoop.

-[pong, pang, pong] -[thud]

[pong]

This always happens.

I must remember to use thinner paper

but, as Gordon would say, that’s show business.

Which reminds me, you have seen the show,

now we give you the business.

Good evening. Good to have you ring side again.

Gordon was miffed as a result of the accident with the hoop,

and has disappeared.

He first changed into street clothes, however,

so he will be much more difficult to find.

He’s wearing a dark-gray flannel suit,

pearl-gray felt hat,

a blue neck tie

and three pairs of suede shoes.

Now, until next week at the same time,

goodnight.