Original subtitles

Oh, that Colonel Ashley and his parties.

Smell that barbecue. Yeah. He must be roasting a whole herd of beef.

You know, this crew can use a good feed after the

sorry grub we've been dishing out this trip.

Yeah, yeah, they sure could.

But I'm the only one that's going ashore. Huh?

Yes, you're going to take the Enterprise around the bend up to Natchez.

Why, you'd have a mutiny.

What kind of a trick are you trying to pull? Survival.

We're riding too light and high on the water. One look and you'd know we're hungry.

Well, so what? That just means we have more room to haul the Colonel's copy.

Yeah, sure, sure. But then the old pirate would

have us hauling his cotton bales for pennies.

What's he going to think if you go up there alone?

Just exactly what I want him to think.

That you're up in Natchez unloading and coming back here fat and sassy.

We'll be my own friends. Hey, I like that. Yes, sir.

You know, the only difference between you and the Colonel is he's an old partner.

Another night cap, Captain, then we'll talk business. Why,

you trying to get me loaded, Colonel? Well,

he had a problem. Oh, just another sipper.

You can fly me with wine, gear, tobacco, Colonel, women, and song,

but you still won't give me all your cargo for one penny less.

Oh, don't bluff me, Captain.

When it comes to business, I call the tune.

Mighty pretty tune.

Point your little foot, point your little foot. Tony? Yes, Papa?

If you can spare the time, you might fetch Captain Holden

and me two more juleps. Why, sure, Papa, sir.

Two more juleps coming right up.

You better make it three, darling, sir.

Might as well make it four. This Friday looks to go till morning.

You had enough to drink.

You may be right, Colonel. Welcome aboard, Captain.

Dexter might rock you tonight.

Yeah, no, I see.

Tony?

Show Captain Holden the game room and get him his drink.

Yes, but we have business, Colonel.

Oh, I'm much too sober to discuss business now, Captain.

We'll have our little deal over whisky sours at breakfast.

Well, I'd sleep better if we could finish the

business now and I'd go back to the party.

Tony, tell all those people out there the party is over.

Yes, Papa.

Good night, Captain.

You got a most appealing voice.

Well, ma'am, I was just thinking the same thing about you.

Yeah, good night, Colonel. Ma'am?

Alone at last, Colonel.

Miss Lucinda, just what the devil are you up to?

Well, I never end a sentence with a preposition, Colonel.

Don't start correcting my grammar, Miss Lucinda,

because you ain't been acting like no proper schoolteacher around here.

Not all night, you ain't.

That's when daytime school's out at night.

You ought to be ashamed of yourself, throwing yourself at my boy like that,

just because Tony invited you for the weekend.

Why should I be? I'm very fond of Tony. Besides, I think I suit him just fine.

A whole lot of girls around here suit him fine.

He's got every girl in the county chasing after him.

But he's gonna marry me.

He ask you?

Not in so many words.

He never will.

You mean no one does anything, you don't let him?

I mean, one kiss doesn't make orange blossoms or wedding march.

Tony's been courting me ever since I came here.

Now, don't you let him hurt you, honey.

Tony's just roaring around, feeling his oats.

And I'll throw a bridle on him.

Now, what do you want to be saddled with a

coat for when you can have the lead horse?

Why, Kurt.

I can still dance all night and ride to the hounds

in the morning while you sleep till noon.

I know how to treat a lady.

Why are you laughing?

Can you imagine Tony calling me Mama?

I wasn't offering the formalities.

I was wondering just how far you were prepared to go.

I'm sorry, Miss Lucinda, if I offended you.

You don't offend me, you amuse me.

You're like a nice, gentle grizzly bear.

Did you kill him?

Mm-hmm.

With one shot, just right outside that door there.

You know, it was a time I was shooting for this land.

The whole county was in timber.

Lots of bears here.

Bobcats.

Then when we went in for cotton, we drew another kind of animal.

Prettier, maybe, but just as deadly.

I take that as a compliment, sir.

You know, it's time I had a spirited woman around here. Permanent.

You the most decorative one, yeah?

Then you'd need a new school teacher.

Oh, I'll be needing one no matter which way you decide.

You don't bluff me, Colonel.

I'm no cotton car goer, poke hand.

And I'm not trading.

I want clear title. Mrs. Anthony Ashley or nothing.

You're just after my son's money.

No, yours.

Here's to an honest woman.

You don't have any time for honesty, Colonel.

In my book, honesty is not always the best policy.

You've got that little twisted.

And your tie is crooked, too.

Gurney, you better stop that.

Drunk old man! Clumsy ox!

If you can't hold your liquor, don't drink.

I'm sorry.

She was fixing my tie. Didn't look like that to me.

Yes, his tie got all messed up and he was trying to kiss me.

Go ahead.

Go on, hit me if you're man enough.

Now, gentlemen, gentlemen, now let's not fight in front of a lady.

Let's just have a friendly little drink.

Yes, we can drink to the proposal the Colonel just honored me with.

Lucinda. Proposal?

You were proposing marriage, weren't you, Colonel?

Well, perhaps you're right, Colonel. We'd better

talk business tomorrow. No, Captain.

We'll talk tonight.

Tony, will you see me to my room, please?

You'd better bolt your door.

Take my advice, boy.

Bolt yours.

Yes, well, we'll see you all in the morning. I hope.

How would you like to carry all my cotton this year?

Well, that all depends. That all depends, you see, on whether we have enough space.

We're sitting pretty low in the water, you know?

That's why I like you, Captain.

You're standing there as if you own the river and all the banks besides.

As a matter of fact, you ain't had a cargo since Cairo.

And if you saw a dollar, it was in somebody else's pocket, not yours.

Well, now, why would I be sending the Enterprise up to Natchez?

Give my boys a free cruise to have a night in the town, huh?

I had my spyglass on you, sneaking around the bend.

You was riding so high in the water,

you couldn't have been carrying nothing else in your hold but hot air.

And all the planters around here have been hit by boll weevils but me.

And I get my reports by the week from St.

Louis. I happen to know that shipping cargo is tied in a drum's head.

Yeah, well, Colonel, looks like you've got me over a barrel backwards.

Here's a thousand dollars. Now, wait a minute, I won't touch a penny of that.

Your cog is worth at least four thousand.

I'll give you five.

Five? Did you say five?

$4,000 for the cargo, $1,000 bonus.

Bonus for what?

For Lucinda. That scheming money-grabber no-cum, hussy.

Well, what do you want me to do about it?

Go after her.

Show up for what she is. Win her from Tony. Well, Colonel,

you tried that and you didn't get very far.

That's why I'm asking you.

Well, if she's a fortune hunter, what would you want with me?

She's also a woman.

Hey, Colonel, you're not serious about this, are you?

I never was more serious in my life.

Well, if you are, then I'm sorry.

That's just a little out of my line. I understood you were quite a ladies' man.

Yeah, well, whatever you heard, you never heard money mentioned.

Know and need know?

I'd know.

Now, now, don't try to be holy with me. I know you better than that. Well,

have it your own way. You'll do it then.

Oh, no.

Let me put it to you once more, in words that you will probably understand.

Either you do as I say, or you don't haul one bill in my carton now or ever,

or get any bank credit up and down the river

as far as that boat of yours will take you.

Is that clear?

Oh, yeah.

Quite.

You mind if I wait in your wharf till my boat comes by?

You can wait anywhere you want.

As long as you're out of my house, not a moment.

Pleasant dreams.

Right up to the moment it explodes.

You must think I'm a terrible woman.

Well, let's just say that you're spirited.

You're...

You're very kind, as well as noble.

Don't let anybody hear you say that.

I heard what the Colonel wanted you to do.

Well, it's only money.

It just doesn't seem fair, you losing your cargo on the count of me.

Yeah, well, don't worry about it.

I'm sure the colonel would have cheated me anyway.

Nevertheless, I'm grateful to you.

You made me feel like a lady and not the kind of trash the colonel's making me out.

I think you are a lady.

Even after the way I acted downstairs?

Well, ladies don't always behave like well-led ladies.

That's what makes them interesting.

And besides, if you're going to catch a man like Tony Ashley,

you can't sit in a corner.

Act like a mouse.

Or like a schoolteacher. You, you are a schoolteacher, aren't you?

That's the way I make my living.

Schoolteacher.

Why couldn't I let a teacher like you?

Well, you can.

I can.

And the colonel can be paying for the lesson.

What are you talking about?

I want you to do what he asked.

I want you to flirt with me and try to get me away from Tony.

Oh, come on now. You're not that worried about my going broke.

I wonder if the assignment would seem so distasteful to you If I asked you to do it?

Well, that all depends.

On what?

On just what the real reason is.

That's simple.

I want to marry Tony.

As long as he has no competition, he can't bring himself to the point of proposing.

But you might make him jealous enough, or he might.

Nobody can't say that isn't the direct answer.

Then you do it?

Well, now, wait a minute.

I think you're playing right in the colonel's hands.

You see, you wanted me to prove that you're a... That's simple.

You just explain to him before you leave that he was wrong. That I'm a fine,

upstanding, moral young lady.

Are you?

One who is able to resist your undoubted charms.

Oh.

Well, I wouldn't like talk like that to get around.

Then you do it. Well, now, wait a minute now.

Suppose he gets jealous enough and shoots me.

A business risk.

I imagine you've been shot at for a lot less than $5,000. Well,

then we both get what we want, and nobody can blame us. The Colonel deserved it.

Will you?

Lady, lady, you've just made a most romantic deal.

You must love him or his father's money very much.

I do.

Yeah, but... Good night, Ray.

Come in.

Who do you want? Colonel, sir, I've been thinking it over.

You come to your senses, huh?

Well, I wouldn't do it just for the money, but I have the responsibility of a crew.

A man has a payroll to consider.

He can't always be as independent as he'd like to be. Now, that's more like it.

Have a drink. Thank you.

Independence is a luxury, and luxuries cost money.

Yes.

Speaking of money. Oh, yeah.

Let me ask you something, Colonel.

How long did you think I'd hold out?

I overestimated you. I figured you till morning.

Good luck. Same to you.

What's the matter, Lucinda?

Aren't you glad to see your own brother?

Matt, what are you doing here? What I should have done a long time ago,

before you turned soft. I'm not soft. I haven't changed.

I saw it.

I was looking in the window downstairs. You let them touch you.

It was all I could do to keep them busting in and

killing them right then. You, my own sister.

They don't even know who I am.

Well, they'll know who I am, all right.

Listen to me. I know what I'm doing.

So do I. I was going to make them sweat first, but not now. Not after what I saw.

Listen to me, Matt.

I'm not going to let you spoil what it's taken me this long to do,

not what it's about to work to... What, do you think I've forgotten?

Don't you think I remember what they did to Paul?

You've got a funny way of showing it.

The only difference between us is I'm smart about it.

I've been planning this a long, long time.

What are you talking about?

I'm going to get even with the colonel.

I'm going to marry Tony and be mistress of everything the Ashleys own,

and then make them live to regret it every day of their lives.

You'd marry an Ashley?

I'd marry the devil if it had hurt the Colonel by doing it.

I believe you would.

Now, Matt, you better get out of here before somebody sees you.

All right, Lucinda, but I'll be watching.

And if anything goes wrong, I'm going to do it my way.

Nothing's going to go wrong.

Lucinda.

What is it?

Are you all right?

I thought I heard voices.

Well, I was asleep. You woke me up.

As long as you're up, you might let me in.

Good night, Tony.

Well, good night.

Don't you ever sleep?

I was going to ask you the same question.

I just had a night camp with your father.

Oh.

Yeah, what do you have in your mind?

Nothing, nothing. I just thought...

Never mind.

Oh, by the way, congratulations on your taste.

What?

In women.

Thanks.

You're not engaged to her, are you?

Not exactly, but... That's good.

Good night.

Good night.

Where's Lucinda? Isn't she up yet?

Up and out with Holden.

Quite a lady's man, Holden.

I'm sorry. I must have had a little much to drink.

I guess we all did.

All but Holden.

He's smart that way.

Understand they had breakfast together.

Well, good morning. How's your head? I thought we had a date this morning.

Oh, I forgot all about it.

When Gray... Captain Holden invited me for an

early ride, I just... That's quite all right.

Would you care to join us?

I don't want to intrude.

Fine, fine.

Be back at the house.

See you later, Tony.

That's gonna be the easiest thousand dollars I ever earn.

That is, if he doesn't shoot me first. Have a nice ride.

Stop pushing me, Pa.

No, don't turn on me because your girl found somebody else.

She just went riding with him. Doesn't mean she found somebody else. You think not?

I think not.

You learn.

What do you think you're doing? I'm going hunting.

Any objections?

It all depends on what you're after. I can take care of myself.

Put it back.

The condition that you're in, it ain't safe for you or anybody else.

I don't mind my son making a fool of himself, but

I don't hanker to see him hang. Put it back.

I think we have an audience.

Well, Captain.

Things seem to be going very well. Very well indeed.

Yes, your reputation as a ladies' man is well-founded.

Let's just say I'm earning my money.

I can't imagine a pleasanter way of doing it,

especially when the partner is cooperative.

She is cooperative, isn't she?

You'll get a full report when I leave.

You must have a rather low opinion of me, don't you?

I don't have to like a man. I work for him.

You know, for $5,000, you could even despise him, eh?

Colonel!

Five thousand dollars is a great deal of money.

You know, it's very simple for a young,

single man with no responsibilities to make moral judgments.

I never said I did.

Oh, you don't have to say it.

Funny thing is, Captain, you and me, we're playing the same game,

only I'm playing it for higher stakes.

I spent a lifetime putting together the biggest plantation on this river.

I was hoping by now my son could take over and

run things so I could sit back and enjoy life.

You're not going to let anybody run anything

as long as there's a breath in your body.

That's what's wrong with Tony.

You may be right.

Whatever the reason, that's how it is.

Now I'm going to have to protect him and the plantation.

Maybe she's good for him.

I know things you don't know.

Believe me, she wouldn't be.

Five thousand dollars.

Do I have to believe you, too?

Too bad Tony isn't more like you.

Well, if he were, he would have left here long ago.

And now, Colonel, if you'll excuse me, duty calls.

By the way, Captain, when you leave here with your cargo,

you may be taking her along, too? Oh, it'll be a pleasure, Colonel, a pleasure.

At the usual passenger rate. Oh, I thought that

under the circumstances, Wrong again, Colonel.

Lucinda.

Hello, Tony.

I want an explanation, Lucinda.

Last night you let me kiss you, and today you act as if... well,

act as if we were strangers.

Well, I don't know what you're talking about.

I mean all this lollygagging around with Gray Holden.

Captain Holden was kind enough to invite me riding

this morning while you slept off your liquor.

I would have taken you riding, you know that.

Well, how could I? I didn't know you had your father's permission.

Stop it, Lucinda.

Besides, when a school mom gets to be my age,

she can't afford to take herself out of circulation.

You know how I feel about you.

Well, I know you like to kiss me and have me available when you want me,

but that's kind of a one-sided arrangement.

Oh, we're going to have to continue this fascinating conversation some other time.

Captain Holden's going to take me down to the wharf while he checks his cargo.

You know, I thought that men were supposed to be quicker getting dressed than women.

I've been waiting for you for five minutes.

Beauty and promptness, a combination I've waited all my life to find in a woman.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Yes, sir.

Well, this will put the enterprise on the water. It's about time, too.

Things haven't been going so well, huh?

Frankly, it's a cutthroat business. Too many boats, too few cargoes.

Why stay in it?

I like it.

That's important to a man.

Like what he's doing.

Yeah, well, it helps you over the lean hard times, yeah.

Sounds like an exciting life.

Exciting?

Well, it's feast or famine.

You see, one day you come into port, riding high on the water.

You don't know where you're going to get enough money to buy the next load of wood.

Next trip in, you're buying drinks for everybody in the house.

Men are lucky.

They don't need security like a woman does.

Oh, security's fine.

If you don't have to pay too high a price for it.

You don't think much of Tony, do you?

I don't have to think much of him. I'm not marrying him.

I'd better see what's bothering him.

Let me go, Captain. You got no right to hold me.

What do you mean I got no right? What are you

doing here? I got business here. You here?

What kind of business?

I can't tell you.

You're trespassing. You know that, don't you? I got a right to be here.

As much right as they have. You do, huh? Well,

maybe you better tell that to the colonel. No, please, Captain.

Don't. Give me a break.

Why should I? You jumped my boat.

Ray, where are you?

You tell him, Captain.

You tell him Matt Jennings is back, and he's back to stay.

A crewman of mine jumped a boat here. I found him hiding in the brush.

A crewman?

Yeah, I told him Jennings, Matt Jennings. He sounded strange.

What did he say?

Well, it doesn't make sense. That's what's so odd. Come on, we better go.

What did he say?

Well, he said something about having as much right here as the Ashleys.

For me to tell them that Matt Jennings was back to stay, I don't know. Come on.

Come in. Boy, you're back so soon.

I just ran into somebody I never expect to see around here. Who's that?

A woman named Jennings, Matt Jennings.

Well, apparently you know him.

Where'd you meet him?

Down by the wharf. He was a member of my crew.

Apparently he jumped ship when we landed here.

He said something about having as much right

to be here as you did. A strange statement.

Just an old grudge.

But I'll be ready for him.

Yeah.

Tell Tony I want to see him.

Well, good hunting.

You want to see me?

Come in.

Shut the door.

You know, I've been thinking about this business with Holden Lucinda.

And the more I think about it, the more I suspect you have something to do with it.

I have much more important things to think about now.

Why haven't?

She's the only thing in the world that ever meant anything to me.

Stop talking like a drooling pup.

The name Jennings mean anything to you?

Jennings? No. Why? I guess you were too young to remember.

There's a man by that name hanging around the plantation somewhere.

He's aiming to kill me.

Sounds like a man after my own heart.

I'd like to meet him.

You may get the chance to.

He probably wants to kill you too.

Would it be prying to ask the reason why,

or does he have the usual instinctive dislike for the ashes?

In his mind, he has a good reason.

He thinks that I was responsible for his father's death.

Were you?

He had land I wanted.

He wouldn't sell.

But he liked to gamble and he liked to drink.

It cost him dearly to discover that the two of them don't mix.

In other words, you got him drunk and cheated him out of his land. I didn't have to.

A field hand could have beat him.

He walked out of that saloon and put a bullet in his head.

A nice chapter to the family history.

So if I were you, until we find Jennings, I'd keep a gun with me.

Thanks for the advice.

One more thing.

He has a sister.

Oh, is she with him, too?

Not exactly. She's our house guest. She calls herself Lucinda Lee.

Oh, you're slipping, Pa.

Her real name is Jenny. Oh, come on.

You can do better than that.

The truth.

Now, you don't expect me to believe you, do you?

How's the phrase of that?

Read it.

I never hire anybody without first checking on them.

Why didn't you tell me? I don't know.

I guess I thought it would kind of ease my conscience, letting her get away with it.

But when I found out what she was really after,

trying to get back at me through you, well, I...

Thought I'd beat her at her own game.

Game's over now.

She brought her brother in to finish it. I don't believe it.

She couldn't be that two-faced.

You're a fool, Tony.

You're a fool.

Susan knew every minute that she was here.

What's going on here?

I'm leaving.

Yeah, so I see you are, but I thought you told me that

everything was going the way you wanted it to.

I changed my mind.

Well, now, just a minute now.

Even a woman can't change her mind that quickly

about something she wanted as much as you did.

Please.

Wait, we have a deal now. If you change your mind, I have a right to know.

You got your thousand dollars. That's all you need to know.

You sound just like the colonel.

I'm sorry.

I didn't mean... Well, then tell me why you changed your mind.

You were... You once said that I must love Tony or his father's money very much.

That's right.

It wasn't either, I was after... Well, you were sure after something.

What would you do...

If you thought someone had taken everything that was rightfully yours...

I'd find it, go after it, and get it back.

Any way you could?

Any way I had to.

And what would you think of a girl if she did that any way she could?

Well, I might think she was making a mistake,

but I wouldn't judge her not till I knew all the facts.

Well, I...

I knew all the facts.

I just didn't admit them to myself, not until now.

That's how that crewman of mine, Jennings, fit into all of this.

That Jennings is my brother.

Your brother?

Yes.

Yes, last night he came into my room, and he had a gun,

and he was going to kill them both.

And I said, no, what I was planning was far worse.

But there was one thing I hadn't taken into account.

What I was going to do was evil.

Every bit as evil as the colonel.

And then when I saw what living on hate had done to my brother,

I couldn't go through with it.

So now you're leaving? Yes. You're quite a woman, Miss Jennings.

No, I'd appreciate it if I could.

Take your boat back down the river.

It'd be a pleasure.

First, I want to see the Colonel and Tony.

Well, you don't have to go in there. We can just go.

No, I want to see them.

You'd better go easy on the liquor till we get rid of Jennings.

Come in.

I'm leaving.

Leaving?

Tony, I'm sorry I lied to you.

I'm here under false pretenses.

My name isn't Lee.

I know.

It's Jennings.

He just told me.

He's known all along.

You knew?

What I don't know is why you would confess.

Go on.

That's something you wouldn't understand.

Maybe I would.

No, don't.

It doesn't matter whether you changed your mind.

The only thing that counts is you did.

I still want you to stay.

But I hated you both.

There was a reason for everything I did.

But you didn't go through with it.

It doesn't make any difference.

As to me, I want you to stay. Now, she ain't staying.

Not unless you want to be alone.

Because when I'm finished here, this house is going to be empty.

Now, you get away from her.

You too, Colonel, over there with your son. I want you two to be together,

seeing as you're so fond of each other.

Now hold it, Colonel.

Now you just pull that gun out of your pocket real slow.

Matt, please, listen to me.

I'm through listening.

It didn't work your way.

I'm gonna do it mine.

Oh, you stay where you are, Captain. I don't want to have to kill you, too.

You know, I've been dreaming about this for a long time.

Nights when me and Lucinda didn't have enough food in our stomach to keep us asleep.

And you, up here in this nice big house,

living on the land you stole off our father.

I did not steal it.

All I know is he had it and now you've got it.

He lost it.

He took his chances and lost.

And it killed him.

You killed him. He killed himself because he wasn't man enough to keep on living.

Now go and shoot if you're gonna.

I don't want to have to stand here and listen to that sniveling rotten.

Yes, I took his land away, but there was plenty more land.

He could have started over the same way I did a half a dozen times.

He just wasn't man enough to... Shut up.

Listen, let's be honest with each other just for once.

If it hadn't been the colonel, it would have been somebody else.

If we went hungry, it's because our father gambled and nobody forced him.

He had a sickness, a disease, and it killed him.

Don't let yours kill anyone here.

No, Lucinda.

You're not going to talk me out of it this time.

She already has, man.

You stay out of this, Captain.

It's no longer a matter of revenge. It's a matter of murder.

She told you the truth, and you know it.

You're not going to pull that trigger, man. You stay where you are, Captain.

I don't want to have to kill you. Give me the gun, Matt.

You're not a murderer.

I'm warning you, Captain.

Give me the gun. Now stay away! Come on now, Matt.

Give me the gun, you're... Tony!

Oh, Tony! Tie him up!

I'll send for the Marshal. Leave him alone!

He tried to kill us.

I said leave him alone. Are you giving me orders?

Yes, I'm giving you orders. Well, it's about time.

Well, now, let's take a look at this arm.

Looks like you're going to have to have somebody take care of you for a while.

Wouldn't you say? Definitely.

Lucinda? Looks like you're going to have to have somebody take care of him.

I'm sure the Colonel can find somebody.

Woman, are you going to let my son bleed to death while you argue?

I'll put a proper bandage on it right now. Well, Colonel.

I think your guest could use a drink.

Guest?

As a matter of fact, I think we all could.

Why not?

Jennings, look smart.

Well, it's been quite a day.

It certainly has.

You know, it ain't often that a man has the opportunity

to see his son grow up right before his eyes.

I'll drink to that. To Tony and Lucinda.

I'd like to have my old job back, sir.

Are you sure that's what you want, Jennings?

Yes, sir, I'm sure.

That is, if you'll have me back after jumping ship. No, you didn't jump ship.

You just took a leave of absence.

You'll work it off.

No hard feelings?

No hard feelings, Colonel.

Colonel?

Oh, a small memoir.

You know, I kind of envied you up there on that hill in that big house,

nothing to do but sit around drinking in tulips and listen to the banjos.

Tell me, those people must lead quite a life, huh?

Yeah, I couldn't have said it better myself.