Tess of the Storm Country (1922 film)
MARY PICKFORD
IN
TESS
OF THE
STORM COUNTRY
by
Grace Miller White
By arrangement with
Adolph Zukor.
Directed
by
John Robertson
Scenario
by
E. LLOYD SHELDON
and
JOSEPHINE LOVETT
.................
Photography
CHARLES ROSHER
FOREWORD
The re-creation of Tess of the Storm Country, under the improved conditions of modern photoplay production, is in response to a demand among my friends. It has been a work of devotion, for, of all the characters I have portrayed, Tess is the one I have most loved.
Nearly two thousand years ago, from a hill-top in Judea, came the sublime command: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
But this philosophy of the Great Teacher is often preached where never practiced—and sometimes practiced where never preached.
When Elias Graves built his home on the top of the hill, he anticipated little difficulty in getting rid of his squatter neighbors at the bottom.
But all of Graves' money and influence have been unable to upset "squatter law," under which these fisher folk cling to their miserable homesteads.
Elias Graves grows more stubborn with failure—his determination to disperse the squatters has become an obsession.
Teola Graves fears her father, who demands obedience rather than love.
Dan Jordan, a law student, has fascinated the lonely girl, but has failed to impress her father.
"Oh, Dan, if you could only find a way to drive out the squatters, father would do anything we ask."
Frederick Graves does not share his father's hatred of the squatters.
"Marvelous view, sir——if it weren't for your neighbors."
"Don't mention neighbors to me——filthy lot!"
"Ben Letts, clean up that mess. It air been there a week."
"Clean it up yerself."
"Have you tried to buy them out, Mr. Graves?"
"Buy them out? The land is already mine. I'd like to kick them out!"
"But, father, those people have no other place to go."
"Matter! Can't you smell what's the matter?"
"I'll attend to this, Mr. Graves."
"Frederick, if you had any spunk, you'd go with him."
"I might like young Jordan—if he'd get over the notion of becoming my son-in-law."
"Soak 'im, Tess—soak the hill-topper!"
"MY! You're awfully little to be so mad."
"Git off'n our land!"
"Ooh-hoo! Daddy!"
"She'd be a darn pretty kid if she were cleaned up."
"Keep yer eyes off'n her, Ezra Longman—she's fish fer my net!"
"They're breaking the law by netting. We can seize their nets and starve them out!"
"Dan dear, how splendid—you're winning father over."
"There's one of the godless lot now—shameless little hussy!"
"No hill-topper kin look me down."
"What's the matter with 'em?"
"Did you ever hear that 'cleanliness is next to godliness?'"
"Look, Daddy, what the flood brought in!"
"Mr. Skinner, I'm sorry my father feels as he does about you folks."
"Well, he's got his views—we got our'n."
"I wants a smack."
"Sure—I got a smack fer ye."
Jordan and the game wardens surprise the squatters.
"They've got a net in there."
"We'll catch them using it."
"Aw, Mister, how air we goin' to earn our beans and bacon?"
When the squatters begin to feel the pinch of hunger, Daddy Skinner gets out his net.
"I air warnin' ye, ye'll ketch more trouble than fish."
"I tells ye, old Graves air still watchin' with them shoe-button eyes of his'n."
"D'ye want us to sit 'round and starve?"
"We must be married at once, Dan—we dare not wait any longer."
"They've started out with the net, sir."
"If your father won't give his consent tonight, we will slip away and get married tomorrow."
"Count me out, father—I can't see it your way."
"They're using that net. Now's your chance to get them!"
"Daddy Skinner's gone nettin', and I air scared clear through the gizzard!"
"Ye'd be a pretty brat, Tess, if ye wasn't so dum dirty."
"I knowed a man once what died from takin' a bath!"
"——but if I'd been cleaned up I'd said to him——"
"I'll wash if it kills me!"
"I don't see how you could get so dum dirty in seventeen years."
"He's dead!"
Mr Elias Graves
— Announces the Marriage —
of his Daughter
— Teola —
To
Mr Daniel Jordan
"Is that your gun?"
"I won't give ye away, Ben Letts, if ye leaves Tess alone."
"Air Daddy gone home?"
"Your pap killed young Jordan—they've took 'im to jail."
"Ye're lyin' to me! Daddy Skinner never killed no man!"
"They shot Jordan!"
"Skinner did it—we caught him red-handed."
"Tell 'im Daddy Skinner wouldn't hurt nothin'—not even a fly."
"Then why did your father take his gun?"
"Daddy Skinner air gooder than you be——fer all yer church!"
"Dear God, if Ye lives in the sky, Ye'll save my Daddy, won't Ye?"
"Stop such blasphemy! Your father is a murderer——"
"——and I'll see that he pays the penalty!"
"Bad temper won't help you, Tess—or your father either."
"I air sorry I hitted yer dad."
"Don't mind what my father says, Tess. No prayer is blasphemy. You keep right on—praying."
"Ye didn't do the killin', did ye, Daddy?"
"Daddy, ye ain't goin' to hang, 'cause Someone air goin' to help ye—says so in the Book."
"I cribbed it from the church."
"They ain't got no right to have every Bible in this dum town."
Love watches.
First lessons.
"I kin read most of it, but some of the words air too dum long."
"Did He die on the Cross to save poor folks too—like Daddy Skinner?"
"Fred, I'm told you are furnishing money to defend Skinner."
"Oh, how could you, Frederick, when he killed poor Dan?"
"This is the last straw—I'm done with you!"
The daily bulletin from Tess.
my dear own daddy
I air sorry ye wont let me cum to the trial
so I will stay home and chase out the dirt
yer brat will be waiten fer ye on the door step
Ezra declares himself.
"I loves ye, Tess—oh, Gord, how I loves ye!"
"Trouble is, ye're in love—in love with that gosh-durn hill-topper!"
The awakening.
The trial—when the net of circumstantial evidence closes around the bewildered Daddy Skinner.
"This man deliberately set out to break the law, and to prevent interference, he carried a loaded gun——"
"Lemme out——I can't breathe——"
"——he was apprehended by officers of the law, and in attempting to escape, he shot down their leader in cold blood!"
Preparing for her father's homecoming.
"When air Daddy comin' home?"
"Looks like he ain't never comin' home."
Superior Court
dept.
3
"I guess ye don't know who I be—this here's my pap's trial."
"Defendant, stand up."
"Orn Skinner, a jury of your peers has found you guilty of murder."
"Ye've made a mistake, Mister Jedge."
"The Book says: 'Ask an' it shall be given'. An' every night on my knees I been askin' fer ye to come home."
"Daddy air to come home, ain't he, Mister Jedge?"
"I'm sorry, little girl, but your father must go back to jail—to await sentence."
"Tess darlin', ye're only makin' it harder fer yer daddy."
"I'm sorry I'm so cussed—'sides ye air comin' home, Daddy—afore long."
"You'd better go home, my child."
With faith still unshaken, Tess trudges home.
"Ye're comin' with me. Now yer pap's gone, ye needs a husband."
Ben Letts vows vengeance.
"Looks like the Jedge don't read his Bible—makin' a mistake like that."
"We're going to appeal your father's case. I'm sure it won't be long before he is home again."
"Tess, have you ever thought that sometime you and I—?"
"I air a squatter."
"I love you, Tess—and when I finish college—I'm coming back for you."
Ma Mollthe squatter's doctor.
The prolonged absence of her father on business has given Teola a false sense of security.
TELEGRAM
NEWCOMB CARLTON, PRESIDENTGEORGE W. E. ATKINS, FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT
YB192 133 1-70
MISS TEOLA GRAVESGLENVILLE N Y
MY PLANS HAVE CHANGEDEXPECT TO BE HOME SOON
My own dear daddyOctober 2
the hilltoppers is keepen quiet
ben letts air a cuss
I air lonlie yit without ye
Mister Fredrik I like next to ye
he air nice
I reads in my bible as how christ ruz
he ruz up fer the whole world
cept ben letts
Afraid to live, but without courage to die.
"If it hadn't been for your father, Dan would be with me now—when I want him—when I need him most!"
"Afore God, Daddy never killed 'im!"
"Oh, the disgrace—the shame—I dare not face my father!"
DAWN.
"Why didn't you let us both die?"
Enmities are forgotten in another's need.
"What will I do with the baby? Father would kill me if he knew!"
"Well, the brat kin stay with me if ye air afeared to keep it!"
"Will you swear you will tell no one?"
"I won't tell nothin' to nobody—I swears it!"
Through the bleak months that follow, Tess bears another's burden.
"You can't go out at this hour—it's time you were in bed."
"You little thief—I'll teach you!"
"I've took my lickin'—now kin I have the milk?"
Frederick returns from college for the Christmas holidays, impatient to see Tess.
"I'm not going home. Take my baggage to the hotel."
"Poor little thing—nobody wants him! If only we both could go to his father."
"The poor little critter air got the croup somethin' awful----Maybe if ye prays hard enough ye might both be took!"
"I can't stand it no longer, Ben Letts—I air goin' to tell the truth about the killin'!"
"I came down to—to help—to comfort her."
"Go? Not much! It's been a thousand years since I've seen Tess!"
"Let's git some fire-wood."
"Whose is it?"
"Why—I—I found it——"
"Oh, Frederick, please don't question her any more!"
"Tess, is that child yours?"
"If I wants to keep a brat in this here shanty, it's nobody's dum business."
"You—the girl in whom I put my faith——"
"What do you know about faith? Git out of here!"
"Don't speak of her—it's horrible!"
Afraid of detection, Letts plans to escape, and determines to take Tess with him.
"Ezra, eh?"
"Brat or no brat, ye're goin' to marry me! Git yer duds!"
"Daddy Skinnernever—done it! Ben Letts killed Jordan!"
"Phone the police!"
"The dum bloke was tryin' to choke me into marryin' him."
"Why not?—I air the brat's pappy."
"I hopes my Daddy's neck will be twisted by the rope if Ben Letts ain't a liar."
"It's Ben Letts who will hang—Ezra has confessed."
"Won't ye believe in me?"
"I could throw ye out in the snow, I hates ye so!"
"Naw, I don't hate ye——I loves ye——ye poor, sick, miserable little dum devil!"
From over the snowy hill-tops Sabbath bells are calling.
"It is unchristianlike to pamper yourself in this way. Church will do you good."
In spite of Tess' tender care and sacrifice—
"That brat air dyin'."
"He's got to be sprinkled in the Church or God can't find him when he dies."
"Then ye'd better hurry."
Suffer Little Children
To Come Unto Me
And Forbid Them Not
"I brought ye a dyin' brat, Preacher, what's got to be sprinkled."
"The presence of that girl is an insult to every woman in this church!"
"But the poor little cuss air dyin'. He's got to be sprinkled or he won't never see the face of God."
"Give me my baby!"
"Is he—dead?"
And with the philosophy of the Great Teacher in his heart rather than on his lips, Elias Graves makes a Christmas call.
"On this day of days, I have come here in all humility to say that you have taught me the true meaning of Christianity."
"Well—I been kind of a cuss myself."
"Teola air happy now—she air with the man she loves."
"Mr. Graves, ye've met my daddy, ain't ye?"
"Peace on Earth
Good Will Toward Men"
Know thy neighbor as thyself—and thou canst not help but love him.
"Ye means ye're deedin' the village to all us squatters?"
"Can you ever care for me again?"
"I air Daddy's brat——"
"——but I air yer squatter."
The End
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1922, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1964, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 59 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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