[soft music]
♪ ♪
- Wasn't until after 9:00
when I got to the voting place,
and Johnny and Molly had been there since 8:00.
♪ ♪
- Ooh, Gid, you ought to have taken a bath
before you come to work for the government.
- You don't smell like no prairie flower yourself.
Hello, Molly.
[mule baying]
♪ ♪
- Good morning, Ikey. - Good morning, Miss Molly.
Good morning, Mr. Johnny. Good morning, Mr. Gid.
- Morning, Ikey.
Why don't you sh**t that poor old mule,
put him out of his misery?
- sh**t that mule? Then how would I get around?
- Now, don't you pay any attention to him, Ikey.
Come on and vote now.
- Be sure to think it over good, Ikey.
- Oh, it ain't worth the trouble, Ikey.
The man with the most money always wins it anyway.
You sneaky bastard,
how long was you over here before I come?
- You know, I am ashamed about that, I must say.
Don't you think I got a pretty girl, though?
- Yeah, Molly's a pretty girl all right,
but you ain't got her by a long sh*t.
So why don't you take after Sarah Peters, anyway?
- Huh, Sarah's crazy about you.
Hey, you watch where you're pissing there!
- Hey, I just remembered something.
I was supposed to cut a big patch of cockleburs today.
- Well, then, why don't you? I'll stay here with Ikey.
Do your turn watching the voting box.
- Yeah, well, since you're so anxious to help,
why don't you lope on down and cut them for me?
- Hell no, I'm a cowboy.
I ain't a damn cocklebur chopper.
- Hmm, well, listen, now, Ikey, maybe I can hire you to do it.
See? I'll give you $2.
And Miss Molly's gonna stay here
so you don't have to worry about watching the voting.
- I will cut them and just be glad,
but sure did enjoy election day.
- Bye, Ikey.
- I wish I was well-off enough to hire my dirty work done.
I always have to do my own.
- Well, I never noticed you doing much.
Besides, I'd like to see Ikey get a better mule.
- Oh, if that ain't a lie, I never heard one.
[humming and clicking tongue]
Yeah, I guess I better be going.
[clicking tongue]
- Well, Mr. Frye, you sure was in a big hurry
to chase everybody off.
That wasn't very sociable.
- Well, I ain't very sociable in crowds,
especially not crowds of Johnny, you know.
Let's go up the hill.
I'm a lot more sociable where you're concerned.
- What if Johnny was to come back?
- Oh, what if? It ain't none of his business.
- Well, he thinks it is.
He keeps asking me all about us.
- Well, he can just quit it.
You're my girl, ain't you?
- Am I?
I think I'm too silly for you.
- No, you ain't.
I'm more starward than you are.
- Oh, no, you ain't.
Oh, you ain't even as silly as Johnny,
and he isn't as silly as me.
Eddie is the only one who is.
- Well, if you mean he's the only one
who's dumb, you're right.
At least I'm a little smart.
I'm smart enough to know you're the prettiest girl there is,
and I still think you're my girl.
- Well, maybe I am.
♪ ♪
- Damn it all. Ikey's coming back.
And I know damn good and well that Johnny put him up to it.
- Well, maybe if Ikey sees us lying here, he'll just go away,
or else we could go run and hide.
- No.
I don't want him to see us, and it's stupid to hide.
Damn Johnny!
- You just ain't very silly, are you?
♪ ♪
- Morning, Gid!
- Morning, Johnny.
- Here you go.
♪ ♪
- [laughs]
- You better help him up. He about to bust himself.
- No, he'll be up in a minute.
- You're a damn bastard.
What if that had been a rattlesnake?
- Couldn't have scared you any worse.
- Well, you better take a good look at the world.
- Come on, man! - Yeah, come on!
- Come on, man! Get him!
- Get up! Get him!
- Go ahead down there.
Wrap your leg around him now, Gid.
- Get on down there, Johnny! Do something with it.
- You've had enough with the calf rope.
- Calf rope, your ass!
You're going to bleed to death if we don't quit!
- Oh, sh*t. They don't want to--
- I'm quitting.
- What'll you do for money? - I been thinking about that.
Take off, go to the Panhandle where them big ranches are,
do some real cowboying!
- Wouldn't mind going with you.
Hell, working for Dad's worse than being a hired hand.
- You coming with me?
- I don't reckon so. There's too much to do here.
- Here.
What do you mean, too much cowboying or too much courting?
- I tell you, I ain't gonna take much more of you today.
- Hey, hey, I ain't aiming to go off and leave Molly either.
- Yeah?
- Man's got to get out in the world in this life,
see a little bit of it.
I guess there'd be some pretty girls there, too.
- Yeah, not like Molly.
Come on, I got something for you.
- Oh, man.
♪ ♪
My God.
You don't mean it.
♪ ♪
That's the nicest saddle I've ever seen.
- Well, if you're going off,
you'll sure get some use out of this.
♪ ♪
- Damn.
I'm sure much obliged, Gid.
♪ ♪
Good...
I never had nothing this well-made.
- Aw, come on, let's try it out.
- Good...
I just might leave in a day or so!
- Hi, Dad! - Hey, Mr. Frye!
- I hear you boys been b*ating on each other.
Too bad neither one of you's got any sense
to b*at into the other one.
- Aw, we wasn't out for blood, Mr. Frye.
Say, Mr. Frye, what do you think about my new saddle?
- Better than one I ever had,
and I'm three times your age and five times your smart.
- Pretty much got the notion to go up to the Panhandle myself.
Yah!
- Hell you will. You stay right where you are.
I tell you to plow, by god, you plow.
- You know I ain't no damn farmer.
Why don't you hire your farming done?
- I am. You're the one I'm hiring.
Why pay somebody else to do something we can do ourselves?
That ain't no way to get rich.
- What makes you think I want to get rich?
- Because I bred you, and I know
I couldn't breed a boy with so little sense
as to want to be poor instead of rich.
- Ain't what the Bible preaches.
- Ah, I ain't responsible for what the Bible says.
I know there's fools in the world
that says that poverty is holy.
You just let them go through some cold winter
without shoes sometime like I did when I was a kid
and see how holy they think it is.
Being poor just makes people little
and mean most of the time,
damn degrading thing.
- All right. I don't want to be poor.
You can not want to be poor
and still not care whether you're rich or not.
- Yeah, and thems the kind of people
that never accomplish anything.
The point is, you ain't like that.
You got too much of me in you.
You ain't old enough to know that yet, but I am.
Now, if you could just learn to listen to me,
you would save yourself a lot of misery.
- I don't guess you was ever known to be wrong, was you?
- I been wrong more times than I been right,
but that ain't no significance.
- I still might go to the Panhandle.
I want to enjoy my life. - Why?
Any damn fool can enjoy hisself.
What makes you think life is supposed to be enjoyed, anyhow?
Come on.
- Clean your feet.
I don't want none of your damn cow sh*t in my yard.
- [whistles]
- Hey. - Let's go fishing.
- Guess what?
I got a postcard from Johnny. You want to see it?
- No, I don't want to see it. I want to go fishing with you.
Now, do you want to go or don't you?
- Yes, let's go right now.
- Your dad don't look in too good of a humor.
- He won't bother us.
Besides, he likes catfish for supper.
You get the bate. I'll get the poles.
- I think we ought to talk about us marrying.
Wouldn't you like to?
- You're my favorite, Giddington.
What in the world would we do married?
- Well, what everybody does, I guess.
We ain't so different.
- Well, maybe you ain't, but I am.
I don't want to get in all that stuff yet.
It ain't nearly as much fun as things like we're doing today.
- How do you know? It might be more fun.
- I think girls who get married just to do a lot of things
with boys ain't very nice.
I'd just as soon do all those things
and not be married, and I mean that.
I ain't gonna marry
until I have to 'cause of having a baby.
- Honey, don't talk that way. I'm crazy about you.
I just want you for a wife, that's all.
- I'm crazy about you too, Gid.
You're the best to me of anybody,
but I ain't going to marry, I mean that.
I'll do anything you want me to but that.
I'll do everything else you want me to, right now.
Let's go swimming, Gid. It's so hot.
- Molly, quit it.
Ain't no use in teasing me. We got nothing to swimming in.
- We got skin.
I didn't know you were such a scaredy cat.
- Now, listen, Molly, you better quit that before
I shake the hell out of you.
I ain't scared of you.
I just know what's right and what ain't.
- You're just too sober.
- Yeah, well, maybe I am too sober.
I guess I am, but I ain't going to be stampeded
into doing something crazy, even if we both want to.
- You done said that. Shut up about it.
- Molly, wait!
- What for? You're getting so careful.
You'll soon be afraid to hold hands!
[dog barking]
- Hush up, Petey, you hush up! Who's out there?
- Just me!
- Sarah wasn't the kind of girl I could get excited
about in a permanent way,
but every once in awhile, she was the kind
I could get real excited about in a temporary way.
- Can I get you any supper? - No, no, I--
- You want to come in?
- All right, hush! Get in that bed!
- So I wasn't proud of the reasons I went to see
Sarah, but I went anyway.
- No more acting like a fool now.
You understand me? Oh, just save it!
- Thought you might like to take a walk.
- Yeah, that'd be nice.
Gid, there ain't none I'd rather be with.
- You can if you want to, Gid.
Then we can get married, and you'll be the best husband
in the whole world.
- You left home without me, Gid.
I ain't feeling good.
- Oh, my goodness, Molly.
You scared the daylights out of me.
Why don't you turn on some kind of light?
- Don't you say a word against my daddy.
He wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been so mean.
- Well, I sure am sorry about it, Molly.
- Well, you're so all dressed up.
You look so nice. You ought to go on.
- Oh, you just hush.
By the time we get to the dance,
everybody will be so drunk,
they won't notice if you have three black eyes.
- I can't got to the dance with this eye,
but you ought to go on.
Think of all the girls you can dance with.
- Eddie can take care of all them other girls.
- He said he wouldn't.
- Yeah, well, what he says
and what he does is two different things.
- Not when it comes to me, they ain't.
- Where is your dad tonight, anyway?
- He was out of whiskey and had to go to Henrietta.
He may not be back for two or three days.
♪ ♪
- I want to make up for the other day.
I sure do love you.
♪ ♪
It's okay then?
You'll let me make it up to you tonight?
I've been worrying about it a lot.
- Yes, I want you to.
♪ ♪
Where did you go?
You never needed to leave me and go nowhere!
- Just to latch the door.
- Don't you ever leave me like that again!
I don't care if the doors are latched or not.
Next time you leave, you just keep right on going!
- Just gotta be sure you know what you're doing.
- Don't you talk no more.
Don't you say another word tonight.
- Good God. Dad will skin me alive.
I ought'd woken up and gone home.
- Oh, let's just stay here
where it's nice and warm and just us, huh?
- Lord, I'd like to, but Dad is the boss.
I'd better skedaddle.
- All right.
I'll cook you some biscuits anyway.
- Hey, Molly?
I thought you were supposed to --
- What, supposed to bleed all over the place?
Why, Gid, don't you know no better than that?
You're the funniest boy.
You only bleed like that the first time.
- I guess I'm a damn fool for sending two idiots
when I could send just one,
but maybe one will be sober enough
to look after the cattle part of the time.
I want you boys back by Sunday,
and I don't want you to give them cattle away.
You see any yearling steers worth the money,
might buy me about 100 of them.
♪ ♪
- Whoo, whoo!
I sure do like riding trains!
- Talking about marrying, that reminds me of something
I been meaning to ask you about.
- I ain't been talking about marrying.
- I got to admit you got first claims on Molly,
but do you intend to marry her or not?
One of us has got to, and that's for sure!
Now, I know you laid up with her.
Hell, I don't blame you.
I done it, too, but you was the first!
- I don't believe you're serious,
and I know you're crazy!
Now, what in the world are you talking about?
- It ain't a way to do a good-hearted girl, now, is it?
- You b*at all I ever seen!
After being in that whorehouse in Kansas,
you talk like a damn preacher!
Molly ain't done nothing to be ashamed of!
She just--she likes both of us!
You're just the same as some of these people!
- Well, maybe so, but one of us ought to take care of her!
You was first, so you get first chance!
- There ain't no such thing! I wasn't first!
I was thinking you was first.
- What?
- Oh, hell.
Must've been that damn Eddie.
Well, he ought to have the sh*t kicked out of him!
- Why would she want to take up with someone like that for?
- Well, I guess Molly's been living with that
no-account bastard of a daddy so long,
she can't even tell worthless people from them
that's got something to them!
Eddie done it to her first.
He's the one gonna marry her then!
- My God, you think I'd sit by
and watch Molly marry a worthless sumbitch like that?
- Well, it'd serve her right, by God!
She oughtn't have taken up with him in the first place.
- Hell.
I'll marry her anyway, even if I am third man.
♪ ♪
- You're the Frye boys, ain't you?
- That's right, Gideon Frye.
- You know, you've missed two good chances
to sell these cattle already.
Now, you take your dad,
he'd have been down here at daylight.
- Where are the buyers?
- Over there.
- Watching them big operators made an impression on me.
They acted like what they was doing was important.
Nobody was ordering them around
like Dad done me and Johnny.
Dad had probably been right about me.
Johnny, he could go up and cowboy if he wanted,
but it just wouldn't suit me for long.
I wanted to amount to what all them big boys amounted to.
I had over $8,000 of Dad's money,
and I bought a little bunch of steers
and sold them not an hour later
for a dollar a hundred profit.
Boy, it felt like I was on my way.
♪ ♪
- Well, they ain't the worst cattle I ever seen.
How'd the other cattle sell?
♪ ♪
- Good, only I never got home with all the money.
I got to cattle trading and made a little profit,
then a lot of damn fellows skinned me and lost that
and $1,200 beside.
Guess I can work it out in a few years.
- Hi, Gid.
Gid, I didn't have the time to thank you
for sending over all the preserves.
We sure did appreciate it.
- Oh, don't think nothing of it.
- Mr. [indistinct] bought some.
Anyway, some of these days I'm gonna make it up to you.
- No. - You wait and see if I don't.
Gid?
Come and see me real soon.
- Which one of them girls you reckon you'll marry?
- Oh, I can't see how it's much of your business.
- I was just curious as to which kind of trouble
you mean to get yourself into.
All right, so Sarah ain't the kind of girl you want.
She's just the kind of girl that wants you.
Well, of course if you do marry her, that'll be hell too,
but at least you won't lose no friend.
- Well, if I marry either one, it'll damn sure be Molly.
- Well, don't make no bets and don't be sorry
if you don't.
If you stay loose from her,
she'll make you the best kind of friend you can have,
but if you marry her, you have 99 kinds of misery.
A woman is a wonderful thing, g*dd*mn them,
but man oughtn't to marry one
unless he just absolutely has to have kids.
- Well, you married and survived it, didn't you?
- Yeah, but your mother didn't, and I'm surprised I did.
People are the hardest animals in the world to raise.
That's because nobody got round
to breeding them right in the first place.
- Oh, you don't breed people.
- Well, it's a damn pity.
That's why I don't mind so bad being old.
If I was young again,
I'd probably mess up even worse than I did.
- That's a pessimistic damn thing to say.
I think life's a damn sight more fun than that.
- You ain't lived one.
- Hey, you're my girl.
- I only come out so you could kiss me goodnight.
- Come to the dance with me? - Oh, I'm sorry, Gid.
I promised somebody already I'd go with him.
- Well, at least I'll get to dance with you a lot.
Johnny won't care about that. - Oh, no, it wasn't Johnny.
I promised Eddie I wouldn't go
to dances anymore with anybody but him.
- Are you plumb crazy?
Why, that beats anything in the damn world.
He ain't any count.
- Now, you ain't the only kind of good person, Gid.
How do you know you're any better than Eddie?
- Same way you know!
- Gid...
[fast music]
♪ ♪
- That son of a bitch.
♪ ♪
Well, at least it's a good excuse to get drunk.
♪ ♪
- Hey! Howdy, cowpuncher!
Hey, dance with my girl awhile, huh?
Got to have a drink.
- Well, I'm sure glad you finally made it.
Well, guess what?
You know, Eddie bought himself a car.
♪ ♪
- Hey, Gid, Johnny and Eddie are fighting outside!
♪ ♪
- Get him!
[all yelling]
- Get in there and fight, Johnny, go fight!
- Get him, Johnny, get him! - Get him off me!
- You're a coward!
- Those boys aren't hurting one another, are they?
- Nah, they're just fighting, Gus.
- Get him, Johnny! Come on!
- Get him! - Get him, Johnny!
- Come on! - Come on, Johnny!
- Get him! - Get up!
- Get up, Johnny! - Get up!
- Get him! - Get up!
- Come on, get him!
- Come on, Eddie. - Come on!
- Maybe now you'll leave her alone, you horse's butt, you!
- I don't like filthy language. Who started this fight anyway?
- I did, by God, and by God, I finished it too.
I'd whip you too if you didn't have that damn badge on.
- Taking the Lord's name in vain
is one thing I won't stand for.
Plus, the lady heard you say it.
- Don't you ever get tired of this?
- No, I love it.
What are you so down in the dumps about?
- Oh, Molly, I guess.
She don't care nothing about me,
at least not like I want her too.
- What she done now?
- Well, I rode all the way out there last night to visit her.
- Uh-huh.
- And first thing I saw was Eddie's damn automobile.
I never even went in.
He was sitting in there eating vinegar cobbler.
She's waiting on him just like he owned the damn place.
- Well, sh*t on the world. Let's go someplace.
- I'll be damned if I shovel horse turds
while she cooks cobbler for someone like Eddie.
- Let's go to the panhandle and show them all.
- Sold [indistinct], $80.
Here we are, ladies and gentlemen--
- You bought yourself some fine horses, mister.
- Maybe, get them broke.
- We're two cowpunchers looking for a job.
- You ride broncs?
- Yeah, both of us. - All right.
I'll try you out for a week, give you a dollar a piece
to give those broncs a good ride.
If we get along, you get $15 a month, bunk and board.
That suit you?
- Hell, ought to be worth more than that.
- Take it or leave it.
- Whoa!
- You ain't going to bust no bronc that way, son.
You're just building up his confidence.
- Oh, hell. I ain't no damn bronc rider.
I like a horse that already knows something,
so I can get some work done.
You keep me a week, if I ain't the best hand
you've got, well, by God, just fire me.
- What about you? - He can ride them.
He likes that kind of stuff.
- Well, I'm willing to be showed.
How many you think you can ride a day?
- I don't know.
I'd ought to be through with them by 3:00.
- Cocky, ain't you?
Remind me of myself when I come here in '93
with nothing but a fiddle and a hard-on.
Still got the fiddle.
♪ ♪
Now you've got him!
Hold on to him! You've got him now!
You got him! Hold on!
You got him!
[soft music]
- I'm going home.
Ain't no use in me loafing around here any longer.
- Well, wait until we get on the new job.
Think of that Indian woman.
- Why would I want an Indian woman
when Molly is just 3 miles from home?
- Aw, hell, if she's losing any sleep
it's not over either of us.
Anyway, Gid,
there ain't as much at home for me as there is for you.
Oh, give old Molly a kiss.
Tell her she's still my girl.
- I hate to run off and leave you, old buddy.
Don't let no crazy horse fall on you.
- You watch out yourself.
♪ ♪
- I was homesick.
I couldn't get over thinking about Dad, and Molly,
and the country, and the ranch,
the things I knew.
The country might not be very nice,
and the people might be ornery,
but it was my country and my people,
and no other country was, no other people either.
You do better staying with what's your own,
even if it's hard.
- Guess you got rich quicker than I thought you would,
or else you went broke quicker,
which was it?
- I just got homesick.
How's everything here?
- Run-down, wore-out like me.
Say, a couple of them horses need their shoes pulled off.
I don't have energy.
- You better make him go to the doctor.
- He's too damn ornery.
- Oh, don't you talk bad about him, Gid.
He is a good man.
He treats me better than anybody I know, you included.
- You don't reckon he'll die, do you?
- He just might, Gid. He's getting sicker and sicker.
- Dad couldn't keep still long enough to die.
- Hey, what happened?
- Well, Mr. Taylor and me was drinking and we went out
to the smokehouse looking for some more whiskey.
Then Mr. Taylor picked up a jug of lye by mistake
and took a swallow, and it k*lled him.
Oh, I've got to get me a drink. I'll be back in a day or two.
- Can you clean it up a little bit?
I can't look at him.
♪ ♪
- What will I do, Gid?
You know I can't do without Dad.
- I'm not sure.
♪ ♪
- "Dear Gid, this is the life for me,
"and I don't mean maybe.
"That Indian woman, Geli,
"she made a big wool bandana to keep my neck warm.
"Well, tell Molly I'm awful sorry about her trouble.
"I ain't going to miss the old bastard personally, are you?
"If you fight Eddie, get the first lick in yourself,
"preferably with a two-by-four.
"I ain't losing any sleep over you and her getting married.
"I know she ain't that far gone.
"Sorry to hear your dad is sick.
"Well, write me again and tell Molly I'll be seeing her.
Your friend, Johnny."
[car honking]
- God damn it, Eddie!
Next time you scare off cattle of mine with your automobile,
you're going to get the sh*t drug out of you.
- I have a notion to whip your butt right now.
- Okay, have at it.
- Well, not now, but you can count on one coming.
And another thing, you stay the hell away from my wife!
- Stay away from your what?
- My wife, just leave her the hell alone!
Hey, you look surprised.
Hell, we've been married a week!
Well, ain't you going to congratulate me?
- Didn't seem no reason left to work or nothing.
Dad was looking low,
and I had have given anything to talk to Molly about it.
I did go in and see Sarah Peters a time or two,
but she wasn't no help.
She was after me to marry her, and I was half a mind to.
Didn't see how I could be no worse off than I was.
Anyway, I had got to the point where I had liked
to talk to Dad.
It had taken me a long time.
- I got a good ranch.
Too bad she married him, but she'd make a good wife.
Let me tell you something, son.
A woman's love is like the morning dew.
It's just as apt to settle on a horse turd as on a rose,
so you better just get over it.
- Well, why'd she want to marry a bastard like that?
I just don't figure.
- Well, no, it don't.
So don't try.
She's got a lot of sense
when it comes to taking care of herself.
She'll make it, been on her own since she could walk.
So there's no use you setting on your butt sulking.
Sulking never made a dime or kept a friend.
Anyhow, you are stubborn.
Stubbornness would get a fellow through a lot of mean places.
- "Dear Gid, miserable night.
"There's no profit in putting up with this.
"I think I'll go out on the hill
"and turn my horses free.
"Take good care of the ranch. It's a dilly.
"And don't trust every damn fool
"that comes up the road.
"Always work outside when you can,
"it's the healthiest thing.
"Tell Mrs. Molly I appreciated her coming and helping us.
"Well, this is the longest letter
"I've written in ten years.
"Be sure and get that windmill fixed.
"I guess you'd better put in some new sucker rod.
Your dad."
- And with the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.
♪ ♪
- I'm so sorry, Gid.
First my dad and then yours.
- Dad wanted you to know he sure
appreciated you coming over.
It's like a big twister come down from the north
and suddenly uprooted everything.
♪ ♪
- Well, I hope you'll come by and see me sometime soon,
after this is all over, huh?
♪ ♪
[upbeat music]
♪ ♪
- One thing was for sure, I wasn't no solitary owl,
so I thought the best thing to do was marry Sarah.
Figured she'd be so grateful to me for just marrying her
that she shouldn't fuss none for about 15 years.
♪ ♪
- Gid, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Ain't you even gonna help me down?
♪ ♪
I can see where
I'm going to have to do a little work on you.
- Sarah was a good person, I guess.
She was just a combination of proud and scared,
but that never changed the fact
that she just wasn't a very generous person.
I guess she'd never had anything to learn
to be generous with.
♪ ♪
Another thing was I was crazy about Molly.
♪ ♪
Hello, neighbor. How are you getting along?
- Gid!
My, you scared me.
- Sorry.
- Oh, my hands are wet. - It feels good.
Ain't this some way for old married folks to be acting?
- It feels good though.
I am so glad to see you.
- Where's Eddie? - Oh, he's in Oklahoma.
He's gone to the oil fields working there.
It feels so good to see you.
- Good lord.
I don't see how he can stand to leave someone like you.
- That's just because you ain't Eddie.
- Uh-huh.
- He'd go crazy if he couldn't go running around.
I guess he's a little bit like Dad.
It's so good to see you, Gid.
- God, you are the sweetest woman I ever got a hold of.
I ain't the shy old kid I used to be.
- What's shy got to do with it? - Oh, it's got a lot.
The state I'm in, it's whole-hog or nothing.
- Oh, Giddington.
I have always hoped that you would come over here
ready to be whole-hog in love with me!
- Well, good lord, honey. I've been whole-hog in love
with you for the past ten years, surely you know that?
- I know you think you have, Gid, but you haven't.
- Well, what do you mean whole-hog?
- I mean, just you loving me and nothing else,
just pure me and pure you,
but you, you've always got to be thinking
about Johnny, or Eddie, or your dad, or your ranch,
or what people will think, or what's right,
or what's wrong,
or else you're thinking about having me
for a girl or I don't know.
- Molly, what do I have to do?
You drive me half crazy, don't you know that?
- Oh, Giddington, I don't want to hurt you.
I don't want to hurt you.
I just wish that you could let go of yourself
just for once and just hold on to me.
- Well, I don't guess I know how to do that.
If I did, I would.
- Yes, I know.
But maybe I can show you.
I'm ready to have a baby,
and I'm convinced that you will make a good daddy.
- How come you don't want your husband for its daddy?
- Well, he just wouldn't be as good of one, that's all.
It's you.
Although, I'll let on that it's his,
but you, and me, and the baby will know.
- Well, if you're gonna have a baby,
I guess I'd want to be the father.
- Oh, I knew you would understand, Gid.
- Well, here I am. Hey, how you doing?
- Well, I'll be damned.
- Oh, I was hoping he'd come back.
- And look at that sorrel he's riding.
Ain't it a beauty?
- I figured you'd be here.
- I just came over to help out.
- At least being married ain't ruined your looks none.
Damn, if you ain't even more beautiful than ever.
You, too, old buddy. You, too, Bess.
- It's sure good seeing you, cowboy.
- Are you home to stay?
- Yeah.
- You can start tomorrow and live in our bunkhouse.
We'll board you if you want to.
- That's fine with me.
- Hey, sometimes you have supper with me, huh?
Come over and have supper with me.
Half the time I eat alone.
- Oh, you can count on it.
- Ah!
♪ ♪
- Hold him.
- Oh, look at you.
♪ ♪
- Seeing Molly,
I began to kind of take an interest in life again,
but I hardly got over more than once a week.
Lots of times I was busy, and other times
I'd see Eddie's car and have to go back.
But I knew if I was a little patient
we'd be able to get together.
Those times was well worth the wait.
You look about as hot as I am!
- Oh, I'm glad you've come!
- Just bought three sections of land
adjoining me on the north,
borrowed the money from a bank in Austin.
- Well, that's wonderful, Gid.
I've been saving something to show you.
- What have you got that I ain't already seen?
♪ ♪
- This, Gid.
♪ ♪
Don't that make you glad? I am so proud.
- Why, sure, if it's what you've been wanting.
And it's ours for sure? - It's ours for sure.
I am so glad that the first one was yours.
♪ ♪
- I'll see you in a day or two.
♪ ♪
I never rode off from Molly in my life
if I didn't want to turn and go back a dozen times.
She always stood right where you left her as long
as she could see you.
I remember her that afternoon all sweaty and loving.
I felt Molly was just as permanent as my land.
♪ ♪
- You cut that out!
You've got to learn how to drive, man!
- It seemed like I had spent a lot of my life
watching Gid or Johnny going or coming across that hill.
It was all right.
I enjoyed being there where they could find me
if they took a notion to come back,
and they always had.
♪ ♪
- I wish you would have bought that red convertible.
A woman likes you needs a car to haul her boyfriends around.
- Well, now, you know, I think I would like one that's open
so as I could climb out if I needed too.
- You'd need to if I was in there with you.
- Maybe I should have bought that Cadillac.
You know, he was the nicest salesman.
- Yeah, he'd a sold
you a limousine in another ten minutes.
- Well, it's my money, you know?
♪ ♪
Thank you.
- Here you go. - All right.
♪ ♪
Thank you very much.
- It drives like a good car, just stiff.
- Yeah, well, it better be good.
I intend it to last me for the rest of my life.
Johnny was never happier when he was helping out.
He was staying at Gid's old ranch house,
and Gid was living in town in the house
that Sarah had made and built.
My house was awful empty.
Eddie had d*ed two years after we married.
Even the children were gone.
Matt, my son with Gid, was in the Navy
and off fighting somewhere in the Pacific.
A few months after Matt was born, I could see
that Johnny wanted a child also,
and I liked the idea.
We had a son, Joe.
But he d*ed in action over Germany.
Joe was born two years after Matt.
He had been nothing but happiness for us both,
but the w*r had taken him away from me forever.
- I knew you'd smile sooner or later.
- Well, about three more weeks and I'll be able to cook you up
some roasted ears, hm?
- Mm-hmm.
- Where's your boss?
- Oh, he's out buying himself another ranch for me
to take care of.
Gid is plain land-crazy.
- You just let him go ahead now.
Everybody is some kind of crazy.
- What kind of crazy are you?
- Just plain crazy.
- Molly? - Hm?
- I'm woman crazy.
- Hey, would you like to help me tie up some tomato plants?
- No, I want to be treated like company for a change,
not like a damn hand.
- Well, pardon me.
- No, actually why I'm here is,
I came a-courting.
- Well! - Yeah.
- Why, yes, son. I'll marry you.
You just let me go in and get my pocketbook,
and I'll go pay the preacher.
- Oh, hush.
I'd just as soon marry an alligator.
You sure are nice to me.
I'd have probably been
a cr*pple years ago if it hadn't been for you.
- You could have put some liniment on this, you know,
if you weren't so careless with yourself.
- It's so much nicer when you do it.
You can rub my back a little bit if you want to.
- I can? All right.
- This is the good life.
- What is good?
- Good old Joe.
He was so full of life.
- You know, I was always afraid he'd marry
one of them English girls and bring her home to Texas
and not know what to do with her.
- He was quite a boy.
- I remember his face
when I told him you was his real dad.
It just tickled him so.
I always thought he suspected it,
but when he grinned at the news, I cried
for half an hour, I was so relieved.
♪ ♪
- I guess Gid's bought another five sections by now.
- Tell him to come by and see me soon, huh?
He don't come by very much since they moved into town.
- I'd just as soon not encourage the competition.
- Well, he never heard the news tonight.
Don't suppose you're interested.
- No, not particularly.
When the Japs and Germans
cross the county line, then I'll be interested.
- Mm. - Oh, I apologize.
♪ ♪
I sure enjoyed the meal.
♪ ♪
- I was scared you'd blown plumb away.
- Oh, oh! Oh, my lord, I overslept.
I bet that milk cow thinks she's forgot.
- Oh. - Mm.
- I don't know what I was to do if you was to blow away.
- Oh, well, hush. I won't.
- Well, I never meant to come out here and go back to bed.
- Oh, lord, you are the silliest man alive.
Maybe that's why I love you.
You know, when we were young,
I didn't think you were silly at all.
- I'll go milk.
- Well, go on.
I'll get some breakfast.
[car honking]
Morning!
- Morning, Mrs. White.
- What have you got for me this morning?
- From overseas. Looks like a letter from Matt.
- It is! It is from Matt.
- Anything from Matt?
- No.
I felt dry inside and out when I lied to Gid,
and part of me wanted to show him Matt's letter.
If I had,
he might never have left me again.
- I just wish we could make it up to Matt some way,
whatever it is we done wrong.
I don't reckon he hates us, does he?
- Oh, yes.
- The Army might change him.
Might be a little more tolerant when he comes home.
You oughtn't to cry.
Now, if this was Sarah,
she'd have on stockings.
- Talking about Matt that day made me sad.
Everybody knew he was Gid's son,
and Matt hated us for what it had done to his life.
Sarah thought I was so trashy anyway,
she was glad to have Matt and Joe around for proof.
She even got some of her club ladies behind her,
and for a while I'd get letters addressed
to "Molly White, Adulterer," or "Molly, the Fornicator."
Well, the way I looked at it, if I'd done them things,
I'd done them with Eddie,
and he's the one I was married to.
I was crazy about Eddie sometimes, about the way
his hair was always shaggy on the back of his neck.
It may be why I married him, silly as that is.
[dogs barking]
- Hey, Molly, come here. you gotta see this.
- What? - Come here.
- What you think about that, huh?
- It's just dogs breeding. It's only natural.
- Yeah, it just come natural for you, too, don't it?
Yeah, but I'm better than those two cowboys put together.
Ain't that right?
Look at that bitch.
- Well, Eddie, I didn't know you liked to watch so much.
Hey, would you like to move the mirror over by the bed
so you can watch us?
- All right. By God, let's do it!
- [laughs] - Come on!
- Ooh, careful!
Oh, my goodness.
- Come on!
- Once Dad told me that if I got married,
to marry Eddie.
Dad said, "Eddie will never have more to his name
"than a fancy automobile,
"but at least, by God, he drinks,
and he'll treat you like a wife ought to be treated."
They never brought Eddie home after he d*ed.
He was k*lled on an oil rig
and was buried in Chickasaw, Oklahoma.
- I'm sorry, Mrs. White.
I guess they're going to get all the boys before it's over.
[car honking]
- They k*lled my oldest boy.
- Would you like to come in?
- Drive me home, Gid.
What's life going to leave me, Gid?
I'm sorry.
- Why, Molly?
He's the only son we'll ever have.
- What's the matter, huh?
- After all these years,
I'm still crazy in love with you,
but I got to tell you
that I ain't gonna do this anymore,
and I guess I'm sad 'cause it's our last time.
It's got to be that way.
- Gid, this ain't one bit of my business.
But do you and Sarah ever do this?
- Yeah, sometimes.
- Well, then if she don't care to give it, and I do,
then what's the harm of letting me?
Well, you just enjoy me a whole lot,
I can tell that, and that's what I want you to do.
Are you ashamed of me, too?
- Who's good enough to be ashamed of you?
- Well, Matt was ashamed of me.
- I'm ashamed of both of us, and that's part of the reason
I've made up my mind like I have.
- Well, why are you ashamed and I'm not?
I mean, I thought
really caring about a person made the difference.
- I don't know.
I was raised to believe that
what we do is wrong.
The church says so, too, and so does the law.
- Well, I'm just me, Gid. I ain't the church.
I ain't the law.
- A lot of people think stealing's wrong
except when it's them stealing, so if this here's wrong,
then it's wrong when we do it too, now ain't it?
- All I can say about it is that if it's wrong,
then let's you and I just have the guts to be wrong.
Oh, we can't but go to hell for it,
and that'd be a lot better than doing without you!
- We already ruined one child's life.
I got a granddaughter now that's got to be considered.
Molly, you could marry Johnny.
- Oh, Johnny!
Johnny don't want to get married, and I don't either,
but you know you've always been my mainstay.
- Then why didn't you marry me?
Why did you marry that no-good bastard Eddie?
Why didn't you marry me?
- Hmm, now, that's hard to say.
I guess it's because I always thought
that he needed me more than you.
I was wrong.
- Well, it just about ruined my life, Molly!
I wish I knew what was involved
in all this...
loving someone.
Mostly a lot of damn heartbreak, I know that.
- Well, I know that at least we have done something
that was good.
Please don't quit me again!
- I'll be by whenever I can risk it.
- Well, then goodbye, damn you, because you can't ever risk it!
I've liked it, and I ain't ashamed of anything!
Matt's dead,
but your quitting me won't make up nothing to him!
- I never quit nothing in my life!
- If you can think of a prettier word for it, fine!
You're the one that has clothes on!
♪ ♪
- "I just got your letter saying Joe was k*lled.
"I hope I'm as lucky.
"I know now I'll never get over the bitterness I feel.
"I know you tried to make it up to me somehow,
"but what you did with Gid was
"as bad a thing as a woman can do.
"Gid must be as ashamed of you as I am.
"Must be why after all these years, he never married you.
I guess you won't be hearing from me again."
♪ ♪
- God knows whether I'd done the right thing
burning that letter.
It would've broken Gid's heart to see it,
and grief would've kept him by me,
but I didn't want him that way.
I couldn't answer Gid's question about why
I married Eddie, either.
I guess that says something pretty bad about me.
I knew what I like to eat and smell and do
and some bigger things about giving and taking,
but knowing about why I married Eddie
wouldn't have made it any less done.
♪ ♪
- Hey, Molly! Let me give you a hand.
- Oh, well, thank you. - How you doing?
- Oh, fine. - Good.
- Here.
- Well, I guess I better tell you off, Molly.
You been getting me mixed up with Gid lately.
It's been getting me down.
That ain't fair to me for you to pretend that I'm him.
- Oh, I'm sorry, Johnny.
Well, I guess that you know
that Gid has changed his way of thinking about me.
That's just made me miserable, that's all.
- Not as miserable as it's made him.
Oh, you and I may never k*ll nobody over one another,
but we're comfortable,
and I just--I want us to keep on being that way.
- I don't know.
I might k*ll a person or two for you.
Johnny?
- Mm-hmm?
- What do you think about what we do?
- Well, it's enjoyable.
- No, but do you think that it has been wrong for me
all these years to do what we've--
- No, no. - No?
- After all, we raised a fine son.
I sure do miss him,
but I never missed a night's sleep
in my life from being ashamed.
- I wish Gid would agree.
- Hm.
Yep.
- Maybe you'll come and see me soon, will you?
- Mm-hmm.
- Now that I'm straightened out on who you are.
- Oh, don't you worry.
You won't even know whether I'm living here or not.
♪ ♪
- I found this puppy, Molly.
You want to raise him?
- Of course. I'll get him a box.
- Can I help?
- I can manage. I'll get you some lemonade.
Come up and relax.
♪ ♪
It would have been easy to have touched Gid that day.
He was just starving for somebody to,
but it wouldn't have been loving him much
to have tricked him
into doing something he had suffered so much to quit.
♪ ♪
I thought I would do better to help him keep his word,
but I don't know, never will know.
After Gid left, I sat there a while.
My menfolk began rising with the Moon.
Dad and Eddie, they were drunk,
had whiskey on their breath.
Matt was looking away from me, thinking of school.
Joe, he was laughing,
and Johnny was lazing along,
grinning about something.
But Gid was looking at my face
and wishing he could put his hand on my hair.
- We had a good shower a couple days ago.
- No more than an inch, Molly said.
That's b*rned off.
- Now, you've been laying here half-conscious
in an air-conditioned room for ten days,
and you're trying to tell me how hot it is.
- How's the cattle? - All d*ed of blackleg.
How's that for calamity?
When you coming home?
- Two days.
They're trying to give me two more weeks.
- Molly says they want you to ease up.
- Doctors had their way,
whole world would be sitting on its butt.
- Oh...
Gid, now, this...
It's a...
[laughs]
- Ah!
- No.
- Gid?
Gid.
Gid--
- [laughs]
- Ah, how would it be if this gentleman left
so you could take a nap?
- It wouldn't be worth a damn.
I'll sleep when I get sleepy, like I done all my life.
- You old cowboys think the world revolves around you.
- [laughs]
- Bring the pickup around to the side.
I've had my crawful.
How's Molly?
- Lonesome. - Well, it's her fault.
Someone needs to make her a little less independent.
- I could spit on two fellas
who've been trying to do that their whole lives.
- Take me to Molly's!
If I go home, they'll just knock me out
and haul me back to the hospital.
- If I can't keep him from going,
you make sure that he takes it easy, would you?
- Gid was out of bed within a few days,
but for a while there, I thought he was gonna
stay on with Molly for the rest of his life.
Where that would've left me, I didn't know.
- I don't know how to thank you, Molly.
- I do.
You can go right back in out of this cold wind,
get into bed, and you stay there!
- Got to get to working.
- Well, all right, honey, but you don't have to leave.
You can go to work,
and then you could come back here.
- Can't, not for right now, anyway.
Oh, running off from the hospital
like that ain't the right way to settle anything.
Many thanks again for taking care of me.
- You're right welcome, Gid.
God bless you.
- Wish I could've
thought of a nicer way to leave.
- It's about time you pleased yourself a little
if you're ever going to.
- You can't just run off and do something like that
on the spur of the moment.
There's a right way and a wrong!
- And you're the only man alive that can tell them apart.
- I got a notion to go live with Molly for good.
Might have a few years' peace.
Damn!
This pipe's hot enough to fry an egg on.
Throw me up them gloves, will you?
- As much money as you got, and you're still fighting
a g*dd*mn windmill!
Why do you do it?
- Sometimes I wonder myself.
When Sarah gets back from visiting her cousin,
I'm gonna tell her.
That bother you much,
if I was to move in with Molly?
- No, it don't bother me a bit.
It'd be good for both of you.
Seems like you've been up there for days!
- I guess it would, though.
After all,
we've kind of
shared her, haven't we?
- Turn her on!
Gid!
- Damn side hurts.
You should take me over to Molly's.
Maybe this time I'll have the sense to stay where I belong.
- I'd be willing to have the doctor look at you first,
and I'll drive you out there tonight
or the first thing in the morning.
- No, no, no, no, no, no.
Country's too dry.
Sure do wish it would rain.
Oh, me, Johnny.
Ain't this been a hell of a time?
- Sure it has, Gid.
♪ ♪
[car honks]
[car honking]
What's your g*dd*mn hurry?
- I sure appreciate your staying the night.
I never cried so much when Daddy d*ed.
I was young then.
I don't think I could have stood being alone tonight.
You know, the day we got word about Matt,
Gid and I played dominoes.
- You want to play some tonight?
- Lord, no, I'd rather not.
- Well, he was sure some feller, wasn't he?
I don't expect I'll ever see another one like him.
You remember that saddle he gave me?
That's the most expensive saddle ever made
at Brown's Saddle Shop.
And we had a big fight the day that he gave it to me.
It was over you, I guess.
- Well, Johnny, I swear!
That is the first time I have ever seen you embarrassed.
I've had to wait a lot of years.
- Well, it ain't because of that.
You caused that many times.
You stayed too pretty, Molly.
It's 'cause of Gid that I'm embarrassed.
- Not that I want you to be.
That's nature. She ain't no respecter.
I don't want you to be embarrassed no matter
if you're 100 years old.
You better not waste it either.
- You don't want to wrestle like we used to, do you?
- I lost my girlish strength.
- Oh, you never had none.
You was just awful wiggly.
Molly, what would you think about us marrying?
- I think we ain't the kind, honey.
But thank you a whole lot for asking.
- I could have asked you about 30 years ago.
- We lived then pretty good.
Marrying ain't as important a question
as a lot of people think.
Just because we ain't marrying don't mean you're free
to miss a night.
You're welcome here every night all night
when you feel like putting up with me.
- Well, I'll be here in time to carve the beef.
- He had left me the old pickup
and 1,000 acres of land.
He couldn't stand for me not to increase my holdings.
That 1,000 acres sure b*rned Sarah.
He just left Molly his dad's old pocket watch.
I guess he knew Sarah would have gone
to court if he'd left her anything more.
Molly was plenty satisfied.
♪ ♪
I remember one election day
when me and Molly had the first shift.
Bloom was really on the peach as far as she was concerned.
We were there one hour kissing by ourselves when Gid come
and talked her into staying after I had to leave.
♪ ♪
He thought that he'd have Molly to himself
for two hours or so,
but I circled around, you see, and intercepted Ikey
and sent him back,
so poor Gid got 20 minutes.
♪ ♪
Oh, I guess it was kind of mean, really.
Nobody gets enough chances at the wild and the sweet.
♪ ♪
Just two things I regret.
One was not being able to see Gid's face
when he heard that crippled mule of Ikey's.
And the other is
forgetting to bring a Kodak that morning
so I could have got a picture of Molly sitting
in her blue and white dress on the schoolhouse steps.
♪ ♪
Lovin' Molly (1974)
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