Moon of the Wolf (1972) Movie Script
- Tom, Tom!
Get your back waddle out of that bed!
Bring your shotgun!
You dirty, old blind dogs, dang buzzards,
we're coming at you this time!
- Them hounds got the scent
of something out there, all right.
- Wild dogs.
- All I'm saying is by the sound of them.
Dang wild dogs out
in the swamp, let's get them.
- What's that, pa'?
- What?
- Looks like a body.
Here, pa, take these dogs.
- Stay here and shut your choppers,
you era-flakken fat laps.
- Oh, sweet jeepers.
It's Ellie burrifew, pa.
- Ellie burrifew?
- Yeah.
- Dead?
- Anything deader would
be stinking by now.
- Wild dogs got them themselves
a taste of human blood.
Ain't nobody gonna be
safe out in their houses
'til we get together and
wipe them off the island!
You go call the sheriff.
- Yes, pa.
- All right, what can
anyone tell me about it'?
- Well, young Tom, here,
he come on her first.
- How'd the rest of you get here so fast?
- Brad and skellar was at the gas station
when I called you, sheriff.
Game on the park driving back here.
- Who else knows about it?
- Only preacher biggers.
I called him after I called you.
- What for?
- Well, I figured somebody ought
to tell her brother what happened to her.
Preacher biggers is the only one
in frenchtown got a telephone.
- Well, we're lucky you don't have
a whole pocket full of dimes, aren't we?
- Well, don't the family
got a right to know?
- It's up to the authorities.
Now, Ellie and Lawrence burrifew
got a father next to death.
He hears about something like this,
there's gonna be two dead bodies.
Is that what you want?
I guess not.
Well, what can you tell me, doc?
- Right now?
Only that it's not considered
good medical practice
to perform autopsies in
the middle of swamps,
surrounded by howling dogs
and scratching rustics.
I want the remains moved to the hospital
as soon as you can arrange it.
Do you think that can be accomplished
by the neighborhood clods
without completely obliterating
any chance there might be of
determining cause of death?
- Ellie!
Ellie!
Ellie!
All right, somebody
grab a hold of him now!
Go on, stop him, then!
- Leave me be, sheriff.
- You don't wanna see
her like that, Lawrence!
- You let me go!
Ellie.
Ellie.
- Anybody know how it
happened, sheriff Whitaker?
Did you bring
him here, reverend?
- He'd have stole my car
and come anyway, sheriff.
- Poor Ellie.
Ellie.
Who killed her?
- It was the wild dogs, boy.
This couldn't be done by a human person.
- Take your hands off me, mister!
- Now you hold onto your manners, boy!
All right now!
Let's hold it!
Just hold it.
Now, you go on home with the
reverend and wait for me.
Go on.
Go on!
Now, you two boys help doc with the body.
Now, the rest of you get out of here.
I wanna look around for by myself.
Go on, get.
Come on, Lawrence.
Come on.
- He thinks someone murdered her.
- Well, what do you think?
Wild dogs do it to her?
- Tell me what you mean by "do it."
Dogs might very well have
done something to her.
There were bite marks.
- Well, then, they killed her.
- You show me a pack of dogs
where one of them knows how to hit you
on the side of the head
and knock you unconscious,
and I'll sign a death certificate
saying she was killed by dogs.
- Something struck her?
- Someone struck her
with enough force either
to kill her outright
or to render her sufficiently senseless
to be dragged out into that field
and left for the dogs to finish off.
Find someone strong enough
to do that with his left hand
and you'll have who did it.
- Left hand?
- The Mark was along here.
That's where a left-handed
person would strike you
if you were facing him.
You've got a murder, sheriff.
- That's just what I needed.
Hello, Sara.
- Sheriff.
- I'd like to come in, if you'd allow it.
- Hi, Lawrence, you feeling better?
- Did you find out who did it to her?
- How's your father?
Does he know about it?
- I just bathed him.
Do you wanna pay your greetings?
- That'll pleasure me.
- Lougaroug.
The iougaroug.
- What's he saying?
- What he's been saying
ever since Ellie was killed.
- Hugh? What are you saying, Hugh?
Lougaroug.
The lougaroug.
- Well, what was he talking about?
I don't know French.
What's a iougaroug?
- I don't know.
- Well, you speak French.
- Never heard that word before.
First time I heard that word
was when I come back from
where they found Ellie.
- Does he know about Ellie?
Yeah, he knows.
- Who told him?
- Nobody told him.
- Well, then how does he know?
- Well, I can't tell you that.
He's been talking like that
ever since I got back.
Something about his pretty Ellie,
his little girl, his sweet daughter,
and the iougaroug.
He knows.
Somehow, he knows without
anybody telling him.
- Ah, it doesn't make any sense.
He's just got crazy things
going on in his head
because he's old and sick.
Let's talk about what's
going on in your head.
- Well, you know what's
going on in my head.
- I wanna know what got it going.
- It wasn't wild dogs that killed Ellie.
- Now, how do you know that?
- She was having trouble.
- What kind of trouble?
- With a man.
- Well, who?
- I don't know who.
Wasn't anybody from
down here on the bayou.
Somebody up on pecan hill.
Some other marsh island snobbery.
- Well, how'd you know?
She tell you that?
- She didn't tell me anything.
That's how I know.
We was good friends.
She used to tell me everything.
Then suddenly, she just shut up tight.
Wouldn't talk a word to me.
That's how it was last night,
when she was ironing her dress
and brushing out her hair.
I asked her.
She wouldn't say.
I know.
Don't you worry about that.
- Well, how'd you know there
was trouble between them?
You said there was trouble.
- I could read her face like a newspaper.
Something had gone wrong.
Something bad.
I tried to find out what it was,
but she wouldn't tell me.
She just sassed me.
Told me to shut my mouth and go to French.
- Well, what'd you do?
- Well, I hit her.
- How hard?
- Well, hard enough to let her know
what I thought about her letting the...
Quality put their fat
fingers all over her.
- Go on, show me how hard you hit her.
Show me how you hit her.
Go on, show me.
Now, I've known you for 10 years.
I never knew you were left handed.
Sheriff.
- Good morning, Mr. Rodanthe.
- Good morning, sheriff.
How are you?
Something I can do for you?
- Well, I just came by.
I guess you heard about Ellie burrifew.
- Yes, I did hear, sheriff.
It's a terrible thing to happen.
Come on, let's sit on the galley.
Is it true they discovered her body
just on the other side of our grove?
- Yeah, right near the gurmandy place.
- Have you any idea
who might have done it?
- Well, we don't know much yet.
I was just trying to trace where she went
after she left the house
before she got to the marshes.
She could've come along pecan hill road,
or maybe she took a
shortcut across the bayou.
I was half wondering if
you might have been outside
between 8:00 and 12:00
and noticed her pass by?
- Oh, I'm afraid not, sheriff.
I wasn't being a very happy
man about that time last night.
Oh?
- Yes, I was doing battle
with another bout of malaria.
There was a time there
when I thought my shaking
was gonna bring the whole
house down around my ears,
but it finally passed
off around 1:00 or 2:00.
Then I slept the rest of
the night like a dead man.
Andrew?
We're just about ready for lunch.
Miss rodanthe, I didn't know
you'd returned to marsh island.
- Just a couple of hours ago.
I met her plane in New Orleans.
- I guess you don't remember me.
- You're Aaron Whitaker.
I remember you very well.
- When'd you meet
sheriff Whitaker, Louise?
- Well, he wasn't sheriff then, Andrew.
He was just plain Aaron Whitaker
and he was two grades
ahead of me in junior high.
I had this terrible crush on him.
- Louise.
- You probably didn't know a single thing
about that, did you?
- Well, I wish I had.
We could've compared them.
Compared what?
- Crushes. I had one on you, too.
Well, why ever didn't you
say something about it?
- To a rodanthe?
- Well, we're human, aren't we?
I mean, practically. Aren't we,
Andrew, like anybody else?
Even though we're a fine old family,
have settled marsh island and all that,
you know there's always been a rodanthe
living in this great old house here,
even though you can't keep
it warm when it's cold out,
cool when it's hot,
or dry when rain's filtering
in through the cracks.
- Uh, Louise?
- Well, it's true, isn't it?
At least it was five
years ago when I left.
Has anybody fixed the roof
since then, or put in heating?
- Louise, now sheriff Whitaker
is attending to a small matter,
and I'm sure you are
impatient to get on with it.
Isn't that so, sheriff?
- Well, it's nice seeing
you again, miss rodanthe.
- Well, you will come to call, won't you?
Oh, I have to remember all
the ways they say things here.
Come to call, is that it? Or pay a visit?
In New York, it's ring
up, drop in, hop over.
Things are much more active in New York.
- Uh, Louise, I'll be right along.
- Oh, dear, I'm talking too much.
You noticed that, I suppose.
I'm a compulsive talker.
Everybody says so.
You know, it happened to me
shortly after I graduated
from junior high school.
What a pity it didn't happen sooner.
I could've mentioned that
terrible crush I had on you.
Oh, Andrew is staring at me.
Well, goodbye, sheriff Whitaker, and do...
- Ring up, drop in, or hop over.
Well, my, that does
sound energetic, doesn't it?
Oh, put your hat on.
You're gonna get a
sunstroke in this climate.
I'm going, Andrew!
I'm going.
- My sister has been ill, sheriff.
That's why she's come home.
Well, I hope she'll
be feeling better soon.
Oh, yes, she will
be with a lot of rest, quiet.
No excitement of any sort.
- What you mean is I shouldn't bother
to ring up, drop in, or hop over.
- It hadn't occurred to me you were
taking the invitation seriously, sheriff.
- I wasn't.
Mr. Rodanthe.
- Sheriff.
You got
yourself a clue, sheriff?
- Either one of you ever see this?
- I don't know.
- Wasn't the feller that caught it.
- You identified Ellie burrifew.
That means you knew her.
- Well, we knew her all right.
She did cleaning for us a
while back, after ma died.
- How long ago?
- A year near about.
That's before she went
to work at the hospital.
- You ever date her?
- Sure didn't.
- Mind telling me what you were doing
the night she was killed?
- I was down in town at the bean wagon.
A lot of folks seen me.
- Yeah, when'd you get back?
What'd you do?
- Came back around 10:00 and
went to bed, that's what.
- You see him?
Well, I didn't get in 'til about 12:00.
- Well, where were you?
- Pitchers in leedville.
- Well, when you got home,
did you look into see if Tom was home?
- Well, Tom Jr. here is a growed man.
I don't bed check him no more.
- Anyhow, why you asking us things?
It was wild dogs that done it, wasn't it?
You saying it wasn't wild dogs?
- There's more than one kind.
I'll see you.
Morning, Sara.
- Sheriff.
- What brings you to town?
- Oh, Hugh sent me up to the
store to buy some things.
Some acifidity and some sulfur.
- What for?
- For the iougaroug.
- For it?
- So it'll drive the iougaroug away.
- Sara, do you know what a iougaroug is?
- No, sheriff, I don't,
but Hugh thinks the iougaroug killed Ellie
and now he's scared
it's gonna get Lawrence.
- What, he say that?
- Yes, sir.
Only I tell you something, sheriff.
Didn't no iougaroug kill Ellie,
no matter what the old man says,
and Lawrence didn't do it, either,
if that's what you been thinking.
- Well, Sara, he had a reason
and he was left-handed.
- He didn't kill her, sheriff!
Don't go wasting no time on Lawrence!
I know that.
- Now, how do you know that, Sara?
- Because I know who did kill her.
- Who?
- You find out whosoever
made Ellie pregnant
and you'll find out who killed her.
Doctor, I'm not
getting any more answers
out of the back of your head
than I was out of the front.
How come you didn't tell
me Ellie was pregnant?
- I knew she was pregnant.
I was third in my class.
- Well, how come you didn't say anything?
- Aaron, I was performing an autopsy
to determine cause of death.
Pregnancy didn't cause her death.
- Well, I'm not so sure.
- Well, I am.
- Doc, if she was pregnant,
somebody got her that way,
and that's a clear lead to who killed her.
- No.
No, it isn't.
Antibiotics, anyone?
- Yeah.
- Not at all.
Because I got her pregnant.
And I didn't kill her.
I loved her.
- I guess I'll have some
of your antibiotics.
Sorry, there's only one glass.
- I didn't say anything
about needing a glass.
- I know what you're thinking.
- Well, I think you do.
- Burrows druten, m.D., f-i-c-s.
Grandson of senate Jefferson
druten of Louisiana,
out of his mind in love with
a girl that does cleaning,
isn't that what you're thinking?
- Lawrence said she had a date.
He didn't say who with.
You know who she had a date with?
- Of course.
Me.
But she never came.
I'd waited until I decided
she wasn't gonna come.
Then I went home.
- Where were you supposed to meet?
- At the bottom of pecan hill,
in the grove across the wall
from the rodanthe property.
That's where we met a lot,
one time in particular.
- Lawrence said she looked worried.
- She was.
That's what we were gonna talk about.
The baby.
I wanted to abort it.
She wanted to marry me and have it.
She wanted us to go some place.
Somewhere else, where
people wouldn't know us.
- And leave marsh island.
- And the hospital and my whole life.
- You didn't want to?
- I didn't have the guts to!
I'm almost 50, Aaron!
Where do you start over again at 50?
I wanted to go on loving her
and not having to give up anything for it.
She said no.
We were gonna talk it out that night,
but she never came.
So iwent home.
I never saw her again,
'til out there in that
clearing, torn apart.
Sounds like I killed her, doesn't it?
- Did you ever see this before?
Well, no, never did.
Where'd you get it?
- You never saw Ellie wear it?
- This?
Ellie never owned anything like that.
- Okay.
- Aaron.
I didn't kill Ellie.
- Oh, boy, I sure hope not.
Say, doc, what do you use
sulfur and acifiditive for?
- You don't. Not anymore.
- Well, when you used to use them,
what'd you use them for?
- My grandmother used to
claim they kept wolves away.
- Wolves?
I'll see you.
You're not going to arrest me?
- You left handed?
- No.
- Of course, whoever
made that Mark on Ellie,
could've come up from behind her
and that'd make him right handed.
- Maybe.
- I'll see you.
- Hello.
- Hello.
- Andrew has a terribly important meeting
at the town council,
so I made him drive me in with him.
Well, have you found out who did
that awful thing to that girl yet?
- Not yet.
- Do I have to call you
sheriff the way Andrew does?
Could I call you Aaron?
- Aaron would be fine.
- Well, then you've got to call me Louise.
- All right, I thank you.
I was wondering if...
- Is there something you
wanted to say, Aaron?
- Yeah, I was wondering if you'd
have a cup of coffee
with me over at Eddies?
- Well, I'd admire to do
that very much, Aaron.
You know, I've never once in
all my life been in this place.
You know that?
Well, now that
you are, what do you think?
- Well, I think...
I think Eddie doesn't make
a very good cup of coffee.
Maybe you'd like
something else to drink.
Not much you could do to bourbon.
- They're all staring at me now.
What would they do if
they saw me take a drink?
- Hey, listen, when Eddie finds out
he had a rodanthe in here,
tomorrow all the prices are gonna go up.
- We really own this town, don't we?
- Well, your great-granddaddy
established it.
- Oh, I know, it all got drummed into me
when I was just little.
"You're an f-f-I child.
First family of Louisiana,
and don't you ever forget it, child."
You know, I forgot.
What's everybody been
saying about me coming back
so suddenly after all this time?
What's Andrew been telling them?
- Well, Andrew said you were sick.
- Oh, that is Andrew.
He'd rather everyone thought
I was a terminal case or something
than know the truth.
You wanna know the truth, Aaron?
You wanna know why I finally came back
to the ancestral manor?
Well, I can
hardly say no, can I?
- No, I guess not after my
leading you on this way.
I was living with a man.
That's what was happening.
That's what Andrew just
can't bear anyone knowing.
And what is worse, the
man I was living with
was not socially acceptable.
And what is worse...
- Oh, there's something worse?
- Oh, yes, wait 'til you hear.
The socially unacceptable man
I had been living in sin with
walked out on me.
- Well, I would think that
Andrew would've been relieved.
- Ooh, no, he was furious.
Why, if they'd had dueling,
he'd have dueled him dead.
You don't walk out on a rodanthe,
even if you are living in sin with her.
Nah, that's socially unacceptable.
You know what Andrew did?
He hired some detectives
and they came to New York and found me.
They packed me right back here.
- Well, you didn't have to go.
You could've said no.
- He's got all the money.
He'll cut me off.
- Could've gotten a job.
- Doing what?
There's the curse of the rodanthe again.
All we womenfolk were ever taught was
piano and how to talk French.
So here I am, back at the old homestead,
having been saved from myself,
and Andrew's running around
telling everybody I've been sick.
- Well, I'm glad you're back.
- Are you, Aaron?
Oh, well, I'll stop telling
myself how unhealthy I am
because Andrew's such a stinker.
Mr. Rodanthe, how do?
- Well, afternoon.
Good afternoon, gentlemen.
Please, don't let me
interrupt your pleasures.
I've been looking all
over for you, Louise.
Sheriff, this is where your
sleuthing has taken you?
- Oh, Andrew, don't be so stuffy.
Aaron just invited me in
here for a cup of coffee.
- Oh, well, I'm much
obliged to you, sheriff,
for occupying my sister
while I was doing town business.
I'm ready to go home now, Louise,
and you ought to get some rest.
You're looking a little peaked.
And you remember what the doctor told you.
- Andrew, it's no use.
I have spilled the beans to Aaron.
That is right.
I have told him the whole ugly truth
about why I'm back in marsh island,
so there's no point in going
on, and on, and on about how I need rest,
and how I've been sick,
and what the doctor said.
- I see.
Well, it's comforting to know that
sheriff Whitaker is not the town gossip.
Sheriff, I heard it being
said that Mr. Gurmandy
and his boy are organizing
a hunt for tomorrow.
Aiming to wipe out the wild
dog population around here.
Would you care to join in?
We don't often get sport like
that in these parts anymore.
- I just might, Mr. Rodanthe.
Of course, if the gurmandys
kill off all those wild dogs,
I don't know what they're
gonna have to talk about
the rest of their lives.
- Are you ready, Louise?
- The iougaroug!
- Papa, it's okay.
Papa.
The iougaroug!
The iougaroug...
- Dr. Druten, quick.
He looks bad this time.
Real bad.
- Get up, Lawrence.
Gmup
- The iougaroug.
- You might as well start
thinking about him dying, Lawrence,
if you aren't already.
He can't last much longer.
Lougaroug?
Is that French, Lawrence?
- It's not any French I had ever heard.
- Well, that shot will keep
him quiet for a few hours.
- Okay.
- Dr. Druten?
- Yes, Sara, what is it?
- What did you find
when you examined Ellie?
- Just that she was murdered.
Dogs didn't do it.
- Like I said.
- Well, you were right.
Excuse me.
Nothing else?
- No.
Nothing.
Goodbye.
- Nothing?
- What's troubling you, Sara?
- If he says he didn't find nothing,
either he's lying about being a doctor,
or he's lying about what he found.
- What are you talking about?
- If I tell you something, Lawrence,
will you promise to keep
your head on your neck?
Hmm?
- What is it you gonna tell me?
- Promise?
- Promise.
- Here comes some more.
We're gonna have a good bunch.
Well, sheriff, you coming
on the wild dog hunt?
Nah, you bring me a pelt, Tom.
- I'm disappointed you're
not joining us, sheriff.
- Well, somebody's gotta mind the store.
Good hunting.
- Somebody's coming this way
like he was being hunted.
- Must be old Hugh again.
What is it, Lawrence?
- You let me by, sheriff.
- Hey, Lawrence, what is it?
- He killed me sister!
- Come on, grab him now.
Lawrence, now cool it off.
- It was hers!
She was having a baby!
It was his baby!
- Now, Lawrence, we know you're grieving.
That don't give you no reason
to go around accusing people.
- Come on, Lawrence, now
just stand right up there.
Come on over here.
Now, you all go hunt your wild dogs.
Now get out of here.
Now, you come with me.
Come on.
- Well, we better get going with it
while we still have the light.
- Aaron.
I was just cutting some roses.
Well, come on in if you're
not looking for clues.
- Well, I found the
clue I was looking for.
- What clue?
- You.
I was wondering if you were home.
- Well, where else would I be?
Not shooting down dogs
with the rest of the folks in these parts.
Would you care for a glass of lemonade?
It might cool you off.
Thank you, it's mighty hot.
You'd have
just have driven on by.
Oh, I suppose so
if you hadn't stopped me.
Well, why didn't
you just come calling
like everybody else?
Anybody just
wouldn't come calling,
not here, not without an invitation.
I was brought up on marsh island.
So was I. I guess that's why
nobody ever came calling.
Well, have you solved your murder yet?
Not quite.
- Well, do you have any suspects?
Is that the word?
- Suspects?
- Yes.
That's the word.
I got three of them,
but I don't want any one
of them to have done it.
Now, doc druten...
Well, he's the closest thing I got
to a friend here in this town.
And Lawrence,
Lawrence was her brother. If he did it...
- Sit down.
- Thank you.
Well, the folks of quality
around here will say,
"see what kind of people
there are down in frenchtown.
They're half foreign and everything."
And if it was Tom gurmandy,
that'd mean there was something
between Tom and Ellie.
I wouldn't like to think
she'd lower herself that much.
I'd like to...
Well, I'm some sheriff, aren't I?
- I've never heard you
talk so long before.
I've never heard myself
keep still so long.
What do you suppose that means?
- Well, I don't know what it means to you,
but when I feel out of
place, I just shut up.
- When I do, I just keep talking.
I guess that's what it means.
- I guess that's what it means.
- Well, I guess you'd
better drink your lemonade.
- Yeah.
Well, they shot eight dogs today.
It took 20 of them to do it.
- Was one of them wild dogs Dr. Druten?
Because he's the one I wanna get
as soon as I get out of here.
- You'll get a long sentence
for what you did today.
You take my advice
and just let him alone.
- He killed Ellie!
- You don't know that.
Now get yourself some sleep.
All right, see you later, Terry.
- You want me to lock him in?
- You planning to escape, Lawrence?
- No.
It wouldn't be worth it.
- Well, only lock it if he has visitors.
- Right, Aaron.
- Night now.
- Goodnight.
- What is that?
- Beats me.
But I'm gonna do like Aaron says.
I'm gonna lock you up.
Nobody's gonna be fooling around
with one of my prisoners.
Now, you be a real good boy and sit down.
I'll be right back.
All right.
Come on out.
- No, no.
What do you want?
Hey.
No, oh.
All right, get back!
No, no.
What is...
Go on.
Go.
- Same, except for the blows.
This time, whoever did it
tore them both apart with his fingernails.
- Cover him up.
- Aaron, what in devil's own name is it?
- Well, you and the boys
could've saved yourself
the trouble of shooting
all them dogs, mayor.
They didn't kill Ellie,
or Lawrence, or Don Terry.
- Well, who did?
- Dang whoppers, look at them bars.
- Could you get through those bars, Tom?
- Sure couldn't.
- And I don't believe you could, either.
So I've just run out of suspects.
- Hey, sheriff, is there
anything you can tell us?
- Yeah, three people
were killed by somebody
strong enough to tear down bars.
Find somebody around here
whose strong enough to do that
and you got yourself a killer.
- Well, ain't nobody that strong.
- There were no marks or any
instruments used on the bars.
They were torn out by bear hands.
I'll send someone for the bodies, sheriff.
- All right, doc.
I'd like to have four or
five deputies for volunteers.
Anyone volunteer?
- Well, what do you need
deputies for, Aaron?
- Well, Ellie and Lawrence burrifew
were murdered by this wild man.
There's only one burrifew left, old Hugh.
How do we know he's not next?
I wanna post a 24-hour
guard down at his house.
All right, I want volunteers.
Ithoughtso.
- Look at what happened
to that deputy of yours
who was guarding Lawrence.
You want me to go out there,
getting myself all torn apart,
guarding some old boy who's
two-quarter dead anyhow?
- Ah, go on home, all of you.
Go on, get out of here.
Go lock and your doors.
- That ain't no joke, Aaron.
I'm locking and bolting,
and I ain't feeding my dogs
'til you catch whatever or whoever it is
running around doing them things.
I seen them bodies.
Tom Jr., come on.
I'm getting on home.
- Good morning, Mr. Rodanthe.
- A little quiet,
wouldn't you say, sheriff?
- Uh-huh.
There's probably eight or
nine guns on us right now.
- Is that so?
Well, I heard you were lacking deputies,
so I thought I'd come
and offer my services,
if you think I qualify.
- Well, I appreciate that,
but what happens when I'm
supposed to give you orders?
- I guess you'll just
have to forget who I am
and remember who you are, sheriff.
- Well, come on, I'll
drive you over to Hughes.
I was going there myself.
- March island was settled
by my people, sheriff,
and I've never been
into this part of town.
- You and your sister have seen
a lot of new things these days.
- I believe you're right, sheriff.
- Go this way.
- It appears to be just as
quiet here as up in town.
- With twice as many eyes watching.
- You seem to have a tremendous knowledge
of everything that's going on around you,
even when it's completely invisible.
- Well, I am the sheriff.
Morning, Sara, how's Hugh?
- Oh, he seems a little
weaker today, sheriff.
Good morning, sir. Mr. Rodanthe.
- You know me?
- Oh, yes.
Won't you come in, sir?
My daddy used to work for you
when your granddaddy had
more than a hundred hunters.
- Well, there's only a
few of them left now,
and most of their
hunting's for pastureland.
What's that smell?
What's that smell?
- What's wrong with him?
- He's had a fit.
- Doctor, you were third in your class.
I never went to college.
I knew he was having a fit
when he started having it.
- He's had a fit and it was brought on,
according to what you tell me,
by something he smelled.
Now, until he comes to I
can't say anything more.
- Doctor, you ever had
anything like this before?
You've been the marsh
island doctor for 20 years.
- Oh, yes, but not the rodanthe doctor.
I wasn't good enough for them.
They went to New Orleans.
- He said something about malaria.
- This isn't malaria.
- Well, you got any ideas?
- Not until I can talk to him.
If I just knew something
about his medical history...
- Well, I'll find out for you.
- How?
- I'm the sheriff.
Is he all right, Aaron?
- Well, the doctor says he
doesn't have a temperature
and his pulse is all right.
Well, it's just as though
he was sleeping it off.
- Sleeping what off?
- Whatever seized him.
He ever have a fit like that
before? Anyone in the family?
- Granddaddy used to have
what they called his spells.
- What were they?
- Oh, I don't know.
Please, sit down.
I mean, nobody would ever talk about it.
Oh, I was just little.
All I remember was a lot of
running around and whispering,
and people talking about granddaddy
having one of his spells upstairs.
Along time later,
I was sure they meant he'd been drinking.
- Well, maybe it wasn't that at all.
Maybe it was the same thing
your brother just had.
- Well, what is it, Aaron?
What are you looking at?
This.
- That was my mother's.
She gave it to me.
- Do you know where it is?
- Oh, good heavens, no.
Well, I mean, I might
know if I looked for it.
I left it here when I went to New York.
I suppose it's around here somewhere.
Why?
- Well, it is somewhere.
- Well, what are you doing with it?
- Is that it?
- Well, of course it is.
Where'd you get it?
- I found it near where they
discovered Ellie's body.
- She stole it?
- Not necessarily.
- Well, how else could she have gotten it?
- I'm gonna find out.
- You mean Andrew?
- I don't mean anything.
I just mean I'm gonna find out.
I'm going to the hospital.
- Oh, Aaron, could I
come with you, please?
- You have to wait in the other
room while I question him.
- I gave it to her.
When?
- The night she was murdered.
- Now, Mr. Rodanthe, maybe I oughtn't
be questioning you in
your present condition.
Although, the doc did say
he was gonna send you home tonight.
Now, if you don't know
what you're saying...
- Oh, I didn't kill the girl, sheriff,
and I know perfectly what I'm saying.
I gave her that bit of bright work
in return for certain favors
she did me over the past year.
- Favors?
- Not the kind you're thinking, sheriff.
You ever heard of seibert's syndrome?
Well, it's an offshoot
of Blackwater fever,
the one form of malaria
they don't know anything about, really,
and once you got it,
you've got it forever.
And the only time you
know you had an attack
is when you wake up after it's all over.
I've had it for over a year now.
- Well, what do you do about it?
- You take trakpyradone.
It's the only thing that
keeps it under control.
- Where do you get that?
- Here at the hospital.
- Well, then, doc druten
would've known about it.
- No.
Sheriff, I have an interesting aversion
to my maladies being
paraded around the town,
being the subject of gossip
in bar rooms and bathrooms.
Ellie burrifew used to
bring me the medicine
in the evening, a month supply at a time,
and those were the favors she did me
in return for some money
and the night she died... that locket.
- Mr. Rodanthe, you telling me
that Ellie brought you some medicine
on the night she was murdered?
- That's right.
- What time?
- Oh, between eight and nine o'clock.
- What was she wearing?
- I don't know.
It was a pretty dress.
It was sort of brown,
I think, with checks.
But she wasn't in a
pleasant mood that night.
She had something on
her mind it seemed like.
So I gave the locket to Ellie
saying here, maybe this will
brighten you up a little.
- Did it?
- Not noticeably.
But she thanked me and I
hung it around her neck.
I closed the catch and then
she went away to get murdered.
- What'd you do after Ellie left?
- Something stupid, sheriff.
Nothing.
- Nothing.
- I should've gone right back upstairs
and taken two of the pills, but I didn't.
I just sat there thinking to myself
what a pretty girl Ellie burrifew was.
Just sat there thinking.
And uh...
- And?
- The next thing I knew,
I was taking a shower
and it was about five
o'clock in the morning.
- Mr. Rodanthe, when you came home
last evening after hunting,
what'd you do then?
- I dined with my sister.
- And after that?
- I went straight to bed.
It tired me out more
than I thought then, huh?
So I went to bed early.
Couldn't have been later than 9:00.
Slept the night.
- Without waking?
- Straight through to breakfast.
And that's when I learned
from my sister what had happened
in the night to Lawrence
burrifew and your deputy.
It was the same person,
wasn't it, sheriff?
All these murders, they've been committed
by the same person, haven't they?
- Well, it seems so.
If there is a person
that can tear iron bars
out of a brick wall.
Well.
Mr. Rodanthe, you don't
happen to be left handed?
- I'm ambidextrous, sheriff.
I can sign my name with
both hands at the same time
and it would take a handwriting expert
to tell you the difference.
You know, there've been
five of us in my family
who inherited that interesting trait
from my great-great grandfather.
- Well, take care of yourself.
- Miss rodanthe, is sheriff
Whitaker still with...
Oh, there he is.
Aaron, I can't get one person in this
fear-ridden town to take
this medication to old Hugh.
If he breaks lose with one
more spell of the iougarougs,
it'll be the finish of him.
- I'll take it.
- A spell of the what?
- It's something the old
man keeps saying in French.
Nobody around here could understand him.
- I know French.
- Will you go with me?
- Of course.
- Miss rodanthe.
- Doctor.
He said he went to bed at 9:00.
- Well, I know it was early.
- Do you know if he
slept through the night?
- Well, I don't know.
I dropped off at about 11:00.
- Hello, Sara, how is he?
- Sulfur? I smell sulfur.
That's what it is.
An acifiditive?
That's what people use to...
- I know.
Lougaroug!
No, yes.
- Can you hear him?
- Lougaroug?
Monsieur.
Monsieur.
S'il vous plait.
- Lougaroug!
- Aaron.
Aaron.
It's his dialect.
Loup-garou.
He's saying loup-garou.
Werewolf.
He's saying werewolf.
He says that I'm its next victim.
- Mr. Rodanthe?
Stop him!
- Stop him!
- No!
- Nurse, call the sheriff!
Tell him what you saw!
What happened!
- Okay, now quiet down and listen.
Now, Tom gurmandy, he knows these marshes
better than his own name,
so I'm putting him in charge.
And remember this.
Andrew rodanthe is out there
and he's turned into a wolf,
and we gotta find him and
shoot him down like a wolf.
- Miss rodanthe, this
isn't any place for you.
- Mayor.
You're planning to hunt down my brother!
Hunt him down and shoot
him like a wild animal!
- Miss rodanthe, you shouldn't be here.
- Mayor, mayor, he's sick.
He has this illness.
Don't you understand that?
He has these seizures.
- Miss rodanthe, he had fangs
coming two inches out of his mouth.
- Mayor, mayor, listen to me.
There are drugs.
- Hey, this here is his sister.
How do we know she ain't gonna turn out
to be some kind of a wolf?
- You shut up!
Mayor, mayor, listen to me.
Bounding him is one thing,
but hunting him down and shooting him
is another thing all together.
- Now, this is a law enforcement matter.
You organized this posse
without any legal authority.
- I'm acting under authority vested in me
by the marsh island charter.
Now, Tom gurmandy's in charge now.
- Louise.
Come on, Louise.
Come on, boys.
Well?
- They didn't find him,
but they're still at it.
- Aaron.
Aaron, come in here.
There's something I want you to see.
- What is it?
- "Lycanthropy and
lycanthrope-like diseases."
- What's iycanthropy?
- Werewolves.
- Oh, Louise, you don't
believe that that's...
- What I believe, what I want to believe,
is that it's what Andrew said it was,
a disease that you can
take pills to control.
But after what Dr. Druten said
and after what happened
at the burrifew house,
and granddaddy's fits
and now, this book...
- Let me see.
"Many diseases resemble iycanthropy
and some of its symptoms.
These quasi-iycanthropic diseases
are relatively harmless
and are easily controlled by
a series of modern drugs."
- Well, that's what Andrew said it was.
Those pills.
- "Lycanthropeia veritum.
True iycanthropy might
also respond favorably
to the same drugs for a time,
and then the disease develops
an immunity to the drug.
In true iycanthropy,
the victim's yearning
for the taste of blood
turns him into a most
dangerous and deadly killer.
Mythology has it that
werewolves are repelled
and temporarily harmless
by the smell of sulfur,
and it is also recorded,
though with no scientific basis whatever,
that certain persons sensitive, sorcerers,
exorcisers of evil claim to be able to..."
- No, no, go on. Go on, read it!
- It's mythology, I'm not
interested in mythology.
- Well, I am.
"They claim to be able to
see the shape of a pentagram
in the hand of the
werewolf's next victim."
- Louise, it's 1972.
- I heard he looked into Lawrence's hand
just before Andrew killed him.
- Well, that's what Sara said,
but Sara's a superstitious...
He just looked into mine.
- Louise, he is your brother.
Andrew is a...
He's out there.
- It's in the barn.
Stay right there.
Come on.
Come on.
Stay here, Louise.
Aaron, he tore
iron bars out of cement.
- That man was born in this house.
Maybe he'll have more respect.
And after I leave, lock
and shutter this door.
Then go in there and
lock and bolt that door
and don't leave the room.
I don't know what I'll do when I find him,
but it won't be what they'll do.
Now, don't leave the room.
Don't answer the door
until you hear it's me,
Aaron, saying it's me, all right?
- Aaron, if he has to be
killed... not their way.
Rodanthe!
Rodanthe!
- "The destruction of the victim
and only two methods of
destruction are known.
Death by burning
or death by shooting with
bullets that have been blessed."
Aaron!
Aaron!
Aaron!
Andrew.
- Louise!
- Oh, Aaron,
he knew.
He made me fire at him.
He knew.
The bullets... he must
have had them blessed.
He must've done that.
He knew.
Aaron, look.
Get your back waddle out of that bed!
Bring your shotgun!
You dirty, old blind dogs, dang buzzards,
we're coming at you this time!
- Them hounds got the scent
of something out there, all right.
- Wild dogs.
- All I'm saying is by the sound of them.
Dang wild dogs out
in the swamp, let's get them.
- What's that, pa'?
- What?
- Looks like a body.
Here, pa, take these dogs.
- Stay here and shut your choppers,
you era-flakken fat laps.
- Oh, sweet jeepers.
It's Ellie burrifew, pa.
- Ellie burrifew?
- Yeah.
- Dead?
- Anything deader would
be stinking by now.
- Wild dogs got them themselves
a taste of human blood.
Ain't nobody gonna be
safe out in their houses
'til we get together and
wipe them off the island!
You go call the sheriff.
- Yes, pa.
- All right, what can
anyone tell me about it'?
- Well, young Tom, here,
he come on her first.
- How'd the rest of you get here so fast?
- Brad and skellar was at the gas station
when I called you, sheriff.
Game on the park driving back here.
- Who else knows about it?
- Only preacher biggers.
I called him after I called you.
- What for?
- Well, I figured somebody ought
to tell her brother what happened to her.
Preacher biggers is the only one
in frenchtown got a telephone.
- Well, we're lucky you don't have
a whole pocket full of dimes, aren't we?
- Well, don't the family
got a right to know?
- It's up to the authorities.
Now, Ellie and Lawrence burrifew
got a father next to death.
He hears about something like this,
there's gonna be two dead bodies.
Is that what you want?
I guess not.
Well, what can you tell me, doc?
- Right now?
Only that it's not considered
good medical practice
to perform autopsies in
the middle of swamps,
surrounded by howling dogs
and scratching rustics.
I want the remains moved to the hospital
as soon as you can arrange it.
Do you think that can be accomplished
by the neighborhood clods
without completely obliterating
any chance there might be of
determining cause of death?
- Ellie!
Ellie!
Ellie!
All right, somebody
grab a hold of him now!
Go on, stop him, then!
- Leave me be, sheriff.
- You don't wanna see
her like that, Lawrence!
- You let me go!
Ellie.
Ellie.
- Anybody know how it
happened, sheriff Whitaker?
Did you bring
him here, reverend?
- He'd have stole my car
and come anyway, sheriff.
- Poor Ellie.
Ellie.
Who killed her?
- It was the wild dogs, boy.
This couldn't be done by a human person.
- Take your hands off me, mister!
- Now you hold onto your manners, boy!
All right now!
Let's hold it!
Just hold it.
Now, you go on home with the
reverend and wait for me.
Go on.
Go on!
Now, you two boys help doc with the body.
Now, the rest of you get out of here.
I wanna look around for by myself.
Go on, get.
Come on, Lawrence.
Come on.
- He thinks someone murdered her.
- Well, what do you think?
Wild dogs do it to her?
- Tell me what you mean by "do it."
Dogs might very well have
done something to her.
There were bite marks.
- Well, then, they killed her.
- You show me a pack of dogs
where one of them knows how to hit you
on the side of the head
and knock you unconscious,
and I'll sign a death certificate
saying she was killed by dogs.
- Something struck her?
- Someone struck her
with enough force either
to kill her outright
or to render her sufficiently senseless
to be dragged out into that field
and left for the dogs to finish off.
Find someone strong enough
to do that with his left hand
and you'll have who did it.
- Left hand?
- The Mark was along here.
That's where a left-handed
person would strike you
if you were facing him.
You've got a murder, sheriff.
- That's just what I needed.
Hello, Sara.
- Sheriff.
- I'd like to come in, if you'd allow it.
- Hi, Lawrence, you feeling better?
- Did you find out who did it to her?
- How's your father?
Does he know about it?
- I just bathed him.
Do you wanna pay your greetings?
- That'll pleasure me.
- Lougaroug.
The iougaroug.
- What's he saying?
- What he's been saying
ever since Ellie was killed.
- Hugh? What are you saying, Hugh?
Lougaroug.
The lougaroug.
- Well, what was he talking about?
I don't know French.
What's a iougaroug?
- I don't know.
- Well, you speak French.
- Never heard that word before.
First time I heard that word
was when I come back from
where they found Ellie.
- Does he know about Ellie?
Yeah, he knows.
- Who told him?
- Nobody told him.
- Well, then how does he know?
- Well, I can't tell you that.
He's been talking like that
ever since I got back.
Something about his pretty Ellie,
his little girl, his sweet daughter,
and the iougaroug.
He knows.
Somehow, he knows without
anybody telling him.
- Ah, it doesn't make any sense.
He's just got crazy things
going on in his head
because he's old and sick.
Let's talk about what's
going on in your head.
- Well, you know what's
going on in my head.
- I wanna know what got it going.
- It wasn't wild dogs that killed Ellie.
- Now, how do you know that?
- She was having trouble.
- What kind of trouble?
- With a man.
- Well, who?
- I don't know who.
Wasn't anybody from
down here on the bayou.
Somebody up on pecan hill.
Some other marsh island snobbery.
- Well, how'd you know?
She tell you that?
- She didn't tell me anything.
That's how I know.
We was good friends.
She used to tell me everything.
Then suddenly, she just shut up tight.
Wouldn't talk a word to me.
That's how it was last night,
when she was ironing her dress
and brushing out her hair.
I asked her.
She wouldn't say.
I know.
Don't you worry about that.
- Well, how'd you know there
was trouble between them?
You said there was trouble.
- I could read her face like a newspaper.
Something had gone wrong.
Something bad.
I tried to find out what it was,
but she wouldn't tell me.
She just sassed me.
Told me to shut my mouth and go to French.
- Well, what'd you do?
- Well, I hit her.
- How hard?
- Well, hard enough to let her know
what I thought about her letting the...
Quality put their fat
fingers all over her.
- Go on, show me how hard you hit her.
Show me how you hit her.
Go on, show me.
Now, I've known you for 10 years.
I never knew you were left handed.
Sheriff.
- Good morning, Mr. Rodanthe.
- Good morning, sheriff.
How are you?
Something I can do for you?
- Well, I just came by.
I guess you heard about Ellie burrifew.
- Yes, I did hear, sheriff.
It's a terrible thing to happen.
Come on, let's sit on the galley.
Is it true they discovered her body
just on the other side of our grove?
- Yeah, right near the gurmandy place.
- Have you any idea
who might have done it?
- Well, we don't know much yet.
I was just trying to trace where she went
after she left the house
before she got to the marshes.
She could've come along pecan hill road,
or maybe she took a
shortcut across the bayou.
I was half wondering if
you might have been outside
between 8:00 and 12:00
and noticed her pass by?
- Oh, I'm afraid not, sheriff.
I wasn't being a very happy
man about that time last night.
Oh?
- Yes, I was doing battle
with another bout of malaria.
There was a time there
when I thought my shaking
was gonna bring the whole
house down around my ears,
but it finally passed
off around 1:00 or 2:00.
Then I slept the rest of
the night like a dead man.
Andrew?
We're just about ready for lunch.
Miss rodanthe, I didn't know
you'd returned to marsh island.
- Just a couple of hours ago.
I met her plane in New Orleans.
- I guess you don't remember me.
- You're Aaron Whitaker.
I remember you very well.
- When'd you meet
sheriff Whitaker, Louise?
- Well, he wasn't sheriff then, Andrew.
He was just plain Aaron Whitaker
and he was two grades
ahead of me in junior high.
I had this terrible crush on him.
- Louise.
- You probably didn't know a single thing
about that, did you?
- Well, I wish I had.
We could've compared them.
Compared what?
- Crushes. I had one on you, too.
Well, why ever didn't you
say something about it?
- To a rodanthe?
- Well, we're human, aren't we?
I mean, practically. Aren't we,
Andrew, like anybody else?
Even though we're a fine old family,
have settled marsh island and all that,
you know there's always been a rodanthe
living in this great old house here,
even though you can't keep
it warm when it's cold out,
cool when it's hot,
or dry when rain's filtering
in through the cracks.
- Uh, Louise?
- Well, it's true, isn't it?
At least it was five
years ago when I left.
Has anybody fixed the roof
since then, or put in heating?
- Louise, now sheriff Whitaker
is attending to a small matter,
and I'm sure you are
impatient to get on with it.
Isn't that so, sheriff?
- Well, it's nice seeing
you again, miss rodanthe.
- Well, you will come to call, won't you?
Oh, I have to remember all
the ways they say things here.
Come to call, is that it? Or pay a visit?
In New York, it's ring
up, drop in, hop over.
Things are much more active in New York.
- Uh, Louise, I'll be right along.
- Oh, dear, I'm talking too much.
You noticed that, I suppose.
I'm a compulsive talker.
Everybody says so.
You know, it happened to me
shortly after I graduated
from junior high school.
What a pity it didn't happen sooner.
I could've mentioned that
terrible crush I had on you.
Oh, Andrew is staring at me.
Well, goodbye, sheriff Whitaker, and do...
- Ring up, drop in, or hop over.
Well, my, that does
sound energetic, doesn't it?
Oh, put your hat on.
You're gonna get a
sunstroke in this climate.
I'm going, Andrew!
I'm going.
- My sister has been ill, sheriff.
That's why she's come home.
Well, I hope she'll
be feeling better soon.
Oh, yes, she will
be with a lot of rest, quiet.
No excitement of any sort.
- What you mean is I shouldn't bother
to ring up, drop in, or hop over.
- It hadn't occurred to me you were
taking the invitation seriously, sheriff.
- I wasn't.
Mr. Rodanthe.
- Sheriff.
You got
yourself a clue, sheriff?
- Either one of you ever see this?
- I don't know.
- Wasn't the feller that caught it.
- You identified Ellie burrifew.
That means you knew her.
- Well, we knew her all right.
She did cleaning for us a
while back, after ma died.
- How long ago?
- A year near about.
That's before she went
to work at the hospital.
- You ever date her?
- Sure didn't.
- Mind telling me what you were doing
the night she was killed?
- I was down in town at the bean wagon.
A lot of folks seen me.
- Yeah, when'd you get back?
What'd you do?
- Came back around 10:00 and
went to bed, that's what.
- You see him?
Well, I didn't get in 'til about 12:00.
- Well, where were you?
- Pitchers in leedville.
- Well, when you got home,
did you look into see if Tom was home?
- Well, Tom Jr. here is a growed man.
I don't bed check him no more.
- Anyhow, why you asking us things?
It was wild dogs that done it, wasn't it?
You saying it wasn't wild dogs?
- There's more than one kind.
I'll see you.
Morning, Sara.
- Sheriff.
- What brings you to town?
- Oh, Hugh sent me up to the
store to buy some things.
Some acifidity and some sulfur.
- What for?
- For the iougaroug.
- For it?
- So it'll drive the iougaroug away.
- Sara, do you know what a iougaroug is?
- No, sheriff, I don't,
but Hugh thinks the iougaroug killed Ellie
and now he's scared
it's gonna get Lawrence.
- What, he say that?
- Yes, sir.
Only I tell you something, sheriff.
Didn't no iougaroug kill Ellie,
no matter what the old man says,
and Lawrence didn't do it, either,
if that's what you been thinking.
- Well, Sara, he had a reason
and he was left-handed.
- He didn't kill her, sheriff!
Don't go wasting no time on Lawrence!
I know that.
- Now, how do you know that, Sara?
- Because I know who did kill her.
- Who?
- You find out whosoever
made Ellie pregnant
and you'll find out who killed her.
Doctor, I'm not
getting any more answers
out of the back of your head
than I was out of the front.
How come you didn't tell
me Ellie was pregnant?
- I knew she was pregnant.
I was third in my class.
- Well, how come you didn't say anything?
- Aaron, I was performing an autopsy
to determine cause of death.
Pregnancy didn't cause her death.
- Well, I'm not so sure.
- Well, I am.
- Doc, if she was pregnant,
somebody got her that way,
and that's a clear lead to who killed her.
- No.
No, it isn't.
Antibiotics, anyone?
- Yeah.
- Not at all.
Because I got her pregnant.
And I didn't kill her.
I loved her.
- I guess I'll have some
of your antibiotics.
Sorry, there's only one glass.
- I didn't say anything
about needing a glass.
- I know what you're thinking.
- Well, I think you do.
- Burrows druten, m.D., f-i-c-s.
Grandson of senate Jefferson
druten of Louisiana,
out of his mind in love with
a girl that does cleaning,
isn't that what you're thinking?
- Lawrence said she had a date.
He didn't say who with.
You know who she had a date with?
- Of course.
Me.
But she never came.
I'd waited until I decided
she wasn't gonna come.
Then I went home.
- Where were you supposed to meet?
- At the bottom of pecan hill,
in the grove across the wall
from the rodanthe property.
That's where we met a lot,
one time in particular.
- Lawrence said she looked worried.
- She was.
That's what we were gonna talk about.
The baby.
I wanted to abort it.
She wanted to marry me and have it.
She wanted us to go some place.
Somewhere else, where
people wouldn't know us.
- And leave marsh island.
- And the hospital and my whole life.
- You didn't want to?
- I didn't have the guts to!
I'm almost 50, Aaron!
Where do you start over again at 50?
I wanted to go on loving her
and not having to give up anything for it.
She said no.
We were gonna talk it out that night,
but she never came.
So iwent home.
I never saw her again,
'til out there in that
clearing, torn apart.
Sounds like I killed her, doesn't it?
- Did you ever see this before?
Well, no, never did.
Where'd you get it?
- You never saw Ellie wear it?
- This?
Ellie never owned anything like that.
- Okay.
- Aaron.
I didn't kill Ellie.
- Oh, boy, I sure hope not.
Say, doc, what do you use
sulfur and acifiditive for?
- You don't. Not anymore.
- Well, when you used to use them,
what'd you use them for?
- My grandmother used to
claim they kept wolves away.
- Wolves?
I'll see you.
You're not going to arrest me?
- You left handed?
- No.
- Of course, whoever
made that Mark on Ellie,
could've come up from behind her
and that'd make him right handed.
- Maybe.
- I'll see you.
- Hello.
- Hello.
- Andrew has a terribly important meeting
at the town council,
so I made him drive me in with him.
Well, have you found out who did
that awful thing to that girl yet?
- Not yet.
- Do I have to call you
sheriff the way Andrew does?
Could I call you Aaron?
- Aaron would be fine.
- Well, then you've got to call me Louise.
- All right, I thank you.
I was wondering if...
- Is there something you
wanted to say, Aaron?
- Yeah, I was wondering if you'd
have a cup of coffee
with me over at Eddies?
- Well, I'd admire to do
that very much, Aaron.
You know, I've never once in
all my life been in this place.
You know that?
Well, now that
you are, what do you think?
- Well, I think...
I think Eddie doesn't make
a very good cup of coffee.
Maybe you'd like
something else to drink.
Not much you could do to bourbon.
- They're all staring at me now.
What would they do if
they saw me take a drink?
- Hey, listen, when Eddie finds out
he had a rodanthe in here,
tomorrow all the prices are gonna go up.
- We really own this town, don't we?
- Well, your great-granddaddy
established it.
- Oh, I know, it all got drummed into me
when I was just little.
"You're an f-f-I child.
First family of Louisiana,
and don't you ever forget it, child."
You know, I forgot.
What's everybody been
saying about me coming back
so suddenly after all this time?
What's Andrew been telling them?
- Well, Andrew said you were sick.
- Oh, that is Andrew.
He'd rather everyone thought
I was a terminal case or something
than know the truth.
You wanna know the truth, Aaron?
You wanna know why I finally came back
to the ancestral manor?
Well, I can
hardly say no, can I?
- No, I guess not after my
leading you on this way.
I was living with a man.
That's what was happening.
That's what Andrew just
can't bear anyone knowing.
And what is worse, the
man I was living with
was not socially acceptable.
And what is worse...
- Oh, there's something worse?
- Oh, yes, wait 'til you hear.
The socially unacceptable man
I had been living in sin with
walked out on me.
- Well, I would think that
Andrew would've been relieved.
- Ooh, no, he was furious.
Why, if they'd had dueling,
he'd have dueled him dead.
You don't walk out on a rodanthe,
even if you are living in sin with her.
Nah, that's socially unacceptable.
You know what Andrew did?
He hired some detectives
and they came to New York and found me.
They packed me right back here.
- Well, you didn't have to go.
You could've said no.
- He's got all the money.
He'll cut me off.
- Could've gotten a job.
- Doing what?
There's the curse of the rodanthe again.
All we womenfolk were ever taught was
piano and how to talk French.
So here I am, back at the old homestead,
having been saved from myself,
and Andrew's running around
telling everybody I've been sick.
- Well, I'm glad you're back.
- Are you, Aaron?
Oh, well, I'll stop telling
myself how unhealthy I am
because Andrew's such a stinker.
Mr. Rodanthe, how do?
- Well, afternoon.
Good afternoon, gentlemen.
Please, don't let me
interrupt your pleasures.
I've been looking all
over for you, Louise.
Sheriff, this is where your
sleuthing has taken you?
- Oh, Andrew, don't be so stuffy.
Aaron just invited me in
here for a cup of coffee.
- Oh, well, I'm much
obliged to you, sheriff,
for occupying my sister
while I was doing town business.
I'm ready to go home now, Louise,
and you ought to get some rest.
You're looking a little peaked.
And you remember what the doctor told you.
- Andrew, it's no use.
I have spilled the beans to Aaron.
That is right.
I have told him the whole ugly truth
about why I'm back in marsh island,
so there's no point in going
on, and on, and on about how I need rest,
and how I've been sick,
and what the doctor said.
- I see.
Well, it's comforting to know that
sheriff Whitaker is not the town gossip.
Sheriff, I heard it being
said that Mr. Gurmandy
and his boy are organizing
a hunt for tomorrow.
Aiming to wipe out the wild
dog population around here.
Would you care to join in?
We don't often get sport like
that in these parts anymore.
- I just might, Mr. Rodanthe.
Of course, if the gurmandys
kill off all those wild dogs,
I don't know what they're
gonna have to talk about
the rest of their lives.
- Are you ready, Louise?
- The iougaroug!
- Papa, it's okay.
Papa.
The iougaroug!
The iougaroug...
- Dr. Druten, quick.
He looks bad this time.
Real bad.
- Get up, Lawrence.
Gmup
- The iougaroug.
- You might as well start
thinking about him dying, Lawrence,
if you aren't already.
He can't last much longer.
Lougaroug?
Is that French, Lawrence?
- It's not any French I had ever heard.
- Well, that shot will keep
him quiet for a few hours.
- Okay.
- Dr. Druten?
- Yes, Sara, what is it?
- What did you find
when you examined Ellie?
- Just that she was murdered.
Dogs didn't do it.
- Like I said.
- Well, you were right.
Excuse me.
Nothing else?
- No.
Nothing.
Goodbye.
- Nothing?
- What's troubling you, Sara?
- If he says he didn't find nothing,
either he's lying about being a doctor,
or he's lying about what he found.
- What are you talking about?
- If I tell you something, Lawrence,
will you promise to keep
your head on your neck?
Hmm?
- What is it you gonna tell me?
- Promise?
- Promise.
- Here comes some more.
We're gonna have a good bunch.
Well, sheriff, you coming
on the wild dog hunt?
Nah, you bring me a pelt, Tom.
- I'm disappointed you're
not joining us, sheriff.
- Well, somebody's gotta mind the store.
Good hunting.
- Somebody's coming this way
like he was being hunted.
- Must be old Hugh again.
What is it, Lawrence?
- You let me by, sheriff.
- Hey, Lawrence, what is it?
- He killed me sister!
- Come on, grab him now.
Lawrence, now cool it off.
- It was hers!
She was having a baby!
It was his baby!
- Now, Lawrence, we know you're grieving.
That don't give you no reason
to go around accusing people.
- Come on, Lawrence, now
just stand right up there.
Come on over here.
Now, you all go hunt your wild dogs.
Now get out of here.
Now, you come with me.
Come on.
- Well, we better get going with it
while we still have the light.
- Aaron.
I was just cutting some roses.
Well, come on in if you're
not looking for clues.
- Well, I found the
clue I was looking for.
- What clue?
- You.
I was wondering if you were home.
- Well, where else would I be?
Not shooting down dogs
with the rest of the folks in these parts.
Would you care for a glass of lemonade?
It might cool you off.
Thank you, it's mighty hot.
You'd have
just have driven on by.
Oh, I suppose so
if you hadn't stopped me.
Well, why didn't
you just come calling
like everybody else?
Anybody just
wouldn't come calling,
not here, not without an invitation.
I was brought up on marsh island.
So was I. I guess that's why
nobody ever came calling.
Well, have you solved your murder yet?
Not quite.
- Well, do you have any suspects?
Is that the word?
- Suspects?
- Yes.
That's the word.
I got three of them,
but I don't want any one
of them to have done it.
Now, doc druten...
Well, he's the closest thing I got
to a friend here in this town.
And Lawrence,
Lawrence was her brother. If he did it...
- Sit down.
- Thank you.
Well, the folks of quality
around here will say,
"see what kind of people
there are down in frenchtown.
They're half foreign and everything."
And if it was Tom gurmandy,
that'd mean there was something
between Tom and Ellie.
I wouldn't like to think
she'd lower herself that much.
I'd like to...
Well, I'm some sheriff, aren't I?
- I've never heard you
talk so long before.
I've never heard myself
keep still so long.
What do you suppose that means?
- Well, I don't know what it means to you,
but when I feel out of
place, I just shut up.
- When I do, I just keep talking.
I guess that's what it means.
- I guess that's what it means.
- Well, I guess you'd
better drink your lemonade.
- Yeah.
Well, they shot eight dogs today.
It took 20 of them to do it.
- Was one of them wild dogs Dr. Druten?
Because he's the one I wanna get
as soon as I get out of here.
- You'll get a long sentence
for what you did today.
You take my advice
and just let him alone.
- He killed Ellie!
- You don't know that.
Now get yourself some sleep.
All right, see you later, Terry.
- You want me to lock him in?
- You planning to escape, Lawrence?
- No.
It wouldn't be worth it.
- Well, only lock it if he has visitors.
- Right, Aaron.
- Night now.
- Goodnight.
- What is that?
- Beats me.
But I'm gonna do like Aaron says.
I'm gonna lock you up.
Nobody's gonna be fooling around
with one of my prisoners.
Now, you be a real good boy and sit down.
I'll be right back.
All right.
Come on out.
- No, no.
What do you want?
Hey.
No, oh.
All right, get back!
No, no.
What is...
Go on.
Go.
- Same, except for the blows.
This time, whoever did it
tore them both apart with his fingernails.
- Cover him up.
- Aaron, what in devil's own name is it?
- Well, you and the boys
could've saved yourself
the trouble of shooting
all them dogs, mayor.
They didn't kill Ellie,
or Lawrence, or Don Terry.
- Well, who did?
- Dang whoppers, look at them bars.
- Could you get through those bars, Tom?
- Sure couldn't.
- And I don't believe you could, either.
So I've just run out of suspects.
- Hey, sheriff, is there
anything you can tell us?
- Yeah, three people
were killed by somebody
strong enough to tear down bars.
Find somebody around here
whose strong enough to do that
and you got yourself a killer.
- Well, ain't nobody that strong.
- There were no marks or any
instruments used on the bars.
They were torn out by bear hands.
I'll send someone for the bodies, sheriff.
- All right, doc.
I'd like to have four or
five deputies for volunteers.
Anyone volunteer?
- Well, what do you need
deputies for, Aaron?
- Well, Ellie and Lawrence burrifew
were murdered by this wild man.
There's only one burrifew left, old Hugh.
How do we know he's not next?
I wanna post a 24-hour
guard down at his house.
All right, I want volunteers.
Ithoughtso.
- Look at what happened
to that deputy of yours
who was guarding Lawrence.
You want me to go out there,
getting myself all torn apart,
guarding some old boy who's
two-quarter dead anyhow?
- Ah, go on home, all of you.
Go on, get out of here.
Go lock and your doors.
- That ain't no joke, Aaron.
I'm locking and bolting,
and I ain't feeding my dogs
'til you catch whatever or whoever it is
running around doing them things.
I seen them bodies.
Tom Jr., come on.
I'm getting on home.
- Good morning, Mr. Rodanthe.
- A little quiet,
wouldn't you say, sheriff?
- Uh-huh.
There's probably eight or
nine guns on us right now.
- Is that so?
Well, I heard you were lacking deputies,
so I thought I'd come
and offer my services,
if you think I qualify.
- Well, I appreciate that,
but what happens when I'm
supposed to give you orders?
- I guess you'll just
have to forget who I am
and remember who you are, sheriff.
- Well, come on, I'll
drive you over to Hughes.
I was going there myself.
- March island was settled
by my people, sheriff,
and I've never been
into this part of town.
- You and your sister have seen
a lot of new things these days.
- I believe you're right, sheriff.
- Go this way.
- It appears to be just as
quiet here as up in town.
- With twice as many eyes watching.
- You seem to have a tremendous knowledge
of everything that's going on around you,
even when it's completely invisible.
- Well, I am the sheriff.
Morning, Sara, how's Hugh?
- Oh, he seems a little
weaker today, sheriff.
Good morning, sir. Mr. Rodanthe.
- You know me?
- Oh, yes.
Won't you come in, sir?
My daddy used to work for you
when your granddaddy had
more than a hundred hunters.
- Well, there's only a
few of them left now,
and most of their
hunting's for pastureland.
What's that smell?
What's that smell?
- What's wrong with him?
- He's had a fit.
- Doctor, you were third in your class.
I never went to college.
I knew he was having a fit
when he started having it.
- He's had a fit and it was brought on,
according to what you tell me,
by something he smelled.
Now, until he comes to I
can't say anything more.
- Doctor, you ever had
anything like this before?
You've been the marsh
island doctor for 20 years.
- Oh, yes, but not the rodanthe doctor.
I wasn't good enough for them.
They went to New Orleans.
- He said something about malaria.
- This isn't malaria.
- Well, you got any ideas?
- Not until I can talk to him.
If I just knew something
about his medical history...
- Well, I'll find out for you.
- How?
- I'm the sheriff.
Is he all right, Aaron?
- Well, the doctor says he
doesn't have a temperature
and his pulse is all right.
Well, it's just as though
he was sleeping it off.
- Sleeping what off?
- Whatever seized him.
He ever have a fit like that
before? Anyone in the family?
- Granddaddy used to have
what they called his spells.
- What were they?
- Oh, I don't know.
Please, sit down.
I mean, nobody would ever talk about it.
Oh, I was just little.
All I remember was a lot of
running around and whispering,
and people talking about granddaddy
having one of his spells upstairs.
Along time later,
I was sure they meant he'd been drinking.
- Well, maybe it wasn't that at all.
Maybe it was the same thing
your brother just had.
- Well, what is it, Aaron?
What are you looking at?
This.
- That was my mother's.
She gave it to me.
- Do you know where it is?
- Oh, good heavens, no.
Well, I mean, I might
know if I looked for it.
I left it here when I went to New York.
I suppose it's around here somewhere.
Why?
- Well, it is somewhere.
- Well, what are you doing with it?
- Is that it?
- Well, of course it is.
Where'd you get it?
- I found it near where they
discovered Ellie's body.
- She stole it?
- Not necessarily.
- Well, how else could she have gotten it?
- I'm gonna find out.
- You mean Andrew?
- I don't mean anything.
I just mean I'm gonna find out.
I'm going to the hospital.
- Oh, Aaron, could I
come with you, please?
- You have to wait in the other
room while I question him.
- I gave it to her.
When?
- The night she was murdered.
- Now, Mr. Rodanthe, maybe I oughtn't
be questioning you in
your present condition.
Although, the doc did say
he was gonna send you home tonight.
Now, if you don't know
what you're saying...
- Oh, I didn't kill the girl, sheriff,
and I know perfectly what I'm saying.
I gave her that bit of bright work
in return for certain favors
she did me over the past year.
- Favors?
- Not the kind you're thinking, sheriff.
You ever heard of seibert's syndrome?
Well, it's an offshoot
of Blackwater fever,
the one form of malaria
they don't know anything about, really,
and once you got it,
you've got it forever.
And the only time you
know you had an attack
is when you wake up after it's all over.
I've had it for over a year now.
- Well, what do you do about it?
- You take trakpyradone.
It's the only thing that
keeps it under control.
- Where do you get that?
- Here at the hospital.
- Well, then, doc druten
would've known about it.
- No.
Sheriff, I have an interesting aversion
to my maladies being
paraded around the town,
being the subject of gossip
in bar rooms and bathrooms.
Ellie burrifew used to
bring me the medicine
in the evening, a month supply at a time,
and those were the favors she did me
in return for some money
and the night she died... that locket.
- Mr. Rodanthe, you telling me
that Ellie brought you some medicine
on the night she was murdered?
- That's right.
- What time?
- Oh, between eight and nine o'clock.
- What was she wearing?
- I don't know.
It was a pretty dress.
It was sort of brown,
I think, with checks.
But she wasn't in a
pleasant mood that night.
She had something on
her mind it seemed like.
So I gave the locket to Ellie
saying here, maybe this will
brighten you up a little.
- Did it?
- Not noticeably.
But she thanked me and I
hung it around her neck.
I closed the catch and then
she went away to get murdered.
- What'd you do after Ellie left?
- Something stupid, sheriff.
Nothing.
- Nothing.
- I should've gone right back upstairs
and taken two of the pills, but I didn't.
I just sat there thinking to myself
what a pretty girl Ellie burrifew was.
Just sat there thinking.
And uh...
- And?
- The next thing I knew,
I was taking a shower
and it was about five
o'clock in the morning.
- Mr. Rodanthe, when you came home
last evening after hunting,
what'd you do then?
- I dined with my sister.
- And after that?
- I went straight to bed.
It tired me out more
than I thought then, huh?
So I went to bed early.
Couldn't have been later than 9:00.
Slept the night.
- Without waking?
- Straight through to breakfast.
And that's when I learned
from my sister what had happened
in the night to Lawrence
burrifew and your deputy.
It was the same person,
wasn't it, sheriff?
All these murders, they've been committed
by the same person, haven't they?
- Well, it seems so.
If there is a person
that can tear iron bars
out of a brick wall.
Well.
Mr. Rodanthe, you don't
happen to be left handed?
- I'm ambidextrous, sheriff.
I can sign my name with
both hands at the same time
and it would take a handwriting expert
to tell you the difference.
You know, there've been
five of us in my family
who inherited that interesting trait
from my great-great grandfather.
- Well, take care of yourself.
- Miss rodanthe, is sheriff
Whitaker still with...
Oh, there he is.
Aaron, I can't get one person in this
fear-ridden town to take
this medication to old Hugh.
If he breaks lose with one
more spell of the iougarougs,
it'll be the finish of him.
- I'll take it.
- A spell of the what?
- It's something the old
man keeps saying in French.
Nobody around here could understand him.
- I know French.
- Will you go with me?
- Of course.
- Miss rodanthe.
- Doctor.
He said he went to bed at 9:00.
- Well, I know it was early.
- Do you know if he
slept through the night?
- Well, I don't know.
I dropped off at about 11:00.
- Hello, Sara, how is he?
- Sulfur? I smell sulfur.
That's what it is.
An acifiditive?
That's what people use to...
- I know.
Lougaroug!
No, yes.
- Can you hear him?
- Lougaroug?
Monsieur.
Monsieur.
S'il vous plait.
- Lougaroug!
- Aaron.
Aaron.
It's his dialect.
Loup-garou.
He's saying loup-garou.
Werewolf.
He's saying werewolf.
He says that I'm its next victim.
- Mr. Rodanthe?
Stop him!
- Stop him!
- No!
- Nurse, call the sheriff!
Tell him what you saw!
What happened!
- Okay, now quiet down and listen.
Now, Tom gurmandy, he knows these marshes
better than his own name,
so I'm putting him in charge.
And remember this.
Andrew rodanthe is out there
and he's turned into a wolf,
and we gotta find him and
shoot him down like a wolf.
- Miss rodanthe, this
isn't any place for you.
- Mayor.
You're planning to hunt down my brother!
Hunt him down and shoot
him like a wild animal!
- Miss rodanthe, you shouldn't be here.
- Mayor, mayor, he's sick.
He has this illness.
Don't you understand that?
He has these seizures.
- Miss rodanthe, he had fangs
coming two inches out of his mouth.
- Mayor, mayor, listen to me.
There are drugs.
- Hey, this here is his sister.
How do we know she ain't gonna turn out
to be some kind of a wolf?
- You shut up!
Mayor, mayor, listen to me.
Bounding him is one thing,
but hunting him down and shooting him
is another thing all together.
- Now, this is a law enforcement matter.
You organized this posse
without any legal authority.
- I'm acting under authority vested in me
by the marsh island charter.
Now, Tom gurmandy's in charge now.
- Louise.
Come on, Louise.
Come on, boys.
Well?
- They didn't find him,
but they're still at it.
- Aaron.
Aaron, come in here.
There's something I want you to see.
- What is it?
- "Lycanthropy and
lycanthrope-like diseases."
- What's iycanthropy?
- Werewolves.
- Oh, Louise, you don't
believe that that's...
- What I believe, what I want to believe,
is that it's what Andrew said it was,
a disease that you can
take pills to control.
But after what Dr. Druten said
and after what happened
at the burrifew house,
and granddaddy's fits
and now, this book...
- Let me see.
"Many diseases resemble iycanthropy
and some of its symptoms.
These quasi-iycanthropic diseases
are relatively harmless
and are easily controlled by
a series of modern drugs."
- Well, that's what Andrew said it was.
Those pills.
- "Lycanthropeia veritum.
True iycanthropy might
also respond favorably
to the same drugs for a time,
and then the disease develops
an immunity to the drug.
In true iycanthropy,
the victim's yearning
for the taste of blood
turns him into a most
dangerous and deadly killer.
Mythology has it that
werewolves are repelled
and temporarily harmless
by the smell of sulfur,
and it is also recorded,
though with no scientific basis whatever,
that certain persons sensitive, sorcerers,
exorcisers of evil claim to be able to..."
- No, no, go on. Go on, read it!
- It's mythology, I'm not
interested in mythology.
- Well, I am.
"They claim to be able to
see the shape of a pentagram
in the hand of the
werewolf's next victim."
- Louise, it's 1972.
- I heard he looked into Lawrence's hand
just before Andrew killed him.
- Well, that's what Sara said,
but Sara's a superstitious...
He just looked into mine.
- Louise, he is your brother.
Andrew is a...
He's out there.
- It's in the barn.
Stay right there.
Come on.
Come on.
Stay here, Louise.
Aaron, he tore
iron bars out of cement.
- That man was born in this house.
Maybe he'll have more respect.
And after I leave, lock
and shutter this door.
Then go in there and
lock and bolt that door
and don't leave the room.
I don't know what I'll do when I find him,
but it won't be what they'll do.
Now, don't leave the room.
Don't answer the door
until you hear it's me,
Aaron, saying it's me, all right?
- Aaron, if he has to be
killed... not their way.
Rodanthe!
Rodanthe!
- "The destruction of the victim
and only two methods of
destruction are known.
Death by burning
or death by shooting with
bullets that have been blessed."
Aaron!
Aaron!
Aaron!
Andrew.
- Louise!
- Oh, Aaron,
he knew.
He made me fire at him.
He knew.
The bullets... he must
have had them blessed.
He must've done that.
He knew.
Aaron, look.