The Pearl Comb (2025) Movie Script

1
-[waves crashing]
-[seagulls cawing]
[horse clip-clopping]
[breathes shakily]
[sighs]
[horse continues clip-clopping]
[waves rolling]
[knocking on door]
[clock ticking]
[man grunts]
There's been a lot of controversy
about this investigation.
Those other doctors are cynics.
I thought with you being family...
-[huffs] Yes, but I have to be objective.
-[woman] Even so.
You wouldn't want to damage
the family name, that's why I invited you.
It's quite incredible you healed
Thomas Banbury of consumption.
Consumption?
-The report...
-[woman] Not consumption.
It was a hex.
I'm not sure how the British
Medical Review would classify hexing.
But what we do find magical
is that you healed a boy of consumption.
As far as I'm aware, Betty, you may be
the only person to do so successfully.
So what we want to know is
what treatments...
No treatments.
It's a gift.
A gift.
Right.
From my late husband.
[Betty inhales sharply]
Oh, Lutey, it's so angry.
[breathes shakily]
You will get some more, won't you?
[suspenseful music playing]
[Betty] You could see it in his eyes.
All those years nursing me.
He was struggling.
For that night, he missed his supper.
His favourite supper.
And when he didn't come home,
I feared he'd slipped into his old ways.
[owl hoots]
[wind howls]
-'Course, I knew where to find him.
-[dog whimpers]
[huffs]
[door creaks]
[inhales]
Hey, Lutey, get up now, do you hear?
Who are you?
Are you the beautiful maiden come for me?
You ain't called me beautiful
in thirty year!
I'm Betty Lutey, your lawful wife
and, if you don't know me,
you must be gone clean out of your mind.
[breathes shakily] Betty Lutey...
If you're my lawful wife
you've had a narrow escape this night
of being left a widow,
and you may be thankful
you've ever set eyes on me again.
Thankful? Huh!
You need a good breakfast.
Dry you out.
I... I haven't been drinking,
I swear to you. I...
I was here.
Picking leaves...
for you.
[waves crashing]
[ethereal vocalising]
[ethereal vocalising swells]
[ominous music playing]
[grunts]
[sighs]
[ethereal vocalising continues]
[haunting singing]
-What's a matter, Missy?
-[gasps]
[splashes]
I wouldn't hurt you for the world.
[tense music playing]
I hope you understand English.
It's the only language I'm fluent in.
Kind sir.
We sea-folk understand all languages.
For we visit the coast of every land.
[sighs]
The tide will soon be in.
And you can float off
as quick as you like.
Beautiful mortal.
Help me.
Carry me out to sea.
Give me your aid
and I will make you rich
and glorious for life.
First of all, take this.
[ominous music playing]
This proves to you
that you've not been dreaming,
gentle stranger,
and that I will do for you what I said.
[ominous music continues]
[waves crashing]
Tell me your wishes.
Riches of course will be one of them.
No, lady,
I don't know that I'm so set
on getting gold.
Tell you what I should like though.
I'd dearly love
to be able to cure diseases.
Especially my wife's.
You are the first unselfish man
I've ever met.
You shall have your wish.
And I promise you that your family
shall never come to want.
[eerie music playing]
Come, stranger.
Come with me to our palaces.
The roofs are covered with diamonds.
The walls are of coral.
The floors are of mother-of-pearl.
For statuary we have the bodies of Earth's
most beautiful sons and daughters.
They come to us on ships,
sent by the king of the storms.
[thunder crashes]
We embalm them,
so that they look even more lovely
than in life.
How reposeful they look
in their pearl homes,
with gold heaped at their feet!
Will you come,
noble stranger?
Come to be one of us,
whose lives are all love and merriment?
I'd rather wine, my dear.
We have vast cellars
full of the choicest wines.
'Tis very tempting, but...
I'd be drowned before I got halfway.
I can manage that for you.
I'll make two slits under your chin.
[gasps]
Such a pair of gills is all you need...
so do not fear.
Come to our mermaids' home!
[dog barking]
[tense music playing]
And that's when I noticed, beyond,
on the cliff, stood our home.
Ah, my supper!
The thought of a nice hot meal
broke the spell.
-[hisses]
-[screams]
Let me go!
Let me go! [screams]
Unwind your great ghastly tail
from about my legs
and your skinny fingers from off my throat
or I will kill you!
[grunts]
[tense music playing]
[sighs]
Mine, mine, forever mine.
Farewell, farewell, for years of nine.
In return for the comb,
your blood will be mine.
Mine, mine, forever mine.
I'd see a mermaid if I'd had a bottle
and a half of Cornwall's finest.
Give me your hand.
Don't sweet-talk me.
I was waiting for you all bloody night.
Betty.
[gasps]
[tense music playing]
[breathes shakily]
[whimpers]
[sighs]
And oh dear, the gossipin' that went on.
'Course, it had nothing to do with me.
And for months after,
old Lutey was besieged
by all the sick and sorry.
[ethereal music playing]
[chuckles]
He did such big business in healing people
that not a doctor for miles around
could earn a living.
He could even cure animals.
[sighs]
The siren was true to her promises.
He got his wish,
and neither Lutey nor his lineage
have ever come to want.
But he paid dearly for it
in the end, mind.
She came back for Lutey?
[Betty] Nine years from that very day,
Lutey, forgetting all about the mermaid
and her threats,
arranged for us to go do a little fishing.
[water sloshing]
There weren't a breath of wind stirring,
the sea was like glass.
[boat creaking]
[ominous music playing]
[water splashes]
From that moment,
poor Lutey has never been seen.
Maybe, he is now one of the statues
so prized by the Mermaids,
with gold heaped at his feet.
But unbeknownst to Lutey,
when he passed on the comb,
he passed on the curse.
Every nine years, one of Lutey's kinship
is claimed by the sea.
[scoffs]
Utterly charming
and a great story for the grandchildren,
but I'm here about Thomas.
Yes, but you see...
Lutey passed on his gift to me.
[scoffs] Betty, could I postulate
an alternative scenario?
Because, Lutey, alright, I never met him.
We're barely cousins.
But I've heard about him
and his abilities.
He was a simple man.
A country man.
He was no fool.
He fortuitously married above his station.
[inhales sharply] In fact,
I'd suggest this lady he married
is in truth a qualified doctor
who perhaps, just perhaps,
was never granted a licence to practise.
[sighs]
Being a learned gentleman,
you must know that no one is ready
for a female doctor.
Especially in these parts.
The public is more scared
of an educated woman than a witch?
A woman of learning
is far more frightening.
Does the fairer sex
belong in the profession?
After all, they are a threat
to family and male livelihood.
My husband did not share that view.
So you disguised your practice with
tales of witchery,
incantation and the like.
Isn't that why you sent for me?
My report has to say you believe
in mermaids and hexes,
so you can continue your practice
without any fuss and bother.
[inhales] As for young Thomas,
I suspect it was nothing more magical
than spontaneous remission.
The only rational explanation.
As a woman, I've often heard that
luck is an easier answer than skill.
[scoffs]
[inhales sharply] Lutey and the mermaid.
Yes, it's a good tale.
Let me show you out.
Photograph first?
We take one for all of our reports now.
-[camera clicks]
-[sighs]
Thank you, dear.
[banging noise]
Did you hear that?
What?
[piercing sound]
[walks away]
[banging]
That!
[ominous music playing]
[banging noise]
Pass me the key, woman.
Stay behind me!
[sighs]
[sighs]
I'm going to have to take
a photograph of this.
-[banging noise]
-[gasps]
[bottles rattle]
[gasps]
-[screams]
-[screams]
[hisses]
[ominous music playing]
Magic and medicine
is a marvellous combination.
I trapped her.
For my experiments.
Only pickle is, every nine years
she has to feed on one of us.
[grunts]
[coughs and splutters]
[eerie music playing]
[grunts]
[hisses]
[somber music playing]
[grunts]
[grunts]
[music turns malicious]
[banging]