[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
[CRICKETS CHIRPING]
[FATHER SIGHS]
[EXCLAIMING IN ANNOYANCE]
[UTENSILS CLATTERING]
Honey, it's family hour,
there must be something on.
DAUGHTER: Oh, wow, Candied Critters!
[FATHER EXCLAIMS]
Oh, Great. It's Monsters, our favorite show!
[MONSTROUS LAUGH]
Shh. It's starting.
[MONSTROUS LAUGH]
[FATHER CHUCKLES]
[COUGHING]
[CAR APPROACHING]
[CLEARS THROAT]
[COUGHING]
[INHALING]
[KNOCKING AT DOOR]
Come on in. It's open.
Hi, remember me?
Oh, yes, sure. Yes, yes.
You are the young lady who ran out of here like a bat out of heaven.
And didn't even say, "So long."
I know, it's embarrassing.
I suddenly remembered, stupid me,
I left a pot of rhubarb cooking on the stove.
I live up by Stepford Junction.
I'm sorry, I should have said something before I left.
That was rude.
Well, there's no harm done.
Didn't steal nothing.
[CHUCKLING] I checked that out.
LUCILLE: This is my friend, Roger.
He's an art critic from New York. Right, Roger?
Oh, not much of one. Just an article or two.
I was so impressed by Vivekananda's work
that I dragged Roger Darcy all the way up here.
Oh, well, I do. Hubert Pocock.
Glad to meet you.
Yes, well, no, no. I'm not one of the artists here.
I'm no artist at all. I'm just the manager of this place for about a month.
Well, actually, it's more or less like a...
[CLEARS THROAT] glorified handyman.
You know, if you got down to the dirty truth.
[LAUGHS]
You know, up until last week,
I didn't even know there was an art gallery here,
let alone one so distinguished.
Has the Barn Gallery been here long?
Oh, I wouldn't know.
[COUGHING]
Oh, that golden stick pollen,
you know, it just gets to my asthma something fierce.
Well, that leg of yours, that give you a lot of pain
and, and trouble during bad weather?
Oh, not bad. [CLEARS THROAT]
I'm used to it.
He was wounded in Vietnam.
Roger is a colonel in the Green Berets.
Well, where is it?
Where's what?
Your green beret?
You're a hero, right, yeah?
HUBERT: A military man, yeah.
You ought to be interested in chess.
Well, I see you are.
Would you like to have a little game, huh?
Well, I don't think I can give you much of a game.
Actually, Roger is...
Oh, no, no. I pegged you right away
as one of those high IQ type fellers.
HUBERT: Would you like to take a little go at it?
Well, not right now.
Well, maybe a little later.
You know, I don't mind. I'm always looking for a game.
You know, it stirs me up inside.
Mr. Pocock, Roger's driven a long way to see Vivekananda's work.
May we look?
Well, yeah, sure.
I mean, that's what they're here for, I guess.
Good lord.
That is horrifying.
This Vivekananda, he's not American, is he?
Oh, well, I hope not.
Oh, he's from a place called...
um, Nepal... No, no.
Nepal? That's it. That's the one. Yeah.
He lost his visa, had to go back there.
Kathmandu? If you say so.
ROGER: I wonder what the medium is.
I wonder if that's acrylic or latex? What is it?
Oh, no, don't touch. No, no, you mustn't touch.
Oh, no. These insurance companies are mighty particular.
It's made out of some food stuff.
Hardened yogurt, that's what he told me.
Yogurt? Yeah.
How do you keep it from decomposing?
[CHUCKLING AND COUGHING]
[STAMMERING] Take it from me.
You can't live without breathing.
I used to have me a cotton farm up in Maine.
I had to let it go.
Everything I grew, I was allergic to.
Cotton? Yep.
[PHONE RINGING]
Oh, that's the phone. Right, you wanna look ahead.
You look around. I'm just gonna take that. Be my guest.
Come, I want you to see
the use of perspective in this portrait.
It reminds me of a Bruegel I saw last year at the Prado.
Art critic.
How come you told him I was an art critic?
Look, Roger.
What?
Don't you see?
It's a young boy in the portrait.
Yesterday, on a hunch,
I went to visit my friend, Albert, at the state police barracks.
You remember Albert. You met him that time at the...
Lucille. Yes, well.
This picture was right underneath Penny's
in the missing person's file.
You're right. It is him.
But what about Penny?
Roger, sweetheart, this isn't gonna be very easy.
Look. What?
ROGER: Good lord, it's Penny.
It's my daughter.
It is Penny, isn't it?
Yeah.
ROGER: I can't stand to see her looking that way.
Terrified, beaten down.
Something's happened to her.
This Vivekananda creep has done something to her.
I should have never let her come up here by herself.
Roger, it wasn't your fault.
HUBERT: Ding dang telephone.
Well, anything I can do for you folks?
Yes, we... Mr. Pocock, that's...
That's my daughter, Penny. That's a portrait of my daughter.
She's been missing for eight months, and I...
When did Vivekananda do this painting?
That's your daughter? Yes.
Oh.
Well... Oh, that's why you took a powder.
You wanted to get your friend up here.
Yeah. Well, why didn't you tell me about it?
Well, I... What do you think I am?
Somebody who makes young girls disappear?
I mean, that's not really a very neighborly attitude, is it?
Oh, Mr. Pocock, nobody's accusing you of anything.
We need your help. When was this portrait done?
Well, I don't know. I haven't the faintest idea.
See, I've only been here about five weeks.
No, no. Wait a minute, wait a minute.
There's two big crates out there with...
with "S.S. Star of Calcutta" stenciled on it.
That's right. He told me that he'd painted these things in India.
No, that's absurd.
Well, could be your daughter just lit out for India.
No, that's impossible. She didn't have her passport.
Well... Show him the flier.
Oh, oh, here.
This is a police poster.
LUCILLE: That's a picture of the young boy in the front room.
He's been missing since July.
Now, they both disappear in the same part of the state,
at the same time, and they both end up...
Well, don't get your bowels in an uproar. No, no.
Remember, these are young people.
Young people today, you know, they're feckless.
My daughter was not feckless, Mr. Pocock.
Something has happened to her. She was supposed to start college in September,
and then all of a sudden, she was nothing.
Well, maybe she met a handsome young feller,
fell in love, and ran away with him.
Take a look at her face, huh?
Take a look at it.
ROGER: That's not love you see on her face.
That's pain. Fear! No, don't touch it! Don't!
Wait. Look, Roger.
It's Penny's ring.
It fell out of the portrait.
My God.
Look, it's exactly the same as the ring I have on.
I'll be damned. Well, ain't that something?
Listen to me!
She would have never taken that ring off. Never!
I gave her that ring for her 16th birthday.
I remember that ring. It meant a great deal to Penny!
Calm down, calm down!
That artist friend of yours used that ring in the painting!
But where did he get it? She would've never given it to him.
Listen, listen.
There's got to be a logical explanation for this.
There's just got to be.
Well, what is it?
[STAMMERING] I don't know.
No, I'm sorry. You see, I've been dealing with this feller,
and I just can't believe that he'd kill anybody.
Well, don't make me too swift to judge people, that's...
Oh, that's embarrassing.
[COUGHING]
HUBERT: Well, come on over here and sit down.
Maybe I can help you out.
Is she an only child? ROGER: Yeah.
And your wife? She's dead.
That's terrible, that's terrible.
Well, I know how sorry you are.
You haven't got much of a family left.
Mr. Pocock...
Hubert. Name's Hubert.
Friends call me Hubie. You can too.
Well, here's to it.
Listen, Mr. Pocock, I have a friend at the state police office, Albert...
ROGER: Lucille!
Albert's just a clerk. What's he supposed to do?
Call Vivekananda on the phone,
long distance, and read him his rights?
Nepal. I have to go to Nepal.
HUBERT: No, no, you don't. No.
Vivekananda ain't in Nepal.
What do you mean, I thought you said...
Oh, I know, I know.
I know, but I was fibbing.
You see, don't get mad at me now, it's my job.
You see, this Vivekananda feller,
well, he's one of those who makes a big foo-fa-fa about his privacy.
He says it's my business to keep people away from him.
Where is he? Well, he lives in a cabin.
Way up on White Water Ridge.
Let's go.
Wait. Let me call Albert first.
What are you gonna tell him?
HUBERT: A story about a painting and a ring?
They're gonna want real proof.
One that we're gonna have to find out ourselves.
Would you do me a favor, little lady?
Just sit yourself right down here?
I got some buyers coming over in about an hour.
Would you show them around?
Hey, maybe there's some leads I can follow right here.
And Penny's portrait is not for sale.
HUBERT: No, of course not. You ready?
ROGER: You bet. HUBERT: Yeah, all right.
Oh, you keep your eye open.
I think, you know, I bet you're one of them Irish people.
Yes.
I knew it!
Come on, let's go!
Maybe she's still alive. Maybe she's still in that cabin, alive.
Irish!
The Chinese, now, I never did get to see any of those Chinese folk.
Well, that's all right. All right, here we go.
My God.
It's real.
[ALARM BLARING]
It's not a painting. It's real.
Oh, dear. [DOOR CLOSING]
No, no, no!
It's dead! What am I gonna do now?
[SOBBING]
What does this mean?
ROGER: I don't see how you can be sure that's Vivekananda's cabin.
From what I could see through the window,
it didn't even look like it was occupied.
Well, there weren't any paintings.
Frames.
And for an artist, it's way too dark up there.
All that tree cover. Why, an artist,
he ought to cut down some of those trees.
Well, I don't know. I don't know.
I just used to send him his check all the time up there,
and people get real upset if they don't get the check.
[INHALING]
Lucille?
I don't think she's here.
Well, if she ain't, it's real inconsiderate of her.
With the door wide open, I could've been robbed lock, stock, and barrel.
Maybe she's in the back.
Oh, no, you sit down and rest. I'll go look.
HUBERT: Miss Clay?
Miss Clay?
Look, some of those pieces have been knocked over.
There's been a struggle here.
Vivekananda could've come back here.
He could've come here while we were out.
Lucille would've faced him. I know her.
I'm sure that's what happened.
He's done something with her. He's taken her.
[CHUCKLES] That's fair as a lot of guessing.
Well, the wind didn't do that.
I'm gonna call the state police.
Oh, Sheriff Cohen is an old friend of mine.
Now, I'll get him over here and get you out right quick.
[CLEARING THROAT]
Oh, hello, Orville.
Yeah, well, I got me a little bit of a problem over here at the gallery.
Well, it may be a bigger problem than that.
Yeah. No, no, worse than that.
Foul play, maybe.
About 20 minutes? Yeah, that's good.
Yeah, well, I'll see you when you get here. Yeah.
Well, Orville, he's got a problem.
He's got a truck
that's jackknifed out on Route 99.
Watermelons all over the road.
Oh, dang. Wait, you fixed that up real good.
Yeah, how about a quick game, huh?
This isn't exactly the right moment for a game.
Well, what else are we gonna do?
Well, I mean, we could pass time here until Orville shows up
or Miss Clay comes back.
Here, I'll set the clock for 20 minutes,
and, uh...
Would you like to go first with white?
Well, I guess I'll start, then.
Say, you know, I thought you already.
You're a pretty good player.
No, I'm not.
I'm an international grand master.
Oh, really?
Well, Miss Clay said that you were an art critic.
Well, she was lying.
Just as you were lying when you said you were Hubert Pocock.
[STAMMERING] What's that? I'm not me?
It's simple.
Oh, I resign. You have mate in seven moves.
Now, I haven't lost often, my friend.
But I have never lost to a down east fella
from a cotton farm in Maine,
who just picked up the game by hush.
Well... [CHUCKLES]
Well, suppose I told you that I'm a grand master too.
I've been playing chess competitively for 25 years.
I know all the grand masters.
It's a small fraternity.
No, Mr. Pocock.
As my daughter used to say,
you're something else.
Question is, what?
Well, what the ding dong hell?
Let's wait until Orville gets here
and you can ask him who I am.
Somehow, I don't think Orville is coming.
Line's dead.
[STAMMERING] Well, it...
It wasn't dead a minute ago.
And I think there's something in the back there you didn't want me to see.
Well, don't go off half caught.
Being suspicious like this won't help your daughter.
What is that?
HUBERT: Why, I haven't the faintest idea.
I'm no art critic. I'm not even pretending to be an art critic.
Somebody or something is in that.
Ah, breathe deeply. Deeply.
Breathe deeply. I feel sick.
There. No.
Get away from me!
[ALARM BLARING]
Oh, my God.
HUBERT: Big city folks, their hands in their bonnets,
bats in their pants, bees in their poultry.
[ROGER GRUNTING]
[WHIRRING]
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING]
[HUBERT COUGHING]
[COUGHING CONTINUES]
Let's put a new face on things.
I'm ready for you, granddad.
I'm not some teenage kid you can pick on.
You're a... Oh, right, yeah. A military man.
[PENNY MOANING]
PENNY: Father!
I'm coming, sweetheart. I'm coming.
I'm not going, sweetheart.
Just hold on. Just hold on, it won't be long.
[PENNY SCREAMING] [ALARM BLARING]
Oh, I'm sorry, baby, I'm sorry.
I'm almost there.
PENNY: It's too late for me.
Run, Father, the gas. Run!
HUBERT: Would you like to take a little go at it?
[GROANING]
I'm always looking for a game.
[CHUCKLING]
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]
HUBERT: Yes, siree.
Over there, you can see the everyday gear of an earthing male.
Age, 45 thereabouts.
One bummed leg, stubborn cast.
Made him play a game they call chess,
All the long ride home.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]