"My name is Allison MacKenzie." "Where I was born, time was told not by the clock or the calendar but by the seasons." "Summer was carefree contentment." "Autumn was that bittersweet time of regret for moments that had ended and things that were yet undone." "And then winter fell with a cold mantle of caution and chill." "It nipped our noses and our arrogance and made use move closer to the warm stoves of memory and desire." "Spring was promise." "But there was a fifth season of love and only the wise or the lucky ones knew where to find it." "Whoa." "Hey, mister, which way to Peyton Place?" "Go up this road, about two miles." "You'll come right to the town." "Thanks." "Lucas stole my money." "He drinks everything in sight." "I saved for a year and a half for a course." "Don't go, Paul." "You was my firstborn...." "Hitting everyone in his way." "Even you." "Only when he's drinking." "That's been every night." "Why did you marry him?" "When your real pa died, you and Selena and Joey had to have a father." "Lucas tries hard to be a good man." "Goodbye, Ma." "Paul." "Selena, don't you ask me to stay." "My babysitting money." "I wish there was more." "Paul." "Paul, I'll do extra work." "I'll find a job and get the money back." "Don't leave." "I'm...." "I'm sorry we got into a fight." "It won't happen again." "I give you my word." "Paul, Paul!" "He'll come back." "You wait and see, he'll come back." "Nellie I'm going to try hard not to drink anymore." "Selena I'm gonna try harder than I ever tried anything." "Morning." "Good morning." "May I have fried eggs and a cup of coffee, please?" "All right." "Do you have a washroom where I can clean up?" "First door." "Oh, yeah." "Thank you." "What you selling?" "Nothing." "Sorry, I thought you might be a traveling man." "No, I came here to get a job." "I should have known." "I hear Harrington Woolen Mills got some government contracts for military uniform cloth." "A lot of people will move here." "Which way is it to Harrington Mills?" "Follow Elm Street to the river then look up to your right." "You'll hate it." "Morning, Mrs. MacKenzie." "Morning, Nellie." "Paul left this morning." "Left for where?" "Don't know." "Says he wants to leave town and make something of himself." "Instead of working all the time at the mill." "He wants to see the world." "Who is?" "Paul." "He left town this morning." "Allison, must you play records so early?" "Good breakfast music." "Digest your juice with culture." "I'm glad about Paul, Nellie." "How did Selena take it?" "She's glad too." "But she ain't a mother." "Neither are you." "I'd like to see the world." "Have a romance in Venice." "Meet a tall stranger in Hong Kong." "Allison, don't eat so fast." "Have to." "Senior class is giving a gift to Ms. Thornton." "I wrote a speech that Rodney Harrington's going to read." "Badly, I'm sure." "What's going on?" "A meeting to appoint a new principal." "How do you know it'll be Ms. Thornton?" "Nobody else deserves it." "I'll drop by the store after school." "Goodbye, Dad." "I wish you'd stop that ridiculous performance every day." "What?" "Saying goodbye or hello to my father?" "Saying it to a photograph." "I suppose it's silly, but it makes me feel that he's here." "You scarcely knew him." "It's not my fault he died when I was two." "I can't remember him, I admit, but I miss him." "You mean, you miss a father." "Yes, Mother." "Wouldn't it be nice if you had men friends, or dates, or even marry again?" "Stop talking about fathers, husbands and marriage." "You miss him more than I ever realized." "I'm sorry, Mother." "I'll be late." "Forgot the speech." "Goodbye, Mom." "Bye." "Good morning, Ms. Lancie." "Good Morning, Allison." "Hi, David." "Good morning, Mr. Herman." "Morning, Miss Allison." "Go on home, Buffy." "Hi, Dr. Swain." "Morning, Allison." "Good morning, girls." "Morning, doctor." "Good Morning, Mr. Cross." "Morning." "Thank you, Norman." "Everything's gone wrong this morning." "If you didn't run all the time...." "Ted's bringing the gift." "Rodney." "Here's the speech." "I'll never memorize this." "Then just read it." "She's coming!" "Miss Thornton's coming!" "Hey." "Hey." ""The job of principal of Peyton Place High School."" "Quiet." "Ms. Thornton, the senior class has asked me to say a few words and on behalf of them, to present this gift to you." ""Our names are inscribed inside the cover of that dictionary." "Because there are so many words to express what we feel for you and your long services to the school we decided to give you all the words in the language." "We're losing you, but to something bigger and more important:" "The job of principal of Peyton Place High School." "So you'll know we'll never forget you can always turn to the words love, friendship and remembrance and know that we're always thinking them."" "This is the loveliest thing that ever happened to me." "I...." "There's another word in this book." "Gratitude." "Now, let's talk about graduation." "I would like a report from the president of the class, Ted Carter." "Ms. Thornton, I've arranged for all the necessary committees and if they all do their jobs well, I'm sure we'll have a fine graduation." "Vice president, Selena Cross." "The programs will be printed in a couple of weeks and I've rented caps and gowns at $2.50 apiece." "And we're gonna have a tea and a reception on the lawn afterwards." "Editor of the yearbook, Allison MacKenzie." "The copy's all done." "But the engraver's going mad waiting for all the pictures." "Whoever doesn't have his picture in by Wednesday won't be in the yearbook." "Senior dance, Betty Anderson." "Everybody has to help with the decorations." "The tickets are printed and will go on sale a week before." "I'm supposed to announce there's to be no necking in the parking lot." "Nor anywhere else, for that matter." "Harrington, Elsie Thornton has earned the right to be principal." "She's given her life to this town." "At least we can recognize it." "As head of this school board, it's my opinion she should be retired." "I'm afraid I can't quite concur with you." "I agree with Doc Swain." "You would." "Ms. Thornton's practically senile." "A hypochondriac, uses sleeping pills." "You want a drug addict for a principal?" "Marion, it seems to me that I write a lot of prescriptions for you." "As far as Ms. Thornton being senile, she's of your generation." "She is not." "I'm 36." "You're 45." "My father delivered you the year they built the courthouse, 1896." "We need someone young." "This fellow who's coming is well recommended." "And I can get him at the right price." "Mr. Harrington, he's outside." "He can't do us much good out there, Ms. Colton." "Send him in." "Would you come in, Mr. Rossi?" "Yes." "Thank you." "Good morning." "I'm Leslie Harrington." "How do you do?" "This is the school board." "Mr. and Mrs. Partridge." "He's a lawyer." "Dr. Swain." "Seth Bushwell." "He's editor of the Peyton Place Times." "Mr. Rossi, here's our situation." "We're prepared to offer the job as principal to a qualified man with a minimum guaranteed five-year contract." "Mr. Rossi is a graduate of Penn State, summa cum laude." "He holds a master's degree in English and literature." "He was an outstanding athlete." "He's single." "Personally, now that I've seen him, I like what I see." "Did I miss anything?" "I've been working in construction." "If you're a teacher, why were you working there?" "I couldn't live on the salary of a teacher." "This job starts at 3000 a year." "Then we're all wasting our time." "That's only $5 a week more than I was making as a teacher." "But this offers you security." "A long-term contract." "Guaranteed poverty is not security." "I want 5000 a year and a raise of 500 in the second year." "We can't do it." "You own this mill." "How much do you pay a foreman, $200 a week?" "This is business." "These men manufacture a product that makes money." "Be practical and face realities." "To people like you, education is a necessary evil." "You can't see it, so it's worth nothing." "Let me tell you this, the things we can't see are the most important things on this earth." "They're called ideas." "Thank you for the interview." "If we offer you 5000, would you coach the basketball and football team?" "No, I would not." "If you can't pay the principal of your school a decent salary you have no right to be running a school." "Mr. Rossi." "Leslie, I'm afraid you're fighting a losing battle." "Now, Mr. Rossi, frankly...." "In other words, the life history of the race repeats itself in the individual." "A notice from the school board." "Thank you." ""Effective immediately the school board of Peyton Place is happy to announce the appointment of a new school principal:" "Mr. Michael Rossi."" "Who?" ""We trust that you will show him the same loyalty and devotion you displayed to the late Mr. Firth."" "Class dismissed." "I'm sorry, Ms. Thornton." "I don't know how they could do such a thing." "You deserve to be principal." "Allison, a person doesn't always get what she deserves." "Remember it." "If there's anything in life you want, go and get it." "Don't wait for anybody to give it to you." "Now, I have some work to do." "See you later, Al." "Here we are." "Good-looking school, doc." "That must be the new principal, you know?" "They really give it to you, didn't they?" "Like everybody else, they really give it to you." "Have you been drinking?" "Work yourself to death, then they bring in an outsider to pick the plum." "You have been drinking." "I know you keep a bottle in the basement, but I won't have you bring it into the classroom, ever." "Don't forget." "It'd do your kids good to learn how to handle liquor instead of algebra." "You're talking like a fool." "Oh, be I." "I sat in this classroom four years." "I sat right here." "Everything important was learned somewheres else." "You never applied yourself." "If you had, you might've learned something in school." "Tell my wife, a cleaning woman." "Tell me, a janitor, cleaning toilets." "Stop it!" "Tell every mill worker behind on his bills." "I said, stop it." "If you had applied yourself, you might have learned how to live intelligently." "There ain't nobody in this here town living intelligently." "Nobody." "I don't believe that." "All right." "Name me one important person graduated from this here school." "Name one." "You can't." "I'm gonna tell you something, Ms. Thornton something you can teach your class someday." "The minute they walk out that door, they walk into a dog-eat-dog world." "It's crawl in front of the big dogs if you want to eat, get a job." "I won't do it." "I won't do it!" "That's why I'm washing windows, scrubbing walls, emptying ashes." "I never had nothing I ever wanted." "Shakespeare did me no more good than Washington did crossing the Delaware." "You didn't help yourself." "Elsie, I'd like to have you meet Mike Rossi." "Ms. Thornton." "Hello, Ms. Thornton." "Mr." "Rossi." "Welcome to Peyton Place." "Thank you." "This is our utility man, Lucas Cross." "Hello, Lucas." "My hand's too dirty." "I'll start on another room." "Does he always drink?" "He's disappointed for me." "Loyalty is always more passionate than reason." "I guess that's why I came to see you first." "There was sentiment for making you principal." "Please don't feel uncomfortable, Mr. Rossi." "My time came too late." "I hope we can work together." "Of course we can." "I suppose you have a lot of new, progressive ideas." "No, not really." "I'm rather old-fashioned, as a matter of fact." "I have just two rules:" "Oh?" "First, I want this school to teach the truth as far as we know it." "I don't want any teacher making a fairy tale out of life." "It's hard enough without being unequipped to meet it." "That's a good rule." "Shall we sit down?" "And rule two teach a minimum of facts and maximum of ideas." "Our main job is to teach children how to think, not just to memorize." "If war comes for us these kids shouldn't fight just for historical dates but for the ideals behind them." "I like your rules, Mr. Rossi." "Peyton Place is very fortunate." "Thank you, Ms. Thornton." "Allison, I don't know what Betty's buying, but tell her to hurry." "Okay." "Mother, Ms. Thornton didn't get the job." "I know." "Betty and Margie told me." "They're in the back." "After giving her the gift and the speech, it was embarrassing for her." "She'll get over it." "I'm glad I'm graduating." "I don't want to know the new principal." "Mrs." "MacKenzie, about graduation...." "What about it, sweetie?" "Mother needs a new dress for the exercises." "Could I make some arrangement to buy her one?" "After I graduate I'll get a job and I could pay you back." "You'll be needing a new dress yourself." "I can get by." "Look, with Easter and graduation coming on, I'll be needing some help." "Would you like to work afternoons and Saturdays?" "I'd love to!" "Fine." "Then I could buy two dresses." "Wholesale." "No girl ever had two better friends than you and Allison." "When you see how hard Mother makes you work, you won't say that." "Oh!" "Rodney's outside." "Good, let him wait." "You'll be arrested for wearing that." "No, just picked up." "Mother says women should be mysterious." "Do you think the dress is too old?" "No, you're too young." "Won't people think you're a little fast?" "According to my philosophy, what other people think will not pay the rent." "If you're accused of being fast, might as well run." "Get the good things first." "Just remember, men can see much better than they can think." "Believe me, a low-cut neckline does more for a girl's future than the entire Britannica encyclopedia." "Allison, could you help me a moment?" "Sure." "Be right back." "Do you think Rod will like it?" "When you have your 18th birthday party I don't want you to invite Betty Anderson." "I might as well not have a party." "If I can't invite Betty, Rodney won't come." "I wouldn't mind that." "If Rodney won't come, his friends won't." "Then nobody will accept." "I can't understand why you want to be friends with Betty." "I don't like the way she talks about men and sex." "It appears the only perfect individual is you." "We've had 17 dull birthday parties alone." "Could you let me have one for myself, please?" "Allison, what about Betty?" "Hi, Norman." "Oh, hi, Allison." "What's the matter?" "Same old thing." "Grownups who act like children." "Hey, could I walk home with you?" "No." "You'd get home late." "You mean, your mother wouldn't like it." "Well...." "Come on, Norman." "Come on." "Spend the afternoon in the library again?" "Yeah." "Isn't it awfully dull going there every day?" "Yeah." "Then why do you do it?" "I like books." "Good place to do my homework." "Besides, where else could I go but home?" "Go down to the water." "Sit in the square." "Take a walk in the woods." "I can't." "You know, that was a nice speech you wrote for Mrs. Thornton." "I'm sorry I did it now." "Why didn't you read it yourself instead of Rodney Harrington?" "Because I was afraid I'd cry." "Still might cry every time I think of Ms. Thornton not getting that job." "You know, you just might turn out to be a great writer." "Norman, I hope so." "You know, every time I touch a book or read a story or even when I just open the dictionary something inside of me goes thump and my heart starts pounding, and my stomach." "You know, it's how people are supposed to feel when they fall in love." "Of course, I never have." "I wish I could be so sure of what I wanted to do." "You must have some idea." "No." "No, I've thought of everything, but nothing seems to fit me." "Maybe I'll be unique and retire at the age of 18." "Norman, it's about time you got home." "Hello, Ms. Page." "Goodbye, Norman." "Wait just a minute, will you?" "But you" "I don't want to go in just yet." "Norman, what an awful thing, hating to go home." "Come on in here." "Well, thanks for walking with me." "I enjoyed it, really." "Goodbye." "Goodbye." "May I walk on it, Nellie?" "Sure, it's dry by now." "Your mother wants you to call her." "I really don't feel like it." "You two have a fight again?" "Same fight, different round." "Nellie?" "Yeah." "You've been both a daughter and a mother." "Which one is worse?" "Being a mother." "Why?" "You find yourself doing the same things you hated your own mother and father doing." "That's very interesting." "Doesn't somebody get intelligent and realize children must grow up their own way?" "The mind's nothing to do with it." "It's your feelings." "Kids get born and you just worry about them and you hope for them." "Well, I gotta get going." "Good night, Nellie." "Good night, Allison." "Hello?" "Oh, hello, Mother." "I've been thinking it over." "You can invite anyone you want to your party." "Oh, Mother, thank you." "Thank you very much." "I'll be home in a little while." "Bye." "2676J, please." "Hey, watch where you're going there, buddy, will you?" "Thanks much." "Thank you." "You don't need any." "I want it." "I want some!" "Would you like a sandwich, Norman?" "No, thank you." "Excuse me." "Excuse me." "Happy birthday!" "Happy birthday!" "How are you?" "How are you?" "Betty and Rodney." "Where's Ted Carter?" "Right here." "Let's stop that corny music and do some serious dancing." "Those are good records." "These are new ones." "I brought some mistletoe." "Mistletoe?" "Hang it high, will you?" "Only if I can kiss Betty." "Tonight, nobody is safe from me." "Hey, Christmas is eight months away." "I do my Christmas kissing early." "Hey!" "Where's the punch?" "It's over there." "Oh, good." "Add the old family formula." "Now you're talking, Rod." "My mother wouldn't want me to" "Don't tell me she's here." "No, she's at the movies." "Put the booze in the bowl." "That's the one thing she made me promise." "You want to have a party or not?" "You can't fight city hall." "Put the liquor in." "Forget it." "I know 10 other ways to make a party successful." "Now, first, we gotta make the atmosphere a little more intimate." "Rodney, aren't you the one." "Evening." "Good evening." "Hello, doc." "Hi, Connie." "Just coffee, please." "Right." "Who's that, doc?" "That's Mrs. MacKenzie." "She runs a dress shop." "She has a daughter in the senior class, Allison." "Beautiful woman." "Yeah." "She's a widow." "Born here, but she had ambitions, and left." "Married in New York to some ad genius." "When he died, she came back here." "I'd like to meet her." "Wouldn't do you no good." "Bring your coffee." "Connie, you haven't met Mr. Rossi, the new school principal." "How do you do?" "Hello." "I hear about you every day from my daughter." "Uh...." "You've been working kind of late?" "No, I've been to the movies." "Allison's giving a party." "What does she plan to do after graduation?" "She wants to be a writer." "I'd like her in college." "It's too bad she has no brothers and sisters." "Why do you say that?" "Just that I'm against only-child families." "Only children receive all the attention of the parents." "Good and bad." "I don't think Allison turned out badly." "She hasn't turned out yet." "Her life is just beginning." "It's too late to give her any brothers and sisters." "In your case, I'd say it wasn't." "If I didn't like you so much, Matt...." "No use" "Now, Connie, don't you go proposing to me." "For you, doc." "Excuse me." "Would you like a cigarette?" "Swain speaking." "Thank you." "I'll be right over." "Speak of babies and they appear." "Mrs. Runkle's in labor." "I'll see you later." "Thanks, doc." "Bye." "Bye." "Doc Swain's always talking about babies." "They're his stock-in-trade." "Not a bad subject." "We teach schoolchildren English and math and history, and yet we neglect what gives them the most trouble in life." "You don't recommend classes in baby-making?" "Only in theory." "I intend to initiate a sex-education course in the school." "Isn't that a function of the home?" "You'd think." "And yet not one parent in 10 does it." "No, sex is taboo in the home." "And it should be in the schools." "Where would they learn it, in parked cars?" "They'll learn it when they marry." "Good night, Mr. Rossi." "Doc Swain offers a special price for frostbites." "Come on, Allison." "Rodney." "Allison!" "This was supposed to be a birthday party." "Just playing "photography":" "Turn off the lights, see what develops." "Don't be fresh." "Just leave immediately." "All of you!" "I caught her under the mistletoe." "Will you please leave?" "Happy birthday, Allison." "Come on, Betty." "I'm sorry." "Thanks anyway." "Thanks, Allison." "Come out here." "Allison, I said come out here." "I knew this would happen if you invited Betty." "Wasn't her fault." "And you making love" "We were kissing, one kiss, not making love." "The house in darkness, and couples necking all over." "I know, but everyone wanted to dance in the dark." "And I couldn't very well...." "Mother, at every party in this town, they turn out the lights." "I don't want you to be like everybody." "I want you to rise above Peyton Place." "It's my home, my town." "Why should I wanna rise above it?" "Because its standards are low." "Its people spend their time trying to drag each other down." "I don't want to be perfect." "I don't want to live in a test tube." "I just want to be me, and have some fun, and have some friends." "I'd rather be liked than be perfect." "By liked, you mean being pawed by an animal with one thing on his mind." "Don't make it sound like that." "Everything has to be learned, even kissing." "And sex?" "Is that what you're going to practice at your next party?" "You keep trying to accuse me of things I'm not even thinking about." "I don't want you to get a reputation for a half-hour's carelessness." "I already have one." "The wrong kind." "I want you to fall in love and at the proper time, to marry a man who respects you." "I want you to have a good name." "I want" "You want!" "You want!" "You want!" "Is that all you can say?" "Well, if any man would ask me, I'd run away and become his mistress." "Don't you ever let me hear you say a thing like that again!" "I don't know why I said it." "I don't know why I said it." "Allison." "Hello, Trudy." "Hello, Allison." "Hello, Joey." "Selena'll be out in a couple minutes." "Thank you." "Come on in back." "I got a new baby lamb." "Oh, I'd love to see it." "Oh, it's darling." "I didn't show you my lizard." "I keep him in a box right there." "I got some holes punched in it, just so he can breathe." "His name is Pocahontas." "Used to be, a man didn't have to cook his own meals in his own house." "Times have changed." "Ma's working and I'm late for church." "The way you parade yourself up and down, taking off your clothes" "I don't parade up and down." "You do!" "You just like to show yourself off." "I don't like to show off!" "Just because we don't live in a palace, doesn't mean we have to act like pigs." "We've got a trash can, remember?" "Well, well, well." "If you don't pick it up, somebody else has to." "And it wouldn't harm you to take the garbage out and bury it." "Or do you like living like a pig?" "What do you think you are, always giving orders?" "Take your hands off of me!" "Don't you touch her." "Don't you touch her anymore!" "Just a little family fracas." "Guess my little girl's getting too big to spank." "It was my fault, Allison." "I made him mad." "Every family has fights." "They're forgotten in an hour." "Come on." "Hey, Norman, you know what?" "There's a place I know that I'd like to show you, that no one knows about." "Not even you." "It's my secret place." "I know every spot within three miles of Peyton Place." "Not this one." "Come on." "You were right." "I never knew this place was here." "I don't think anybody does but me." "And maybe God." "And now you." "It's beautiful." "I've just decided." "This is the last time I'm ever going to come here." "Why?" "Oh, I'm gonna leave it for somebody else to find." "Maybe your children will discover it." "I'm never going to marry." "I'm just going to have lovers." "Oh, Allison." "What's wrong with that?" "No children to grow up unhappy, nobody gets hurt except maybe me." "That's the worst kind of emotional maladjustment." "Who said so?" "A book I read." "What book?" "I sent for a book." "It was $1.98, in a plain wrapper." "A plain wrapper?" "Yeah, a plain wrap" "And, well, it was about marriage and sex." "I had it sent to me at the post office." "It took me two weeks to get up the courage to go pick it up." "Look...." "I know it sounds funny, but it was the only way I could find out anything." "Norman, you know what?" "I sent for a book just like that in the same plain wrapper general delivery." "No, really?" "The same one?" "I read every word of it, and I think most of it's mid-Victorian nonsense." "Maybe yours was better." "Hey, want to trade books?" "No." "I'd be too embarrassed." "That's your whole trouble, Norman." "Everything embarrasses you." "Everything frightens you." "I know." "And I'm sorry we started talking about all this." "Hey, Norman, look...." "It's about time you learned that girls want to do the same things as boys." "And they have the right to know how." "I mean, I think we should help each other." "Are you suggesting that...?" "Norman, don't get me wrong." "All I want is some normal, intelligent discussion and maybe some normal affection between a boy and a girl, nothing more." "Everybody in this town hides behind plain wrappers." "You're so afraid." "You've even been afraid to ask me to the graduation dance." "Allison, I want...." "Well, see, I'm just not asking anybody." "I'll be there, but I can't ask you." "Why not?" "Well, my mother...." "Your mother." "Well, she wouldn't actually forbid it." "It's just that she gets jealous of anybody at all that I spend my time with." "You don't know her." "You don't have to live with her." "But she's my mother." "There's nothing I can do about that." "You don't have to tell me any more, Norman." "Please, Allison, I've gotta tell somebody." "She won't let me have friends." "She...." "She makes me tell her 10 times a day how much I love her." "She's afraid she'll die alone in a poorhouse." "And marriage...." "Marriage, she says, is misery." "And a woman can only cause me trouble." "Oh, Norman, I can't believe it." "Nobody would." "Now maybe you know why I hate to go home and why I live in the library and why I can't dance, or kiss girls, or look anybody in the eye." "You see, I'm a sissy, and a coward." "No, you're not, Norman." "No one around town stopped to think and give you a chance." "You shouldn't be afraid of girls." "I know, but I am, and I don't know what I can do about it." "I know what you can do." "What?" "You can start with me." "I'll prove everything your mother ever said was wrong." "Would you kiss me, Norman?" "I don't think I can." "Yes, you could." "Kiss me." "I don't know why I should act so experienced." "It was only my second kiss this year." "It wasn't as good as Rodney's, was it?" "No." "Hello, I guess I should've phoned but I was in the neighborhood" "That's all right." "I have a message for Allison." "Is she home?" "No, she and Selena have just gone over to Kathy Ellsworth's house." "That gives me a good excuse to talk to you." "May I come in?" "Oh, of course." "You have a lovely house." "Thank you." "Please come in." "This is a very comfortable room." "Good books, pictures." "My own hotel room is a bit basic." "I have a mirror for shaving, a basin for washing and a closet to hang my coat." "You ought to find a house." "I'm trying to." "In the meantime, I have my hotel room, which I clear out of right after dinner." "You said you had something you wanted to tell me." "I was telling you something, but you weren't listening." "Your husband?" "He died when Allison was 2." "And Allison." "A few years ago." "She's grown a bit since then." "I came to tell you that Allison has been named valedictorian." "Wonderful." "She'll be terribly pleased, and so am I." "She's a fine girl, bright and sensitive." "You should be very proud of her." "Yes, I am." "Well, that's what I came about." "Good night, Mrs. MacKenzie." "You are lonely here, aren't you?" "It's not the worst thing that can happen to you." "Isn't it?" "You can learn to live by yourself." "You can get used to it." "Maybe." "But that doesn't make it the best way to live." "The best way?" "What would that be?" "People meeting, talking." "Well, in Peyton Place, two people talking is a conspiracy." "A meeting is an assignation, and getting to know one another is a scandal." "I think you're hard on the town, and hard on yourself." "No, I'm quite all right the way I am." "What were you gonna do tonight?" "Wash your hair?" "Read a book?" "Go to the movies alone?" "Well, it makes time pass." "Time shouldn't just pass." "It should be used." "I wouldn't know where to begin." "Begin at the beginning, begin by getting out." "We need another chaperon for the dance." "Why don't you help us out?" "Will you come?" "I think I'd like that." "Fine." "Good night, and thanks." "Good night." "Good night." "Betty Anderson's father stopped me." "What did he want?" "He asked when you'll marry Betty, before or during college." "I hadn't exactly thought of marrying her." "I wouldn't hear of it if you wanted to." "Anderson's a good foreman, but Betty is something else." "Yeah, I agree." "Then stop seeing her." "I just can't stop seeing her." "I invited her to the graduation dance." "Uninvite her." "Now, Dad, I can't do that." "You're gonna." "Do you realize what it'd mean if you married the local tramp?" "When you marry, you'll marry someone on your own level." "Call and tell her it's off." "Are you trying to kill me?" "Call her." "Please, Dad." "Go on, call her!" "1042W, please." "I can understand you wanting to see this girl, but not in public." "You know what I mean." "Nobody's fighting you." "I'll be as big a Harrington as you are." "I'll marry a cold fish, then cheat the rest of my life." "An apple doesn't fall far from the tree." "But the graduation dance is important." "You want a new car, don't you?" "Betty?" "Hello, Betty." "This is Rodney." "Look, Betty, this is so terrible, I don't know where to begin." "Tell her." "Betty, the graduation dance is off." "She hung up." "What a fine graduation." "I know someone you can take." "Who?" "Allison MacKenzie." "Her mother kicked me out of the house for kissing her." "I'll talk to her mother." "Allison's a girl of quality." "Quality's a very good thing in woolen cloth, but it's very dull on a big date." "I didn't know you were such a good dancer, Allison." "Thank you." "Yeah, sure." "Hi, Rod." "Hi there, Allison." "Hey, Rodney, looking for someone?" "After the dance, shall we go to Rockland?" "Okay." "Oh, really?" "Some more, Mrs. MacKenzie?" "No, thank you, Ms. Thornton." "May I have this dance, Mrs. MacKenzie?" "I haven't danced for such a long time, I'm afraid I'd be terrible." "Dancing isn't something you forget." "I promised a dance to Betty, the second one after intermission." "Do you mind?" "No, not if you promised it to her." "Well, I'll see you around, okay?" "Okay." "Allison." "Did you see your mother dancing with Mr. Rossi?" "I've never seen my mother dance." "Standing over there." "They make a good-looking couple." "They do?" "Hi, Norman." "Hi." "Dance with me, Norman." "I don't know how." "Just try." "Where are we going?" "You'll see." "Hey, Rodney, you got a new car." "Yeah." "Hey, come on, get in." "Rodney, it's beautiful." "Here we are, snug as peas in a pod." "Where are we going?" "Nowhere." "Hey, I'm mad at you." "Come on, Betty." "You really want to kiss me, don't you?" "Boy, do I." "Tell me how much." "Tell me." "I wanna kiss you more than anyone in the world." "I wanna kiss you 1000 times." "I never wanna stop." "That's pretty good." "I'll give you one kiss." "What would Allison say?" "Why bring her name up at a time like this?" "Only one kiss to a customer." "Betty, I couldn't help it." "My father made me call you." "Wouldn't you rather be with me?" "Oh, yes, yes." "Tell me how much." "In the whole world, in the whole wide world there's nobody I'd rather be with than you, Betty." "Give me another kiss." "Oh, honey, honey." "You want to make love to me?" "Yes, yes, of course I wanna...." "Now go make love to Allison MacKenzie!" "Go get the girl you brought and try it with her." "The next time I go out, it'll be with a man, not a papa's boy!" "Ladies and gentlemen." "Pupils and faculty of Peyton Place High School, and especially the seniors." "They tell me it is a tradition here to end each graduation dance with "Auld Lang Syne."" "Since I'm new here and not yet part of your traditions I think the song should be led by a woman who has been with you long." "Ms. Elsie Thornton." "Thank you, Mr. Rossi." "We're a small spot in a small town on a great big map." "Maybe Peyton Place High School isn't a name that shakes the world but it's a part of each of you forever." "Make it great by honoring it and come back to see us whenever you can." "Now let's form a big circle everyone holding hands." "It's an odd feeling, being in a school when it's so quiet." "I always think of it as sleeping resting up from the pounding it takes during the day." "Do you work at night?" "Yes, quite often." "You don't realize the preparation it takes to be a teacher." "It's like...." "It's like these kids were my own." "I love them." "I want so much for them." "It's more than a job to you, isn't it?" "I didn't mean to sound like the dedicated idealist." "Well, there's nothing wrong in that." "Connie." "I did want to thank you for coming." "You don't have to." "I enjoyed everything." "Including the dancing?" "Including." "You're wasting your time, Mike." "I had my love a long time ago." "When my husband died, I came back here." "I've had no time for anything but Allison and the dress shop." "You've got time now." "It's too late." "Look, Connie." "If I were" "I said it's too late." "I made my choice long ago." "Please take me home." "Sure." "Selena, let's get married." "You mean now?" "Sure." "I can get a full-time job." "What about college and law school that you've always talked about?" "That's just a dream." "I can't do it." "My old man doesn't make enough" "Whose father does?" "Not everyone in college is a millionaire's son." "Don't get so steamed up." "Ted Carter, you've always wanted to be a lawyer." "Now, go be it." "Don't crumple up at the first obstacle." "The first obstacle's the biggest, the money." "Well, then get over that and the rest should be easy." "Do you know how long it takes to become a lawyer?" "What difference does it make?" "It's what you wanna do in life." "One of the things I want to do is marry you." "If I don't do it now, maybe I never will." "Ted, the only family I'll ever have will be half yours." "I'll wait no matter how long it takes." "Good night." "Good night, Selena." "Ted thank you." "Ma?" "Ma?" "Joey?" "I thought you was something out of a dream." "Where's Ma and Joey?" "Let's have a drink, celebrate your growing up." "Where's Ma and Joey?" "They're working at a party at Harrington's." "Let's have a drink." "Rather stay in the dark, getting kissed by Ted Carter." "I'm going to bed." "It's about time I started teaching you something." "Lucas!" "Let me go, Lucas!" "Never had nothing I ever wanted." "Never had a beautiful woman." "Let me up." "Let me offer to the class of 1941 this fond farewell." "The world outside waits for you." "It is a world full of love and rich in opportunity." "There may be dangers, but if you hold firm to your purpose and your ideals you will storm the ramparts of success and capture them." "Tomorrow you grow up and your true happiness begins." "Thank you." "My best wishes." "Selena Cross." "Norman." "At first a diploma seemed like a reward for the past but once in your hand, it became an obligation to the future." "Independence was a distant word that we suddenly owned and we exploded with it." "Some of us splashed away the summer or swooped and stretched with joyfulness and emptied our childish piggy banks of their play money." "Yet others of us, eager to feel adult or out of necessity began our work early." "Put the bottle up on top." "Here?" "And gradually, as the happy confusion of summer faded one by one, we knew the Monday morning of responsibility was at hand." "Hi, Mr. Rossi." "Hello, Allison." "Did you read those stories I gave you?" "Yes, I read them." "Well?" "When did you write them?" "All summer." "Ever since graduation." "Has anybody else seen them?" "Only Selena." "She thinks I'm a genius." "What do you think?" "Are they good enough to send to a magazine?" "Yes, if you want to end up in prison." "Those stories were full of enough libel and slander and double-entendre to hang us all." "Allison, is that how Peyton Place really looks to you?" "They were only fiction." "I didn't use any real names." "You didn't have to." "I recognized everybody in town." "But let's get down to the important part." "You have a talent." "Those stories were a good start." "Now, where do you go from here?" "That's what I hoped to find out from you." "Then I suggest college." "With your talent and your ideas" "Thank you, but I don't want to go to college." "I never have." "Why not?" "Because I don't want to study about writing." "I want to write." "Nobody has to tell me Shakespeare was a wonderful writer or that wonderful books have already been written." "Those books tell you how and why." "I'd rather find that out myself at a typewriter." "I need someplace to get me going." "Someplace to start." "All right if that's how you feel about it, then let's do it." "Let's start at the Peyton Place Times." "Who said I was a cynical, hard-hearted newspaperman?" "Aren't all newspapermen?" "That's a myth." "We're the most sentimental slobs in the world." "The softest touches there are." "Prove it." "All right." "When do I start?" "All I want is a chance to show what I can do." "Write something up this week, I'll run it Friday." "Thank you, Mr. Bushwell." "I'll start right away." "I'll dig up a story you'll never forget." "I don't doubt it." "Just remember, there's no such thing as a cheap lawsuit." "Hold on." "We haven't discussed pay." "You don't have to." "I'll do it for experience." "The first thing experience teaches us is to get paid." "Five dollars a column to start." "More later." "That's more...." "I wouldn't want these stories to fall into the wrong hands." "Thanks, Seth." "There's no question, the tests confirm that you're pregnant, Selena." "I'd say about three months." "Who's the father?" "I won't tell you." "Now, what kind of rot is that?" "You're not the first girl in the world who had to get married." "Or in this town, for that matter." "Who's the father?" "Ted Carter?" "No." "Don't you lie to me, don't lie!" "I'm not lying to you." "Doc, help me." "I need your help." "What do you mean by "help"?" "I don't want to have the baby." "Give me something." "There's nothing I can give you." "Tell me who's responsible." "I can help you that way." "You can get married." "He's already married." "Then he'll have to take care of you and provide for the baby." "Who is it?" "Please just give me something!" "Selena!" "I've done a lot of things, but I've never broken a law." "What you're asking me to do is break the law of man and God." "Now, tell me, who is the man?" "Selena, tell me who he is." "Who is he?" "It's my stepfather!" "It's my stepfather!" "It's Lucas!" "Hi, doc, come on in, have a drink." "I've got Selena in my office." "Selena?" "What for?" "She's pregnant." "I told her she'd get in trouble." "Always wrestling with that Carter boy." "I told her, she wouldn't listen" "You low, miserable, crazy slime." "Don't you go shoving" "That's your child she's carrying." "It ain't." "I can prove it, Lucas." "I've got enough proof on you to put you in jail for the rest of your life." "I never touched her." "Here, sign that." "It's a statement of the facts." "Are you out of your mind?" "I never touched her!" "Maybe you'd like the police to sweat it out of you." "I never touched her, and I ain't gonna sign nothing that said I did." "If you don't want to sign this paper, that's up to you." "Hey, doc...." "You know I couldn't do nothing as awful as that, don't you?" "I'm going back to my office." "I'm gonna start telephoning every father in Peyton Place." "You wouldn't." "I don't know what they'll do, but I do know this:" "You're the janitor in a school full of young girls and an hour from now, I wouldn't wanna be in your shoes." "Don't do it." "I wouldn't think of fooling around with any other girls." "It was just Selena, doc." "There was something about her." "It was just Selena." "Please, doc, don't." "There's only one thing that'll stop me." "You sign that." "If I sign it, what are you gonna do with it?" "I'll lock it up in my safe." "Give me the pen." "Now, get out and leave a man to work." "No, Lucas." "You get out." "You get out of Peyton Place before dark." "Doc, I signed it for you!" "If you do, I'll keep this in my safe." "But if you don't, I'll use it against you." "I signed it!" "Don't you ever try to come back here." "Not next week, not next year, not ever." "If you do, I'll kill you myself." "Why you little...." "Mary." "Unofficially, this was a miscarriage but officially, for the records, it's an appendectomy." "That's a lie." "I removed her appendix." "Understand?" "You want to ruin a girl's life for one word?" "No, but falsifying records...." "I'll make them out personally and if you tell anybody this wasn't an appendectomy I'll tell the whole town about you and that drug salesman." "Doc, that's blackmail." "It sure is." "Nellie, she's all right now." "She's just fine." "Thank God." "What a disgrace, disgrace!" "Disgrace!" "Nellie." "Don't talk that way." "Nobody's ever gonna know but the three of us." "People find out." "They always find out." "Nobody will find out as long as you don't say a word." "Understand?" "No, I won't." "Good." "Now, you run on home now." "Thank you, doctor." "That's a good girl." "Thanks." "And don't worry about your job." "It'll always be waiting for you." "Thanks for the beautiful bed jacket." "Hi, Mrs. MacKenzie." "Hi, Allison." "Hi, Ted." "We were just leaving." "Don't let me rush you out." "We have to go." "Goodbye, Selena." "See you soon." "They say it'll bloom for a month." "You can plant it in your yard as a reminder of your operation." "Here's a book on humor." "Surgery's nothing these days." "You'll be up before you know it." "I went to see Mr. Rossi today, talked about how to get to college." "He said he might be able to wrangle me a scholarship." "He talked Mr. Partridge into taking me into his office as an office boy." "How about that?" "That's just fine." "Only thing is, if I work there a year, it'll be eight years instead of seven before I can pass the bar exam." "Selena, I don't want to wait that long." "I want to marry you now and become a lawyer too." "Honey, don't cry." "It's nothing to cry about." "Please go, Ted." "Just go." "Okay." "I guess I picked the wrong time." "I'll come back tomorrow, when you're feeling better." "Morning, Mrs. MacKenzie." "Why, Nellie you didn't have to come to work today." "Work keeps my mind off of things." "Selena's all right now, isn't she?" "She'll be back to the store tomorrow." "Everything is just trouble, Mrs. MacKenzie." "Just trouble." "Nellie, don't do any work today." "Just sit around and relax." "Happy Labor Day, Mother." "Something's wrong." "She's upset." "Can't blame her, with Lucas gone and nobody knows where he is." "I've gotta run." "Bye." "Hi, Norman." "Hi." "How are you?" "Fine." "Come on." "Hello, Mike." "Where'd you come from?" "Back there." "Right here." "Nothing's as dull as a Labor Day speech." "I didn't bring you here to explain how management and labor must pull together, not in opposite directions." "You've got living proof of it in our prosperity." "And there's more to come." "Meet me halfway and you'll never be unemployed as long as men and women don't go back to wearing fig leaves." "And if they did, I'll bet we'd be in the fig-leaf business sooner than anybody east of the Alleghenies." "Now aside from this celebration, this is a proud moment of my life." "Tomorrow my son Rodney leaves for Harvard." "Let's get the fun started and give him a sendoff!" "End of speech." "Just beside myself." "First Paul goes, and then Lucas." "I don't know if Selena and me can keep working and take care of Joey." "You'll have to keep trying." "I've been trying all my life." "With a husband drunk all the time and a grown girl dressing and undressing in front of him, and him staring at her all the time staring at her and thinking...." "Oh, Nellie." "We all have our problems." "Staring at her and staring at her." "Staring at her." "Hello." "Hello." "What are you doing out here by yourself?" "I'm not used to being at home with Nellie." "She has too many problems." "As for the outing, I've seen them all." "Let's go for a drive, try to find something interesting to do far away from Peyton Place." "Now you're beginning to think like a true suspicious native." "All right." "Are you ready?" "Yeah!" "Are you ready?" "Yeah." "Ready, set, go!" "Hi, Harvard." "Going to invite me to the big game?" "If it isn't my childhood sweetheart." "How are you?" "Take a look." "Draw your own conclusions." "You've certainly improved with age." "Things must've been dull for you these past months." "You're right." "Come on, let's take a walk." "What would your father say?" "Look, Betty, I don't care about that." "Come on." "Outings leave me cold." "Let's grab some sandwiches, I've got a pint and go down to Crystal Pond." "Hey, you can think for yourself once in a while, can't you?" "Okay." "Hey, let's go get a hot dog or something." "Okay." "Good." "Let's go swimming or something." "Okay." "Okay?" "See that." "What?" "Allison and Norman on their way to Crystal Pond to swim, all by themselves." "So what?" "They're young, happy, maybe in love." "What trouble can they get into?" "If you don't understand, I'm not going to explain." "More?" "Why not?" "Your father said to give you a big sendoff." "Rodney, will I ever see you again?" "Can I compete with those Boston girls?" "What are your qualifications?" "Can't you guess?" "Seeing is believing." "I think you're 10 percent man and 90 percent talk." "You're 100 percent woman." "Two hundred and fifty percent woman." "Maybe 500." "Going to take more than money to keep me." "Know what you're doing to my temperature?" "Let's cool it off and go for a swim." "But we didn't bring any bathing suits." "You all ready, Norman?" "Yeah." "Forgot my cap." "What did you say?" "Norman, you're making me blush all over." "I'm sorry." "Let's go in swimming." "What did you whistle for?" "I saw a fellow and a girl swimming, without a stitch on." "Where?" "They're gone now." "They got out of the water and ran into the woods." "Naked?" "Naked." "It was Allison MacKenzie and Norman Page." "I didn't really get a good look at them." "Don't you lie to me, Charles." "We're gonna pull out of here and forget we even saw them." "Betty, do you know how much I like you?" "I remember, faintly." "I found out you can't always do or say what you want to that is, unless your father lets you." "Rodney are you going through all your life only doing what your father lets you do?" "Only having the friends that he picks out for you wearing what he tells you to wear, thinking his thoughts?" "Betty, I'm old enough, but he's a tough man to handle." "You've got to do it someday." "Yeah, but how?" "I have a selfish idea." "It has to do with you and me." "It's" "It's called marriage." "Wouldn't that just bowl him over?" "I'm sure it would." "And me too." "But don't think of doing it just to bowl him over." "You're the only girl I've ever wanted." "Rodney...." "Rodney, not that way." "What good is life if I know I didn't have the guts to live it my way?" "Rodney." "I've really loved you for such a long time." "It must take a lot of patience to make something so beautiful." "That's what they tell me." "All gone." "Thank you." "Naked as the day they were born." "Not a stitch on them." "Saw them with my own eyes." "Sorry, don't think it'd be ethical to tell you their names." "Goodbye." "Marion." "Thanks for today." "Anytime." "How about tomorrow, for instance?" "I can't remember when I've had so much fun." "I've almost forgotten the silly, wonderful things there are for two people to do." "It isn't over yet." "Mike, please." "I don't think we'd better." "Listen" "I mean it." "All right, let's talk about this." "I don't want to talk." "I just want you to leave." "Just like that?" "That's right." "We're not kids, we're adults." "And we'll behave like adults." "I kissed you, you kissed me." "That's affection, not carnality." "That's not lust, you should know the difference." "What do you call a man who thinks about nothing but--?" "Human." "All men are alike." "The approach is different but the result is always the same." "Sooner or later, we get to this." "If all I wanted was a woman, I could get one in a bar, in a hotel lobby" "Or in my home?" "I'm not gonna let you make this dirty." "What do you call it?" "I'll tell you a truth about yourself." "It isn't sex you're afraid of." "It's love, that's what you can't handle." "That's what you offer me, with your hands on me?" "That's one expression, backed up by many things." "I haven't asked for any of them." "Understand what you're saying no to." "When I take you in my arms, I commit to you, not just physically but all the way." "That means I intend to worry about you, to take care of you and that's what I want back from you, without any reservations or shame." "Either you're up to that or not." "I have my standards and pride." "They're not enough for anyone." "You need someone to trust, to love." "No, I don't." "I don't!" "Now, just leave me alone." "I can but I don't want to." "Let me help you." "I don't care if you hang back." "I'll give it time." "I can't." "The offer is always open." "I don't know if you'll take it up but perhaps it'll make you feel better to know it's there." "Hello." "Yes, Marion." "I don't believe it." "Are you positive?" "No." "No, I'll call Mrs. Page myself." "Operator, will you please connect me with Evelyn Page?" "I don't believe Norman did what you said." "Two people saw them." "Marion has spread it all over town." "Don't you say a word against Norman." "If you'd brought him up with intelligence" "He has no interest in girls." "He never had." "He never learned a thing about sex in my house." "It was never mentioned." "Hello, Mrs. Page." "Come in here." "Where's Norman?" "Outside, just going home." "Stay right here." "What's the matter?" "Norman!" "Come in here." "What is it, Ma?" "Where were you today?" "What is it, Mother?" "You were seen swimming in the nude with Norman." "That's a lie!" "How could you even think that?" "You were seen clearly by two people." "We went swimming, but we had our suits on." "By now, everybody in Peyton Place knows about it." "If anything is wrong with her" "We didn't do anything, did we, Allison?" "No." "You better take your boy and go." "We didn't do anything." "I've never, never been so humiliated and disgusted!" "Allison!" "Come back here immediately!" "Keep this up and I'll do what you accuse me of!" "I wouldn't doubt it." "You're just like your father about sex." "Just like him!" "Don't say things about my father." "He was wonderful." "Wonderful!" "And good to you." "You told me that, so don't blame him." "Wonderful and good." "That's what I told you?" "Well, I lied." "I lied because I was ashamed of him and of myself." "Then why did you marry him?" "I didn't!" "He didn't marry me because he had a wife." "You don't mean that, Mother." "I do mean it." "Don't you understand?" "No." "He had a wife!" "No!" "Nellie!" "Allison." "Connie, everybody reacts differently to suicide." "With Allison, severe shock." "She looks so, so...." "Shock is just a kind of a sleep." "It's an escape when the mind can't accept what it sees." "A few days' care, and she'll be out of it." "I guess I'd better tell Selena." "And Connie...." "Just because it happened in your house, don't think any of it was your fault." "Somehow I do." "You've got just one thing to think about:" "Allison." "If you were gonna get married, why didn't you tell me?" "You wouldn't have approved." "You never gave me a chance." "At least it would've been a proper marriage, not a cheap weekend affair." "Don't say that." "Well, what was it?" "I'd like to talk with you alone." "You can talk to both of us." "This has to do with the business, not your wife." "I'll wait outside." "Okay, honey." "I can get it annulled." "I don't want trouble between us." "I was in love with Betty and wanted to marry her." "You weren't in love." "You had an itching for her." "She took you, son." "She took you." "Goodbye, Dad." "When you come home, don't bring her." "Then I won't be there." "Rodney what about college?" "I'm not going." "I have to support her." "You can have a job here, if you work like everyone else." "That's good enough for me." "Thanks, Dad." "I knew you weren't coming down for lunch, so I thought...." "It's such a beautiful day, darling." "Why don't you get dressed and go for a walk?" "You haven't spoken to me for over a week, since...." "Allison, I understand how you feel." "You'll just have to accept what's happened and make the best of it." "Mother." "As soon as I can, I'm going to get dressed pack my things and leave Peyton Place." "I never want to see this town or you again." "You can't mean that." "I mean it." "I'm going to New York." "Please, Allison." "I was only trying to protect you." "I was an accident you hated and tried to hide." "But I loved you from the moment you were born." "Try to believe me." "Well, how will you live?" "What'll you do for money?" "I have enough to get there." "I'll find a job." "Suppose you can't find a job?" "Then I'll live off some man, the way you did." "God." "God, help me." "Allison." "Allison." "Didn't want you to come here." "I couldn't say goodbye to you in person." "You know I don't want you to go." "But I'm going." "You stay here." "You belong here, both of us, together." "We've been friends since we were kids." "Goodbye, Selena." "Your mother, how can you leave her alone?" "Mother's always been alone." "Oh, Selena." "I cried all the way to New York and my eyes were the color of the oak leaves that had started to fall back home." "For days, I struggled to keep alive and I shivered with loneliness in a back room on the fourth floor of nowhere." "There were times when I wanted to crawl home but somehow I managed, and I stayed." "I learned what I could endure, but none of us, in New York or in Peyton Place could guess how much would be demanded of us that winter of deep despair." "I knew families at home would be getting up on frosty mornings driving their sons to a place of hurried goodbye." "I prayed for them." "Fellas, get your last cup of civilian coffee." "The Army stuff is used for waterproofing shingles." "That's what I heard." "You hear what Norman Page did?" "Became the first 4F in town." "No, he enlisted in the paratroopers." "Our Norman?" "Norman Page?" "He volunteered, the paratroopers." "That's funny." "Maybe they'll drop his mother." "She'd kill 1000 Japanese before she'd let one touch her little boy." "Brought you a doughnut." "Rodney, I'm gonna cry." "No, you don't." "Betty, you don't know how glad I am that I married you." "Rodney, I hope so." "Your father's over there." "Go say goodbye to him." "Go on." "Go say goodbye to him." "He loves you as much as I do." "Go on." "Take care of yourself and whatever you do, do it honorably." "That's the family motto." "Do me a favor, Dad?" "Certainly, son." "Take care of Betty if she needs anything." "She won't ask, but she might need it." "I'll keep an eye on her." "Would all the draftees assemble over here, please." "Come right in, folks." "Now, as chairman of the draft board, let me say that all of us regret having to send any of you men off to war." "You carry our love, our devotion and our undying gratitude." "Please try to come back safely to your homes." "Now, we've prepared some gift packages." "If you'll just step up here, I'll hand them out." "Peyton Place draftees in the bus, on the double." "Let's go." "Best of luck." "Come on, boys, hurry it up." "Make the goodbyes short." "Name, loud and strong." "Last name." "Culver..." "Jones..." "Harvey...." "Keep going." "You boys are gonna love the Army." "Elliot." "Elliot, right." "Hurry up in the back." "Plenty of seats." "Nothing in the world's gonna stop me from coming back." "I love you, Selena." "I love you, Ted." "Come on, hurry up." "On the double, let's go, boys!" "Got them all." "Hey, you." "Snap it up, on the double." "Let's go." "You know, you can write to her later on government stationery." "That first winter away from home, I took shape as an individual and toughened." "And with spring came the promise that perhaps I had found my place in life." "But part of me would keep escaping and I'd find it running, in memory, back through the fields of Peyton Place or wandering down streets now empty of young men." "I got a couple of funny ones." "This is from Ted Carter." "He says:" ""The food they serve here must have been warmed over from World War I."" "Remember Fred Combes?" "He's in the Navy." "He says, "Dear Hyde:" "I joined the Navy because I liked the way they kept their ships neat and tidy." "But I never knew until now who kept them that way:" "Me."" "The boys are getting around these days." "I had a V-Mail letter just the other day from someplace from Norman Page." "Remember him?" "Sure." "He said he dug a foxhole so deep that it was just short of desertion." "And then the seasons spun by so fast they seemed to become one." "The war news was too big to grasp, and too unhappy to understand." "Selena wrote me often about Peyton Place, and I treasured her letters." "She always tried to mention my mother and tell me what people were saying to each other or were not saying." "Eventually, I broke the ice of my intentions and subscribed to the Peyton Place Times." "I was hungry for names that meant something to me." "But among them, unhappily, came the names of those who were gone forever." "Betty...." "Rodney asked me to take care of you." "I don't need your help." "But I need yours." "Rodney was a better boy for having married you." "When I was 6 years old, I was in love with Rodney." "For years afterwards, I never even thought about anybody else." "I was a kind of flashy girl, I know, but Rodney liked flashy girls so that's the way I was gonna be." "The funny thing is, Rodney always loved me as much as I loved him." "But you taught him appearances count more than feelings!" "I was wrong." "Rodney discovered it." "Let's let's keep what's left of the family together." "A little brighter one, please." "Did you hear about Mr. Rossi?" "No, what?" "He's leaving town." "Leaving?" "Not really." "They're trying to get him to be principal of a high school in Portland." "You sure?" "I'm sure." "I got it firsthand." "From Mr. Rossi?" "From Kathy, who got it from Betty, who got it from Ms. Thornton." "I suppose that's firsthand." "We won't be able to keep him here." "This is kind of nice." "Can I try it on?" "Sure, come on." "Merry Christmas." "Come in." "Merry Christmas." "It's been a long time." "It is Christmas." "You don't have to explain a gift." "Thank you." "Come in." "Let me take your coat." "I can only stay a moment." "I have to deliver a few more things." "Can I fix you a drink?" "No, thank you." "Well, come in, sit down." "Well, I really came to...." "Is it true that you might go to Portland?" "Well, I've received the offer." "It's a larger school, and naturally, much more money." "You'll take it." "I don't know." "I have a week to make up my mind." "Sit down." "Michael?" "Yes?" "You were right." "I never thought I could say it but you were right." "About what?" "During the past months, I've been able to come to a few conclusions about myself." "What were they?" "Well, Michael, I've lied so long." "I was everything you said, especially that night in the kitchen." "I wanted you more than you wanted me." "I had no right to say those things." "Yes, you did." "I came to tell you the truth." "You don't owe me an explanation." "Allison didn't leave home because of Nellie's suicide but because she hated me." "She won't answer my letters or calls." "Why not?" "The night you walked out, Marion Partridge called me." "She told me Allison and Norman" "I heard about that woman and her phone calls." "Well, I've always been so afraid of scandal." "I believed Marion." "I believed that phone call." "Without thinking, when Allison returned, I told her some terrible things." "What things?" "Come on, Connie, what things?" "I'm Allison's mother, but I've never been married." "Not to Angus MacKenzie, not to anyone." "I went to New York and lived with a married man." "After he died, I came back here and lied and I've been lying ever since." "You want the truth and when you get it, you're just like everybody else." "They want anything but the truth." "Connie." "Connie!" "I told you once that the offer was always open." "That I'm committing myself to you all the way and that I plan to worry about you, and take care of you." "I meant that." "Oh, Michael." "How's that?" "Fine." "I'll get it." "Merry Chris" "Ain't you gonna invite me in?" "That's not a very friendly greeting after I broke my back getting here." "Hi, Joey." "Say, there's a blizzard blowing up, big one." "Got a drink?" "I'm froze." "You're nowhere near froze, with all you've got in you already." "I see the Navy hasn't cured you of drinking." "Cure me!" "Honey, the Navy's taught me tricks you never heared of." "Sure made a lot of changes around here, ain't you?" "You bet we have, Lucas." "And for a start, you can pick up your things and go." "Ain't nobody gonna tell me what I can't do in my own house." "This isn't your house anymore." "I don't care." "This is still my place, and don't forget it." "Did you just come back here to make trouble?" "You heard about Ma, didn't you?" "Yep, heard about her." "Hey, Joey, here's a quarter." "Run along now, huh?" "Come on, pick it up." "Pick it up, Joey." "Lucas, you leave him alone." "Oh, honey...." "No, don't start a fight." "Me and you got to know each other a little too well for that." "Say, I didn't think you could improve, but you sure have." "It ain't like I was your real pa, you know." "You dirty, filthy animal!" "You're still a little wildcat, ain't you!" "As we worship together this Easter morning and more, as we pray to him who died and rose again that we might have life and have it more abundantly let us remember especially those who have gone from this country and town to live and die in far-off places for a like purpose." "May they know his mercy, his comfort and his peace." "May we uphold them with our prayers, encourage them with our letters honor them with our love." "And may our lives, not less than theirs be dedicated to that same Lord who alone can give to life a perfect freedom and a final peace." "Let us pray." "Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy name." "Thy kingdom come thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." "Gives us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever." "Amen." "Thank you." "Come again." "Yes?" "I'd like to see Miss Cross." "Selena." "Miss Cross, you have a father in the Navy." "Lucas Augustus Cross?" "My stepfather." "Have you seen him lately?" "Not for a year and a half." "What's wrong?" "He went on leave and didn't come back." "He's listed as a deserter." "Miss Cross, you're sure you haven't seen him?" "I didn't even know that he was in the Navy." "He hasn't called or written you?" "No." "He disappeared from town a year and a half ago, deserting his family." "Looks like he's running true to form." "If you do hear from him, get in touch with the First District Shore Patrol." "I will." "Selena, don't get upset." "It's not your fault they can't find him." "What is it?" "What's wrong, Selena?" "Mrs. MacKenzie, I've gotta tell someone." "I can't keep it to myself any longer!" "Every time I go out in that yard" "What do you mean?" "Lucas didn't desert." "How do you know?" "Because I killed him!" "I killed him Christmas Eve in the shack!" "I don't believe it." "I did." "I buried him in the sheep pen!" "Selena, you've gotta call the state police." "No." "No, I can't!" "You've got to." "You should've done it long ago!" "Please don't make me!" "Listen to me, Selena." "Listen." "One of us has got to call." "I can't!" "No." "You must call them now." "I can't." "Pardon me." "Allison!" "Norman." "What a surprise." "Yeah." "Come here." "Hey, you guys." "You know...." "You look older." "More grown-up." "A uniform helps." "And all the decorations." "Yeah." "What have you been doing?" "Living in New York." "I remember you liked to write." "I did some writing." "Get any published?" "No, I got a job working for a book publisher." "He didn't publish those books with the plain wrappers, did he?" "Remember?" "No." "Yes, you do." "Remember?" "Yes." "You were always afraid." "And everything frightened you." "I can't get over how wonderful you look." "Really." "You look great." "Thanks." "You know, you never said goodbye to me when you left Peyton Place." "You never even said goodbye." "I'll never forget that Labor Day." "I won't either." "I see you have two Purple Hearts." "Yeah." "What brings you home?" "Vacation?" "Haven't you heard about Selena Cross?" "No, why?" "She killed her stepfather, Lucas." "Her trial starts in two days, for murder." "Lucas was always a bad joe, but she seemed to be able to put up with him." "Who ever knows what anyone's able to put up with?" "Well, that's true." "Sure took me a long time to know about myself and understand Peyton Place." "Cigarette?" "Thanks." "I'm gonna go back and try and work things out with my mother." "Maybe we'll both be happier." "If not, well, at least I've made the effort, you know?" "I always wondered why you enlisted." "In the paratroopers, I mean." "I guess I wanted to get knocked off or something." "But as soon as I got away from my mother I realized how wonderful life really was." "Then I fought like a tiger to stay alive." "I was running away from my problems." "You know what I mean." "Yeah, I know." "Something's bothering you, isn't it?" "Yeah." "Can I help?" "No, you can't." "Okay." "I'd rather not talk about it." "All right." "Hey, have you had dinner?" "Would you like dinner, with me?" "Okay." "Okay?" "All right." "Doc Swain." "Hi." "Evening, Selena." "Be right with you." "My wife loved these flower gardens." "I try to keep them up for her." "Watch your feet." "Are you gonna tell them about me?" "I'll have to, Selena." "Nobody in town must ever know." "But if I don't, you'll be risking your life." "I know that." "Well, then why?" "Because of Ted." "What are you afraid of, what he'll think?" "He loves you." "It would ruin his life, married to a girl who...." "Not a respectable person in town would accept him." ""Respectable." What kind of respectability are you talking about?" "The people with enough money to hire him as a lawyer." "Look, don't you understand?" "We're talking about your whole life." "Prison can be a kind of dying." "Losing Ted would be a worse kind of dying." "Besides, you mustn't get involved." "Never mind about me." "Promise me you won't tell them." "Promise me, please promise!" "All right, Selena." "I'll promise you." "You don't seem to realize you face a possible life sentence." "I need more to work with, much more." "There is no more." "Lucas was drunk and brutal." "When he tried to beat me, I killed him." "Killing in self-defense is understandable." "But you hid the body, like a criminal." "I know." "She was fighting for her life...." "The state is sending a prosecutor for one purpose: to convict Selena." "I've seen him work." "He's thoroughly competent and relentless as law itself." "Tell her to come in." "There must be something you haven't told me." "He tried to kill me, I killed him first." "But you hid the body!" "Why?" "Come in, Allison." "Allison." "I was never happier to see anyone in my life." "Are you all right?" "Hi, Ted." "Hi, Allison." "I can testify about Lucas." "I saw him beat her." "It'll help, believe me." "We appreciate you coming back." "You'll get her off, won't you?" "We're gonna do the best we can." "But the jury decides on the one thing: evidence." "Now, it adds up to this:" "We have a murder, and a defense that's too simple to be good." "It's open to attack from many sides." "Selena, have you told me the whole story?" "I'm sorry." "There's no more to tell." "Hello, Allison." "You look well." "With a drink in my hand?" "Would you care for something?" "I moved hoping I'd be left alone." "You haven't learned, have you?" "Yes, I have, Mother." "I've learned to smoke and drink and go to bed when I want to." "And kiss boys whenever the impulse sweeps over me." "Allison, we all make mistakes, but if we face them, truthfully they can be overcome." "Can we overcome the fact of my birth, that I'm illegitimate?" "I think so." "With love." "Thank you, and goodbye, Mother." "As soon as this trial is over, I'm taking the first train out of this town." "Goodbye, Mother." "Court will come to order." "Everybody rise." "Be seated, please." "The recess in the trial of The State v. Selena Cross is over." "Gentlemen, you may proceed." "Prosecution wishes to recall Joseph Cross to the stand." "Joey" "I told you my name was Joseph." "Joseph...." "This morning, before recess, we were talking about lying and telling the truth." "Joseph, have you ever told a lie?" "Yes, sir." "Big ones, or little ones?" "Some little ones, and some medium ones." "Would you lie to save your sister from prison?" "Yes, sir." "A big lie?" "The biggest lie you ever heard." "I object!" "Sustained." "Joseph, we heard your testimony this morning." "Was it true?" "It was all true." "Do you claim your sister killed your stepfather because he grabbed her?" "He was a strong man and we were both afraid." "If Lucas was as strong as you and everybody else said how could your sister possibly overpower him?" "She was madder than he was, and scareder." "Lucas was 195 pounds your sister, 110." "Did she sneak up behind him and hit him with that firewood when he wasn't looking?" "No, sir." "Were you watching every second?" "I might've looked away once or twice." "Did you see Selena hit him the first blow?" "I don't know." "Is there any doubt as to how that first blow was struck?" "I don't know." "It all happened so fast." "Joseph you said that you told your sister to bury your stepfather." "That's right." "She didn't want to." "I see." "How old were you when you told her, when she did what you wanted?" "About 8." "In other words a 19-year-old girl didn't know what to do with the body until an 8-year-old boy told her." "Yes, sir." "I have no further questions." "No questions." "You may step down, Joseph." "I wish to recall Selena Cross to the stand." "Miss Cross, yesterday you told the jury that your stepfather disappeared from home a year and a half before you killed him." "Do you have any idea why he left?" "I'm not sure." "I'd only be guessing." "You hesitated." "Why?" "I don't know." "Do you know what he did during that year and a half?" "He was in the Navy, he said." "Do you imply that he came home from the war from combat duty, just to beat you up?" "We object, Your Honor." "The defendant has implied no such thing." "Sustained." "Did your stepfather own the house you live in?" "Well, my brother and I, we fixed it up." "Answer the question, please." "It wasn't a house when he left" "Please answer the question." "Yes, but it was a dirty shack and nothing else!" "But you had the freedom to come and go and invite boys in and answer to no one while Lucas was gone, didn't you?" "Didn't you?" "Yes, I had the freedom, but I never did!" "When you thought he was gonna change that, did you kill him?" "No!" "Lucas was drunk and tried to beat me!" "The coroner testified that he was unconscious from the first blow, so you were safe from any beating, but you didn't stop." "Why?" "I don't know." "You kept on hitting him until you crushed the life out of him." "Why?" "I don't know." "I couldn't stop!" "I couldn't stop!" "When you finally did kill him, why didn't you call the police?" "I wanted to." "I was afraid." "But you hadn't committed any crime, defending yourself." "What was there to fear from the police?" "I don't know." "I was just afraid." "You had nothing to fear until you hid Lucas' body, isn't that right?" "Then you had a great deal to fear, didn't you?" "That's right." "But you buried him." "You must have had a reason." "A powerful reason." "Don't tell me it was because you were afraid." "I was!" "Are you sure?" "That's the only reason!" "Fear is panic, and cleverly burying the remains of a man you just murdered requires cold thought." "Objection!" "You knew what you were doing." "I didn't!" "I didn't!" "Prosecution is harassing the witness." "Objection sustained." "I withdraw the question." "I have nothing further." "Miss Cross, at all times during the quarrel which led to the death of Lucas Cross were you in fear of bodily harm?" "Yes, I was." "I have no further questions." "You may step down." "I wish to call Miss Allison MacKenzie to the stand." "Raise your hand." "Do you swear to tell the truth, whole truth, so help you God?" "Yes." "Be seated." "State your name, please." "Allison MacKenzie." "Miss MacKenzie, how long have you known Selena Cross?" "Ever since I was a child." "We went all through school together." "Miss Cross is my best friend." "You have testified that when you saw Lucas beating Selena you thought your presence prevented it from going on." "I know it did." "No, you don't know, you assume." "He was embarrassed to find me watching." "How many times did Lucas hit Selena?" "Once." "Once?" "Did he hit her with his fist or a weapon?" "It was kind of a slap." "Oh, a slap." "Have you ever been slapped, Miss MacKenzie?" "Yes." "By a stranger?" "No." "By a member of the family?" "Do I have to answer these questions?" "I'm sorry, but you do." "By my mother." "As hard a blow as Selena Cross' stepfather gave her?" "No." "How could you tell?" "I don't think so." "You don't really know what happened in that house." "Yes, I do know." "First you talk about a beating and then we find out all you're discussing is a single blow." "Would you say the arguments in the Cross household were more or less violent than any other family's?" "Objection." "What's the purpose of that question?" "The witness must define her terms, if the jury is to clearly understand her." "A beating becomes one blow." "A blow becomes a slap." "Perhaps the slap will become something else." "Objection overruled." "No further questions." "No questions, Your Honor." "You may step down." "The prosecution calls Mrs. Constance MacKenzie to the stand." "Raise your hand." "Do you swear to tell the truth, whole truth, so help you God?" "I do." "Be seated." "State your name, please." "Constance MacKenzie." "Mrs. MacKenzie, I understand you've known the defendant a long time." "Yes, since she was a baby." "Did Selena ever complain that her stepfather had beaten her at any time?" "What?" "Did Selena ever complain--?" "No." "Did you ever see any marks on her?" "Injuries?" "No." "You knew the defendant's mother well, did you not?" "Nellie worked for me as a housemaid." "Did she ever mention Lucas' brutality, or describe any beating he administered?" "No, she said he was drunk and lazy, and he deserted her and she committed suicide over the kind of life that Lucas brought them to." "We're not concerned with Mrs. Cross' suicide." "I don't see why not." "There was something terribly wrong in the Cross family life." "Something wrong when a woman had to raise her daughter up almost alone and trying to help her..." "Mrs." "MacKenzie." "...and not being able to help and not being able to give." "Mrs. MacKenzie." "I'm aware of your concern over the suicide, but that is not the point at issue." "Did your daughter ever tell you she'd seen Lucas beat Selena?" "No." "Don't you think if she had seen such an incident she would have mentioned it to you?" "I don't know." "Well, wouldn't she?" "Well...." "Mrs. MacKenzie, doesn't your daughter ever bring home her problems?" "How many times do I have to answer your questions?" "Until we find out the truth." "The truth is my daughter did bring her troubles home and I wouldn't understand." "Well, if she brings her problems home" "I wouldn't understand!" "The court will adjourn for a short recess." "Come in." "What have I done to Selena?" "You had no choice." "But I did have a choice." "Maybe the wrong one, but I'll never forgive myself if...." "You blame yourself too much, Connie." "You did what you morally had to do." "Here." "Charlie, can I speak with you?" "Sure." "Court will come to order." "Remain seated, please." "Has the prosecution completed its questioning of Mrs. MacKenzie?" "It has." "The prosecution rests." "No more questions." "You may step down." "We call Dr. Matthew Swain to the stand, as a witness for the defense." "Do you swear to tell the truth, whole truth, so help you God?" "I do." "Be seated." "State your name." "Dr." "Matthew Swain." "Do you know of any act of force or violence Lucas perpetrated against the defendant?" "I certainly do." "We've wasted time torturing a girl who's emotionally unable to speak for herself." "Lucas Cross was a drunkard and a wife beater and a child abuser." "I object." ""Child abuser" is an exaggerated, inflammatory word." "I mean "child abuser" in the worst way possible!" "I object." "The deceased is not on trial." "Lucas Cross' character, as to force and violence, is on trial here." "You may continue, Dr. Swain." "The night that Lucas Cross left town I performed what I recorded as an appendectomy on Selena Cross." "It was not an appendectomy." "I falsified my records." "I assisted her in a miscarriage." "A miscarriage of Lucas Cross' baby." "I said it was Lucas Cross' baby that Selena carried." "I object to this statement as evidence." "On what grounds?" "It's the conclusion of the witness." "Except that it's true." "Can you testify to this?" "I can." "Objection overruled." "Continue." "I have here a complete admission of guilt, signed by Lucas Cross." "Will the attorneys please approach the bench?" "I offer Lucas Cross' confession into evidence, Your Honor." "I object, Your Honor." "The confession of a person not a party to the case is totally inadmissible." "The prosecution may have a sound point but I'll reserve my ruling until I've heard his testimony." "If I find it inadmissible, I'll order it stricken." "His entire testimony stricken from the record?" "I will rule on that when I've heard it." "You will complete your statement, Dr. Swain." "I'm sure that the prosecutor will see that the state investigates my records and perhaps I could lose the privilege to practice medicine but it's time that someone spoke up and paid the price for the privilege of speaking." "Selena killed Lucas out of fear." "Fear of being forced to submit to him again, and then she hid her crime for fear of how we'd react to her being assaulted by her stepfather." "She couldn't trust us with the truth." "Selena had no one to go to but me." "She only came to me because she had to for medical reasons." "She swore me to secrecy." "Now I'm violating that secrecy for a bigger purpose." "We're all prisoners of each other's gossip, killed by each other's whispers and it's time it stopped." "Our best young people leave as soon as they can earn a bus ticket." "They contribute their characters to other communities because they're stifled in Peyton Place." "We're not interested" "Dr. Swain has come forth at considerable risk to himself and I intend to hear him without any interruption." "I will rule on your objection when he's finished." "You will continue, Dr. Swain." "We're a small but prosperous town, yet we allow tarpaper shacks to stand." "We have half a dozen churches which most of you attend and then don't practice the word they preach once you walk down the steps." "We have a fine school that you take for granted." "We have a newspaper with a most intelligent editorial page which you use for wrapping garbage." "It's time you people woke up." "Perhaps today you will, because there's something bigger than the tragedy of Selena Cross on trial here." "Our indifference, our failure as a community to watch over one another to know who needs help and to give it." "Selena's been living in a prison of her own long enough one that we helped build." "I have nothing more to say." "The objection of the prosecution is not sustained." "The jury may consider this statement as evidence." "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?" "We have, Your Honor." "The foreman will read the verdict." "We find the defendant not guilty." "Court is adjourned." "Come on, Joey, you come home with me." "Selena, would you like to go now?" "Good going, doc!" "Selena, we're so very happy for you." "Mother...." "Come on, Norman." "We'd finally discovered that season of love." "It is only found in someone else's heart." "Right now, someone you know is looking everywhere for it and it's in you."