To Kill the Duke (54 page)

“Everybody gather in close and get ready for a story that will scare you to death,” Wayne said as he sat ‘Indian-style’ on the ground near enough to the fire to stay warm and for the flames to give off an ominous shadow from his large frame. Wayne knew about settings — he had been in the movie business a long time. He really wanted to entertain everyone with the ghost story and the horseback ride with Dick and Oscar earlier in the day had given him what he needed — a setting.

“The story takes place at a small, out-of-the way motel that all of you are familiar with after driving for long stretches on a highway between one job and the next. There is nothing but darkness. Even the headlights from your car don’t seem to be lighting up the road in front
of the car. Anyways… our man of the hour was always aware that travelling at night on the dark open road wasn’t a smart thing to do. He bought a dog — a German Shepard to be exact — because he had learned from a pet store owner that German Shepards are the smartest breed of dogs in the world and easy to train. Furthermore, their loyalty is second to none,” Wayne began. “Can I get a taste of water? My throat’s gone bone dry.”

Someone handed him a canteen and Wayne took a long swig. “Now I need one of them cold raspberry lime rickeys. Susan, would you do the honors?” Wayne asked of his leading lady Susan Hayward, who got up from her seat on the ground, walked over to a table and poured the Duke a tall glass of her wonder drink.

“Tanks,” Wayne said, and started again on his ghost story.

“Jack Frost loved his dog and the dog loved him right back. Jack was a traveling salesman and did very well for himself. His bosses couldn’t believe that Jack was always volunteering to drive out to the most remote parts of their state to not only cold call, but to actually sell a lot of their widgets. Jack didn’t mind it. He was good at what he did and never felt unsafe because of his dog, Baron. Baron was unique and Jack knew it. Whenever Jack was worried about anything he would hold his right hand out to the dog and the dog would lick his hand if everything was alright. If there was any danger — Baron wouldn’t lick Jack’s hand but would growl at a low pitch. This made it extremely easy for Jack to pull into those dark, cheap roadside motels I mentioned earlier. And tonight was no different for Jack and Baron,” Wayne said as he took a sip of his drink.

“Jack had been driving a long time and he knew Baron was getting antsy. He saw a sign that read ‘motel next right’ and so Jack turned off and soon found himself pulling up to the only structures he had seen and probably existed for miles. The name of the place was ‘The Enchanted Cottages,’” Wayne said as he slyly grinned at both Powell and Millard.

Both Powell and Millard winked at each other and grew even more interested in Wayne’s ghost story.

“Kind of an odd name, eh Baron?” Jack asked the dog as he watched the dog bound out of the car and trot over to the nearest tree to relieve himself. “Good boy,” Jack called out to the dog as he made his way to the office. Baron trotted back to their car and hopped in as Jack rang the
doorbell under the sign marked ‘office.’ Wayne took another sip of his drink and started back up.

“After a few minutes a man answered the door and beckoned Jack to enter. The man slowly walked to the small counter in the office and pointed to the registration paper on the desk. Jack was used to this and filled in the appropriate information. The man who ran the office, and whom Jack assumed was the owner, glanced at the paper and then at Jack. “So, you have a dog?” the man asked. Jack nodded. “I love animals. The dog is welcome,” the man said. Jack thanked the man, asked him about the weather and if others were staying at the Enchanted Cottages. “Just three others, all in separate rooms. If there is a complaint about the dog — out you go. I don’t care what time it is,” the man said. “My dog will not bother anyone,” Jack replied. “Fifteen bucks for the night,” the man said. Jack paid him, got his key and went to his room.

Jack entered the room and noted that it was no different than the many others he had stayed at over the years. He saw the bed and quickly undressed and started to fall asleep as soon as Baron crawled under the bed leaving his head peeking out so Jack could drop his hand down and Baron could either lick it — signaling everything was okay, or not lick it — signaling trouble. Jack thought he had been asleep for days when he heard the screams. He put his hand down and there was no lick, just Baron’s low growl. Jack got up quickly and threw on his pants and shoes and cautiously opened the door and peered out. He heard silence and the silence was very loud after the blood-curdling screams he had just heard. He motioned for Baron to follow him to the office of The Enchanted Cottages and rapped very loudly on the door. Within a few minutes the man who had signed him in earlier appeared and asked him what the hell he was doing. Jack explained about the screams and the man told him that he had heard nothing, and that maybe it was one of the other guests either humping another one of the guests or that one of the other three guests had a visitor and it was their sex screams. Jack didn’t like the man’s suggestions and told him that Baron wouldn’t have growled unless it was something severe. The man then noticed Baron and petted him. “Nice dog,” he added.

Jack thanked him and again told him that if there’d been nothing wrong Baron would have licked his hand and not growled. The man agreed to check on all the other rooms that were rented or vacant and would report to Jack once he had done so. Jack offered to go with the man, but the man mumbled something about liability. Jack and Baron returned to their room where Jack patiently waited for the report of the office manager or owner or both. Jack killed some time by working on his expense report. After an hour of waiting there was a knock at the door and Baron didn’t growl. Jack knew it was the man and let him in. “All three of my other guests heard nothing and everything is all right with them except they might yell at you for making me knock on their doors when they all wanted a good night’s sleep. You must have been dreaming and if that dog of yours is as smart as you say… and I don’t doubt it…maybe it was reacting to your dream,” the man offered up and then bid a good night to Jack and patted Baron on his head.

Jack knew that had never happened before, but hadn’t he been taught in his line of business that there was always the ‘first time?’ He took off his pants and shoes and lay on the bed. Baron resumed his position. Jack put his hand down and Baron licked it. Soon Jack was asleep,” Wayne said. The Duke then got up and stretched his legs, took another sip from his drink and started his story from where he had left off. Everyone was listening and John Wayne loved it.

“After Jack had been asleep for a seemingly long time, he heard a loud bang that went on for about two minutes. He put his hand down and it was licked. Jack knew with the lick that all was good and he fell asleep again. Soon he thought he heard some screaming and items being smashed around. Again, he thought he might be having first-time nightmares, when he put his hand down — it was licked,” Wayne said as he took a sip from the canteen, not the raspberry lime rickey.

“Jack thought he was dreaming that he was dreaming, and that he was hearing all sorts of strange and nightmarish noises. But like clockwork, he put his hand down and it was licked. That was the last thing he remembered until he woke up the next morning. When he awoke, he put his hand down and there was no lick. This made his heart skip. He reached down and his hand found Baron’s head, but Baron wasn’t responding. Now, he hoped that he
was
dreaming — because he feared the worse. But how
could that be, he asked himself? He was thinking, he was moving about in the bed and there was nothing wrong with him. Surely, Baron would have defended not only Jack, but himself.

Jack threw back the covers and jumped out of bed landing on something wet. This made him think that poor Baron must have had some kidney failure and died overnight — the kidney failure leading to the poor animal’s bladder opening up. Jack sighed as he reached down to look into his beloved animal’s face. He grasped the animals face in his hands and moved it ever so slightly and recoiled back in horror. For there was knife stuck through a piece of paper that was deep into the dogs throat. The note read: ‘A man can lick as good as a dog.’”

“Wow,” said Susan Hayward. “Who wants to keep me company tonight?”

Of course every single man jumped up and volunteered to protect the beautiful Hayward.

“Okay Wayne,” Lee Van Cleef started “now we know what you and Oscar did while on your ride today.”

“The Duke made that all up by himself,” Oscar said.

“I stand with Oscar,” Powell said.

“Well, does that mean it was good?” Wayne asked everyone in attendance.

They all agreed it was original and with an ending that was creepy.

And Dick Powell reminded them all that they had to be up and on the set very early and the bonfire party broke up with everyone in a good mood.

The next day’s filming started out great until the winds started swirling and kicking so much dust into people’s face, mouth and hair that Dick Powell had to have some of the crew and stunt men hook up a vacuum hose to suck the red sand off everyone being affected.

The wind was so strong that the sand-skiing championship had to be cancelled and something else needed to be put in place inside the big tent that had been set up for the morning’s shoot to entertain everyone. Supporting cast members Ted de Corsia, William Conrad and Leo Gordon announced they would provide the night’s entertainment as long as Susan
made the raspberry lime rickeys. She agreed and they decided to meet an hour after dinner.

Of course everyone wanted a chance to go back to their trailers and freshen up after one of the worst days of whipping winds and eating sand. They also wanted to eat, and the only place to do that was the big tent that tonight’s entertainment was going to be held in. Of course, for the more adventurous members of the cast and crew, they could drive for miles and miles to try and find somewhere else to eat. None of the cast and crew would have even thought about venturing out to find other places than the diner that Dick had found months ago, if one of the promises of the producers had come through.

“We will be grilling every night on the set once filming starts,” Dick had boasted to everyone. Of course the high winds and biting sand had put a quick end to that and now the grill was set up inside the big tent that was used for some of the scenes.

“The burgers wouldn’t have been bad if you like sand instead of pickles on them,” Wayne had joked the first time the cast and crew had tried to barbeque outside.

Dick Powell had spent a lot of money on equipment, food and hiring a chef who knew how to grill. He wasn’t going to let high winds and sand shut that down; so he had the grill and barbeque pit dug. No one in an audience would ever see it when actual filming took place, because the crew disguised it well, after they were done eating every night.

“Besides, the food is great and where else out here are you going to find all the food you can eat for free?” Powell asked.

“Plus the company of people out here can’t be beat,” Oscar Millard added.

Dick Powell agreed with that statement. He had been amazed at the camaraderie that had developed between everyone involved in the making of the film. From the deputy he had hired as security, from that crazy general store owner, to Duke, Susan, Oscar, the entire cast and crew; all had been outstanding to work with.

And of course he patted himself on the back for creating the perfect atmosphere. Why not? The producer and director is rarely the receiver of many good thoughts when a movie is being filmed, and being an old-time actor, Dick Powell knew that better than anyone on the set; so he patted himself twice.

Powell also hoped that he had learned enough about himself as an on-site producer and director to build the sort of stock company that would be necessary to film a real, literary version of a film based on a novel by Dumas, Hugo, Brontë or Dickens. He believed that with the box-office smash he had coming with
The Conqueror
, with the word-of-mouth about how great he is at creating a movie making the rounds in Hollywood, that after everyone returned home he could put that dream on the fast track.

Gordon, de Corsia and Conrad yelled for everyone to get a seat after they had filled their glasses with Hayward’s raspberry lime rickey punch.

“Making sure everyone who wants one of Susan’s drinks is the easiest command to bark out while making this film,” Lee Van Cleef said.

That brought cheers and applause from those who were assembled.

William Conrad had set up a mini stage by putting together three wooden tables. He made sure they were sturdy, because nobody liked performing on a shaky stage, even if it was only three feet high.