Hellhound 13: Louise, Louise

NIGHT--INTERIOR SALOON

A dark and dingy gutbucket hangout for black millworkers and down-and-outers. Rough-looking men and a few hard women drink and talk. Johnson is seated on a chair in one corner, ostensibly playing for the customers though no one is listening. He gloomily picks and strums a slow instrumental--the sound of which carries through the next few scenes.

DAY--EXTERIOR STREET

Robert drunk, paper sack-wrapped bottle in his hand, wandering aimlessly through rainy, blustery Chicago slum. He stops in the scanty covering offered by the overhead elevated train tracks; tipsily reeling, he stands drinking and looking at nothing as an "El" train goes by overhead.

NIGHT--INTERIOR HOUSE

Robert, Big Bill (seen earlier), both with their guitars, plus a piano player, an upright bass man, and a cornetist, as well as a trio of young women (one on Robert's lap), all sprawled happily in the plush parlor of a fancy-house, passing marijuana cigarettes, taking deep drags and then giggling and coughing--and all the while attempting to play between hits.

DAY--EXTERIOR STREET--MOVING

The instrumental music slowly comes to an end as Robert wanders now in a bright, fresh spring morning. The world and he look a whole lot better. People smile and nod and yell greetings. Kids run around underfoot. He tips his hat to older people. Then, suddenly, a half-block away, Robert sees a woman who looks very much like Louise, entering an apartment building with parcels in her arms. She vanishes within and, too late, he runs down the block and on into her building.

INTERIOR APARTMENT BUILDING

Robert dashes into the hallway hoping to see Louise, but she has disappeared. No one is in sight. He looks at the unlabeled individual doors, and then starts calling out:

JOHNSON: Louise! (no response, so again louder) Louise!

One door opens and a little girl sticks her head out; she looks at him silently.

JOHNSON: Hello, darlin'. Kin you he'p me? (girl nods) Is they a purty woman name' Louise live here 'bouts?

The little girl silently nods again.

JOHNSON: Well, where she at then?

Still silent she points up the stairs. Robert turns and sprints up the stairway without thanking her.

UPPER HALLWAY AND DOORS

Johnson surges up into view and stops to survey the several doors on this floor. He shrugs, steps up to the closest one, and knocks.

LOUISE'S VOICE: Who is it?

She is already opening the door as he responds.

JOHNSON: Me. Robert.

Louise halts the half-open door and stares coolly at Johnson.

LOUISE: Robert. No. I tol' you to stay away.

JOHNSON: Yeah, you did. An' I did it--till I seen you jes' now on the block. Eyesight to the blind, baby. I need you, Louise--devil come som'ever.

He pushes his way inside.

INTERIOR APARTMENT

Louise does not retreat, and the two of them stand just inside the half-open door.

LOUISE: Damn you, Robert. I want you too. But we can't. I'm scared of him--he beats me some already, and he'd kill us for sure wi' this.

JOHNSON: Leave his turf then. Got to be somewheres safe. Come on wid me...

LOUISE (drawn to him, wanting it, thinking) Wait, I got a cousin lives in Joliet. I could say I'm visiting her...

JOHNSON: Le's go, baby. Right now.

LOUISE: Just like that?

Now Robert smiles and shoves the door closed behind her.

JOHNSON: Well... mebbe somethin' else come first...

DAY--EXTERIOR BUS

Through a light rain now, a Thirties-style bus moves along a highway. In the background looms a grim, forbidding, greystone prison.

INTERIOR BUS

Robert and Louise are seated together towards the rear of the mostly empty bus; the prison can be seen outside in the distance. Louise is happily talking, while Robert strums his guitar quietly.

LOUISE: So then I come north, on my own. I wasn't gonna wind up some dirt farmer's wife or white woman's house gal. I was a waitress for a while, then I worked as a ten-cent dancer at the Dixie Ballroom. That's where he found me. Oh, it was fun at first--all the attention an' the presents Ras give. But then he set me up in that apartment, and he just keeps me there, waitin' on him to visit. Lord, like to break my mind.

JOHNSON: Mebbe we do somethin' about that...

He points out the window at the distant buildings.

JOHNSON: Is that a prison over there?

LOUISE: Joliet Pen'tentiary. Big and ugly, isn't it? Colored go in there an' never come out.

JOHNSON: Ain' nobody never gonn' cage me like that. Crackers love to catch 'em a black man. I go down dead first...

The two of them fall silent, huddled together on the bus.

DAY--INTERIOR HOTEL ROOM

Robert and Louise are lounging around--Robert likely naked under the sheet, propped up watching her, his lucky bag prominent against his chest. Louise is in her underwear, going methodically through the pockets of his pants, talking as she goes. The first item she pulls out is a rolled-up guitar string.

LOUISE: What's this, Robert? I thought we agreed: No strings attached!

JOHNSON (lazily): That G-string look mighty right on you.

Louise glances at him and smiles.

LOUISE: Go 'head with that. (holds it to her leg like a garter) Rather tie it 'round your big ol' root, pull you 'round after me...

Robert laughs and stretches.

CLOSE ON LOUISE

She dumps all the coins from his pocket and counts them silently, then:

LOUISE: Some big spender. Total out at four dollars, 'leven cents. What we get back to Chicago on?

ANOTHER ANGLE

Johnson sits up in bed.

JOHNSON: I play somewheres, pick up mo' change. You know I gots to head south, to Dallas, come June--cut some mo' records.

Louise is suddenly sad.

LOUISE: Oh Robert... that's less than a month. Then I'm lef' to Ras again.

JOHNSON: Come wid me if yo' want.

She doesn't answer, instead goes fishing at the bottom of his last pocket--and pulls out the same old lipstick top Johnson has been using to play slide throughout most of the film. Now her eyes flash saucily.

LOUISE: Which one o' your gals give you this?

CLOSE ON JOHNSON

He closes his eyes for a moment, effected by the sudden memory.

JOHNSON: Was a gif' for someone I knowed a long time gone.

ANOTHER ANGLE

Louise has detected something in his voice. She jumps up and strides over to the open window. Before Robert realizes what she intends, she hurls the lipstick top out through the billowing curtains. Then she turns around, striking a pose, hands on hips.

LOUISE: All you gonna carry from now on is what I give you!

Now she runs from the window and jumps on top of him. They tumble back laughing on the bed.