Summary
Masseyville, a whistle-stop whose porches sag under the weight of gossip, greets its doughboy with silence; Calvin Price, lungs still rattling with cordite, steps from the train into a hush so absolute it hums. Janie Cullison—once the copper-bright coin of his every trench-night thought—has swapped promises for Lin Sparklin’s ring, and the town’s tongue, forked and venomous, has already licked Calvin’s name clean of honor. His mother, face a crumpled telegram, refuses the salute of a mother’s eyes; the grocer, the parson, even the mongrel cur, turn away as though cowardice were contagious. Calvin, bewildered, tastes the ash of rumor: that he hid behind supply crates, that he swigged contraband gin while boys bled. The Sparklin brothers—two scarecrows stitched from envy—have seeded the lie. In the gas-lamplit dusk Calvin drags truth like a bayonet across their fiction, forcing public retraction; suddenly the same lips that cursed him now chant his gallantry. Janie, draped in remorse like a widow’s veil, kneels for absolution, but Calvin’s heart has already emigrated to Rosy Redhead, the girl who wore loyalty as quietly as a wildflower wears scent.
Synopsis
While at the front during the Great War, Calvin Price dreams of the day he can return home to Masseyville and marry his sweetheart, Janie Cullison. Expecting a royal welcome upon his return, he is crestfallen when no one meets him at the train. When he arrives home, his mother turns away from him in sorrow and he discovers that Janie has become engaged to Lin Sparklin. Shunned by the townspeople, Calvin finally discovers that the Sparklin brothers have slandered his reputation with stories of cowardice and drunkenness. Calvin confronts the brothers with their lies and forces their retraction. After the truth is revealed, Calvin becomes the town hero and Janie contritely returns to him, but Calvin rejects her for Rosy Redhead, a childhood playmate who remained loyal throughout his tribulations.
Director
