Written By: admin
Characters:
Movie length: about 40-45 min. Language: English.
In the own mansion, Helen (30), good looking woman in black dress playing a piano. She is taking look to the pictures of her deceased husband in the drawing room of her mansion the one year anniversary of her husband’s death. Since her husband died, Helen has locked herself in the house in mourning. Her footman, Luka(50-60) aged man, begins the play by begging Helen to stop mourning and step outside the estate. She ignores him, saying that she made a promise to her husband to remain forever faithful to his memory.
Their conversation is interrupted when Greg arrives and wishes to see the Helen.
Although Luka tells to Greg to leave, he ignores Greg’s requests and barges into the dining room. Helen agrees to meet with him and Greg explains to her that her late husband owes him a sum of $1,200. Because he is a landowner, Greg explains that he needs the sum paid to him on that same day to pay for the mortgage of a house due the next day. Helen explains that she has no money with her and that she will settle her husband’s debts when her steward arrives the day after tomorrow. Greg gets angered by her refusal to pay him back and mocks the supposed ‘mourning’ of her husband, saying:
Well, there! “A state of mind.”… “Husband died one year ago!” Must I pay the interest, or mustn’t I? I ask you: Must I pay, or must I not? Suppose your husband is dead, and you’ve got a state of mind, and nonsense of that sort…. And your steward’s gone away somewhere, devil take him, what do you want me to do? Do you think I can fly away from my creditors in a balloon, or what? Or do you expect me to go and run my head into a brick wall?
Greg decides that he will not leave the estate until his debts are paid off, even if that means waiting until the day after tomorrow. He and Helen get into another argument when he starts yelling at the footman to bring him water or food. The argument turns into a debate about true love according to the different genders. Greg argues that women are incapable of loving “anybody except a lapdog,” to which Helen argues that she wholeheartedly loved her husband although he cheated on her and disrespected her. The argument deteriorates into another shouting match about paying back the debt. During this argument Helen insults Greg by calling him a bear, amongst other names, saying, “You’re a boar! A grizzly! A bear!”
Greg, being insulted, calls for a duel, not caring that Helen is a woman. Helen, in turn, enthusiastically agrees and goes off to get a pair of guns her husband owned.
Luka overhears their conversation, gets frightened for his mistress, and goes off to find someone to help put an end to their feud before anyone gets hurt. Meanwhile, Greg says to himself how impressed he is by Helen’s audacity and slowly realizes that he has actually fallen in love with her and her dimpled cheeks. When Helen returns with the duel pistols, Greg makes his love confession. Helen oscillates between refusing him and ordering him to leave and telling him to stay. Eventually, the two get close and Greg holds and warms her hands just as Luka returns with the sheriff.