The Howling Man
The Howling Man [1960]
Charles Beaumont (1929-1967)
NARRATOR
DAVID ELLINGTON
BROTHER JEROME
BROTHER CHRISTOPHORUS
HOWLING MAN
TWILIGHT ZONE THEME
NARRATOR: You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead--your next stop, the Twilight Zone!
WIND AND THUNDER
ELLINGTON: I know it's an incredible story. I of all people know this. And you won't believe me--no not at first. But I'm going to tell you the whole thing. Then you will believe because you must. You must believe. It happened many years ago after the First World War. I was on a walking trip through central Europe. But one night--one night I got lost in a storm.
MUSIC IN
RAIN, NIGHT WIND, AND THUNDER
KNOCKING AT A DOOR
CHRISTOPHORUS: Yes. What is it?
ELLINGTON: Please. Please--please let me in. I'm lost.
MUSIC OUT
CHRISTOPHORUS: I'm sorry. We don't allow visitors in the hermitage.
ELLINGTON: Oh, I'm not a visitor. I'm a stranger here and I got lost. No, you don't understand. I'm lost.
[Ellington follows Christophorus into the hermitage. Several monks emerge from their cells to investigate the disturbance. Like Christophorus, they are heavily bearded and wear thick cloaks. Each carries a wooden staff. They watch Ellington curiously.]
ELLINGTON: (coughing uncontrollably) I'm be all right...once I dry out.
CHRISTOPHORUS: Wait here. I have to speak to Brother Jerome.
HOWLING
[Ellington looks about concernedly.]
CHRISTOPHORUS: Brother Jerome will see you now.
HOWLING
ELLINGTON: What--what was that?
CHRISTOPHORUS: Wind. Come.
THUNDER
[Christophorus leads Ellington down a torch-lit corridor and into a study. An old man sits behind a desk, reading the Bible. He is white-bearded, prow-nosed, and wears a gray peaked robe.]
JEROME: Why have you come here?
ELLINGTON: My--my name is Ellington. I'm on a walking trip and got lost in this storm. (coughs) Excuse me. (coughs) I saw light here.
JEROME: What do you want from us?
ELLINGTON: (confused) Shelter? Maybe some food?
JEROME: We cannot help you. You will have to leave. Now, Mr. Ellington. Now!
[Ellington is confused. He turns to leave. Feeling suddenly weak, he clutches himself. He staggers until he braces himself against a stone wall but collapses to the floor. Jerome and the other monks approach him. Jerome can be seen giving them directions.]
NARRATOR: The prostrate form of Mr. David Ellington, scholar, seeker of truth--and regrettably--finder of truth. A man who will shorter arise from his exhaustion to confront a problem that has tormented mankind from the beginning of time. A man who knocked on a door seeking sanctuary and found instead the outer edges of the Twilight Zone.
MUSIC IN AND OUT
RAIN AND THUNDER
[Ellington awakens and staggers into a hallway, clutching his forehead. He peers through a window. The storm is still raging outside.]
HOWLING
[Ellington turns and approaches the noise. At the end of the corridor is a thick door, made of oak or pine, with a narrow bar-crossed window. Behind it something--or someone--is howling.]
HOWLING
[Ellington walks up to the bars and and peers in. A man appears. He reaches through the bars and clutches Ellington's shoulder.]
HOWLING MAN: (whispering) Help me! No, please--in the name of mercy--help me! You're not one of them?
ELLINGTON: No. My name is Ellington. I'm an American.
HOWLING MAN: Shhh! We have only moments. Come closer. Come.
[The man presses his mouth against the bars.]
HOWLING MAN: They're mad, Mr. Ellington--all of them. They're raving mad. Listen. I was in the village in Schwartzhof. I was walking in the streets with my woman. We paused to rest by a tree. And we kissed. Is it wrong to kiss? Tell me.
ELLINGTON: Uh--I don't think so.
HOWLING MAN: Of course, you don't. You don't think so. I don't think so. But Jerome, the lecherous old fool... We looked up and I saw him standing close by. I tried to open my mouth to speak but before I could utter a sound he raised that heavy staff he carries. You've seen it? And he hit me again and again.
ELLINGTON: Why?
HOWLING MAN: For revenge. Because she refused his advances, he took his fury out on me.
ELLINGTON: I--I'm sorry. I find this difficult to believe.
HOWLING MAN: Of course you do Mr. Ellington. That's the strength of the man. He makes his madness seem a harmless thing--the madness of a religious zealot. This is not a religious order, Mr. Ellington. These so-called brothers of truth--they're outcasts--misfits--cut off from the world because the world won't have them. Mr. Ellington, please you must believe me. I don't say they're evil. I say they're mad.
[Ellington turns to leave.]
HOWLING MAN: (desperate) Where are you going?
ELLINGTON: I'll speak to Jerome.
HOWLING MAN: No! He's the greatest maniac of them all.
ELLINGTON: Then how can I help you?
[Ellington turns around and finds Jerome standing behind him.]
JEROME: Mr. Ellington, I did not know you were well enough to walk. Come with me, please.
ELLINGTON: I--I must talk with you.
JEROME: This way.
[Jerome escorts Ellington through torch-lit corridors, past snore-filled cells, and into his study.]
THUNDER
JEROME: I must ask you to leave, Mr. Ellington. We have no facilities for the care of the ill. Arrangements can be made at Schwartzhof.
ELLINGTON: Now just a minute--
JEROME: No, not a minute. Nothing for the sake of it, Mr. Ellington. Now!
ELLINGTON: Why?
JEROME: I've already explained that!
ELLINGTON: No, you've explained nothing.
[Jerome closes the door of his study.]
ELLINGTON: No one asked me to come here. I realize that but that's no excuse for your behavior.
JEROME: (pleading) My Son.
ELLINGTON: I'm not your son.
JEROME: You don't understand.
ELLINGTON: That's right. I don't. So why don't you tell me? Why are you in such a hurry for me to leave? What are you afraid I'll find out? It's the man you have locked up in your cell brother, isn't it? That isn't a secret anymore. I know about him.
JEROME: What man is this Mr. Ellington?
ELLINGTON: That man we just left! The one who has been screaming his head off.
JEROME: I'm not sure you know what you're saying.
ELLINGTON: Look Brother, I don't know much about this cult of yours and what isn't permitted but I seriously doubt you have the authority to imprison a man against his will.
JEROME: That is quite true. We have no such authority.
ELLINGTON: Then why have you done it?
JEROME: No man has ever been imprisoned in this hermitage, Mr. Ellington.
ELLINGTON: I was just talking with him!
JEROME: You talked to no man. You've been very ill, Mr. Ellington. You suffered delirium.
HOWLING
[Ellington backs away.]
ELLINGTON: No--no. Don't tell me you didn't hear that. (nervous laugh) Honest men make unconvincing liars.
THUNDER
ELLINGTON: I--I'll find out eventually, you know.
JEROME: What do you mean?
ELLINGTON: Just what I said! And the police will be very interested to learn you've been keeping a man imprisoned here.
JEROME: I tell you there is no man!
ELLINGTON: All right. Forget it.
CREAKING DOOR
[Ellington opens the door to leave.]
JEROME: Mr. Ellington!
ELLINGTON: Yes.
JEROME: Would you really go to the police?
ELLINGTON: Would you?
JEROME: Very well.
THUNDER
JEROME: I've told you the truth but only a part of it. Now I see I shall have to tell you the whole truth. Shut the door, Mr. Ellington.
[Ellington shuts the door.]
HOWLING
[Jerome cups his ears.]
ELLINGTON: Then you do hear it.
JEROME: (exhausted) As I have heard it of every hour of every day for five long years.
ELLINGTON: Why did you lie?
JEROME: I didn't. When I told you that no man howled at the hermitage I was being perfectly honest. What you saw was not a man. It is the Devil himself.
THUNDER
SUSPENSE 1
JEROME: Yes. The Devil himself. What you saw in the cell is Satan, otherwise known as the Dark Angel--Ahriman, Asmodeous, Belial, Diabolus--the Devil. You asked for the truth. Now, you have it. You believe me, don't you?
ELLINGTON: Sure, of course.
JEROME: No. Now, it is you, Mr. Ellington, who are lying. Tell me. You don't believe me--quite to the contrary. You are now quite certain of what you expected--that I am mad! Sit down, Mr. Ellington. Now well see. Let me tell you a story and we'll see how certain you are that I am mad...How certain you are of anything. I suppose you fancy yourself a sophisticated man? You consider us to be primitive because we live here in solitude, away from the so-called "real" world? We are misfits--
ELLINGTON: Oh, no.
JEROME: Oh, please. I've heard all the theories.
ELLINGTON: I assure you brother--
JEROME: No, Mr. Ellington, it is I who are assuring you that I am not the ignorant fanatic that I would appear. Oh, I coped with your world for forty years--rather successfully at that--the best schools, a degree in philosophy, a job that took me to the ends of the earth. This beard, this staff, and this faith--I married the results of a different point of view. If you could understand that, you could listen to what I have to say with an open mind.
HOWLING
JEROME: Five years ago, there were no howls in the hermitage. There was simply the bombed-out ruins of an old castle belonging to the family Wolfen. Baron Wolfen gave it to the Brotherhood of Truth as a gesture of charity. Our job was to tend the vineyard and to save what souls we could by constant prayer.
ELLINGTON: But this isn't a religious order, is it brother?
JEROME: We feel we are recognized by God. Truth is our dogma. We believe it to be man's greatest weapon against the Devil who is the father of all lies.
ELLINGTON: All right. Go on with your story. You were tending the vineyards.
JEROME: At that time, shortly after the Great War, the world was in chaos--everywhere was unhappiness, except in this little village below. For some reason, the people of Schwartzhof refused to yield to despair. They lost none of their faith. They continued as they had been for centuries--honest, god-fearing, and happy. This village was a plum to Satan--one he could not resist! So he came here and embarked on a program of corruption!
ELLINGTON: But you stopped him.
JEROME: Yes!
THUNDER
JEROME: You see, Mr. Ellington. He made the same mistake that you have made. He underestimate me. He thought he would have no difficulty tempting the "old fool." But I had him in a cell before he knew what happened.
ELLINGTON: But if he is the devil, how do you keep him locked up?
JEROME: With the Staff of Truth! The one barrier he cannot pass.
ELLINGTON: Tell me. How did you recognize him? He doesn't look evil.
JEROME: The devil has power to assume a pleasing shape. I had seen him before in all parts of the world--in all forms and guises--wherever there was sin, wherever there was strife, wherever there was corruption--persecution--there he was. Sometimes, he was just a spectator, a face in the crowd. But always, he was there! Now, you see--I hope--why you must say nothing of what you've seen and heard here.
ELLINGTON: Brother, not that I doubt you--you understand only--but isn't it possible, you might have made a mistake.
JEROME: No! Think Mr. Ellington! Think of the peace of the world these past five years. Think of this country now. Is there another like it?
ELLINGTON: You haven't put an end to suffering--there's still murders, robberies. Well, even now--while we're talking--people are still
JEROME: The suffering man was meant to endure. We cause most of our own griefs. We need no help from him. It is the unnatural catastrophes--the great wars, the overwhelming pestilences, the whole-sale sinning--that we have stopped.
ELLINGTON: I believe you, brother.
JEROME: Do you, truly?
ELLINGTON: Yes. Why-why I admit. I was doubtful first. But you've convinced me--absolutely. I promise to keep your secret.
JEROME: Good, my son. Tomorrow, if you feel well enough, you may leave. In the meantime, Brother Christophorus will look after you. Please, go directly to his room.
ELLINGTON: Good night, brother.
MUSIC IN AND OUT
[Ellington enters a torch-lit corridor. Steadying himself against the columns that line the hall, he approaches the cell.]
THUNDER
HOWLING MAN: He lied to you, didn't he? I can see that. What did he say?
ELLINGTON: He said you were the Devil.
HOWLING MAN: (chuckles) The Devil--that's good. That's wonderful. What a dream for an old devil--to catch the Devil and lock him up. You don't believe him, do you?
ELLINGTON: Of course not.
HOWLING MAN: Then help me.
ELLINGTON: Why don't I just get the authorities?
HOWLING MAN: It will be my death warrant. The authorities would return and find nothing. Jerome is mad, but he's shrewd too.
[A hand reaches out and locks onto Ellington's shoulder. It is Christophorus.]
CHRISTOPHORUS: Brother Jerome was fearful that you might lose your way. Come.
[Christophorus leads Ellington to Christophorus' cell. They enter. Christophorus locks the door from the inside.]
ELLINGTON: Why are you locking the door?
CHRISTOPHORUS: To protect you. Rest my friend. Remember, you are a very sick man.
[Next Scene: Christophorus is asleep. Ellington reaches over and unleashes a key held in a necklace Christophorus is wearing. Unlocking the cell door, he enters the corridor and approaches the cell at the end.]
THUNDER
HOWLING MAN: You've come. Good.
ELLINGTON: What do you want me to do?
HOWLING MAN: Ah, lift off the wooden bolt.
[Ellington looks down and sees a wooden staff--similar to the staffs carried by the monks--blocking the door.]
ELLINGTON: Is this all they've done to hold you in?
HOWLING MAN: Yes.
ELLINGTON: Why haven't you done it yourself?
HOWLING MAN: Please, there is no time for talk. Mr. Ellington, in the name of mercy, if you fail now they'll kill both of us. Don't you understand that?
[Christophorus awakens and discovers that his key and Ellington are missing. He tries the door. Finding it locked, he pounds on it.]
HOWLING MAN: Hurry! Hurry!
CHRISTOPHORUS: Stop! Stop! Stop!
[Ellington removes a staff barring the door and casts it aside.]
CHRISTOPHORUS: Stop!
[Ellington opens the cell door of the Howling Man. He hands the Howling Man a cloak.]
ELLINGTON: Put this on--the storm.
[As Christophorus desperately pounds on his cell door, Ellington turns away to lead the Howling Man towards the entrance.]
THUNDER
[The Howling Man makes a strange gesture toward Ellington's back. Ellington is suddenly overcome with paralysis and collapses. The Howling Man proceeds down the corridor.]
SUSPENSE 2
[As lightening flashes through the abbey's window, the Howling Man takes on a strange transformation. His features darken and his beard and ears become longer--pointed. His cloak becomes a collared cape and two protrusions appear on his forehead. As he crosses the room, they lengthen into small horns. Whirling his cape, he stops before a window and turns towards Ellington. He smiles and in a sudden flash and cloud of smoke vanishes. Overcome, Ellington passes out. Brother Jerome and Christophorus enter but it is too late--the Devil is free. Brother Jerome kneels down beside Ellington. Ellington awakens.]
JEROME: I'm sorry for you, my son. All your life, you'll remember this night. And you'll know, Mr. Ellington, whom you have turned loose upon this world.
ELLINGTON: I--I didn't believe you. I saw him and didn't recognize him.
JEROME: That is man's weakness--and Satan's strength.
ELLINGTON: (narrates) In that moment I decided to spend the rest of my life tracking him down--to recapture the evil I had released, the evil that had soon taken the shape of the Second World War, the Korean War, the hideous new weapons of war. I swore I'd find him again, as Brother Jerome had done. It took many years, but I did it! See, I have him in there, now!
[Ellington points to a closet door. There is small wooden staff blocking it.]
ELLINGTON: So, you understand now--you understand--why you must not under any circumstances go near that door. You see how important it is that he stay locked up? Good. I'm sending him back to Brother Jerome. He'll do a bit of howling but pay no attention to that. It's a trick--I know. Yes, I must go now--I must go. I have preparations to make. I'll be back--just a few minutes.
THUNDER
ELLINGTON: Remember--remember, keep that door locked.
[Ellington exits and the maid turns towards the closet door.]
HOWLING
[Cautiously, she approaches the door. Removing the staff, she opens it...]
NARRATOR: Ancient folk saying: 'You can catch the Devil, but you can't hold him long.' Ask Brother Jerome. Ask David Ellington. They know, and they'll go on knowing to the end of their days and beyond...in the Twilight Zone.
