To Kill a Mockingbird, pages 3 - 28 of the screenplay by Horton Foote

Cast of Characters

Atticus Finch

Scout Finch

Jem Finch

Dill Harris

Sherif Heck Tate

Miss Maudie Atkinson

Mrs. Dubose

Tom robinson

Calpurnia

Judge Taylor

Mayella Ewell

Bob Ewell

Stephanie Crawford

Boo Radley

Gilmer

Walter Cunningham

Mr. Radley

Walter Cunningham, Jr.

Reverend Skyes

Narration (Jean Louise Finch)

FADE IN. EXTERIOR: MAYCOMB, ALABAMA. DAYBREAK.

It is just before dawn, and in the half-light cotton farms, pinewoods, the hills surrounding Maycomb, and the Courthouse Square are seen. A young woman's voice is heard.

Jean Louise (voice over). Maycomb was a tired old town, even in 1932 . . . when I first knew it. Somehow, it was hotter then. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon and after their three o’clock naps. And by nightfall they were like soft teacakes with frosting from sweating and sweet talcum. The day was twenty-four hours long, but it seemed longer. There’s no hurry, for there’s nowhere to go and nothing to buy . . . and no money to buy it with. Although Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.

(The Finch house and yard are seen. It is a small frame house, built high off the ground and with a porch in the manner of Southern cottages of its day. The yard is a large one, filled with oaks, and it has an air of mystery about it in the early morning light.)

That summer, I was six years old.

(Walter Cunningham, a thin, raw-boned farmer in his late fifties, comes into view. He is carrying a crokersack full of hickory nuts. He passes under the oak tree at the side of the house. Scout, six, dressed in blue jeans, drops from one of its branches to the ground. She brushes herself off and goes toward Mr. Cunningham.) .

Scout. Good morning, Mr. Cunningham.

Cunningham. Mornin’ Miss.

Cunningham. No, Miss . . . I. . . don’t care to bother.

Scout. Why, it’s no bother, Mr. Cunningham. He’ll be happy to see you. Atticus. (Scout hurries up the steps and opens the door.) Atticus, here’s Mr. Cunningham.

(Scout steps back onto the porch as Atticus enters. Walter

Cunningham seems ill at ease and embarrassed.)

Atticus., Good morning, Walter.

Cunningham. Good morning, Mr. Finch. I . . . didn’t want to bother you none. I brung you these hickory nuts as part of my entailment.

Atticus (reaching for the sack of nuts). Well, I thank you. The collards we had last week were delicious.

Cunningham (gesturing, and then turning to leave). Well, good morning.

Atticus. Good morning, Walter.

(Atticus holds the sack of nuts. Scout is on the steps behind him. Scout leans on Atticus' shoulders as they watch Mr. Cunningham leave.)

Scout, I think maybe next time Mr. Cunningham comes, you better not call me.

Scout. Well, I thought you’d want to thank him.

Atticus. Oh, I do. I think it embarrasses him to be thanked.

(Atticus turns and puts the sack on the porch and starts for the

front yard to get the morning papers. Scout follows after him.)

Scout. Why does he bring you all this stuff?

Atticus. He is paying me for some legal work I did for him.

Scout. Why is he paying you like this?

Atticus. That’s the only way he can ... he has no money.

(Atticus comes back to the porch as Scout follows. He picks up the newspaper and reads.)

Scout. Is he poor?

Atticus. Yes.

Scout. Are we poor?

Atticus. We are indeed.

Scout. Are we as poor as the Cunninghams?

Atticus. No, not exacdy. The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, and the crash hit them the hardest.

(Calpurnia, in her late fifties, appears at the screen door.)

Calpurnia. Scout, call your brother; (She goes back inside.)

Scout. Atticus, Jem is up in the tree. He says he won’t come down until you agree to play football for the Methodists.

(Atticus Walks toward the tree. In a treehouse, high up in the tree, sits Jem. He is ten, with a serious, manly little face. Right now, he is scowling.)

Atticus. Jem . . . Son, why don’t you come on down and have your breakfast? Calpurnia has a good one ... hot biscuits.

Jem. No Sir. Not until you agree to play football for the Methodists.

(Atticus is looking up. at Jem. Scout is swinging in the tire swing.)

Atticus. Oh, no, Son. I can’t do that. I explained to you I’m too old to get out there. After all, I’m the only father you have. You wouldn’t want me to get out there and get my head knocked off, would you?

Jem. I ain’t coming down.

Atticus. Suit yourself.

(Atticus turns and starts for the kitchen door as he reads the newspaper. Jem moves out from behind the covering and watches. Scout starts to go across the street and stops by the tree. Miss Maudie Atkinson, a strong, warm-hearted woman, keenly interested in Atticus and the children, is working on her flowers in her yard across the street)

Maudie. Good morning.

Scout. Good morning, Miss Maudie.

Maudie. What’s going on over there?

Scout. I’m having a terrible time, Miss Maudie.' Jem is staying up in that tree until Atticus agrees to play football for the Methodists, and Atticus says he’s too old.

Jem. Every time I want him to do something . . . he’s too old . .. He’s too old for anything.

Maudie. He can do plenty of things.

Atticus (entering the yard from the house and walking over). You be good, children, and mind Cal. Good morning, Maudie.

Maudie. Good morning, Atticus.

(Church bells ring.)

Jem. He won’t let me have a gun. He’ll only play touch football with me . . . never tackle.

Maudie (glancing in Atticus' direction, then looking at Jem). He can make somebody’s will so airtight you can’t break it. You count your blessings and stop com­plaining . .. both of you.

(Atticus continues on out of the yard. Miss Maudie walks away. Scout climbs up into the tree.)

Scout Jem, he is pretty old.

Jem. I can’t help that.

(He swings down to the lower limb in disgust and looks down into Miss Stephanie Crawford's collard patch next door. A boy, Dill, is sitting among the collards. Sitting down, he is not much higher than the collards. He has a solemn, owlish face, a knowledge and imagination too old for his years. He looks up at Jem.)

Dill (tentatively). Hey ...

Jem. Hey, yourself.

Dill (standing up). I’m Charles Baker Harris. I can read; You got anything needs reading, I can do it.

Jem. How old are you? Four and a half?

Dill. Going on seven.

Jem. Well, no wonder then. Scout’s been reading since she was born and don’t start to school till next month. You look right puny for goin’ on seven.

Dill. I’m little, but I’m old. Folks call me Dill. I’m from ■ Meridian, Mississippi, and I’m spending two weeks next door with my Aunt Stephanie. My mama works for a photographer in Meridian. She entered my picture in the “Beautiful Child Contest” and won five dollars. She gave the money to me and I went to the picture show twenty times with it.

(Scout and Jem climb down from the treehouse. Scout climbs into the tire swing as Jem leans against the tree facing Dill.)

Scout. Our mama’s dead, but we got a daddy. Where’s your daddy?

Dill. I haven’t got one.

Scout. Is he dead?

Dill. No.

Scout. Well ... if he’s not dead, you’ve got one, haven’t you?

(Jem turns to Scout.)

Jem. Hush, Scout.

(Jem motions to her with his head as Scout whispers.)

Scout. What’s happened, what’s up?

(Calpurnia enters with a shirt, and starts to dress Scout.) .

Dill, this is Calpurnia.

Calpurnia. Pleased to know you, Dill.

Dill. Pleased to know you. My daddy owns the L and ' N Railroad. He’s going to let me run the engine all the way to New Orleans.

Calpurnia. 1$ that so?

(Calpurnia exits. Jem turns away. Scout finishes putting on her shirt.)

Dill. He says I can invite . . . anybody . . .

Jem. Shhh!

(Mr. Radley, in his seventies, a regal, austere man, walks by. Scout and Jem see him and become very subdued, as if they were afraid. Their attention leaves Dill, and he senses this and looks at them to see what is happening.)

There goes the meanest man that ever took a breath of life.

Dill. Why is he the meanest man?

Jem. Well, for one thing he has a boy named Boo that he keeps chained to a bed in that house over yonder. (Points to the house.) See, he lives over there.

(Moving shot As they start to move out of the yard, Scout follows behind them. They go down the sidewalk past Miss Stephanie's house, north to the Radley house.)

Boo only comes out at night when we are asleep and it’s pitch-dark. When you wake up at night you can hear him. Once I heard him scratching on our screen door, but he was gone by the time Atticus got there.

(They are standing by a light pole now, staring at the Radley house and yard. The house is low and was once white with a deep front porch and green shutters. But it darkened long ago to the color of the slate-gray yard around it Rain-spotted shingles droop over the eaves of the veranda. Oak trees keep the sun away The remains of a picket fence drunkenly guard the front yard. A "swept" yard that is never swept, where Johnson grass and rabbit tobacco grow in abundance. Dill's eyes have widened. He is becoming truly intrigued.)

Dill. Wonder what he does in there?

Scout. I wonder what he looks like?

Jem. Well, judging from his tracks, he’s about six and a half feet tall. He eats raw squirrels and all the cats he can catch. There’s a long, jagged. scar running all the way across his face. His teeth are yellow and rotten. His eyes are popped. And he drools most of the time.

Dill. Aw, I don’t believe you.

(Miss Stephanie, Dill's aunt, comes up behind them. She is in her late fifties—a spinster and the neighborhood gossip. She comes up without their hearing her. She has a habit of half­shouting when she talks.)

Stephanie. Dill, what are you doing here?

Dili. My Lord, Aunt Stephanie, you almost gave me a heart attack.

Stephanie. Dill, I don’t want you playing around that house over there. There’s a maniac living there and he’s dangerous.

Jem. See? I was just trying to warn him about Boo, and he wouldn’t believe me.

Stephanie. Well, you’d just better believe him, Mr. Dill Harris.

Jem. Tell him about the time Boo tried to kill his papa.

Stephanie. Well, I was standing in my yard one day when his mama come out yelling, “He’s killing us all.” Turned out that Boo was sitting in the living room cutting up the paper for his scrapbook, and . when his daddy come by, he reached over with his scissors, stabbed him in his leg, pulled them out, and went right on cutting the paper.

(Dill's eyes are popping with excitement)

They wanted to send him to an asylum, but his daddy said no Radley was going to any asylum. So they locked him up in the basement of the courthouse till he nearly died of the damp, and his daddy brought him home. And there he is to this day, sittin’ over there with his scissors . . . Lord knows what he’s doin’ or thinkin*

EXTERIOR: FINCH YARD. DAY.

Jem is swinging in the tire swing. In the distance the town dock is heard to strike five.

Jem. Come on, Scout, it’s five o’clock. (Jumps from the swinging tire and starts to run out of the yard.)

Dill. Where you going?

Scout. It’s time to meet Atticus.

(She runs after Jem; Dill follows her.)

(Moving shot. They run down the street)

Dill. Why do you call your daddy, “Atticus”?