[THE MENTAL HEALTH FILM BOARD SERIES: EMOTIONS OF EVERY-DAY LIVING]
[NUMBER 1: THE STEPS OF AGE, Produced by Film Documents, Copyright 1950 M.H.F.B., Inc.]
[Presented by THE DEPARTMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH, STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA]
[CLEVE C. ODOM, M.D. State Mental Health Authority]
[The Mental Health Film Board: K. APPEL, M.D., M.R. KAUFMAN, M.D., L.H. BARTEMEIR, M.D.]
[T.A.C. RENNIE, M.D., L. BAUMGARTNER, M.D., H.P. ROME, M.D., C. BINGER, M.D.]
[L. SAUL, M.D. J.M. BOBBITT, Ph.D., A. ALTMAN, Exec. Sec.]
[Sponsored by THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR MENTAL HEALTH, INC.]
[Cast Mrs. Potter...ROSE SPENCER, Mr. Potter...HARVARD SYLVIA]
[Their daughter...EMMA AGEE, Her husband...MANNY KIRSCHNER]
[The granddaughter DIMITRA SUNDEEN]
[The child on the stairs GRETCHEN MOHEGAN, Saleslady....GEORGIA TOLLIVER]
[Photographed by GEORGE JACOBSON, Assistant Cameraman MAX GLENN]
[Electrician JOSEPH COFFEY, Sound Recording LAWRENCE MEZEY, Unit Manager ROBERT GURNEY]
[Production Assistance WILLIAM LEVITT, JANICE LOEB]
[Edited under the supervision of SIDNEY MEYERS, Psychiatric Consultant M. RALPH KAUFMAN, M.D.]
[Produced by HELEN LEVITT, Written and Directed by BEN MADDOW]
[Music]
[Little girl:] Catch the ball!
Catch the ball somebody!
[Mrs. Potter:] I've been away since morning, walking and thinking.
[?] an old woman.
[The little girl waits for the old woman to bring the ball up the steps.]
[Mrs. Potter:] I had cheeks like flowers, I could run all day long and never get tired.
I wore gingham dresses and I could skate like a boy.
Because the weeks went by so fast, and so many Sundays and Christmases
and Fourth of Julys, and suddenly so many years are gone.
Finished so quickly.
And you wake up after a fight with your [?] and do something foolish.
And there you are, mad and angry, and foolish.
And face to face with all the mistakes you ever made in all your whole long life.
Where do you learn to live?
How do you end what's ended?
But forever and ever.
How do you leave the house where you were married?
[Music]
My husband Jimmy.
We buried him a year ago in May.
But he had died a long time before that.
And maybe it was some of my fault.
[Music]
Three years since he was retired, a crane man in the ironworks over there.
And all he did for three years was sit in that chair and beat himself at checkers.
If only he'd taken a job, any job.
But no, he wouldn't do anything.
The radio broke and he let it go.
He stopped reading the papers, and then he even stopped seeing the children.
It got so I hated to see his face, home all day long, sitting in that window all day long.
If only I could move him out of that chair.
Put a firecracker under it or something.
Retired at 65, enjoying life.
Having a fine time doing nothing, nothing.
Oh, he knew it was coming, but he never got ready for it.
Because he would never really believe it.
[The old woman beats a rug with the broom to knock dust out of it.]
[Granddaughter:] Grandma!
[Mrs. Potter:] Hello darling. [Granddaughter:] Hello.
[Mrs. Potter:] How are you? [Granddaughter:] Fine.
[Emma:] Hello mother.
[Mrs. Potter:] How are you, Emma?[Emma:] Fine.
Isn't this wonderful after that heat.
I haven't even got my blankets put away yet, let alone rug.
[Mrs. Potter:] Well I'm doing a little bit each day, I can't do very much,
but I can do just a little at a time.
[Emma:] Oh you do wonderful, you've always been a good housekeeper.
How's dad today?
[Mrs. Potter:] He just sits up there, I can't get him down.
[Emma:] He playing checkers? [Mrs. Potter:] Playing checkers as usual.
[Emma:] That's just about all he cares about, isn't it?
[Granddaughter:] Look grandma... [Mrs. Potter:] Yes.
[Granddaughter:] I found a bug. [Mrs. Potter:] What, in my yard?
[Emma:] She likes anything that's little. Bugs and all.
[Mrs. Potter:] How are you, today?
[Emma:] Well, I really came to tell you, I stopped to see the doctor on my way over.
[Mrs. Potter:] You did? What did he say?
[Emma:] The best news I've had. I'm going to have another baby, mother.
[Mrs. Potter:] Oh, I'm so glad, it's about time.
[Emma:] I think so too.
I haven't even phoned Jack yet, just came straight here.
[Granddaughter:] Me too.
[Emma:] Oh sweetie, you're still my baby too.
You know that don't ya?
And now we'll have a real baby in the house for you to be a mother to.
She's a wonderful mother.
[Mrs. Potter:] I know she is.
[Music]
[Mrs. Potter:] Jimmy.
Emma is going to have a baby.
[Music]
Three years, three years ago.
The day he really died.
The day he went back and closed himself up in the crane.
[Factory worker 1:] I'd like to know how he got up there.
[Factory worker 2:] I'm not wondering how he got up there.
[Mrs. Potter:] I'll get him down.
[Factory worker 2:] How? He's been up there two hours.
[Mrs. Potter:] I'll get him down.
[Factor worker 1:] Promise him a job, promise him anything.
[Factory worker 2:] I'm not going to stand here and tell him any lies.
[Mrs. Potter:] Jimmy, I want you to come down.
Don't be silly, Jimmy.
Jimmy, don't be an old fool.
They can't do any work with you up there.
Jimmy, I haven't had any breakfast yet, and I'm not going to leave until you come down.
Jimmy! You're just doing this to spite me.
Jimmy, come down!
Come down!
[Mr. Potter moves the crane while everyone in the factory watches.]
[He gets out of the crane and heads out of the factory with his wife.]
[Sounds of machinery cranking.]
[Mrs. Potter:] What could I have done?
Was it my fault?
Could I have in any way helped him?
Given him a reason to live?
Encouraged him to look beyond his job so he wasn't finished when the job was finished?
Showed him some sure proof that I loved him and thought him to be a man,
with or without his job.
Is there anything I could have done?
[The Potters walk across a bridge and Mr. Potter pauses to angrily toss his tools into the river.]
[Music]
[Mrs. Potter:] How was it possible to save him?
Where do you learn to live when the whole world is shaking and changing around you?
And nothing is the way it was.
Where do you learn to be old?
Maybe you start with this.
That you're alive.
And every voice and every face and every second is precious.
And nothing like it will ever happen again.
I wanted to keep on living.
I wanted more and more.
And then Jimmy died and I had nothing.
Emma had her baby, so I said yes, I'd move in with them.
So they gave me a room in the house and I thought, now I'm settled.
This is what I must do.
Raise up my grandson and live in my daughter's family.
[The door bell is ringing while muffled chatter is heard in the room where a party is in progress.]
[Emma:] What's this one supposed to be?
[Masked man:] You like it, you like it?
[Emma:] Sure I like it, go on in and get yourself some...Marie Antoinette.
[The baby cries while the party is going on downstairs.]
[Piano party music is being played.]
[Emma:] Honey, how you feeling?
[Jack:] Oh, I feel wonderful honey, how do you feel?
Shoot, is that the baby?
[Baby crying]
[Masked man:] Okay everybody, I'm going to take your picture. Smile.
[Parytgoers laugh and clap.]
[Mrs. Potter:] Don't cry.
[Granddaughter:] Grandma.
[Mrs. Potter:] Go to sleep, dear.
[Granddaughter:] I woke up.
[Mrs. Potter:] I know you did, but go to sleep.
Hush, hush.
[Emma:] I can take care of him, mother.
Why don't you go on back to bed, huh?
[Mrs. Potter:] He's been very wakeful.
I think he's hungry.
[Emma:] Well, I know he's hungry, I'm going to feed him.
How's my boy, huh?
[Mrs. Potter:] He's not getting enough to eat.
You know he's a boy, and boys require more food than girls.
Aren't you drinking too much?
[Emma:] I drank hardly at all, I'm being very careful about it.
[Mrs. Potter:] You know it gets in their milk.
I think you should ween him.
Put him on the bottle.
[Emma:] Everybody's satisfied around here except you.
The doctor is satisfied, the baby is satisfied, I'm satisfied.
That's what you'd like to be yourself.
[Mrs. Potter:] He's not satisfied.
[Emma:] Please close the door, mother.
[Jack:] Have a drink, grandma.[Mrs. Potter:] I'm not your grandma.
[Jack:] Well, what happened this time?
[Emma:] Oh nothing. Everything.
I lost my temper. I s'pose I shouldn't have.
I can't help it.
This time she thought I was starving the baby, isn't that nice.
[Jack:] I wish we could get her out of here, perhaps she could take a room somewhere.
[Emma:] No.
[Jack:] Why not?
[Emma:] Because we just couldn't do that.
That's why.
[Jack:] Mother and Dad have been living by themselves for years,
and they're a lot older than she is.
I mean, considering everything they get along swell.
[Emma:] I know they get along, but they have each other.
Besides, your father has his little workshop and your mother putters around her garden,
plays bridge with her friends.
If I could just reason with her...
[Jack:] You know what the real trouble is, she feels that she's not wanted here, that's all.
[Emma:] I know she does and I'm so sorry. We need her help and she gives it to us.
But why can't she give it to us without eating us up alive?
[Voices and music heard from downstairs.]
[Mrs. Potter gets out of bed and begins vacuuming.]
[Music]
[Clerk:] Good morning. [Mrs. Potter:] Good morning.
[Clerk:] Beautiful stockings, aren't they?
Lovely shade too, don't you think?
[Mrs. Potter:] Yes, they're lovely.
[Clerk:] Nice and sheer.
This is your lucky day all right, I'm putting up...Like the shade?
I see you're wearing dark blue, perhaps you'd like a darker shade.
What size do you wear?
[Mrs. Potter:] I don't think I'm interested in hose today.
[Clerk:] How about a nice slip?
[Mrs. Potter:] No thank you.
You have a sign in the window.
You're advertising for a salesperson, I thought maybe I could get the job.
[Clerk:] No, sorry.
[Mrs. Potter:] That's quite all right.
[Clerk:] For you.
[Mrs. Potter:] Thank you.
[Clerk:] I'm sorry.
[Mrs. Potter:] I could've filled that job.
But what would that prove to them or to me?
That I was strong and useful?
That I didn't need them?
Or just that I was angry and hurt and hadn't yet learned how to live with my children.
How shall I go back to my family?
What shall I say?
How can I love them without hurting them?
Because I need to.
Because growing old is so much easier if someone loves and understands you.
[Granddaughter:] Bye-bye!
[Mrs. Potter:] Goodbye!
[Granddaughter:] Bye-bye!
Hello!
Goodbye!
[Mrs. Potter:] Late afternoon, I came home.
The house where you live can be a prison, or a place of love.
The room where you sleep can be a closet full of tears or a quiet bed and a window
full of real voices.
[Granddaughter:] Hey, grandma's got a new hat.
[Mrs. Potter:] Which can I have?
Which do I deserve?
Some of it depends on me.
But some of it must depend on other people.
[Emma:] Mother, I'm so glad you're back.
I'm trying out with this recipe and I can't tell how it's coming out.
I've looked at it about five times and it doesn't look right to me.
Will you look at it for me?
[Mrs. Potter:] Yes, I'll be right in.
[THE END]
[This film has been approved by NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH]
[PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY]