The Devil Is Not Mocked - Printable Version +- RepairmanJack.com Forums (https://repairmanjack.com/forum) +-- Forum: Other Topics (https://repairmanjack.com/forum/forum-9.html) +--- Forum: Off Topic (https://repairmanjack.com/forum/forum-4.html) +--- Thread: The Devil Is Not Mocked (/thread-2382.html)

The Devil Is Not Mocked - bones weep tedium - 06-25-2007 Was reading the IMDb message board for The Keep, and came across an interesting thread that was asking if F Paul Wilson ripped off/was inspired by an old TV programme when he wrote the novel The Keep. The TV programme was called Rod Serling's Night Gallery, and the episode in question is called The Devil Is Not Mocked. Here is the IMDb thread, and here is the teleplay with screen grabs. I think it's a pretty creepy little story, and some of the surface details are similar, but I think it's a bit rich to say The Keep is a rip-off. The Devil Is Not Mocked - bones weep tedium - 06-27-2007 FADE IN: 2 EXT. COUNTRYSIDE - FULL MOON - NIGHT (STOCK) 2 Clouds race across the full moon. In b.g. can be heard the mournful baying of wolves. Suddenly, incongruously, we hear the staccatto burst of a machine gun. 3 EXT. RUGGED COUNTRYSIDE - NAZI SOLDIERS - NIGHT 3 Camera pans two members of a machine gun nest to include a Radio Man who tries to raise somebody on his transmitter. O.s. wolves can still be heard, slightly closer. RADIO MAN Hello...Wagner Three, here is Mozart One. Wagner Three, here is Mozart One... One of the machine gunners sees something, prods the other. There is a short burst of fire. Radio Man turns to them. RADIO MAN More partisans? MACHINE GUNNER (disdainfully) No. Wolves. CONTINUED gc #A-33587 2 3 CONTINUED 3 He laughs. The transmitter crackles and the Radio Man turns back to it. 4 EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - FAVORING COMMAND CAR - NIGHT 4 A Nazi command car comes to a halt alongside the road. A con- voy of trucks continues to grind along the road behind it. There is a driver, Deiterich; an orderly in his 30's, Kranz; and a monocled Nazi General, Fritz von Grunn - an Erich von Stroheim fan, if there ever was one. Kranz leans in over the speaker of the radio, turns to the General. KRANZ The sector to the west is cleared, General. No sign of any more parti- sans. GENERAL You are surprised? They have shown their true color. Serbs, Croatians, Slavs...stupid peasants putting on an act for their womenfolk. Kranz holds a small flashlight, looks at his watch. KRANZ The castle should be surrounded in fourteen seconds. GENERAL Show it to me, Deiterich. Deiterich swings out of the driver's seat, loads his flare gun, fires it into the air. The General leans forward. 5 EXT. CASTLE - NIGHT 5 The flare, its little parachute opening. And in the glare of the magnesium, we see a great stone castle atop a hill. 6 CLOSEUP - FLARE 6 as it drifts down through the air. 7 EXT. CASTLE COURTYARD - TORCH - NIGHT 7 The torch moves away from camera and we discover ourselves in the courtyard of the castle. Hugo, a hunched-over servant in his 60's, scurries to light various other torches in the court- CONTINUED gc #A-33587 3 7 CONTINUED 7 yard. From without the walls can be heard the Nazi trucks as they pull up and unload their troops. There is also, in the distance, the sound of a wolf or two baying - possibly dis- turbed by the nocturnal activity. 8 EXT. OUTSIDE CASTLE WALLS - COMMAND CAR - NIGHT 8 It pulls to a halt as the trucks pass it, stop in b.g. Deiterich immediately lifts his machine gun, points it o.s. at the gates. The General snaps his fingers at Kranz. GENERAL Microphone! 9 EXT. CASTLE GATE - SOLDIERS - NIGHT 9 Several move into position with portable spotlights which they are prepared to light. A machine gun is set up. Everything is focused on the impressive wooden doors to the castle. 10 VON GRUNN 10 He takes the microphone from Kranz. It is his moment of glory. He flicks the cord, a bit like Sinatra on stage, and speaks into it: GENERAL Achtung, achtung... He grimaces as the system squeals with feedback, casts a jaundiced eye at Kranz who turns the dial, returns the look sheepishly. The General tries again: GENERAL Achtung, achtung. This is General Fritz Schlossman von Grunn - Commandant in Chief, SS, Balkan Forces of the Occupation. Your headquarters are surrounded... 11 EXT. CASTLE COURTYARD - SERVANT - NIGHT 11 As the General's announcement is heard, the servant lights one last torch mounted on the stone walls and hurries towards a door which now opens. Camera moves with him as he intercepts a tall man in his 50's (who will be called The Master) who is trailed by a servant girl who helps him on with a long, flowing formal cape. An old woman appears in the doorway behind him, kitchen help - worried.