The Vine: June 1, 2012
I’ve written this email and erased it a handful of times for reasons I can’t completely explain. Maybe I really don’t want to know the answer to the question, or that this show scarred me so badly that I don’t want to put a name to it, but after reading so many posts of people in similar positions, I think I’ll finally go for it.
It was a TV show on PBS (I believe) in the late ’80s, early ’90s (again, I believe). I think there was a fairytale or folktale bent to the episodes. I think I remember three or four episodes, but there is one episode that sticks in my memory and when I think about it, it really freaks me right out.
The premise of the episode is that a decently well-to-do man makes a pact with the devil in which he becomes a foul beast for seven years. If he lasts seven years without a) killing himself and b) finds someone to marry him in this hideous state, the devil will pay him a bunch of money. If he kills himself or doesn’t find someone to marry him, the devil wins his soul. It was basically a “Beauty and the Beast” allegory, but I believe this version was either with Southern Belles or in Victorian garb (I’m leaning towards Southern Belles for some reason).
Three things that stick out the most for me:
1. The process of making this man a beast and then unmaking him a beast at the end felt very graphic. The devil put these animal pelts on his skin, but the story made it seem that the pelts had fused with his skin in a very painful manner so that he couldn’t pretend to be human in any way. Close to the end, the process of de-peltifying him was just as graphic. There’s also a pitchfork-y scene where he’s being run out of town by the townsfolk pelting him with rocks and and he’s all stumbly.
2. He saves a man who has three daughters, and asks the man in repayment for saving his life if he can marry one of the three. The man brings him home and introduces the beast to his daughters. Two of them are so repulsed they won’t even think of accepting the beast’s hand. The third one (the bookish, studious one, GAH!) accepts his hand in marriage. The beast leaves the woman a piece of his fingernail (I know!) and shows that another piece slots into it to form a ring. Once he’s completed his little task, he’ll come back for her and present her with the other half so that she knows he’s the one.
3. He finishes his seven-year term without dying and he is betrothed, so he beat the devil and the devil begrudgingly pays up. After the before-mentioned graphic de-peltifying process, that somehow the devil has to participate in (I know! Don’t you have minions for that? Even if you’re like a lesser crossroads demon, shouldn’t you be outsourcing that job? Send that crap downstream. I’m just saying). The devil tries to trick the beast/guy out of the fingernail clipping that fits into the other fingernail clipping he gave the girl. But he gets it and his handsome reward and heads back to the girl’s house.
He shows up in the parlor and her two sisters are trying to court him and are flirting with him pretty unapologetically and he brushes them off rather brusquely. He talks to the bookish sister alone, presents her with the fingernail clipping of destiny and they go off to live happily ever after. There was a side note that creeped me right out, though. The end shows the two sisters who had blown the beast off jumping and/or hanging themselves and then the devil comes into frame, looking directly into the camera all mustache-twirling (and honestly, my memory is so bad I don’t know if that was metaphorical or if he was literally twirling a piece of handlebar mustache) and says all menacingly, “Two souls for the price of one.” That screwed with me hard for going on decades now. I could get into the internal feminist debate about why two girls would commit suicide over a wealthy suitor that I’ve had with myself for years now, but I’ll save it.
If the incredible Tomato Nation could name the show and the episode of which I’m speaking I would be eternally grateful.
Sincerely;
The Bloody Munchkin
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult
Looks like Bearskin- An Urban Fairytale (1989) to me. With bonus Tom Waits!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096901/
Or possibly without bonus Tom Waits. The Internet appears to be confused on this point.
I remember this one! I’m almost positive that the deal with the devil specified that he could not bathe or clean himself, or change his clothes for seven years, which led to the beast-like appearance. They showed us this in ELEMENTARY school, and it stuck with me too. It looks like it was called Bearskin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearskin_(German_fairy_tale)
Could this adaptation of “Bearskin” be it?
Here’s a YouTube clip that might remind you of the original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVws9-lIP24
http://www.amazon.com/From-Brothers-Grimm-Hansel-Bearskin/dp/B000K14L8Q
Oh, my gosh, I think I can help on this one! The general plot sounds very similar to “The Devil’s Breeches,” which is a Beauty and the Beast variant that Italo Calvino included in Italian Folktales. I had a little fun with Google, and this is what I found:
The Wikipedia page for the variant mentions an American version set post-Civil War that was produced by Davenport Films for a series called From the Brothers Grimm that even mentions the sisters’ grisly end and the Devil’s comment to the audience. When I Googled Davenport Films, I found this link to a synopsis of the episode. Which you can buy in DVD if you are so inclined.
It doesn’t seem to have a pelt being attached–the guy just can’t bathe or cut his hair, etc, but in all other respects it seems pretty dead-on.
(Also, you are right, this is a totally creepy and bothersome version of Beauty and the Beast!) (Not that the better-known story isn’t a little distressing in its own right…)
Oh! And here’s a clip on Youtube, where apparently you can rent the whole thing? I’m not sure how the rental works, but maybe the clip will help confirm that it’s the right show.
Reading this, I kept thinking it sounded like the plot of a book I recently read called The Wager by Donna Jo Napoli. I knew that the book was based on a fairy tale, but not which one. Apparently it’s a Sicilian tale called “Don Giovanni de la Fortuna,” which itself is based on a Brothers Grimm tale called “Bearskin.” Seems like PBS may have aired a version of Bearskin — but set in the Civil War and starring Tom Waits??!!?? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096901/
Hey I’m the letter writer! I’ll take a look at the links you guys provided and see what connects. I’ve got to look at the video to make sure, but that does sound pretty dead on. I still thought it was part of a PBS series though, but I guess I was wrong.
Ok, I looked over the You-tube video and that is indeed it, down to exacting detail. Bearskin it is. Thanks everybody for finding it so fast!
One of these days I’m finally going to recognize one of these forgotten books/movies/tv shows. Until then, as Tomato Nation keeps posting “Can you help me find this?” questions, I will continue to read about them and say, “Ooooh, I want to read/see that!” and eagerly await the moment when someone correctly guesses said missing book/movie/tv show.
Amy, I feel you. Answering the “Do you know this book/movie/wierd pop-culture item” question on The Vine is on my bucket list too. I at least got to cross off “Get a weird question that’s been bugging me for years answered on The Vine” my bucket list. So, there’s that.
Just watching the clip was more than enough of that for me. I can see why that scarred you as a child!
Eeek! That devil was the real thing, I’m telling ya. There is NO WAY I’d make a deal with that man.
And general question: How rich, should you go ahead with the bargain, would you personally demand to be to go through with this? I ask because I’m guessing a poor post-Civil war man has a very different version of “rich” than a modern day person.
What do you suppose their version of “rich” was?
I just glanced at the Youtube video – that was enough for me, thank you very much. But, Sondheim fanatic that I am, I was ridiculously pleased to see that Robert Westenberg played the soldier.
I remember reading that story in junior high, and the teacher emphasizing the whole, “two for the price of one” ending. Never knew it was an actual film, though. The film sounds creepier than the story.
This is possibly the most disturbing ask the readers I’ve read so far… geez, they show that to children? And can someone please enlighten me on WHAT type of moral lesson this horror story could possibly teach???
@L: “You shouldn’t judge people by their appearances – they might be rich!”
I distinctly remember seeing this in fourth grade, along with The Goose Girl. Hmm.