Tonight, Columbia brings you romance in the charming comedy Pride and Prejudice.
Once again, the Columbia Broadcasting System brings you romance, great love stories of
today and yesterday.
Here you will find adventure, the adventure of boy and girl, man and woman, in search
of happiness with one another.
Here you will find mystery, the mystery of the human heart.
Tonight, we take pleasure in bringing you Jane Austen's immortal love story, Pride
and Prejudice, with Naomi Campbell as Elizabeth, who was too proud for love, and Eric Dressler
as Mr. Darcy, who was too prejudiced for romance.
Pride and Prejudice is a story based on a certain belief widely subscribed to by mothers
at the turn of the 18th century.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune
must be in want of a wife.
The lady you just heard speaking is Mrs. Bennet, wife of Mr. Bennet of the estate known as
Longburn in England, and mother of five daughters.
We're going to tell you the story of her second eldest daughter, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Bennet was a beautiful girl, proud, oh my yes, and prejudiced.
She fell very strongly against a certain Mr. Darcy.
This is why.
Elizabeth was at a ball given by a new man in the community, a Mr. Bingley, who appeared
quite interested in Elizabeth's elder sister, Jane.
Well, at the ball, Elizabeth was sitting out a dance alone when she overheard,
Darcy, Darcy, why are you standing over here by yourself?
Come, let's see you dance a few sets.
Thank you, no.
You're dancing with the only pretty girl in the room, Jane Bennet.
She is beautiful, I'll not deny that.
But there's her sister Elizabeth sitting over there to the right, who is very beautiful
herself.
Let me present her to you.
Sorry, old man.
She may look all right to you, but she doesn't tempt me.
And I'm not in a good enough mood to feel like putting up with young ladies who have
no partner.
You can easily see why Elizabeth Bennet became more than a little prejudiced against Mr. Darcy.
Well, the next time they came together was at an informal party at a friend's.
But Mr. Darcy, you must permit me to introduce this young lady to you as the most desirable
dancing partner.
Thank you, Sir William.
Miss Bennet.
You need not worry, Mr. Darcy.
I have not the slightest intention of dancing.
I'm sorry, Sir William.
I'm a little tired this evening.
Surely you won't refuse me.
I suppose I must be the first that ever has, Mr. Darcy.
But I am rather critical of my dancing.
I'm not a good dancer.
But I will present my dancing partner just as you are.
And now, please excuse me.
Ah, Miss Bennet.
Oh.
Don't you know that it takes two people to fully appreciate a moonlit evening?
You shouldn't be sitting here all by yourself.
What amazing conceits you have, Mr. Darcy, to think that you could add anything to a
moonlit evening. You don't like me do you Miss Bennet? That is an understatement Mr.
Darcy. I'm very sorry for there is something that seems to draw me to you.
The room was suddenly empty when you walked out of it, or perhaps it was my
heart. Why do you dislike me? Mr. Darcy I couldn't begin to tell you. Well then I
certainly won't force myself upon you any longer. Good evening Miss Bennet. Good
evening Mr. Darcy.
Well Darcy why are you walking up and down so late out here? It's almost three
in the morning. Why are you walking up and down so late Bingley? I think I'm sure.
Yes? I have a suspicion. Darcy don't you think Miss Jane Bennet is a truly
remarkable girl? Yes but I haven't been keeping myself awake over that. I've been
thinking what a remarkable girl Miss Elizabeth Bennet is. I thought you didn't
like her. I don't but I seem to have become a little mixed up in my emotions.
We rarely should go to bed. I know Jane but the moonlight is so bright. Oh Elizabeth don't you think Mr. Bingley is very handsome?
Very and extremely clever. Extremely and delightfully charming. Delightfully. Elizabeth you
aren't really listening to me at all. What are you thinking of? How much I dislike
Mr. Darcy.
Now while Jane and Bingley were busy dreaming about one another and while
Darcy was dreaming about Elizabeth and Elizabeth was thinking about how much he
disliked him. Mrs. Bennet was busy settling the lives of all three of them.
Oh Mrs. Bennet will you please come to bed? You make me so nervous charging up
and down the room that I can't close my eyes. Well Mr. Bennet if you don't care
anything about the future of your daughters I do. I've got to get them
married and settled. Good heavens I have five on my hands and practically no one I
know has more than two to worry about. Mrs. Bennet why not leave that in the hands of
Providence for tonight. There's really very small chance if you're getting them
married at three in the morning. Jane of course will marry Mr. Bingley. Now Elizabeth
I think Elizabeth must marry Mr. Collins. Mr. Collins is that unpleasant cousin of mine?
Mr. Collins told me Monday when he arrived for his visit that he wishes to
marry and take a wife back with him. I think that may as well be Elizabeth. Elizabeth isn't in love with Mr. Collins.
She's in love? I can't wait around for her to fall in love. No sir. Mr. Collins will have your permission to speak to her tomorrow and she will accept him.
All right. May I go to sleep now Mrs. Bennet? Yes Mr. Bennet you may.
Miss Elizabeth will you sit by the window please. Yes of course Mr. Collins but why?
Miss Elizabeth permit me to tell you that I have your mother's permission for
this address. First I think that every clergyman in easy circumstances should
set an example in matrimony to his parish. Secondly I think it will add
greatly to my own happiness and third it is the wish of my patroness and esteemed
friend Lady Catherine de Brogne. She is prepared to think well of you. Mr.
Collins please I thank you for the compliment you are paying me but I must
decline it. I am prepared to be refused at first. I shall not let it upset me. I
shall ask you again. You see Lady de Brogne is most anxious to see me settled
and to see her own daughter settled with Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy? They have been engaged
since they were born. Lady Catherine and Mr. Darcy's mother made all the
arrangements. Young Lady Catherine is very beautiful you know although a trifle on
the slender side for my own taste. I wish her great joy. You look unhappy about
something. Have you become well acquainted with Mr. Darcy? No no I
haven't and I'm sure I never shall. He is the most impossible, vain, egotistical,
unpleasant, ill-mannered man it has ever been my bad fortune to meet. I am very
sorry Miss Elizabeth. Sorry about what? That you are so fond of Mr. Darcy. Mr.
Collins. I'm sorry I didn't mention Mr. Darcy sooner. I would have known then why
there is little hope for me.
Mr. Bennett you will kindly speak to your daughter Elizabeth immediately. What has
she done Mrs. Bennett? I just refused Mr. Collins for part. I am not speaking to
Elizabeth at the moment Mr. Bennett but I expect you to inform her that you
insist upon her marrying him. Well Elizabeth an unhappy alternative seems
to be before you. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your
mother will never speak to you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins and I will
never speak to you again if you do. Mr. Bennett this is the closest insubordination. Yes Mrs.
Bennett. Elizabeth do you want to be an old maid? I would just as soon as marry
someone I didn't love. Oh as far back as I can remember there has never been an old
maiden either your father's family or mine. Oh I'm going to be upset. Oh you
don't really want to upset me do you Elizabeth? No mama but I don't want to
marry Mr. Collins either and of the two having you stop speaking to me would be
the lesser disappointment. Oh I am hurt deeply Elizabeth deeply and gravely. I'm very sorry mama.
Please excuse me. Oh dear oh me. Girls nowadays are searching down as obedient as they used to be.
That may be just as well Mrs. Bennett. Oh well at least Jane is not defying me.
Jane will marry Mr. Bingley and then I will only have four girls to worry about.
Miss Bennett. Oh Miss Bennett. Mr. Darcy. We we seem to be walking in the same
direction. I can change my direction. Oh no I'll change my direction. I wouldn't
think of spoiling your walk. Just as you wish Mr. Darcy. This this seems as good a
time as any to say goodbye I suppose. Goodbye? I thought you and Mr. Bingley
were going to be here all winter. We had a change of plans. My sister's not been
well and I'm taking her to Italy. Bingley's coming along with us. Oh. There's
been an understanding between them for some time. You follow me don't you?
Perfectly Mr. Darcy. Yes I think they'll be getting married in the spring as soon
as it can be managed. When two people are in love there's little good in waiting.
Of course not. Especially if one of the people seems to be falling in love with
someone else. Yes you do follow me. If you'll forgive my saying so Miss Bennett
you have a designing mother and my sister's happiness is at stake. It
doesn't matter to you of course but my sister Jane's happiness is at stake too.
I should be very sorry if this causes a pain but after all she and Bingley
haven't been acquainted very long. What right have you to interfere in other
people's lives? Why should you persuade Mr. Bingley to leave when he and Jane
think so much of one another? Miss Bennett if I thought your sister and
Bingley could be happy I'd do everything in my power to keep them together. Why
don't you just mind your own business? Because I'm not going to see a friend of
mine taken in by a scheming woman. Your mother and sister have set out to trick
Bingley into marriage by fair means or foul and they're not going to get away
with it. So now good day Miss Bennett. Good day and goodbye. I'm sorry that we
were never able to get along because I think that you were a fine and beautiful
woman. Whatever I think is the design of your mother and sister. Do you think I
care what you think of me? No I entertain no such hopes Miss Bennett. If I ever had
any little conceit you've long since destroyed them. Goodbye Mr. Darcy. I hope
you'll be very happy in Italy. If it's any consolation to you I won't. You see I
haven't escaped entirely unscathed in this fray. I have a few wounds to lick
myself. Goodbye Miss Bennett.
Miss Bennett will you kindly stop that infernal noise? My poor Jane, my poor broken hearted baby.
How could any man be so cruel and black hearted? How could any man go on without a word of farewell after all the attentions he showed her?
Mama please you're keeping everyone in the house away. How can you be so callous Elizabeth Bennett? Don't you care that your sister has a broken heart? Of course I do Mama but I think it would be so much better for her and for you and all the rest of us if you would go to sleep.
Thank you Elizabeth. When I think of how that man is treated and going off without even saying goodbye. He sent a note to you Mama and thank you for all your courtesies to him. A note? When I think how I felt when I read that note.
Oh eternal perdition. Please stop crying about me I'm all right. My baby my poor broken hearted baby. Mama I don't want to hear any more of this it's humiliating and very upsetting. I'd appreciate it if you never mentioned Mr Bingley's name to me again. Oh I'm sorry.
Come on Elizabeth let's go back to our room. Goodnight Papa Mama. Goodnight girl. Goodnight Papa. Oh Mr. Bennett now I've got to snob from scratch again. I've got five daughters and not one husband in sight. Oh.
Oh I declare I could just cry I'm that disappointed.
Please Elizabeth don't hum that song. Oh Jane I'm sorry my dear. That's one of Mr Bingley's favorite songs. Oh Elizabeth you don't know what it's like you've never been in love.
But it hurts so much you want to die and yet you know you won't die but you'll go on living with the hurt and when the hurt finally goes you'll be completely empty. Empty? The room was suddenly empty when you walked out.
Or perhaps it was my heart. What are you talking about? Someone said that to me once. You never told me someone you loved. Someone I might have loved. I know who Elizabeth I guessed.
I'm sorry I said that it was selfish of me. You know far more about how love can hurt than I. I at least had a few weeks of happiness. I did not say I was in love. I only said I might have been if I didn't despise himself.
Don't be too proud Elizabeth. Pride is such a lonely thing when you choose it in place of love. Pride is all I have. All I've been offered and all I want. Good night Jane I'm very sleepy. Good night Elizabeth.
Elizabeth my dear that nice Mr. Darcy is in the parlor. He's come to call on you. Mr. Darcy to call on me? That's right. Hurry along dear. No no wait a minute. Let me straighten your hair. Oh my God. Run along now. Run along.
Well Mr. Darcy this is a surprise. Good afternoon Miss Bennet. You're looking thin and not a bit well. Didn't Italy agree with you? Not too much no. Miss Bennet there's something I must tell you. Yes?
And it's not at all easy since you've gone to so much pains to let me see how distasteful I am to you. But I love you and I have to tell you. Have you lost your mind? No only my heart.
You've ruined my sister's life and then you have the impertinence to stand there and tell me that you love me. I do love you with all my heart. And with all my heart I wish that you loved me too. Elizabeth will you marry me?
I offer you a name of some honor to many generations security and comfort and my great devotion. You surely cannot think that I will accept you. Even you could not have that much conceit.
I hope you might accept me. Let's put it that way. Mr. Darcy I've never asked your good opinion or your love and I'm amazed that you have chosen to bestow them upon me. I assure you that I would marry anyone in the world before I would marry you.
Miss Bennett, don't think that you can make me ashamed of my love because that's above reproach and the best that's in me to offer a woman. But I am ashamed of the object of my love.
I thought that I was kneeling at your feet when I asked you to marry me. Now I see I was only stooping a little. Thank you for refusing me. Forgive me for taking up so much of your time and accept my best wishes for your health and happiness.
What's wrong my dear?
Oh, it's Lydia, our daughter Lydia. She ran off with a soldier. Look at this note. Oh my baby, my poor baby married without her mother there. Oh God bless her. Oh, Mr. Bennett, he will marry her won't he? No soldier would be so low as to run off with a young lady and not marry her, would he?
What do you think Mrs. Bennett? Oh Mr. Bennett, oh Elizabeth, oh what am I to do? This will ruin us all. We'll never get any husbands. You have all the law allows my dear. Aren't you going to get your horse whip and go after that man Mr. Bennett?
Yes, Madam, I am as soon as I can get dressed. Someone should have warned me what marriage can lead to. I might have avoided all this 30 years ago. Oh Mr. Bennett. Madam, be silent. If Lydia isn't married now, she will be very soon. I'll see to that.
Mr. Parr. Yes Elizabeth. I want to talk to you. What is it Elizabeth? When you went up to London and got Lydia married, just how did you manage it? Oh, it was very simple my dear. Lydia said you gave them a thousand pounds. Where did you get the thousand pounds, Mr. Parr?
From Mr. Darcy Elizabeth. Mr. Darcy? Yes my dear, he came to see me. He heard about Lydia and he said the only way to straighten things out was to give them some money to get them started. You shouldn't have accepted any money from Mr. Darcy. He's not a friend of ours, Mr. Parr. Not a friend? No. He's a friend indeed. And a friend indeed? If that isn't a friend, I don't know what is. I wanted to give them the money at once but my solicitors couldn't be reached. Mr. Darcy kindly lent me the money.
I paid him back the next morning. If only it hadn't been Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth my dear, are you in love with Mr. Darcy? Why does everyone keep asking me if I'm in love with that man? Because maybe you have so many symptoms. It takes more than symptoms to make a case of anything. I'm not in love with him and no matter what he does for this family, I'm not going to be in love with him.
All right Elizabeth. All right.
Miss Bennet, I am Lady Catherine de Brogues.
This is quite an honor Lady Catherine that you should call on me.
Yes it is. I've come to talk to you about my nephew Mr. Darcy who is going to marry my daughter.
Indeed. Please congratulate them both for me.
Don't be impudent.
But I thought I was being polite.
You were being sarcastic and therefore rude and impudent. Miss Bennet, I will be my usual franksail. I've heard rumors that you and my nephew were to be married which I knew must be a scandalous falsehood and I want the report universally contradicted.
Your coming here is likely to appear a confirmation rather than a contradiction.
I am not going to have my plans upset by a young woman without family connections or fortune. I wish to know once and for all. Are you engaged to Mr. Darcy?
I am not.
Ah. Will you promise me never to enter into such an engagement?
I will not.
You are then resolved to have him.
I did not say that. Lady Catherine, you're not going to order me about. My life is my own to plan as I see fit. I've managed to live a good many years without any help or interference from you and I intend to go on that way.
Miss Bennet, I am leaving. But I take no leave of you and I send no compliments to your mother. I'm seriously displeased.
I understand Lady Catherine.
Miss Bennet?
Elizabeth! Elizabeth, darling, Mr. Bingley and I have something to tell you. We wanted you to be the first to know.
Mr. Bingley, how do you do? I didn't dream you were in this part of the country.
I only returned this morning. Will you tell her, Jane?
Well.
Or shall I?
You don't have to tell me anything. It's written all over your faces. I congratulate you both.
When I think I wouldn't have known that Jane cared if it hadn't been for Mr. Darcy, I still get shaky.
Mr. Darcy?
Of course. He spent all those months in Italy telling me about Jane. I only left, you know, because I couldn't believe she cared and I wanted to try and get over her.
But Darcy kept after me week in, week out, saying, where's your courage? At least go and ask her.
We owe Mr. Darcy a great deal, Elizabeth.
Yes. So it would seem.
Elizabeth, he's down at the gypsy camp right now. Why don't you go down and see him?
Yes. Oh yes, I must. Oh, I've been such a fool. I wonder if he'll ever forgive me.
Mr. Darcy, I...
I'm Miss Bennet.
Oh, it seems I owe you some apologies and some gratitude.
Oh, please don't speak of them. It isn't gratitude that I want from you.
Elizabeth, my Aunt Catherine tells me that she came to see you and that you refused to promise not to marry me.
It was shameless of me, I'm afraid. But you see, I hoped you might ask me again, and I didn't want to be bound by promises.
And if I did ask you again, what would my answer be this time?
Surely I don't have to tell you that.
Well, you've told me so many unpleasant things. It would be nice to hear something more to my liking.
Why then, Mr. Darcy, if you did ask me again, I would say thank you so much. I'll try very hard to make you happy.
Oh, Miss Bennet.
And I would say I've loved you from the first moment, but I found it very difficult to say so.
And I would say I am yours now, whether you want me or not, completely and forever.
Oh, my darling, my darling, I've waited so long.
I know. We got all mixed up in a porridge of pride and prejudice. But it will be beautiful now, my darling.
Yes, it had to end this way. We were for each other from the beginning of time, and always will be, until the end of time.
I love you, Mr. Darcy, very, very dearly.
Oh, Mr. Bennet.
Oh, Mrs. Bennet, I am very sleepy. What are you crying about now?
Lydia's married, and Jane and Elizabeth soon will be. And we have only two daughters left.
They'll be married too, before we're turned around.
Oh, Mr. Bennet, we're going to be so lonely all alone. Oh, I've lost my baby.
Madam, you baffle me completely.
That's because you've never been a mother, Mr. Bennet.
Praise God I never shall.
CBS has brought you romance, great love stories of today and yesterday.
Tonight's adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was written by Gene Holloway.
The music was conducted by Charles Paul.
Elizabeth was played by Naomi Campbell and Mr. Darcy by Eric Dressler.
And the director was Albert Ward.
Next week, America's greatest writer about young people and young love tells his most famous story on romance.
The writer is Booth Tarkington, and the story is his immortal saga of Willie Baxter and the Girl from Out of Town.
Seventeen. Be sure to join us next week when Romance the Columbia feature production presents Booth Tarkington's Seventeen.
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