What happens
In a Latin American country, a priest on the run from the government returns to his ruined village, where a woman named Maria Dolores hides him and helps him. A lieutenant hunts the priest with a reward, and the lieutenant takes hostages from the village to force the people to give him up. The priest's flight takes him along a dangerous road where he meets a gunman known as El Gringo, a man with a stolen briefcase of American dollars. This episode of the Screen Director's Playhouse is an adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel, presented on NBC in 1951 with Henry Fonda in the title role. The transcript covers only the early part of the story, so the later events are not described here.
A Latin American country under an anti-clerical government, with a ruined village, a mountain trail, a river crossing, a port town, and a cantina.
Characters: Priest (Henry Fonda), Maria Dolores, Maria de Lara, Lieutenant, Miguel, El Gringo, Louis, Maria
Listen for: The lieutenant's cold orders to take hostages, and the priest's conversation with Maria Dolores in the ruined church.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.