Alias Nick Beal (1949)

Rev. Thomas Garfield: You've changed, Joseph.
Joseph Foster: How?
Rev. Thomas Garfield: Well, your clothes, for one thing.
Joseph Foster: Oh, well, what are clothes?
Rev. Thomas Garfield: And there are rumors about you and Miss Allen. I know I shouldn't mention them, or the story that you and Martha are estranged. Is it true?
Joseph Foster: Well, in a way... What's my personal trouble got to do with it?
Rev. Thomas Garfield: They're all indications of change. Then there's the influence that this Nick Beal seems to have over you.
Joseph Foster: Influence, nothing. He loaned me some money and I'll pay it back, and that's all.
Rev. Thomas Garfield: I wonder. Have you signed anything with him, any sort of contract?
Joseph Foster: Of course not. What are you driving at?
Rev. Thomas Garfield: I don't know exactly, but there's something strange about him, something eerie.
Joseph Foster: It's a pose to impress people.
Rev. Thomas Garfield: How did he get out of your house the night we were there? Why was he afraid to read the Bible?
Joseph Foster: Are you serious?
Rev. Thomas Garfield: I know I can't be, but I am. And there's another thing - somewhere I've seen a portrait of him, a medieval drawing or woodcut. I'm trying to remember where.
Joseph Foster: A drawing as what?
Rev. Thomas Garfield: Lucifer.
Joseph Foster: We're in the 20th century, Tom. Nobody's believed in such things since the Salem witch burnings. Besides, aren't there a few items missing? Where's the tail and the horns? Where's the smell of sulfur and brimstone? And where's the contract you're talking about, signed in blood and promising the delivery of one slightly used soul?
Rev. Thomas Garfield: Maybe the devil knows it's the 20th century too, Joseph.

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Rev. Thomas Garfield: Behind the decision of every man, I've found there's generally a woman.

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Rev. Thomas Garfield: We have an old-fashioned custom here, Mr. Beal. Every afternoon at the end of the day, someone reads the boys a passage from the Bible. And whenever it's possible, we try to have someone different read. It makes them realize that the Bible belongs to us all. Would you like to read?
Nick Beal: Me? What do I know about things like that?
Rev. Thomas Garfield: That doesn't matter. I've marked the passage. It's one of the psalms of David.
Nick Beal: No. It's your book. Read it yourself.
Rev. Thomas Garfield: All right. The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face. Amen.

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A marquee from Loew's Delancy Theater (NYC) showing this film is shown near the end of The Naked City behind actor Paul Ford.
One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by MCA ever since.
"The Screen Guild Theater" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on December 8, 1949 with Ray Milland reprising his film role.
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