Black River (1994)

Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Early spring 1899
On a clear spring night, three women are united for a moment in crisis and suffering: Clara Gray, a lonely, drug-addicted housewife; Lucy Holland, her eighteen-year-old stepdaughter, pregnant and recently widowed; and Pauline L’Allemand, a faded opera singer committed to the Mendota State Mental Hospital.

Scene 1
The Church, Pentecost Sunday. Spring 1898
As Reverend Woods extols the heavenly rewards awaiting a life of misery and toil, Clara remembers a day twelve years earlier when her four-year-old son Jeremy drowned in the Black River.

Scene 2
The same Pentecost Sunday
Ben Holland and Lucy contemplate their own innocent visions of married life in sharp contrast to the bleak reality of the relationship of Clara and Judge Horace Gray.

Scene 3
The bar of the Shanghai Hotel
Ben is treated to an impromptu performance of “The Founding of Black River Falls” starring C. C. Pope and P. H. Howell, two Civil War veterans, while Horace impersonates the town’s ruthless founder, Jacob Spaulding. Suddenly overcome by anguish over his family situation, Horace warns Ben to be a loving and kind husband to Lucy.

The Mendota State Hospital, evening. One month later.
Pauline L’Allemand recalls the last performance of her operetta, Die Kappe des Confucius (The Cap of Confucius), and the evening she told her young son Edgar about buying land in Wisconsin. Dr. Krohn, a Mendota staff physician, interrupts her reverie to suggest that she share her musical gifts with the other patients as part of her therapy. When she refuses, Pauline is locked in her room. In an effort to understand her present degradation, Pauline relives her colorful life as a singer, her move to Black River Falls, and her ultimate commitment to Mendota.

Scene 1
A boat landing by the river. A June evening, a few days later.
Lucy reveals her impatience with life in Black River Falls and her budding romance with Ben Holland.

Scene 2
Black River High School. Graduation Day.
The principal and Miss Dorothy Snite, Lucy’s teacher, lead the class in commencement exercises, only to have Clara disrupt the festivities in a state of hysteria. The class disperses, leaving Lucy alone to vent her rage at Clara and her desire for escape through a loveless marriage to Ben.