The Indestructible Mr. Weems story
Brothers of a Lodge have trouble getting people to buy plots in their cemetery project, which worries their leader, Brother Cato Stone. Brother Harry suggests they ask former member Clarence Weems, who is elderly and sick, to be their first customer. Weems accepts, but then gets better, having taken the contract as a challenge to rejuvenate his life. After months of Weems not dying, the brothers decide to confront him over the contract, but in the excitement Brother Cato dies of a heart attack. He becomes the first to be buried in their cemetery instead. Directed by: Justus Addiss. Story by: George F. Slavin.
10 total · 3 major · 7 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| coping with a terminal illness | major | The elderly Clarence Weems was on his deathbed (or so we thought). |
| criminal fraud | major | Cato Stone was convinced that his fellow lodge brother Harry had conned him into signing an agreement to pay Clarence Weems $50 a week for the rest of Weems' life. Also Harry accused Cato of some sort of real estate shenanigans when the land was bought. |
| ironic twist of fate | major | Cato Stone's desperate desire to find someone to take the first plot in his new cemetery came to fruition when he himself dropped dead from a heart attack. |
| coping with the death of a spouse | minor | One gathers that Clarence had been wasting away since the death of his wife. |
| duty vs. desire | minor | Cato Stone wanted to get out of his onerous contract with a fellow lodge member on the one hand, but he'd pledged to always help his fellow lodge brothers on the other. |
| engaged couple | minor | Harry and Laura were engaged. |
| father and daughter | minor | The elderly and sick Clarence Weems was being tended to by his loyal daughter, Laura. |
| master and servant | minor | Clarence flirted with his housekeeper. |
| medical occupation | minor | A physician tended to Clarence, and later proclaimed Cato deceased. |
| the art of salesmanship | minor | Four lodge members discussed how to peddle cemetery plots. |