Dr. Stringfellow's Rejuvenator - Recap

In the Old West, traveling peddler and medicine man Dr. Ernest Stringfellow rolls into his town. He and his assistant Rolpho set up the wagon and start pitching Stringfellow’s “Rejuvenator,’ $1 a bottle or six for $5. As Rolpho goes into the audience to sell the Rejuvenator, Stringfellow notices a local man watching him. He goes into the wagon and watches as the man talks to Rolpho. When Rolpho comes in, he explains that the man was just asking how long they’d be in town. Stringfellow warns him that there’s always some locals ready to run him out of town.



The man comes to the wagon and explains that his daughter is sick, and asks Stringfellow to look at her because they don’t have any local doctors. Stringfellow refuses until the father offers him almost all of his life’s savings. The medicine man examines the girl and confirms that she has abdominal pains, and then tells her father that he can cure her with a week’s administration of the Rejuvenator. Stringfellow takes a $1 for the Rejuvenator and a bit more as an honorarium, and walks away. A local drunk, Snyder, approaches Stringfellow and identifies himself as a former doctor, and warns that the girl has appendicitis and will soon die. Stringfellow admits that he can’t do anything to save the girl, but insists that he only lies to himself.



Back in his wagon, Stringfellow checks on Rolpho, who is mixing more fake Rejuvenator. The medicine man complains about their lack of profit, and informs Rolpho that they’ll leave town that night before the girl dies. Rolpho wonders if Stringfellow can save the girl, and Stringfellow says that only resurrection can save her, and if it was enough money he’d do that as well.

Come sunset, Stringfellow and Rolpho drink at the saloon. When Rolpho wonders how Stringfellow can live with himself, the medicine man insists that he gives people without hopes and dreams something to hope and dream for. The father comes in and says that his daughter is getting worse. Snyder says to give her whiskey for the pain and to ignore Stringfellow. The medicine man tells Rolpho to get another bottle of Rejuvenator and promises the father that when his daughter dies, he’ll give her the will to kick open her coffin and come back to life. As the father goes to get his girl, Snyder tells Stringfellow that he’d be more merciful just to rob the father straightaway. Stringfellow tells Snyder that he can do what he wants and tell the truth, but the father will accept his offer of hope over Snyder’s pronouncement.



Stringfellow tries and fails, and the hearse takes the girl away. In the saloon, Rolpho and Stringfellow prepare to leave. Stringfellow admits that he failed at the long-shot, but if he had succeeded then it would have made him a legend. As the two men leave, Snyder staggers down the stairs and tells Stringfellow that he would make anyone standing next to him seem like God by comparison.

On the street, Stringfellow sees the daughter sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of the funeral parlor. He approaches her, asking if she’s a ghost or if he truly resurrected her, and offers to let her have a share of the profits if he actually succeeded in bringing her back to life. The girl gets up and then disappears, and Stringfellow looks up in horror as the undertaker’s sign falls toward him.



Later, Rolpho arrives at the undertaker’s parlor to see Stringfellow for the last time. The undertaker explains that Stringfellow died of a heart attack: the sign misses him. Once he’s alone with his former boss, Rolpho tells the corpse that he was the fool and ended up being the sheep that got suckered. Going outside, Rolpho sets the wagon on fire. When Snyder comes by and asks why he’s burning it, Rolpho says that there’s nothing of value inside, and nothing of value in the undertaker’s parlor. The two of them drink and watch the wagon as it burns to the ground.



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