Story sourced from the late Charlotte Brontë
So of course this one's fateful, not jaunty
The sea's glittering spray
Is just bits of decay
On the shores, making Haiti diamante.
David Cairns
Paul Holland (Tom Conway) explains his bleak view of the Caribbean to Betsy Connell (Frances Dee) in I Walked With a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur; 1943). Here's the scene's dialog:
Paul: It's not beautiful.
Betsy: You read my thoughts Mr. Holland.
Paul: It's easy enough to read the thoughts of a newcomer. Everything seems beautiful because you don't understand. Those flying fish, they're not leaping for joy, they're jumping in terror. Bigger fish want to eat them. That luminous water, it takes its gleam from millions of tiny dead bodies. The glitter of putrescence. There's no beauty here, only death and decay.
Betsy: You can't really believe that.
Paul: Everything good dies here. Even the stars.
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