In The Swan, a little boy tries to survive the antics of his bullies. The Rat Catcher follows a rat catcher full of pride, and Poison sees a man discovering a poisonous snake in his bed.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
The Swan
Ernie receives a rifle for his birthday. He takes the rifle and a box of bullets and leaves home to find what he can kill. Ernie’s best friend, Raymond, joins him on this adventure.
It’s a Saturday morning in May. The chestnut trees are in full flower, and the hawthorn is white along the hedgerows.
Ernie and Raymond shoot every other bird they see in sight until their eyes fall upon a 13-year-old little boy named Peter Watson near the railway line.
Ernie and Raymond creep up on the little boy. Peter has been bullied by these two before. Hence, standing with his hands up is the only sensible thing he thought of doing as he saw Ernie and Raymond coming for him with a gun.
Raymond snatches away Peter’s binoculars. Peter can’t run away, as they would catch him in an instant. Furthermore, there is no one around, and hence, shouting for help is not of any use either.
Ernie misses the bird Peter was staring at. Raymond whispers something in Ernie’s ear that gets Ernie excited. The two big boys advance upon little Peter and tie his legs and wrists.
Ernie and Raymond carry Peter to the railway tracks and lay him lengthwise between the tracks. Peter says that this is murder. Ernie disagrees. If Peter keeps down flat, he might survive.
Ernie and Raymond sit behind some bushes to have cigarettes, while Peter realizes that these boys aren’t going to let him go.
Peter tries to burrow down a little to push the gravel his head is resting on. He tucks his feet pigeon-toed so they lay almost flat. This way, Peter manages to survive when a train passes by.
Ernie tells Raymond to cut the strings around Peter’s ankles and only keep the ones around his hands. Peter is still a prisoner.
Near the lake, the two boys plan to swing Peter over the muddy reeds until they see a white swan. Ernie shoots the white swan dead, despite Peter’s pleas not to do so. He then instructs Peter to bring the dead swan to him.
Ernie cuts the wings of the swan and makes Peter wear them with the strings they have. They march along the lake until they come across a tall willow tree.
Peter is asked to climb to the top of this tree and take off. The thought of being at the top of the tree, away from these two, appealed to Peter. He believed that these two won’t bother to climb up.
Peter plans to climb up and stay still. However, Ernie and Raymond walk a distance to get a clear view of Peter, who has no cover on the top.
Ernie warns that if Peter doesn’t take off, he will shoot him, and then he will have two swans that he shot down during the day.
While the first bullet doesn’t hit Peter, the second does in his thigh. Peter gets knocked down and hangs with his hands on a small branch bent over and split.
According to Roald Dahl, Peter is one of those people who won’t crumble, collapse, or give up, no matter what. They are simply unconquerable.
Peter fights and scrabbles to prevent himself from falling. He looks at the light shining over the waters of the lake, which draws him in. He dives toward the light and spreads his wings.
Three different people report seeing a great white swan circling over the village that morning. Mrs. Watson glances out the window at the exact moment something big and white comes crashing down onto her lawn. It’s her son. She cries and asks what’s happened to him.
The Rat Catcher
In the afternoon, a rat man comes to the petrol station run by a man named Claud. He is here to catch the rats in the hayrick across the road.
The rat man preaches about how they should always be cleverer than the rats and also tells Claud and the narrator about how to take care of rats if they are in sewers.
The rat man likes to think the rats may have spread diseases in houses too, but he is disappointed to hear that nobody is sick.
Upon being asked how he is going to take care of the rats in the hayrick, the rat man brings out a bottle full of oats soaked in special and deadly poison.
The rat man says the rats are clever and suspicious. Hence, they won’t come for these oats today. He will instead give the rats clean and tasty oats today. He will serve the same tomorrow, the day after that, and the day after that.
The oats will be so good that all the rats in the district will come for them. The rat man does as he says, and on the fourth day, he spreads the poisoned oats around the hayrick.
The next day, he comes to collect the dead rats but doesn’t find any of the rat’s bodies. The rats hadn’t touched his bait. The rat man claims that someone is feeding the rats; they have found something juicy elsewhere.
The rat man is now humbled down and is withdrawn by his own failure. The rat man tries to retrieve his own reputation by showing something incredible to Claud and the narrator.
The rat man brings out a rat and a ferret from his pockets. First, he makes the rat and ferret battle each other inside his shirt. The ferret comes out safe and sound, while the rat is killed.
Next, the rat man ties the leg of a sewer rat to a petrol pump’s post. He bets that he can kill the rat without using his hands. The rat man is here to make some money, and to do that, he is trying to show Claud and the narrator something fascinating.
The rat man faces the rat that attempts to pounce on the rat man, only to be held back by its tied leg. The narrator closes his eyes, knowing that something unpleasant is going to happen.
By the time the narrator opens his eyes, the rat is dead, and the rat man is collecting the money that he won in the bet against Claud. The rat man is seen spitting blood from his mouth.
The narrator and Claud are hostile and sick. The rat man realizes that he no longer has an audience and leaves.
The narrator and Claud find it strange that the rats didn’t eat the poisoned oats. They deduce that there must be something nutritious in the hayrick. As they look at the notice board beside them, it has a missing poster for a person.
Poison
Supervisor Woods comes back home to find Harry Pope whispering for help. Woods suspects that Harry has malaria. Harry claims that there is a krait sleeping inside the bedsheet on his stomach.
The krait hasn’t bitten Harry yet. The bite is ferociously deadly, and Harry has taken measures by not moving from his bed at all. He has been waiting for hours for someone to come.
Woods quickly gets his hands on a small, sharp knife from the kitchen, in case Harry frightens the krait and it bites him. Woods is ready to cut Harry and suck out the venom.
Harry reminds Woods to call a doctor first. Woods realizes that he should have thought of this in the first place. Woods rings Dr. Ganderbai, and the latter instructs that Harry should not move or talk.
Dr. Ganderbai comes to visit, and the first thing he plans to do is get some serum into Harry’s body. Ganderbai injects Harry and assures him that he will be alright.
The truth is, the serum might or might not save Harry; it’s a gamble. Ganderbai next thinks of administering an anesthetic to the creature where it lies. Woods brings chloroform from Ganderbai’s’ house.
Ganderbai soaks the mattress with chloroform by slipping a tube inside Harry’s sheet. Fifteen minutes later, Ganderbai and Woods take off the sheet, and Harry jumps from the bed moments later. There is nothing under there.
Ganderbai suggests that Harry must be dreaming, but Harry is not ready to hear that he is lying. Harry disrespects Ganderbai, who decides to leave immediately. Woods follows Ganderbai and apologizes to him.
Woods tells Ganderbai that Harry owes his life to him. Ganderbai says he doesn’t and drives off.
Review
- All three films, and the first one in this series, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, are more like a play unfolding on screen. Watching the techniques used in plays on screen and the actors staying dedicated draws a viewer in, who, after a while, will start enjoying this creative form of storytelling.
- In comparison to The Rat Catcher, Poison, and the first film in this series, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Swan relied a lot more on narration and had less stuff going on on the screen, but the minimalist approach is creative and mesmerizing.
- The Swan delivers a sweet tale that takes one back to their childhood and reminds them how they or kids in general used to be. Peter’s survival instincts are admirable. Dahl, played by Ralph Fiennes, further describes the kind of person Peter is and makes the character more inspiring.
- The Rat Catcher starts off great and ends with a surprise too, but in the middle, the rat man will fail to draw a viewer into his parlor tricks. The viewers are more baffled about why the rats didn’t touch the oats, and they are left caring more about that part than what the rat catcher wants.
- Poison brings a funny and ridiculous story as well, with the star cast working great together. The predictable ending is the only disappointment. That still doesn’t mean that one can’t enjoy the ride.
- Lastly, one negative that is present in all of these short stories is the pace of the narration. It’s way too quick and crammed up sometimes, making it hard for the viewers to keep up with every single detail, as they are not used to this form of storytelling.
Also Read: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar review: A short, fun, and visually silly watch
