Beans of Egypt, Maine, The
The Beans of Egypt, Maine is about a white-trash family in a tiny depressed town, as seen through the eyes of Erlene Granville, the respectable girl next door. Although intellectually Erlene understands her father's wish that she stay away from the Beans, they fascinate her. The attraction goes much deeper perhaps because of the family's devotion and passionate love for each other. Drunken lout, Reuben "Ruby" Bean is the head of a family full of several children born out of incest and lust. Ruby is incarcerated for taking the law into his own hands and shooting wildlife for food. His son, Beal, appears to be a carbon copy of his father, with one exception, he is more sensitive. He convinces Erlene to stay with him one evening and when he impregnates her, he takes care of both Erlene and their daughter, Bonnie Lou. Eventually they marry and Beal tries to make a decent home for Bonnie Lou. Beal does not want Erlene working anywhere but in the home. He works very hard to provide for the two of them. A few years later Beal is permanently disabled in an accident at work. He will not accept charity and is too proud to ask for help. When the money runs out, Beal resorts to shooting animals for food. In the end, Beal cannot handle his life, and in a drunken rage, starts shooting at everything and everyone in sight.
- Starring: Kelly Lynch, Martha Plimpton, Patrick McCaw and Rutger Hauer
- Director(s): Jennifer Warren
- Producer(s): Live Entertainment, IRS Media
- Screenwriter(s): Bill Phillips
- Distributor: IRS Releasing Company
- Release Date: Thursday, July 07, 1994
Featured Animal Action
Animal action in simple. In one scene a dog walks down the street and into a store with a boy. Later, Beal's pregnant dog, Jet, mingles with the family. In another scene a little girl and boy find Jet's puppies in a crawl space under the house. For the protection of the puppies, they were placed on heating pads and the takes for this scene were limited to two. When Beal goes into the chicken coup and disturbs the chickens, only the sound of the chickens is heard. No live chickens were on the set. The sounds were dubbed in in post production. In still another scene, Erlene's father has a plastic bag full of tropical fish which he empties into a fish tank. Before he goes to jail, Ruby drives up in a huge truck with the body of a deer on the back. The body of the deer was fake with the head and feet of a deer obtained from a hunter who had previously killed the deer for food. In another scene, we see Erlene cleaning and gutting a raccoon for food. This was a road kill obtained from the State of Washington where the filming took place. In still another scene, we see Beal starting to clean and gut a lamb. The lamb had been obtained from a slaughter house where it had been killed for dog food. Two cows are seen in background scenes. The sounds of owls hooting and crickets chirping were dubbed in in post production. The Humane Society of Seattle represented American Humane on the set. Even though some dead animals were used in this production, none of them had been killed for the making of this film.