The film was made for a budget of about $1.8 million, but it became Billy Wilder""s first major financial box-office disaster since he began a long string of hits beginning in the early 1940s.Children roamin"" the highways in this here Depression.Children sleepin"" in old abandoned car bodies and junk heaps.And I promised myself I""d never see the day when my young-uns would want.The smooth-talking, self-ordained ""Preacher"" is a pretender.He uses the scriptures for his own ends, representing the ""hate"" hat he preaches against.With divine assistance, he smuggled his knife into the prison without the guards knowing:The Lord blinded mine enemies when they brought me in this evil place.The Yankee plan is to capture and hijack the Confederate rain (Johnnie""s Western and Atlantic Flyer) in Big Shanty Georgia, ride it back to Union lines and connect with advancing Union forces in Chattanooga under General Parker.While sitting on the porch of the lodge, she shot and needlessly killed a porcupine in a tree (with a crack shot - an important plot point), prompting Moose to harshly criticize her.He found a whittled design carved into the tree""s bark, later revealed to be a lucky sign in gambling, and used on a Mah Jongg game piece - it was interpreted as "Red Dragon.