Polly Chalmers

Patricia "Polly" Chalmers is a fictional business owner, also represented as a waitress, and a supporting character featured in the 1991 novel Needful Things. She also appeared in the 1993 film adaptation of the novel, Needful Things, directed by Fraser C. Heston. Polly Chalmers was played by actress Bonnie Bedelia in the film.

Biography
Patricia "Polly" Chalmers was a dark-haired woman who grew up in town of Castle Rock, Maine. As a young woman she moved out to San Francisco, California, but ultimately returned home to Castle Rock. She has worked as a waitress at a diner and also owned a business called "You Sew and Sew". Polly began dating the town's sheriff, a former New York cop named Alan Pangborn.

Polly Chalmers suffered from crippling arthritis, which grew so severe at times that her hands would constrict and curl up. A mysterious elderly man named Leland Gaunt moved into Castle Rock where he opened up an antiques shop called "Needful Things". He seemed to have something for just about everybody including an ancient Egyptian pendant allegedly infused with white magic that he gave to Polly. Wearing this pendant cured the pain in Polly's hands. As payment for this miracle cure, Gaunt coerced Chalmers into becoming intimate with him.

Seeking to destroy everything and everyone in Castle Rock, Gaunt manipulated Polly into turning against her fiance, Alan Pangborn. He convinced her that he had conspired with the town's selectman Danforth Keeton to embezzle money from the town's treasury. Polly found envelopes filled with money on Alan's boat that Pangborn could not explain. This was all a frame however, and Pangborn was actually innocent.

Eventually, Pangborn sussed out the truth about Leland Gaunt and deduced that he was not even human, but rather a high-ranking demon, or perhaps even the Devil himself. Once Gaunt was exposed, Polly resumed her relationship with Pangborn.

Notes & Trivia



 * In the novel, Polly Chalmers ran a business called You Sew and Sew. In the movie, she worked as a waitress at a diner.


 * Polly's first name is revealed in the novel only. In the film she is referred to only as Polly.


 * On the Castle Rock television series, Alan Pangborn makes reference to an unnamed wife who died many years ago. It is possible that this could be Polly, but the series appears to take place in a continuity outside previously established media.


 * Actress Bonnie Bedelia also played Susan Norton in the 1979 television adaptation of Stephen King's novel Salem's Lot.

Personality

 * Polly Chalmers is kind and compassionate and always helpful to those around her. She is also a tad gullible. After all, she believed that a magic trinket could take her pain away, and didn't once consider that there was something wicked going on.

Appearances

 * Needful Things
 * Needful Things (novel)