Watch On The Rhine (1943) Movie Script

So the moment has come.
This time, it is of the utmost importance.
Please do not talk.
Please do not seem nervous.
[SPEAKING IN GERMAN]
Papa told you it is good manners to speak
the language of the country you visit.
Therefore, speak in English.
I said, whenever we have
crossed a border...
...I so fix my feet
from one country to the other.
I have found it to be of good luck.
- And so I advise all of you...
- Yes.
You are one of the many people
who are so pleased with what they say...
...that the 10th time they have said it,
it is as fresh to them as the first.
Spare us.
- I can't believe it, darling.
- I give you orders to believe it.
And now you are in your own land, Sara.
And that is good.
Your face is most happy, Sara.
And most pretty.
[TRAIN WHISTLE BLoWING]
Are you comfortable?
Oh, yes, Mama. This is most luxurious.
I am surprised.
The United States of America...
...is a sun-lighted, dusty country
with vegetation of no great height and...
You are ready to write a book about it?
SARA:
This part of it is, Bodo.
But this part of the country
is strange to me too.
Perhaps all of it will be strange to me.
It's been 17 years.
Carterville, next stop. Carterville.
There are, I think, others here
who are not Americans.
You do not know that people from
the utmost different parts of the world...
...have found refuge
in the United States of America?
We know that.
[WHISPERING]
I did not imagine houses in America...
...to be as those I have
seen from this train.
Do you think the house
of Mama's mother is one such?
[WHISPERING]
I do not know.
Is it that you have been
accustomed to palaces?
I do not complain. I only ask.
I live where Mama and Papa take us.
But it is only natural
I have curiosity for our relatives.
Joseph.
- Morning.
- Good morning, madame.
- Everybody down?
- No. Nobody down. I'll get your tea.
Breakfast is at 9:00 in this house,
and will be until the day after I die.
- Ring the bell.
- But it ain't 9:00 yet, Miss Fanny. It's 8:30.
Well, put the clocks up to 9
and ring the bell.
JoSEPH:
Mr. David told me not to ring it anymore.
He say it got too mean a ring, that bell.
It disturbs folks.
That's what it was put there for.
I like to disturb folks.
Yes'm.
I couldn't sleep.
I kept thinking of Sara coming home.
But you slept well, Anise. You were asleep
before I could dismantle myself.
I woke several times during the night.
Did you?
Then you were careful not to stop snoring.
Now that Sara and her family are coming,
we must get around to moving your room.
Jenny's daughter
is still going with that actor.
An actor. Fashions in sin change.
In my day, it was Englishmen.
Oh, my mail looks dull.
Anything in anybody else's mail?
The usual advertisements for Mr. David.
For the Count and Countess de Brancovis...
...nothing but what seems to be an
invitation to a lower-class embassy tea.
And some letters
asking for bills to get paid.
That's every morning. In the weeks Marthe
and her husband have been visiting us...
...they seem to have run up many bills.
Yes, I told you that.
Why do you suppose anybody would give
charge accounts to Romanian nobility?
Perhaps because they are the guests
of Madame Joshua Farrelly.
Perhaps.
How does David's flirtation
with Marthe get on? Anything happen?
Happen? I don't know what you mean.
You know very well what I mean.
Oh, that. Oh, no. I don't think that.
I must...
- Joseph.
- Yes'm.
[BELL CLANGING]
Little birds, I don't blame you.
Joseph, stop that.
It ain't me, Mr. David. I don't like any noise.
Miss Fanny told me.
- She didn't tell you to hang yourself.
JoSEPH: I ain't hung.
MARTHE: Good morning, David.
- Good morning, Marthe.
I'm going to have a chicken house
fixed up as a playroom for my mother.
I will hang it with bells and she can go into
her second childhood in the proper privacy.
[CHUCKLES]
She'll only make us have breakfast there.
FANNY:
David. Come to breakfast.
Shall we go down together?
Couldn't you ask your admirer
if it would be possible...
...to have a breakfast a little later
than 9:00?
I don't mind that
as much as having to eat it on the terrace.
Any morning
it's not positively snowing.
Anything Madame Fanny's
long-dead husband did...
...she thinks God intended
everybody else to do.
It's unfortunate that early American liberals
were such a hardy people.
Breakfast promptly at 9, outdoors.
Dinner promptly at 8.
I won't be in tonight to dinner.
Does that please you?
- You might have it with David.
- I might.
With whom are you dining?
Oh, you will not bump into me.
I'll be at the German Embassy.
Teck, I've asked you...
You slept well.
It doesn't seem to matter to you...
...that your sister whom you haven't seen
is coming home.
But they aren't coming today, Mama.
I lay awake most of the night
thinking of Sara and of your father.
Wondering what
he would have thought...
...coming home
with her husband and children.
Three grandchildren.
He'd have liked that.
- I hope I shall.
- You will.
Anything in my mail, Anise?
- Advertisements only.
- Thanks.
You and Mama save me
a lot of time reading.
I cannot speak for Madame Fanny,
but I have never opened a letter in my life.
You don't have to.
For you, they fly open.
It's true. You're a snooper, Anise.
It shows an interest in life.
- Bonjour, Mademoiselle Anise.
ANISE: Bonjour, madame.
Oh, there you are. Don't people
ever get out of bed in Romania?
- Good morning.
- Not if they can help it. But, my apologies.
[BELL RINGS]
JoSEPH:
Here I am, Miss Fanny.
Has science a name
for women who enjoy noise?
Fanny's excited.
You're excited too.
A few more days
and your Sara will be home.
I am excited. And I'm afraid too.
- Why?
- I don't know. It's been so many years.
- Afraid she won't like me anymore, I guess.
- Oh, but she will.
Of course.
I remember Sara.
Mama brought me one day
when your father was stationed in Paris.
I was about 6 and Sara was about 15,
and you were...
You were a pretty little girl.
Do you really remember me?
You never told me.
- I wanted you to remember me, but l...
FANNY: Well.
Monsieur Chabeuf the upholsterer says,
not a pincushion...
...not even so much as,
could he reupholster in two days.
In the matter of four chairs,
a chaise longue, and two...
oh, nonsense.
Your Monsieur Chabeuf is lazy.
Is he on the phone?
- Everybody's lazy. Except me.
- Indeed.
Madame Fanny has energy.
I find it most attractive.
Perhaps because you're not related to it.
But it works wonders.
What sort of man
is the husband of your sister?
I've never met him.
My mother did once, in Munich.
The day Sara met him, I think.
I remember Mama telling me about it.
It was rather a scandal, wasn't it?
The Farrelly daughter marrying a German
who was poor and unknown.
Oh, Mama wouldn't have minded that.
If only they'd come home and allowed her
to arrange their lives for them.
But Sara didn't want it that way
and that made Mama angry.
But all was forgiven a long time ago.
And now that they are coming home...
They're fortunate to be able
to get out of Germany.
Oh, they've been out of Germany
since the early '30s.
Oh?
- Where have they been living?
- They've moved around a great deal since.
Sara's letters
come from all kinds of places...
...Switzerland, Czechoslovakia,
Denmark, France.
Kurt is an engineer. But I'm not sure...
Well, you'll have a house
full of refugees soon. Us and the...
Are you a refugee?
I'm not sure I know
what you're a refugee from.
From Europe.
From what Europe?
- Just Europe.
FANNY: David. David!
This is one of Mama's screaming days.
I'm going to the office before she finds
any more errands for me to do.
I've got to ask Penfield
about the best school for 12-year-old girls.
Ask Walton about a school for boys.
Buy boys' books, buy girl's books,
buy bicycles...
...three puppies...
From what Europe?
I'm not sure
what we're refugees from either.
Aren't you?
A great many mistaken people seem to have
given you a great many charge accounts.
It'd be nice
to be able to pay bills again.
Do not act as though
I refuse to pay them.
I did not sleep well last night.
I was worried.
We have $85
in American Express checks.
- That is all we have, Marthe.
- Maybe something will turn up. It's due.
David?
- Money does not worry you?
- It worries me very much.
But I just lie still now and hope.
I'm glad to be here.
We've come to the end of a road.
It's been true for a long time.
Things will have to go
one way or the other.
Maybe they'll go well for a change.
I have not come
to the end of any road.
No? I admire you.
Perhaps because you think the road
will lead you back to Europe again?
You can't give up that dream,
can you, Teck?
That you can get back
into their good graces again?
That they'll let you come back and play?
You ought to stay away from them.
- You have political convictions?
- I don't know what I have.
But I've never liked Nazis
and you should have had enough of them.
They seem to have had enough of you.
They're smarter than you are
and it's time you let them alone.
I think you're trying
to say something to me.
What is it?
That you ought not to be seen
at the German Embassy.
And that it's insane to go on
playing poker there with only $85 left.
Suppose you lose this time? I don't think
they'd like your not being able to pay up.
- I shall try not to lose.
- But suppose you do and you can't pay?
Everyone in Washington
will know it in an hour.
And we'll be out of here.
I think I want to be out of here.
I find that I do not like
the picture of you and our host.
There's no picture, as you put it,
to like or dislike.
Not yet, eh?
I am glad to hear that.
Marthe, you understand
that I'm not really a fool?
You understand it's unwise
to calculate me that way?
Yes, I understand that.
And I understand that I'm getting tired,
just plain tired.
The whole thing is too much for me.
I've always wanted to ask you,
since you play on so many sides...
...why we don't come out any better.
I've always wanted to ask you
how it happened.
I'm tired, see?
And I just want to sit down.
Just sit down in a chair and stay.
You have thus arranged it, with David?
I have arranged nothing.
But you are trying, eh?
I think not.
I would not like that.
I would not like that at all.
[TRAIN WHISTLE BLoWING]
BoDo:
I like to talk to foreigners.
It is not polite to speak of people
in a country you are visiting as foreigners.
Thank you. Thank you.
It was swell of you to take him
off our hands a while.
That little Joe.
He knows when he's with nice people.
- May I borrow him again?
- Yes.
He's a fine baby.
- And you have fine children.
- Thank you.
- May I come with you?
- Yes.
BoDo: You are Italian?
- Italian, yes, but American.
Do you know a Tullio Tipaldi
who fought in Spain with Papa?
- No.
- You ought to.
He was a soldier
of much excellence in Spain.
So was Papa. Papa was brave, he was calm,
he was expert, he was resourceful...
My biographer.
And as accurate as most of them.
- You are German?
- Yes.
- What side do you fight on in Spain?
- I beg your pardon.
Be still, Papa says.
I fought with the army of the Republic.
I am not a Nazi or a fascist.
I'm a big fool. I beg your pardon.
Don't... Forgive me, please.
I might have known which side
a man like you would be on.
It used to make me feel good...
...that Italians and Germans
went to fight against the fascists in Spain.
Kind of showed people
that all Germans and Italians weren't...
- Are you just come from Europe?
- Yes.
What's happening over there?
I can't make any sense out of what I read.
Nobody seems to be doing anything,
and no fighting, I mean.
It will come soon now, I think.
But ain't there some chance the German
people themselves will kick Hitler out?
You read about men
in underground organizations.
- Is that just talk?
KURT: No.
It is not talk.
These men, in what you call
underground organizations...
...work most hard and in great danger.
But...
Well, it looks bad to me.
It is not all black.
Take my word.
There are men in your country
and in mine who fight on.
I know.
- I have friends among them.
- What do you do?
- I mean, what's your trade?
- I?
I fight against fascism.
That is my trade.
[VACUUM BUZZING]
Try it there, Horace.
- It won't fit in there, Miss Fanny.
- Nonsense. Try it.
No, that's awful.
It looks like a dentist's waiting room.
Take it out of there.
MELLIE:
Fanny. Really.
I've been sitting here waiting
for an hour to drive you to Washington.
All you're doing
is messing up this lovely room.
Joseph. Joseph.
- Yes'm?
- Find a place to put that sofa.
Put it back where it's been doing all right
for 15 years.
And you'd better get back
to your gardening.
There will be children. My grandchildren.
They will climb on furniture. I always did.
My grandchildren
will be healthy children...
...so don't use any of your dainty,
sleazy materials.
- This isn't Mrs. Sewell's house.
- I had no children.
Therefore, it's impossible
for me to have grandchildren.
If I'd had a daughter,
I'd have named her Emmeline Lou.
Well, everything turns out for the best.
Have you got that list?
We're going into Washington.
[MUMBLING]
Very well.
You'll never have time to get all that.
I've got to have a fitting
on my evening dresses.
I never understand why you need
so many evening dresses, Mellie.
Do you lead a secret life at your age?
[SCoFFS]
MELLIE:
Oh, hello, Marthe.
Hello, Mrs. Sewell.
I think Marthe is a very pretty girl,
don't you, Fanny?
What? Oh, all the Randolphs
were good-looking.
- No matter what else they weren't.
- I reckon men find her most attractive.
Don't you think so, Fanny? Don't you think
she is most attractive to men?
I'm sure I don't know. I'm not a man.
Of course, Jennie Randolph
wanted her to marry nobility.
It was a brilliant wedding.
Remember, Fanny, in Paris?
Now, doesn't it seem strange
that she's back here?
And the circle is completed, as they say,
right in your house and...
What circle? What are you talking about?
Candy. I'll buy messy candy.
That's what my grandchildren would like.
Messy candy.
If you'd had grandchildren, Mellie,
heaven forbid...
...they'd have been children who never ate
between meals, who were sickly.
All your family were sickly.
I think you've made up a good deal of it.
Licorice. That's what I'll buy.
MELLIE: Really, Fanny,
you've wasted all afternoon for me.
Now it's too late to try on my dresses.
Oh, do be careful of the candy, Mellie.
Close up the box.
Acting like a 6-year-old
over Sara's homecoming.
It might be better if you spent your time
worrying a little about David.
It isn't that I believe everything that Cora
says, but she says everybody is talking.
Especially after he took her
to the colonel's dinner party. People said...
What are you chattering about?
You must get new upper teeth, Mellie.
Nobody can understand a word
you say anymore.
- You used to have lovely teeth.
- You can't understand me.
You can't even understand that all
Washington's talking about your son...
...and the Countess de Brancovis.
Everybody says it's serious too.
Not just, you know.
If it was just, you know,
people would gossip a little and then stop.
What is "just you know"? Mellie,
you're old enough to say what you mean.
Let me off at the next block.
I promised to fetch David.
Take these things home for me, darling,
and thanks for the car.
Do be careful of the packages, Mellie.
Don't let them bump around.
And be very careful when you take them out
and give them to Joseph himself.
Bye-bye, dear.
- Hello, Miss Drake.
- Hello, Mrs. Farrelly.
FANNY:
Come. Take me home.
I don't like that picture of your father.
It's not big enough. Get a bigger one.
Goodness, my Joshua was handsome.
Wasn't he?
C YRUS:
- Upon the warranties...
FANNY: Hello, Cyrus. Hello, Miss Hall.
- Fanny.
Cyrus, my German son-in-law
is coming tomorrow. He's an engineer.
The government or somebody
must have use for engineers.
Find him something really good, Cyrus.
How's Marjorie?
Looking her age, Fanny,
which you never do. It's remarkable.
Not very remarkable.
I was a great beauty. You remember, Cyrus.
We always remember. When Joshua
snapped you up, I was heartbroken.
All of Washington was heartbroken.
Most of it. Anyway...
Goodbye, Cyrus. And thanks for arranging
the fine job for my son-in-law.
Fanny, what kind of engineer is he?
What kind? Any kind.
What does Cyrus mean?
There are kinds of engineers.
Civil, mining, electrical.
He used to work for Dornier.
- I guess that would make him...
- He's all kinds of an engineer, I'm sure.
Goodbye, Cyrus.
Bring Marjorie for dinner.
But not soon. In about five or six years.
[GIGGLING]
How much longer do you think the
de Brancovises are going to be with us?
I don't know.
Now that Sara, Kurt and the children are
coming, even our house might be crowded.
I feel sorry for Marthe.
I suppose, after all, her mother was my
good friend, and Teck rather amuses me.
Plays good cribbage and tells jokes.
But that's not enough for a lifetime guest.
And they've been here six weeks.
Have they borrowed
much money from you?
- None.
- Don't bite me. I didn't know.
I hope you haven't
been urging them to stay.
You invited them, Mama.
They're your guests.
Oh, they were mine. But that was before
you became enamored of Marthe.
She was such as pretty young girl.
- I think she's still pretty.
- Naturally, or you wouldn't be so ardent.
I don't know why I say that.
You were ardent with that Carter girl.
And you couldn't
have thought her pretty.
She had a nice disposition.
Why not? Who would have spoiled her?
Oh, look here, David.
What is going on between you and Marthe?
I don't like that question, Mama.
Nothing is going on.
I like her very much. I hope she likes me.
I can assure you she does.
So can all of Washington.
There's a great deal of gossip
about both of you.
- Gossip?
- Oh, nothing serious.
Most of it is rather amusing.
There is nothing to gossip about.
That's never stopped anybody
from gossiping.
You and Marthe haven't been very good
at hiding whatever there is to hide.
You know, I wonder
whether it has reached Teck.
- Now, look here, Mama...
- I only wanted to say, David...
...that I have a feeling that he isn't really
a very good-natured man.
Underneath the manners
and the calmness...
...I have a feeling
he isn't good-natured at all.
- Enchanting evening. Good night, admiral.
- Good night, madame.
- A most pleasant good night, sir.
- Good night, sir.
- Good night, admiral.
- Good night, sir.
[SPEAKING IN ITALIAN]
[SPEAKING IN SPANISH]
[SPEAKING IN GERMAN]
[SPEAKING IN ITALIAN]
WoMAN 1: It's been a great pleasure
to have been here. Good night.
GENERAL:
Thank you. Good night.
MAN 1: I hope your stay,
Your Excellency, will be long.
GENERAL: Thank you. Good night, sir.
MAN 1: Good night.
I do not think I envy you, Dr. Klauber.
Envy me? Of course not.
Perhaps publishing a pro-Nazi paper
in the United States...
...isn't the best of all occupations.
There may be no future in it, but it pays.
PHILl: Good night.
- I'll be expecting you on Wednesday.
PHILl:
Yes.
- Good night.
- Good night, baron.
- Glad to have seen you again.
- Good night.
[MAN 2 SPEAKING IN ITALIAN]
- Good night.
WoMAN 2: Good night.
Well, that should be enough
of the handshaking.
Are we ready?
PHILl:
How many of them come here?
Our Herr Hitler violates their morality
in the morning...
...but by the evening, they've recovered
and they're here to dinner at the embassy.
And so it's gone in most places
in the world for over seven years.
One might almost suspect their morality.
KLAUBER: That would be cynical.
- I daresay.
Good evening, Blecher.
Herr Blecher, here first, as usual.
How was the tea party?
It was a distinguished gathering.
A tribute to the diplomacy
of the fatherland.
Don't put this in your paper...
...but His Excellency acts the host
as if he were on a beer party in a cellar.
He's a dull man.
Ribbentrop did not send him here
to amuse people.
Then he's doing very well.
In my paper, he is all things to all men.
Tomorrow we will have a little talk
about your paper. You and I.
Gladly. The cost of everything rises.
Paper, ink, wages.
That is not what we will talk about.
It is generally supposed, Mr. Chandler...
...that these little talks of Blecher's
are most instructive and unpleasant.
Baron von Ramme,
too much may be generally supposed.
A threat, Butcher Boy?
Butcher Boy. That is funny, yes.
We Nazis are always funny.
And we have a funny leader
with a funny mustache.
His name used to be Schicklgruber
and he was a paperhanger.
That too is funny. Yes.
And so we have divided the world
into two parts.
Those like you who want to work for us
or with us.
And those others who lie awake trembling
and hating us because they are afraid of us.
Tell me, is not that also funny?
No, I wouldn't threaten you, Phili.
You could not be handled that way.
With all your duties,
you still had time to make a study of me.
- You are not complicated.
- No?
No. Aristocrat.
Bred to government service.
Contemptuous of us and our methods,
but chiefly because we are not gentlemen.
Would be satisfied enough
doing the same things...
...or worse,
under some stupid Hohenzollern.
Got too cynical to be really dangerous,
Baron von Ramme.
Bravo.
You make me ashamed
of being so simple.
Do Klauber for us.
Money. That is all. Nothing else.
He becomes too expensive.
But he will remedy that before it is too late.
- One makes a living.
PHILl: And Mr. Chandler?
A man who wishes to sell us
quantities of oil...
...he has by some means
come into control of.
Later and always, he will
have other things to sell.
They always do.
- Now, look here. L...
- And oberdorff?
Oberdorff, I do not know. I have tried.
A pale lump of a man.
He sits. He observes. He says nothing.
He writes no letters. He gets none.
Perhaps he is of the secret police.
Perhaps he is even writing a book.
I do not give up. But I do not know.
His credentials are of the best.
We must see more of one another.
You've stumped Blecher.
Your credentials are of the best.
Perhaps he's a member
of the underground anti-Nazi movement.
[KLAUBER CHUCKLES]
That should be very amusing.
Perhaps he is even Max Freidank.
No, oberdorff's not Max Freidank.
I know Freidank.
You know the legendary hero
of the underground movement?
No legend. We were in school together.
Yes. And you and he met by accident
on a street in Prague in 1936.
He had with him a man called Gotter.
Oberdorff, I admire you more and more.
I feel slighted, Herr Blecher.
You haven't spoken of me.
Because it has not been necessary
to consider you, Count de Brancovis.
One knows, of course, the routine things.
Romanian, former diplomat. A gambler.
Like Phil, an aristocrat
who would rather be with his own class.
But the career goes a little wrong.
I do not know how or why,
but I make the guess.
I also make the guess that you, like
Mr. Chandler, are a man who sells things.
But I would guess also that at the moment,
you are a man who has nothing to sell.
- I'll call on you when I have.
- Good.
That's why I'm here.
TECK: Another stack of blues, please.
BLECHER: All right.
Your deal.
[BELL CLANGING]
Sara. Sara.
Been such a long, long time.
I got to thinking it would never happen.
David. David, darling.
Isn't it strange to see each other?
Where is everybody?
That's Mama.
She's expected you every minute,
though she knew when you were coming.
Now that the time's here,
she's off someplace else.
I'll find her.
I've always known you must have grown up
in a lovely house like this.
Sit down.
Be comfortable.
Is it allowed?
Yes, it is allowed.
The door of the home was not locked.
We just came in.
You find it curious to believe
there are people who live...
...and do not need to watch, eh, Joshua?
It is strange. But it must be good, I think.
Yes.
Isn't it a lovely house?
I'd almost forgotten.
That was my father...
...when he was the famous
Joshua Farrelly.
We were very proud of him.
Almost 18 years.
You were born here, Mama?
Upstairs.
David and I used to have
our own garden across the pond.
I like a garden.
I've always hoped that some day we'd have
a home of our own and settle down and...
[SIGHS]
I'm talking so foolish.
Sentimental.
At my age.
Gardens and homes.
- I haven't wanted anything.
- Now stop that, Sara.
This is a fine room, fine place to be.
Everything is so pleasant
and full of comfort.
That will be a good piano
on which to play again.
And it is all so clean. I like that.
You must enjoy your house, Sara.
You shall not be a baby. You shall not be
afraid that you will hurt me...
...because I have not given you
a house like this.
- Yes?
- Yes, of course.
It's strange, that's all. We've never been
together in a place like this.
Oh, but that does not mean
and should not mean...
...that we do not remember
how to enjoy what comes our way.
We are on a holiday.
ANISE:
Miss Sara.
Miss Sara.
SARA:
Anise.
I would have known you.
Yes, I would. I would have.
You look the same.
I think you look the same.
Just the way I've always remembered.
This is the Anise
I've told you so much about.
She was here long before I was born.
How do you do, sir? How do you do?
How do you do?
Thank you. We are in good health.
Madame Fanny will have a fit.
Where is she?
- You are French, Madame Anise?
ANISE: Yes. From the Bas-Rhin.
Sara's husband, that is nice. That is nice.
Yes, your accent is from the north.
That is fine country.
We were in hiding there once.
ANISE: Hiding. You were in hiding?
FANNY: Sara.
Hello, Mama.
Sara. Sara, darling. You're here.
You're really here.
Welcome. Welcome.
Welcome to your house.
- You're not young, Sara.
- No, Mama.
- I'm 38.
- Thirty-eight. Of course.
You look more like your father now.
That's good. The years have helped you.
Welcome to this house, sir.
Thank you, madame.
You're a good-looking man for a German.
I like a good-looking man. I always have.
And I like a good-looking woman.
I always have.
[SPEAKS IN GERMAN]
Yes, I am your grandmother. Also,
I speak German, so don't talk about me.
I speak languages well.
But there's no longer anyone to speak with.
Anise has half forgotten her French and...
oh, it's good to have you home.
I keep chattering away...
JoSHUA:
Now you have us, madame.
We speak ignorantly but fluently
in German, French, Italian, Spanish...
And sometimes boastfully in English.
There is never a need of boasting.
If we are to fight
for the good of all men...
...it is to be accepted
that we must be among the most advanced.
My goodness. Are these your children
or are they dressed-up midgets?
These are my children, Mama.
This, Babette. This, Joshua.
This is Bodo.
You were named for your grandfather.
You bear a great name.
Two great names.
My last name is Muller.
Yes.
You look a little like your grandfather.
And so do you. You're a nice-looking girl.
That's good.
You look like nobody.
Yes, I am not beautiful.
Well, Sara, well. Three children.
You've done well.
You too, sir, of course.
- But you don't look well.
- Oh, it is only that I am a little tired.
- In a short while, I will be all right. L...
FANNY: You look more than tired.
- We must take good care of you.
- Thank you. Thank you.
That was my Joshua.
We were very much in love.
Hard to believe of people nowadays,
isn't it?
No. Kurt and I love each other.
But there are ways and ways of loving.
- How dare you, Mama.
- Ladies. Ladies.
I was almost mad then.
I don't think I've been mad
since I last saw you.
We must not get angry.
Anger is protest and should only be used
for the good of one's fellow men.
That is correct, Papa?
If you grow up to talk like that
and stay as ugly as you are...
...you're going to have one of those careers
on the lecture platform.
[JoSHUA LAUGHING]
It is a great pleasure
to hear Grandma speak with you.
I think I shall wash you.
Wash us? Do people wash each other?
No. But the washing is a good idea.
Run along now and change your clothes.
Come.
SARA: And then we'll all
have a fine, big lunch again.
FANNY:
Again?
Don't you usually have a good lunch?
No, madame, only sometimes.
We do all right usually.
It's good to be here.
I want to see everything.
My old room, and the lake and...
- Haven't I fine children?
- Very fine.
You're lucky. I wish I had them.
How could you? All the women you like
are too drafty, if you know what I mean.
[CHUCKLING]
None of them could have children.
Which, as God in his wisdom,
would have it.
Mama hasn't changed. That's good too.
- I hope you'll like me.
- I hope so.
I have fine plans.
I'm having the wing done over for you,
walls taken out...
oh, that's very kind of you, Mama,
but we won't make any plans for a while.
A good long vacation for Kurt and...
A vacation? You're staying, of course.
David is seeing schools for the children.
Cyrus Penfield has promised
to find an engineering post for Kurt.
But I have not worked as an engineer
since many years, madame.
Haven't you?
Well, didn't you work for Dornier?
Yes...
...but before '33.
You must have worked in other places.
Many other places.
Every letter of Sara's seemed
to have a new postmark.
KURT:
Well, we moved most often.
You gave up engineering?
Gave it up?
- Well, one could say it that way.
- What do you do?
- Mama, we...
KURT: It is very difficult to explain.
- Lf you'd rather not...
- No, I'm trying to find out something.
- May I ask it right out?
- Let me help you, madame.
You wish to know
whether not being an engineer...
...buys adequate lunches for my family.
It does not.
I have no wish to make a mystery
of what I've been doing.
It is only that it is awkward
to place it neatly.
It sounds so big. And it is so small.
I am an anti-fascist.
And to answer your question,
that does not pay well.
But we are all anti-fascists.
Yes, but Kurt works at it.
What kind of work?
Any kind. Anywhere.
- I will stop asking questions.
- Yes, Mama, that would be sensible.
Darling, don't be angry.
We've been worried about you, naturally.
We knew so little
except that you were having a hard time.
SARA: I didn't have a hard time. We never...
KURT: Do not lie for me, Sara, please.
I'm not lying.
I didn't have a hard time
the way they mean. Not ever.
For almost 12 years,
Kurt went to work every morning...
...and came home to me every night
and we lived modestly and happily.
As happily as people could in a starved
Germany that was going to pieces.
Sara, please.
- I do not like you to be angry.
- Well, l...
Let me try to find a way
to tell it with quickness. Yes.
I was born in a town called Frth.
And we have a holiday in this town.
We call it Kirchweih.
It was a gay holiday with games, music
and hot white sausage to eat with the wine.
When I grow up, I move away to school,
to work, get married.
But I always come back for Kirchweih.
For me, it is the great day of the year.
After the war, the First World War,
that day begins to change.
The sausage begins
to be made of bad stuffs.
Country people come in without shoes.
Children are too sick.
It is bad for my people, those years.
But always, I have hope.
In the festival of August 1931,
more than a year before the Nazi storm...
...I find out that hope by itself
is not enough.
On that day, I see 27 men murdered
in a Nazi street fight.
I cannot longer just look on.
My time has come to do more.
I say with the great Luther:
"I must make my stand.
I can do nothing else.
God help me. Amen."
We had seen the evil coming every day,
more and more.
But that festival
was the symbol of the end.
It hit Kurt hard.
It doesn't pay in money
to fight for what we believe in.
But I wanted it the way Kurt wanted it.
I always will.
Kurt is not very well.
There aren't many parts of Europe
anymore where... Where he could rest.
You've always said you wanted us.
So Kurt brought us home.
If you don't want us, we will understand.
DAVID:
We want you very much.
Forever, or however long you want.
I'm old and made of dry cork
and bad-mannered. Forgive me.
Oh, be still, Mama.
We're all being foolish.
I only want to be foolishly happy.
- Is our old garden still there?
- No.
But we've made the pond larger
and put blackberries on the island.
Oh, let's go.
Go on.
You're a kind woman, madame.
That's what she's always said.
I have disrespectful children.
[KURT CHUCKLES]
My children are together again.
That makes me feel good.
Come now,
you shall have a rest before lunch.
I shall send you up a sherry
and some biscuits.
And perhaps an eggnog too.
I'm a great believer in eggnogs
if they have enough liquor in them.
- How do you do?
- This is the Count de Brancovis.
He and his wife are staying for a while.
My son-in-law, Kurt Muller.
KURT:
How do you do?
Would it be impertinent for one
European to make welcome another?
- Thank you, sir.
- Have we met before, Mr. Muller?
Did you live in Paris?
I was in the legation there and I thought...
No, we have not met before.
If it is possible to believe,
I am the exile who is not famous.
Strange. I have a feeling...
It is interesting. I have always had
a good ear for the accents of your country.
But yours is most difficult to place.
Is it South German or...?
My accent is difficult to place,
Count de Brancovis...
...because I speak other languages.
- Yours would be Romanian?
- Goodness. Is it as bad as that?
My grandchildren are charming.
You shall see them.
- Your grandchildren have to be charming.
- Of course.
Papa, this is the house of great wonders.
Each has his bed.
Each has his bathroom.
The arrangement of it,
that is splendorous.
You're a fancy talker, Bodo.
Oh, yes. In many languages.
Please do correct me when I am wrong.
Papa, the plumbing is such
as you have never seen.
Here, each implement
is placed on the floor.
And all are simultaneous
in the same room.
You will therefore see
that being placed solidly on the floor...
...allows of no rats, rodents or crawlers,
and is most sanitary.
Papa likes to know
how each thing is put together.
And he is so fond of being clean.
I am a hero to my children.
It bores everybody but me.
Yes, it is a fine bathroom.
Better than in Brussels, eh?
Well, trapping the mice there
was most interesting.
Goodness. And now you must have
your rest before lunch.
I hear they've arrived.
Have you met them?
What has David told you
about Herr Muller?
What has David told me?
Nothing more than he's told you.
- What is there to tell?
- I do not know, but I would like to.
David said they'd been in Czechoslovakia,
Denmark, Poland, France and Switzerland.
These are all countries that Germany
has either threatened or gone into.
It is the German practice to send into
such countries men to prepare the way.
I had thought Herr Muller...
...might be such a man.
I do not think so now.
- What are you doing?
- Wondering why luggage is unlocked.
And a shabby briefcase
is so carefully locked.
You're very curious about Mr. Muller.
I'm curious about a daughter
of the Farrellys...
...who marries a German
who has bullet scars...
...and broken bones in his hands.
Is he any business of yours?
- Why, anything might be my business now.
- Yes, unfortunately.
Well, you sound very bitter
about me, Marthe.
Are you in love with David?
- What kind of talk is this?
- Answer me.
I like him.
Yes, and he likes you.
Please find out from him
about Herr Muller.
I will certainly do no such thing.
Ask your friends at the embassy.
They always know their nationals.
Yes. But I do not like to ask questions
without knowing the value of the answers.
Teck, leave these people alone.
They've evidently had a tough enough time.
I won't let you interfere.
Won't let me interfere?
You are in love with David.
Do not make any plans, Marthe.
You will go with me
when I am ready to go.
On Saturday, Madame Fanny and I
arrived at Savitt's.
Before that I have taken
all the measurements in secret.
First, Madame Fanny has delivered
a most sharp ultimatum...
...that all must be finished in a week.
Savitt's?
What must be finished in a week?
Clothes for all of you. In an amount
you have not previously considered.
Dresses, suits, summer clothes,
stockings.
All must be done with the hand sewing.
How nice. How very, very nice of Mama.
What is so nice of Mama?
You are to say nothing. I gave my word.
Everything is nice of Mama.
Mama is a great darling.
Certainly. We've been in the attic
looking over some old books.
You know, I find that Joshua
is an educated boy.
Your father would have liked that.
Goodness.
You are a handsome woman, Sara.
- Where did the dress come from?
- From me. I make it.
Remember when I was a little girl
and you taught me to sew?
That came in handy years later.
Often when Kurt...
When Kurt was away for a long while...
...I made dresses and earned enough
to pay the rent and food...
...and send the children to school.
FANNY:
You sewed for a living?
Really, were these things necessary?
Why couldn't you have written to us?
Mama, you've asked me that 20 times
in the four days we've been here.
I think it is only that Grandma
feels sorry for us.
Grandma has not seen
much of the world.
She does not understand that a great many
work hard in order that they eat.
Now, don't you start giving me lectures.
I get enough from Bodo. Come along.
Psst.
[WHISPERING]
Ask Herr Muller to come up here.
- Why?
- Why? Why?
Because he is a man in love with his wife
and because his wife looks most beautiful.
You are getting so old
you no longer understand...
...the matters of delicacy
between the men and the women.
[LAUGHS]
Me?
I had forgotten.
Liebe, Sara. You are beautiful.
How many years
have I kept you from looking like that?
It makes you have tears.
It also makes me have tears.
If you say that, I'll tear it off.
No. No.
Then I do not say it.
I do not think it.
I only think with pride
how beautiful is my Sara.
Anise has put me together with pins.
I'm a porcupine.
If you had not married me
so many years ago...
...would you have married me today?
I'm so tired, so shabby.
And you are so...
I would have married you
any day in my life.
With Mama, what you need is not to be
afraid of making a fool of yourself.
Anything she doesn't like,
she makes seem silly.
Yes. And it's worked
for a good many years.
She thinks of me only
as a monument to Papa.
And a not-very-well-made monument
at that.
Yes. And since you're worth a good deal
on your own, do what you want.
Marthe's a nice girl, I think.
Kurt thinks so too,
and Kurt's smart about people.
You are very much in love with Kurt.
Oh, yes. I've been a happy woman.
David, Kurt's a sick man.
Sicker than he knows.
The wound he got in Spain
never healed right.
And then about six months ago over there...
oh, he's better.
Even the week here has done him good.
But he'll never be able to go back
and do the kind of work...
You know, darling...
...I don't think I understand
what kind of work he was doing.
SARA:
Come along, Babbie.
How long has Marthe
been married to the count?
I don't know. When she was very young.
You know,
the Count de Brancovis scares me a little.
Scares you?
You and Mama,
most people here, I guess...
...you don't know what it is
to be frightened.
Unfortunately,
I think you'll have to learn.
Uncle David, I have invited
the Countess Marthe...
...to join our sightseeing trip.
I hope you find it agreeable.
Very, very agreeable.
- You're a nice girl, Babbie.
- Thank you, Mama.
To look down at such a great height
makes even me dizzy.
Where is our house?
Uh...
See beyond the city?
Yes.
Where the road bends away
from the river, through the trees?
- Yes.
- Back of that.
JoSEPH: But, Miss Fanny, you know
I've always been a good silver cleaner.
- You're getting out of practice.
- I have given it careful thought.
Miss Sara is better-looking.
Don't you think so, Joseph?
Don't you think Miss Sara
is better-looking than Miss Fanny?
You call that good cleaning?
That silver has lasted for 200 years
and it's going to last for 200 more.
Not the way you treat it, Miss Fanny.
Why, sometimes you scratch it.
I watch you at the table
and I say to myself:
"There's Miss Fanny,
doing it to that knife again."
I was using a knife and fork
before you arrived to show me how.
You told me the next time you screamed
at me to remind you to ask my pardon.
FANNY: You call that screaming?
- Yes'm.
All right.
I ask your pardon.
Now clean that silver.
It's very warm in Washington today.
You'll forgive us.
We are dining in town tonight.
- I will forgive you.
- You seen Marthe?
She went on the sightseeing trip
with the children.
- And David.
- Oh.
Well, I daresay she'll be back
in plenty of time to dress for dinner.
I hope so.
Baron von Ramme, please.
Phili? How are you?
The other night in the poker game,
you mentioned a man called Freidank.
Wasn't that his name?
Yes. Max Freidank. I think you said
you went to school with him.
What does he look like?
That is not my department.
That I have not as yet reached.
Blecher, the bloody Butcher Boy,
is perhaps your man.
If you're up to what I think,
you're wasting your time.
Max Freidank, more dead than alive
from wounds...
...was arrested in Frankfurt
a few days ago.
- What?
PHILl: It's in the papers this afternoon.
You've come a long way,
haven't you, Teck?
Hello. L...
Hello.
Home again.
Shall I wait for you, Sara?
SARA:
No. Go along downstairs.
I find I'm becoming very vain.
It takes me a long time to get dressed.
Each night now, I wait for you
to tell me if I look nice.
Herr Muller, all day a discussion
has been raging.
You shall settle it.
Who is the better-looking,
Miss Sara or Madame Fanny?
Many years away, of course.
FANNY:
I don't consider him an impartial judge.
Both are of a great beauty.
I am not a man
who walks himself into trouble.
No. I should not think you were.
[KURT PLAYING PIANo]
- Mellie Sewell called this afternoon.
- With more gossip?
Mrs. Sewell brings Mama
all the news of Washington.
She gets it all wrong,
but that doesn't worry either Mama or her.
Mama fixes it.
"Wits it up," Papa used to say.
Certainly, I sharpen it.
Mellie has no sense of humor.
- Twenty-five.
- Did you know the old Baron von Ramme?
Yes. He was stationed in Paris
when I was there.
FANNY: I forget that you were a diplomat.
- It's just as well.
Something insane
about a Romanian diplomat.
Pure insane. Twenty-eight with a pair.
Well, I could have married
old Baron von Ramme.
Any American, not crippled,
whose father had money.
He was crazy about me.
Most men were in those days.
Later, when he was ambassador and had
married the rich, hideous Calloway girl...
...someone asked
if I didn't regret not marrying him.
I said, "I regret it every day
and I'm happy about it every night."
You understand what I mean?
Styles in wit change so.
DAVID: We understood.
TECK: Go.
[WHISPERING]
The briefcase has been opened.
[SARA PLAYING PIANo]
There's no money missing,
but the case has been examined.
The gun was put back
in a different place.
TECK:
Seventeen for goal.
FANNY: Oh, as I was saying,
Mellie Sewell told me...
...that you were playing
in a gambling game...
...at the German Embassy
with the young Phili von Ramme...
...and Sam Chandler, who is a relative
of mine and who's always been a scandal.
Nazis and Sam Chandler
must make an unpleasant game.
I do not gamble to be amused.
Oh, really? Then we'll certainly stop.
I owe you $8 and 50 cents.
Herr Muller,
the young Baron von Ramme...
...was your government military attach
in Spain.
My government attach?
He was the German government attach
in Spain.
I know his name, of course.
But he was not attached to the side
on which I fought.
TECK:
I thought you might have known him.
We do not know Nazis,
Count de Brancovis.
No? I should have known that.
You are people who have lived
close to the borders of Germany.
You, therefore, must have had hopes
that National Socialism...
...would be overthrown
on every tomorrow.
We have not given up that hope.
- Have you?
- I never had it.
Then it must be most difficult
for you to sleep.
What is that you're playing?
It was a German soldier's song.
They sang it as they straggled back in ' 18.
I remember hearing it in Berlin.
- Were you there then, Herr Muller?
- I was not in Berlin.
- But you were in the war, of course.
- Yes, I was in the war.
You didn't think then you'd live
to see another war.
Many of us were afraid we would.
All of us haven't been so isolated
as you seem to have been in this house.
What are the words?
This is what you heard in 1918 in Berlin.
[SINGING IN GERMAN]
[SINGING]
We come home, we come home
Some of us are gone
Some of us are lost
But we are friends
Our blood is on the earth together
Someday, someday we shall meet again
Farewell
And then at quarter to 6 in the morning
on November 7th, 1936...
...18 years later, 500 of us Germans
were walking through the Madrid streets...
...on our way to fight the fascist swine
along the Manzanares River.
We felt good that morning.
You know how it is to feel you're good
when it is needed to be good?
So we had the need of new words
to say that to ourselves.
I translate, of course,
with awkwardness, you understand?
[SINGING]
And so we have met again
The blood did not have time to dry
And we lived to stand and fight again
This time we fight for people
This time we'll keep their hands away
Those who sell the blood of other men
This time, they keep their hands away
For us to stand, for us to fight
This time, no farewell, no farewell
Well, we did not win.
It would have been a different world
if we had.
Herr Muller, it does
not seem natural to me...
...that you should settle yourself
into this quiet, country life.
Perhaps.
When did you leave
the diplomatic service, count?
In 1931.
After the Budapest oil deal?
[CHUCKLES]
That must have been a thing
of high comedy, that conference.
Fritz Thyssen, who made the money
available for Hitler, was buying oil.
Everybody was trying to guess
whether this talk of National Socialism...
...was just a smart blind of Thyssen's
or whether his rivals were...
It is too bad.
- You guessed an inch off, eh?
- More than that.
- And Nazis have good memories?
- Most uncomfortable memories.
You seem to know more about me
than I do about you.
And yet, I still have a feeling
that I've seen you or heard about you.
And that feeling has been so insistent
that I make guesses.
But bad guesses.
I thought you might be Max Freidank.
Freidank is a great hero to my people.
- You do me too much honor.
- Yes.
I found that out.
This is in today's Washington papers.
"Zurich, Switzerland:
Zurich papers reprinted today...
...a dispatch from the Berliner Tageblatt
on the capture of Colonel Max Freidank.
Freidank is said to be the chief
of the anti-Nazi underground movement.
The son of the famous General Freidank,
he was a World War officer...
...and a distinguished physicist
before the advent of Hitler."
That is bad news for you, Mrs. Muller?
I'm most sorry.
He was a friend of yours?
He was a friend to all decent Germans.
A friend to all decent people,
Count de Brancovis.
Well, it's what often happens to heroes,
unfortunately.
Marthe must be ready by now.
We will be back early, Herr Muller.
I do not like long dinner parties.
Your hands are shaking.
My hands were broken.
They are bad when I have fear.
Fear for Freidank, you mean?
I am a man who has many kinds of fears.
I do not think
you would understand that.
No. I do not think
I have ever been very frightened.
That is bad.
It is sometimes the road to trouble.
I daresay. Good night.
Kurt. Kurt.
It may not be true.
I am going to use the phone in your study
for a long-distance call, please.
- What is it, darling? What...?
- What is this all about, Sara?
I don't know all of it yet.
I do know that he broke open
Kurt's briefcase.
And he saw what we carry with us.
And he knows about Freidank...
...which probably means
he's guessing about Kurt.
What do you mean, what you carry with you
and guessing about Kurt?
- L...
- Kurt works in an illegal organization.
He has for seven years.
We're carrying with us $23,000 dollars.
It's been collected here and in Mexico...
...from the pennies and nickels
of poor people who don't like fascism...
...and who believe in the work we do.
It was to be picked up and taken back
by the first men going.
Max and Kurt.
They loved each other.
They were in the war together.
And they were in Spain together.
Once in Spain,
Max made a medal from a ring.
"I make you a medal
because you're a fine soldier," he said.
And once, six months ago...
...Max rescued Kurt from the Gestapo
on a train and Kurt was badly hurt.
Max carried him on his back
for seven miles across the border.
But they caught him in the end.
If Max was caught...
...nobody's got much
of a chance anymore.
Nobody.
But wasn't it careless
to have $23,000 lying around to be seen?
No, it wasn't careless.
We've carried money that way for years.
There didn't seem to be any safer place
than my house.
It was careless of you and David
to have a man like that in this house.
- Yes. It was very careless.
- But how could we know?
The world has changed, Mama.
And some of the people in it
are dangerous.
It's time you knew that.
It is true.
But he is not dead.
Hans and Ernst were taken with him.
Max is not an easy man to kill.
But most of his face and one arm...
It is not nice when it comes.
Well, Sara...
- No.
- It must be yes.
But Max knows you're not well enough.
He sent you here.
But now I am more well than he is.
When?
I think tonight, Sara, darling.
But I do not know.
It will depend on
the Count de Brancovis.
What will depend upon the count?
Did he steal the money?
He's not a man who steals.
It will come another way.
But why are you afraid of him?
You're in this country now.
There's nothing he can do.
We will see.
We will wait and we will see.
Kurt's not going to be in this country.
He's going back to get them out.
Is that right, Kurt?
Is that right?
Yes, darling. I must try.
They were taken to Sonnenberg
and guards can be bribed there.
It has been done once before
at Sonnenberg.
I will try for it that way.
Of course you must go back.
I guess I was trying to think
it wouldn't come.
Kurt's got to go back.
He's got to go home.
It's hard enough to get back...
...but if they knew he was coming...
They want Kurt bad.
All right, Kurt.
You'll do it. You'll get them out.
Kurt will do it. You'll see.
Don't be afraid, darling. You'll get back.
You'll get Max out all right.
And then you'll do his work, won't you?
And you'll do a good job.
The way you've always done.
Don't be afraid, darling.
You'll get home.
Yes, you will. You'll get home.
[SARA CRYING]
What is it, Mama?
You will be told later.
Don't worry now.
Will you go in to dinner, please?
We'll come in a minute.
Marthe...
...much has been going wrong.
With us and between us.
But suppose... Suppose we could go back
to Europe again.
And with a little money.
Do you think we might pick up again
what we've lost?
What we've lost?
I don't think there was ever
very much to lose.
And I left nothing in Europe
that I'd want to go back to.
You have other plans?
If so, you're wasting your time.
I will tell you what to do.
We are leaving the Farrelly house.
You and I. You understand?
Anything going wrong back there?
- Drop me at the German Embassy.
- Like a hot potato, boss.
Now, go on to dinner.
I'll pick you up later.
Well, how did you manage
in the game the other night?
Count de Brancovis,
in this room I work.
That is commendable.
Your people caught Max Freidank.
Are there any others close
to Freidank perhaps that you want?
BLECHER:
We want them all.
If I should know where one or more
of such men could be found...
...what would that information
be worth to your government?
It would depend on who they were
or where they were.
In the United States,
they would be worth very little.
- Nothing.
- Nothing at all?
What are we to do here?
Have them assassinated in an alley?
Kidnap them?
Follow them for months, hoping we'll know
when they go back to Germany?
Here are the lists.
With such men as these, that is not easy.
But show us where we can put our hands
on one of them in the fatherland...
...or in any of the countries where we have
influence, that is another matter.
You could name your own price,
in reason.
We might also manage a visa for you.
I'm sure you are homesick
for shabby palaces and gaudy cafs...
...and the rest of the decaying things
that represent Europe to you.
Blecher, we do not like each other.
But that will not stand in the way
of our doing business.
Would you stop that pacing about?
Please.
And tomorrow,
because it's Babbie's birthday...
...I shall go and buy presents
for everybody.
We always do that here.
It started because I didn't like not getting
presents on other people's birthdays.
And we'll have music in the evening.
Yes. Yes, we'll have a fine time.
- You think you fool us.
- What?
Something has gone wrong.
Always Mama and Papa look like that
when it happens so.
You must not be nervous
for our sake, Grandma.
We will do whatever it is
Mama and Papa will ask of us.
Yes, you... You always have.
Now, would you go upstairs?
Later I will come and say good night.
- Good night.
- Good night.
You're going away again,
aren't you, Papa?
Yes.
You must let me come along.
I will help in... In small ways.
I will learn. You will teach me.
I am not as yet a man...
...and it would not be of such importance
if anything happened to me.
I will give you some rules now.
Please remember them, Joshua.
And never to disobey them.
Our forces are small.
Therefore, we must risk no more men
in any enterprise...
...than it is needed to carry it out.
Always in our work,
a man will wish to go with you.
That is wrong.
We are not here
to show that we are brave...
...and not to be modest, either, and say:
"I am not important.
Let me take the risk."
He takes the risk who is entitled to it.
Soon you will be a man.
Never have I doubted that for you.
Also...
...this will be what a man
should most do.
I'm right?
Of course, Papa.
You are young.
You are smart. You are strong.
You are a fine investment for our work...
...when the time comes.
In the meantime, I give you orders.
You think...
...you've trained yourself
in mind and body.
Your day is not so distant.
If it should come
and I have not as yet returned...
It is not wise, perhaps,
to speak so far in the future...
...but the world goes bad...
...and who knows
how long that will last.
Therefore, with delicacy and care,
I wish you also to prepare Bodo...
...when his time too shall come.
God help us.
Go upstairs now.
Say nothing to the others.
I will come later.
FANNY: Does Kurt intend
to bribe his friends out of prison?
- Is that what he said?
- Yes.
FANNY:
It's all very strange to me.
I thought things were so well run that...
What wonderful work
fascists have done...
...in convincing people
they are men from legends.
They've done very well
for themselves, unfortunately.
But not by themselves.
We don't like to remember, do we,
that they came in on the shoulders...
...of some of the most powerful men
in the world.
That makes us feel guilty
so we prefer to believe...
...that they're mysterious men
from the planets.
Well, they aren't.
They're smart and they're sick...
...and they're cruel.
But, given men who know
what they fight for, and will fight hard...
Yes.
Given men
who know what they fight for.
I will console you.
A year ago last month,
...Freidank and I,
with two elderly pistols...
...raided the home of the Gestapo chief
in Konstanz.
We got what we wanted,
and the following morning...
...Freidank was eating his breakfast
three blocks away...
...and I was over the Swiss border.
FANNY:
You are brave men.
I do not tell you the story
to prove that we are remarkable...
...but to prove that they are not.
Would you like a drink?
You look... You look very tired.
It is waiting...
...waiting that is bad for me.
FANNY: But I really don't understand
what you're waiting for.
Now, I mean.
I think the Count de Brancovis
will try tonight to find out who I am.
I wait now to see
if he has so found me out.
Beyond that, I myself,
do not understand.
But there's nothing he can do.
Waiting.
Once, in Spain...
...I waited two days for the fascist planes
to exhaust themselves.
I say finally to myself,
if I must reach up with my naked hands...
...I will stop them.
It is such waiting for which I am not fit.
You will not think that
when the time comes.
- It will go.
- Of a certainty.
But must it always be your hands?
For each man, his own hands.
He has to sleep with them.
That's right.
I guess it's the way we should all feel.
But... But you have a family.
Isn't there somebody else
who hasn't a wife and children?
Each could find his own excuse.
Some have bullet holes, some have fear
of the camps and many are getting older.
Each could find a reason. Many find it.
And my children are not the only children
in the world, even to me.
That's noble of you, of course, but...
one means always in English
to insult with that word, noble?
- Of course not.
- It is not noble.
It is only the way I must live.
FANNY:
But I was thinking of Sara.
I want it this way, Mama.
The way Kurt wants it.
You wanted a good life for your children.
We want it for ours too.
This is Kurt's way
of trying to get it for them.
Good evening.
There's something bad happening,
isn't there?
I have been to the German Embassy
tonight, Herr Muller.
Yes. That's where
I thought you would go.
I don't know what this is all about,
but I'm guessing, because I know Teck.
I have nothing to do with any of it. And
I have nothing to do with Teck anymore.
If you do not mean what you're saying,
change your mind.
You are talking most unwisely.
You are trying to frighten me.
But you're not going to anymore.
I'm not going away with you
and I'm never going away with you.
- Shall we talk about this alone?
- You can't make me stay with you.
You can't make stay now
that I'm not frightened anymore.
- No, perhaps not.
- Then there's nothing to talk about.
You're in love with him?
You never can understand anything
that hasn't got tricks to it.
I don't like you, Teck. I never have.
We will not leave here together
and we will not meet again.
Not now.
Good night.
Well...
A great many things have been said
in the past few minutes.
David, am I to understand...?
You are to understand anything you like.
Without Marthe,
I shall be a very lonely man.
Already, I'm a very poor one.
Before I go tonight,
I should like to have $ 10,000.
- You, blackmailing with your wife, you...
KURT: No, David.
The Count de Brancovis is not bargaining
with you or Marthe.
He is talking to me.
Is that correct?
Good.
I see that you understand.
I got from the embassy
a list and descriptions...
...without, of course,
saying why I wanted them.
But if I have to take any more of that,
I shall go immediately back to them.
You will not again be interrupted.
Very well.
There were many names on the list.
And among the descriptions is this,
of a man we shall call Gotter...
...because that is the name
he has most often used.
"Age, 40 to 45. About 6 feet.
One hundred and seventy pounds.
Many descriptions.
All of them unreliable.
Married to a foreign woman,
either English or American.
Three children.
Has used the names of Gotter,
Thomas Bodmor, Karl Francis.
Thought to have left Germany in 1933 and
to have joined the notorious Max Freidank.
Known to have crossed border in 1934,
February, May, June, october.
And again, with Freidank in 1935...
...and in August, october,
November, 1936."
An active man, this Gotter.
Yes. Very.
It would've been impossible for a magician
to have crossed that often.
Really? Well, to go on.
"In 1934, outlaw radio station announcing
itself as Radio European begins to operate.
Gotter was known to have crossed border
before and after three of the broadcasts.
Gotter believed to have then appeared
in Spain with Madrid government army.
Known to have lived in France
the first months of 1938.
Again, crossed border
sometime during week...
...when Hitler's Hamburg radio speech
was interrupted off the air."
That was a daring deed, Herr Muller.
I remember it well. It amused me.
- It was not done for that reason.
- No?
"Early in 1939, an informer in Konstanz
reported Gotter's arrival with Freidank...
...carrying money
exchanged in Paris and Brussels.
Following day,
home of Konstanz Gestapo chief...
...was raided by two men
who took spy list and escaped."
Herr Muller, that job took two good men.
Even you admire them.
TECK:
Even I.
Now, I think you are Gotter,
Thomas Bodmor, Karl...
Please do not describe me
to myself again.
I think that because Freidank has been
taken, you'll be traveling home.
If I am wrong, and you will not be going
back, the German Embassy will...
KURT:
I am going back.
I will start tonight.
So. You tell me free of charge.
Well, I will tell you free of charge...
...that I do not believe
they've forced information out of Freidank.
Thank you.
But I was sure they would not.
I know all three most well.
They will be able to stand up under...
Under whatever is given them.
Yes. There is a deep sickness
in the German character.
A love of death, a love of pain.
- Spare us your moral judgments.
- Yes, they're sickening.
- Get on with your dirty business.
- Fanny and David are Americans.
They do not understand our world.
And if they are fortunate, they never will.
All fascists are not of one mind,
one stripe.
There are those who give the orders...
...and there those who take them.
They came late.
Some of them were, up to a point,
fastidious men.
For these,
we may someday have pity.
They are lost men.
Their spoils are small.
Their days gone. Yes?
You have the understanding heart.
- Someday, it will get in your way.
KURT: I will watch it.
We are both men in trouble, Herr Muller.
The world, perhaps ungratefully, seems to
like your kind even less than it does mine.
Now let us do business.
You will not get back
if I inform the embassy that you are going.
- They will see that you are killed before.
- You are wrong.
I will not be killed before I get there.
I will get back.
There are men
they would like to have besides me.
I would be allowed
to walk directly to them.
Until they had all the names
and all the addresses.
Romanians would pick me up
ahead of time.
Germans would not.
- Still the national pride?
- And why not, for that which is good?
I haven't felt what I feel now. Whatever
you are and however you became it...
...the picture of a man
selling other men's lives...
Is very ugly, Madame Fanny.
I do not do it without some shame.
And I must therefore
sink my shame in large money.
- You have over $20,000 in your briefcase.
- Yes. You are an expert with locks.
For $ 10,000 you can go back
to wherever you go.
No one will know that you go,
I will give you my wishes.
- What?
- No.
That money will go back with me
as it is.
It was not given to me to save my life
and I shall not so use it.
It is to save the lives
and further the work of more than I.
And it is important to me
to carry on that work.
And, Count de Brancovis...
...the first morning when we arrived
in this country, my children were hungry.
That is because we were not able
to buy sufficient breakfast for them.
If I wouldn't touch that money for them,
I wouldn't for you.
It goes back with me as it is.
And if it does not get back,
it is because I will not get back.
TECK:
I do not think you will get back.
You're a brave one, Herr Muller,
but you will not get back.
I will send you a postal card
and tell you all about my bravery.
Is it true that if this swine talks,
you and the others...?
SARA:
Will be caught and killed.
If they're lucky enough
to be killed quickly.
All right. We'll give him the money.
Let's give it to him
and get him out of here.
Do you want him to go back?
Yes, I do.
DAVID:
All right.
You're a good girl, Sara.
If we give you the money, what's to keep
you from selling to the embassy?
I do not like your thinking I'd do that.
Look, I'm sick of what you'd like
or wouldn't like.
We'll get this over
without fancy talk from you.
I can't take much more of you
at any cost.
But it is your anger which delays us.
I suggest that you give me
a small amount of cash now...
...and the rest in a check
dated a month from now.
In a month, Muller should be home,
let you know that he is safe...
...and that I have kept my bargain. We are
taking chances on each other, of course.
But I suppose one always does
on a deal of such delicacy as ours.
DAVID: Is a month all right?
- What?
I do not know.
Two months. How do you want the check,
how do you want the cash?
One month. That I will not discuss.
One month. Please decide now.
All right. How do you want it?
Seventy-five hundred in a check,
Leave your address.
I'll send the money.
Address? I have no address.
And I wish it now.
I haven't that much cash in the house.
I have 15 or 1600
in the sitting-room safe.
Very well, that will do.
Make the rest in a check.
Get it, Mama.
The new world has left the room.
I feel less discomfort with you.
We are Europeans,
born to trouble and understanding it.
- My wife is not European.
- Almost.
They are young.
The world has gone well for most of them.
For us, the three of us...
...we're like peasants
watching the big frost: Work, trouble, ruin.
But no need to call curses at the frost.
There it is. There it will be again.
Always for us.
Me and my husband and I do not have
angry words for you.
It goes deeper than that with us.
We know how many there are of you.
They don't, yet.
My mother and brother feel shocked
that you're in their house.
We have seen you in so many houses.
I do not say that you want
to understand me, Mrs. Muller.
I say only that you do.
Yes, you are not difficult to understand.
- Whiskey?
- No, thank you.
Brandy?
Thank you, I will.
You, too, wish to go back
to Europe, huh?
Yes.
But they do not much want you there.
I do not think the embassy
would pay you in money...
...for a description of a man
who has a month to travel.
But I think they would pay you in a visa.
And I think you want a visa
almost as much as you want money.
I conclude that you will try for the money
here and for the visa from the embassy.
I cannot get anywhere near Germany
in a month and you know that.
I've been bored with this talk
of paying you money.
If they are willing to try you
in this fantasy, I am not.
Unlike you, I am not a gambler,
I do not take chances.
Get up, please.
[SPEAKS IN GERMAN]
I wish nobody to come outside.
Hello?
What time is your next plane?
To...
To south.
To El Paso or Brownsville.
Yes.
- Where is he, upstairs?
- They went out. Outside.
- They went outside?
- No, David. Don't go out.
Yes?
Oh, that's all right.
No, the ticket
will be picked up at the airport.
Uh...
Ritter.
R-l-T-T-E-R.
From Chicago. Yes.
Sara, what is this? What's happening?
No.
Don't interfere now.
Either of you.
I know when I'm a loser. I give my word.
Your word. What guarantees, what bonds
could hold such a man as you?
No substance to you.
Nothing that could be held to anything.
You are not even a coward.
If I try to frighten you into silence, by
tomorrow, you'd have forgotten your fear.
You are a fool.
You play with men's lives
to have money to live in worthlessness.
You and all your shabby kind.
Tonight, before you come home,
I pray for you.
I pray that you will have done nothing.
That I will not have to touch you.
I do not like to kill this way.
TECK: Listen to me, l...
- I have seen many men die.
I give you advice.
It is easier without words.
They will not now do you good.
You will be better without them.
[GUNSHoT]
I think it's all over now.
There's nothing you can do about it.
It's the way it had to be.
He's going away now.
I don't think
he'll ever come back anymore.
Never. Never, never.
I don't like to be alone at night.
I guess everybody in the world
has got a time they don't like.
Me, it's right before I go to sleep.
And now it's going to be for always.
All the rest of my life.
I've told them.
I've made you a reservation
on a midnight plane to Brownsville.
In the name of Ritter.
Liebe, Sara.
It is hard for you.
- I am sorry.
- Hard? I don't know.
I don't...
Before I come in...
...I stand and think.
I say I will make Fanny
and David understand.
I say, "How can I?"
Does one understand the killing?
No.
So in the end, what is there to say?
Then do not try to explain, I say.
I do what must be done.
I have long sickened the words
when I see the man who live by them.
I've stopped a man's life.
I sit here and listen to him.
I want only for you to believe
that I pray it will not have to be...
...and then I know
I will have to kill him.
I know if I do not,
it is only that I pamper myself...
...risk the lives of others
as well as my own.
So I want you from the room.
I know what I must do.
All right.
Do I now pretend sorrow?
Do I now pretend
it is not I who acts thus? No.
I do it. I have done it before.
And I will do it again.
And I will always keep my hope...
...that we may make a world
in which all man can die in bed.
I have great hate for the violent.
They are the sick of the world.
Maybe I am sick now too.
Oh, stop it, Kurt. That isn't true.
It's late. You have to go soon.
Yes.
Now I am going to take your car.
I will take him with me.
After that, it is up to you.
Two ways: You can let me go
and keep silent.
I believe I can hide him in the car.
At the end of two days,
if they have not been found...
...you call your police, tell them as much
of the truth it is safe for you to say.
I will have left the country,
there'll be no doubt who did the killing.
If you will give me those two days...
...I believe I will be far
enough away from here.
And if the car is found before then,
I will still try to move with speed.
I do not think for the world
you will be in bad trouble.
Inside yourselves...
...that is for you to decide.
You may take the other way.
I'm going to say goodbye
to my children now.
That will give you time to call the police.
I will still leave,
but I will not get home.
Papa wrote it years ago.
Papa said the only men on Earth
worth their time on Earth...
...were the men
who would fight for other men.
Papa said...
...we have struggled through
from darkness.
But man moves forward with each day...
...and each hour to a better, freer life.
That desire to go forward...
...that willingness to fight for it...
...cannot be put in a man.
But when it is there...
Please let him go back.
Of course, darling.
He'll have his two days.
We'll take care of things here.
It's a fine thing
to have you for a daughter, Sara.
I would like to have been like you.
We have said many goodbyes
to each other, huh?
Well, we will now
have to say another one.
But this time,
I will leave you with good people...
...to whom you, I believe,
also will be good.
Would you allow me to give away
my share in you until I get back?
- Lf you would like it.
- Good.
Then, to Mama, her share.
My share to Fanny and David.
It is all and it is the most I have to give.
There.
I've made a will.
But now we will not joke.
I have something to say
and it is important to me to say it.
You are talking to us
as if we were children.
Am I, Babbie?
I wish you were children.
I wish I could say to you, love your mother,
do not eat too many sweets...
...clean your teeth.
I cannot say these things to you.
You are not children.
I took your childhood all away from you.
We have had a most enjoyable life, Papa.
You are a gallant little liar.
And I thank you for it.
I have done something bad tonight.
- You could not do a bad thing.
BABETTE: You could not.
Now, let us get straight together.
The four of us.
Do you remember
when we read Les Miserables?
You remember
that we talked about it afterwards...
...and Bodo got candy on Mama's bed?
I remember.
Well...
...the man in the book stole bread.
"The world is out of shape,"
he said, "when there are hungry men."
And until it gets in shape,
men will steal and lie...
...and kill.
But for whatever reason it's done,
and whoever does it...
...you understand it, it is all bad.
I want you to remember that.
Whoever does it, it's bad.
But you will live to see the day
when it will not have to be.
All over the world,
in every place, every town...
...there are men who are going
to make sure it will not have to be.
They want what I want.
A childhood for every child.
For my children, and I for theirs.
Think of that.
It will make you happy.
In every town, every village,
every mud hut in the world...
...there is always a man
who loves children...
...and who will fight
to make a good world for them.
Goodbye now.
Wait for me.
I shall try to come back for you.
Or you shall come to me.
The boat will come in
and it will be a fine and a safe land.
And I will be waiting
on the dock for you.
And there will be the three
of you and Mama, Fanny and David.
And I will have ordered
an extra big dinner...
...and we will show them
what our country can be like.
Of course, Papa.
That is the way it will be.
Of course.
[SPEAKING IN GERMAN]
Do it well.
- Good night, baby.
- Good night, Papa.
[SPEAKS IN GERMAN]
- Good night, son.
- Good night, Papa.
[SPEAKS IN GERMAN]
You go with our blessing.
We will take care of things here.
David and I would like to give you
this money to use for your friends.
A thank you is too small. L...
Goodbye.
Good luck.
Men who wish to live
have the best chance to live.
I wish to live.
I wish to live with you.
Seventeen years.
It is as much for me today.
I have loved just once, and for all my life.
Come back for me, darling.
If you can.
I will try.
Goodbye to you all.
JoSHUA:
Bodo cries. Babette looks very queer.
I think you should come, Mama.
Bodo talks so fancy.
We forget sometimes he is a baby.
[ENGINE REVS]
Well...
...we've been shaken out
of the magnolias.
Yes. So we have.
Yes.
Well, tomorrow will be a hard day.
But we'll have Babbie's birthday dinner
and we'll have music afterwards.
I think you'd better go up to Marthe now.
In the end, she will have to know.
Be as careful as you can.
Well, I think I'll go up and talk to Anise.
I like Anise best when I don't feel well.
Mama?
We're going to be in for trouble.
- You understand that?
- I understand it very well.
We will manage.
I'm not put together with flour paste.
And neither are you, I'm happy to learn.
Maybe we'll get a letter soon.
You can't tell.
After all, it isn't so easy to send word.
There have been long times before.
Don't you think so, Joshua?
Don't you think, maybe?
Maybe.
But you can't find Papa on a map.
JoSHUA:
No?
Are you using the map for your lessons?
No.
What do you mean, no?
What are you doing with that map?
Answer me, Joshua.
L... I was thinking
about ways to get home.
What are you talking about?
In five months, I will have a birthday.
If by then we have not yet had word
from Papa, I shall be going, Mama.
You have known it and I have known it.
But we have not wanted to speak of it.
What kind of talk is that?
You will not go.
You're only a child. I will not let you.
Do you hear me, Joshua?
I will not let you.
I do not believe that.
I believe that you will let me go.
I believe that when my time will come,
you will want me to go.
I believe too, and I'll say it now...
...that you will tell Bodo
the things he needs to know...
...and if the world stays bad so long...
...you will send him after me
when his time comes.
You are a brave lady, Mama.
And that is the way
you will want things to be.
Thank you, son.
That was a nice thing to say.
I'm not brave.
It isn't like that at all.
When the time comes...
...when it comes...
...I will do my best.