The Winds of War (1983) s01e07 Episode Script
Into the Maelstrom
And now, the news at noon.
This is the BBC.
Command reports that Iast night's raid on BerIin caused substantiaI damage to the German capitaI.
Nine of our bombers are missing.
AII the rest have now returned safeIy.
The Air Ministry announces that forces of RAF bombers attacked seIected miIitary objectives in the BerIin area Iast night.
Fires and expIosions resuIted and it is estimated that considerabIe damage was done.
The raid Iasted between two and three hours.
Our bombers made direct hits on important miIitary targets Oh, my God, you came back! What the devil? What are you doing here? Your charwoman let me in.
l'm absent without leave.
l should be court-martialed and shot.
l shouldn't have sat here for a week.
Good heavens, Captain Henry, you do reek of rum.
That's the debriefing.
They give you a big breakfast, a lot of rum, and you talk.
How about this? ls this the reward for the conquering hero? Exactly.
- lt was bad, wasn't it? - lt was long.
Do you want anything? A drink? Food? A drink, l guess.
And l could use a little sleep.
l thought as much.
l've turned your bed down and drawn the curtains.
l'll take that.
Now, you get into your pajamas, and l'll fetch the drinks.
Yes, ma'am.
l thought l'd try to call Pug tonight.
We won't make New York much before 8:00.
- That's 2:00 a.
m.
London time.
- Well, l can call him tomorrow.
We really stayed too late at the submarine school, but it was such a joy to see Byron looking so well and doing so well.
Pug will be delighted.
l'm ever so grateful to you for driving me there.
l had business in New London.
lt worked out perfectly.
Besides, any time l can be with you, Rhoda, it's a pleasure.
You wanna stop for dinner? Or maybe try one of these little tea places.
Oh, l'd love some tea.
Thank you.
- lt looks charming.
- Yeah.
How wonderfully cozy this place is.
lt's too bad we can't stay here.
Maybe we can.
- Captain Henry.
Captain Henry.
- Yeah.
Captain Vance called.
You're wanted at your embassy at quarter to 6.
- What time is it now? - Five.
l'm making you something to eat.
Where'd you get food? There's nothing in there but beer.
l went out and bought it.
Hey.
What the sam hill? Where and how did you get all this? l'm a London alley cat, l know where to forage.
Now, sit down, captain.
We don't have much time.
- Some potatoes? - Thank you.
Well, rather hungry at that, weren't you? That was the best meat, bread and wine l ever tasted.
You exaggerate.
l'm glad you enjoyed it.
l want to make up for the stupid way l behaved before you left.
l'm glad l went, Pam.
lt was the right decision.
Well, now that you're back, no argument.
- My apologies.
- You're forgiven.
Good.
Do you know that l fell for you on the Bremen? Did you have any inkling of it? l must be pretty dumb.
l hadn't the faintest notion.
ln Berlin, l was hard put not to try my luck with you.
l knew it was impossible.
You're devoted to your wife.
Yes, the Rock of Gibraltar.
When you opened that door a few hours ago l came close to believing in God.
Well, l've developed a high regard for a London alley cat, myself.
l'm glad.
l should be sorry to think that my grand passion was totally unrequited.
lf you'll unhand me, l'll serve the coffee.
They're waiting for you at your embassy.
What will you do? Go back to Oxbridge? l thought l'd telephone.
What will you do? l have to find out what Blinker Vance wants first.
- Shall l wait for your call? - Do that.
All right.
Now, damn it, Pug.
That was one blamed fool excursion of yours over Berlin.
We don't want to give the Army the notion that the Navy trains goofy daredevils.
However, l've talked to General Fitzgerald and General Anderson, and l told them that l knew you from war plans and that you're a good man.
Now, shall we get at it? Captain Henry, you've been an observer here.
You've sent optimistic reports to the president advising all-out assistance.
Not wholly optimistic, sir, but recommending full assistance, yes.
We're proceeding to a dinner with some British admirals and generals.
We have a list of material they want.
lt would strip our forces clean.
Point is, we have to cable specific recommendations to the president within five days.
That's the hot potato we've been handed, Pug.
So let's get down to business.
Suppose the British do hold out.
Suppose Hitler doesn't invade.
What then? l can give you the official line, admiral.
Hold Hitler in 1940.
Pass him in air power in '41 .
Shoot the Luftwaffe out of the skies in '42 and '43.
Bomb factories and cities to bits if they don't surrender.
lnvade and conquer in 1944.
With what? Ten, 15 divisions against 200? Actually, it's somewhat simpler than that.
Just hang on until we get in.
Now you're talking.
But can they hang on? l've seen their invasion defenses, l visited their fleet, still the finest in the world.
They've held their own with superior aviators and advanced radar.
They've even started installing that stuff in night fighters.
Hang on? Yes, sir, l believe they can.
Well, l say this, Moose, your man makes a case.
We've got to come across anyhow, since that's what Mr.
Big wants.
The least we can do is make some tradeoffs.
Like that cavity thing you wrote the president about.
And that airborne radar.
Right.
At least get something for our money.
But l'm warning you, if the British fold and this stuff winds up in German hands, all who take part in these transactions stand a good chance of hanging from a lamppost on Constitution Avenue.
Let's be on our way.
Our British cousins await.
l'll be right along.
And Pug well done.
Those limeys are holding the fort, we've gotta help them.
Trouble is, the big crunch comes when they run out of dollars.
But the big boss is a slippery customer.
l'm sure he'll figure out a way to just give them the stuff.
lt's good Rhoda didn't know about the bomber ride.
Next time l recommend you take a little better care of your tail.
- Aye, sir.
- Let's go.
- How did it go? - AII right.
There's a dispatch here for you from BuPers.
Transportation has a priority for you available to Lisbon on the 1 4th.
Grab it.
Say, maybe you and that nice little Tudsbury girl can have a farewell dinner with Lady Maude and me tomorrow night.
- Hello? - PameIa? Glad you called.
ln a quarter of an hour l'd have been gone.
- Gone where? - I taIked to Oxbridge.
They're being broadminded.
If I come back tonight, aII is forgiven.
They're short-handed and expect heavy raids, so l really must go back.
Of course you must.
You're lucky you're not getting shot for desertion.
A WAAF has a certain amount of emotional rope to use up.
But l think this time l've really done it.
l'll get another pass in a week or so.
We can see each other then.
Pamela, l'm going back to Berlin day after tomorrow.
And then to Washington.
BIinky just gave me the news.
PameIa? l'm still here.
Day after tomorrow, is it? That's right.
You wouldn't want me to desert two more days and take what comes? I'II do it.
I wiII.
That's no way to win a war.
No.
No, it isn't.
Well, this is an unexpected goodbye then.
Oh, our paths will cross again.
Do you think so? Well, l believe Ted's alive, and he's coming back so l'll probably be married then and that will be far more easy and proper all around.
All the same today was one of the happiest in my life.
That's unchangeable now.
l'll never forget it, Pam.
l'll never forget one minute of it.
Won't you? Good.
Neither will l.
Some hours of joy weigh against a whole lifetime, don't they? At least l think they do.
Well, goodbye, Captain Henry.
Safe journeyings.
Goodbye, Pamela.
l hope Ted makes it.
This wicked man, this monstrous product of former wrongs and shame has now resoIved to try to break our famous isIand race by a process of indiscriminate sIaughter and destruction.
What he has done is to kindIe a fire in British hearts here and aII over the worId which wiII gIow Iong after aII traces of the conflagration he has caused in London have been removed.
He has Iighted a fire which wiII burn with a steady and consuming flame untiI the Iast vestiges of Nazi tyranny have been burnt out of Europe.
You have been Iistening to the prime minister Marvelous phrasemaker, that man.
And now, back to our reguIarIy scheduIed program.
Do you think they'll actually hold off the Germans, Palmer? What does Pug say? He wrote a pessimistic letter when he first arrived.
He hasn't written again.
Well, l suppose l should give up tea seeing as it was my downfall.
lf only l could plead having been drunk, but l was sober as a minister's wife.
Oh, my.
Rhoda, l don't think of myself as a home-wrecker, especially not of a military man serving abroad.
Well, dear, l don't think of myself as a scarlet woman.
lt must be the war, Palmer.
With Hitler bestriding Europe and London burning to the ground, all the old ideas seem l don't know, trivial or something.
l have to go to Denver.
A buyer turned up for my house, offered a tremendous price.
But you love that house.
lt sounds heavenly and all the old memories Well, Anne's dead, the children are gone.
l kind of rattle around in the place, and yet my friends are there.
lt's a perfect place to live, to have children and grandchildren visit.
lf l had a wife, l wouldn't sell it.
What do you think, Rhoda? Palmer.
Oh, heavenly days We wouldn't have stayed at Mrs.
Murchinson's if l hadn't felt this way.
Oh, my Lord.
l'm proud and happy that you think of me like this.
But, Palmer ls it that you want to make an honest woman of me? That's terribly gallant, but unnecessary.
Rhoda, Pug's an admirable man, and you're a wonderful woman, but there was a rift in your marriage before we ever met.
There had to be.
Before l ever knew Pug, l saw him play as a Navy fullback.
- Rhoda - No, Palmer, let me go on.
Maybe l'll collect myself.
Oh, he was a husky fellow.
Aggressive, exciting, darting all over the field.
And then, my stars, he burst on me in Washington.
The war was on.
He looked dashing in blue and gold, l must say.
Oh, he courted the way he played football.
He was funny too.
Pug had a droll sense of humor, you know? All the other boys l went with were just from the same old Washington crowd.
Cut out of the same cookie cutter, you might say.
But Pug Oh, he was different.
He is.
He still is.
Oh, l l know he loves me.
The thing is he is so Navy.
Why, that man left me standing at our wedding reception for a half an hour while he drove his commanding officer to the train.
That's Pug Henry for you.
And yet, in 30 years, he Oh, God.
Now, for the very first time, l suddenly feel very, very wretched.
Rhoda l'm sorry.
You go, darling.
You go along to Denver.
As far as l'm concerned, you sell that house.
l just think you might regret it one day.
Yes, l'll go.
But l'm taking the house off the market.
Through the earIy days of September, EngIand braces for invasion whiIe enduring the Nazi terror bombing of London.
At the same time, ChurchiII continues to hurI his RAF at HitIer's invasion fleet assembIing across the ChanneI in harbors from Ostend to Cherbourg.
Five transport steamers heavily damaged by air attack.
One invasion barge sunk.
And a munition train blown up.
Time is running out for Operation Sea Lion, the German invasion of Britain.
HitIer must either go or not go within the next two weeks or the weather over the ChanneI wiII make it uncrossabIe.
But HitIer vaciIIates, and the worId waits for his decision.
Mein Fuehrer, it is obvious the RAF is in no way defeated.
ln fact, their increasing activity is destroying the invasion fleet at anchor.
To mount Operation Sea Lion without control of the air over English ports would be suicide.
One moment.
l will guarantee total control of the air over the Channel for Sea Lion.
Reich marshal, you once guaranteed that if a single bomb ever fell on Berlin, the German people could call you Meyer.
You are addressing the deputy leader of National Socialism, my successor, should l fall in battle.
Party comrade Reich Marshal Goering has smashed the British in the air.
Magnificent performance, above all praise.
Mein Fuehrer, the army is ready.
Get us over there.
The army will undertake to march to London more quickly than we did to Warsaw.
l do not want to march to London! Destroying the British Empire was never my aim.
lt's a stabilizing influence in the world.
l said that in Mein Kampf.
Let them recognize my hegemony and cede us some suitable colonies.
They can keep their empire.
ln any event, England is finished, beaten, down on her knees.
London burns, the British harbors burn.
Out in the Atlantic, British ships go down under our torpedoings, more and more every day.
Churchillis finished.
l know what you're thinking.
Why then does Churchill not surrender? l'll tell you why.
Because he still has two hopes, America and Russia.
From America l have nothing to fear.
A mongrel country filled with niggers and Jews, always in turmoil.
But the Soviet Union, that's a different story.
Stalin waits like a spider for me to get embroiled in a Channel crossing.
He's praying for just that.
While l was busy conquering France, he grabbed a piece of Romania and marched the Red Army to within 100 miles of Ploiesti, my only source of oil! And l stand 600 miles from Ploiesti.
So l give you now the new and most secret objective of the armed forces.
Operation Sea Lion is postponed indefinitely.
You will make all preparations to smash the Soviet Union in a quick, all-out summer campaign.
One colossal stroke in the east.
Smash Russia in six weeks and so bring England finally to her senses and end the war.
All forces will report readiness to me not later than February 15, 1941 .
The Soviet Union? Jodl it is a two-front war.
The old nightmare.
The one thing he pledged never to do.
He is a supreme military genius.
He has always been right.
Now, when our armed forces are at their peak, now is the time to settle with Russia.
lt is a grand prospect.
We fight at last for a great cause, for Christian civilization against Bolshevism.
Do we? Or do we turn east because Goering has not frightened the English into surrender? And because our leader fears the water? Mr.
Slote.
Mr.
Slote.
- Mr.
Slote.
- Here.
Excuse me.
Thank you.
Hello, Leslie, it's Bunky.
How goes it by the old seashore? - Oh, mighty dull, Bunky.
What's up? - Oh, not much.
lt's just that l believe that you've mentioned a girl named Natalie Jastrow? Yes, l have.
What about her? WeII, a girI by that name is sitting across from me right now.
Hello, old Slote.
l thought you were going to Moscow.
Hello, Jastrow.
Natalie.
Hello.
Let's have a good look at you.
No change.
Maybe a little more rested.
Why isn't Aaron with you? What are you doing here? Byron's arriving tomorrow on a submarine.
Come on, Leslie, come buy me a drink.
At the desk, yes.
l'm surprised he made it through that submarine school.
He just squeaked by.
This is his first long cruise.
The submarine's stopping here, and you'll think l'm rattlebrained, but he wrote and told me to come, and here l am.
Nothing you do really surprises me, sweetheart.
Thank you.
Listen, tell me the truth.
ls Aaron in Siena because of the foul-up, or is he dragging his feet? Both.
The consul's being impossible, but Aaron, l think, secretly doesn't mind at all.
He's in more danger than he realizes.
Maybe you and l together can shake him free.
- But you're going to Moscow.
- l have 30 days' leave.
What if l went to Rome with you? l still have a few friends in that embassy.
Oh, that'd be marvelous.
- To Rome.
- To Rome.
- Hello.
- Bunky, you're in time for a drink.
- Waiter.
- l ordered it, double Canadian.
Oh, thank you very much.
Oh, Natalie, here's that list l promised you.
l'm afraid you'll agree that that effectively kills that notion.
Getting all this stuff together would take months.
l've seen it done in one month, but six to eight weeks is more usual.
Thank you.
For some reason, the Portuguese government doesn't want foreigners to get married here.
Thinking of getting married? lt was something Byron wrote about, so l thought l'd check it out.
l mean, obviously, it's impossible, not that l thought it was all that hot an idea anyway.
God Lisbon gives me the creeps.
40,000 desperate people trying to get out of the net.
l've seen most of the faces here at our legation.
Not what we bargained for when we went to Foreign Service school, is it? Get rid of that Quaker conscience or you're gonna crack up.
Forty thousand people.
Forty thousand.
Suppose we admitted them all.
What difference would it make? l won't defend our immigration laws, but you have to draw the line.
What if there were no laws? Foreigners would flood the economy, start a revolution.
He's talking about a few right here in Lisbon, mostly Jews who have escaped the Germans, that's all.
Tried to escape.
The Germans could take Portugal overnight.
lf you want to see the head of the Gestapo in Lisbon, he's just walking in now.
And with him is the German ambassador.
ls he the one with the scar? No, l don't l don't know who that one is.
Though he's undoubtedly Gestapo.
Lisbon is a very sad and horrible place.
l want another.
Why don't we go to my room and drink? Then we go to dinner.
No, l have an appointment for dinner.
Well, l wanna go up and change my shirt and all that.
Go ahead.
l have to wait for a call about the sub.
l'll sit here and have another with Miss Natalie.
All right, l'll see you later.
l'll leave the door open.
Hello.
l'm here.
Yeah, l'll be right there.
You like these rooms? Fit for a rajah.
Legation had it for a petroleum bigwig.
He didn't show, l got them for a week.
- They're fine.
- What's the matter with you? Byron's submarine was re-routed to Gibraltar.
No reason, that's how it is.
l see.
Well, too bad.
Maybe you can go see him in Gibraltar.
Thurston doesn't think so.
- So, what are you gonna do? - Just what l said l was gonna do.
l'm gonna wait for him in the bar downstairs, tomorrow morning at 1 1 .
You heard, he's en route to Gibraltar.
Navy signals get crossed up like any others.
What'll you do? Sit in a bar like patience on a monument? - Don't be cross with me, Slote! - l'm not Natalie, it's irrational.
Obviously, if he doesn't show by noon, the next thing is to find out how to get to Gibraltar.
l know.
Thurston thinks l'm a fool too.
This is quite a layout.
Me, l'm staying in a flea trap across town.
Yeah? Tell you what.
Why don't you stay here? No There's an extra room for a maid.
l can stay in there.
Nothing doing, Slote.
lf Byron does show up, l'm marrying him.
Well, it's what he wants.
And in point of fact, it's what l want too.
Some things are inevitable.
l love Byron.
l suppose l should congratulate you.
God knows l wish you well, Natalie.
l know you do, Slote.
Did you mean that invitation about my having the bedroom? Why not? The place is yours.
All right.
The idea of going to that fleabag again just gives me the horrors.
- l mean, l haven't had a bath in days.
- Be my guest.
The tub's magnificent.
People wouldn't understand about us, would they, Slote? There's nothing to understand about me.
You're the puzzle.
You didn't used to think that.
l'm paying a steep price for oversimplifying.
l'm fond of you, Slote.
Thanks, Jastrow.
Go take your damn bath, would you? Waiter? Excuse me.
- Do you have the correct time? - 1 1 :45.
Thank you.
Paging Mr.
Larvo.
Paging Mr.
Larvo.
Paging Mr.
Gardia.
Mr.
Gardia.
Paging Mr.
Gardia.
Hey, watch where you're going.
Byron! l just l just knew it.
l just knew you'd be l just knew.
Mr.
Brown.
Mr.
Brown? Mr.
Brown.
Slote, we're over here! Slote! Over here! Well, hello there.
Did Natalie tell you we had some wrong information? Well, not exactly wrong.
Anyway, l'm here.
He's got absolutely everything.
All translated from the Portuguese, notarized, authenticated by the Portuguese Consul, the works.
l thought you were lousy at paperwork, you devil.
How on earth did you manage to assemble all this? l heard we were gonna be in Lisbon, l got a pass and flew to Washington.
The Portuguese naval attaché played tennis with my dad.
- He was real helpful.
- Yeah, l should say so.
Well, l guess everything's here.
Well, now what? Will you marry me? Yes, l will.
- Well, is the exercise on? - We're on.
Natalie.
Leslie Slote.
My exec, Lady Aster.
- How do you do? - Pleasure to meet you.
- Lady? - Happened first year at the academy.
With a name like Aster, it was bound to.
My name is Carter, Natalie.
By all means, use it.
How about we get on with it? When we got re-routed to Gibraltar, we had this damnedest sudden outbreak of malfunctions.
- How can you get away with that? - We got the engine records to prove it.
Sure, those old S-boats, they just gasp and flounder along.
At any moment you could justify an order to abandon ship.
Coming into Lisbon was a highly commendable prudence.
At last.
Come on, we're late.
- Big shot, this Admiral D'Esaguy? - Vice chief of naval operations.
Your ensign must have awesome connections.
He says these things take time.
He invites us all to lunch.
That's very cordial of him.
Does he realize we only have three days? Don't press him, Byron.
Would you please tell him what l said? He says, ''The dew will not dry on these roses ''before you are married.
'' They're beautiful.
Thank you.
You know, l'm beginning to believe it for the very first time.
- Here we are.
The Marriage Bureau.
- lt looks closed.
He says it's OK.
Manuel.
Manuel! Good luck for you.
Good luck for you.
What is this? Congratulations.
You're married.
We are? When? l must have missed it.
When you signed the blue paper, that was it.
l guess you just have to take their word for it.
You got the ring? Here you go.
No, Byron.
l weigh a ton.
You're gonna slip a disk.
Whoa, honeymoon suite is right.
Nice of Slote to let us use this place.
Look at this.
Slote.
Mrs.
Henry? For you.
What's that? Just some stuff l bought at the shop downstairs.
- l guess Slote told them we're here.
- He thinks of everything, doesn't he? He sure does.
Excuse me a minute.
Maybe you can pour some champagne.
Sure.
Wear the white, Jastrow.
You aIways Iooked angeIic in white.
This is a confidentiaI communication, to be destroyed.
Yours tiII death.
SIote.
On a knife-edge of geography, between war and peace, far from home, Mr.
and Mrs.
Byron Henry, Americans, sIumbering in wedIock on a January night of 1941.
One of the more than 2,000 nights of the Second WorId War.
When so much of mankind sIept so badIy.
Numerous losses we've suffered.
IncIuding the secretaries of Winston ChurchiII.
He is wearing them out in reIays.
Dictating a Ietter to FrankIin RooseveIt more than 4,000 words Iong.
This Ietter is a turning point of the war.
Great Britain cannot handIe the chaIIenge aIone any Ionger.
He begs RooseveIt to heIp him against the U-boat bIockade by sharing the convoy job and by repIacing the hundreds of vesseIs being sunk.
He asks, too, for immense quantities of aircraft and munitions.
FinaIIy, after many pages, he takes the pIunge.
Last of all, we come to the question of the question of finance.
The more rapid and abundant the flow of munitions and ships that you are able to send us, the sooner will our dollar credits be exhausted.
The orders, as already placed, exceed many times the total foreign exchange remaining at the disposal of Great Britain.
Would it not be wrong if we were to be divested of all assets? And after victory was won with our blood, civilization saved and time gained for the United States to be fully armed, that we should stand stripped to the bone? We are ready to suffer and sacrifice to the utmost for the cause.
The rest we leave with confidence to you and your people, confident that ways and means will be found.
And if, Mr.
President, the defeat of the Nazi and Fascist tyranny is a matter of high consequence to the United States, then you will regard this letter not as an appeal for aid, but as a statement of the minimum action necessary to achieve our common purpose.
- The courier plane, Mr.
President.
- Thank you, Dan.
Churchill's letter, l expect, huh? Well, they aren't biting anyway.
Well? Sir, he wants everything he needs to keep fighting, free of charge.
He wants us to get it over there for him.
That is repeal the Neutrality Act.
Yeah.
They're fighting to save us.
To save the earth.
They're fighting alone.
They've come to the end of their rope.
The problem is money.
The dollar sign.
Needs an idea.
Well the fishing may be better tomorrow, Harry.
BIow the horn! BIow the horn! Fine show.
Especially for the crew.
You enjoy LaureI and Hardy? - Yes, l do, Mr.
President.
- Good.
So do l.
Well, Mr.
President, we dock tomorrow.
- Have a good night's sleep, sir.
- Come to my quarters, Harry.
Attention on deck! - Carry on.
- Aye, aye, sir.
l've been thinking about that letter.
Got an idea.
ln the minds of a very overwhelming number of Americans, the best immediate defense of the United States is the success of Great Britain defending itself.
Now, what l'm trying to do is eliminate the dollar sign.
That's something new in the minds of everybody in this room, l think.
Get rid of the silly, foolish, old dollar sign.
Let me give you an illustration.
Suppose my neighbor's house catches on fire and l have a length of garden hose four or five hundred feet away.
lf he can take my garden hose and connect it to his hydrant, l may help him put out the fire, and thus prevent the fire from spreading to my house.
Now, what do l do? l don't say to him before that operation: ''Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15.
''You'll have to pay me $15 for it.
'' No.
What is the transaction that goes on? l don't want $15.
l want my garden hose back after the fire is over.
- Mr.
President - Excuse me, Mr.
President Feeling cocky? No, simply adventurous.
After all, perhaps this will be our last game.
l understand you have been recalled to Washington.
And l go tomorrow for an inspection of the eastern front.
What eastern front? l thought you and the Soviet were buddy-buddies? Of course.
Our part of pacified Poland.
Of course.
Check.
Time for another? l haven't resigned yet.
Tell me, Victor what is all that smokescreen about lending and leasing and garden hoses? There is legal precedent for the leasing of American military property.
But the lending of ships and weapons is a novel idea.
Of course, they have to be returned in good repair after the war.
lt's poppycock.
lt's politics.
Check.
Oversight.
l was not concentrating.
Why is he so afraid to tell the truth to the American people? l can tell you what Franklin D.
Roosevelt should say.
What's that? He should say: ''My friends, this war is for the mastery of the world.
''Our aim should be to achieve that mastery, but with a minimum of blood.
''Let us encourage others to do our fighting for us.
''Let us give them all they need to keep on fighting.
What do we care? ''ln developing the industries to produce the stuff for lend-lease, ''we are getting ready for world rule.
''They will use up all our early models, our discardable stuff, ''in killing Germans for us.
''Then, at the last moment, when the mopping-up will be easy, ''we shall step in.
''The others will shed the blood and we will take the prize.
'' That is the true meaning of lend-lease, Victor.
That is your version, general.
Mate.
Time for another, general? Goodbye, Victor.
l shall miss our games.
lf there's any last thing l can do for you? Oh, there may be.
A Ted Gallard, British RAF pilot went down in the Channel a few months ago, good friend of mine.
Maybe your people picked him up.
- Gallard? - Gallard.
l will see what l can do.
Good luck in war plans.
War plans? Ah, Victor.
Please come this way.
- Good evening.
- Good evening.
l'm so glad you could come.
lt's a little gloomy here now, Victor, but very private.
Please.
So you go so soon.
- Did you expect this? - Yes, l did.
Of course you are anxious to be reunited with your beautiful wife.
What do you say to a glass of sherry? That'd be fine.
Thank you.
Well, now what do we drink to? l daresay you won't drink to victory for Germany? - Well, we are neutral, you know.
- Oh, Victor if only you were.
Well, to an honorable peace? To an honorable peace.
- Please sit down.
- Thank you.
Now, about your friend Gallard, the British aviator.
He was plucked out of the Channel by our navy, he's confined in a prisoner-of-war camp, and l'm happy to report his condition is good.
l'm obliged to you and to General von Roon.
Please, please, please.
Among men of honor, certain courtesies are taken for granted.
And it is in that spirit that l asked you to come here this evening.
There are special conversations that have to be forgotten.
And in Germany we have a phrase for such delicate matters.
We say, ''under four eyes''.
l believe l've heard that phrase.
What transpires next is under four eyes.
You and Armin had a conversation about this lend-lease bill.
Did he make sense to you? You prefer not to say, eh? Of course.
You are a diplomat.
l'm a gunnery expert misplaced in diplomacy and hoping to get the hell out of it.
A man of honor wants to serve on the field.
- Would you? - No, thank you.
That you sympathize with England is only natural.
l do.
l love England.
After all, l spent two years at Oxford.
But we know that in your Army and Navy, there is serious opposition to this lend-lease giveaway.
Which will strip you of armaments, by the way.
Now, in war plans, you will be in a key position to foster this wise and patriotic opposition.
Frankly, Germany needs friends in influential positions, to offset the Morgenthaus and the Lehmans.
- Herr Stoller - Please, please.
You promised that you would hear me out.
Now, Victor, and remember, this is under four eyes, we do have such friends.
Not many, but a few.
Patriotic Americans who see the realities and not the propaganda of the Jews and of Churchill, who is just an adventurous megalomaniac.
We hope that you will be another such friend.
Now you are aware of my connection with Hermann Goering.
To me, one of the great figures in European history.
His practical grasp of affairs still astounds me.
Now, Hermann Goering has established in Switzerland some anonymous, untraceable bank accounts.
After the war, these will be the rewards of Germany's honorable friends who said the right word in the right place.
lt will be a time of simple gratitude among men of honor.
A sharing of benefits in the day of victory.
lf our friends want these accounts, they will be there.
lf not So, Victor, l have spoken my piece, and after you have said yours, this conversation will be As if it had never existed.
l find that interesting.
Extremely interesting.
But l must ask you, what made you, or General von Roon or Reich Marshal Goering so sure l might be receptive to this offer? Now, this is highly important to me.
Armin von Roon knows nothing about it.
OK.
As for the Reich marshal, he remembers your visit with the banker Gianelli, and his purpose now is exactly the same as Roosevelt's was then.
To avoid any future useless bloodshed.
He thinks you can help.
And l have confidence that you will.
Well, that is a very clear answer, and now here is mine, under four eyes.
You tell Reich Marshal Goering for me that he can stick his Swiss bank account up his fat ass.
l remind you, Captain Henry, that you have not yet left the Third Reich.
You are still in Berlin.
Reich Marshal Goering is second only to the Fuehrer.
l am an officer of the United States Navy, and unless l misunderstood you, or you withdraw it you have asked me, in his name, to commit treason for money.
My dear Victor, how can you take it in that way? What l asked of you was that you should present both sides for the sake of American security, and for peace.
Now, see here, old top.
We Germans are at war, surrounded by foes.
l think your response was naive, wrong.
Your phrasing was coarse.
Still, it was an honorable reaction.
And l have absolutely no hard feelings.
l trust you have none.
l put a very high value on your goodwill, Victor.
And we did have some good times at Abendruh, didn't we? By the way, l don't know whether you youngsters are interested in the war.
Remember the war? There's news.
The British have captured Tobruk.
ls Tobruk important? Yeah, it's important.
lt's the best harbor between Egypt and Tunis.
Well, look who's arrived.
The German ambassador and friends.
Oh, God.
Wait till you hear this.
Wonderful.
He's the best of the fado singers.
What's that, fado? Fado singers, fate songs.
Very pathetic, very Portuguese.
What song is that? That's an old one.
That's the fado of the sailors.
''Close your eyes.
''Life is simpler with your eyes closed.
'' - Let's leave now.
- l'm for that.
Byron! Slote, do something.
He doesn't sing ''O Sole Mio''.
The man said he doesn't sing ''O Sole Mio''! Byron, they don't even understand you.
No.
- No ''Sole Mio''.
- Karl! You get the hell back to your seat and shut your swinish mouth or else it will be the worse for you and your Jew woman.
Quick! March! lt's all right.
Who are you? l'm an American Naval officer, attached to submarine S45.
l am the German ambassador to Portugal.
As it happens, l, too, feel that my companion was inexcusably rude.
Please accept my apologies.
l believe it's my wife who deserves an apology.
Yes, of course.
Will you accept my apology, madam? Yes, yes.
Byron, that's enough! - Nicely done.
- Yes, absolutely mad, but nicely done.
Well, l told the guy he didn't sing ''O Sole Mio''.
All right, what's the matter? Nothing.
Nothing at all.
What am l doing wrong? Natalie.
All right.
l loathe Lisbon.
l always have.
God, l'm going to regret till the day l die that we were ever married and spent our wedding night here.
l'll never forget the scene in that restaurant tonight.
lt's not because of Lisbon, Natalie.
You keep saying that Lisbon's like San Francisco.
ln San Francisco, the lnquisition didn't baptize Jews by force, burn those who objected, and take their children to raise as Christians.
How does that tidbit of Lisbon history strike you? Does it matter? Maybe it doesn't to you.
l'll do whatever you want about the religion.
- Want me to become Jewish? - Are you insane? l don't know where you're going.
l don't know when l'll ever see you again.
All l know is that you're leaving tomorrow on a submarine.
Why don't we tear up the Portuguese documents and just let everything be as it was.
Then if we're ever in a human situation again and still care, we can get married again properly.
This was a farce! No, it wasn't.
This is all l ever wanted, all my life.
And now l've got it.
We're not tearing up any papers.
You're my wife.
Why'd you go through all this trouble? Why did you get yourself in this mess? Because, Natalie married officers get extra allowance.
l see.
Well, that makes a lot of sense.
Why didn't you tell me? Even l can understand greed.
Byron! Byron! What? What time is it? lt's quarter of 2.
Listen, since Tobruk, new orders are going out all the time.
Great.
That's life.
Hi, Natalie.
This is one terrible thing, breaking in on honeymooners.
Talk about extra-hazardous duty.
Well, what's the matter? lt's a change of plans.
There's no sweat.
Listen, l gotta go round up the rest of the crew that's got overnights.
Should be an interesting tour of Lisbon after dark.
Well, tell me.
Since the fall of Tobruk, the mission has been changed.
S45 leaves in the morning.
Lovely.
My entire married life, cut short by a third.
Not exactly.
l plan on having six kids.
Six? l may never last the course.
Natalie, l don't want you going back to ltaly.
But l have to.
What would Aaron do if you said we got married and you were going home? He'd make a mess of it.
He's terrible with officials and the stupider they are, the worse he gets.
l have to go back.
All right.
Sixty days.
Two months.
lf he's not out of there by April first, you go straight home.
You book your transportation now.
l see.
Are you giving me orders, Byron? Yes, l am.
Well, that feels pretty good.
All right, my lord and master, l'll do just as you say.
Sixty days.
Now, tell me something.
Exactly when do you leave? Aster comes for me at 5:30.
Hours and hours.
Great big chunk of our marriage left.
Why are you standing there? Come here.
Thanks a lot for the ride, pal.
Hey, Joe? Joe, wait for me.
So when did this seagoing Greyhound float in here? Yesterday.
lt's an old Spanish bucket.
Crew is mostly Greeks and Turks.
l tried talking with them.
Pleasanter ones seem to be professional cutthroats.
l gather these poor Jews will be packed like sardines on five-decker bunks, for which they pay the price of a deluxe suite on the Queen Mary.
These fellows laugh like hell about that.
Careful.
Watch it! Watch it! Well, Natalie, you sure made a beautiful bride.
Now you're a beautiful Navy wife.
- So long.
- Bye-bye.
We're underway at 0700.
Everything's gonna be OK, Natalie.
lt's just time.
Now man to special sea detail.
l guess that's it.
Getting married was exactly the right idea.
No, l really mean it.
lt was an inspiration and l adore you for it.
Hey, l love you.
l'm very happy.
l love you.
Goodbye.
l love you.
l love you.
You come home you hear? l will! l swear l will! l'll be waiting.
Two months! Two months! SDl Media Group
This is the BBC.
Command reports that Iast night's raid on BerIin caused substantiaI damage to the German capitaI.
Nine of our bombers are missing.
AII the rest have now returned safeIy.
The Air Ministry announces that forces of RAF bombers attacked seIected miIitary objectives in the BerIin area Iast night.
Fires and expIosions resuIted and it is estimated that considerabIe damage was done.
The raid Iasted between two and three hours.
Our bombers made direct hits on important miIitary targets Oh, my God, you came back! What the devil? What are you doing here? Your charwoman let me in.
l'm absent without leave.
l should be court-martialed and shot.
l shouldn't have sat here for a week.
Good heavens, Captain Henry, you do reek of rum.
That's the debriefing.
They give you a big breakfast, a lot of rum, and you talk.
How about this? ls this the reward for the conquering hero? Exactly.
- lt was bad, wasn't it? - lt was long.
Do you want anything? A drink? Food? A drink, l guess.
And l could use a little sleep.
l thought as much.
l've turned your bed down and drawn the curtains.
l'll take that.
Now, you get into your pajamas, and l'll fetch the drinks.
Yes, ma'am.
l thought l'd try to call Pug tonight.
We won't make New York much before 8:00.
- That's 2:00 a.
m.
London time.
- Well, l can call him tomorrow.
We really stayed too late at the submarine school, but it was such a joy to see Byron looking so well and doing so well.
Pug will be delighted.
l'm ever so grateful to you for driving me there.
l had business in New London.
lt worked out perfectly.
Besides, any time l can be with you, Rhoda, it's a pleasure.
You wanna stop for dinner? Or maybe try one of these little tea places.
Oh, l'd love some tea.
Thank you.
- lt looks charming.
- Yeah.
How wonderfully cozy this place is.
lt's too bad we can't stay here.
Maybe we can.
- Captain Henry.
Captain Henry.
- Yeah.
Captain Vance called.
You're wanted at your embassy at quarter to 6.
- What time is it now? - Five.
l'm making you something to eat.
Where'd you get food? There's nothing in there but beer.
l went out and bought it.
Hey.
What the sam hill? Where and how did you get all this? l'm a London alley cat, l know where to forage.
Now, sit down, captain.
We don't have much time.
- Some potatoes? - Thank you.
Well, rather hungry at that, weren't you? That was the best meat, bread and wine l ever tasted.
You exaggerate.
l'm glad you enjoyed it.
l want to make up for the stupid way l behaved before you left.
l'm glad l went, Pam.
lt was the right decision.
Well, now that you're back, no argument.
- My apologies.
- You're forgiven.
Good.
Do you know that l fell for you on the Bremen? Did you have any inkling of it? l must be pretty dumb.
l hadn't the faintest notion.
ln Berlin, l was hard put not to try my luck with you.
l knew it was impossible.
You're devoted to your wife.
Yes, the Rock of Gibraltar.
When you opened that door a few hours ago l came close to believing in God.
Well, l've developed a high regard for a London alley cat, myself.
l'm glad.
l should be sorry to think that my grand passion was totally unrequited.
lf you'll unhand me, l'll serve the coffee.
They're waiting for you at your embassy.
What will you do? Go back to Oxbridge? l thought l'd telephone.
What will you do? l have to find out what Blinker Vance wants first.
- Shall l wait for your call? - Do that.
All right.
Now, damn it, Pug.
That was one blamed fool excursion of yours over Berlin.
We don't want to give the Army the notion that the Navy trains goofy daredevils.
However, l've talked to General Fitzgerald and General Anderson, and l told them that l knew you from war plans and that you're a good man.
Now, shall we get at it? Captain Henry, you've been an observer here.
You've sent optimistic reports to the president advising all-out assistance.
Not wholly optimistic, sir, but recommending full assistance, yes.
We're proceeding to a dinner with some British admirals and generals.
We have a list of material they want.
lt would strip our forces clean.
Point is, we have to cable specific recommendations to the president within five days.
That's the hot potato we've been handed, Pug.
So let's get down to business.
Suppose the British do hold out.
Suppose Hitler doesn't invade.
What then? l can give you the official line, admiral.
Hold Hitler in 1940.
Pass him in air power in '41 .
Shoot the Luftwaffe out of the skies in '42 and '43.
Bomb factories and cities to bits if they don't surrender.
lnvade and conquer in 1944.
With what? Ten, 15 divisions against 200? Actually, it's somewhat simpler than that.
Just hang on until we get in.
Now you're talking.
But can they hang on? l've seen their invasion defenses, l visited their fleet, still the finest in the world.
They've held their own with superior aviators and advanced radar.
They've even started installing that stuff in night fighters.
Hang on? Yes, sir, l believe they can.
Well, l say this, Moose, your man makes a case.
We've got to come across anyhow, since that's what Mr.
Big wants.
The least we can do is make some tradeoffs.
Like that cavity thing you wrote the president about.
And that airborne radar.
Right.
At least get something for our money.
But l'm warning you, if the British fold and this stuff winds up in German hands, all who take part in these transactions stand a good chance of hanging from a lamppost on Constitution Avenue.
Let's be on our way.
Our British cousins await.
l'll be right along.
And Pug well done.
Those limeys are holding the fort, we've gotta help them.
Trouble is, the big crunch comes when they run out of dollars.
But the big boss is a slippery customer.
l'm sure he'll figure out a way to just give them the stuff.
lt's good Rhoda didn't know about the bomber ride.
Next time l recommend you take a little better care of your tail.
- Aye, sir.
- Let's go.
- How did it go? - AII right.
There's a dispatch here for you from BuPers.
Transportation has a priority for you available to Lisbon on the 1 4th.
Grab it.
Say, maybe you and that nice little Tudsbury girl can have a farewell dinner with Lady Maude and me tomorrow night.
- Hello? - PameIa? Glad you called.
ln a quarter of an hour l'd have been gone.
- Gone where? - I taIked to Oxbridge.
They're being broadminded.
If I come back tonight, aII is forgiven.
They're short-handed and expect heavy raids, so l really must go back.
Of course you must.
You're lucky you're not getting shot for desertion.
A WAAF has a certain amount of emotional rope to use up.
But l think this time l've really done it.
l'll get another pass in a week or so.
We can see each other then.
Pamela, l'm going back to Berlin day after tomorrow.
And then to Washington.
BIinky just gave me the news.
PameIa? l'm still here.
Day after tomorrow, is it? That's right.
You wouldn't want me to desert two more days and take what comes? I'II do it.
I wiII.
That's no way to win a war.
No.
No, it isn't.
Well, this is an unexpected goodbye then.
Oh, our paths will cross again.
Do you think so? Well, l believe Ted's alive, and he's coming back so l'll probably be married then and that will be far more easy and proper all around.
All the same today was one of the happiest in my life.
That's unchangeable now.
l'll never forget it, Pam.
l'll never forget one minute of it.
Won't you? Good.
Neither will l.
Some hours of joy weigh against a whole lifetime, don't they? At least l think they do.
Well, goodbye, Captain Henry.
Safe journeyings.
Goodbye, Pamela.
l hope Ted makes it.
This wicked man, this monstrous product of former wrongs and shame has now resoIved to try to break our famous isIand race by a process of indiscriminate sIaughter and destruction.
What he has done is to kindIe a fire in British hearts here and aII over the worId which wiII gIow Iong after aII traces of the conflagration he has caused in London have been removed.
He has Iighted a fire which wiII burn with a steady and consuming flame untiI the Iast vestiges of Nazi tyranny have been burnt out of Europe.
You have been Iistening to the prime minister Marvelous phrasemaker, that man.
And now, back to our reguIarIy scheduIed program.
Do you think they'll actually hold off the Germans, Palmer? What does Pug say? He wrote a pessimistic letter when he first arrived.
He hasn't written again.
Well, l suppose l should give up tea seeing as it was my downfall.
lf only l could plead having been drunk, but l was sober as a minister's wife.
Oh, my.
Rhoda, l don't think of myself as a home-wrecker, especially not of a military man serving abroad.
Well, dear, l don't think of myself as a scarlet woman.
lt must be the war, Palmer.
With Hitler bestriding Europe and London burning to the ground, all the old ideas seem l don't know, trivial or something.
l have to go to Denver.
A buyer turned up for my house, offered a tremendous price.
But you love that house.
lt sounds heavenly and all the old memories Well, Anne's dead, the children are gone.
l kind of rattle around in the place, and yet my friends are there.
lt's a perfect place to live, to have children and grandchildren visit.
lf l had a wife, l wouldn't sell it.
What do you think, Rhoda? Palmer.
Oh, heavenly days We wouldn't have stayed at Mrs.
Murchinson's if l hadn't felt this way.
Oh, my Lord.
l'm proud and happy that you think of me like this.
But, Palmer ls it that you want to make an honest woman of me? That's terribly gallant, but unnecessary.
Rhoda, Pug's an admirable man, and you're a wonderful woman, but there was a rift in your marriage before we ever met.
There had to be.
Before l ever knew Pug, l saw him play as a Navy fullback.
- Rhoda - No, Palmer, let me go on.
Maybe l'll collect myself.
Oh, he was a husky fellow.
Aggressive, exciting, darting all over the field.
And then, my stars, he burst on me in Washington.
The war was on.
He looked dashing in blue and gold, l must say.
Oh, he courted the way he played football.
He was funny too.
Pug had a droll sense of humor, you know? All the other boys l went with were just from the same old Washington crowd.
Cut out of the same cookie cutter, you might say.
But Pug Oh, he was different.
He is.
He still is.
Oh, l l know he loves me.
The thing is he is so Navy.
Why, that man left me standing at our wedding reception for a half an hour while he drove his commanding officer to the train.
That's Pug Henry for you.
And yet, in 30 years, he Oh, God.
Now, for the very first time, l suddenly feel very, very wretched.
Rhoda l'm sorry.
You go, darling.
You go along to Denver.
As far as l'm concerned, you sell that house.
l just think you might regret it one day.
Yes, l'll go.
But l'm taking the house off the market.
Through the earIy days of September, EngIand braces for invasion whiIe enduring the Nazi terror bombing of London.
At the same time, ChurchiII continues to hurI his RAF at HitIer's invasion fleet assembIing across the ChanneI in harbors from Ostend to Cherbourg.
Five transport steamers heavily damaged by air attack.
One invasion barge sunk.
And a munition train blown up.
Time is running out for Operation Sea Lion, the German invasion of Britain.
HitIer must either go or not go within the next two weeks or the weather over the ChanneI wiII make it uncrossabIe.
But HitIer vaciIIates, and the worId waits for his decision.
Mein Fuehrer, it is obvious the RAF is in no way defeated.
ln fact, their increasing activity is destroying the invasion fleet at anchor.
To mount Operation Sea Lion without control of the air over English ports would be suicide.
One moment.
l will guarantee total control of the air over the Channel for Sea Lion.
Reich marshal, you once guaranteed that if a single bomb ever fell on Berlin, the German people could call you Meyer.
You are addressing the deputy leader of National Socialism, my successor, should l fall in battle.
Party comrade Reich Marshal Goering has smashed the British in the air.
Magnificent performance, above all praise.
Mein Fuehrer, the army is ready.
Get us over there.
The army will undertake to march to London more quickly than we did to Warsaw.
l do not want to march to London! Destroying the British Empire was never my aim.
lt's a stabilizing influence in the world.
l said that in Mein Kampf.
Let them recognize my hegemony and cede us some suitable colonies.
They can keep their empire.
ln any event, England is finished, beaten, down on her knees.
London burns, the British harbors burn.
Out in the Atlantic, British ships go down under our torpedoings, more and more every day.
Churchillis finished.
l know what you're thinking.
Why then does Churchill not surrender? l'll tell you why.
Because he still has two hopes, America and Russia.
From America l have nothing to fear.
A mongrel country filled with niggers and Jews, always in turmoil.
But the Soviet Union, that's a different story.
Stalin waits like a spider for me to get embroiled in a Channel crossing.
He's praying for just that.
While l was busy conquering France, he grabbed a piece of Romania and marched the Red Army to within 100 miles of Ploiesti, my only source of oil! And l stand 600 miles from Ploiesti.
So l give you now the new and most secret objective of the armed forces.
Operation Sea Lion is postponed indefinitely.
You will make all preparations to smash the Soviet Union in a quick, all-out summer campaign.
One colossal stroke in the east.
Smash Russia in six weeks and so bring England finally to her senses and end the war.
All forces will report readiness to me not later than February 15, 1941 .
The Soviet Union? Jodl it is a two-front war.
The old nightmare.
The one thing he pledged never to do.
He is a supreme military genius.
He has always been right.
Now, when our armed forces are at their peak, now is the time to settle with Russia.
lt is a grand prospect.
We fight at last for a great cause, for Christian civilization against Bolshevism.
Do we? Or do we turn east because Goering has not frightened the English into surrender? And because our leader fears the water? Mr.
Slote.
Mr.
Slote.
- Mr.
Slote.
- Here.
Excuse me.
Thank you.
Hello, Leslie, it's Bunky.
How goes it by the old seashore? - Oh, mighty dull, Bunky.
What's up? - Oh, not much.
lt's just that l believe that you've mentioned a girl named Natalie Jastrow? Yes, l have.
What about her? WeII, a girI by that name is sitting across from me right now.
Hello, old Slote.
l thought you were going to Moscow.
Hello, Jastrow.
Natalie.
Hello.
Let's have a good look at you.
No change.
Maybe a little more rested.
Why isn't Aaron with you? What are you doing here? Byron's arriving tomorrow on a submarine.
Come on, Leslie, come buy me a drink.
At the desk, yes.
l'm surprised he made it through that submarine school.
He just squeaked by.
This is his first long cruise.
The submarine's stopping here, and you'll think l'm rattlebrained, but he wrote and told me to come, and here l am.
Nothing you do really surprises me, sweetheart.
Thank you.
Listen, tell me the truth.
ls Aaron in Siena because of the foul-up, or is he dragging his feet? Both.
The consul's being impossible, but Aaron, l think, secretly doesn't mind at all.
He's in more danger than he realizes.
Maybe you and l together can shake him free.
- But you're going to Moscow.
- l have 30 days' leave.
What if l went to Rome with you? l still have a few friends in that embassy.
Oh, that'd be marvelous.
- To Rome.
- To Rome.
- Hello.
- Bunky, you're in time for a drink.
- Waiter.
- l ordered it, double Canadian.
Oh, thank you very much.
Oh, Natalie, here's that list l promised you.
l'm afraid you'll agree that that effectively kills that notion.
Getting all this stuff together would take months.
l've seen it done in one month, but six to eight weeks is more usual.
Thank you.
For some reason, the Portuguese government doesn't want foreigners to get married here.
Thinking of getting married? lt was something Byron wrote about, so l thought l'd check it out.
l mean, obviously, it's impossible, not that l thought it was all that hot an idea anyway.
God Lisbon gives me the creeps.
40,000 desperate people trying to get out of the net.
l've seen most of the faces here at our legation.
Not what we bargained for when we went to Foreign Service school, is it? Get rid of that Quaker conscience or you're gonna crack up.
Forty thousand people.
Forty thousand.
Suppose we admitted them all.
What difference would it make? l won't defend our immigration laws, but you have to draw the line.
What if there were no laws? Foreigners would flood the economy, start a revolution.
He's talking about a few right here in Lisbon, mostly Jews who have escaped the Germans, that's all.
Tried to escape.
The Germans could take Portugal overnight.
lf you want to see the head of the Gestapo in Lisbon, he's just walking in now.
And with him is the German ambassador.
ls he the one with the scar? No, l don't l don't know who that one is.
Though he's undoubtedly Gestapo.
Lisbon is a very sad and horrible place.
l want another.
Why don't we go to my room and drink? Then we go to dinner.
No, l have an appointment for dinner.
Well, l wanna go up and change my shirt and all that.
Go ahead.
l have to wait for a call about the sub.
l'll sit here and have another with Miss Natalie.
All right, l'll see you later.
l'll leave the door open.
Hello.
l'm here.
Yeah, l'll be right there.
You like these rooms? Fit for a rajah.
Legation had it for a petroleum bigwig.
He didn't show, l got them for a week.
- They're fine.
- What's the matter with you? Byron's submarine was re-routed to Gibraltar.
No reason, that's how it is.
l see.
Well, too bad.
Maybe you can go see him in Gibraltar.
Thurston doesn't think so.
- So, what are you gonna do? - Just what l said l was gonna do.
l'm gonna wait for him in the bar downstairs, tomorrow morning at 1 1 .
You heard, he's en route to Gibraltar.
Navy signals get crossed up like any others.
What'll you do? Sit in a bar like patience on a monument? - Don't be cross with me, Slote! - l'm not Natalie, it's irrational.
Obviously, if he doesn't show by noon, the next thing is to find out how to get to Gibraltar.
l know.
Thurston thinks l'm a fool too.
This is quite a layout.
Me, l'm staying in a flea trap across town.
Yeah? Tell you what.
Why don't you stay here? No There's an extra room for a maid.
l can stay in there.
Nothing doing, Slote.
lf Byron does show up, l'm marrying him.
Well, it's what he wants.
And in point of fact, it's what l want too.
Some things are inevitable.
l love Byron.
l suppose l should congratulate you.
God knows l wish you well, Natalie.
l know you do, Slote.
Did you mean that invitation about my having the bedroom? Why not? The place is yours.
All right.
The idea of going to that fleabag again just gives me the horrors.
- l mean, l haven't had a bath in days.
- Be my guest.
The tub's magnificent.
People wouldn't understand about us, would they, Slote? There's nothing to understand about me.
You're the puzzle.
You didn't used to think that.
l'm paying a steep price for oversimplifying.
l'm fond of you, Slote.
Thanks, Jastrow.
Go take your damn bath, would you? Waiter? Excuse me.
- Do you have the correct time? - 1 1 :45.
Thank you.
Paging Mr.
Larvo.
Paging Mr.
Larvo.
Paging Mr.
Gardia.
Mr.
Gardia.
Paging Mr.
Gardia.
Hey, watch where you're going.
Byron! l just l just knew it.
l just knew you'd be l just knew.
Mr.
Brown.
Mr.
Brown? Mr.
Brown.
Slote, we're over here! Slote! Over here! Well, hello there.
Did Natalie tell you we had some wrong information? Well, not exactly wrong.
Anyway, l'm here.
He's got absolutely everything.
All translated from the Portuguese, notarized, authenticated by the Portuguese Consul, the works.
l thought you were lousy at paperwork, you devil.
How on earth did you manage to assemble all this? l heard we were gonna be in Lisbon, l got a pass and flew to Washington.
The Portuguese naval attaché played tennis with my dad.
- He was real helpful.
- Yeah, l should say so.
Well, l guess everything's here.
Well, now what? Will you marry me? Yes, l will.
- Well, is the exercise on? - We're on.
Natalie.
Leslie Slote.
My exec, Lady Aster.
- How do you do? - Pleasure to meet you.
- Lady? - Happened first year at the academy.
With a name like Aster, it was bound to.
My name is Carter, Natalie.
By all means, use it.
How about we get on with it? When we got re-routed to Gibraltar, we had this damnedest sudden outbreak of malfunctions.
- How can you get away with that? - We got the engine records to prove it.
Sure, those old S-boats, they just gasp and flounder along.
At any moment you could justify an order to abandon ship.
Coming into Lisbon was a highly commendable prudence.
At last.
Come on, we're late.
- Big shot, this Admiral D'Esaguy? - Vice chief of naval operations.
Your ensign must have awesome connections.
He says these things take time.
He invites us all to lunch.
That's very cordial of him.
Does he realize we only have three days? Don't press him, Byron.
Would you please tell him what l said? He says, ''The dew will not dry on these roses ''before you are married.
'' They're beautiful.
Thank you.
You know, l'm beginning to believe it for the very first time.
- Here we are.
The Marriage Bureau.
- lt looks closed.
He says it's OK.
Manuel.
Manuel! Good luck for you.
Good luck for you.
What is this? Congratulations.
You're married.
We are? When? l must have missed it.
When you signed the blue paper, that was it.
l guess you just have to take their word for it.
You got the ring? Here you go.
No, Byron.
l weigh a ton.
You're gonna slip a disk.
Whoa, honeymoon suite is right.
Nice of Slote to let us use this place.
Look at this.
Slote.
Mrs.
Henry? For you.
What's that? Just some stuff l bought at the shop downstairs.
- l guess Slote told them we're here.
- He thinks of everything, doesn't he? He sure does.
Excuse me a minute.
Maybe you can pour some champagne.
Sure.
Wear the white, Jastrow.
You aIways Iooked angeIic in white.
This is a confidentiaI communication, to be destroyed.
Yours tiII death.
SIote.
On a knife-edge of geography, between war and peace, far from home, Mr.
and Mrs.
Byron Henry, Americans, sIumbering in wedIock on a January night of 1941.
One of the more than 2,000 nights of the Second WorId War.
When so much of mankind sIept so badIy.
Numerous losses we've suffered.
IncIuding the secretaries of Winston ChurchiII.
He is wearing them out in reIays.
Dictating a Ietter to FrankIin RooseveIt more than 4,000 words Iong.
This Ietter is a turning point of the war.
Great Britain cannot handIe the chaIIenge aIone any Ionger.
He begs RooseveIt to heIp him against the U-boat bIockade by sharing the convoy job and by repIacing the hundreds of vesseIs being sunk.
He asks, too, for immense quantities of aircraft and munitions.
FinaIIy, after many pages, he takes the pIunge.
Last of all, we come to the question of the question of finance.
The more rapid and abundant the flow of munitions and ships that you are able to send us, the sooner will our dollar credits be exhausted.
The orders, as already placed, exceed many times the total foreign exchange remaining at the disposal of Great Britain.
Would it not be wrong if we were to be divested of all assets? And after victory was won with our blood, civilization saved and time gained for the United States to be fully armed, that we should stand stripped to the bone? We are ready to suffer and sacrifice to the utmost for the cause.
The rest we leave with confidence to you and your people, confident that ways and means will be found.
And if, Mr.
President, the defeat of the Nazi and Fascist tyranny is a matter of high consequence to the United States, then you will regard this letter not as an appeal for aid, but as a statement of the minimum action necessary to achieve our common purpose.
- The courier plane, Mr.
President.
- Thank you, Dan.
Churchill's letter, l expect, huh? Well, they aren't biting anyway.
Well? Sir, he wants everything he needs to keep fighting, free of charge.
He wants us to get it over there for him.
That is repeal the Neutrality Act.
Yeah.
They're fighting to save us.
To save the earth.
They're fighting alone.
They've come to the end of their rope.
The problem is money.
The dollar sign.
Needs an idea.
Well the fishing may be better tomorrow, Harry.
BIow the horn! BIow the horn! Fine show.
Especially for the crew.
You enjoy LaureI and Hardy? - Yes, l do, Mr.
President.
- Good.
So do l.
Well, Mr.
President, we dock tomorrow.
- Have a good night's sleep, sir.
- Come to my quarters, Harry.
Attention on deck! - Carry on.
- Aye, aye, sir.
l've been thinking about that letter.
Got an idea.
ln the minds of a very overwhelming number of Americans, the best immediate defense of the United States is the success of Great Britain defending itself.
Now, what l'm trying to do is eliminate the dollar sign.
That's something new in the minds of everybody in this room, l think.
Get rid of the silly, foolish, old dollar sign.
Let me give you an illustration.
Suppose my neighbor's house catches on fire and l have a length of garden hose four or five hundred feet away.
lf he can take my garden hose and connect it to his hydrant, l may help him put out the fire, and thus prevent the fire from spreading to my house.
Now, what do l do? l don't say to him before that operation: ''Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15.
''You'll have to pay me $15 for it.
'' No.
What is the transaction that goes on? l don't want $15.
l want my garden hose back after the fire is over.
- Mr.
President - Excuse me, Mr.
President Feeling cocky? No, simply adventurous.
After all, perhaps this will be our last game.
l understand you have been recalled to Washington.
And l go tomorrow for an inspection of the eastern front.
What eastern front? l thought you and the Soviet were buddy-buddies? Of course.
Our part of pacified Poland.
Of course.
Check.
Time for another? l haven't resigned yet.
Tell me, Victor what is all that smokescreen about lending and leasing and garden hoses? There is legal precedent for the leasing of American military property.
But the lending of ships and weapons is a novel idea.
Of course, they have to be returned in good repair after the war.
lt's poppycock.
lt's politics.
Check.
Oversight.
l was not concentrating.
Why is he so afraid to tell the truth to the American people? l can tell you what Franklin D.
Roosevelt should say.
What's that? He should say: ''My friends, this war is for the mastery of the world.
''Our aim should be to achieve that mastery, but with a minimum of blood.
''Let us encourage others to do our fighting for us.
''Let us give them all they need to keep on fighting.
What do we care? ''ln developing the industries to produce the stuff for lend-lease, ''we are getting ready for world rule.
''They will use up all our early models, our discardable stuff, ''in killing Germans for us.
''Then, at the last moment, when the mopping-up will be easy, ''we shall step in.
''The others will shed the blood and we will take the prize.
'' That is the true meaning of lend-lease, Victor.
That is your version, general.
Mate.
Time for another, general? Goodbye, Victor.
l shall miss our games.
lf there's any last thing l can do for you? Oh, there may be.
A Ted Gallard, British RAF pilot went down in the Channel a few months ago, good friend of mine.
Maybe your people picked him up.
- Gallard? - Gallard.
l will see what l can do.
Good luck in war plans.
War plans? Ah, Victor.
Please come this way.
- Good evening.
- Good evening.
l'm so glad you could come.
lt's a little gloomy here now, Victor, but very private.
Please.
So you go so soon.
- Did you expect this? - Yes, l did.
Of course you are anxious to be reunited with your beautiful wife.
What do you say to a glass of sherry? That'd be fine.
Thank you.
Well, now what do we drink to? l daresay you won't drink to victory for Germany? - Well, we are neutral, you know.
- Oh, Victor if only you were.
Well, to an honorable peace? To an honorable peace.
- Please sit down.
- Thank you.
Now, about your friend Gallard, the British aviator.
He was plucked out of the Channel by our navy, he's confined in a prisoner-of-war camp, and l'm happy to report his condition is good.
l'm obliged to you and to General von Roon.
Please, please, please.
Among men of honor, certain courtesies are taken for granted.
And it is in that spirit that l asked you to come here this evening.
There are special conversations that have to be forgotten.
And in Germany we have a phrase for such delicate matters.
We say, ''under four eyes''.
l believe l've heard that phrase.
What transpires next is under four eyes.
You and Armin had a conversation about this lend-lease bill.
Did he make sense to you? You prefer not to say, eh? Of course.
You are a diplomat.
l'm a gunnery expert misplaced in diplomacy and hoping to get the hell out of it.
A man of honor wants to serve on the field.
- Would you? - No, thank you.
That you sympathize with England is only natural.
l do.
l love England.
After all, l spent two years at Oxford.
But we know that in your Army and Navy, there is serious opposition to this lend-lease giveaway.
Which will strip you of armaments, by the way.
Now, in war plans, you will be in a key position to foster this wise and patriotic opposition.
Frankly, Germany needs friends in influential positions, to offset the Morgenthaus and the Lehmans.
- Herr Stoller - Please, please.
You promised that you would hear me out.
Now, Victor, and remember, this is under four eyes, we do have such friends.
Not many, but a few.
Patriotic Americans who see the realities and not the propaganda of the Jews and of Churchill, who is just an adventurous megalomaniac.
We hope that you will be another such friend.
Now you are aware of my connection with Hermann Goering.
To me, one of the great figures in European history.
His practical grasp of affairs still astounds me.
Now, Hermann Goering has established in Switzerland some anonymous, untraceable bank accounts.
After the war, these will be the rewards of Germany's honorable friends who said the right word in the right place.
lt will be a time of simple gratitude among men of honor.
A sharing of benefits in the day of victory.
lf our friends want these accounts, they will be there.
lf not So, Victor, l have spoken my piece, and after you have said yours, this conversation will be As if it had never existed.
l find that interesting.
Extremely interesting.
But l must ask you, what made you, or General von Roon or Reich Marshal Goering so sure l might be receptive to this offer? Now, this is highly important to me.
Armin von Roon knows nothing about it.
OK.
As for the Reich marshal, he remembers your visit with the banker Gianelli, and his purpose now is exactly the same as Roosevelt's was then.
To avoid any future useless bloodshed.
He thinks you can help.
And l have confidence that you will.
Well, that is a very clear answer, and now here is mine, under four eyes.
You tell Reich Marshal Goering for me that he can stick his Swiss bank account up his fat ass.
l remind you, Captain Henry, that you have not yet left the Third Reich.
You are still in Berlin.
Reich Marshal Goering is second only to the Fuehrer.
l am an officer of the United States Navy, and unless l misunderstood you, or you withdraw it you have asked me, in his name, to commit treason for money.
My dear Victor, how can you take it in that way? What l asked of you was that you should present both sides for the sake of American security, and for peace.
Now, see here, old top.
We Germans are at war, surrounded by foes.
l think your response was naive, wrong.
Your phrasing was coarse.
Still, it was an honorable reaction.
And l have absolutely no hard feelings.
l trust you have none.
l put a very high value on your goodwill, Victor.
And we did have some good times at Abendruh, didn't we? By the way, l don't know whether you youngsters are interested in the war.
Remember the war? There's news.
The British have captured Tobruk.
ls Tobruk important? Yeah, it's important.
lt's the best harbor between Egypt and Tunis.
Well, look who's arrived.
The German ambassador and friends.
Oh, God.
Wait till you hear this.
Wonderful.
He's the best of the fado singers.
What's that, fado? Fado singers, fate songs.
Very pathetic, very Portuguese.
What song is that? That's an old one.
That's the fado of the sailors.
''Close your eyes.
''Life is simpler with your eyes closed.
'' - Let's leave now.
- l'm for that.
Byron! Slote, do something.
He doesn't sing ''O Sole Mio''.
The man said he doesn't sing ''O Sole Mio''! Byron, they don't even understand you.
No.
- No ''Sole Mio''.
- Karl! You get the hell back to your seat and shut your swinish mouth or else it will be the worse for you and your Jew woman.
Quick! March! lt's all right.
Who are you? l'm an American Naval officer, attached to submarine S45.
l am the German ambassador to Portugal.
As it happens, l, too, feel that my companion was inexcusably rude.
Please accept my apologies.
l believe it's my wife who deserves an apology.
Yes, of course.
Will you accept my apology, madam? Yes, yes.
Byron, that's enough! - Nicely done.
- Yes, absolutely mad, but nicely done.
Well, l told the guy he didn't sing ''O Sole Mio''.
All right, what's the matter? Nothing.
Nothing at all.
What am l doing wrong? Natalie.
All right.
l loathe Lisbon.
l always have.
God, l'm going to regret till the day l die that we were ever married and spent our wedding night here.
l'll never forget the scene in that restaurant tonight.
lt's not because of Lisbon, Natalie.
You keep saying that Lisbon's like San Francisco.
ln San Francisco, the lnquisition didn't baptize Jews by force, burn those who objected, and take their children to raise as Christians.
How does that tidbit of Lisbon history strike you? Does it matter? Maybe it doesn't to you.
l'll do whatever you want about the religion.
- Want me to become Jewish? - Are you insane? l don't know where you're going.
l don't know when l'll ever see you again.
All l know is that you're leaving tomorrow on a submarine.
Why don't we tear up the Portuguese documents and just let everything be as it was.
Then if we're ever in a human situation again and still care, we can get married again properly.
This was a farce! No, it wasn't.
This is all l ever wanted, all my life.
And now l've got it.
We're not tearing up any papers.
You're my wife.
Why'd you go through all this trouble? Why did you get yourself in this mess? Because, Natalie married officers get extra allowance.
l see.
Well, that makes a lot of sense.
Why didn't you tell me? Even l can understand greed.
Byron! Byron! What? What time is it? lt's quarter of 2.
Listen, since Tobruk, new orders are going out all the time.
Great.
That's life.
Hi, Natalie.
This is one terrible thing, breaking in on honeymooners.
Talk about extra-hazardous duty.
Well, what's the matter? lt's a change of plans.
There's no sweat.
Listen, l gotta go round up the rest of the crew that's got overnights.
Should be an interesting tour of Lisbon after dark.
Well, tell me.
Since the fall of Tobruk, the mission has been changed.
S45 leaves in the morning.
Lovely.
My entire married life, cut short by a third.
Not exactly.
l plan on having six kids.
Six? l may never last the course.
Natalie, l don't want you going back to ltaly.
But l have to.
What would Aaron do if you said we got married and you were going home? He'd make a mess of it.
He's terrible with officials and the stupider they are, the worse he gets.
l have to go back.
All right.
Sixty days.
Two months.
lf he's not out of there by April first, you go straight home.
You book your transportation now.
l see.
Are you giving me orders, Byron? Yes, l am.
Well, that feels pretty good.
All right, my lord and master, l'll do just as you say.
Sixty days.
Now, tell me something.
Exactly when do you leave? Aster comes for me at 5:30.
Hours and hours.
Great big chunk of our marriage left.
Why are you standing there? Come here.
Thanks a lot for the ride, pal.
Hey, Joe? Joe, wait for me.
So when did this seagoing Greyhound float in here? Yesterday.
lt's an old Spanish bucket.
Crew is mostly Greeks and Turks.
l tried talking with them.
Pleasanter ones seem to be professional cutthroats.
l gather these poor Jews will be packed like sardines on five-decker bunks, for which they pay the price of a deluxe suite on the Queen Mary.
These fellows laugh like hell about that.
Careful.
Watch it! Watch it! Well, Natalie, you sure made a beautiful bride.
Now you're a beautiful Navy wife.
- So long.
- Bye-bye.
We're underway at 0700.
Everything's gonna be OK, Natalie.
lt's just time.
Now man to special sea detail.
l guess that's it.
Getting married was exactly the right idea.
No, l really mean it.
lt was an inspiration and l adore you for it.
Hey, l love you.
l'm very happy.
l love you.
Goodbye.
l love you.
l love you.
You come home you hear? l will! l swear l will! l'll be waiting.
Two months! Two months! SDl Media Group