Despair Page #5

Tell him I'm dead!

Do you hear me? I'm dead!

Mr. Hermann doesn't know you.

No!

No! Stop!

Stop!

Elsie stop! Go, please... go get him!

Go and get him! Stop him!

Hermann!

Lydia...

Have you passed me on the stairs?

What? How could I?

I don't mean me, I... I mean...

Never mind.

Don't think...

I don't know about you and Elsie!

I've known for months!

Oh my God. What a stupid woman.

- Tell him I've gone...

- Changed your mind?

Perebrodov!

How about this one?

- Stainless steel?

- A Russian painter!

To last a lifetime.

6 marks.

Two for ten.

Two for ten!

Two for ten.

Just my luck!

Lydia, I'm afraid that I've made

you very anxious recently.

Because I've not been quite myself.

What now, Hermann?

I was just getting to

the exciting part of the story.

I have a story, too...

More frightening, more terrifying...

than anything you have ever read.

Lydia?

Hermann, what's wrong?

Listen to me carefully.

Listen. You have heard

me speak of a brother.

- No.

- You have.

Yes, I think so.

My dead brother, who I was so close to...

so close, he was almost my second self.

- Dead?

- So I thought.

But... you remember when I went Hamburg?

No.

Oh, yes.

In a cafe in Hamburg, I met him by chance.

Now listen very carefully.

We'd been separated by the war.

And believed each other to be dead.

My Felix... with whom I've been

inseparable since childhood...

And as like as two drops of blood.

Face to face. Alive!

I say alive, of course,

because I was to find

that Felix was morally dead.

This sweet-natured boy

that I've known all my life...

This sensitive boy - this musician -

the youngest musician-

the youngest violinist in the Bolshoi...

where our mother used to

dance before Emperors!

The same boy. This same boy.

He was a cheat...

He was ruined. Ruined!

He was a cheat... a liar, a forger...

God, Lydia. He was a murderer.

A murderer! A poisoner.

A poisoner of the woman who kept him!

- Hermann! It just meant...

- Shh!

In short... in short...

a lost cause.

Living in hell.

Bent on self-destruction.

Nothing would deflect him

from the path that he had chosen:

suicide.

No!

Don't do it.

I'll help you.

Was there nothing you

could do to redeem him?

That's just the question I asked him.

And there was!

His soul yearned for redemption.

"I want to make a gift of my death."

Those were his exact words.

He suggested a plan.

I said, "No... impossible."

He begged... he pleaded.

He wouldn't listen to me.

What could I do?

To refuse him would be a crime.

He is determined to die on his birthday.

Today.

Even the president

couldn't talk him out of it.

And so... I intend to be his executioner.

And to take his place in life... myself.

Isn't it a swindle?

A swindle?

The insurance money, Hermann.

The insurance money is not the point.

We have reached a higher spiritual level.

It's much more important

that my poor brother

is not swindled out of his last chance

to regain his self-respect.

Will you remember

everything that I've told you?

- Yes.

- Good.

When they come to tell you

that I have been murdered,

please... please don't carry on

like a Greek tragedy.

You know what a rotten actress you are.

Orlovius has been dropped a hint

that you are carrying

on with someone else.

So you can moderate your grief.

Don't you listen to that Orlovius,

Hermann!

He's a gossip!

You don't understand.

Yeah!

It's all so complicated!

Nothing is ready!

And your evening suit!

It's at the cleaner's.

I have no desire to be

cremated in my dinner jacket.

And drive out of your head

any idea of getting ready!

You know nothing!

I'm leaving the house

in a perfectly normal way.

When I don't return tonight,

you telephone our Orlovius...

and ask his advice.

It's very simple.

- And what about Ardalion?

- Ardalion?

What's Ardalion got to do with it?

I'm talking about a human tragedy,

- and you keep talking about Ardalion!

- I'm sorry!

- I'm dizzy!

- No!

- Hermann...

- What?

Don't go!

- You haven't shaved.

- No. Nor the day before, either.

Please...

Everything was so simple...

'til your brother came along!

Let him do what he likes...

without you!

It makes no difference to him!

If he's going to be dead anyway!

It will make a difference to his soul.

And now, Lydia...

it is time. It is time.

I will see you in two or three weeks...

in Switzerland.

All you have to do... is remember

exactly what I told you.

And try not to flirt with the coroner.

The coroner!

Hermann... Hermann, please!

Please!

Lydia...

Lydia!

I'm... I'm just going to work.

It's just... any other morning.

It's perfectly normal.

Lydia, have a happy day. Yeah?

No?

My blackmailer!

What?

Don't get excited.

Do you think you're going to get

one single penny out of me?

Not if you are going to

report me to the police.

No, no, no, no, no...

As I've promised: 1000 marks.

The deal is on!

I knew it! You never took

my letter seriously, did you?

No.

Not for a moment.

Did you meet anyone on the road?

Only a cart,

and I hid in the ditch like you told me.

- Good.

- I know.

Now, Felix...

the great moment has arrived.

You have to change your clothes.

You'll stay here all day...

you can sleep the night in the car.

And tomorrow, you can go

through the village...

driving through all the streets.

I will give you all the instructions.

But first of all, is your appearance.

A bourgeois capitalist from top to toe.

Ah!

I've forgotten the yellow gloves.

What else have I forgotten?

Let me see you from the back.

Take a few steps.

Now, Hermann.

Thank you.

Elsie?

Are you Mrs. Hermann?

I'm Inspector Schelling.

- Is there any news of Hermann?

- Grave news.

- We found him, murdered.

- Elsie! Water!

I'm sorry.

Oh my God!

What happened?

We haven't put all

the pieces together yet.

He met somebody by arrangement.

Perhaps there was a quarrel.

He was shot at close range.

Hermann didn't have

an enemy in the world.

Please, Ardy. Give me

the brandy that you prepared.

Ardy is my cousin, you know.

Excuse me, Mr. Orlovius.

Do you have a moment for me?

- I have one more question.

- Yes, of course.

You said something about

a blackmailing letter, didn't you?

Yes. It was a threatening letter.

I could see he was worried by it.

I quite understand.

Murdered by person or persons unknown.

I realize money can be

no compensation for his loss.

Will you stay in Berlin?

I don't think so.

There are too many memories.

Hermann!

My name is Felix Weber.

I come from Zwickau. A bachelor.

I'm very fond of...

sparrows, squirrels, moles...

Philosophy is an invention of the rich.

How do you do?

Come here!

Elsie!

Inspector Brun.

Someone from the police to see you!

Mrs. Hermann?

Is your husband at home?

Don't tell me something

dreadful has happened to him!

I had a premonition

about this, Inspector!

We are not sure...

The body of a man has been found.

Murdered.

My poor Hermann!

The man, he was wearing

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