Watch On The Rhine

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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

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