Watch On The Rhine Page #10

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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.

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