Watch On The Rhine Page #5

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I don't think I've been mad

since I last saw you.

We must not get angry.

Anger is protest and should only be used

for the good of one's fellow men.

That is correct, Papa?

If you grow up to talk like that

and stay as ugly as you are...

...you're going to have one of those careers

on the lecture platform.

[JoSHUA LAUGHING]

It is a great pleasure

to hear Grandma speak with you.

I think I shall wash you.

Wash us? Do people wash each other?

No. But the washing is a good idea.

Run along now and change your clothes.

Come.

SARA:
And then we'll all

have a fine, big lunch again.

FANNY:

Again?

Don't you usually have a good lunch?

No, madame, only sometimes.

We do all right usually.

It's good to be here.

I want to see everything.

My old room, and the lake and...

- Haven't I fine children?

- Very fine.

You're lucky. I wish I had them.

How could you? All the women you like

are too drafty, if you know what I mean.

[CHUCKLING]

None of them could have children.

Which, as God in his wisdom,

would have it.

Mama hasn't changed. That's good too.

- I hope you'll like me.

- I hope so.

I have fine plans.

I'm having the wing done over for you,

walls taken out...

oh, that's very kind of you, Mama,

but we won't make any plans for a while.

A good long vacation for Kurt and...

A vacation? You're staying, of course.

David is seeing schools for the children.

Cyrus Penfield has promised

to find an engineering post for Kurt.

But I have not worked as an engineer

since many years, madame.

Haven't you?

Well, didn't you work for Dornier?

Yes...

...but before '33.

You must have worked in other places.

Many other places.

Every letter of Sara's seemed

to have a new postmark.

KURT:

Well, we moved most often.

You gave up engineering?

Gave it up?

- Well, one could say it that way.

- What do you do?

- Mama, we...

KURT:
It is very difficult to explain.

- Lf you'd rather not...

- No, I'm trying to find out something.

- May I ask it right out?

- Let me help you, madame.

You wish to know

whether not being an engineer...

...buys adequate lunches for my family.

It does not.

I have no wish to make a mystery

of what I've been doing.

It is only that it is awkward

to place it neatly.

It sounds so big. And it is so small.

I am an anti-fascist.

And to answer your question,

that does not pay well.

But we are all anti-fascists.

Yes, but Kurt works at it.

What kind of work?

Any kind. Anywhere.

- I will stop asking questions.

- Yes, Mama, that would be sensible.

Darling, don't be angry.

We've been worried about you, naturally.

We knew so little

except that you were having a hard time.

SARA:
I didn't have a hard time. We never...

KURT:
Do not lie for me, Sara, please.

I'm not lying.

I didn't have a hard time

the way they mean. Not ever.

For almost 12 years,

Kurt went to work every morning...

...and came home to me every night

and we lived modestly and happily.

As happily as people could in a starved

Germany that was going to pieces.

Sara, please.

- I do not like you to be angry.

- Well, l...

Let me try to find a way

to tell it with quickness. Yes.

I was born in a town called Frth.

And we have a holiday in this town.

We call it Kirchweih.

It was a gay holiday with games, music

and hot white sausage to eat with the wine.

When I grow up, I move away to school,

to work, get married.

But I always come back for Kirchweih.

For me, it is the great day of the year.

After the war, the First World War,

that day begins to change.

The sausage begins

to be made of bad stuffs.

Country people come in without shoes.

Children are too sick.

It is bad for my people, those years.

But always, I have hope.

In the festival of August 1931,

more than a year before the Nazi storm...

...I find out that hope by itself

is not enough.

On that day, I see 27 men murdered

in a Nazi street fight.

I cannot longer just look on.

My time has come to do more.

I say with the great Luther:

"I must make my stand.

I can do nothing else.

God help me. Amen."

We had seen the evil coming every day,

more and more.

But that festival

was the symbol of the end.

It hit Kurt hard.

It doesn't pay in money

to fight for what we believe in.

But I wanted it the way Kurt wanted it.

I always will.

Kurt is not very well.

There aren't many parts of Europe

anymore where... Where he could rest.

You've always said you wanted us.

So Kurt brought us home.

If you don't want us, we will understand.

DAVID:

We want you very much.

Forever, or however long you want.

I'm old and made of dry cork

and bad-mannered. Forgive me.

Oh, be still, Mama.

We're all being foolish.

I only want to be foolishly happy.

- Is our old garden still there?

- No.

But we've made the pond larger

and put blackberries on the island.

Oh, let's go.

Go on.

You're a kind woman, madame.

That's what she's always said.

I have disrespectful children.

[KURT CHUCKLES]

My children are together again.

That makes me feel good.

Come now,

you shall have a rest before lunch.

I shall send you up a sherry

and some biscuits.

And perhaps an eggnog too.

I'm a great believer in eggnogs

if they have enough liquor in them.

- How do you do?

- This is the Count de Brancovis.

He and his wife are staying for a while.

My son-in-law, Kurt Muller.

KURT:

How do you do?

Would it be impertinent for one

European to make welcome another?

- Thank you, sir.

- Have we met before, Mr. Muller?

Did you live in Paris?

I was in the legation there and I thought...

No, we have not met before.

If it is possible to believe,

I am the exile who is not famous.

Strange. I have a feeling...

It is interesting. I have always had

a good ear for the accents of your country.

But yours is most difficult to place.

Is it South German or...?

My accent is difficult to place,

Count de Brancovis...

...because I speak other languages.

- Yours would be Romanian?

- Goodness. Is it as bad as that?

My grandchildren are charming.

You shall see them.

- Your grandchildren have to be charming.

- Of course.

Papa, this is the house of great wonders.

Each has his bed.

Each has his bathroom.

The arrangement of it,

that is splendorous.

You're a fancy talker, Bodo.

Oh, yes. In many languages.

Please do correct me when I am wrong.

Papa, the plumbing is such

as you have never seen.

Here, each implement

is placed on the floor.

And all are simultaneous

in the same room.

You will therefore see

that being placed solidly on the floor...

...allows of no rats, rodents or crawlers,

and is most sanitary.

Papa likes to know

how each thing is put together.

And he is so fond of being clean.

I am a hero to my children.

It bores everybody but me.

Yes, it is a fine bathroom.

Better than in Brussels, eh?

Well, trapping the mice there

was most interesting.

Goodness. And now you must have

your rest before lunch.

I hear they've arrived.

Have you met them?

What has David told you

about Herr Muller?

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