Watch On The Rhine Page #7

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PHILl:
It's in the papers this afternoon.

You've come a long way,

haven't you, Teck?

Hello. L...

Hello.

Home again.

Shall I wait for you, Sara?

SARA:

No. Go along downstairs.

I find I'm becoming very vain.

It takes me a long time to get dressed.

Each night now, I wait for you

to tell me if I look nice.

Herr Muller, all day a discussion

has been raging.

You shall settle it.

Who is the better-looking,

Miss Sara or Madame Fanny?

Many years away, of course.

FANNY:

I don't consider him an impartial judge.

Both are of a great beauty.

I am not a man

who walks himself into trouble.

No. I should not think you were.

[KURT PLAYING PIANo]

- Mellie Sewell called this afternoon.

- With more gossip?

Mrs. Sewell brings Mama

all the news of Washington.

She gets it all wrong,

but that doesn't worry either Mama or her.

Mama fixes it.

"Wits it up," Papa used to say.

Certainly, I sharpen it.

Mellie has no sense of humor.

- Twenty-five.

- Did you know the old Baron von Ramme?

Yes. He was stationed in Paris

when I was there.

FANNY:
I forget that you were a diplomat.

- It's just as well.

Something insane

about a Romanian diplomat.

Pure insane. Twenty-eight with a pair.

Well, I could have married

old Baron von Ramme.

Any American, not crippled,

whose father had money.

He was crazy about me.

Most men were in those days.

Later, when he was ambassador and had

married the rich, hideous Calloway girl...

...someone asked

if I didn't regret not marrying him.

I said, "I regret it every day

and I'm happy about it every night."

You understand what I mean?

Styles in wit change so.

DAVID:
We understood.

TECK:
Go.

[WHISPERING]

The briefcase has been opened.

[SARA PLAYING PIANo]

There's no money missing,

but the case has been examined.

The gun was put back

in a different place.

TECK:

Seventeen for goal.

FANNY:
Oh, as I was saying,

Mellie Sewell told me...

...that you were playing

in a gambling game...

...at the German Embassy

with the young Phili von Ramme...

...and Sam Chandler, who is a relative

of mine and who's always been a scandal.

Nazis and Sam Chandler

must make an unpleasant game.

I do not gamble to be amused.

Oh, really? Then we'll certainly stop.

I owe you $8 and 50 cents.

Herr Muller,

the young Baron von Ramme...

...was your government military attach

in Spain.

My government attach?

He was the German government attach

in Spain.

I know his name, of course.

But he was not attached to the side

on which I fought.

TECK:

I thought you might have known him.

We do not know Nazis,

Count de Brancovis.

No? I should have known that.

You are people who have lived

close to the borders of Germany.

You, therefore, must have had hopes

that National Socialism...

...would be overthrown

on every tomorrow.

We have not given up that hope.

- Have you?

- I never had it.

Then it must be most difficult

for you to sleep.

What is that you're playing?

It was a German soldier's song.

They sang it as they straggled back in ' 18.

I remember hearing it in Berlin.

- Were you there then, Herr Muller?

- I was not in Berlin.

- But you were in the war, of course.

- Yes, I was in the war.

You didn't think then you'd live

to see another war.

Many of us were afraid we would.

All of us haven't been so isolated

as you seem to have been in this house.

What are the words?

This is what you heard in 1918 in Berlin.

[SINGING IN GERMAN]

[SINGING]

We come home, we come home

Some of us are gone

Some of us are lost

But we are friends

Our blood is on the earth together

Someday, someday we shall meet again

Farewell

And then at quarter to 6 in the morning

on November 7th, 1936...

...18 years later, 500 of us Germans

were walking through the Madrid streets...

...on our way to fight the fascist swine

along the Manzanares River.

We felt good that morning.

You know how it is to feel you're good

when it is needed to be good?

So we had the need of new words

to say that to ourselves.

I translate, of course,

with awkwardness, you understand?

[SINGING]

And so we have met again

The blood did not have time to dry

And we lived to stand and fight again

This time we fight for people

This time we'll keep their hands away

Those who sell the blood of other men

This time, they keep their hands away

For us to stand, for us to fight

This time, no farewell, no farewell

Well, we did not win.

It would have been a different world

if we had.

Herr Muller, it does

not seem natural to me...

...that you should settle yourself

into this quiet, country life.

Perhaps.

When did you leave

the diplomatic service, count?

In 1931.

After the Budapest oil deal?

[CHUCKLES]

That must have been a thing

of high comedy, that conference.

Fritz Thyssen, who made the money

available for Hitler, was buying oil.

Everybody was trying to guess

whether this talk of National Socialism...

...was just a smart blind of Thyssen's

or whether his rivals were...

It is too bad.

- You guessed an inch off, eh?

- More than that.

- And Nazis have good memories?

- Most uncomfortable memories.

You seem to know more about me

than I do about you.

And yet, I still have a feeling

that I've seen you or heard about you.

And that feeling has been so insistent

that I make guesses.

But bad guesses.

I thought you might be Max Freidank.

Freidank is a great hero to my people.

- You do me too much honor.

- Yes.

I found that out.

This is in today's Washington papers.

"Zurich, Switzerland:

Zurich papers reprinted today...

...a dispatch from the Berliner Tageblatt

on the capture of Colonel Max Freidank.

Freidank is said to be the chief

of the anti-Nazi underground movement.

The son of the famous General Freidank,

he was a World War officer...

...and a distinguished physicist

before the advent of Hitler."

That is bad news for you, Mrs. Muller?

I'm most sorry.

He was a friend of yours?

He was a friend to all decent Germans.

A friend to all decent people,

Count de Brancovis.

Well, it's what often happens to heroes,

unfortunately.

Marthe must be ready by now.

We will be back early, Herr Muller.

I do not like long dinner parties.

Your hands are shaking.

My hands were broken.

They are bad when I have fear.

Fear for Freidank, you mean?

I am a man who has many kinds of fears.

I do not think

you would understand that.

No. I do not think

I have ever been very frightened.

That is bad.

It is sometimes the road to trouble.

I daresay. Good night.

Kurt. Kurt.

It may not be true.

I am going to use the phone in your study

for a long-distance call, please.

- What is it, darling? What...?

- What is this all about, Sara?

I don't know all of it yet.

I do know that he broke open

Kurt's briefcase.

And he saw what we carry with us.

And he knows about Freidank...

...which probably means

he's guessing about Kurt.

What do you mean, what you carry with you

and guessing about Kurt?

- L...

- Kurt works in an illegal organization.

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