Original subtitles

Hell.

Good day to you.

Good Morning, Father.

A remarkable year for butterflies.

One would hardly believe it.

Well just a day at this very spot...

I saw a Vanessa Atalanta.

It eluded me, of course. Most things do.

Admiring our castle Ornstein?

Who lives in it?

The last who can afford to live in their castles anymore.

The Countess Ornstein...

is at the tower house now.

And she can hardly keep that up, poor lady.

I remember the times before the war...

but the Count was still alive.

These are the bad new days.

That's what I call them...

the bad new days.

When I was a little boy...

my grandmother bought me a picture book.

In it was a castle,

just like that.

I used to lie under the kitchen table...

with a hunk of bread and goose fat

and look at the castle.

Dreaming it was all yours, I expect.

A child's dream.

Just passing through?

I was,

but maybe I'll stay

if I can find work.

I see work shouldn't be too hard.

Dear!

There it is again!

There it is again!!

For me!

Thirty years.

Over thirty years

I've been waiting for a Vanessa Atalanta.

Just wait long enough and things come.

What luck.

That's a secret, Father.

Just wait long enough.

How I long to see Lenea's face.

Once upon a time

a young prince approached a castle

where lived a beautiful young princess.

Her mother, a cruel and powerful queen.

The princess and her brother were prisoners

in the wicked queen's castle.

You don't have to pay til you leave.

Never trust strangers.

My horoscope to think that

strangers will bring you luck.

Capricorn. What are you?

Capricorn.

Well...

Maybe strangers will bring me luck, too.

Why not?

I suppose all of the people in Ornstein, here, work for the countess.

Are you joking?

What would she pay them with?

They are not all as stupid as Rudolph.

Rudolph?

The countesses' footman.

Just give him a shilling or two for a beer, and he's happy.

Where are you going?

Nowhere.

Nice dogs you've got.

Just put your hand down to pick up your beer and

I've got a splinter.

Let me see.

Hey, hey my friend

let me buy us a beer.

I don't know. Better not. Stick to one in the morning. That's my law.

Know why I need my beer in the morning?

Going to the butcher, what's the cheapest cut of meat today for the Countess Ornstein.

To the green grocer.

No strawberries. It's too high for the Countess Ornstein.

That's humiliating to my pride.

Now look at this.

Know how old it is?

Twenty thirty years, I think.

How would it make you feel walking around in this,

What does she care? She doesn't even notice.

Sitting around like nothing changes. Styles, fashions. Nothing.

Museum. That's where she belongs, my friend.

Well, I'm off.

Back to work?

Thursdays?

Polishing the silver, waxing the salon, washing

the dishes because it's the boy's day off.

Maybe the countess could use an extra man?

Come with me, my friend.

If they're so hard up, why don't they sell the castle?

Sell Castle Ornstein?

You don't know about Castle Ornstein?

This way.

And, no one can sell that castle, by law. It's for Ornstein's.

Hundreds of years, it's got to be Ornstein.

Hundreds of years, past, present, and the future to come.

Smell the beer?

No, Mac.

It's the lozenges.

There's no more coffee.

I'll tell Klaus to bring some more.

No, no, no.

It's quite alright.

No trouble at all.

Come, sweetie.

Excuse me, madam,

but this is Conrad.

He wonders if you could take him on.

Helping with this and I could do with it.

Come here.

Do I know you, or your father, or any of your family?

No, madam, I'm new here.

And you want to work for me?

Rudolph says you are understaffed and since that is my line of work...

I see.

Your coffee, madam.

Rudolph appears to need an assistant. He has brought this young man. He seems... suitable.

I see, madam. Yolaf Claus found his references at the factory.

I'm sorry, but, where I slept last night, somebody stole my money and my papers.

It's just that I met him in the village and

he said he wanted work... -You should have told him there are no openings here.

It was kind of you to consider helping this

young man madam, but I'm sure you understand.

Herthe, my darling

the mayor just called.

He begged me to plead with you once more about Wednesday.

He knows I never do those things anymore.

Of course, but he's hoping.

Since the auditorium will be dedicated to the memory of Heine.

I do not need to open a municipal auditorium to be reminded of my husband.

There isn't a moment of the day.

Not a moment of the day.

- Goodbye. - Bye.

I could have told you it wouldn't work.

We're far too poor to hire anyone new.

Every now and then, mother gets delusions of vanished grandeur.

But Klaussen brings her down to earth.

Father made him promise to take care of us on his deathbed, you know.

I heard when I peeked around the door.

I heard the death rattle, too.

I was only six at the time, but you remember those things.

Where do you come from?

Nowhere in particular.

How lucky you are!

We come from everywhere in particular.

Before the war, it seems we owned half Europe.

But look at us now.

From everywhere to nowhere.

Critter and Crinkles approve of you.

They only approve of murderers and perverts.

Which are you?

Both.

I knew it.

Goodbye.

Bye.

Hello.

- You're back. - Is there a men's room?

How much are the cheapest seats?

Standing room in the gallery, two marks.

'Tis half over, isn't it?

Right back to the hotel, Fahrer Olaf.

We're going to Innsbruck and back again tomorrow. We have to make another early start.

That's a beautiful car, you've got.

Still as good as the day I bought her.

They don't make cars like that anymore.

I've been around cars. I know.

No one appreciates quality these days.

Do you think my fares notice it?

No! To them it's just any old crate.

Not to me though.

You're so right.

Well, good luck to you.

I'm sorry. I'm...

I'm so sorry.

Good morning, sir.

Carl hurt his hand.

He asked me to drive for him today.

I hope that's alright.

So much junk.

Anyone would think we're out to climb the Mattherhorn.

What's your name, driver?

Konrad, Fraulein.

Konrad.

Carl says it's to be the Innsbruck direction today, sir. Is that correct?

Correct.

Panorama's driver.

That's what I want plenty of.

Panorama.

The poor driver must be starving.

Nonsense. They always bring their own lunch.

Father, you are impossible.

Impossible, exactly.

All my life I said it's impossible, is it?

Alright, I guess I'll roll up my sleeve.

That's why your sitting here drinking champagne today.

As you've pointed out more than once.

For God's sake! Not the caviar!

All that social consciousness

so shaming.

Where on earth did you give it up?

With art school, I suppose.

I thought you might be hungry, Konrad.

Thank you.

There's an extra wrap in the car.

You may as well be comfortable and eat in style.

I recognized you right away

from the opera.

Did Carl really hurt his hand?

I thought perhaps you had

arranged to take his place.

I hoped.

If you knew what it's like with them.

Dear God.

Nothing good enough for their daughter.

Nobody good enough for their daughter.

Keeping their daughter on ice for a Yukon prince.

I could have a headache tomorrow.

They could go driving without me.

Annaliese.

Three o' clock.

Annaliese!

Where?

I'll show you.

Driver!

Here! Driver!

Now you're talking, alright.

Now my ears perk up.

Driver, start clearing away.

I could probably pick one up for a song, too.

Half these old families live with a pawn broker.

A summer villa!

That would be nice.

With a park and stags, or whatever they are.

And stables, of course.

I'm determined to make a horsewoman out of Annaliese.

Even if it kills her.

Driver, do you happen to know of any decent places for sale around here?

Well, sir, there's the castle. Castle Ornstein.

Is it for sale?

I couldn't say, madam, but no one's living in it.

A castle. Why not?

Why not go the whole hog?

Well, no one can say that isn't a castle.

The little town up to it is just ahead, sir.

Johann St. Sebastian.

Find out your overage right away.

It's got to be ours and that's final.

Here, driver.

Thank you, sir. I'll see Carl gets it.

For you.

Thank you very much, sir.

Come Annaliese.

In a moment, Father, there's something in my shoe.

St. Sebastian. Tomorrow.

At three.

Hey, my friend!

Working, I see?

Just for the day.

It's my evening off.

I'll buy you that beer.

I'll buy you a lot of beers.

But I gotta take the car back first.

I'll meet you at the Weisse Herz.

Fine, my friend.

Go on, take one.

Thank you.

My friend.

That's a beautiful word?

Friend.

Jesus my friend.

Your my friend.

Time to go.

Come!

I'll walk you home.

You just happened to be passing by.

That's right

and the dogs came running.

It is hard to forgive him for dying.

I was not intended to be left behind. I have no talent for it.

One day, another day

without an echo of what it used to be.

When your world has gone

you're your own ghost.

Yes.

Our world has indeed gone.

These are the bad new days.

The days of the upstart, the American tourist, and the plastic dirndl.

They'll accept it. They'll become part of it.

Children have no past.

Madam.

I would like you and your family

to know you have my sympathy.

You are?

Rudolph Strand, Madam.

Yes, of course.

Good morning, my son.

You know him, father.

Indeed, we are good friends.

And perhaps

since you will be needing a new man...

Why not.

He can start right away.

Excuse me, Madam.

Would it be alright if I came up a little later?

I have a few personal things I have to clear up first.

Of course.

You must come to lunch tomorrow, Father.

The mayor is coming and Princess Palamir.

I thought I'd get both my crosses of at once.

Well

that was a stroke of luck for you, wasn't it?

What are those personal things you have to clear up?

I long to know

something very dastardly, I bet.

I almost couldn't come.

They were mad to go to the Countess Ornstein

about the castle.

But she can't see them until tomorrow.

So they went traveling to Innsbruck.

I like you like this.

A country boy.

When can we be together again?

Soon.

Tomorrow?

Maybe.

Please.

If I can get away.

I got a new job today

with the Countess Ornstein.

I'm her footman now.

Not a duke,

not a prince,

but a footman.

You're the new footman.

Wait a minute.

The new footman, Fresa.

Take him up to his room.

Cook's room.

Mine.

That's Klaus's room.

And now, yours.

Klaus will be up.

He'll want to talk to you.

Watch out.

The Countess hired you.

But I can have you thrown out of this house a moment as you fit.

Is that clear?

It's clear.

I've worked for the family for over twenty years.

The Count was like a father to me.

I've made it my personal concern...

to see that no sort of harm comes to any of them.

I don't know who you are...

or where you come from...

or what smart little ideas you may have in your head.

But, just be careful.

Why not?

I will serve dinner tonight.

I will run you through your regular duties tomorrow.

I'm no fool, you know.

I think you may find that odd.

They reek of mothballs.

Wherever you go I'll be able to track you down like a bloodhound.

We used to have thirty footmen at the castle.

I don't remember them, of course.

That was before I was born.

Before that dreadful house painter went Sieg Heiling around causing doom.

This.

This.

Do try them on. Don't mind me.

I love seeing naked men.

Not that I have much opportunity, of course.

I have been known to peep on my brother.

What would Klaus say?

He's the bane of my existence.

He's so virtuous.

I love watching you.

You do?

You're thinking all of the time, aren't you?

I can see it behind those eyes.

Clickety-click.

Working everything out.

Shall I do it this way?

Or that way?

Or that way?

These should go.

Maybe?

She always has it on a tray in bed.

The children take care of themselves.

And Klaus, do I take him a tray, too?

Him? Take a tray to his room?

Even the blessed lord Jesus, isn't allowed in his room.

Why not?

If Klaus wants his room private , that's his business.

Please.

Her rose.

She's always got to have her rose.

Yes?

Good morning, Madam.

Good morning, Conrad.

It is Conrad, isn't it?

Yes, Madam.

It's a beautiful, sunny morning.

There are no strawberries.

I particularly asked for them.

I'm sorry, Madam.

I suppose they're too expensive.

How extraordinary to have to concern oneself about the price of strawberries.

My husband always had our own flown in...

from Corinthia.

Hungary.

Wherever they were the most perfect.

Even the war never stopped the flow, until of course, those horrible weeks at the end.

Excuse me, Madam...

your husband, a very handsome man.

There are no men anymore.

Facsimile's, that's all. Facsimile's.

Well...

a descendant of Attila the Hun and the widow of a descendant of Barbaro...

so I should be able to survive without strawberries.

Will that be all, Madam?

And that's all.

Yes...

my sunglasses.

I think I must have left them down on the dock.

Very well, Madam.

Good morning.

Where's the dock? Your mother left her sunglasses there.

Beyond the terrace.

Would you like me to show you?

That's all right. I'll find it.

Come on in!

Come on!

You'll never guess what happened this morning! -What?

I had an offer to sell the castle...

from the most extraordinary couple from the city.

To look at them, you would have taken them for a butcher and his wife...

but the jewels on the woman...

and the checks with the outlandish sums offered.

How can people be so rich these days?

Ex Nazi's, that's what they are!

They can't fool me.

Thank God!

And if I may say so with you modestly,

that my own villages we have rooted them all out here, Ornstein.

Rooted! Rooted what?

Nazi's, princess, Nazi's.

When I explained to them about the entail...

they didn't even know what an entail was.

That places them.

Finally I said to them...

"My dear woman, you could offer me ten billion American dollars...

and there's nothing I can do. Entail is entail. One is forbidden to sell."

I didn't add, of course...

that I would die a thousand deaths before I would let

creatures like that so much as set foot in Castle Ornstein.

You should have seen her when the truth finally seeped through.

She literally wept with frustrated grief...

with bubbles of tears dripping down her chin.

Do they have a son?

Who, dear?

The couple from the city. Do they have a son?

There is no reason, I presume, why they shouldn't be able to reproduce themselves.

If they had a son, I could marry him.

We could all live in the castle, again, on their money.

And you'd be merely one of thirty footmen, Conrad, dear.

You could be my shoe polisher.

My own, individual, personal, shoe polisher. -No, no.

Really, darling, the one essential quality of a lady.

Be polite to the servants. I know.

Dear Father Georg, what can I do with this monstrous child?

One is hardly a child at sixteen.

I can tell you what should be done with every

ex-Nazi and every Neo-Nazi in this country.

They should be put up against the wall and shot!

Dear Mayor, let's not talk about the Nazi's.

They were boring enough when they were all over the place strutting around...

and inviting themselves for dinner.

One merely snubbed them and that was that.

Dear Father Georg, goodbye.

You are doing very well.

No one will need you till dinner if you still have things to clear up in the town.

Well, thank you, Madam...

there's nothing important left to do.

I would prefer to stay and get used to things here.

Very well.

Bobby, dear, you must give me a massage. My back is killing me.

It always happens when the mayor comes to lunch.

I mean there's not much here.

Just mother and Lotte.

Nothing ever happening.

I would have thought you would get bored.

Any job is boring if... if you let it be.

Are you a sailor?

I've been a sailor.

I've been a lot of things.

Have you been to Japan?

Japan?

Why Japan?

I don't know.

I've been to Japan.

They all take baths together.

Men, women, and children.

All naked...

sitting there in the damp.

Imagine that here.

- Mother and Lotte? - And Klaus!

You are going to stay, aren't you?

Get out of this house.

Why?

You know and I know.

That wasn't anything.

The boy just came up here and...

I will give you ten minutes to pack.

- But I told you... - I know what you told me!

Out!

Where would I go at this time of night?

Well, give me until morning, at least.

I'll allow tomorrow morning.

But if I ever catch you near that boy again...

I will turn you into the police...

before you can blink your eyes.

I would like to speak to the mayor.

The mayor is in conference.

Please.

It won't take a minute.

And it, it's very important.

Wait here.

Come in.

You are the Countess's new footman.

What can I do for you?

We have come to search your room.

Why?

I think you know.

But you have no right.

You will speak of rights? That's laughable.

Take us there.

Open it.

My father...

he fought on the Eastern Front for what were years.

And then when the whole thing collapsed...

and everyone was hurrying to save their skins...

he walked eight hundred miles...

all the way home for my mother and my little sister.

The Russians shot him the very next day...

in front of their eyes.

Is it too strange..

That I want to remember my father?

A Nazi.

Of course he was a Nazi.

Could a blacksmith have ever become a colonel of the regular army.

I am not proud of what they did to my country.

But these pictures...

I keep these pictures because my father was a...

Why should I insult his memory by trying to explain?

He was worth a whole lot of you put together.

This is you?

Yes.

A Hitler young man.

How old do you think I was when the picture was taken?

Nazi Youth papers.

Nazi interests.

- Nazi uniform. - His uniform!

I swear to you on my bible oath...

this room is a shrine to my father.

Only my father!

And other than that...

You despise them for what they did to our country. I know, I know.

You think I'm an idiot?

You think I haven't heard a thousand lying stories like that for the past 20 years?

Your father.

There's your father!

See he packs his things and is out of here in an hour.

Keep this from the Countess.

Tell her he had to leave suddenly.

Or... well think of something.

Room makes me sick.

With taint, with infection on our country.

Still around after twenty years!

Alright, collect your things.

Hello. We're spying on the kitchen.

The mayor was here, wasn't he?

And the Chief of Police.

About Klaus.

Mother doesn't know, does she?

She thinks Klaus went away because his sister was sick.

That's what you you told her.

That's what the mayor told me to say.

You're lucky mother's so vague...

or she'd have remembered that Klaus' sister married a G.I. and went to America.

But we remember, don't we?

We remember everything.

I suppose you'll be taking over now.

Your mother's asked me to.

I'm going to like that much better.

You'll let me come to meals with filthy nails and have crumbs in my bed, won't you?

Off to the village, I suppose...

for some dastardly rendezvous.

All off, footman. You are dismissed.

I thought...

it was better for them not to see us.

You never know.

You never know?

How long do we have?

I mean...

how long can you stay?

Until ten.

And... where?

Mother and father are at the hotel and they wouldn't dare get away.

C'mon.

Where?

Hop on.

It's you.

Mother said you had gone out.

I forgot my money.

I mean, Klaus, he didn't tell mother, did he?

No.

I'm scared you will be sent away.

I haven't been sent away.

Edward, darling.

I'm coming.

Better to let them stay.

Please listen to...

Listen.

Please listen.

Go away with me.

Now!

I've got enough money of my own.

We could buy a little house.

A farm, maybe, for you.

Or we could travel.

We could go anywhere.

- And when we got bored... - And your parents?

Who cares about them?

I hate them.

I despise them.

Can't you see how they use me for their dirty little social climbing?

When I was born...

they were penniless.

We lived in a tenement.

She cooked and washed and scrubbed the floor.

She was a real person then and...

Please, please, take me away.

If I run away with you...

the police would be after us before we'd gone a mile.

There's nothing to get worried about.

I'm here, aren't I?

Tomorrow comes when it comes.

Kwinter, Kwintos!

Kwinter, Kwnitos!

Kwinter, Kwintos. Go, go!

Say...

I love you.

I love you.

Now say...

"I'm a little rich girl who's crazy about...

a footman."

I'm a little rich girl who...

Make it alright.

Please, make it alright for...

Ready?

You know the way back to the hotel?

It's a long walk.

I didn't know you were back.

I just remembered I was supposed to lock the front door at night.

I'd forgotten.

I've been waiting up for you.

Because, well, there's something I've got to tell you about last night.

- There's nothing to tell. - No, please.

You see...

I mean it isn't...

I'm not...

I was afraid that, after last night, you might have thought...

Didn't I say everything was alright?

We're friends.

Well, Countess...

that should do it.

Until the next first of the month.

Very well, my Schonfeld.

I think in summation I may say...

that the situation has not deteriorated.

In fact, it has fractionally improved.

There's no reason why you shouldn't continue to keep up

this establishment and live as you have been living.

Provided of course that...

common caution is exercised.

Common and caution Herr Schonfeld...

are two words which never have been and I hope never will be applied to me.

Unhappily, times change, Countess.

- We must all try to learn to adapt. - Like rats and house sparrows?

You don't find eagles adapting.

Even in captivity, they just in their cages and glare.

Good day, Herr Schonfeld. I'm sure you are eager to scurry back to the city...

and adapt.

Countess.

Can those be wild strawberries?

I found them in the market.

I thought you might like some now.

Splendid!

You are no fool, are you?

You remember things.

I try to, Madam.

Will Herr Shonfeld be staying for lunch?

He certainly will not.

And it's just as well since he'd...

scream with horror at the sight of this.

If Herr Shonfeld had his way, we'd all be living off boiled potatoes...

and darning our own cotton stockings.

Horrible plastic man.

He probably sprung up like a mushroom in some ghastly suburb...

and gloats to see how the mighty are fallen.

Let us hope for your sake, Conrad, that you have never seen better days.

Grisly phantoms clanking around moaning, "Nevermore! Nevermore!"

Delicious.

Is that all there is?

No, Madam.

Shall I bring some more?

No.

On second thoughts, we better save them for lunch.

Poverty, poverty, poverty.

What an improbable end to it all.

It's strange. Some days are far worse than others.

Usually one plods along...

gets up goes to bed, gets up goes to bed, finding it all quite endurable.

Then suddenly...

trick of sunlight...

or sound.

There's some silly little sound like a bee in a hollyhock.

And one is back...

back at the villa at Antibes.

Or at Schoenbrunn...

at a garden party for the sad little king of Italy.

Or worst of all...

back galloping down the forest Stries in Hungary...

with the hounds belling like mad...

and perhaps a glimpse of the stag way off in

the distance, bobbing over a fallen beach tree.

The villa...

gone.

The house in Paris, gone.

The estates in Hungary and Bohemia...

All of them rest homes now...

for the heroic factory workers of the People's Republic.

Unending lawsuits, all of them doomed to fail.

It killed my husband.

The Herr Schonfeld's killed him.

And the Communists killed him.

And all the puffed up little busybodies...

changing the order of things and starting all over again.

So here I am...

as anachronistic as a dinosaur.

A descendant of Attila the Hun, wallowing in self-pity like the primeval ooze.

You're still an Ornstein and there's still the castle.

You think that isn't the cruelest ghost of all?

I was married from Castle Ornstein. Three thousand guests.

The Duke of Gloucester, Prince Umberto...

even poor Amaria of Romania with her orange hair and a palm of violets.

I'll tell you something...

whenever I walk on that side of the house...

I never let myself even glance at the castle.

Perhaps one day you'll open it again.

My poor Conrad...

so you're just a little servant like the others, after all.

With your shoddy little servant's dream of one day the ship will come in.

All it needs is money.

An money grows on money trees?

And when the moon is full, you throw an orange rind over your left shoulder?

Where's the Pleschke's?

- The Pleschke's? - From the city.

That terrible couple.

There is also, my poor Conrad, the entail.

Cook tells me you...

haven't given a party in years,

but in the old days, everyone used to fight for invitations.

All the local nobility. Everybody.

In the butcher's, this morning, they were talking about the Pleschke's.

They're very snobbish, apparently, and...

they have a daughter.

She's young and quite attractive.

Conrad.

As they were talking, it...

passed through my mind, that...

young Helmut's reaching an age when he should be looking around.

You're absolutely shameless, aren't you?

Sometimes an outsider sees things more clearly.

It would be a gamble, of course.

One party.

Just one big party!

Shameless, outrageous, and utterly immoral.

Is she really attractive?

So they say.

Fine looking bunch of women, just like the old days.

There's always been a Mother Superior in the house..

No, no! It was the nephew who inherited the castle.

Darling you look so great.

Darling! Everyone knew long before he went to the hospital.

But Poppy got it from Paula and Paula got it from Gertrude...

and so it's just got to be true!

But all the paper count, anyway. Elaine.

Frederique!

The daughter insisted on an apartment of her own in the city...

and she's only twenty. Father never let us near the.

Such display, my dear!

One hopes you aren't over extending yourself.

Silly old bitch.

So naughty.

Didn't you hear?

The poor patsy Hansy had to marry an American...

I say it...

and my father said it before me...

and what was good enough for my father...

Nobody I know goes to Gottstein, anymore...

How long it's been? Far, far too long.

You won't remember me. It's been years and years...

Lisa, from Lessenbach.

Darling, darling Herta. The others wither. We continue to bloom!

General van Austenheim.

Herta, my dear, for you the clock stands still.

Good God! Who are they?

Excuse me, General.

Let me look at the daughter.

Not bad, not bad at all.

And those diamonds! If I was Helmut, I would leap on her like a goat.

Madam Pleschke.

Herr Pleschke, what a pleasure.

Countess, we are honored.

So charming of you to invite us.

Let me introduce our little daughter, Annaliese.

Delectable, quite delectable.

This is mine.

Helmut! Here! Here, darling!

My little boy, who, alas, has suddenly become a man.

Helmut, you must meet the Pleschke's.

Why, hello young man.

Helmut, darling, you must take the adorable Fraulein Pleschke down to the fountains...

this very minute and show her the dolphins.

Everybody finds the dolphins most amusing.

I'll go get Princess Palamir. Do you know her at all? - I don't believe we've met.

Then I shall introduce you this instant.

A dear old soul, you'll find her most stimulating.

Amelie, dear, these are the Pleschke's from the city. Be nice to them.

- Stephanie, darling! - Your highness.

I believe we met a cousin of yours at St. Moritz.

We were staying with the Gilbert's, the American oil people, at Gestalt...

Young woman, I hate smoke in my face!

Can I get you a drink, Madam. Something to eat?

It's you, driver.

So you're working for the Countess now.

What a wonderful party.

I think it's so gallant that the poor Countess was struggling against all odds...

This is one of the family properties, I suppose?

Yes, Madam.

Perhaps you would like a little tour of the premises?

Why not? Who can resist snooping?

This, of course, is the dining room.

The paintings, unhappily, had to be sold.

How sad.

To think, if only she could dispose of the castle, all her problems would be solved.

I'll never forgive you for raising our hopes.

I'm sorry, Madam. I didn't know about the entail.

To think of that gorgeous castle just standing there...

rotting away.

It's particularly sad for young Helmut, Madam.

It was always his mother's dream that he should

open it up again and live there with his wife.

He's married?

No, Madam, not yet.

But I'm sure that very soon he'll come upon some suitable young lady.

And now, let me take you back to the party.

The Countess will be wanting to introduce you to her other guests.

The boy isn't married.

I was just saying to the children, there's so few young people around this year...

And we old fogies must bore them to tears. They must positively cling to each other.

Why don't you come over tomorrow morning? There's the lake.

Won't you feel more enterprising?

A picnic!

How pleasant! I know Annaliese will just adore that!

Well then, it's settled.

Helmut, darling, do something nice with this sweet, young girl.

Dear Countess it was divine, just too, too divine.

Goodbye.

I knew you'd come.

Did you like him?

Like who?

The son?

Marry him.

He's nothing. As harmless as a kitten.

It will get you out from under your parents.

You'll be your own mistress, free as the air.

And I would always be there at the castle.

You...

arranged this?

You asked me to make it alright for us, didn't you?

When will a chance like this come again?

Annaliese, your mother is waiting.

I found it in the garden on one of the tables, Fraulein.

She wants me to marry that girl!

You think so?

Of course!

Why do you suppose she suddenly gave a party?

She wants their money to open the castle again.

It's disgusting.

Pick any girl, any girl who's rich enough...

and I'm supposed to be the bread winner.

But you'll have to marry one day, won't you?

She didn't seem so bad to me.

And she'd be so flattered at becoming a Countess

you'd have her eating out of your hand.

No trouble at all.

Plotting again, I see brother?

What a gorgeous breakfast suit!

Such a sexy fit.

It ought to be, judging from how much it cost.

I saw the bill on Mother's desk.

By the way, she wants you.

In the dining room.

Hurry because she's pacing.

Think about it.

Just think about it. You could do a lot worse.

You're saying that it would make no difference for us?

Why should it?

Did it went alright?

I think so.

At least it's a beginning.

It's a beginning.

What a day. What a day! Everybody showed.

Did you see them? The Palamir's, the Van Hessingman's?

For centuries, ladies in waiting to the Empress...

Ambassadors with the courts of Europe and Asia, and look at them now?

Still clicking their ancient heels...

still holding up their arthritic knuckles for the kiss.

Waving their pedigrees around like pedidote flags...

as if pedigrees meant anything anymore, unless,

of course you happen to be a cocker spaniel.

The moths, Konrad! The moths have got at them!

Not just their uniforms, but their souls...

There is nothing left. Nothing!

But their pathetic delusion that they are still the cream of the earth.

I looked and I saw.

I saw myself. I saw my world.

My husband's world, as it is, not as it seemed to me.

And my muddled, ridiculous nostalgia, and that is what they have become.

And that's what my husband would have become.

Just another Reinhart Von Altenheim, with nothing left of his pride, but his corset.

What a self-deluding idiot I have been.

Mourning all these years for a world that lost its nerve.

And a man...

a man whose manhood was only his possessions.

Only the estates that were his by me, accident of birth.

I have never told this to anyone.

I hardly let myself remember it.

But as the things of this world slowly slipped away from us...

I saw him crumbling before my eyes.

And on the day when the last of the lawsuits went against us...

he cried in my arms.

Heinrich Graf Von Ornstein...

Cried in my arms like a baby.

Afraid of the dark.

Umberto, a ghost.

Mario Bromelia, a ghost.

Heinrich Graf Von Ornstein!

Pour me a drink.

A tremendous drink.

Straight.

And pour yourself one, too.

You have earned it.

To money.

Without money there is nothing.

See that Helmut marries that girl.

It does seem a little unromantic...

but dear Herr Schonfeld is so right.

One must think of every.

All the dowry thing has been done, hasn't it?

Yes, yes.

Excellent.

Then let me see if I've got it all straight.

I leave everything in my will to Helmut...

you leave everything to Anneliese...

and she leaves everything to Helmut, and Helmut...

dear me, the head spins.

But if Herr Schonfeld says it's necessary...

there is no need for the slightest tremor of anxiety.

There.

And now, dear Herr Pleschke.

What charming handwriting.

And so forceful.

And now let us rise above all these sordid preliminaries...

and drink a toast to the bride and groom to be.

Konrad, what an excellent idea!

My good Mayor.

Dear friends...

this is a day of great joy to me...

and I want to share it with you.

My only and cherished son...

your own Helmut...

has found the girl of his dreams.

This sweet and charming girl who has promised to become his bride...

Anneliese Pleschke.

After the wedding...

both myself...

and the dear parents of the bride...

have decided that the castle shall be opened again.

Thank you, thank you dear people.

How I wish...

that all of you could come to the wedding.

But, alas...

as is the time honored custom...

the ceremony will take place...

in the bride's home, in the city.

And now, as a symbolic gesture...

to cast off the old...

and usher in the new...

Evil beasts.

Me and the dogs, we are old friends.

Poor Rudolph used to bring them to the Weissehirsch all the time.

That's where I work.

It's terrible...

just terrible I can't come with you.

I'm sorry Bobby darling, but after all it is just family.

But I always thought I was family.

How on earth did I put up with that depressing woman for so long?

Apathy, that's what it was. Sheer apathy.

How different things are now, dear Konrad. A new life begins.

And it is all due to you.

I stagger to think what I would have done without you.

I'm flattered, Madam.

My dear Konrad...

when are you going to drop this ridiculous "Madam" thing?

You're not a servant anymore.

You never really were, were you?

In fact...

what are you?

For the time being I suppose...

that must remain an enigma.

No, no that's all wrong.

Herte sits there, I'm sitting there...

Ehrich, there's the children there...

and you, here.

You are ready for the train to start, Countess?

Yes, of course, of course Herr Krause.

You have been so patient.

Don't forget to go up to the castle everyday and galvanize those workmen.

I won't Madam.

Goodbye.

- Konrad. - Countess.

And Carl, you are here to meet us, too. Splendid.

A great success.

You can't imagine how deadly the Pleschke relatives were...

but that's to be expected.

Frau Pleschke!

I can't bring myself to call her this.

Frau Pleschke, dear!

I've got to talk to you.

- There's all the time in the world now. - No, no at once.

Anna Lisa dear.

The logistics are all arranged.

You are to go in the car with your parents and Carl...

and Lotte, Helmut...

you come along with us.

In, in children.

I go in front.

You've got to get me out of it.

On the first night...

was revolting.

Humiliating for me and for her, too.

She finally broke down and told me it was her parents who forced her into it...

that she's in love with someone else.

Wouldn't say who, but it seems she's wants, and it's impossible.

It's going to drive us both crazy...

There, there has got to be an annulment.

When the Pleschke's have already spent a fortune on the castle?

To hell with the Pleschke's!

You thought I should go through with it, I know you.

You thought it would be best for everyone.

But who could have told that...

that just by looking at me, she would make me feel...

My God, when we got into that God awful hotel room...

Well, you've got to do something about it or I'll split it wide open.

- Hold it. - I will, I swear it!

Now that would look wonderful for mother, wouldn't it?

Having all Ornstein know she sold her son to some stinking rich...

For God's sake, hold it!

Herte dear! We can't wait to see how things are coming along at the castle.

But of course, Conrad will take you.

Where are you going?

I... I don't feel very well.

A headache.

I think...

Nonsense, you know you're dying to see the castle.

- It's just that... - Anneliese, you heard your mother.

Alright, in a moment.

I'll just get something for my head.

Would you excuse me for a moment, sir?

Right, but hurry that girl up. Yes sir.

Please, there's no time now.

They're waiting for me to drive them to the castle.

Anneliese!

Listen...

just listen.

Everything's alright.

There's no problem...

because you both feel the same way.

You don't even have to sleep in the same room.

All it needs is keeping up a front.

Is that so difficult?

I'll always be here.

Anneliese!

Anneliese!

Anneliese!

Anneliese!

I just long to see the music room. It must be ready by now.

It had better be at the rate that decorator charges.

He's really the only one.

Everyone in the city just died with envy when I told them we've got Herr Schtofen.

Yes, so long as you're satisfied.

Sweet thing.

He really is rather a sweet old thing.

I won't!

They're monsters!

And perverts!

Stop the car!

Monster!

Lied to me!

Deceiving me!

Father's money!

The money for them!

Take me away!

Take me away!

My chauffeur!

My chauffeur!

Take me away!

Please, take me away!

Stop this car! Do you hear me?

I will throw you to jail for the rest of your life!

You'll be up soon?

Yes.

Konrad, is that you?

Something perfectly stupid has happened.

I just bend down to take off my slippers and my back...

It's a judgment on me I'm sure, for casting poor Bobby in outer darkness.

At least she understood the sacroiliac.

Would you like me to see if I can help, Madam?

Do you know how?

What a foolish question.

I should know by now that you know how to do everything.

Perfectly.

Can you, turn over?

I don't know... I try.

A man's hands.

I've forgotten how they felt.

So powerful, so reassuring.

Ten years, just begun it.

Ten years without the touch...

of a man's hands.

Unless, of course, you could count Bobby.

That's exquisite.

Divine.

Yes, a little higher up.

Yes.

Yes!

That's it!

A cure.

A miraculous cure.

I must dedicate this bed as a shrine to Saint Konrad of the healing hands.

Well, we seem to be here, don't we?

Do you remember at the station when we were leaving for the city?

I said, "Who are you?"

I know now.

You are the new man.

The new force that's coming to the world.

A new world, a savage world.

The world of Attila come again.

My ancestors knew which way the wind was blowing then.

I can just see them...

the women.

My women.

The royal tents all around them burning...

and the sabers flashing as the invaders slit their noble husband's throats.

And what did they do?

They looked around for the strongest, roughest warrior who wielded the swiftest sword...

and they jumped on the back of his horse.

And so invader, from wherever you are...

doesn't the next step seem inevitable?

Good morning.

Good morning.

You must wear that always.

Let me look at you.

Let me touch you in the cold light of dawn.

Very satisfactory.

I have got to get out of here.

Must you go?

They'll all be waking up soon.

I suppose you're right.

The children are so prudish about their manners aren't they?

Prowling around so early in the morning, Konrad dear?

I'm always up early?

How virtuous.

Here, have some glorious pre-breakfast chocolate cake.

You don't have to worry with that sexy figure.

Well.

I suppose I should be resigned...

there must be worse fates than being pleasingly plump.

I read somewhere that Solomate was pleasingly plump.

Clean up all that stuff when you finish.

Cook doesn't like coming down to a messy kitchen.

Me, another disastrous sexual fail.

Kunte, Kuntos come on, loves the yummy cake.

No, thank you.

But please tell cook that Mr. Konrad found his omelette delicious.

Yes, Madam.

Don't you feel this is the perfect moment?

Lotte, Helmut, come here.

I hope this is going to be a pleasant surprise.

Pleasant is the operative word.

Your new father to be.

Is that all?

The dogs and I saw that coming days ago.

Dearest Mama...

you're the most fortunate of women.

And we, brother, are the most fortunate of offspring.

Who else in Ornstien can boast of so sexy a stepfather?

Well, I think it's wonderful mother.

Just wonderful, I'm...

Goddammit, I left my watch down by the lake.

What was all that about?

I'll see.

I was planning on pink for the bridesmaids,

darling, but you really do discourage me a little.

She asked me.

Last night she asked me to marry her.

What was I to do? Say no?

If I had, do you imagine I could have stayed here?

I would've had to take the first train out of Ornstein.

I know how you feel.

How do you think I'm feeling?

I don't know.

I just don't know.

If you want to be out of the way I'll break it off right now.

I'll get the hell out of here.

Maybe that will be better for you anyway.

You can sleep with anyone, can't you?

If I have to.

But I have my preferences.

I'm not in the least surprised.

The broad was always poor.

Her grandmother persistently debauched her stable boys!

Princess Palamir.

Dearest Herte, my most heartfelt congratulations.

Hypocritical old cow.

She's shocked out of her hide, but she doesn't have the guts to say so.

She's scared stiff she won't be invited to the castle.

They are all the same.

Bed time everybody!

We must all look our most ravishing for the great event tomorrow.

Goodnight, mother.

No darling, come and kiss me goodnight at my door.

I'm just filled with sentiment tonight.

Really darling!

Those look like the claws of some ancient vampire bat.

Well, Christian charity.

That is the watch word tonight.

Don't forget to turn out the lights.

Of course not, dear Konrad.

Farewell, farewell until we meet again.

Thunder...

lightning...

or rain.

No, not here...

this is unsuitable for doggy eyes.

Haven't you learned to knock?

Pretty.

Though I read somewhere that all the smartest

bridegrooms are wearing midnight blue this year.

What do you want?

I wonder why you've gone on sleeping in this terrible room?

If I've been right, I'd have stayed on downstairs with mother.

Her bed's far more civilized.

But...

I suppose it's the proprieties.

There's something I thought you might like to know, dear Konrad.

This morning I wrote a memorandum.

I know it by heart...

but it's rather long, so I think a praise should do.

Lovely legs, by the way.

Father's, as I remember, were rather skinny.

To begin with...

There's the waitress from Weisse Hirsch...

a close friend of mine these days.

She saw you walking Rudolph up to the railroad tracks the night he was killed.

She also saw you riding Anneliese around on the back of your bicycle.

That was when you were tricking her into the wedding, wasn't it?

And then, of course, the dogs and I were spying...

when Anneliese broke in on you and Helmut.

There's lots more, of course...

but that should give the general idea.

Homicide for Rudolph.

Something or other for Anneliese.

Sodomy with a minor for Helmut.

And of course...

poor Herr Pleschke.

Poor Frau Pleschke.

Poor Anneliese.

Three more homicides.

I wrote the memorandum this morning.

I wanted to seal it with my own blood...

but I settled for sealing wax.

I put it in another envelope...

and I sent it to dear Herr Schonfeld.

And on it I wrote...

"To be opened only in the event of my demise."

Poor Konrad.

What a lot of hard work for nothing.

Footman...

shine my shoe.

Shine my shoe.

What are you going to do?

I'll have to think about it, won't I?

Go to the police, I suppose.

That's what you are meant to do.

Isn't it?

If my dear mother had only been alive today.

I'm free to the court.

Anna is free to the court, we are all free to the court.

A flower! A working flower!

A Christian warming of the host.

My son, you may kiss the bride.

Poor mother.

Poor Helmut.