Original subtitles

Tomorrow.

Tonight, see a man's desire for harmless revenge begin as a practical joke and

end in near disaster.

Tonight, Tales of Tomorrow presents Read to Me, Herr Doctor.

Starring Mercedes McCambridge with Everett Sloan.

to be here, Doctor.

To Sherlock Holmes, she is always the woman.

I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.

In his eyes, she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.

I wish you would.

I told you I'd get out here. I'm sorry it's such a long trail.

But I'm very glad you came. Come in, won't you? Thank you.

The camp driver said that there'd be nothing but woods this far out.

He said that if there was a 1421 Northern Avenue, it'd probably be on a

tree. Well, it is on a tree, if you notice.

But behind the tree, there's a house. There's this house.

Sit down, won't you? Thank you.

Well.

So you're really Professor Kimwell's daughter.

Why, had you thought he ate his young?

Well, I know that he almost ate me when I took physics with him.

Yeah, we used to call him Cyclops. Or is that an awful thing to say?

Oh, Dad has two eyes in his head.

Well, he only used one when he lectured. You see, he'd screw up his right eye and

then he'd glare at us balefully to the left.

No, not balefully, really. More likely he was trying to find you.

Dad's right eye has always given him a lot of trouble.

Come on, say hello to him, will you?

He's always so happy to meet his old students.

It's in here. No, no, no. He's got someone with him. I only wish he had.

Well, that's not the professor. Come in, Sidney.

See that?

That will be all for now.

Yes,

my dear. I've brought somebody to see you.

An old friend would like to say hello to you.

An old friend?

Uh-huh.

I met him just a few days ago at the Greens party.

Hello, Professor.

Sidney Strong.

Physics, seven and eight, two years ago.

Oh, yes, Mr. Strong.

Well, well, come in, come in.

Delighted to see you again.

Have a seat. Thank you.

May I present, Herr Dr.

Himmelsdick.

Dad's always been an incurable practical joker. I guess you never knew that,

didn't you?

What is it exactly?

Neither more nor less than my introduction implied.

This is Herr Dr.

Himmelsdick.

From Leipzig?

Yes, I see you remember too.

Yes, the good Herr Dr.

Himmelsdick, who wielded the sector of absolute authority over me those two

years in Leipzig.

And now, all these years later, in my harmless way, I have my little revenge.

I lean back in my chair, I remove my glasses, and I say, Read to me, Herr

Doctor.

It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still wanted ten

minutes to the hour. That will be all for now, Herr Doctor.

How does it work? Oh, no.

Sound, established electronic principles.

Plus one or two of those little innovations which come easily to a

retired professor with lots of leisure.

Twin... photoelectric cells scan the page, and the impulses then are

transmitted to the electronic brain, the heart of the machine, which transforms

them into sound patterns.

A loudspeaker, and that's all there is to it.

Oh, the moving limbs, the man's shape, merely my little conceits at the expense

of the good and deceased, Herr Doctor.

And at the expense of your good and not quite deceased daughter.

Patricia has taken an interesting dislike to the hair doctor.

I think it's horrible.

Oh, nonsense. Just a little gadget to entertain the dying or declining years

of an old man with failing eyesight.

It serves me as a pair of eyes.

A pair of eyes to recapture the romance and adventure that were denied to me by

the prodding of the good hair doctor, Himmelsdick.

Dickens, Cervantes, Dumas, Marx... Twain, Colin Doyle.

It's among these artists that I wish to spend the rest of my life.

I never had time to read them myself.

But the hair doctor has come into the world to oblige me. The hair doctor

could oblige me very much by going back out of the world.

The old fable, eh, Mr. Strong?

Our beauty is repelled by the beast.

And like the beast, the hair doctor has nothing but beauty in his heart.

Well, how could he have otherwise?

since in his reading he experiences nothing but the greatest and the most

beautiful of adventures.

Can I have a seat, Mr. Strong?

We were just getting to the most interesting part of a scandal in

Bohemia.

Read to me here, Doctor.

It was already dusk and the lamps were just being lighted as we paced up and

down in front of Briony Lodge, waiting for the coming of its occupant.

screamed my lady.

We want, said Athos, Charlotte Baxon, who was first called Comtesse de la

Fere, and afterwards Lady de Winter, Baroness de Sheffield.

Aha! Based with her accusers, eh, Herr Doctor?

Her crimes finally caught up with her, eh?

Well, what do you think now, Doctor?

We're approaching the dramatic climax, eh?

barging in like this, but you sounded so upset over the phone. Sidney, we've got

to do something about the hair doctor.

It's all right, Pat. I have. What do you mean you have? It's a gold mine. I was

talking to one of the men at the research foundation.

He says it's definitely a marketable item. He said... I don't care what he

says. It's Dad.

He's getting worse.

You mean his eyes?

No.

I'm beginning to think it's his mind.

Pat.

Sidney, he talks to it now.

Well, I know he says, read to me, Herr Doctor, to start the machine, but that's

not necessary. No, no, no, no. He talks to it, not just the key sentence. He

says more now.

What?

He discusses things with it.

What things? The books. He asks its opinion.

They have literary discussions now.

They?

Why, you're not trying to tell me that the Herr Doctor answers him.

No. No, of course not. Well, then, wait until it does talk back, and then get

excited. Oh.

Wait.

I am waiting.

Thus ended the life of that ingenious gentleman, Don Teote.

There were many epitaphs made for him, but the simplest of these were the words

Sancho said over his grave.

He was a man in love Nobody knows why

No, no, no, no. You'll run along. It's late. Oh, now look, I'm going to be out

of town for a whole week. We'll be right here when you get back. Besides, I've

got to go see about Dad. Oh, you know, Pat, there's more to life than worrying

about your father. Yes, I know. We'll talk all about it when you get back.

Good night, Sidney. What about the hair doctor? Has he said anything to you yet?

No.

No, that man's got no incentive.

Now, if I were the hair doctor living in this house looking at you all day, it

would take a lot more than a little matter of being made up. Good night,

good night, good night, good night, Sidney.

You come and see us next week when you get back to town, will you?

Bye.

Oh, Dad, now really.

Can't I even trust you to go to bed on time anymore?

Sitting up all night with your stupid head, Doctor.

Come on now, Dad, wake up. That's right, wake him up.

What was that? Wake him up. Wake him up so that both of you can hear what I've

got to say.

Dad. Yes.

Wake him. Wake the professor so he can listen to the Herr Doktor.

Dad, wake up.

Oh, Dad.

What good are switches?

Switches are for machines.

Switches have no effect on men. Dad, wake up. Stop it.

That will be all for now, Herr Doktor. On the contrary, Professor Kimworth.

That will not be all for now.

In fact, Professor, we have only just begun.

It isn't possible.

Not possible, Professor? Why not possible?

Dad, it's alive.

But what did I do?

You made a man. A man, but not a man. A half-man.

And then you fed it romance and adventure.

You filled its coils with love for living. Dad, you've got to stop it.

You've got to turn it off. Turn it off?

We tried that.

Switches are not for men.

But you're not a man. You will provide me with what I lack.

What?

You will teach me.

It's all here in the book.

You will create the rest of the man.

I... I'm to teach you? You're a professor.

You have given me your pleasure.

Now, you will give me your brain.

No!

Dad, I'll get help. And you will not interfere.

You will not leave. You will not call for help.

You will take care of your father so that he is able to finish seriously the

work he began as a game.

Read

to

me, Professor.

Yes.

Yes, of course.

The study of the foundations of mathematics deals with the fundamental

concepts and the assumptions about those concepts from which all mathematical

truths can be proved.

The telephone was invented in 1876 at Boston, Massachusetts by Alexander

Graham Bell.

Man loves life.

You would not want to deprive the professor of his through disobedience.

The birth of modern chemistry is attributed to Robert Boyle.

He invented a method for extracting the element phosphorus.

I... I brought you some coffee, Dad.

Oh, thank you, my dear.

Dad? Why have you stopped reading?

Pardon me.

Can't you stop?

Look at him. He's almost dead from exhaustion.

Exhaustion? What is exhaustion? A man must rest. Rest? Yes, rest.

And sleep and eat.

You can't keep him reading to you 24 hours a day. He must teach me. He's not

a machine.

What do you want from him? I want the job to be finished. I want to be a full

man. Why?

What will you do when you're a full man?

Live. Machines can't live.

Life is blood and bone and heart. You're nothing but coils and wire and metal.

You can't live. You will teach me.

Both of you.

Leave to me, Professor.

No!

Let him eat. I don't eat.

Leave to me, Professor.

Yes. Yes, of course.

The theory of phlogiston, first advanced by Bescher and later by

Starr, goes back to the old idea of Jabir that combustible bodies

lost something...

When they burst.

Dad.

Dad. The semester is over.

The student is...

Taking his examination.

The nightmare has touches of humor to it.

He demanded the most difficult examination I could devise.

Yes, the student is about to graduate.

Dad, if he's satisfied that he's learned enough, will he leave here?

No mention has been made of future plans.

I've crammed years of learning into... into a week's instruction.

I tried to teach him everything I know.

If he is a man, then he is a complete one.

And if he is a complete man, he's more dangerous than we can imagine. Dad, can

we let him go out into the world? Can we stop him?

We're helpless, my dear.

We're prisoners in our own home.

We daren't use the telephone. We daren't call for help. But what does he want to

do with his knowledge?

I'm afraid to guess.

I've been waiting for him to come back. He'll be able to help me. An electric

bell.

Consists of a small electromagnet acting upon a soft iron armature which stands

away from the magnet.

When the latter is energized, a small hammer attached to the armature strikes

a blow and the bell or gong.

You will send whoever it is away. Let him go. You will send whoever it is

away. He is never to come back. And you will not try to communicate anything

else to whoever it is.

Go to the door.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

oh,

oh,

oh,

oh,

Are you satisfied?

I am.

Professor Kinworth, you will go and look at my examination.

I think you will find that I have learned everything you have taught.

Yes.

Yes.

Right. Right away.

Dad?

Dad?

What do you want?

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more fair. Stop it. Let me buy it.

I wouldn't hurt you.

You've turned your face from me.

And when you spoke of me, it was in anger and fear.

But I felt only love.

Felt love?

Yes, felt.

He played with creation to amuse his dying years.

And I am the result of his games.

He built a machine to read to him. And filled it with love and emotion.

He gave it beauty to read and beauty to look at.

Don Quixote, D'Artagnan, Romeo, men who loved, and the machine loved

too. And to the machine, you were always the woman.

Oh! No, my hand!

Let go!

Let go!

Help me! For you, I have come alive.

For you, I have studied you all to be a man. Let go!

Let go!

Together! Together we will make a new world! Let me go!

Let me go!

Brash knight!

Don't cut my arm!

He

is

our enemy.

He wants to come between us.

I want only to build, and I need your love for that. My love?

You think life is like the books you read, where everything is solved by

force. You think that love is gained through duels and fights and conquests.

I have fought for your love. And I hate you. You can't hate me. I've fought for

you. Ed, you've won nothing.

If I'm what stands between you and the world you planned, you'll never see it,

because you'll never have my love.

Man fights for his lady and gains her favor. The books have taught me. The

books are wrong.

The books are wrong.

Dad.

Are you all right? Yes.

The books are wrong.

Oh, Dad.

Oh, Dad.

How does it feel?

The books are long.

Where is it going? Come.

Is it... No, wait.

Read to me, Herr Doctor.

What happened to him?

The heart of the machine is broken.

The Herr Doctor has just died.

Like Don Quixote He was a man in love

Nobody knows why