Original subtitles

Bob are you coming up? yes yes i'm coming i'm coming.

that's Fanny my wife. she takes so long to get to bed anyhow I could walk around Hyde Park

before she's ready to turn out the light. I want to tell you a story. it's the most extraordinary story

you've ever heard. it's the most extraordinary story I've ever heard anyway. not that the events

themselves are particularly startling but they're unusual well no extraordinary in a sense more for

what didn't happen than what did more for what was never said than what was actually spoken

it was a very silence of people who could so easily have given vent their feelings

the fact that they did so little when in the normal way one would have expected

them to have done so much that makes the story curious and I repeat extraordinary.

I was connected with it only on the fringe but Fanny was you might say in the thick of it where

I'll be honest she has a habit of being and dragging me along with her. not that I minded

in this case because when, as a matter of fact, I got rather fascinated by it. Fanny's a good

storyteller I suppose because she displays such a genuine interest in other people's business.

but she roped me in well more in the nature of a broom to sweep and tidy her mind of all

the clutter that was accumulating in it as the complicated affair unfolded. so I got it mainly

from her and partly from being involved myself on the fringe. and by the way my name's Bob Assingham.

I was in the army for a long time, but uh that's neither here nor there, and we live in this house

in Keduggin place where we're enough off I suppose. I wouldn't say rich exactly not by some standards.

anyway not by Adam Verver's. for instance Verver is one of the curious people in this affair.

an American a millionaire, aren't they all, but not the usual sort. oh I've met them in lots of

places but he was different. he was a quiet man for one thing and for another a man of

exquisite taste. he was a collector of object d' arte from all over the world. it was his hobby.

well more it was his passion in the quietest way of course. he'd actually founded a town or

something in the States called American City and filled it with some of his acquisitions.

it's amazing that you know. that's not the sort of thing an Englishman would do.

I might I don't say that in a carping sense of course because Verver really was the most

admirable of human beings who displayed qualities in the end uh well I'll get to that later.

first let me try to sort this thing out in my mind and decide where to begin because I want

you to understand it fully and I want you to see the characters clearly in your mind's eye as I did and

I don't have Fanny's gift for words. fortunate I suppose as we have a cheek over a listener

but I do want you to see them. and more I want you to to know them. I want you to

know all about them. I want you to see them as it were not just in the flesh but in the

bone the fiber and the nerve ends as well. so just let me think for a moment where to begin.

well I can't begin at the beginning because that's too far back and uh well

Fanny didn't know too much about all that, which as it turned out,

was part of the trouble. it often is with things Fanny's connected with.

if she had known well perhaps she wouldn't have acted the way she did. perhaps she'd have warned

others or be more cautious I don't know there's so many ifs and buts about the whole business.

now you'll just have to pick it up as you go along. feel it out and fill it in

as I did. so on second thought let me start with Maggie. Maggie Verver. she was an attractive girl

22 or 3. her mother had died when she was 10 and her father Adam Verver had taken her with him on

all his travels. she received her education in all the art museums and junk shops of Europe

and they were both terribly fond of each other. I mean they were devoted to each other.

they lived in and for each other. they complimented each other as a man and wife might to have lived

together for a long time one knowing the other's thoughts before he's even thought of it, able to

communicate by a look or glance as the common shorthand of communication amongst the happily

married. Fanny and I we communicate by the longest shorthand in the book. but you see that's because

Fanny she loves to talk so and she her mind is so tortured sometimes that it's, well I know there's

something else, but the Ververs were quiet people not over given to expressing themselves in words.

they could be silent together for hours strolling through the boulevards of Paris or the Borghese

Gardens in Rome. as I say they didn't really need to talk. they understood each other

and they positively liked each other's company. in fact though neither of them had ever thought

about it much, I daresay they couldn't really imagine a life apart from each other, which

to say the least was curious, because after all, Maggie was of marriageable age

and what was more to the point, would inherit a great deal of money when that day came.

Verver was nothing if not generous which is really the starting point of the story.

a young and pretty heiress with lots of suitors sooner or later must make a choice

knowing full well she was a prey to the fortune hunter. and though both Verver and Maggie were

rather simple people they weren't so unworldly as not to know the dangers. they knew perfectly

well it was the easiest trap in the world to fall into and that others cleverer and more

sophisticated than they had fallen into it. so although Maggie scarcely ever thought of marriage

indeed unconsciously I suppose assumed an attachment to her father that seemed to preclude

any other. when Fanny introduced her to the prince it was as if both she and her father,

at once and, as if it were a hidden signal, saw the possibilities and saw the advantages.

and if he came recommended by Fanny when he was all right to start with. and if Maggie liked him,

which she did, then they could do worse than think about it seriously. he was a young man

of antecedents so old that mr Verver could scarcely be blamed for wanting to add him to his collection.

on this particular afternoon the prince had gone to mr Verver's home where his own representative

CalderonI and mr Verver's were drawing up the marriage settlement Verver was making on

the prince. it was as with everything Verver did generous to a degree. there'd be no hard

bargaining. the prince wouldn't have allowed it. his manners were far too good for that

and I dare say that had he not believed Verver's settlement would be beyond reproach

from the beginning, he probably never would have entered into the arrangement at all.

and he liked Maggie make no mistake. it would have been hard not to she was such a charming girl.

so that afternoon while he and Verver watched the legal gentleman arguing about commas and

full stops but not about money he had good reason to feel satisfied and so did Verver.

if you think I am a self-evident - can we return to the matter? I was not aware we had the left it.

we seem to have wandered. all i'm asking is that in the matter of a settlement of this kind

English law requires the lady in question and her family be protected and I must protect my client.

no one expects you to do otherwise sir but you are asking me to advise my client to sign a document

that will take effect only on the death of my client. it seems a reasonable provision.

excuse please, your client? yes sir my client the party of the first party. I thought you meant

my client. no sir my client. you idiot could you not hear what he is saying? you are supposed to speak

English. oh you idiot. why I bring you here. I feel as if I've been valued knocked down parceled up

and about to be posted. oh you're valued, I can tell you that. you're like crystal but without the

rough edges. pure and perfect. not easy to find.

i'm delighted i'm a perfect specimen I believe they sometimes have cracks

and flaws in which case they're to be had very cheap.

when I say Verver was generous I don't simply mean with his money.

just think. he had no one in his life apart from Maggie for the last 12 years or so.

she'd been his constant companion. he depended on her utterly. not for any obviously important things

but like a habit one is hardly conscious of until suddenly it's broken by a change of

circumstance. they were like an old married couple in whom the bloom of romantic love had long since

faded but are as necessary to each other as the soil is to the plant. and yet not for one moment

did it cross his mind to make objections. never by word or deed did he display the slightest

vexation of this permanent wrench in the order of his life. and though he felt once again avoid

looming up before him such as he must have felt when his first wife died. it never crossed his mind

to put difficulties in Maggie's way. and Maggie too she was enchanted with her coming marriage.

she sat that afternoon waiting in a tea shop off Knightsbridge for the prince to join her and the

approaching rift in her life, the alteration, it was bound to make never really impinged on her mind.

I suppose that was partly the trouble. I suppose in a way that was the cause of all that followed.

well are you all added up and counted? balanced and brought down and carried forward to a nice

new clean page. did you mind? no your father's quite the best man I've ever had

to deal with. I agree with you there. he's a real galantuomo. and so are you. a real galantuomo.

well i'm like a chicken at best. chopped up and covered in sauce and half its parts left out.

your father's the whole natural fowl running loose in the yard. I like him. you might change

your mind before you've done with us. done with you? found out about us. all there is to find.

you know it's you really. you know so little about me. I've read a lot about you. no that's the history part.

the follies of ancestors, especially the infamous waste of money that might have come to me.

what's the other part? my own self about which you know nothing.

lucky for me then. I'll have plenty to occupy me in the future.

and anyway what would you be without all those wicked generations of popes and princes?

well what am I now? a morceau de musee. a museum piece?

oh yes that cost a lot of money. I haven't the least idea what you cost. wouldn't you

find out if you were a question of parting with me? yes if you mean not pay rather than lose you.

well I hope there's one thing you believe about me.

one? there are lots and all in watertight compartments.

well you do believe that i'm not a hypocrite. is that in one of your watertight compartments?

that's not a compartment that's the ship itself and she's unsinkable.

I have some shopping to do. I'll come with you. no there are things a girl must do on her own.

now have you made a list of all the people you'll be asking to the wedding? yes. there aren't many.

it will still be longer than ours. is that right? well we have no relations as such. but you both have

friends. acquaintances. you ask them when you have relations not to cover up the fact that you don't.

where will you go? hmm I'll walk for a bit. I might drop in on Fanny. what for? well I've never properly

thanked her for introducing us. do you think she needs it? I need it. I feel in the thanking

mood this afternoon. I shall thank Fanny. it's a good substitute for thanking my lucky star.

well give her my love then.

he came to see Fanny that same afternoon. exactly why he came I don't know. perhaps it was as he

said to thank her, to tie up all the ends on a day when he felt his life was in fact being tidied as

never before. whatever the reason for his calling, whatever his inner compulsion, it was as if some

secret fate had led him there as inexorably as a doomed man to the gallows.

you look restless. you're feeling I suppose like all men, the trap closing around you. I don't know.

perhaps it's all those solemn signatures of an hour ago. I feel uneasy. you mean

you're afraid? oh terrified. all is settled, the bridges are burned, I've crossed over.

I've now but to wait to see the monster come.

and the marriage is what you call the monster. yes. well for heaven's sake don't run away from it.

to run away from it would be to run away from you and the monster frightens me rather less than that.

I depend on you you know, to see me through...

as you've seen me through up to now.

I'm at the end of the preliminaries and I can't help feeling how little there would have been of those without you.

it was nothing. everything went of itself. uh but you had the conception. ah prince but so did you.

well then you had it first. you had it most. I liked it if that's what you mean. I simply had

to speak for you. true. but now you're leaving me all the same and I won't be left. I shall keep

you in sight. if you're afraid, which of course you're not, are you trying to make me the same?

thank you Jenkins.

you say you liked making my engagement possible

why? why did you like it? I hardly know what to make of such an inquiry. well i'm curious.

after all it wasn't simply a matter of your handing me over. it was also a matter of your

handing over her, Maggie. you adore Maggie and yet you enjoyed putting her at risk. are you

trying to frighten me? oh that's a foolish view. you apparently don't understand either my good faith

or my humility. you're very deep your old Italians. there you are. that's the responsible note I wanted.

I don't in the least want to lose sight of you. I shouldn't think it right if I did. well that's all

I wanted to hear. you see I can do pretty well everything I see but I have to see it first.

your eyes will make me see. see what? when i'm off someday when i'm wrong without knowing it.

that's what I shall trust you for, to tell me when I am.

you know you're not treating me quite right. why not?

well you're really not in the least bit troubled by what I've been telling you and yet you look

troubled. I can only assume that you have something on your mind that you don't tell me. am I obliged

to tell you everything that's on my mind? only everything that concerns me. well I have something

on my mind but it doesn't properly concern you. oh properly. that speaks volumes. what is it?

Charlotte Stant is in London. she's just been here.

oh really? she has arrived from America? yes she arrived about noon. going straight to a hotel.

she dropped in after lunch and was here for about an hour. does it bother you? should it? no but it seems

to. it seems to trouble you. oh I didn't say that it did. well you had it on your mind. but only

to the extent of not in the least having looked for it any more than I judge Maggie to have done.

well Maggie will be delighted. oh yes. had Charlotte gone to see her? no she's gone back to the hotel

to get her things. I can't leave her alone at a hotel. no I see. I mean if she's here she must stay

with me. and she's coming now? yes I expect her any minute. if you wait you'll see her. charming.

you know if it wasn't for what's going on these next few days Maggie would certainly

have wanted her to stay with her. in fact that might be the very reason she will want her to.

what has she come for? for your marriage. mine? or Maggie's. it comes to the same thing.

and then she's so lonely. has she given that for a reason? oh she's given so many I scarcely remember.

Charlotte abounds in reasons but then there's one that's always permanent with her.

what's that? she has no home very little means and she hates America. she's extraordinarily alone.

has she come with designs on me? is she still as beautiful? oh yes she's the same.

on reflection I think she's acted in coming generously. impulsively but generously. she

has acted beautifully. I say generously because she can have hardly counted the cost.

you'll look after her? of course. so it's all right.

it's all right. then why are you so troubled? I'm not any more than you are.

oh well I'm not. I should hope not for you wouldn't have a shadow of an excuse.

is that her now?

yes

she can come to us at any time you know. after all she and Maggie are old friends. would you

like her for your honeymoon? oh no you must keep her for that. but why not after? why not? splendid.

miss Charlotte Stant.

they confronted each other, these two, across the room like two tormented creatures from a previous

life. now what that previous life had been in detail no one really knew, though fanny professed

to be sure of it. but that something had happened between them was certain. you could see it in the

way the prince was so markedly off balance for a moment and the way Charlotte was so certainly on.

for a moment he wasn't sure how to respond and then she gave him just the right note.

you see you're not rid of me. how's Maggie? I've been thinking of her and at last I yearn for her.

I want to see her happy. then you shall. she is I think terribly happy. she's the dearest of the dear,

but then I don't have to tell you that. was my butler downstairs to let you in? only the maid.

you look charming. thank you.

Maggie would have invited you to the wedding but it seems such a long and

expensive journey for you, but she'll rejoice awfully in your being with us.

I hear you don't like America. no. that's not encouraging for me. are you going? in a month or two.

it seems to be the new idea. didn't Maggie tell you about it? well not of you're going at once no.

but of course you must go and stay as long as possible. is that what you did? me? I hadn't your interests.

are yours then rather here? mine take up very little room wherever they are.

anyway it's not really my country. it's just my parent's.

I have been thinking it all the while probably you know

that you would have seen your way to marry him.

marry whom? oh some good kind clever rich American. but that's not a very easy combination to find.

oh I did try. perhaps I tried too hard. anyway one's existence you know doesn't depend on it.

the position of a single woman today is very favorable. favorable to what? why to existence.

which can contain all kinds of affections. I am extremely fond of Maggie for instance.

I wouldn't adore her more if I were married. well you might adore him. ah him.

well it's just a question of doing the best for oneself that one can.

anyway, I venture to repeat the hope that you'll marry some capital fellow. thank you very much.

the prince hopes so much that I shall marry some good person.

we all hope my dear it will be a good person that you marry. she's been trying in America

she says but hasn't brought it off. if you take such interest you must bring it off.

and you must help dear as you've helped with these things so beautifully before. your marriage.

is it on Friday? on Friday? no what do you take us for. it's not a vulgar Roman wedding.

no on Saturday at 11 o'clock at the Oratory before 12 guests. including me? oh no that won't do. you'll

make the thirteenth. not if you're going in for omens. shall I stay away then? no good heavens no.

we'll invite another and make it the round number. well I must go. i'm dining tonight with mr Verver.

have you any message for Maggie about coming early? she'll want that. then I shall come early.

there is a favor i'd like to ask of you though. what is it? I want between now

and Saturday to buy Maggie a present. oh no no I must and I could find nothing I liked in America.

what is it my dear that you like? but that's what I want the prince to help me decide. can't I help you

decide? of course you can Fanny. we'll discuss this evening but I want him if he will to come with me.

to look, to help me choose. that is all the great favor I ask if you can spare the hour.

what you came back from America to ask. why not? I can certainly spare the hour. don't you think?

why not? you must certainly find the hour.

I don't quite see, I'm bound to say, why you take it even at the worst so hard.

and after it's not your fault she's here. why couldn't she come after the marriage? why did

she have to come before? why so perversely look it all so in the face? for discipline. oh nonsense.

you don't understand. you willfully misunderstand. oh my dear following your thought is like riding

over rough ground on the back of a mule. you get there in the end but it's painfully slow.

first of all, what on earth took place between them? they fell in love with each other what else.

no no it wasn't possible so they gave each other up. why wasn't it possible? because

neither of them had the means to marry. I mean if Charlotte had had a little, well enough for two,

I think they would have done it. hmm or if he had a little a little more than a little

mean a little for a prince. yes I take your point. but there wasn't a way. Charlotte saw it.

saw that he had to have money was life or death for him. so she bowed out or they both did.

and that's what you call their romance? what more do you want? didn't he want anything more or

Charlotte didn't they do anything more? they were in love. she might have been his...

she might have been his what? she might have been anything she liked except his wife.

but she wasn't? no she wasn't. well how do you know? there wasn't time. for that?

why does it take so much time? it takes more than they had. oh you mean you came

on the scene with Maggie? do you remember nothing? they'd parted before he'd even heard of Maggie.

why hadn't he heard of her from Charlotte? because Charlotte had never mentioned her.

how do you know? did she tell you? no he did the prince. oh I see. no you don't see.

we were in Rome end of February remember? Charlotte had been there since November. Maggie and her

father were on their way there when Charlotte upped and left a few days before they arrived. why?

hm yeah well why? she left to save herself. oh to save herself and him. she left to save

herself from becoming his mistress and left to save him the agony of afterwards dropping her.

well in that case, all that's needed is to leave things alone.

and what case are you talking about? are there so many? there's Maggie's and the prince's

and then there's the prince's and Charlotte's. Charlotte and prince and prince and Maggie.

of course if you're going to be vulgar. not at all. I think for an old soldier I'm rather refined.

it strikes me as odd really that neither he nor Charlotte mentioned anything to Maggie.

there's some things my dear that you cannot mention to Maggie. she should be so scandalized?

she'd be so frightened, so hurt. she wasn't born to evil she must never know it. some people are like that.

all right. tell me this: if Charlotte bolted before to save him, well I mean why the

deuce did sh come back to him now? to see Maggie through. through what? through everything.

Charlotte knows the prince and Maggie doesn't. huh so Charlotte comes back to give her lessons.

Charlotte when you come to think of it has been magnificent. she gave him up when she saw it was

the only way to help him and she's back now to let him see that everything is normal and

that her heart is not breaking. and is it? certainly and that's why she's magnificent.

oh so that's how she's seeing Maggie through. by seeing the prince through.

yes and it's up to us to see Charlotte through. again through what? through her loneliness.

well how are we gonna do that? it would be all right if she were to marry.

- oh we're to marry her. - if we can.

it will make up for any mistake I may have inadvertently made.

and I thought the whole point of this conversation was that you hadn't made any. which were quite sure

you hadn't. one could never be wholly sure of not having made a mistake. why risk making another?

where would you be my dear if I hadn't risked it with you? Charlotte's marrying will prove

the truth of everything I say. it will prove that she's cured and that she accepts the situation.

we can certainly cover up her tracks. it'll give her new tracks. it'll give

her her best chance of being magnificent. and you along with her. I shall do my best.

and you called me immoral. no only obtuse. although obtuseness carried to a certain degree

is you know immoral. I'm going to my room

besides which, it is after all at the worst, great fun.

now I must tell you but I want to be

absolutely honest. you've not been honest? I don't want to pretend and I can't. I came back for this.

not for anything else really but this. for this? yes for this. think of me what you will I don't care.

this is why I came back. this is what i'm here for.

to have one hour alone with you. I don't care what you make of it and I don't ask anything of you

except this, to see you once and be with you as we used to be for one small hour or two.

I've had it in my head for weeks. I mean, to get it before your marriage.

so you see it was only a question of whether I should be able to manage it in time.

and I have. there were moments over there when I despaired.

despaired of being able to see you once more alone as we once were.

well it was a risk. if you'd been horrid and refused to come out with me this morning.

well there was no reason to get a present for Maggie that Maggie must know nothing about.

yes yes a present for Maggie. something inexpensive but different.

something absolutely right that she wouldn't think of buying for herself.

well that's reason enough. it was my excuse and it will have to do.

I had to have this moment. you see don't you?

not just to get my time with you. I wanted you to know. to understand.

no I don't care whether you understand or not. what I want is that it shall always be with you,

this moment, this meeting that I've made so that you will never be able quite to

get rid of the fact that I did. that we were here where we are and as we are.

do you see?

do you?

no I don't think so. she wouldn't like it. well you must find something. we've been out for two hours.

it's just that the right thing is not easy to find. don't rush.

well you're right. there's nothing here that she could wear.

is there anything do you think that you could? why? is it your idea to offer me something? as a

memento. a memento? of this, our little hunt as you say. ah as I said, I don't ask you to. a memento

from you to me would be a memento of nothing. you have, on the other hand, given me my idea.

to offer me something? why not? be just between the two of us. no. you wouldn't accept? no.

oh that's a pity. it's what i'd hoped. it's what you brought me out for. that is my affair.

now where would I wear that? under my clothes? wherever you like.

and is it your idea that I might go home and show it to Maggie? why not?

how should I give her an account of the pretext? the pretext? the occasion the ramble we've had

together. I remember we're not to speak of it. you seem princess to have seen too much perhaps.

my golden bowl. gold? really? gold. look at it. see what you make of it.

it may be very cheap for what it is but will be very dear for me. you like it? do you?

it is a perfect crystal. you mean cut from a single crystal? well I promise you if it isn't

you won't find any joints or pinning. not even if I scrape off the gold? you couldn't do that.

it is too well put on by some very fine work and some beautiful old process. a lost art.

a lost art. if it is so precious how comes it's so cheap? I'll wait outside. I had it a long time.

I must I must have been keeping it for you. because you thought I might not see what's the matter with it.

what is the matter? that is for you to say. if you cannot tell what it is isn't it as good as if

there were nothing? I probably should as soon as I pay for it. ah but not if you hadn't paid too much.

how much is not too much? well what would you say to 15 pounds?

i'd say it was too much. I can't go lower. then it's impossible. it's more than I can afford.

but sometimes one can afford more for a present than one affords for oneself. does one make a present

of something with a flaw? one can always mention it. leave the gentleman to find out what it is.

what if it should come to pieces? but it won't. not unless one dropped it onto a marble floor,

smashed it with a hammer. does crystal break then no? it doesn't shatter like glass.

no it splits if there is a split along lines and by laws of its own. then there is respect

I shouldn't want him to come to me and say the golden bowl is broken.

where is the weak place?

[taps bowl, it rings]

for me only the price. I thank you but you will have to let me think about it.

well...

accept it for me? are you serious? it has a crack in it. you saw it? I saw. didn't you?

but still it is exquisite. you would offer me a present of something with a crack in it?

are you superstitious? i'm superstitious. a crack is a crack. an omen, an omen.

you're afraid? yes i'm afraid. for your marriage? for my marriage.

well if we are to perish by cracks and things we know nothing about... ah but I know.

that's the difference. my instinct protects me. what will protect me?

I will. anything you accept from me will be perfect. I am to accept something from you. you will take

nothing from me. but you attach an impossible condition. a gift to me that I must keep to myself.

ah well you can shout it from the housetops if you like. ah in that case no. I don't want it now.

I should have liked the bowl but if it won't do...

yet I shall want someday to give you something. what day? the day that you marry.

for you will marry. you must. seriously. marry. to make you feel better? well it will.

I would marry I think just to have something from you in all freedom.

hmm yes

are you going to sit there all night? no i'm coming dear i'm coming.

I should hope so. what are you doing down here? I was just thinking. that's all just just thinking.

well I'll continue some other time.

but that golden bowl was to reappear with amazing coincidence in the lives of these four people.

when it did the effect was shattering.

shattering.