Very nice.
My dear.
Yes?
A letter for you.
For me? From whom?
Uh, Eta Engel.
Eta Engel?
No.
Yes, Eta Engel.
Oh, Jesus, you know how long I didn't hear from Eta Engel?
Hmm?
Let me see.
Dear Molly, you will no doubt be surprised when you hear from me after all these years.
Plenty of years, thanks.
I am traveling to the West, but before I leave, I would like to see you.
Oh, my. Oh, my.
Well?
Oh, David, what is today?
Why?
Because if today is today, she'll be here tomorrow, David, darling.
Oh, my, let me get finished already so I can enjoy this moment.
Oh, David. Eta Engel.
David, darling, you know how many years I didn't see Eta Engel.
She should all of a sudden fall out of the blue sky and come to see me.
Oh, David, you know how many years?
Oh, my. We were living yet, let me get, we were living yet in the first apartment before I was married, darling.
Eta Engel.
Oh, my.
Eta Engel.
Oh, David, darling, she lived on top of, she worked in the same place as Jake, way before Jake went into business for himself.
Oh, my, my, Eta Engel.
Oh, my.
Listen, dear, next to Mrs. Bloom, she was my best friend.
Let me get finished already with the sewing. I got plenty of time with the sewing.
Let me get finished.
How is it I never met her?
What do you mean how is it you never met her, David, darling? After all, she moved away, I moved away.
She had a family. I was busy, she was busy.
What do you mean, David, darling, two friends can be lost even if they live in the same city?
Oh, David, will Jake be shocked and surprised when he hears it?
I'm, I'm beside myself, David.
My dear, to see a friend after so many years, it's wonderful.
David, darling, all her children are married already, two boys and two girls.
David, dear, whatever I know about sewing, Eta Engel taught me.
After I was just first married, I was a newlywed.
What did I know, darling? Nothing. I had plenty, plenty to learn.
She was such a pretty woman, David.
I remember like she's standing right in front of me.
Her hair was black like patent leather.
My David, I must be all white now.
I wonder what she'll think when she looks at me.
Put the machine in Jake's closet here, darling, please.
Oh, it's very heavy.
Molly.
Jake, have I got something to tell you?
What?
You remember Eta Engel?
She wrote to you too?
He wrote me, Benjamin, and his husband wrote me.
Oh, she wrote to me too, Jake, darling.
She's coming.
Well, that's funny. He says he's coming alone.
Vanessa says he's coming alone.
How's that?
So what's the difference? I'll be glad to see both of them.
Wonderful man, a wonderful man, a millinery, wonderful.
Jake, don't throw yourself under covers.
Throw yourself in the closet, please.
Oh, Jake, darling.
I'm so beside myself.
Jake, dear, Jake, her youngest daughter,
her youngest daughter married a man with a hospital.
Doctor?
A doll hospital.
And her oldest daughter, Jake, darling, married a corsetorium.
And her two boys have novelty, laces and ribbons.
Oh, my, and now she says she would like to go back to work.
You remember what a wonderful worker she was.
She was a forelady of a 42 operator.
Maybe you could find something in your place for her, Jake, dear.
Why should a woman of her age want to go back to work?
Listen, all her children are married,
so nothing to do with herself, maybe.
But Benjamin Engel is not a poor man.
Life is like a wheel, Jake.
One day you're up, one day you're down.
David, darling, whatever fate had in store for Benji and Fette,
I'm sure they shared it alike.
That I'm sure.
A very happy couple.
Mm, yes.
Very.
Jake, darling, it's times like these that you're glad you have a guest room.
I only hope that Etta and Benji stay for a few days.
Maybe she didn't say anything about Benjamin because she wanted to surprise you.
Maybe.
And maybe vice versa, he didn't say because he'd rather surprise us.
Well, however and whatever it is, I'm glad they're coming.
I couldn't be happier.
Who are you calling?
My president.
Oh, I am so happy. I'm beside myself.
Hello?
Hello, this is me, I.
Do you recognize the voice?
That's right.
I'm calling, darling, something unbetold and besides, Etta dear,
I received a letter from an old friend that I haven't seen in 20 years.
So, darling, maybe I'll have to bow and not be able to come to your garden party.
Yeah.
Well, it, I mean, will it be all right if she comes with me?
Oh, she would love it to see she's a city dweller.
I would love her to see your hydrangeas.
Uh-huh.
Well, would it be all right if her husband accompanies her?
You see, he's in the millinery business,
and the only flowers he ever sees are the flowers that are on hats.
Yes, darling.
Oh, and look, dear, before I forget, by the by,
could you let me have some of your bulbs?
Yeah.
Wonderful.
Thank you, darling.
Oh, my bell is ringing.
I have to send to a deal.
All right, dear, call me, and I'll call you.
Bye.
Jake, darling, could you believe it?
I'm palpitating.
Don't palpitate and open the door.
All right, Jake.
Molly.
Jake.
Oh, darling, darling.
Oh, yes.
You've missed me, look at you.
So long.
I don't believe it.
You don't know what this means to us, Etta.
Oh, it's so good to see you.
Etta, darling, do you know my Uncle David?
You don't remember Uncle David?
I used to visit Molly every Sunday.
Well, on Sundays, I used to have to visit my mother-in-law,
so I suppose that's why we never met.
David Romaine.
Hello.
Come and sit down, Etta.
Oh, yes, look at you.
Etta, angel.
Oh, yes, darling, if you saw me in the street, would you recognize me?
No.
No?
Etta, how is it you didn't come together?
Who?
You and Benjamin.
Why?
Is Benny coming?
Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it.
It's all right.
I'll leave when he comes.
What is it, something wrong?
First, I have to know that I can support myself.
Jake, if you think you have a place for me in your shop...
Well, I...
Jake, maybe you'll go in the kitchen and fix a cup of coffee
so we can have a little sneak snack,
so Etta and I can talk over old times?
David.
Come, David.
Excuse me.
Etta, what is it?
It's the end.
The end of what?
What happened?
25 years is enough.
Don't you think so?
Talk clearly.
I don't understand you.
I suffered in silence since my first child was born,
but now that they're grown and married,
my life is my own, and I can walk out of my prison.
Prison?
What prison?
My marriage.
Your marriage?
I always thought you had the most wonderful marriage.
Why?
Because I...
Because I suffered silently?
Because I kept everything in my heart for the sake of my children?
But Benjamin always seemed to me to be...
Seemed? Oh, I'm so glad you used that word, seemed.
But tell me, what did he do?
What is it?
Oh, it's nothing you can talk about,
only things you can feel.
In the 25 years I was married to him,
did the man ever remember a birthday?
Did the man ever come home with tickets to a show?
Did he ever say, let's go away on a vacation together?
No.
All I knew was he gave me his weekly pay
and took out what he needed for himself,
but the rest of the responsibility was mine.
Did he ever know when a child needed a pair of shoes
or that I had a coat on my back?
Nothing interested him, nothing.
His supper on the table when he came home, and that's all.
That's...
That's amazing, because he wasn't such a...
I mean, such a strong man,
little weak, that you know,
came home from work tired.
And I was strong and not tired?
No, Molly.
In all the years we were married,
10 o'clock he was in bed regardless of who was in the house,
company or no company.
Why, the man lived in the house like a border.
All right, but if he wasn't a stranger,
you could tell him, you could talk to him.
And make fights and upset the children.
Look, if that's Benjamin, I don't want to see him.
My mind is made up.
All right.
All right, go up to my room.
Here's your pocketbook.
Go upstairs.
Jake.
Jake, you open the door for Benjamin,
but don't say that Etta is here.
Why?
I can't talk now.
Benjamin.
Jake.
It's good to see you.
Come in, come in, Benjamin.
Where's Molly?
She's upstairs.
She'll be coming down soon.
You know my uncle David.
Vaguely.
Oh, I remember you, I think.
David Romaine.
How do you do?
Pleased to meet you.
Sit down, Benjamin, sit down.
Thank you.
It's an elegant house you have.
Oh, thank you, Benjamin.
Did you have supper?
I'm not hungry.
I can see you're troubled, Benjamin.
What is it?
She's leaving me, Jake.
What?
After 25 years of married life, she's leaving me.
Why?
Why?
Do you know?
That's how I know.
The day after my youngest daughter's wedding,
she gave me notice.
I'll put a snack under, Tay.
No, no, please, Tay.
You're a little older than we are.
Maybe you can give me a little advice.
Yes, sit, David.
I always thought you were such a happy couple.
Why?
Because I didn't talk.
Because I kept everything inside of me.
Because I wanted a peaceful environment for my children.
Another man in my place wouldn't have suffered in silence.
Do I have to tell you it isn't easy to feed six mouths
and to clothe six children?
The weekly envelope she got,
I only kept what I needed for myself.
A pack of cigarettes, a newspaper,
even lunch I took in the bag from home
the first five years we were married.
It was cheap.
Was I ever told when the children needed a pair of shoes?
Was I ever consulted like a husband and father?
Did we ever take a vacation together?
My friends were never invited, only hers.
My sisters and brothers she got angry at
the first year we were married.
Jake, I was like a border in my own house.
I was only glad when the clock struck ten
so I could say goodnight.
I'm asking you, Jake, was I a bad man?
I only tried to keep peace.
And this is my reward.
Did I ever have a clothes closet I could call my own?
Well, did you talk to her?
Did you ask her what she has against you?
I'm not a talking man, Jake.
But sometimes it's necessary to talk.
Talk it out.
Nobody's a mind reader.
And if you'll separate...
Do I want to separate?
She wants it, not me.
So what should I do?
Eka, please.
You here?
Why didn't you tell me, Jake?
Eka, please, will you listen to my suggestion?
Molly, please.
Etty, do I love you?
You know the answer is yes.
Then listen to me.
Benjamin, take a little walk together.
Give yourself one more chance to talk
heart to heart and face to face.
And then come back.
Molly, they'll take a little walk together.
Please, you don't take 25 years of marriage
and throw it out.
Please, go, you'll walk, you'll talk.
All right, I'll go and talk, but there's nothing to talk about.
Who wants to use me?
Talk, Benjamin, talk.
Talk it out.
Talk about things that you never talk about.
You'll find plenty to talk about.
Molly is absolutely right.
Go, go.
Eka, please.
Benjamin, please.
Like strangers.
Married 25 years.
Strangers.
And I thought they were the happiest couple I ever met.
Pretty soon, no?
Mm-hmm.
You're playing, Jack.
I can't get over it.
I can't get over it.
If anybody would ask me who are the happiest married couple I know,
I would have to say the Engels.
Play, David.
I don't know, to be able to keep things beside of you like that.
I couldn't be silent so long.
I could.
For 25 years.
Something.
Play.
I don't know.
When I have something to say.
You say it.
I do.
Not every husband is like Jacob Goldberg.
Not every wife is like Molly Goldberg, neither.
Of course, some of the things you say sometimes, Molly dear,
hurt to the quick and would be better not said.
For instance?
Play.
For instance?
Well, I can't think of a for instance on the spur of the moment.
Play.
Wait for the playing, David.
If we're talking, Jake, let's talk.
Maybe you have a few hidden grievances in your bosom also.
Well, who hasn't?
Shall I put away the couch or are we playing?
Jake.
What?
I'm asking a question.
Maybe it's better to let sleeping dogs lie.
Not at all.
Not at all.
I know that in my heart and my mind I'm unconscious.
If you're unconscious also, then let us talk.
If my advice to my best friend was to talk it out
and your advice was to talk it out,
so why shouldn't we take our own advice and practice what we preach?
So talk, Jake, no matter what it is, small or big.
It's not important.
Your check you never gave me.
We'd be in very fine circumstances, I assure you, if I did.
Such a bad manager I am.
A good manager you're not.
I'm extravagant, I suppose.
Very.
Is this a joke?
If it is, what is the hilarity of your mind?
I want to know it.
I'm not joking, Molly.
For a man in my circumstances, you are very extravagant, if you want to know.
I'm extravagant?
Where is my extravagance?
I have rings on my fingers?
I have a minx on my back?
I have a box in the opera?
I ride around with a car, with a chauffeur, in a limousine?
I said for my circumstances.
I'm a numerator.
The list is too long.
Long or short, a numerator?
Did you need an electric waxing machine when you have carpets from wall to wall?
Do you use it?
What else?
What else?
How many pairs of shoes do you have standing that you never put your foot into?
My shoes you count?
I only said you have ten pairs.
And you only have two pairs.
I didn't say that.
Oh, if you counted my shoes, then you counted your shoes.
Do you realize that the ten pairs of shoes that I have are an accumulation of sixteen years of buying shoes?
You asked me to talk, I suppose.
Oh, yes, Jake, I want you to talk.
Talk, Jake, talk, yes.
Maybe my indulgence, my extravagance is selfishness, maybe I'm selfish.
In some things.
That I want to hear.
That is he I want to hear.
There are all kinds of selfishnesses.
Yes.
In a house full of closets, should I, as the breadwinner of the family, not have a closet of my own?
You don't have a closet of your own.
I do not.
The living room closet is not your closet.
This is my closet?
silent
Anything else?
I'd rather refrain if you don't mind.
Play, David.
I mind very much, very much.
Molly.
I'm extravagant.
I'm selfish.
I want to hear the worst.
You heard the worst, Molly dear, and it wasn't so bad.
I doubt very much, Jake, if things between us will be the same as it was here before.
You asked for it.
Yes.
I got much more than I asked for.
Much more.
You counted my shoes.
But when you were counting them, Jake, did you say to yourself, would that I could give
my wife more?
That much.
Why, Jake, if I only began, if I only started to enumerate the things that I never told
you.
Stop.
I'm ready to listen.
All right, Jake dear.
I have too much consideration for your feelings.
Much too much.
Jake, maybe you shouldn't have said what you said.
Are we playing?
Jake, there's some things you have to keep inside of you.
There's some things you can't talk about no matter who it is.
I suppose it wasn't selfish when you went away on your vacation and you left me home
alone with two little children.
That wasn't selfish.
You play, David.
Jake, maybe go into Molly.
They came to buy me a birthday present.
You sent your bookkeeper.
The bookkeeper should buy it.
That's why I had the same present for five years.
Very nice.
Very nice.
A present, you know, isn't how much you spend for it.
A present is how much thought you give it.
It's all right, Jake.
I have plenty grievances in my bosom also.
A person can't hear the truth.
They shouldn't ask for it.
Who's receiving the receiver?
I am receiving the receiver.
Hello?
Oh, yes.
Who?
One minute.
Your president.
Do I feel like a president?
No.
Hang on.
Tell her I'll call her back when I'm in a different mood, please.
I don't feel like small kids just now.
Hello?
Oh, could you give me, please, a message for Mrs. Goldberg?
Yes.
Uh-huh.
Oh, I will.
One minute.
She wants to know if you want bulbs.
All I need now is bulbs.
I'll call her back when I'm in a bulb mood.
Well, Mrs. Goldberg didn't decide yet on the bulbs.
She'll call you back tomorrow.
Uh-huh.
Yes.
I will tell her.
Thank you.
Goodbye.
You should come to the garden meeting next week without fail.
My dear.
It's all right, David.
It's all right.
It's enough already.
Plenty.
Imagine.
That Tangle had to come through with it.
Did Jake mean what he said?
He said it.
What, other two people in the world loved each other like I love my wife?
But they're perfect, she wasn't.
How long is love blind?
Love is eyes and sees.
And if love can see, and seeing you love anyway, that's love.
That's love.
Am I talking to myself now?
To deaf ears I'm talking?
Altogether wrong if you'll excuse me, Jake wasn't.
Altogether wrong, no.
Jake, it's enough already.
What did Molly say?
Whatever she said, wrong she wasn't.
She had only bought a postcard for her birthday and wrote on it,
I love you in September like I loved you in May.
Would have meant much more to Molly than the diamonds and the silk stockings that your bookkeeper buys for her.
Jake.
Molly.
One minute.
One second.
Oh, hello.
Come in, come in.
Did you have a nice walk?
Where's Molly?
And Jake?
I'll call them, excuse me.
Why are you looking at me like that, Benji?
I look at you with different eyes now, Etta.
Me too, Benji.
Let's not even talk about it.
Let's hope that God gives us health and years to enjoy each other from now on.
I hope so.
Hello, Etta.
Molly.
Hey, Etta and Benji.
Why did you ever move away from me?
I took your good advice, Molly, and the things I learned about myself,
and the things I did to this poor man.
Jake.
Jake, if I live to be a hundred years, I'll always be thankful to you for what you did for me.
Is it a wonder, Etta, that he is the happy man that he is?
Well, they're sensible, intelligent people.
Certainly, if you realize that even a husband is a person and a wife is a human being.
And to talk over your differences is the solution to a happy marriage.
Why don't you sit down, Etta?
Is there any time, Benji?
Not much if we want to make the last train.
We're going away.
Oh, our first vacation together to Honolulu.
Thank you, darling.
Thank you very much for everything.
From the bottom of our hearts, goodbye.
Goodbye, everybody.
Goodbye.
Thank you.
Goodbye, James.
Goodbye, Ben Jacobs.
Goodbye, Benjamin.
I want to see that Jake should be transferred upstairs.
I want him to be in a closet all by himself.
It will be more convenient.
For your next birthday.
Birthday.
I love you in December as I do in May.
Well, my birthday wouldn't be till six months.
Who can wait so long?
You