The House of Squibb presents Academy Award.
Every week, Squibb brings you Hollywood's finest.
The great picture plays, the great actors and actresses, techniques and skills chosen
from the honor roll of those who have won or been nominated for the famous Golden Oscar
of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
And now, E.R. Squibb and Sons, manufacturing chemists to the medical profession since 1858,
bring you as our stars tonight, Olivia de Havilland and Jean-Pierre Oman.
You will hear Miss de Havilland and Mr. Oman in Hold Back the Dawn, the screenplay which
as best motion picture production of 1941 was nominated for seven different Academy
Awards.
Miss de Havilland will play the role she created on the screen for Hold Back the Dawn and in
which she was nominated as Best Actress of the Year for the 1941 Academy Award.
My maiden name was Emmy Brown.
My husband's name is Jorge Escobescu.
He was born in Romania, but he spent most of his life in Paris, on the Riviera, in San
Moritz, at the Lido, following the seasons and the rich people.
He was a dancer.
Then the war came.
People who had money went to America.
You need a visa to go to America.
So Jorge went to Mexico, to a dusty little town that straddled the border to California.
There's a wire fence.
You can see right through it into the United States.
Jorge didn't think he'd have to wait very long.
I see by your questionnaire that you wish to enter the United States permanently.
Yes, sir.
Now you were born in Bucharest, so you come under the Romanian quota.
Unfortunately, that quota is very small and very crowded.
That means I will have to wait?
Between five and eight years, Mr. Escobescu.
Five and eight years?
Five to eight years, like a prison sentence.
Eight times 365 days, with these flies and this heat.
I walked in a nightmare through the dirty town to a hotel.
I was used to the rates and the savoy.
The local hotel is called the Esperanza.
I took a room at the rate of a dollar a day.
I didn't expect to stay.
It was the 4th of July.
I couldn't stand the room or the noise any longer, so I went out and walked the streets.
It was then that I saw him for the first time.
I was driving a school bus full of children.
We were on a picnic.
One of the kids threw firecrackers under his feet.
He was in no mood for that sort of thing that day.
The boy must apologize.
It's a matter of discipline.
Come here, Tony.
Your form of humor, I do not appreciate.
You know what American boys are like.
All year long, they store up mischief for the 4th of July.
Would be preferable if they let off their high spirits in America and on the feet of
Americans.
Now, don't let's get into international complications.
There's a fence back there.
You Americans make a very definite point of it.
I gather you don't like us very much.
Very little.
Tony, don't you dare apologize now.
Just then I put the bus in gear and rammed the car in front.
I was shaking with rage.
He walked away and went into the climax bar.
When my eyes became adjusted to the dark, I saw a dancer I knew in Europe.
Her name was Tamara.
George.
Tamara.
What are you doing here?
Just down from the day, from Los Angeles with some people.
Those drunks at that table.
I'm not the same Tamara, George.
I'm not the same George.
Tell me, how did you get into America?
Meet Mrs. Shaughnessy.
I married an American.
And what?
Simple.
You're married to an American.
You get preference.
The papers go to Washington.
And in four weeks, everything is settled.
Hey, Tamara.
Where are you, Tamara?
Your husband?
No.
My husband was a jockey in Caliente, five foot three.
Once over the border, I went to the judge.
Woman wants a man, I told him, not a radiator cap.
Divorce granted, $50.
What did she say?
You just marry an American?
As easy as that?
Get hold of a wedding ring and you can swing right over that fence.
What do they call it?
The pursuit of happiness.
On my way back to the hotel, I saw her again.
The little school teacher with a bus.
She was trying to get the radiator fixed.
I watched them.
And when the mechanics weren't looking, I took the keys to the ignition and dropped them
into a sewer.
I stood around a few minutes until she noticed me and her face got red.
I know you don't like us, but I promise we'll get back over that border as soon as we can.
No, please.
I was partly responsible for your accident.
I feel very bad about it.
You should.
Um, any of these your children?
No, I'm a school teacher.
They'll be in a perfect tizzy about us back home.
Of course, the parents and maybe your husband.
I haven't any husband.
But if we're not back by nine o'clock, Mr. McAdams, the principal will think we're dead
in a ditch.
While you are waiting for the car, why not telephone and tell him you are all right?
Well, they said there was no telephone around.
There's one at the hotel.
I'll show you.
Oh, thank you.
I knew I was on the way now.
They wouldn't be able to make her a new set of keys.
They'd have to go for them across the border.
That would take until the next day.
I played it very carefully and I was very patient.
The number is Azusa, California, 30991.
I hope they get the call right away.
If you could only see Mr. McAdams, the principal, he always bites his fingernails.
He must have gnawed them right down to the knuckles by now.
Have a cigarette?
Oh, no.
Thank you, Mr.
My name is Brown, Emmy Brown.
Your name is not Margo.
It's Emmy.
She had the same hair.
Only it was always must by the wind that wind her in Chamonix.
What are you talking about?
You thought I was bitter, Miss Brown, when you spoke to me first on the street.
It was because I saw another woman in your face, Margo.
No.
Those aren't her eyes.
Her eyes were bad.
Eyes that seemed to be saying beautiful things and every word they spoke a lie.
I knew it and I loved her.
The ground opened under my feet and I loved her.
I ran away.
I had to come here to the end of the earth to know that I really hated her, that I had
always hated her.
I'm sorry.
Just look at me, Miss Brown.
Keep looking at me.
It's like a sudden breeze on a stifling day.
You are the strangest man.
Perhaps the loneliest man.
Naturally, they couldn't find the keys to the bus.
So I arranged with the hotel to bed down the lot of them in the lobby.
Well, good night.
We're settled.
Good night.
Somehow these shabby walls will not seem so empty and sad.
You will be here, close, very near to me, under the same roof, breathing in the same
night.
Yes.
Good night.
I went up to my room.
There was Tamara waiting for me.
Hello, George.
What do you want?
I've kept thinking about you all day.
The way you always held me away from you when we danced.
Those gigolo eyes of yours.
You selfish tramp.
Did you ever love anybody in your life?
I don't want you here, understand?
George.
You are wasting my time.
I have a little money, George.
It's yours if you want it.
I'll get more money.
I'll give you anything.
Anything you want.
Anything, Tamara?
Anything.
I'll take this.
My wedding ring.
I had a hard time going to sleep that night.
My heart was beating fast and my senses were all thrown out of gear.
I found a kind of half-sleep at last.
And then about five o'clock in the morning, I woke.
You were sitting there staring at me.
Hello.
What... what are you doing here?
Please you have no right to be here.
Of course I have no right.
No right to be here.
No right to sit watching your face, learning it like a poem.
No right to listen for the stir of your heart.
No right to tell you that... that I love you very much.
You must go away right now, please.
You needn't be afraid, Miss Brown, not a bit.
We are like two trains halted for a moment at the same station, but going in different
directions.
We can't change our course any more than we can hold back the dawn.
Soon it will be light and you will be gone forever.
It is getting light, isn't it?
You needn't be afraid, Miss Brown.
Not of a dead man.
I'm dead, you see.
I have asked myself thousands of times why they shouldn't bury me, why I should go on
walking and breathing and talking when I was dead.
Perhaps I know now.
Perhaps it was to see the sun rise once more, to hear enchantment in a woman's voice, to
feel her nearness, the warmth of her lips.
No.
No rebellions, no violent desires.
If you found one in your sober little mind, you would tell it to go stand in the corner,
wouldn't you, Miss Brown?
I don't know.
Not for you, the sudden flash which lights up your whole life, one split second to snatch
at happiness before it's dark again.
It isn't this kiss I want.
It's all your kisses.
It's your life.
Look at your hand, Miss Brown, your left hand.
Yes, it's your wedding ring, Miss Brown.
I put it on your hand as you slept.
It was my mother's.
You see how wild a dream can be.
But you are wise and sane and cool.
You needn't be afraid, Miss Brown.
Wait.
Oh, wait.
Please wait.
About your being lonesome.
Other people are lonesome, so lonesome they almost give up waiting.
Mr. McAdams always said I was crazy, but I knew all the time deep down in my heart that
someday, somebody, somehow, even though Azusa was at the end of the world.
We had to get the Mexican judge out of bed.
The license was $5.
It was a good investment.
The office was drab and sordid, but to Amy Brown, being there was like standing at an
altar in a cathedral with great bells ringing.
When we came out into the sunlight, she took my hand.
George.
Yes?
Take the ring, put it on my finger again, and say these words.
For richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, with this ring, I thee wed.
Till death do us part.
I'll never take it off.
Never.
What did I care what she did with the ring?
I was married to an American.
I was ready to cross the border.
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Before continuing with part two of Hold Back the Dawn, we want to thank Paramount Pictures
for making this story available.
Paramount's current release is the Hal Wallis production, The Searching Wind, starring Robert
Young, Sylvia Sidney, and Anne Richards.
And now the House of Squibb presents part two of Academy Award, starring Olivia de Havilland
and Jean-Pierre Oman in Hold Back the Dawn.
It was slow going getting the papers in order.
Amy Brown came back from her home, and we took the bus and went for a long drive back
into the hinterland of Mexico.
I had reasons for getting away from the border.
There was a smart immigration inspector named Hammock snooping around.
He was interested in people who suddenly got married to Americans, especially aliens who
wanted to get over that border.
Something happened on that mad drive, though.
I guess I fell in love with Amy Brown a little.
She was in our room at the hotel, packing to go back to her job in Azusa for a while.
I was downstairs and I ran into Tamara.
I thought you'd never come.
I've been dying here day after day, looking down the street waiting for you.
Bad news?
Good news.
You'll be getting out of here in three weeks.
New York by the first of August.
I'm not going right on to New York.
No?
Oh, sure.
You've got to stop over in Azusa.
That would take half an hour, you said.
You were going to tell her she was too good and you were too low.
I'll do it my own way.
Do you mind?
You like the girl?
Yes.
I like her enough not to give her a sudden kick in the face in front of a whole little
town.
I like her enough to do it all with a little style.
All right.
I like her enough not to behave like a swine for once in my life.
Well, hallelujah.
That'll do.
You've got enough money to get back to New York.
I'll find you there when I'm ready.
Thank you.
I'll be in the middle of Times Square and whistle.
Mrs. Escovescu?
Yes?
Do you mind?
No.
Come right in.
Funny, I didn't picture you looking like that.
You know what one hears about a teacher.
I'm Tamara.
I don't think he's told you about me or did he?
No, he didn't.
I see you're packing.
Well, before you go, there's something of mine I want you to give me back.
Of yours?
My wedding ring.
This?
Oh, it belonged to his mother.
Oh, isn't he wonderful?
The way he knows how to pluck at the heart string.
You see, I gave him the whole idea.
What?
Marrying you to get across the border.
Take a look at the engraving in that ring.
I used it to marry my little American.
It says, to toots for keeps.
Slip it off.
No.
Maybe you should know a little more about the history of George Escovescu.
Get out.
Please.
Howdy, Mr. Escovescu, isn't it?
Yes.
My name is Hammock, Immigration Department.
I'd like to talk a few things over with your wife.
She's upstairs.
If there are any questions, silence her, then.
I'll answer your questions, Mr. Hammock.
Emmie.
Right over here, Mrs. Escovescu.
Take a chair, will you?
Had you any idea this man might have married you to get in the country?
Yes.
But I asked him to marry me.
All right, he got you to ask him.
Look here, you can make things very simple for the department.
Anybody can see this set up with half an eye.
He gets in the country, divorces you, takes up with his girlfriend and goes about his
own business.
With this evidence, you can get an annulment.
And that'll slam the door right in his face.
Get a what?
An annulment.
An annulment?
How do you like that, George?
That's America.
You pay your taxes, but you get a lot of protection.
No, thank you, Mr. Hammock.
It's very sweet of you, but you see, there's nothing wrong.
He told me everything.
There weren't any false pretenses.
It's a fine marriage.
We love each other very much.
I'm sorry for your sake.
You haven't got a case.
Well, maybe I'm just dumb.
So long.
Amy, who told you?
Tamara?
I've always been full of words, you know.
Big ones, smooth ones, fancy ones.
Just one more word.
Thanks.
No.
You see, I come from a small town.
We don't have those fine hotels.
We eat in the drugstore.
But we leave a tip just the same.
I don't feel I was too generous for those seven days of our honeymoon.
Only perhaps when I met you, I shouldn't have been so vain.
I should have worn my glasses.
I should have looked at your face more closely.
Goodbye.
Do you believe in premonitions?
When a black wave breaks over you and you suddenly know something terrible is going
to happen?
In my ears was the screeching of brakes, of tires taking a wild curve.
Before my eyes was the foot on the gas pedal pressing it down.
And George, they've been phoning you.
Tamara, there was an accident, wasn't there?
Yes.
Bad?
Yes.
Where is she?
The receiving hospital, Los Angeles.
I'll take your car.
I won't let you cross the border.
You have no papers.
The key, Tamara.
They'll catch you.
You haven't got a chance.
It's all you're waiting for, nothing.
If you do this, you'll never be admitted.
George!
Look at this guy coming.
He's nuts.
Hey, stop, you.
Stop!
Don't you see that sight?
I said stop!
That's Escovesco.
He's my meat.
Get my car and a patrol motorcycle escort.
This is where I fix that gigolo's wagon.
It was five o'clock in the morning when I got to the hospital.
It wasn't until I had climbed those steps that I was really afraid.
Afraid it was too late.
That there was nothing left I could do.
She's unconscious.
We're very much afraid.
The steering wheel was crushed against her.
There's no fight left in her.
Can I go in?
Of course.
Amy.
She doesn't hear.
Amy, it's George.
I've gone.
I'm here, Amy.
She seemed to hear you.
Go on.
Keep talking.
Breathe, Amy.
Travel.
I'm here.
See?
She's fine.
Just try.
Try hard.
That's it.
Again.
Now again.
It's all right, Amy.
Remember the rain beating and the wind chill that day we drove?
And the wiper going, and the word it spoke?
Together.
Breathe, Amy.
Breathe.
Together.
Breathe, Emmy.
We are together.
Together.
I don't know how many hours I sat there all day,
but I must have said, breathe a million times.
Breathe.
Darling, breathe.
Somehow she pulled through.
Once she even smiled.
And when Hammer caught up with me finally,
she was out of danger.
I asked him to go ahead and get her an annulment of the marriage.
Said he would.
He told me he could send me to the pen for ten years
for crossing the border. I didn't care.
And for some reason,
he just took me back over the border.
Back to the grave.
I started four months of a living death.
One day, I saw him coming through the big gate.
Oh, here you are, Escovescu. I've been looking for you.
Why don't you leave me alone?
Don't you feel like stepping up to the gate
and looking at the new citizens crossing the border today?
Very funny, Mr. Hammock.
Like inviting a hungry child to stand in front of a bakery window.
I talked to the baker.
He gave me something for you, not that you deserve a pie.
I always thought you were a pretty poor excuse for a human,
but, well, I was raised a good Christian,
and my folks always used to say that a guy can straighten out
once he sees the light.
And as if he's got guts. You have.
In America, we can use people with guts.
Here. Here are your papers.
Approved by Washington.
Preference quota for husband of American wife.
Husband? Mr. Hammock, I'm...
Get going. Get going.
There's somebody waiting for you, swinging on that gate.
Gate. Gate.
Somebody...
waiting.
Waiting across the border?
Amy!
He was running,
eager, hapless, and like a boy in tears.
Something inside of me began to yearn as I watched him coming.
My hand came up as if it could fight back my tears,
and suddenly it glistened in the sun,
and I laughed through my tears.
It was my golden wedding ring.
I had never taken it off.
Tomorrow on Air Force Day,
E.R. Sqibbin sons, with all the American people,
will honor the men who won fame and overwhelming victory in the air
for the cause of free men everywhere.
General Carl Spotts, commanding general, Army Air Forces,
writes to old and new Air Force personnel everywhere,
I urge you to take practical steps to preserve and foster the spirit of your Air Force,
that you enroll under the leadership of Jimmy Doolittle in the Air Force Association,
your association for perpetuating the glorious traditions of the United States Army Air Forces.
And General Jimmy Doolittle, president of the Air Force Association, states,
we who are no longer in uniform are joining the Air Force Association
to continue the Air Force spirit of fellowship,
to remain abreast of air development,
and to honor the memory of our comrades who gave their lives in war.
We want all new and old Air Force men and women,
whether officers or enlisted personnel,
to wear our pin, receive our magazine every month,
and take part in the activities of local wings and squadrons
now being organized throughout the country.
Send tonight for an application form to the Air Force Association,
Washington, D.C. Membership includes subscription for one year to the Air Force magazine.
In this way, help continue United States air supremacy.
Music
Next Wednesday, another great picture.
The House of Squib will present Academy Awards,
starring Paul Lucas in Watch on the Rhyme.
Music
Today's performance of Hold Back the Dawn was written for radio by Frank Wilson,
with an original musical score composed and conducted by Leet Stevens.
Our producer-director is Dee Engelbach.
Olivia de Havilland can currently be seen in the Paramount production to each his own.
Jean-Pierre Aumann appeared through the courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,
producers of the Technicolor musical Holiday in Mexico.
This is Hugh Brundage bidding you good night until next Wednesday at the same time,
when you're invited to listen again to Academy Award,
presented by the House of Squib on Name You Can Trust.
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.
Music