Cassie McCullagh

It's very fancy.

News comes in that war's broken out.

And suddenly this very genteel set of passengers turn on each other.

And everyone on the boat's out to get each other.

And then the news comes in.

Oh, no, that's false.

It was false news.

And so that's the film.

And no one's interested at all.

Yes, and Daniel Kaleman has said that he became fascinated with the story of Pabst because it's the flight story in reverse.

As many, many people were trying to leave Germany, Austria, that part of Europe, he found himself going back.

He'd been called back by his mother.

This is in real life.

And once he got to Austria...

the borders closed and he couldn't leave.

So he was there and became, well, kind of fell under the power, perhaps even though the spell of the Nazi party, and became part of the machinery.

And one of the big ironies that I think is being...

pointed out by Kaelman is what you just alluded to.

In Hollywood, no one respected him as an artist at all.

But when he began to be invited, told to work for the Nazi party and make films, the equipment was excellent.