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00:00To be continued...
00:30A long time ago, when I wrote this story,
00:37I never used to start work in the mornings
00:39until I had listened to one or another of the Beethoven quartets all the way through.
00:44The idea behind this was that if I soaked myself in these very great creative works,
00:49then a little of Beethoven's inspiration might stick to my own skin or my brain or my fingers
00:54and come out in what I wrote.
00:57Of course, that never happened.
00:58But one did sit down to work in a marvellously uplifted state of mind,
01:03which made it a little more difficult to write absolute bosh.
01:08What you're going to see now is a musical story
01:10that somehow emerged from this peculiar habit of mine.
01:28All right, I'm coming.
01:41All right, I'm coming.
01:56Water?
01:57I've decided to clear this corner right out.
02:00I'm sick and tired of all these brambles and apples.
02:03It'll take a day or two.
02:05Yes, well, just don't overdo it, that's all.
02:08Oh, Louisa, I wish you wouldn't treat me as if I'm an old man.
02:12Wouldn't exercise never did anybody any harm.
02:20Look.
02:22Look.
02:25Oh, heavens, you silly cat.
02:30What do you think you're doing?
02:34You've scourged yourself.
02:38Do you know whose this cat is?
02:41Have you seen her before?
02:42Never.
02:46Well, now, you go on home.
02:48There's a good cat, that's it.
02:53Look!
02:54It's following us.
02:55Shoo!
02:56Go home.
02:58Go home.
02:59We don't want you.
03:00It's no use, Edward.
03:03Louisa.
03:04I'm not having that cat in the house.
03:06I don't like cats in the house.
03:07No, you don't like anything in the house.
03:08What?
03:09You don't like anything in the house.
03:10Go home!
03:11Oh, I think it's a beautiful cat.
03:12Oh, you would.
03:13I hope it stays for a while.
03:15Well, I hope it doesn't.
03:17It doesn't.
03:19Anyway, it belongs to someone else.
03:20It can't possibly stay here.
03:22It's obviously lost.
03:24Go home.
03:28Louisa.
03:29If that cat is still hanging around here this afternoon,
03:32you'd better take it to the police.
03:34They'll see that it gets her home.
03:36How did you get in here?
04:03Well, you're an awfully nice cat,
04:10and I do wish I could keep you,
04:12but you know,
04:13I'm not often allowed things that I like.
04:20Oh, you darling, what a lot of...
04:23a lot of bumps you've got on your beautiful face.
04:27Bumps, bumps, bumps.
04:30Oh, darling, you must be very old.
04:34Well...
04:36Oh, dear.
04:37No, no, no, no.
04:40Well, after I finish playing the piano...
04:44Yes, I've got to take you to the police station.
04:47Well, your owners must be frantic with worry.
04:51There you are.
04:54There you are.
05:00Now, I hope you like music.
05:04I play every afternoon.
05:07You know, when I was young,
05:10people used to say that I showed promise.
05:14Then I married.
05:16Well, enough said.
05:18Well, enough said.
05:22Now...
05:23We'll start with...
05:25a little shoemap.
05:27Yes?
05:29Yes.
05:30What's the matter? Did I frighten you?
05:52Oh, perhaps you've never heard music before?
05:57All right.
05:59I'm going to try you with something else.
06:03Yes?
06:05Ready?
06:27I'm going to try.
06:57Now am I imagining it or did you prefer the Liszt to the Schumann?
07:25Well, that's a slightly vulgar taste, if I may say so. No, no, no, I...
07:29No, I do admit that Liszt can be very charming sometimes, yes.
07:36All right, let's see what sort of connoisseur you really are.
07:45I'm going to play you a little bargain.
07:49And what's wrong? What's wrong? What's wrong with Johann Sebastian?
07:59What's so special about Franz Liszt?
08:04I don't believe you know anything about music at all. I think you're a fraud.
08:13All right, I'm going to put you to a test.
08:17Let's see how this grabs you, pussycat.
08:29Let's see how this grabs you, pussycat.
08:45Oh no. Oh no.
08:57Oh no. Oh no.
09:04Edwin! Edwin! Please come quickly. Something wonderful has happened.
09:23I'm upstairs, dear. I'm up here.
09:28I am coming.
09:30Oh, Edward. Something so wonderful has happened.
09:33Now, I will try and tell you quietly and calmly, but you know I can hardly breathe with excitement.
09:38What's happened here?
09:38Oh, please don't. Don't touch them. Leave them exactly as they are.
09:42Louisa, what's the matter with you?
09:44I thought I told you to get rid of that cat. I thought I told you to take it to the police.
09:49Did it do this damage?
09:51But please don't get worked up because what you don't understand is that something wonderfully exciting has happened here in this house while you were the guard.
09:57The cat knocked over the statuesque. That must have been terribly exciting.
10:02Exactly.
10:04Louisa, are you quite well?
10:09I'm in robust health.
10:11My dear, dear Louisa, I realize that we lead a quiet life. I know that apart from your music and your cranky ideas, you have very little to occupy you but really a cat. A stray cat getting up to mischief cannot, by the wildest stretch of the imagination, be called exciting.
10:30Yeah, you're quite right. Quite right, Edward. I should have described what happened here this afternoon as momentous.
10:41Oh, Louisa, stop this nonsense and make us some tea.
10:43Not until I've told you what's happened.
10:45You've told me the cat has broken some very valuable ornaments.
10:49It will be quiet.
10:51Now, this is no ordinary cat. This is a musical cat.
10:59A musical cat? Well, what does it do? Whistle the anvil chorus?
11:03No. It would, I'm deadly serious.
11:08Now, I am not a fanciful woman.
11:12I think I can say, not immodestly, that I'm practical, hardworking, and down to earth.
11:18Down to earth? Louisa, what is all that spiritualism, theosophy, reincarnation?
11:26Yes. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it.
11:30Well, I was coming to that. Now, I am a realist.
11:34Hmm. Yes. And that is why I know that there are certain mysteries in life that cannot be denied, or in some cases explained.
11:46And I believe that the immortality of the human soul is one such mystery.
11:54What has that got to do with a cat?
11:56Well, now, I will try and tell you what I think in plain English.
12:02I am listening.
12:04I know you don't think I'm silly, but I shall bear your scorn gladly.
12:08Now, don't get it, Roy. Just please come to the point.
12:10Well, Edward, I think that we are at this moment in the presence of a great immortal soul.
12:26Yes. Yes. Yes, of course. Of course.
12:30I believe that this cat is the reincarnation of the great Hungarian composure.
12:36Fran...
12:38Fran's...
12:39List.
12:44Oh. Oh.
12:56...
13:26All right, all right, you say the cat reacted to the Music of France list twice.
13:52Now, I heard him turn, saw him walk to you once. Let's see him do it again.
13:57Oh, certainly not. He's not a circus performer. He is one of the world's great composers.
14:04Oh, my dear woman, he is a cat.
14:06He is the reincarnation of France list.
14:10Prove it!
14:12I don't need to prove it. I know. The soul is there, and that's good enough for me.
14:19Let's see him perform. Let's see him tell the difference between his own music and someone else's.
14:24I do believe you're jealous.
14:26Jealous for a miserable, mangy old cat.
14:30All right, you're going to be insulting.
14:32The best thing you can do is to go back to your gardening and leave the two of us here together in peace.
14:38If you want my honest opinion, I think you're ill. I think you need a doctor.
14:43Pay no attention to him, my darling. Oh, dear, no. Pay no attention to him, that maestro.
14:50Oh, dear, if only you could talk. Just thank you. You knew Beethoven. You met Mendelssohn and Schubert. Good grief. You were Wagner's father-in-law. I'm looking for Wagner's father-in-law.
15:06Who wants proof?
15:12Wills, Wills. No, not Wills. Oh, excuse me. Milton.
15:21Recurring Earth Lives. F. F. F. F. Milton Willis. The Emerson Foundation Library. We'll be back in half an hour.
15:34Oh, yes, I see you're interested in reincarnations. Well, now the list is endless. Epictetus came back as Ralph Waldo Emerson. Cicero returned as Gladstone.
15:53Alfred the Great came back as Abraham Lincoln. And Judas Caesar as Teddy Roosevelt. Yes, oh, these are proven facts.
15:59Oh, really? Is there anything known about the famous composer Franz Liszt?
16:05Can't recall. However, a colleague of mine, Professor Jameson, maintains that Beethoven came back as Louis Armstrong. I make no comment, but I'm rather doubtful. Would you excuse me?
16:17Oh, I'm sorry. Pardon. And what about animals? I mean, is it possible? Would it be probable for a famous person to come back in the body of an animal?
16:31I'm afraid I'm not very good about animals. I have an allergy to fur. But yes, there are known cases. Napoleon Bonaparte came back as an Arabian stadion.
16:40Yes, a gift from Prince Ibn Saud to Queen Victoria. Oh, then, of course, there's that most celebrated of reincarnations, Lord Byron.
16:48Oh, I thought everyone knew about that. Yes, Lord Byron returned as a Bengal tiger. Unfortunately, he was shot on an expedition in 1906, led by the president of the Karachi branch of our society.
17:05Well, if one was convinced, Mr. Willis, of the reincarnation of someone famous as an animal, well, say, as a cat, for example, how would one set about proving it?
17:19Hmm, now this is very interesting. Yes.
17:22Usually one will observe a physical resemblance, however slight. Let's take the example of Lord Byron and the tiger.
17:30It was found that the tiger was lame. Well, Lord Byron had a club foot. So, you see.
17:37I can't tell you what the resemblance was between Bonaparte and the Arabian stadion.
17:42The bumps. Oh, I beg your pardon. I do beg your pardon.
17:46I could find out if you wanted me to.
17:48Thank you. Thank you. You've been so kind.
17:51Anytime, anytime. So kind.
17:53Now, perhaps you'd be interested in some of the work that I've been doing recently on a very great favorite of mine,
17:59George Washington.
18:01Ah, yes. I can prove three reappearances.
18:05First, is Mrs. Lincoln.
18:07Secondly, is the poet Whitman.
18:10And third...
18:12Third, and this is going to really baffle the cynics, as the Dalai Lama.
18:18That's it. Look carefully at that photograph. Now, what do you see? Do you see his warts?
18:23Yeah.
18:24Well, he was famous for them.
18:26For what?
18:27Yes. Yes. His students used to grow little tufts of hair on their own faces, didn't they, to look just like him.
18:36Yes. Five of them. Yes. Now, feel the cat's face.
18:42Feel it?
18:43Well, what do you feel?
18:44A sort of bumps.
18:45Exactly.
18:46Five of them, Edward, in exactly the same places.
18:48Hmm?
18:49Quad-era-devil-strandle.
18:50Doesn't prove anything.
18:51I'm afraid, Maestro, I shall have to put you to a little test.
18:53Yes.
18:54Yes.
18:55Up to the top.
18:56Yes.
18:57Yes.
18:58I'm afraid, Maestro, I shall have to put you to a little test.
19:11What do you feel?
19:12What do you feel?
19:13A sudden bumps.
19:14Exactly.
19:15Five off them, Edward, in exactly the same places.
19:16Mm?
19:17Quad-era-devil-strandle.
19:18Doesn't prove anything.
19:19now it is well known that Lister admired all of Chopin's works except one and that
19:34was the Scherzo in B-flat minor. he called out the governess the governess
19:42scared so and he hated it. so what? well Edward let's just see what happens. yes?
19:53yes and now some of his own music
20:23what have you got to say for yourself now? I must say it's quite amusing.
20:34amusing? yes, amusing. we've got Franz Liszt staying in our home. it's the most wonderful thing that's ever happened.
20:44I shall notify all the eminent musicians in the world.
20:48I think you're mad. you make films. you give television interviews. I'll have none of this. Louisa, I absolutely forbid you to stir up a lot of publicity about such a ridiculous thing.
20:59what?
21:01all right. keep the damn animal if you must. but it'll go no further. do you understand that Louisa?
21:09damn you, Ed! for the first time in our lives something wonderful happens and then you're scared of death that somebody will laugh at you.
21:20I realize that this is an awkward time in your life. my god. you idiot. you pompous idiot. don't you see that this is something momentous?
21:34I'll not have another word on the subject. I'll tell you what you will do. you will go to the kitchen and fix me something to eat. I'm hungry and I want my dinner.
21:43why sorry. I am so sorry. I didn't realize. I didn't realize. I... oh you must be faggish. I'm sorry.
21:59now I'll make you something very special. very special my darling just for you. I won't belong.
22:13Let me know.
22:18La la la la..
22:24Maestro.
22:27Maestro .
22:31Maestro.
22:37Maestro.
22:39where is he oh you know who oh okay I don't know I built fire up so it'll
23:07burn all night
23:22Edward I forgot my gloves there them brambles tear you to pieces
23:32maestro there's nothing to get worked up about Louisa Louisa put that down put that down Louisa put that down Louisa
23:44Louisa
24:14Louisa
24:18Louisa
24:20Louisa
24:28Louisa
24:30Louisa
24:32Louisa