Emil and the Detectives

Erich Kastner, Carl Miller

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781783195176
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Teatro europeo

'Password Emil!' If Mrs Tischbein had known the amazing adventures her son Emil would have in Berlin, she'd never have let him go. Emil is excited to be taking the train on his own for the first time. He doesn't like the look of his fellow passenger, the man in the bowler hat. Emil will just have to keep his wits about him and his money in his pocket. But Emil falls asleep and when he wakes up the man in the bowler hat is gone - and so is the money! Emil is determined to get it back. He teams upwith a gang of young detectives and so begins a hair-raising chase across Berlin to catch the dirty rotten thief...

Germany, 1929.

PART ONE

EMIL strolls home through Neustadt. He carries flowers.

A distant bell rings.

~

IDA looks out for EMIL.

IDA: Emil?

IDA shakes her head.

IDA returns to doing MRS WIRTH’s hair. MRS WIRTH is swathed in towels.

EMIL arrives home.

IDA: You’ll be late for the train, Emil. Pins.

EMIL: Pins.

EMIL takes pins from IDA.

EMIL: No cornflowers in the market. I had to go all the way to Mrs Grun.

IDA: Scissors.

EMIL: Scissors. Hello, Mrs Wirth.

EMIL hands scissors to IDA.

MRS WIRTH: Mmllggbbllnn?

EMIL: What?

IDA: Emil.

EMIL: I do beg your pardon, Mrs Wirth, I didn’t quite catch that.

IDA: Fresh towel.

EMIL: Fresh towel.

EMIL helps IDA change MRS WIRTH’s towel. MRS WIRTH has a moment of coherence between towels.

MRS WIRTH: I said – Mmllggbbllnn!

IDA: Emil, your packing, your clothes –

EMIL: It’s all ready, Mum. Nearly.

EMIL finishes packing. IDA unwraps MRS WIRTH.

MRS WIRTH: Emil is going to Berlin?

IDA: As long as he doesn’t miss his train.

MRS WIRTH: A child in Berlin, Ida Tischbein!

IDA: Only for a few days. Neustadt is a bit dull for a child.

MRS WIRTH: Dull? We have the ornamental flower garden, the equestrian statue of Duke Augustus, the regional nutcracker museum – what does Berlin have?

IDA: Cars, he says.

EMIL: I’m going to see a Studebaker President, or a Commander. Two thousand, seven hundred and fifty-three vehicles cross Berlin every hour, Mrs Wirth.

MRS WIRTH: We’ve got a car in Neustadt, Mrs Homburg’s noisy thing. Blocked the whole street outside the Crystal Salon this morning.

EMIL: Mrs Homburg went to the Crystal Salon?

IDA: Finish your packing, Emil.

MRS WIRTH: Everyone’s talking about their new electronic hairdryer. We don’t need contraptions like that in Neustadt.

IDA: Lots of my customers want to try it.

MRS WIRTH: Big city ways. No loyalty. I said to Chief Constable Jeschke, make them apply for a special permit if they want to plug people’s hair into the electricity.

EMIL: That isn’t how a dryer works, Mrs Wirth.

IDA: We don’t contradict the customers, Emil.

MRS WIRTH: Whizzing, whirring – like a horror film! Even if I do decide to try the Crystal Salon, I shan’t like it, Ida. That’s a promise.

IDA: You’re packing those old boxing gloves?

EMIL: For Pony the Hat.

MRS WIRTH: Pony the Hat? A gangster!

IDA: She’s Emil’s cousin.

MRS WIRTH: A girl!

EMIL: Pony is a featherweight, but I’m a light heavyweight.

IDA: And still not changed for the train.

EMIL changes his clothes.

IDA: That jacket used to be huge on him. They grow so fast.

MRS WIRTH: After Berlin, he’ll have grown into a delinquent. Or a hoodlum. Or both.

IDA: Emil won’t get into any trouble.

MRS WIRTH: What about the childnappers, Ida Tischbein?

IDA: Childnappers?

MRS WIRTH: The Frisco gang. Ship little kiddies to Borneo for coconuts and jewels.

IDA: Wasn’t that the story of a film you saw, Emil?

MRS WIRTH: A terrible thing it was. Mr Wirth and I went three times.

EMIL: Must I wear my Sunday suit? Pony will think it’s childish.

MRS WIRTH: He is a child. In Berlin they slice the clothes off your back with flick knives and leave you to starve in the gutter.

EMIL: That was Savages of the Street, Mrs Wirth.

MRS WIRTH: A film with nig...