Chapter 18 of 27 · 2'45"
Government agents burst into the Sycamore house and announce, "Everybody in this house is under arrest." Ed has been printing slogans like "Watch for the Revolution" as a hobby, Paul keeps gunpowder in the cellar, and the visiting Kirbys are caught in the sweep.
The Agents Interrogate the Family
Ed Explains His Printing
Federal agents raid the Sycamore house and place everyone under arrest. The charge is the printing press: Ed has been turning out pamphlets like "The Red Flag will sweep the country," and Paul has gunpowder in the cellar. The Kirbys, who are only visiting, are swept up in it too.
The raid is the film's joke about how the powerful see the harmless. Ed is not a revolutionary; he simply loves to print, as he keeps insisting — "I just like to print, that's all" — but a slogan in a candy box becomes evidence of a plot. The agents find gunpowder in the cellar, which Paul uses for fireworks, and conclude, "There's enough gunpowder down there to blow up the town." The rich Kirbys, caught visiting, discover they are not above the law either, and the chief's blanket order — "Everybody in this house is under arrest" — treats banker and bohemian exactly alike. The scene laughs at paranoia while letting the family needle the men who hold the handcuffs.
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“My goodness. He must've gotten out of the wrong side of the bed this morning.”
It shrinks a scary raid into a bad mood, and the joke quietly disarms the whole room.
Informal
“There's enough gunpowder down there to blow up the town.”
The exaggeration turns a cellar into a threat big enough to justify anything.
Informal
“It's just like a play, isn't it?”
Treating an arrest as theatre shows how this family simply refuses to take power seriously.
Neutral
“This is outrageous. Do you realize who I am?”
The go-to protest when pride is bruised: outrage plus a pull of rank.
Formal
Up next · 19you can't take it with youThe scene: Grandpa Lectures Kirby in JailBecause of Ed's printing. Agents find his pamphlets with lines like "Watch for the Revolution" and Paul's gunpowder in the cellar, and decide the family is dangerous.
No. He just loves his printing press and will print anything that interests him; he keeps saying he did not mean anything by it.
Everybody in the house, including the visiting Kirbys, under the blanket order that "everybody in this house is under arrest."
Paul Sycamore makes fireworks down there as a hobby, which is why the agents overreact and talk about the town being blown up.
Essie's Russian ballet teacher. When asked his name and origin, he answers "Beton Batopevitch Kolenkhov" and "Omsk," which makes him look suspicious to the agents.
