Kismet (1944)

Ronald Colman: Hafiz

Photos 

Quotes 

• Karsha : [Referring to Hafiz's daughter, Marsinah]  You think she's going to wither away waiting for your fairy tales to come true?

  Hafiz : She's waiting for her fate in all its splendor.

  Karsha : The fate for a beggar's daughter is a camel boy.

  Hafiz : Silence, misery!

• Hafiz : 'Round is the moon. 'Round goes the moon. The wind and the rain and the moon 'round again.

• Hafiz : Scum! To the caliph I may be dirt; but, to dirt, I am the caliph!

• Hafiz : My little lotus bud.

  Marsinah : Good evening, father.

  Hafiz : Open your pretty lips, my little dove.

  Marsinah : Delicious!

  Hafiz : And why not, my pigeon? It's mixed with sugar and vinegar like the good and bad things in life. Rose water to give it perfume and sweet seeds for flavor. And it's all put together by honey bees I have working for you in a corner of the caliph's garden.

• Marsinah : I have a confession, father.

  Hafiz : Let's have it.

  Marsinah : I promised Karsha I would tell you. I was looking over the wall without my veil. That's why Karsha was on the ladder trying to see what I was looking at.

  Hafiz : O, outside those wall, my blossom, is a very ugly world. Except in a palace of your own. That's why I built the wall around you. Leave it there. Until your prince comes to batter it down and carry you off to a world as lovely as you are. The fairy tale always comes true. Never forget that, my little princess.

• Caliph : [disguised as a gardener's son]  I want the truth.

  Hafiz : Truth, my friend, is boredom.

• Hafiz : Give me a man who laughs when he fights. Come and have some wine.

• Hafiz : Bah! Heart of a king should be big enough for all the women in the world. If a king can't act like a king, he's a yahoo.

• Caliph : [disguised as a gardener's son]  He doesn't tell you what to do about the ladies, does he?

  Hafiz : My friend, No one has to tell me what to do with the ladies. You're sitting with the master.

• Jamilla : So we meet again, my prince.

  Hafiz : Let me feast my eyes on you. It really is you. This is a pleasure. After I'd given you up. How could anything so beautiful be so merciless, so cruel? We have a week of delirious happiness and suddenly you're gone. My nights are sleepless, my days burning sands. I didn't know who you were, where you were. I shouted the name Jamilla through every palace window. From Tehran to Mosul. There wasn't even an echo. Finally, I take the long journey home to Hassir, eh, my own little kingdom praying for a thunderbolt to explode you out of my heart. But no thunderbolt.

• Hafiz : There never was another woman in all the world I couldn't forget but you.

  Jamilla : You weren't looking for me in that miserable cafe where we found you.

  Hafiz : But how fortunate I was there. It was the hand of fate. Kismet!

• Hafiz : Let no one make hash of fairy tales, my rosebud. They're the only things in the world that come true.

• Hafiz : Now, by the glories of Paradise to come, Allah hath opened the gate of action to me. Lead me to a bazaar where they trade in royal silks. Jewels from India, beads from Damascus, sashes from Constantinople, turban cloth from Vocarra. My Marsinah was born to make a palace dance.

• Feisal : Why are we hiding here in a public bathing place?

  Hafiz : Don't worry. This is one place they'd never look for us.

• Hafiz : There's a wise proverb: Seize the horns of the charging bull.

• The Grand Vizier : Her ladyship is not in the mood.

  Hafiz : Salt of my ancestors! A man who cracks a whip over an empire.

  The Grand Vizier : If I cracked a whip over this lady, she'd take it right out of my hands.

• Hafiz : Lady of the Moonlight!

  The Grand Vizier : Lady of the what?

  Hafiz : Well, she came down from some celestial spot.

  The Grand Vizier : She didn't come down. She came up!

• Hafiz : Now, my lotus, my little pigeon, you are to dance for the Grand Vizier!

  Marsinah : I? I dance for the Grand Vizier?

• Hafiz : Farewell, Baghdad. If you're ever again in troubles, send for me!