The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Gregory Peck: Capt. Keith Mallory
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Quotes
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Mallory : Can you do anything at all?
Corporal Miller : I don't know. There's always a way to blow up explosives. The trick is not to be around when they go off. But aren't you forgetting something? The lady. As I see it we have three choices. One we can leave her here but there's no guarantee she won't be found, and in her case they won't need a truth drug. Two, we can take her with us, but that would make things worse than they are already. And three... well, that's Andrea's choice, remember?
Mallory : You really want your pound of flesh, don't you?
Corporal Miller : Yes, I do. You see, somehow I just couldn't get to sleep.
Mallory : Well, if you're so anxious to kill her, go ahead!
Corporal Miller : I'm not anxious to kill her, I'm not anxious to kill anyone. You see, I'm not a born soldier. I was trapped. You may find me facetious from time to time, but if I didn't make some rather bad jokes I'd go out of my mind. No, I prefer to leave the killing to someone like you, an officer and a gentleman, a leader of men.
Mallory : If you think I wanted this, any of this, you're out of your mind, I was trapped like you, just like anyone who put on the uniform!
Corporal Miller : Of *course* you wanted it, you're an officer, aren't you? I never let them make *me* an officer! I don't want the responsibility!
Mallory : So you've had a free ride, all this time! Someone's *got* to take responsibility if the job's going to get done! You think that's easy?
Corporal Miller : [shouts] I don't know! I'm not even sure who really is responsible any more.
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[last lines]
Corporal Miller : To tell you the truth, I didn't think we could do it.
Capt. Keith Mallory : To tell you the truth, neither did I.
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Mallory : [On Andrea] He's going to kill me when the war's over.
Major Franklin : You're not serious.
Mallory : Yes, I am. So is he.
[pause]
Mallory : About a year ago, I gave a German patrol a safe passage to get some of their wounded into hospital. I guess I still had some romantic notions about fighting a civilized war. Anyway, they wanted Andrea pretty badly, even back then. As soon as they got behind our lines, they shot their casualties, went over to his house, and blew it up. He was out on a job at the time, but his wife and three children were in the house. They were all killed. I helped him to bury them. And then he turned to me and said that as far as he was concerned, it wasn't the Germans who were responsible, but me. Me and my stupid Anglo-Saxon decency. Then he told me what he was going to do, and when.
Major Franklin : You think he still means to do it?
Mallory : He's from Crete. Those people don't make idle threats.
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Capt. Keith Mallory : I have no time for this!
Corporal Miller : Now just a minute! If we're going to get this job done she has got to be killed! And we all know how keen you are about getting the job done! Now I can't speak for the others but I've never killed a woman, traitor or not, and I'm finicky! So why don't you do it? Let us off for once! Go on, be a pal, be a father to your men! Climb down off that cross of yours, close your eyes, think of England, and pull the trigger! What do you say, Sir?
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Mallory : You think you've been getting away with it all this time, standing by. Well, son... your bystanding days are over! You're in it now, up to your neck! They told me that you're a genius with explosives. Start proving it!
[gesturing with his pistol]
Mallory : You got me in the mood to use this thing, and by God, if you don't think of something, I'll use it on you! I mean it.
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Mallory : Are you sure it will work?
Corporal Miller : There's no guarantee, but the theory's perfectly feasible.
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Corporal Miller : I've inspected this vessel, and I think you ought to know that, ah, I can't swim.
Mallory : I'll keep it in mind.
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Corporal Miller : Well, right now I say to hell with the job! I've been on a hundred jobs and not one of them's altered the course of the war! I don't care about the war anymore, I care about Roy!
Capt. Keith Mallory : And if Turkey comes into the war on the wrong side?
Corporal Miller : So what? Let the whole bloody world come in and blow itself to pieces, that's what it deserves!
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Mallory : [after the Mallory and his team have overpowered and disarmed the Germans, the Germans are bound and gagged and Mallory's team takes their uniforms. Spiro is about to put the gag on Muesel] Hold it.
Mallory : We are going to leave Major Franklin behind. He is a wounded officer, I expect him to get proper medical attention.
Muesel : We don't make war on wounded men. We aren't all like Hauptmann Sessler.
Mallory : Now where's the camp radio station?
Muesel : I will not tell you.
[Mallory points a pistol at Muesel in a hesitant way]
Muesel : You wouldn't hesitate to kill me for any number of reasons, but not this one. In any event I will not tell you.
[Muesel is then gagged]
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[what to do with Franklin after he broke his leg scaling the cliff; take him along, or leave him behind for the Germans]
Col. Andrea Stavros : There is of course a third choice. One bullet now. Better for him, better for us. You take that man along,you endanger us all.
Corporal Miller : Why don't we just drop him off the cliff and save a bullet?
Capt. Keith Mallory : And why don't you shut up? Yes, there's a third choice. We'll make it if necessary, when it's necessary, and not before.
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Capt. Keith Mallory : They told us Pappadimos was a man
Maria Pappadimos : My father. He was taken two days ago.
Col. Andrea Stavros : He was taken?
Maria Pappadimos : He told them nothing. He will die first.
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[apologizing for involving Mallory in the Navarone mission]
Major Franklin : No, I'm stupid sometimes. Even when I was a kid, I always took it for granted people wanted to play the games I like, and I'd be furious when they didn't.
Capt. Keith Mallory : Well, now they have to, so why worry?
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[Hearing someone coming, Andrea draws a revolver and aims it at the door. Mallory enters]
Mallory : Surprised?
Col. Andrea Stavros : I did not think I would see you again so soon.
Mallory : Did you think you'd have to come looking for me?
Col. Andrea Stavros : When the time came, I would find you.
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Maria Pappadimos : [while she is driving the truck, she is totally unaware of Mallory's and Stavrou's past and how a mistake by Mallory had led to the deaths of Stavrou wife and children and how Stavrou vowed to kill Mallory after the war to avenge his wife's and family's death. Stavrou hates Mallory. Mallory is sitting right between Maria and Stavrou] Sir?
Mallory : Yes.
Maria Pappadimos : No, not you, sir. Mr. Stavrou.
Col. Andrea Stavros : Hmm?
Maria Pappadimos : Tell me about yourself.
Col. Andrea Stavros : What do you want to know?
Maria Pappadimos : Are you married?
Col. Andrea Stavros : I have been married. My wife and children were killed.
Maria Pappadimos : Have you killed many people?
Col. Andrea Stavros : Only Germans. Oh, some Italians too.
Maria Pappadimos : Captain Mallory?
Mallory : Yes.
Maria Pappadimos : You are a lucky man.
Mallory : Yes, I know.
Maria Pappadimos : Mr. Stavrou?
Col. Andrea Stavros : Yes?
Maria Pappadimos : I like you.
Col. Andrea Stavros : [Stavrou turns his head in surprise to look at Maria] I like you too.
[maria turns her head to look at Stavrou and smiles and returns her attention to driving. Mallory gives a sly smile to Stavrou]
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Weaver : I'm desperately sorry, gentlemen. Really, I am. It's embarrassing. Just look at it!
Capt. Keith Mallory : No, it's exactly what we want.
Weaver : They said you wanted a boat no one would notice, but that's a disgrace! Give me 36 hours, and I know I can lay my hands on a German E-boat in absolutely perfect condition. I promise you, only one careful owner. I'll just pop over to Rhodes and get it for you.
Major Franklin : Rhodes? Won't the Germans have something to say about that?
Weaver : I suppose they would, sir, if they knew. But I've got good connections there. What do you say?
Capt. Keith Mallory : No, thanks. We can't wait.
Weaver : Pity.
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Capt. Keith Mallory : And what about the two thousand men on Kheros?
Corporal Miller : I don't know the man on Kheros! But I do know the man on Navarone!
Col. Andrea Stavros : Mr. Miller, the man was finished when he fell.
Corporal Miller : [angry] That's easy for you to say, sitting there, drinking coffee.
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Mallory : The only way to win a war is to be as nasty as the enemy.
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Capt. Keith Mallory : You have any brothers or sisters?
Maria Pappadimos : I have a brother, Spiro, in America.
Capt. Keith Mallory : Oh, He's not that far away.
[Maria stops what she is doing and looks up with a stunned look on her face. Mallory points the but of his sub machine gun at Spiros]
Capt. Keith Mallory : He's that handsome devil right over there.
Maria Pappadimos : [She gets up and walks over to her brother. Her face has a look of wonder and love at seeing the brother she hasn't since he was a child] Spiros!
[Then her face turns hard and angry as she slaps him hard in the face]
Pvt. Spyros Pappadimos : [Smarting from the slap] What did you do that for?
Maria Pappadimos : To remind you to write letters occasionally.
Pvt. Spyros Pappadimos : There happens to be a war on.
Maria Pappadimos : I mean before the war! I promised myself I'd would do this the first time I ever saw you again.
[Her whole manner changes to contrite]
Maria Pappadimos : Well, I'm sorry, brother.
[Spyros just smiles, shakes his head, grabs her and gives her a great big bear hug]
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[after Brown tells Mallory that Franklin's broken leg has turned gangrenous]
Col. Andrea Stavros : Brown says that... you are doing well.
Major Franklin : [chuckles] Brown's a liar, and so are you. I haven't lost my sense of smell, you know. I only hope the doctor's a good surgeon. I wonder what old Jensen would say. My luck seems to have changed, doesn't it?
[He laughs softly and bites a piece of fruit. Mallory and Andrea leave him]
Col. Andrea Stavros : [grudgingly] This Franklin... he's not a bad fellow.
Mallory : No, not bad at all.
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Capt. Keith Mallory : Tell me, schoolteacher, from a purely moral point of view - bearing in mind that we represent the side of goodness and civilization - do you think that what I did to Franklin was a civilized thing to do?
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CPO 'Butcher' Brown : I'm tired and I'm fed up. I've been fighting this war a long time. I've been killing Germans since 1937. There's no end to them. Shoot a man at 200 yards, he's just a target. You kill him with a knife...... you're close enough to smell him. I smell them in my sleep. After the last time, I made a pact with myself: I'd do my job. But I wouldn't do the other anymore. Not if I could help it.
Capt. Keith Mallory : And who gave you the right to make a private peace? You think you're the only one who's tired?
