Charly (1968)

Lilia Skala: Dr. Anna Straus

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Quotes 

• Dr. Anna Strauss : [after witnessing Charly painting nude women, furiously at Richard]  What are you trying to turn him into, some kind of a sideshow freak?

  Dr. Richard Nemur : Now, Anna, don't be ridiculous.

  Dr. Anna Strauss : You're pushing your program for his intellectual development much too rapidly. It has to keep pace with my program for his emotional development, or the imbalance will become dangerous! I thought we were to be satisfied with a minor miracle...

  Dr. Richard Nemur : What are you afraid of?

  Dr. Anna Strauss : ...to help a retarded human being become a more productive member of society.

  Dr. Richard Nemur : He has shown no indication of any mental ceiling. So why are you afraid to reach for whatever that ceiling may be? In any event, we shall have to give Mrs. Kinnian her notice.

  Dr. Anna Strauss : What?

  Dr. Richard Nemur : All she can do now is ask him questions out of books that he's already absorbed. What he needs at this point is a giant step forward - new conceptualization, inductive thinking. And that calls for experts, not Alice Kinnian.

  Dr. Anna Strauss : I will say it once more, Richard: Charly Gordon is still a child emotionally.

  Dr. Richard Nemur : I don't agree.

• [sometime after Algernon's death, Alice comes in slamming the door getting Nemur and Strauss' attention] 

  Dr. Richard Nemur : [about Charly]  Did you find him?

  Alice Kinnian : [furiously]  Why didn't you tell me? Why did you have to hide it?

  Dr. Anna Strauss : But we only discovered an indication of this condition last week, Mrs. Kinnian, and only in a few of the Phase 5 mice. I assumed it was simply erratic behavior or individual behavior. There was NO NEED to alarm Charly!

  Alice Kinnian : Oh, it's not? With the convention coming up, why should you both miss your moments of glory?

  Dr. Anna Strauss : [offended]  Now Mrs. Kinnian!

  Dr. Richard Nemur : Before we had a chance to run further checks, he had no right to make it public!

  Alice Kinnian : [incredulously]  NO RIGHT?

  Dr. Richard Nemur : Have you any idea what he has done to our standing in the scientific community?

  Alice Kinnian : Your standing nothing!

  Dr. Anna Strauss : Now, let us calmly--dispassionately--try to decide what we are going to do about this situation!

  Alice Kinnian : Which situation, your standing in the scientific community or Charly?

  Dr. Richard Nemur : They're related, you know!

  Alice Kinnian : [scoffs]  Is that all this means to you?

  Dr. Anna Strauss : But don't you understand, Mrs. Kinnian? Algernon's regression doesn't prove it will happen to Charly! Charly's a human being, not a laboratory animal.

  Dr. Richard Nemur : This regressive syndrome may be limited to the mice. Now I will thank you, Mrs. Kinnian, if you...

  Alice Kinnian : Have you been close to something, but not close enough?

  Dr. Richard Nemur : Let me go...

  Alice Kinnian : [cuts him, slams her hand on the table, angrily]  IS there a second operation you can give him, is there some corrective surgery!

  Dr. Richard Nemur : No.

  Alice Kinnian : I see! Well, tell me. What do you do around here with the specimens that fail, the freezer first then the incinerator?

  Dr. Anna Strauss : [gasps]  Uh...

  [Alice, Nemur and Strauss see that Charly has arrive] 

  Charly Gordon : [after a long pause]  How can I help?