Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)
Harry Hayden: Doc Bissell
Quotes
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Judge Dennis : [notices that Woodrow is in civilian clothes] Where are the medals?
Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith : Oh, oh, the medals. Well, I just wore those to get off the train. I suppose I shouldn't have.
Doc Bissell : What do you mean you shouldn't have? If all good men wore medals it wouldn't be so hard to tell the good from the bad.
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Town Councilman : Let's get down to business. The trouble with our party is everybody talks too long all the time.
Doc Bissell : That's the trouble with all parties.
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[Woodrow - in his scheme - has just announced that the Marines have called him back]
Judge Dennis : Why don't they leave you here where we need you?
Libby : That's right.
Doc Bissell : That's one of the weaknesses of the military viewpoint: doesn't always recognize the importance of civilians in wartime.
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Judge Dennis : [the crowd has re-gathered at the train station to see Woodrwow] Naturally the nomination went back to Doc Bissell. But he got up and said...
Mr. Schultz : "Ladies and gents..."
Doc Bissell : Don't mis-quote me.
Judge Dennis : What?
Doc Bissell : I said, "ladies and gentlemen."
Committee Chairman : Of course you did.
Doc Bissell : I said, "Ladies and gentlemen, in all the years that I have been unsuccessfully mixed into politics, this is the first and only time that I have ever seen a candidate for office - given an opportunity to prove publicly, permanently and beyond peradventure of doubt that he was honest, courageous and veracious..."
Judge Dennis : That means truthful. He likes those big words.
Doc Bissell : I said, further, "that if to act out a little lie to save one's mother humiliation was a fault - in other words, if tenderness toward and consideration of one's mother was a fault - it was a fault any man might be proud of."
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Doc Bissell : [explaining to Woodrow that the town still wants him to run for mayor] Politics is a very peculiar thing, Woodrow. If they want you, they want you. They don't need reasons anymore... they find their own reasons. It's just like when a girl wants a man.
Libby : That's right. You don't need reasons. Although they're probably there.