White Cargo (1942)

Frank Morgan: The Doctor

Photos 

Quotes 

• Wilbur Ashley : I'm just calm now and peaceful like.

  The Doctor : Like morphine beginning to take effect.

  The Reverend Dr. Roberts : Or the peace of the heart, after prayer.

• The Doctor : [applies alcohol to the native's foot]  Kind of stings, hey? You can imagine what it does to the lining of your stomach!

  [takes another drink] 

• The Doctor : Do you happen to know, Mr. Langford, if they brought out my medical supplies?

  Mr. Langford : I really couldn't say.

  The Doctor : Ohh... seems a shame to waste good whiskey on sterilizing.

• Mr. Langford : [after the going away party for Wilbur Ashley]  Say, do you fellas drink this much every night?

  The Doctor : Unfortunately, no.

  The Reverend Dr. Roberts : Far too much alcohol is consumed by the men of this coast. Even you, doctor, must admit that.

  The Doctor : Well, it's more healthful to be sober, although perhaps not *quite* so pleasant.

• The Doctor : My boy, you don't understand. That's what I'm trying to make you fight! It's a quirk that's become an obsession. It's taking away your reason! It's... affecting your mind!

  Mr. Langford : Thanks. I like to be told to my face that I'm a driveling idiot.

• Mr. Langford : [Witzel has just sentenced a native man to one year in prison for stealing a rifle]  You mean they're going to imprison him a whole year, for practically nothing?

  The Reverend Dr. Roberts : The Resident has the power of life or death.

  Mr. Langford : But... but, just for taking a rifle?

  The Doctor : Yes, but didn't you understand? He shot it off... and, at Witzel!

• The Doctor : I've been with you for nearly three years. I think I'm just beginning to know you.

  Mr. Harry Witzel : We're getting quite sentimental, aren't we?

  The Doctor : No, we're getting quite human.

• The Doctor : Another touch of fever?

  Mr. Harry Witzel : With the white man, it's always fever. With the natives, its always belly sickness.

• The Doctor : I've told you, Witzel, a few months in a temperate climate...

  Mr. Harry Witzel : Oh, drop that bedside manner. You aren't talking to Ashley, you're talking to me.

  The Doctor : Well, at least I'm glad he's going home.

  Mr. Harry Witzel : Yeah, of course, you're glad. It doesn't mean a blasted thing to you that I've got to break in a new jellyfish that they're sending out from the home office. And I know just the type he'll be. Come out here with a whole supply of stiff linen collars and ask me a million asinine questions an hour. "I say, how's the hunting?" "Are the natives friendly?" Then he'll get homesick and go back home and write a book about when you're driving in your motor do you ever stop to ponder where we get the rubber for your tires. I can't stomach any more of them.

• The Doctor : If were a younger man, Witzel, I would resent your innuendos.

  Mr. Harry Witzel : You wouldn't resent anything with a drink hanging on the end of it.

• Skipper of the Congo Queen : Who do you think we see last trip back in Sierra Leone?

  Ted - First Mate of the Congo Queen : You know, that short, little Cleopatra.

  Wilbur Ashley : Tondelayo.

  The Doctor : Tondelayo.

  Mr. Harry Witzel : Tondelayo.

  Mr. Langford : Well, ha-ha-ha, who is this Tondelayo?

  Ted - First Mate of the Congo Queen : Oh, quite an eyeful if you should ask me.

  Skipper of the Congo Queen : Up to her tricks again at the convent. You should see the traders, what got religion just to get around there to take a squint at that half-bred.

  The Reverend Dr. Roberts : Its the hardest fight we have. As soon as we teach a few women to cook and sew and speak a few dozen words of our language, some white tries to turn her into his own advantage.

  Skipper of the Congo Queen : Why shouldn't he?

  The Reverend Dr. Roberts : Because the end is always in the beginning. Its always the whites that become the more degraded.

• The Doctor : Is it true what Witzel said, about Tondelayo being back?

  Mr. Langford : How should I know.

  The Doctor : Of course, you do know just who and what she is?

  Mr. Langford : Yes, yes, yes.

  The Doctor : She knows how to purr her way into your mind and scratch her way out. Always taking and never giving.

  Mr. Langford : She's the nearest thing to a civilized woman I've seen in five impossible months.

• The Doctor : Oh, please. Listen, my boy, go home. I'm begging you as I would my own son, if I had one. Go home.

  Mr. Langford : And hear Witzel say I told you, you'd quit.

  The Doctor : There goes the obsession again. Witzel! Witzel! Witzel!

• The Doctor : [trying to stop the arguing]  Now, now, now, gentlemen, please. In hundreds of square miles there are only four white men. We all have our faults, and we get on each other's nerves. The least we can do is make allowances for each other. Be a little human. What do you say, Witzel?

  Mr. Harry Witzel : Well, maybe there is something in what you say.

  Mr. Langford : You're right, Doctor. Sorry if I was unpleasant, Witzel.

  Mr. Harry Witzel : [kindly]  It's all right.

  Mr. Langford : I'm feeling kind of rotten today.

  Mr. Harry Witzel : [even more kindly]  I know, forget it.

  Mr. Langford : I'll be alright as soon I become acclimatised.

  Mr. Harry Witzel : [he explodes with anger]  There you go with that blasted word "acclimatised" again! Isn't there another word in the English language but acclimatised, acclimatised, acclimatised!