A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

David Niven: Peter Carter

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Quotes 

• Peter : June, are you pretty?

  June : Not bad.

  Peter : Can you hear me as well as I hear you?

  June : Yes.

  Peter : You've got a good voice. You've got guts too. It's funny - I've known dozens of girls: I've been in love with some of them, but an American girl whom I've never seen and who I never shall see will hear my last words. That's funny. It's rather sweet.

  Peter : June, if you're around when they pick me up, turn your head away?

• Conductor 71 : [On the Stairway to Heaven, passing by various statues representing important figures in history, points to a statue of Abraham Lincoln]  What about him?

  Peter : Lincoln? No, it's hardly fair to drag him in. I don't believe *he'd* be prejudiced.

  Conductor 71 : Plato. How would you like to be defended by Plato? Nobody knew more about reasoning than Plato.

  Peter : He was eighty-one when he died, he might be too old to think love important.

  Conductor 71 : You think so? Anyhow, Plato had very elementary ideas about love.

  Peter : Besides, didn't he quote Sophocles when somebody asked him if he was still able to appreciate a woman?

  Conductor 71 : What did the old boy say?

  Peter : Well, he said, uh, "I'm only too glad to be rid of all that. It's like escaping from bondage to a raving madman."

  Conductor 71 : [scoffs]  These Greeks, cold as their marble. Now, if he had been French... Richelieu, for example, irresistible at eighty. How *about* Richelieu?

  Peter : No, I never liked him much in "The Three Musketeers".

• Abraham Farlan : You claim you love her.

  Peter : I do love her!

  Abraham Farlan : Can you prove it?

  Peter : Well give me time, sir. Fifty years will do.

  Abraham Farlan : But can you prove it?

  Peter : Well, can a starving man prove he's hungry except by eating?

  Abraham Farlan : Would you die for her?

  Peter : I would, but, er, I'd rather live.

• Peter : [over radio]  Where were you born?

  June : Boston.

  Peter : Mass.?

  June : Yes.

  Peter : That's a place to be born, history was made there. Are you in love with anybody? No, no don't answer that.

  June : I could love a man like you, Peter.

  Peter : I love you, June. You're life and I'm leaving you.

• June : [opening words, before faces shown on screen]  Request your position. Come in, Lancaster. Come in, Lancaster.

  Peter : Position - nil, repeat nil. Age - 27, 27, did you get that? Very important. Education - interrupted, violently interrupted. Religion - Church of England. Politics - Conservative by nature, Labour by experience. What's your name?

• Peter : Don't be upset about the parachute, I'll have my wings soon anyway, big white ones. I hope it hasn't gone all modern, I'd hate to have a prop instead of wings!

• Peter : Look at her.

  Bob : Holy smoke! She looks like a nice girl.

  Doctor Frank Reeves : She is a nice girl.

  Bob : Hardly your type, Skip.

  Peter : I've fallen in love with her. Her accent is foreign, but it sounds sweet to me. We were born thousands of miles apart, but we were made for each other.

• [last lines] 

  [waking up after operation] 

  Peter : Hello.

  June : Hello.

  Peter : We won.

  June : I know darling.

• Conductor 71 : You are determined to get me into this... salade.

  Peter : And what about the salad you got me into?

• Peter : "Give me my scallop-shell of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon, My scrip of joy, immortal diet, My bottle of salvation, My gown of glory, hope's true gage; And thus I'll take my pilgrimage." Sir Walter Raleigh wrote that. I'd rather have written that than flown through Hitler's legs!

• Abraham Farlan : Your smile is not unattractive, sir. Did you use it to enamor this young American lady?

  Peter : I love her sir.

  Abraham Farlan : Answer the question.

  Peter : Would you repeat the question? It, erm, had "enamored" in it.

• June : Received your message. We can hear you. Are you wounded? Repeat. Are you wounded? Are you bailing out?

  Peter : What's your name?

  June : June.

  Peter : Yes June, I'm bailing out. I'm bailing out but there's a catch, I've got no parachute.

• Doctor Frank Reeves : Tell me, do you believe in the survival of human personality after death?

  Peter : I thought you said you read my verses.

  [to June] 

  Doctor Frank Reeves : Do you?

  June : I don't know, er, I'd never thought about it, do you?

  Doctor Frank Reeves : I don't know, I've thought about it too much.

• Peter : [to dead radio operator]  So long, Bob. I'll see you in a minute. You'll know what we wear by now - a prop or wings!

• Peter Carter : You've got good news for me, my friend.

  Conductor 71 : How did you guess?

  Peter Carter : Well, you wouldn't try to entice me with this Philimor...

  Conductor 71 : Philidor!

  Peter Carter : Philidor... if you had the right to conduct me anyway.

  Conductor 71 : True.

  Peter Carter : Well?

  Conductor 71 : Speaking officially, I have good news for you.

  Peter Carter : Good.

  Conductor 71 : You are to be allowed to appeal to the High Court.

  Peter Carter : Splendid!

  Conductor 71 : The trial will be a full dress affair. Très chic!... in three days, to give you time to prepare your case.

  Peter Carter : Better and better!

  Conductor 71 : Hmm... do not be too pleased.

  Peter Carter : Why? Is there a catch?

  Conductor 71 : The prosecuting counsel. Of course, I am not permitted to offer advice or give a personal opinion but... phhht!

  Peter Carter : Well, who is this prosecuting counsel?

  Conductor 71 : Be prepared!

  Peter Carter : For what?

  Conductor 71 : A shock!

  Peter Carter : Well, come on, tell me the worst. Who is it?

  Conductor 71 : Abraham Farlan!

  Peter Carter : Come again?

  Conductor 71 : Abraham Farlan!

  [With less of his French accent] 

  Peter Carter : Well, I never heard of him!

  Conductor 71 : No?

  Peter Carter : Never in my life!

  Conductor 71 : He lives in Boston!

  Peter Carter : I've never been in Boston!

  Conductor 71 : Massachusetts!

  Peter Carter : I've never been there!

  Conductor 71 : Abraham Farlan died in Boston in 1775. Does that date convey anything to you?

  Peter Carter : Lexington? Concord?

  Conductor 71 : Exactly! You are good at history. The American War of Independence.

  Peter Carter : Oh, he was killed?

  Conductor 71 : By a British bullet!

  Peter Carter : Oh, he might be, ah, prejudiced!

  Conductor 71 : Hmm, he hates your guts! And he hates the guts of every Englishman! And, particularly, he hates this little affair with a Boston-born girl!

  Peter Carter : [Offended]  It's not a little affair!

  Conductor 71 : Oh! A BIG affair he will hate even more!

• Conductor 71 : She cannot wake. We are talking in space, not in time.

  Peter : Are you cracked?

  Conductor 71 : Look at your watch. It has not moved since you said so charmingly, "Drink, darling." Nor will it move, nor will anything move, until we have finished our little talk. It is only a trick.

• Conductor 71 : [71 has returned to give Peter the news on his request for an appeal against being "conducted" to the other world. 71 is looking at the book on chess that Peter was reading when 71 disturbed him: My Best Games of Chess: 1924-1937 by Alexander Alekhine]  This looks good.

  Peter Carter : Very good. Do you know the author?

  Conductor 71 : No, but I often have a game with Philidor.

  Peter Carter : Philidor?

  Conductor 71 : The greatest master of chess who ever lived. A Frenchman, naturellement! Come along and I'll introduce you.