Oscar Homolka: Col. Stok

Finale in Berlin

Col. Stok

Colonel Stok: I wish to defect, but there are conditions.
Harry Palmer: What do you want?
Colonel Stok: I want colonel's pay for life.
Harry Palmer: Don't we all.
Colonel Stok: A house in the country.
Harry Palmer: Oh, how many bedrooms?
Colonel Stok: Bedrooms do not matter. But I must have a big garden. I am a peasant at heart, and I want to grow roses in my old age.
Harry Palmer: In England, roses are out - weeds are in. Is that all?
Colonel Stok: That is all. I want comfort and security.
Harry Palmer: You've got all that in Russia now.
Colonel Stok: Aah, in Russia there is no place for an old Bolshevik. In my job I have made too many enemies.
Harry Palmer: Well, what about your family?
Colonel Stok: My wife died in a German air raid in 1941; my only son hasn't written to me in three years. What would you do in my position?
Harry Palmer: I'd stop telling lies, for a start. You have no son, and your wife is in Kiev with your daughter Katya. I know everything about you, Colonel Stok... from the size of your refrigerator to the cubic capacity of your mistress.

Colonel Stok: If there is a mistake, the KRAPOs will be shooting at me.
Harry Palmer: That'll be nice: you'll find out what it's like to be an East German.
Colonel Stok: You are insolent! Do you think this job, this loathsome Wall, is all I've done for Communism? Does Smolensk mean anything to you, or Stalingrad?
[chuckles]
Colonel Stok: I look at your stupid face and I think you mean what you say. I like you, you're good at your job. You need only one thing.
Harry Palmer: What's that?
Colonel Stok: A reason for doing it.
Harry Palmer: I get paid.
Colonel Stok: £30 a week? Is it worth it - to be a tool of the generals? A tool for making trouble? Trouble makes arms, arms make money...
Harry Palmer: When you get to England, we'll give you a soapbox. You sure you want to defect tomorrow?
Colonel Stok: I told you, I'm still a good Communist. When a man leaves his wife, he remembers his wedding night. Communism was the love of my youth, and I've been faithful... until now. I was with Antonov-Ovseyenko at the storming of the Winter Palace in 1917. Do you know what that means in Russia?
Harry Palmer: Yes, I think so. It means you're an expendable hero.

[On his proposed defection]
Colonel Stok: And for you it is a propaganda victory - my name is worth a headline.
Harry Palmer: We get plenty of Russians. It's a pity you're not Chinese.

Colonel Stok: [after Harry has seen through some deliberate lies that Stok was testing him with] I like you, English. You're not as stupid as you look. I wanted to see how well you were trained.
Harry Palmer: "Train hard, fight easy."
Colonel Stok: Ahh, you quote Marshall Suvorov! Bravo!

Colonel Stok: If you won't help me, I'll go to the Americans.
Harry Palmer: [showing indifference] Why don't you go to the Americans? They have more money.
Colonel Stok: Ah! Who wants to live in America? They are just Russians in pressed trousers. Revolutionaries gone decadent.
Harry Palmer: All right. I'll make my report to London. I'll tell them that you talk well - and lie badly.

Colonel Stok: What's the matter, you in trouble? Ross won't shoot you for failing once - it's not democratic!

Colonel Stok: [offering Palmer a cup of tea] As usual, there is no milk today.
Harry Palmer: And so Russian tea was invented.