I'll Be Seeing You (1944)

Joseph Cotten: Zachary Morgan

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mary Marshall : [coming out of a theater showing a war movie]  Is the war really like that?

  Zachary Morgan : I guess so.

  Mary Marshall : That's funny.

  Zachary Morgan : Why?

  Mary Marshall : I mean that you should only guess so.

  Zachary Morgan : Well, they have experts making those pictures. I guess that's the way they see the war. A beach a mile long, and thousands of soldiers, and tanks, and machine guns and everything. I guess that's the way it is.

  Mary Marshall : But it wasn't that way for you, huh?

  Zachary Morgan : It's just a difference in size. To a guy that's in it, the war's about ten feet wide, and kind of empty. It's you and a couple of fellows in your company, maybe, and maybe a couple of Japs. It's all kind of mixed up. Sometimes it's all full of noise, and sometimes it's quiet. It all depends on what you're thinking about, I guess. It depends on how scared you are, how cold you are, and how wet you are. I guess if you asked a hundred guys what the war's like, they'd all give you a different answer. Mary. You know what?

  Mary Marshall : What?

  Zachary Morgan : I mean, usually you don't like to talk about it. I never said anything about it before, not to anybody.

  Mary Marshall : I'm sorry, I ...

  Zachary Morgan : No. No, I feel kind of good.

• Zachary Morgan : Mary, I want to tell you why I got mad at that guy in the coffee shop last night, and why I walked away from you after I threw that rock at the lamppost and missed it.

  Mary Marshall : I knew there must be some reason, but you don't have to tell me.

  Zachary Morgan : Look, I was brought up in a home, an orphan's home.

  Mary Marshall : That's nothing to be ashamed of.

  Zachary Morgan : I'm not. It's not like being in prison, or anything like that.

  Mary Marshall : No.

  Zachary Morgan : Well, in the home there was a janitor. This fellow had been in the last war. A young guy. He was a shell shock case. Whenever we could get our hands on any firecrackers, we'd bang them off and laugh at him when he jumped. Well, that fellow in the coffee shop reminded me of the janitor, and they both made me think of myself and what I'd be like in a few years. Only difference is, that now in the hospital, they have a fancy name for it: neuropsychiatric.

  Mary Marshall : The doctors must know a lot more about it now than they did during the last war.

  Zachary Morgan : Maybe. They don't know something about me that I know. You see, before I became an engineer, I was an athlete, a pretty good one. I know what my timing used to be, they don't, and it's gone, Mary. Before this happened to me, I could have hit that lamppost all day. I don't know why I'm bothering you with all this. Yes, I do. I know why I'm bothering you. Because I feel so much better when I talk to you. I like to be with you.

• Mr. Marshall : [after they sing a Christmas carol together]  Well, it feels pretty comfortable to have another man's voice around at Christmastime.

  Mrs. Marshall : I'm sure Barbara's doing her best to arrange that for you, Henry.

  Barbara Marshall : Oh, mother.

  Mrs. Marshall : Oh, darling. Maybe family jokes are in bad taste. They make the guest feel out of place.

  Zachary Morgan : No, ma'am. I haven't felt so easy in a long time. This is the best Christmas dinner I ever had. Yesterday, I was a stranger here. I mean, I felt like a prisoner inside myself. Now, just to be in a home like this, with people like you, maybe someplace I can come back to next month, or next year...

• Mary Marshall : You know something?

  Zachary Morgan : What?

  Mary Marshall : The doctors are gonna be very surprised when they see you. They'll probably send you back to active duty.

  Zachary Morgan : That lemonade must have been spiked.

  Mary Marshall : No, I really mean it. Do you realize what you did tonight? I bet you couldn't have done that a week ago.

  Zachary Morgan : What?

  Mary Marshall : Well, I watched you all evening. When you were dancing, you never hesitated for words, and your eyes didn't blink. And then when that dog attacked us, I've never seen anyone quite so fast on their feet.

  Zachary Morgan : I didn't even think about what I was doing.

  Mary Marshall : That's just it, you were so alert and keen, and your timing was perfect.

  Zachary Morgan : I hope you're right. I believe you are. Mary, you told me that in eight days you can do a lot of believing.

  Mary Marshall : You see, I'm the fellow that's on the radio that says: Life can be wonderful.

  Zachary Morgan : You're wonderful.

  Mary Marshall : You're just saying that because you know I've got lots of money.

  Zachary Morgan : You're wonderful.

  Mary Marshall : Because you know I've got very influential friends.

  Zachary Morgan : You're wonderful.

  Mary Marshall : Because of my social position.

  [he kisses her] 

  Zachary Morgan : Mary, I know I'm going to get well. I've got plans, too, lots of them. I know I'm going to stay well, too, because you figure in all my plans. You've got to figure in them because, without you, I'm back where I started. I'm sunk.

  Mary Marshall : Let's don't talk about it tonight. I'm kind of sleepy.

• Zachary Morgan : [meeting her at the women's prison gate]  Mary, I didn't want to make you cry.

  Mary Marshall : There's nothing wrong with crying at a time like this.

  Zachary Morgan : The minute I got on the train, I knew why you didn't tell me.

  Mary Marshall : Nothing matters, except that you're here.

  Zachary Morgan : I'm terribly ashamed of walking out like that. I need you, Mary. I want to feel that you need me.

  Mary Marshall : Oh, I do. I do.

  Zachary Morgan : I'll be right here. I'll be right here waiting. I'll be all well by then. Ready to make a new start, too.

• Mary Marshall : [meeting for the first time on the train]  Are you going home on furlough?

  Zachary Morgan : Yeah. Yeah, I'm on furlough. They gave me a furlough.

  Mary Marshall : Is this your first time home since...

  Zachary Morgan : Well, I haven't got any regular home or family. I'm just going to visit. You traveling on business, or...

  Mary Marshall : No, I'm on vacation. Christmas vacation.

  Zachary Morgan : What kind of business are you in? I mean, what sort of work do you do?

  Mary Marshall : Well, I, uh... I travel. I'm a traveling saleswom - uh, saleslady.

  Zachary Morgan : I never heard any jokes about traveling salesladies. I guess there aren't many. I never would have guessed that's what you did.

  Mary Marshall : Well, what - what would you have guessed?

  Zachary Morgan : Oh, that you were, uh, I don't know... a secretary or a model maybe, a schoolteacher.

  Mary Marshall : Well, I once was a secretary, and I wanted to be a model. So that would have been pretty good guessing.

  Zachary Morgan : You going all the way to L.A.?

  Mary Marshall : No. No, I haven't much farther to go, as a matter of fact. I'm getting off at Pinehill.

  Zachary Morgan : Oh. Oh, well... Is Pinehill your home?

  Mary Marshall : No. I'm just visting my uncle.

  Zachary Morgan : That's funny. I'm going to Pinehill, too.

  Mary Marshall : Oh, really?

  Zachary Morgan : Uh-huh. Yeah. I'm visiting there. My sister lives in Pinehill.

  Mary Marshall : I bet she'll be very glad to see you.

  Zachary Morgan : I hope so. Maybe we'll run into each other there.

  Mary Marshall : Yes.

• Mary Marshall : [getting into a cab]  Bye.

  Zachary Morgan : Bye.

  Mary Marshall : [to cab driver]  617 North Elm Street.

  Zachary Morgan : Oh, wait. If, uh, if anybody tried to telephone you, how could they get you?

  Mary Marshall : Well, uh, my uncle's name is in the telephone book. Henry Marshall.

  Zachary Morgan : Henry Marshall? Good. Oh! What's your name?

  Mary Marshall : Mary. Mary - Mary Marshall.

  Zachary Morgan : Mary Marshall. Good-bye.

  Mary Marshall : Good-bye.

  Zachary Morgan : Wait a minute. Um, if somebody calls and says it's Zachary Morgan, that's me.

  Mary Marshall : [laughing]  Oh. Glad to meet you.

  Zachary Morgan : Merry Christmas.

  Mary Marshall : Merry Christmas.

• Zachary Morgan : [Mrs. Marshall comes in with a flaming plum pudding]  I never could figure out why the pudding never gets burned.

  Mary Marshall : I've never been able to figure that out either. Must be the alcohol in the brandy.

  Zachary Morgan : I think.

  Mr. Marshall : Personally, I think it's a shame to burn good brandy. That quart I brought home last week was imported cognac.

  Mrs. Marshall : Oh, don't worry, Henry, I didn't burn up the whole quart.

  Barbara Marshall : Oh, I wouldn't trust Mom with it, Dad.

  Mr. Marshall : Maybe you're right. Remember last year, how Mom got going on just a glass of sherry?

  Mrs. Marshall : Now I'm not going to listen to that again!

  Barbara Marshall : You may not believe this about your dear Aunt Sarah, but last year she got high as a kite.

  Zachary Morgan : If they're trying to drag out a family skeleton, Mrs. Marshall, I won't listen to them.

  Mrs. Marshall : Oh, it's just one of those little things that happen, people start exaggerating.

  Mr. Marshall : Exaggerate, my eye! It's as true as I sit here. Last year, Mother and I had a glass of sherry to bring in the new year. And then we went to a little gathering, all the way across town, it was. Mother had her skirt on backwards!

  Mrs. Marshall : See here, Henry, if you're in such good voice, how about a Christmas carol?

• Senator Hugh B. Emmett : Sergeant, we would like to get the point of view of the soldiers about several things.

  Zachary Morgan : Soldiers?

  Senator Hugh B. Emmett : Yes. We would like to know from you what the soldier thinks.

  Zachary Morgan : Thinks about what?

  Senator Hugh B. Emmett : Thinks about political issues.

  Zachary Morgan : Senator, I don't know. What gives you the idea that just because a fellow puts on a soldier suit he thinks any differently from anybody else?

  [looking around at the soldiers around him] 

  Zachary Morgan : What does the soldier think? I tell you, last time some of us voted for Roosevelt, and some of us didn't. Some of us weren't old enough to vote. Some soldiers think labor's got a right to strike, and some soldiers think labor's got no rights at all. A lot of soldiers got one idea about what should happen after war, a lot of soldiers have other ideas. Me? I haven't the slightest notion what a lot of soldiers think. Senator, thanks for the cigar.

• Barbara Marshall : You going back to active duty, Zach?

  Zachary Morgan : Not for a while yet.

  Barbara Marshall : Gee, you look a lot better than you did a week ago.

  Zachary Morgan : Feel a lot better.

  Barbara Marshall : Do you think it was the Marshall food that did it?

  Zachary Morgan : Must've helped. I think it was mostly your cousin Mary.

  Barbara Marshall : She's awfully nice.

  Zachary Morgan : I've noticed that, too. You know what? I think I'll marry her.

  Barbara Marshall : Are you kidding?

  Zachary Morgan : Not as far as I'm concerned. Of course, I don't know about her, yet.

  Barbara Marshall : Well, won't you mind waiting?

  Zachary Morgan : That's up to Mary, really. Things have worked out so well, that I may not have to wait as long as I thought.

  Barbara Marshall : Well, that's what the folks have always hoped, that she won't have to serve her full term now. But the fact that they let her out of prison for Christmas is a pretty good sign. You know, it wasn't until the other night, when she told me how it all happened, I realized that it really isn't her fault. She's not a criminal. I mean, not like real criminals. Oh, it's too bad that you two can't go back on the train together, but then Mary isn't due in Easton until nine o'clock tonight. She wants to spend as much time with us as she can. You can't blame her, after being locked up for three years.