Island in the Sun (1957)

James Mason: Maxwell Fleury

Photos 

Quotes 

• Maxwell Fleury : [reading from a newspaper]  "Presumably they did not know that Julian Fleury's mother, who died in childbirth, was a Jamaican with native ancestry" Is it true?

  Julian Fleury : It's true.

  Maxwell Fleury : What were you lashing out when you tried to slap me? Your own guilt, your betrayal of us?

  Julian Fleury : Betrayal? Your mother never knew?

  Maxwell Fleury : She knew. Didn't you mother?

  Mrs. Fleury : I knew.

  Julian Fleury : But how?

  Mrs. Fleury : An anonymous letter. Came ten years ago.

  Julian Fleury : And you never mentioned it?

  Julian Fleury : I saw no reason to. I wanted to keep things as they were.

  Maxwell Fleury : Faithful wife. Noble mother.

  Julian Fleury : Maxwell, stop it.

  Jocelyn Fleury : How do you expect him to feel? How do you think I feel? To believe that you belong to one kind of a world and then suddenly... when I asked you if there was any reason that I shouldn't marry Euan, you said no.

  Julian Fleury : I said that was no *good* reason.

  Jocelyn Fleury : How can you say that? Euan's heir to a title. Can you picture a black man sitting in the House of Lords if we had a son?

  Julian Fleury : There's no need to exaggerate. My mother was three-quarters white, I've only one-sixteenth colored blood. The chances are your children will be *completely* white.

• David Boyeur : Mr. Fleury speaks as if traditions belong only to him. We have ours too.

  Maxwell Fleury : I'd be the last to deny him his traditions.

  David Boyeur : Which ones, Mr. Fleury? The ones we got on the slave ships - or in the cane fields working like beasts? Or, the ones we have now, the ones we're making every day, despite the slave ships *and* the cane fields?

• Maxwell Fleury : Your father, if I remember correctly, worked on my father's plantation.

  David Boyeur : Till the day he died.

  Maxwell Fleury : He was taken care of, whether he was sick or not, whether he worked or not.

  David Boyeur : That was charity, Mr. Fleury. What we want is equality.

  Hilary Carson : What I want is a drink.

• Maxwell Fleury : If I were a woman, I'd prefer Carson to Euan Templeton.

  Sylvia Fleury : But, it was Euan all the girls chased after.

• Colonel Whittingham : Ever read a book called, "Crime and Punishment"?

  Maxwell Fleury : No. Why?

  Colonel Whittingham : Well, you should. It's about just this sort of thing. A man who's committed a crime and his relationship with a detective who knows he's committed it, but still can't prove it. There's a - they have a secret together. There's a - deep bond between them. It's rather like a love affair; because, the detective is the only man in the world who understands him - and in his heart, the murderer wants to be found out by the detective.

• Maxwell Fleury : I've had about as much as I can take from you, and from this island, you understand. Stay away from my wife!

  Hilary Carson : Look here - I'm fed up with idiots! Are you suggesting I...

  Maxwell Fleury : I'm not suggesting anything - I'm just telling you.

  Hilary Carson : Well you can ruddy well un-tell it and apologise. And get this into your stupid skull - I don't make passes at wives of acquaintances and I don't share my women. And even if I did, I wouldn't take something from someone like you with the tarbrush rolled across his face.

• Maxwell Fleury : You haven't changed to smoking Egyptian cigarettes, have you?

• Maxwell Fleury : You seem to know a great deal about him.

  Sylvia Fleury : Well, you know the island. A male, young, white, unmarried, titled, and comparatively rich. Good heavens, what else do you think the girls would talk about? Now, darling, you're not jealous are you?

  Maxwell Fleury : I could.

  Sylvia Fleury : Whatever of?

  Maxwell Fleury : Anybody with all those - virtues. That's the penalty for being so much in love with you.

  Sylvia Fleury : That's sweet.

• Sylvia Fleury : Maxwell, stop it, you'll tear my dress.

  Maxwell Fleury : But, you know, I've never torn a dress of yours.

  [aggressively tears Sylvia's dress] 

  Sylvia Fleury : Take me home.

  Maxwell Fleury : Home? Women get bored making love in the same room. A change of scenery helps.

  [aggressively kisses Sylvia] 

  Sylvia Fleury : Stop it!

  [he doesn't] 

• Maxwell Fleury : Does he still smoke those cigarettes of his?

  Sylvia Fleury : What cigarettes?

  Maxwell Fleury : You remember those fancy gold-tipped ones that he has made up for him in Cairo. Perhaps that's what *I* need to be more successful with my own wife. A special brand of tobacco.

• Maxwell Fleury : What did you buy?

  Sylvia Fleury : A bikini. It's really something, isn't it?

  Hilary Carson : Right. You better rope off the beach, old man, when she wears it.

• Maxwell Fleury : I know what people say. I know what people think. I know what you think. I know what he thinks. I never lived up to the great Fleury name. I might have if I'd gone to Oxford and Eton, like Arthur did. Many things might have been different. But, instead, you sent me to school here with a lot of *colored* brats.

• Maxwell Fleury : I'm supposed to be grateful to be Julian Fleury's son. I'd been better off if I'd been born black!

  [Maxwell's mother rushes up and slaps him] 

• Maxwell Fleury : I can see myself walking into the Club. "Anyone for tennis? There's Fleury. He's perfect for mixed doubles. His grandmother was a bit on the dark side, you know."

• Maxwell Fleury : I ask for your faith, your trust. You're not an island from me.

• Sylvia Fleury : There's some cold lobster in the refrigerator and a bottle of champagne. We could have it upstairs. Wouldn't you like that?

  Maxwell Fleury : I suppose.