Mister Roberts (1955)

William Powell: Doc

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Quotes 

• Doc : That's mostly what makes physical heroism - opportunity. It's a reflex. I think that seventy-five out of a hundred young males have that reflex. You take any one of them. Say even Frank Thurlowe Pulver, here. Put him into a B-29 over Japan, and you know what you'd have?

  Lt. j.g. Douglas A. Roberts : No I don't, Doctor.

  Doc : You'd have Pulver, the Congressional Medal of Honor winner. Pulver, who single-handed shot down twenty-three attacking Zeros. Pulver who, with his bare hands, held together the severed wing struts of his plane, and with his bare feet successfully landed his mortally wounded plane on his home field. Reflex. It's like the knee jerk. Strike the patella tendon in any human being, you produce the knee jerk. Look.

  [Doc hits Pulver in the knee and nothing happens] 

  Ensign Frank Thurlowe Pulver : What's the matter, Doc?

  Doc : Nothing, but stay out of B-29s, Frank, my boy.

• Reber : Say, Doc, when I woke up this morning, I had...

  Doc : And remembered you were working cargo. Continue.

  Reber : [holds his side]  Honest, Doc, I couldn't even straighten up! I guess it's the old appendix again, huh, Doc?

  Doc : That appendix of yours certainly gets around, Reber. Now it's on the wrong side. Two aspirin, marked for duty. Next.

  Reber : Aspirin? For a floatin' appendix, Doc?

  Doc : Yes, it's the latest thing. I'll have one with you.

• Lt. j.g. Douglas A. Roberts : We've got nothing to do with the war. Maybe that's why we're on this ship, cause we're not good enough to fight. Cause our glands don't secrete enough adrenaline, or our great-great-grandmothers were afraid of the dark or something.

  Doc : What is it you want to be, Doug, a hero?

  Lt. j.g. Douglas A. Roberts : Hero? Doc, you haven't heard a word I've said. Look, Doc, the war's way out there, and I'm here. Well, I don't want to be here, I wanna be out there. I'm sick and tired of being a lousy spectator.

• Lt. j.g. Douglas A. Roberts : Doc, that new hospital hasn't got nurses, has it?

  Doc : It didn't have yesterday.

  Ensign Frank Thurlowe Pulver : It has today.

  Doc : And how did you find out they were there?

  Ensign Frank Thurlowe Pulver : It just came to me all of a sudden. I was lying on my bunk this morning, thinking. And there wasn't a breath of air. And all of a sudden, a funny thing happened. A little breeze came up, and I took a big, deep breath, and I said to myself "Pulver, boy, there's women on that island!"

• Chief Petty Officer Dowdy : [referring to the letter from Forney]  Could I have that, I'd like to post it for the crew.

  Doc : [referring to the letter from Roberts]  No, post this one. It's theirs.

• Lt. j.g. Douglas A. Roberts : [Drinking a toast to Ensign Pulver]  To a great American! Frank Thurlowe Pulver. Soldier, statesman, scientist...

  Doc : Friend of the working girl.

• Doc : [reading the inscription on Mr. Roberts' medal]  Order of the Palm. To Lt. JG Douglas Roberts. For action against the enemy, above and beyond the call of duty.

  Lt. j.g. Douglas A. Roberts : It's very nice, but I think you got the wrong guy.

  Chief Petty Officer Dowdy : [smiling]  We know sir, but we'd like you to have it anyway.