The Proud and Profane (1956)

William Holden: Lt. Col. Colin Black

Quotes 

• Kate Connors : I'm Kate Conners, Red Cross Club Director here. Anything special we can do for your boys?

  Lt. Col. Colin Black : Yes. Don't call them boys and leave 'em alone.

• Kate Connors : She should be back by now. You undoubtedly have 20/20 vision. Can you see a girl swimming down there?

  Lt. Col. Colin Black : There's someone in a green bathing suit sunning herself.

  [picks up and looks through his binoculars at Lee] 

  Lt. Col. Colin Black : Hey, she's really something.

  Kate Connors : Any Peeping Toms in your family?

  Lt. Col. Colin Black : She's twinkling and twitching like an electric sign in Times Square. All she lacks down there is a man.

• Lt. Col. Colin Black : During a war, women should be relegated to two categories: a skirt a man can make a pass at on leave or back home a wife, a mother, a sweetheart. One or the other. But, let your sweet little creatures come over here and try to provide a home away from home, the men get all mixed up.

• Lt. Col. Colin Black : Ashley? Ashley?

  Kate Connors : Did you know him?

  Lt. Col. Colin Black : No, I didn't. But, I'd certainly like to know his wife.

• Lt. Col. Colin Black : I'm curious Colonel, were you ever bitten by a Red Cross worker?

  Kate Connors : No. But, I must confess it sounds interesting.

• Lt. Col. Colin Black : My pleasures are physical. Good food. Good fight.

• Lt. Col. Colin Black : Now, down at this club in town, what do you girls do exactly?

  Lee Ashley : I think I'll leave the pleasure of enlightening you to some member of the Red Cross you know better than me.

  Lt. Col. Colin Black : [holds up his binoculars]  Oh, but Mrs. Ashley, I feel I already know you *very* well in deed.

  Lee Ashley : And I assure that's as well as you're ever likely to know me, Colonel.

• Lt. Col. Colin Black : That horrible, sickened panic that comes while waiting for combat, is not so much from the fear of death, as it is the fear of proving inadequate as a man in front of men.

• Lt. Col. Colin Black : You're a praying man, Chaplain. Peckinpaugh's a fighting Marine. It was his responsibility and he should have known better than to let the men pray with you lined up like canned goods on a shelf.

• Lt. Col. Colin Black : Pain is an excellent reminder; but, only for the person suffering from it.

• Lt. Col. Colin Black : There's something breathless about you. Every time I look at you it's - like hearing music, seeing the ocean for the first time.

• Lt. Col. Colin Black : Do you really want me to?

  Lee Ashley : Yes. No! Yes.

• Lt. Col. Colin Black : Trains used to make a 10 minute stop in the town where we lived. My mother used to send me down to the station and beg from the passengers. She knew they couldn't resist the hungry looking little Redskin. I hated every nickel I got. I hated the people that tossed them at me.

• Lt. Col. Colin Black : During a war, it's amazing what a man will resort to to satisfy a desire of the moment. I suppose it's because he's not quite certain of how many moments he has left.

• Lt. Col. Colin Black : Don't fill them with platitudes and religious superstitions. I want my men to be superstitious about only one thing: when they come face to face with a Jap in the bush, it want them to consider it very bad luck not to kill him first. And I don't want any of this "love thine enemy." If you must quote from the Bible, go to Samuel, "I've pursued my enemies and destroyed them. I did not turn back until I had consumed them." You're in the middle of a war and these men are fighting it!

  Chaplain Lt. (jg) Holmes : They're men, not animals. They've got souls!

  Lt. Col. Colin Black : Those we left in San Diego.