The Proud and Profane (1956)

Deborah Kerr: Lee Ashley

Photos 

Quotes 

• Lee Ashley : [to Black as he explains his relationship with his wife]  I must say, your sense of loyalty is a little deeper than your sense of decency.

• [last lines] 

  Kate Connors : [as they are standing by unconscious and injured Black's bedside]  Why don't you get some rest. You've been on your feet ever since yesterday. He won't come to for five or six hours.

  Lee Ashley : [staring intently at Black]  I can wait. I can wait.

• Lee Ashley : [walking through the cemetery with Useless, who doesn't know who Lee is]  How did Lieutenant Ashley die?

  Eustace Press : Like an amateur - squirmin' and squealin'. You know, they teach you how to throw a grenade and fire a mortar, but nobody ever teaches you how to die. I guess cuz that's the one thing in this world there there's no professionals at. You know, nobody comes back to tell you how to do it; you're on your own. When it's time for those last few gasps, everybody's an amateur.

• Kate Connors : You're going to make the rest of us look like a lot of sharecroppers in those new uniforms.

  Lee Ashley : Well, they're nothing special.

  Kate Connors : Out here, anything that's new and not faded is something special - including what's inside the uniform too.

• Kate Connors : Get your suit. You can go for a swim. Beautiful beach.

  Lee Ashley : All right. Thanks, Kate.

• Lee Ashley : Yes. I'll come with you.

• 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.

• Lee Ashley : This is animal. It's nothing more. It's just violent and cheap!

  Kate Connors : At least you recognize it for what it is.

  Lee Ashley : Yes and I despise myself for it. But, there's nothing I can do, Kate. I'm rolling down a hill and I can't stop myself.

  Kate Connors : And he's just the kind to be waiting at the bottom.

  Lee Ashley : Oh, he's hard and cruel. There's nothing tender or gentle about him. He never asks me to do anything. He tells me! Why do I stand for it? I've never been treated this way before in my life!

  Kate Connors : That's why it's so fascinating.

  Lee Ashley : Oh, it isn't! It's degrading.

  Kate Connors : That's part of the fascination.

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

  Lee Ashley : Yes. No! Yes.

• Lee Ashley : I finally feel *alive*- and sort of recklessly happy. I want to stay that way.

• Lee Ashley : I have some pride left. Not much, but some. I didn't want your sympathy any more than you wanted mine. And I wanted to be a wife to you and not a drunken joke around the Officer's Club when you're all sitting around *boasting* about your conquests. And I'm not going to be that funny story about the little blonde in Noumea! You're not going to have that chance! You dirty...

• Lee Ashley : Daylight has a habit of revealing things as they actually are.

• Kate Connors : If you get married now, I'm going to have to ship you right home.

  Lee Ashley : Yes, I know.

  Kate Connors : You know it's against regulations for husband and wife to be in same theater of war.

  Lee Ashley : I know.

  Kate Connors : If I were you, I'd wait.

  Lee Ashley : No you wouldn't, Kate. We can't wait.

• Lee Ashley : They say that people who make a fetish of cleanliness are very often inwardly dirty. It's a sort of compensation.

• Eustace Press : [walking through the cemetery]  I got more friends here than any place else. They're all wondering why they're there. I keep wondering why I'm here. Only a handful of us got out.

  Lee Ashley : How was it?

  Eustace Press : Rough.

  Lee Ashley : That's all any of you say. Rough? What does that mean?

  Eustace Press : Well, lady, when things are too rugged for words, that's rough.

• Lee Ashley : No, I don't hate him. He was trained to destroy - and he does it magnificently - and also completely. He's left me with nothing, not even the desire to hate - or forgive.

• Lee Ashley : When I make a mistake, it's a whopper.

• Lee Ashley : Can I do anything for you?