Dodge City (1939)

Errol Flynn: Wade Hatton

Photos 

Quotes 

• Rusty Hart : Well, well. So this is Dodge City, huh? Sort of smells like Fort Worth, don't it?

  Wade Hatton : Oh, that's not the city you smell. That's you! We better get you to a bathtub before somebody shoots you for a buffalo.

• Jeff Surrett : You see, I make $100,000 a year one way or another. Frankly, I don't need that much money. So naturally, I'd be willing to make a deal with anybody that would, uh, well, sort of see things my way. Make a mighty good deal for both of us.

  Wade Hatton : You mean a little friendly bribery, huh?

  Jeff Surrett : Well, you can catch more flies with molasses than you can with vinegar.

• Wade Hatton : Well, what's the news in Dodge?

  Charley : Well, just about the same as always. Gamblin', drinkin', and killin'. Mostly killin'.

• Wade Hatton : I'm going to have you indicted for murder as an accessory after the fact.

  Bud Taylor : I had nothing to do with it!

  Wade Hatton : You're going to be dancing in thin air just the same as Yancey. Now, do you want to swing or do you want to tell me and save your neck?

• Tex Baird : Hey, Wade! You ain't gonna keep me in here, are you?

  Wade Hatton : I'm sorry, Tex, you read that notice the same as anyone else. Three days in there won't do you a bit of harm.

  Tex Baird : Ah, but you can't do this to me after all we have been through together. We fought the war together, built a railroad together. We ate, drank, slept, lived and died together.

  Wade Hatton : And now we're going to be in jail together. You in there and me out here.

• Wade Hatton : William Shakespeare.

  Rusty Hart : I never heard of him. What part of Texas is he from?

  Wade Hatton : [surprised at Rusty's ignorance]  Stratford-on-Avon.

• [Abbie laughs at Wade after he falls in the newspaper office] 

  Wade Hatton : You know, there's an old saying in the British Army: "The law must always save its face in front of the natives."

  Abbie Irving : And what if the natives object to its face?

  Wade Hatton : We just put them across our knee... and spank them! Soundly!

  Abbie Irving : You're not suggesting that I'm a native?

  Wade Hatton : No. The only real native of Kansas is the buffalo. He's got a very hard head, a very uncertain temper and a very lonely future. Apart from that there's hardly any comparison between you.

• Abbie Irving : What's wrong with my working here?

  Wade Hatton : Well, it's undignified, it's unladylike. More than that, you oughta be home, doing needlework, things like that.

  Abbie Irving : Sewing buttons on for some man I suppose?

  Wade Hatton : Well, buttons come off. Someone's gotta sew 'em on.

  Abbie Irving : A fine career for an intelligent woman!

• [Wade throws one of Surrett's men out of the barbershop] 

  Wade Hatton : About ten days for this customer, Tex. Five to cool off and five to think it over.

• Wade Hatton : You know, out here the trail boss has sometimes even got to take the law into his own hands.

  Abbie Irving : Oh, yes, pioneering I believe you call it, don't you?

• Wade Hatton : I got a call to make down here, so you're on your own. Now, just try and keep sober and stay out of trouble. Will you?

  Algernon 'Rusty' Hart : Well, Wade, you know I signed the temperance pledge before we left Texas.

  Wade Hatton : Why sure, Rusty, I know that. And I know you were blind drunk when you signed it.

  Algernon 'Rusty' Hart : Oh, no, you're confusing the issue. I'm a re-formed man.

  Wade Hatton : Well, even a reformed man can get into trouble when the boys get paid off.

  Algernon 'Rusty' Hart : No, no! I ain't gonna touch a drop. I'm just gonna mosey around and - take in the sights.

  Wade Hatton : Well, look out you don't become one of them.

• Wade Hatton : I prefer to make my deal with cash buyers who don't pay off in the back rooms of saloons.

• Wade Hatton : Miss Irving. I'll not be troubling you with any further apologies. But I would like you to know that if ever I can be of any service to you, I shall be only too happy.

  Abbie Irving : Thank you. The only way you can be of service to me is to keep out of my sight.

• Dr. Irving : Don't take her too seriously, my boy. Women's logic and emotions are often very confusing.

  Wade Hatton : I think I've heard my father say the same thing. But, I'm sure that Miss Abbie has a more biting tongue than my mother ever had.

• Wade Hatton : Be sure you boil that water before you drink it.

  Abbie Irving : I'll wager two minutes after you were born, you were telling the doctor what to do.

• Algernon 'Rusty' Hart : Them two youngsters is more trouble than they're worth.

  Wade Hatton : I'll certainly be glad to hand them over to their uncle in Dodge.

  Algernon 'Rusty' Hart : Yeah. She sure is pretty, though.

  Wade Hatton : Yes. I'd still trade the two of them for one good cigar.

• Wade Hatton : You don't seem to be enjoying it much.

  Abbie Irving : Enjoying it? Can anyone enjoy being jolted along week in and week out, through a nightmare of heat and dust, with sand in your teeth and sand in your eyes and sand in your hair?

• Wade Hatton : Gentlemen, I certainly appreciate your confidence in me. But I'm afraid a position like that isn't quite in my line. You're asking me to turn policeman. Now, I have about as much qualifications for that as I have teaching the ballet.

• Wade Hatton : Well, gentlemen, what's this all about? You all look as though you lost a dollar and found a dime.

• Tex Baird : I'd feel undressed without my gun.

  Wade Hatton : Where you're going, you won't need any clothes for a few days.

• Jeff Surrett : Naturally, I'd be willing to make a deal with anybody that would, well, sort of see things my way. Make a mighty good deal for both of us.

  Wade Hatton : You mean, a little friendly bribery, huh?

  Jeff Surrett : Well, you can catch more flies with molasses than you can with vinegar.

  Wade Hatton : True enough. Well, I hope you'll not be offended, Surrett; but, I don't like the smell of your molasses.

• Abbie Irving : Did you want something?

  Wade Hatton : Yes. I'd like to have my curiosity satisfied. What are you doing here?

  Abbie Irving : Well, obviously, I'm working.

  Wade Hatton : Obviously. But at what and why?

  Abbie Irving : Because the town happens to be growing by leaps and bounds, and the paper needed somebody who would write things that would interest its women readers.

  Wade Hatton : Oh, I see. Tell me, what are the vital interests of your women readers?

  Abbie Irving : What other women are wearing. How to make Lady Baltimore cake with two eggs. Who invited the minister to tea. And whose baby is going to be born and when!

  Wade Hatton : [sarcastically]  Fascinating.

• Wade Hatton : See that big herd of buffalo grazing away so peacefully down there? You know, the trouble with the buffalo is they had things too easy at the start. It works the other way around, too, you know. Take us, for example. We had such a bad beginning, that we're bound to have a wonderful future.

  Abbie Irving : That's typical Irish logic: totally unconnected.

• Wade Hatton : Thirty years ago, my father met my mother at the Londonderry fair. He'd come down to sell some prize pigs. Big, fat, lovely pigs they were. And mother was down there after winning the grand prize for her roses. Roses of Sharon, enormous, big things, as big as your face and nearly as beautiful. I don't suppose there were ever roses like that in the whole length and breadth of Ireland. Well, what must happen? The very last day of the fair, father's pigs get out and eat up every single one of mother's prize roses. Root, stem, flower and all. Now, did any two people ever get off to a worse start than that? Look at them now: six big lusty sons, a score or so of prize pigs, and the most beautiful rose garden in the whole of Antrim.

• Abbie Irving : I envy you people who have kissed the Blarney Stone.

  Wade Hatton : You do? It's cold on the lips.

• Wade Hatton : The buffalo wouldn't be so badly off if the buffalo didn't have a one-track mind. But then the buffalo wouldn't be a buffalo, would it?

  Abbie Irving : I suppose not.

  Wade Hatton : You wouldn't be you unless you thought you might like that kiss.

  Abbie Irving : You seem very sure of my reactions.

  Wade Hatton : Oh, no. That's something you can never be sure about until you've tried it.

  [kiss] 

  Wade Hatton : Can you?

• Abbie Irving : I think we'd better be getting back. I'm afraid it'll be dark before we get there.

  Wade Hatton : Are you sure it's the dark you're afraid of?

  Abbie Irving : What do you mean?

  Wade Hatton : Maybe you're afraid I might kiss you.

  Abbie Irving : You wouldn't dare.

  Wade Hatton : Oh, now, I wish I were as sure of that as you are.

• Wade Hatton : You can get plenty of men for that job out here, Colonel. I'm getting married next week. Got tickets for New York.

  Algernon 'Rusty' Hart : Oh, shucks, you can get married anytime. We'll even go on your honeymoon with you to Virginia City.

  Wade Hatton : Oh, thanks.

  Tex Baird : Gettin' married has ruined a lot of good men.