The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Fredric March: Al Stephenson

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Quotes 

• [Al is explaining to the bank president why he made the loan to Mr. Novak] 

  Al Stephenson : You see, Mr. Milton, in the Army I've had to be with men when they were stripped of everything in the way of property except what they carried around with them and inside them. I saw them being tested. Now some of them stood up to it and some didn't. But you got so you could tell which ones you could count on. I tell you this man Novak is okay. His 'collateral' is in his hands, in his heart and his guts. It's in his right as a citizen.

• [Al is speaking to the banquet] 

  Al Stephenson : I'm glad to see you've all pulled through so well. As Mr. Milton so perfectly expressed it: our country stands today... where it stands today... wherever that is. I'm sure you'll all agree with me if I said that now is the time for all of us to stop all this nonsense, face facts, get down to brass tacks, forget about the war and go fishing. But I'm not gonna say it. I'm just going to sum the whole thing up in one word.

  [Milly coughs loudly to caution him - worrying that he will tell off the boss] 

  Al Stephenson : My wife doesn't think I'd better sum it up in that one word. I want to tell you all that the reason for my success as a Sergeant is due primarily to my previous training in the Cornbelt Loan and Trust Company. The knowledge I acquired in the good ol' bank I applied to my problems in the infantry. For instance, one day in Okinawa, a Major comes up to me and he says, "Stephenson, you see that hill?" "Yes sir, I see it." "All right," he said. "You and your platoon will attack said hill and take it." So I said to the Major, "but that operation involves considerable risk. We haven't sufficient collateral." "I'm aware of that," said the Major, "but the fact remains that there's the hill and you are the guys who are going to take it." So I said to him, "I'm sorry, Major... no collateral, no hill." So we didn't take the hill and we lost the war. I think that little story has considerable significance, but I've forgotten what it is. And now in conclusion, I'd like to tell you a humorous anecdote. I know several humorous anecdotes, but I can't think of any way to clean them up, so I'll only say this much. I love the Cornbelt Loan and Trust Company. There are some who say that the old bank is suffering from hardening of the arteries and of the heart. I refuse to listen to such radical talk. I say that our bank is alive, it's generous, it's human, and we're going to have such a line of customers seeking and GETTING small loans that people will think we're gambling with the depositors' money. And we will be. We will be gambling on the future of this country. I thank you.

• Peggy Stephenson : I've made up my mind.

  Al Stephenson : Good girl.

  Milly Stephenson : To do what?

  Peggy Stephenson : I'm going to break that marriage up! I can't stand it seeing Fred tied to a woman he doesn't love and who doesn't love him. Oh, it's horrible for him. It's humiliating and it's killing his spirit. Somebody's got to help him.

• Fred Derry : You gotta hand it to the Navy; they sure trained that kid how to use those hooks.

  Al Stephenson : They couldn't train him to put his arms around his girl, or to stroke her hair.

• [Al and Fred have arrived at Al's fancy apartment building] 

  Fred Derry : Some barracks you got here. Hey, what are you? A retired bootlegger?

  Al Stephenson : Nothing as dignified as that. I'm a banker.

• Milly Stephenson : What do you think of the children?

  Al Stephenson : Children? I don't recognize 'em. They've grown so old.

  Milly Stephenson : I tried to stop them, to keep them just as they were when you left, but they got away from me.

• Milly Stephenson : You'll probably have to make a speech.

  Al Stephenson : It's my plan to meet that situation by getting plastered.

• Rob Stephenson : We've been having lectures in atomic energy at school, and Mr. McLaughlin, he's our physics teacher, he says that we've reached a point where the whole human race has either got to find a way to live together, or else uhm...

  Al Stephenson : [with grim finality]  Or else.

• Milly Stephenson : You're crazy.

  Al Stephenson : No. Too sane for my own good.

• Al Stephenson : I've seen nothing, I should have stayed at home and found out what was really going on.

• Al Stephenson : You know, I had a dream. I dreamt I was home. I've had that same dream hundreds of times before. This time, I wanted to find out if it's really true. Am I really home?

• Al Stephenson : We don't need to worry about that child. She can take care of herself.

  Milly Stephenson : That's what she thinks.

• Fred Derry : How long since you been home?

  Al Stephenson : Oh, a couple-a centuries.

• Milly Stephenson : Well? What's she like?

  Peggy Stephenson : I'm glad I went out with them. Even though it was a pretty disagreeable experience.

  Al Stephenson : It took guts, honey. But you got plenty.

  Peggy Stephenson : I'll need them. I've made up my mind.

  Al Stephenson : Good girl.

  Milly Stephenson : To do what?

  Peggy Stephenson : I'm going to break that marriage up. I can't stand it, seeing Fred tied to a woman he doesn't love, and who doesn't love him. Oh, it's horrible for him. It's humiliating, and it's killing his spirit. Somebody's got to help him.

  Milly Stephenson : Are you sure he doesn't love her?

  Peggy Stephenson : Of course I am.

  Milly Stephenson : Did he tell you?

  Peggy Stephenson : No.

  Milly Stephenson : Did she?

  Peggy Stephenson : No

  Al Stephenson : So you just jumped to conclusions!

  Peggy Stephenson : He doesn't love her, he hates her. I know it. - I know it.

  Al Stephenson : Who are you, God? How did you get this power to interfere in other people's lives?

  Milly Stephenson : Is Fred in love with you?

  Peggy Stephenson : Yes.

  Milly Stephenson : You've been seeing him?

  Peggy Stephenson : Only once. Today. Oh, it was all perfectly respectable. But when we were saying goodbye, he... he took me in his arms and kissed me and... and I knew.

  Al Stephenson : And you think a kiss from a smooth operator like Fred - you think that means anything?

  Peggy Stephenson : You don't know him. You don't know anything about what's inside him. Neither does she, his wife. That's probably what she thought when she married him - a smooth operator with money in his pockets. But now he isn't smooth any longer, and she's lost interest in him.

  Al Stephenson : Whereas you're possessed of all the wisdom of the ages! You can see into the secret recesses of his innermost soul!

  Peggy Stephenson : I can see because I love him.

  Al Stephenson : So you're gonna break this marriage up. Have you decided yet how you're going to do it? Are you gonna do it with an axe?

  Peggy Stephenson : It's none of your business how I'm going to do it! You've forgotten what it's like to be in love!

  Al Stephenson : You hear that, Milly? I'm so old and decrepit, I've forgotten how it feels to want somebody - desperately.

  Milly Stephenson : Peggy didn't mean that. Did you, darling?

  Peggy Stephenson : No... I don't know what I do mean. It's just that everything has always been so perfect for you. You loved each other and you got married in a big church and you had a honeymoon in the South of France. You never had any trouble of any kind. So how can you possibly understand how it is with Fred and me?

  Milly Stephenson : We never had any trouble? How many times have I told you I hated you and believed it in my heart? How many times have you said you were sick of me, that we were all washed up? How many times have we had to fall in love all over again?

• Peggy Stephenson : I'm going to break that marriage up! I can't stand it seeing Fred tied to a woman he doesn't love and who doesn't love him. Oh, it's horrible for him. It's humiliating and it's killing his spirit. Somebody's got to help him.

  Al Stephenson : Who made you God?